TD Jakes - The Gift in the Garden
Acts 13:28–35: And though they found no cause of death in Him, yet they desired that He should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in the sepulcher. But God raised Him from the dead, and He was seen many days by them which came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers God has fulfilled the same unto us, their children, in that He raised up Jesus again, as it is also written in the second Psalm: «Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee.» And as concerning that He raised Him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, He said on this wise: «I will give you the sure mercies of David.» Wherefore He saith also in another Psalm: «Thou shalt not suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.»
A defining moment: it is important that you come back here, no matter where we go, what we do, where we live, what we drive, or where we work. We must always come back here; this is the place indelibly etched into our minds, the substratum of our belief system, the fundamental idea through which our whole faith is built. It is not the superficial, superfluous ideologies that you hear espoused often in our circles that make us believers. It’s not whether things go well or badly, whether they seem just or unjust, whether they seem fair or unfair. You are not a Christian because you are a nice person, or because you do nice things, or because you go nice places, or you abstain from certain things; you are a Christian because there is always something that draws you back here.
Now, I know this is a strange place to be drawn to, because for some this is a catastrophic place, for others it is a disastrous place, and for some, I would dare to say that it is even a disappointing place, because they did not expect Christ to be crucified. The plans they had for Him as they followed Him and gave up everything to be with Him did not include nails in a tree, blood running down His legs, a gasping sigh of death, a blackout in the heavens, a trembling of the earth, a shaking of the soil, and the opening of the tombs. It didn’t include any of that; they had in mind that He might overthrow the Roman Empire and become the King of the Jews, and they wanted to sit on the right and the left. They didn’t want to sit on the right and the left of a tomb.
Disappointment: this is a place that reminds us of betrayal. It is a place that reminds us that one of His own sold Him for thirty pieces of silver. It reminds us that in this life we will be betrayed, no matter how good we are, no matter how well our intentions are; that ultimately, somewhere along the way, we will run into someone who says that they’re actually with us, and in fact, they really are not, and they will betray us, and we have to live with that. And as often as we come back to this tomb, it reminds us what it is all аbout: that it’s not about stuff, it’s not about things, it’s not about the accoutrements of life, it’s not about the acquisition of fame or fortune or talent or people.
Life is filled with tombs. Oh yes, life is filled with tombs. The scripture I read in your hearing is taken from Acts, where Paul comes to Antioch and shares with them the story of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and he does it in graphic terms. It is littered throughout the scriptures; it was prophesied from the very beginning. It is prophesied from the Old Testament to the New; it is reflected from the epistles to the book of Revelation. While the Old Testament looks forward to it, the New Testament looks back at it, and this is the hinge of our faith; it is right here at this rolling stone, this tomb, Golgotha’s hill, the bitter cup of gall, the taste of death in His mouth, the slow trickle of blood running down His body, His legs, His thighs, now covered outwardly with what they once covered inwardly. And He died openly, naked and unashamed.
The Bible said in Genesis that Adam was naked and not ashamed, but here Christ is naked and not ashamed. The only covering that He had is not a garment such as this; He was covered with His own blood to remind us that His blood would be the covering and the propitiation of our sins. As much as we come to this place, we honor the fact that this is what it’s all about. And Paul rehearses this in Antioch. Antioch, incidentally, is the first place where we were called Christians. Before that, we had no real name; some called us believers, some called us the Way, and some called us fanatics, and some called us fools. But at Antioch, we became Christians because there Paul taught them about the cross.
It is interesting to note that Paul did not always teach as flamboyantly about the cross as he did at Antioch. His first epistle was the book of First Thessalonians, where he scarcely mentions the cross at all. But as he walked with Jesus, he said, «I am persuaded that I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation.» He didn’t grasp that at first, but eventually he said, «I count all things but dung that I may gain the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus. Oh, that I may know Him in the fellowship of His suffering and in the power of His resurrection.»
He became convinced of the cross. You must give him credit; don’t judge him too harshly. He wasn’t there when He hung His head in the locks of His shoulders; he wasn’t there when the sun refused to shine. He wasn’t there when the veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom; he was not there when the disciples fled to the upper room for fear of their lives. The Apostle Paul was not there; he had not yet been converted. He missed the appearance in the upper room when Jesus walked through the door and showed Himself alive and was man enough to eat fish and spirit enough to walk through the door. He wasn’t there for that.
So he’s writing about something for which he was not initially an eyewitness. But having experienced the road to Damascus, it so engulfed his soul that by the time we hear him preaching in Acts, he professes to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified. You must understand, then, brothers and sisters, that this is our point of reference; this is the undeniable truth to which all of our faith hinges. It is flamboyant of God—opulent, I might even say—that He would attempt to draw us not with treasure, gold, silver, or promises of heaven and streets of gold, but He drew us with an old rugged cross and a bleeding, suffering Savior to a graveside service. He says, «Whosoever will, let him come.» What an invitation! An invitation to die. Jesus Himself said, «If you are going to be My disciple, pick up your cross and follow Me.» Follow Me, follow Me! If you follow Me and you’re really in the will of God, it will lead you in here; it will lead you in here.
Oh my God, it’s so dark in there! Everything with God that manny starts in a dark place. From the creation in the book of Genesis, when the Bible says, «The evening and the morning were the first day,» it doesn’t start with daybreak; it starts with night. For everything that God will ever do will always start in a dark, dank place—a claustrophobic place, a place that almost asphyxiates us, a place that we think we cannot stand. It’s not attractive; it is not beautiful, and it’s not opulent. It has not been decked with jewels, or precious stones, or pageantry. Oh no, it is a dark, dank hole, a cave, a cabin, a grotto. It all starts in the dark. Life itself starts in the dark. It starts in the womb of a woman, where no light can shine at all. An occasional moving of a knee or a jabbing of a toe down in the womb of a woman is where all life begins.
And as we come to this cross, it is a defining moment because it is definitely a tomb. It is a tomb that has been borrowed for Jesus to use—not to stay. You never borrow something unless you know you won’t need it long. It is absolutely a tomb; it is where the dead are placed. There is a place for Him to lay and a death napkin to cover His face. The Bible says that when He rose from the dead with the luxury of utter confidence, He didn’t leap up like I would have and run out the door. He sat up and folded up His death towel, folded it up with the confidence of knowing that no man takes My life; I lay it down, and if I lay it down, I’ll pick it back up again.
And He had the grace, the nerve, if you will, to be neat in the way He arose from the dead because this is a defining moment! It is not a disruptive moment; it’s not a chaotic moment, it is not a catastrophic moment, it is not a painful moment; it is a defining moment. It is a moment that will cost you your life; it is a moment that you will be crucified for; it is a moment that you will be thrown into snake pits for; it is a moment that you will be beheaded for. And you will do it willingly because of this defining moment. It is a moment where Stephen will be stoned to death, smiling while looking up into the heavens at something better than this old world will ever be able to afford. And he was able to smile because he had experienced this one defining moment: the stone has been rolled away from a dark place.
It is absolutely a tomb, but it is also a womb! Yes, come on! You must realize that Jesus' tomb was a womb. There is some synergy between tombs and wombs; tombs and wombs are always inextricably and can be connected one with the other. There is little difference between the tomb and the womb. You must realize that for a baby to be born into this world is to die from the world he lived in. He cannot be born to the present without dying to the past. He must forsake one in order to attain the other. He must leave the sanctity of the warm, dark cavern his mother has prepared in her very own body and be vacated; to be absent in the body is to be present in the world. The tomb, our brothers and sisters, is a womb, but never forget that the womb is also a tomb.
If you bury your loved ones and you put them in the tomb, always remember what I taught you: their tomb is also a womb. It is a passage from one world into another. It is the gateway through which we access that which we can attain no other way. To be absent in the body is to be present with the Lord. This is as much a womb as it is a tomb. It is our God who always incubates greatness in dark places, in small, stuffy, pink places, away from the scrutiny and the views and the expectations of men. He grooms greatness in isolation so that arrogance cannot fit in the tomb. Arrogance, arrogance, arrogance is too big to get inside the tomb because there are no crowds; there are no accolades, there are no people, there are no applauds in the dark place.
People always want to come out into the light where they can be exposed, but God does His work in the dark, in the shadows, in the dark place. And we must always come back to this; no matter how high you get, you must always come back to this. No matter how far you go, who loves you, how they care for you, how they see about you, and how they promise you, and how they’re there for you, never totally buy into it. Because when all else fails and you feel like giving up, and you feel like dying, and you feel like quitting, and you think you can’t take anymore, all you ever have to do is come right back here and remember: greater is He, greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
This is why He came. In the Old Testament, you see their point of reference was the Passover night. It was the night that the lamb was slain, and when the lamb was slain and Moses had them put the blood on the doorpost and the lintel, it became the point of reference. All through the Old Testament, God referred to Himself as: «Am I not the God who brought you out of Egypt? Am I not the God who brought you out on eagle’s wings? Am I not the God who delivered you from the hands of Pharaoh? Am I not the God?» He always referred them back because this is your default setting; it was the default setting of the early church, the Old Testament church. They couldn’t look at the cross; they had to look at the shadow, which was the Lamb—the innocent, spotless Lamb who was snatched out of the lamb by that night of the Passover, wondering, «What have I done? I have done no harm at all,» and yet he saw the life rays and he died an innocent lamb so that guilty men could live, so that Hebrew slaves could become sons, so that the bound could become free.
The shackles could be loosened so that the addicted could be liberated. Do you hear what I’m saying to you? The Old Testament church, the ecclesia, called out of their slavery, was called out only to always remember that it was through the blood of the innocent Lamb that they were able to experience the freedom that they enjoyed. The child, the Lamb, the Lamb, the Lamb was just a shadow of which Christ is our reality. Let us not forget that it is by His stripes we are healed, that He was wounded for our transgressions, and He was bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And with His stripes, we are healed. Let us not be so arrogant that we blame the Romans or the Jews, for the truth of the matter is it is our sins that crucified the Lord. Our indulgences, our excessive behaviors, and our compulsive actions—it is us that crucified the Lord.
He redefined what love is. «For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.» This was how God expressed love. This is God’s love language. It’s not acts of kindness, it’s not pleasant words, it’s not service, it’s not touching—it’s dying. It’s God’s love language. When God gets ready to show how deep and intense and rich His love is, He does it by dying. So much so that the Bible calls the cross His passion.
Can you conceive that God loves you with such passion that the only way He could find to express His utter adoration—His complete enthrallment with you, His absolute fascination with you, His complete love for you, and His caring for what you’ve been through and how you’ve suffered—was by sending Jesus, the lover of our soul? And when He got ready to make love to us, He didn’t rent a room; He borrowed a tomb, laid on a cross, and died, and called it His passion. God so loved the world, the infinite power, the soul to the infinite degree, love—the infinite emotion. He gave the ultimate gift, His only begotten Son—the ultimate sacrifice—that whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
And if you don’t believe that, then this is just another holiday for you to hang out with your friends, get high on your weed, get drunk off your wine, have a good time, and go play golf. But don’t pretend to be religious if this is not a defining moment. If this is not the kind of moment that, no matter how far you get out of His will, like a magnet, keeps pulling you back to Him over and over again, if this is not the kind of moment that no matter how far you get away from Him, it pulls you back like an anchor into your rightful place, then this is just a holiday to play games, have fun, and enjoy yourself. Go to the strip club, have a good time, celebrate the way you do, but for us, yes, it is a defining moment.
When life seems crazy, when life is confusing, when it’s unfair, when you lose your baby, it defines the moment. When your husband walks away, it defines the moment. When you lose your job, it defines the moment. When you feel like you’re about to lose your mind, come on! On a hill far away stood an old, rugged cross; it was a wonderful attraction. That’s what it is to us; it’s getting-up power; it’s resurrecting power. This is a defining moment because the greatest enemy in the world is death, and for Christ to overcome death means I can overcome debt, means I can overcome grief, means I can overcome pain, means I can overcome agony, means I can overcome trouble, means I can overcome rejection, means I can overcome denial. It means if He can get up out of this, I can get up out of whatever you send into my life.
Come hell or high water, I’m just enough like my Daddy to rise again! Oh yes, you might hold me down for a few days; you might have me shackled on Friday night with my hands tied behind my back; you might have my finances shut down and my mind confused all day Saturday. But look out, my God! Look out, because Sunday’s coming! And they didn’t make a stone He couldn’t roll away. And I want all of you that are listening to me out there right now, no matter what dark hole you have climbed into, no matter what dark, addictive hole you have succumbed to, no matter how dark and dank the hour may be in your life right now, I want you to hear me: the stone is rolled away, and you can get out of this.
This is your defining moment. It is not just for us to come and commemorate that Christ died for us, for the Bible says that if we are planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. He says if you go down with me, you’re gonna come up with me! I won’t take you into anything that I won’t get you out of. If I got you in it, I’ll get you out of it, and you can overcome everything life puts in front of you. Roll it up out of your way—roll it, roll it, roll it! And then look back at it and say, «Oh death, where is your sting? You thought you had me!»
Millions didn’t make it for the things He has done. All that we have traumatized has already been realized. All that we have portrayed and depicted has already been accomplished. I am just wondering where you are in this story. Are you the Judas that sold Him for your fun? Or maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe you’re the Thomas that doubted Him and ran away? Who are you in this story? Are you the ones who nailed His hands to the tree, or did you keep doing business in the presence of your Savior and cast lots for His clothes? Where are you in the story?
In my life, I have known sorrow; in my life, I have known great pain. I have counseled and worked with people who have been through things that should have killed them—victims of rape, a dark place; victims of abuse, a dark place; left by lovers, in a dark place; homeless people sleeping on the bridges, in a dark place. I’ve been in prisons talking to inmates on death row, who spent their nights in a dark place. I’ve seen babies born with their entrails hanging out—they were in a dark place. But the reason this is a defining moment is that it proves trouble don’t last always. He rose from the dead so that you wouldn’t have to be the first footsteps. He left a path in the ground to show you how to walk your way out of everything that has ever tried to hold you down.
If you can’t look up to the heavens, then look down for the footprints because whatever you’ve been through, He made it through. If He beat death, you can beat it by the power of the living God! It is a defining moment. As I conclude, I want you to understand the great thing is that this is a defining moment. The bad thing is that moments don’t last. Moments don’t last. If you’re going to make a change, you have to do it now. The text quotes from the Psalms: «This day have I begotten thee.» Not just when your mama had you, but when you rose from the dead—it proved you were my boy! «This day have I begotten thee!»
Would you consider being begotten of God to come out of that cave and stop living in a place you should have borrowed? You were not meant to live there. Just because you lay there doesn’t mean you have to live there! Come out! The angels have rolled away the stone, and you have an opportunity—and something you can’t buy in any mall. You can’t Google it; Amazon won’t deliver it. I’m talking about eternal life! It’s not in your cell phone; it’s not an app you can download. But you can have it for free, because once they rolled the stone back, it never closed again. There is a way out of everything you’re dealing with today. There is a way out of everything you are dealing with today.
If you have the courage—just the simple courage, the simple courage—you may have to duck your head a little bit; you may have to humble yourself a little bit; you may have to lower yourself; you may even have to get down on your knees. But if you make up your mind you’re coming out, you’re coming out, even if you have to hold on to something. Even if you have to grab something and push away one foot at a time, little by little, day by day, step by step. I’m not what I ought to be, but I’m not what I used to be. I’m on my way out! I’m coming across! I’m coming over! I’m coming through! That’s how you get out of it. You don’t always leap out, but you always come out. You come out because God has something out here for you that’s better than where you’ve been laying.
Jesus laid in the tomb three days and three nights, but He did not live there! He came out with all power in His hand, and so can you! «This day have I begotten thee!» This day—24 hours—this day have I begun! This is the most important day in the history of the Scriptures! Not the parting of the Red Sea! This is the most important day in the Scriptures! Not when Noah got off the ark! This is the most important day in the Scriptures! Not when Abraham’s name was changed! This is the most important day in the Scriptures! Not when the children of Israel came over into Egypt! This is the most important day—that’s going to change everything! Not when Lazarus was raised from the dead! This is the most important day in the Scriptures! Not when Mary was found with child! This is the most important day in the Scriptures! God said, «This day have I begotten thee!» This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
I want to say to you, you’re running out of excuses, and you, my friend, are running out of time. A day only lasts so long. I pray you make it out before the darkness that’s in here gets out there. It’s getting darker! And the hospitals have filled up. Sir, it’s getting darker! And the weather is unpredictable. It’s getting darker! And people with degrees can’t get jobs. It’s getting darker! New diseases are coming from every direction. It’s getting darker! If you’re going to make it to the light, you’ve got to do it now because it’s getting late! It’s getting late in the evening, and the sun is going down. It’s getting late in the evening, and the sun, the sun is going down. Don’t let this day pass by!
Can I pray for you before we leave? I want to pray that you might accept this Jesus into your heart and pull you out of your dark place and into the open, so that you can receive the marvelous light of His presence. I just want to pray for you. I don’t care what your net worth is; I don’t care how many degrees you have; I don’t care whether you’re married or single. I don’t care about any of the things that you put all your energy and effort into because none of it means anything if you miss this day! «This day have I begotten thee!» And you are running out of time! And right where you are, with tears welled up in your eyes, right where you are, going through everything you’re going through, have you ever thought that maybe you’re going through what you’re going through because God is trying to tell you something? Just pray this little prayer with me:
Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Wash away my sins; forgive me. I believe You died for my sins. I believe You rose from the dead, and this Resurrection Sunday I’m getting up in Jesus' name. Amen.