Mill City 6/25/17 Mill City 6/25/17

Christ and Resurrection

Transcript

Good morning. We're in the third week of our glory series where we're just taking some time to look at how big and good and holy Jesus is. And today we're going to be talking about the resurrection, that Jesus Christ rose from the grave. And the way the Bible treats this is that it is central. It is the thing that everything else hangs on. It's the truth that makes all the other truths true.

And so as we begin this morning, I kind of want to tell a few stories to kind of help you picture this and how this kind of concept has played out in my life a little bit. I grew up playing football, so I want to start with fifth grade, Chet. It's a Saturday in the fall. And the Colts have made it to the Rotary Bowl. This is a big deal. This is the Super Bowl for fifth graders.

We had played three games that day, and we had made it to the Rotary Bowl. And I was a running back at this point. I would not be for the rest of my career, but I was at this point. And we were down. We're losing the Rotary Bowl. My stomach's running empty on the pancakes my dad had fed me that morning, which was always his go-to.

You're going to have to play football all day. Let's eat pancakes. I have not yet addressed this with him, but I'm not going to do that to my kids. But anyway, we have about three yards to go to score a touchdown, to win the game, and this is it. It's our last chance, last play. I don't know what the time was on the clock, but this was our last.

It was fourth down, so we're going to score here or it's going to be over with. And we ran a wishbone, and I was on this side, and Kyle McClain was right here. I'm 11, he's 10, something like that. And the play is the ball's going to be handed to Kyle. I'm going to lead block, and we've got to get three yards. Ball snapped, good snap, which in Little League, that's a feat in and of itself.

The center handed it to the quarterback. We're already off to a great start. So I take off. He hands the ball to Kyle McClain. We've got to get three yards. Let's fast forward.

Junior year of high school, second round of the playoffs. We had a pretty good team this year. It was the best team we'd had in years at our high school. We were doing pretty well, and we played Carolina Forest, second round of the playoffs. And we were used to really just beating people, and Carolina Forest is beating us. And they were a good team.

They had a tight end on that team. It was a big white boy. He's the reason why I decided, why I went into the next season 20 pounds heavier. Because I tried to tackle him, and it was like tackling a tree. And I was like, I'm going to have more momentum next year. Made that decision after a couple of plays.

It was in the first quarter. I was like, no, I'm gaining weight. This isn't happening anymore. I did that quite successfully for many years. And then I got slower in the momentum thing. It's a math problem.

It starts not working out as well. Anyway, we're down. We had a good offense this year. The defense had fought and fought and fought, and it was 24 to 21, and we had to score. We had one drive. We had about a minute and a half.

And we've got to get down the field. We had not great field position. We're starting on like the 20. And we've got to get all the way down the field, score a touchdown, stay in the playoffs, keep going. So our quarterback, Coco Hillary, drops back and streaming down the sideline is Justin Broadwater.

And this cat was fast. All he did was run fast, catch footballs, score touchdowns, and not talk. That was all he did. Like he did not say a word. Everybody on our team called him mute. Now that may be offensive.

That's just what we called him. He, because he didn't talk. He could. He just chose not to. I hadn't known him since first grade. He did not talk.

And this is what he would do when he would score a touchdown. And he scored a lot of them. He would run into the end zone. I mean, streaming. As soon as he passed the goal line, he'd do like this. He'd turn around.

He'd find the ref, toss him the ball, and walk off the field. Like nothing had happened. Everybody else loses their mind. He was just like, all right, I did. I scored a touchdown. Let me go back over here.

Streaming down the sideline. He's got a cornerback right here on his hip pocket. Coco drops back, throws the ball. I mean, beautiful spiral. Justin's got about a step on this guy. And if he catches it, he's gone.

Quentin Curry's on the other side running down this side. I'm glad Coco threw it to Justin because Quentin Curry could catch the ball in traffic all the time. But as soon as he caught it, he would just fall down. It's like it took all the energy he had to make his hands do what he wanted it to. And his legs just stopped. So he would catch the ball and fall.

So even if he caught it, there's nothing we could do. Justin Broadwater, we got a shot. Ball streaming. I can remember watching it. It's just beautiful. Lights Friday night shining on it.

It's coming down. A few years later, first year of college is our first home game. We're playing Charleston Southern. It is 13 to 14. End of the game. We're driving in.

We've got to get a field goal, which I went to Presbyterian College. We didn't have the best field goal kickers. So really, we needed a touchdown. We needed a touchdown. 13-14. We need a point.

We've got to score a touchdown. We'll win the game. Quarterback drops back. S.J. Worrell is coming across the middle. Matt and I argued about this earlier.

He said it was Chetuan Reeder. I say it was S.J. Worrell. I get to tell the story, so it's S.J. Could have been Chetuan. But anyway, coming across the middle.

Drops back. Throws the ball. Football in the air. S.J. One defender. We've got to shout at this.

It's a good pass, too. It's going to hit him right in the Numbers. Everything in all three of those plays, in those moments, everything in that game hung on that moment. Everything. Win, lose. It's hanging on that moment.

And Paul is going to tell us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Go ahead and grab your Bibles and go there. Paul is going to tell us 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that the gospel, the truth of what Jesus has accomplished in the cross, that everything we hope in and believe in in Jesus hangs on the resurrection. That if Jesus Christ is laid in a tomb and stays there, game over. That's what Paul is going to tell us. So we're going to read a good bit to kind of get to where Paul is making this claim.

So if you're in 1 Corinthians, we're going to spend a good bit of time in 1 Corinthians today. We're actually going to walk all the way to the end of the chapter. It's a long chapter. We are going to jump ahead a little bit. If that stresses you out, I'm apologizing in advance. Take one of these Bibles with you.

It's our gift to you. Read the whole chapter when you get home. I'd love for you to. But today we're going to have to jump a little bit. But we are going to go from the very beginning of the chapter to the end of the chapter as we walk through looking at the resurrection and its implications for us as Christians.

I'm going to pray and then we're going to start reading in verse 1. God, I pray that you would help us to see the seriousness of the resurrection and the beauty that's hidden in it. How it is the truth that makes all the other truths true for us. I pray that today would be worshipful and joyous as we see that you conquered the grave. In Jesus' name. Amen.

1 Corinthians 15. 1 Paul's writing to a church in Corinth. He says, Now I would remind you, brothers, which that word is brothers or brothers and sisters. It's how that word works. I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. So he's saying, I want to remind you of the good news.

That's what gospel means. I want to remind you of the good news, the news I proclaimed to you, and that you believed, and that you focused your life on, and you stand in it. Verse 3. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. That he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. And that he appeared to Cephas, that's Peter's name before Jesus gave him the name Peter.

Then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. That's a nice way of saying have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I'm the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them. But it was not I, but the grace of God that is in me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. So Paul starts off by saying, I want to remind you of the gospel, that Jesus Christ died for our sins.

The Bible said he was going to do this. Then he rose from the grave. The Bible said he was going to do this. And then he started showing up and talking to people. It wasn't just that his body disappeared and people said, oh, he rose. His body disappeared, and then it walked over and talked to people.

And a bunch of people saw him. Some of those people are dead. Most of them are alive. That's what Paul says. And then he says, pick up in verse 12. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

So some people apparently were teaching. People don't come back from the dead. There is no resurrection. He says, but if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching, this message we're telling you, our preaching is in vain. And your faith is in vain.

What you've believed is a waste of time. 15. We're even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise. If it is true that the dead are not raised, for if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. As Paul says, if Jesus Christ did not rise from the grave, what you believe is a waste of time. It's futile. You're still in your sins. What he's saying is that our faith, that our sin has been paid for, that we can stand before God and be made okay is based solely on the resurrection. Jesus Christ had to die for us and he had to pay the penalty.

But if he didn't rise, then he was just the guy who died. Everything hangs on the resurrection being true. Otherwise, we're still in our sin. And what we preach is in vain. It's a waste of time and people should feel sorry for us. It's a Saturday.

I'm in fifth grade wearing my green Colts jersey. I believe I was number 28 at the time. And I was in fifth grade, but I look pretty good. I'll just be real with y'all. I'm lead blocking. Kyle McClain's behind me.

They hand the ball to him. I run into the hole. Somebody comes through here, hits Kyle. He's tackled. And as much guilt and shame and pain as a fifth grader can feel, we felt. It descended on us.

We had lost the Rotary Bowl. Game over. Tears cried. Go home. It's my junior. Ball's in the air.

Cornerback reaches up. Reaches in front of Justin Broadwater's face. Flips the ball down. Game over. Go home. 24-21.

Season over. Seniors, you're done. Most of them never played football again. Tears cried. Head to the locker room. Over.

Freshman year of college. First home game. S.J. Warrell's coming across the middle. There's one defender. Ball's in the air.

It's beautiful. He's right here. He touches it. And he gets hit so hard there was a crack that rattled through the stadium. His feet flew up in the air. The ball flew up in the air.

Another defender caught the ball and took it to the house. 21-13. Game over. Go home. And that's Christianity. Without the resurrection.

Game over. Go home. Tears cried. Feel shame. Feel guilt. You're still in your sin.

Game over. Go home. And this is true. Because of what we preach. Because of what the New Testament says. Some of you who maybe would be willing to be like, No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Hold on a second. Hold on a second. But Jesus, if he didn't rise, we still got all this good stuff. First of all, no. We don't. You say, well, we got, you know, Jesus was a good moral teacher.

No, he wasn't. Because he walked around telling people he was God. And that he was going to die. And that he was going to rise. If he doesn't rise from the grave, he's not a good moral teacher. He's a nut.

Or a charlatan. And then you say, well, we'll never, they added that stuff later. Okay. Do you know the message of the New Testament? The gospel message. The gospels.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The point of them is they're going to tell you that Jesus healed people. They're going to tell you things he taught. But the point is he died and he rose from the grave. And because of that, God's seal is on him. What Jesus said was true.

We should believe in him and sin can be paid for. Do you know what the New Testament letters say? What we believe as Christians? This is the premise of the New Testament letters. You cannot, will not, ever fix yourself. Pay for your sin.

Be good enough. You deserve wrath. You're dead in your trespasses. You deserve for God to destroy you. But Jesus can, does save you.

Pays for your sin, which you could not do. Rises again, conquering sin, death, and hell to give you life. That's why Paul says, if this isn't true, people should feel sorry for us. Do you know how sad this gathering would be if Jesus didn't rise from the grave? Jesus doesn't rise from the grave. Christianity ends.

We're done. If he didn't rise, if you're not a Christian in here, I just want to tell you, this is the thing to investigate. If you're trying to figure out whether you want to believe in Jesus, the resurrection is the thing to investigate. So many people come at Christianity and they're like, I want to know what its stance on this political issue. No. You need to know whether or not Jesus rose from the grave.

If he rose, then talk to him about politics. Because he's alive and he can talk to you. If he didn't rise, have all whatever kind of politics you want. Have whatever kind of moral stances you want. Think of whatever. He didn't rise.

We should be done. If Jesus didn't rise from the grave, get up. Go outside. On the lobby, there's a little coffee thing. It's better now than it used to be. And hit the door.

And don't ever wake up early on a Sunday again. Unless you're going fishing or playing golf or something. Oh, if you have a kid in Kid City, get them first. That's what he says. It's futile. It's a waste.

If Jesus Christ didn't rise from the grave, it's a waste and people should feel sorry for us. Do you know how, just think back to all of our sermons, if you've been here a while. If Jesus didn't rise, do you know what our sermons are? One of our favorite passages is Ephesians chapter 2. And it says that you were dead in your trespasses and sins. That you were captive to the prince of the power of the air.

That you were following him, a son of disobedience and a child of wrath. And then it says, but God, who's rich in mercy. And then it declares the gospel that we've been made alive with Christ. But there wouldn't be a but God there. It would just be, we would open the Bible and say, all right, everyone. You're dead in your trespasses and sin.

You're a child of wrath. You're a slave to Satan. Potluck next week. Bye. We'd sing songs. One of my favorite Christian songs that we sing, worship songs to sing to my son is nothing but the blood.

Without the resurrection, that song is just nothing. It's the title of it. What can wash away my sin? Nothing. Nothing. What can make me whole again?

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing can save my soul. Nothing can make me whole. Onward to hell we go. Nothing.

Nothing. Nothing. What can make me whole again? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing can save my soul. Nothing can make me whole. Onward to hell we go. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. That's Christianity without the resurrection It's nothing You can still be Jewish You can still be Buddhist You can still be a Muslim Christianity hinges on this one fact Jesus Christ rose from the grave And if he didn't If he didn't We're done Look at verse

20 But in fact Christ has Been raised from the dead The first fruits Of those who have fallen asleep You see the resurrection of Jesus is not reanimation He did not come back to life To later die He rose It's resurrection That he is forever alive now That's what we believe We believe that Jesus Christ Literally Physically Physically Lived on earth That he was God Who'd become a human And that he literally Physically Died And he was buried

And then he literally Physically Rose from the grave And this is what the gospels Attest to That there's Place after place In Acts And in Matthew And Mark And Luke Where Jesus goes around People recognize him They eat with him They touch him This happens over and over In Luke 24 It happens in John 20 In Matthew 28 People grab his feet And John 24 He shows him his scars And his hands And his side

He eats fish Which I don't know If it was just to prove That he had a body Or if he wanted some fish But he ate fish He sits and eats They said that they Ate with him They talked with him They touched him Jesus Christ Risen from the grave Literally and physically He wasn't just a spirit It wasn't just that they saw a vision It wasn't that he came to him From the afterlife It's that he had life again And then he literally Physically rose Ascended into heaven That's what we believe I want to share

As we get started That that's what we believe That we believe That Jesus Christ Literally physically died And that he literally And physically rose From the grave And most of our time today Will be spent on The results of that What that actually does How that truth Makes everything else true But I just want to help us See something That there are things That we have historically And that historians agree to That help make this Seem more compelling So we have the gospel story That's what we believe That Jesus Christ died

And that he rose from the grave But there are actual Historical things That also help this Seem very plausible And I just want to share Some of those with you Because I think it's It's encouraging And helpful To see some of this Every once in a while There's a theologian His name is Gary Habermas And he One of the ways That he talks about this Is he says that there are Historical Like undeniable Historical facts That everybody agrees to That they have A lot of historical data

That points to this And then they have Christians Non-Christians Atheists Agnostics Historians of every Brand and stripe And color Agree These things happened That you can just look at history And we agree this happens And he lists them out The first one is this Jesus died by crucifixion There was a man named Jesus And we know that he died By crucifixion That's historical People believe that Nobody's really arguing that Two Very soon afterwards

His followers Had real experiences That they thought Were actual appearances Of the risen Christ Of risen Jesus So The reason why It's worded that way Historians will look back They don't agree That Jesus rose from the grave Historians aren't making that claim Because that's a They would say That's a faith claim But they'll point and go Okay The people that followed him Really did believe it That's what historians agree on They don't necessarily believe That he rose But they believe

That the people around him Actually believed it They weren't just making this up They actually believed it Third one is this Their lives The people who saw Had these experiences Were transformed as a result Even to the point Of being willing to die Specifically for their faith In the resurrection message So what we can see Historically Is that there are A group of people Who followed Jesus around We know that Jesus died And then Soon after All the people who Followed him around Started saying

He's alive And there was a large Group of people Who said No he's not Shut up And this small group Of people kept saying Yes he is You shut up It's a historical fact The church grew In the face of persecution All of these disciples Of Jesus Were actually martyred They were killed On a regular basis For proclaiming this I want to read a quote We'll leave that up there I want to read a quote From a guy named Chuck Colson

Chuck Colson Was the first guy To go to jail For the Watergate scandal He was called Nixon's hatchet man I don't know why But he sounds intense He was Nixon's hatchet man If you're not familiar With Watergate It's like Deflategate But not as big a deal Watergate was the Scandal that Nixon had Where they broke in And Into the Watergate hotel And If you've seen the movie Forrest Gump It's featured in there But they break into The Watergate hotel

Forrest Gump Tails on them And They break into The Watergate hotel And they bug it And it's the Democratic National Convention And they were just Trying to listen in And the bigger issue Is that they then Tried to cover it up They tried to hide this lie It's what eventually Led to Nixon's Resignation From the presidency Chuck Colson Was one of the guys In on that And he goes to jail And in the process Of being indicted

And going through court And all that stuff He becomes a Christian Eventually starts A prison ministry Which I think is cool That Jesus worked in that But here's what he says He says I know the resurrection Is a fact And Watergate Proved it to me How? Because twelve men Testified that they Had seen Jesus Raised from the dead Then they proclaimed That truth For forty Years Never once Denying it

Everyone was beaten Tortured Stoned And put in prison They would have not Endured that If it weren't true Watergate Embroiled twelve Of the most powerful Men in the world And they couldn't Keep alive for three weeks You're telling me That the twelve apostles Could keep alive For forty years Absolutely impossible So this was a man Who's caught up In Watergate And he says We couldn't keep it together For three weeks

And we were powerful He says This is a bunch of fishermen He said I believe the resurrection Happened I believe that they Believed it Because every single one Of them faced death For it And never Said anything else And the boldness That comes from that Is that What we find When we read The scriptures Is that we have Eyewitness testimony Telling us That Jesus Christ Rose from the grave

And every single person Who penned it Who wrote that down Who proclaimed it Believed it When Paul says I saw Jesus And he changed my life He believed it When the disciples Said it They believed it The fourth one That this He gives Is that These things Were taught Very early Soon after The crucifixion That's actually First Corinthians Three through seven

What we just read Where it says I delivered to you As of first importance And then he says That Christ died For our sins In accordance with The scriptures That he was buried That he was raised On the third day In accordance with The scriptures All the way through seven Where it says He appeared to James And then to all the apostles That actually When people who Are really smart Study this And study language They say

That's actually a creed Paul's just quoting that And that's one of the Earliest things That Christians Memorized and said To each other Jesus Christ Died for our sins Rose from the grave He appeared to these people So they began Passing that message around And memorizing that Because that's what They believed Very early on Five James Jesus' unbelieving brother Became a Christian Due to his own experience That he thought Was the resurrected Christ

So again Historians aren't going to Agree that it was They're just going to say We know historically That there was a guy Named James Who was Jesus' brother And he came out And said Jesus is God Now if you have siblings You explain to me How hard it would be For you to convince them You were God Six The Christian persecutor Paul Formerly Saul of Tarsus Also became a believer After a similar experience What we're faced with In the scriptures

Is a bunch of eyewitness accounts Saying I believe that Jesus Christ Rose from the grave And then everything In Christianity Hangs on that If he didn't rise We've got nothing But if he did We get everything That's how Christianity works Jesus Christ Rose from the grave Everything That has been Proclaimed in the gospel Is true So we're going to Take a little bit of time As we walk through First Corinthians To see four results

Of the resurrection Four ways That this Four Truths That this makes true That because of the resurrection This is now true And we can Bank on it And we can rest in it And we can hope in it Because it is now true for us Through the gospel Pick back up in verse 20 But in fact Christ has been Raised from the dead The first fruits Of those Who have fallen asleep For as by a man Came death By a man

Has come all Also the resurrection Of the dead For as in Adam All die So also In Christ Shall all Be made alive So what he's saying Is That our first father Adam sinned And death Entered the world So that in Adam Everybody dies Because of Adam We all die But in Christ All are made alive And because Jesus Rose from the grave He forever lives

And is forever able To offer his life To those who would Believe in him This is why Paul In Galatians 2 20 says I've been crucified With Christ It's no longer I who live But Christ Who lives In me And the life I now live In the flesh I live by the faith In the son of God Who loved me And gave himself For me You see Because Jesus Christ

Rose from the grave He's able to give you His life He's able to live In you Because he's not dead He's risen He's alive And so he's able To give you his life And what that means For us as Christians Because we declare Clearly You're not good enough You're not smart enough You're not going to do this You mess this up You're going to fail You are sinful And that would be Really depressing But we follow that up with But Jesus

Accomplished this For you And as you place Your faith in him Will accomplish it In you One of the reasons Our church expects So much Of each other When it comes to repentance When it comes to confession When it comes to living When it comes to generosity Is because we believe That Jesus is at work In you Our goal is not to ask you To accomplish that On your own Our goal Is to ask each other To yield to Jesus As he works

In you And we expect A whole lot Out of Jesus And we believe That he's alive In you Leading you away From sin And towards holiness But the promise Of Jesus being alive Means that you can Actually say no To sin It means that you can Actually go beyond Your own natural ability To love And to serve And to sacrifice Because it's Jesus Animating you It's Jesus

At work in you And we believe That because Jesus Is at work in you He's the one Who carries You to completion That he's going To make you Holy And blameless And above reproach Let's keep reading Pick up in verse 23 Verse 23 But each In his own order Christ The firstfruits Then at his coming Those who belong To Christ Then comes the end When he

That's Jesus Delivers the kingdom To God the Father After destroying Every rule And every authority And power For he must reign Until he puts All his enemies Under his feet The last enemy To be destroyed Is death I've said this before If you can kill death You win That's the last enemy To be destroyed Is that Jesus Destroys death That through the power Of his resurrection He forever reigns

Over death So that death No longer has Any claim Any power Anything But one of the other Truths that becomes True because of the Resurrection Is that justice Will eventually reign That Jesus will Eventually subject All authorities And all powers Under himself And this gives us Great hope And this hope Is grounded In the resurrection This gives us Great hope

As Christians That one day Jesus will judge He will be fair He will hand out Justice I read a quote From a guy Who had seen A lot of pain And death And destruction In Croatia During some of their wars And he said That when people argue That God isn't just He's not He's not going to Punish anyone He's just going to love He said The only people Who make that argument

Are the people Who have never seen Someone ride through A village Murder Rape And burn things down He said Because The only thing That keeps me From having to Pick up the sword Is knowing that Jesus Christ Picks up the sword The only way I'm actually able To forgive And offer grace Is to know that Jesus forgave And offered me grace And he promises

That one day Justice will be served That either He'll pay for it On the cross Or they'll pay For their sin But that justice Will be served Otherwise we get trapped In having to Seek revenge And retribution He says It's actually the justice Of God That gives us freedom And that justice Of God Is hanging on The resurrection I have a Two year old So I've been catching up

On all my Disney movies One of the ones I like Is Robin Hood It's got a fox And he's Robin Hood And John Prince John And this is based Off of historical stuff I don't know how True Robin Hood stuff is I know he wasn't a fox Prince John is a lion But he doesn't have a mane He sucks his thumb And he has to Poke his ears out Because he's wearing His brother's crown He has to like Poke his ears out So the crown Won't fall down

Over his head And he's Committing massive amounts Of injustice He's He's just Ruling with an iron fist And he's ruling poorly And this crown That doesn't quite fit Is a really good picture Of how poorly he rules And then at the end Of the movie King Richard The Lionheart Shows back up And he's a lion With a legit mane And the crown Fits perfectly And there's something About Jesus One day returning

Because he's resurrected One day returning To set up justice That helps us Clearly see How every authority And every government And every system Of power Has a crown That doesn't quite fit And they have to do Everything they can To try to keep it On top of their head And as injustice Is poured out On us on earth We can hold on With hope That one day Justice will roll down From the mountains And that the king

Will again ascend To the throne And he will rule Everything Because his crown Fits perfectly And that's banking On the resurrection That Jesus rose And one day Will return Let's move to Verse 45 We're jumping ahead A little bit Paul begins to talk About how the resurrection Of the dead works I'm sorry Let's move to Verse 42 I said too far He begins to talk About how the resurrection

Of the dead works And how our bodies Are raised And what that looks like And one of the Examples he gives Is that If we took a bunch Of seeds That went to Different plants And made you guess If you didn't know Much about Botany Plant science If that's what Botany means And you had to guess What the seed Would look like After you buried it His point His argument

Is most of the seeds Look the same But once they start Growing They look very different And they do Very different things And he says That's kind of the way Our resurrection Bodies are work That we all look The same right now But eventually We have to be buried We have to be sown That's the word He's going to use That we have to be buried That that seed Has to die In order for the The real thing to come And so I just want to

Explain kind of how He's saying this Because we got to We got to move We're in verse 42 So it is With the resurrection Of the dead What is sown Is perishable So he's talking About our bodies They fade They perish What is raised Is imperishable It is sown In dishonor It's raised in glory It's sown In weakness It's raised in power It's sown A natural body

It's raised A spiritual body If there is A natural body There is also A spiritual body To what Paul says Is that because Of the resurrection Of Jesus Our resurrection Is secured And this Is A beautiful hope That we have In Christ Because he says Our bodies They're going to be Laid down in weakness They're going to be Laid down in dishonor They're going to perish

They're going to give out They're going to fail They're going to fall short That when Jesus Was walking around on earth And he was healing The blind And he was healing The sick And he was He was letting Paralytics walk again He was accomplishing In them Something that was Going to ultimately Make him have to Go to the cross That he was Pre-working Some of the Resurrection Some of the Paying for sin

That he was Eventually going to do On the cross That Jesus Christ Re-gives us a life And that this hope For us Is in the resurrection That all weakness And sickness And disease And fear And depression And mental illness And persistent sin All those things That make it hard To wake up in the morning Or that follow us Around like a cloud For those of you Who struggle with Depression And someone will ask you

How are you doing And you answer Okay I think And the reason is You feel okay But you've learned Not to trust yourself Because you You don't know If you feel okay Because you're actually okay Or because you've just So untethered yourself From everything You just don't care And you just don't love anymore Those of you Who struggle with Mental illness Can't trust your brain Can't trust yourself Can't be alone With yourself

Have to have people That you're ready to call At a moment's notice When things turn Really dark for you For every single person Who you know Or if it's you That sat in a room And didn't want to Have the sunlight come in And didn't want to Talk to a human And wanted to sleep For 12 hours a day 15 hours a day Didn't want to do Any of the things That would lead to joy And health and life The promise of the resurrection Is that what's sown In weakness Will be raised in power

What's perishable And failing Will become imperishable For every single one of us Who've watched A loved one Slowly fade They get smaller Every time we see Their mind Their mind doesn't Quite work Like it used to Maybe they've begun To have erratic emotions Or they're lashing out Or they're saying things That they never would have said Every single one of us That has to watch A loved one Battle And battle And battle

Cancer Just to lose The hope The hope found In the resurrection Is that what's weak Rises in power And what's perishable Rises imperishable And what's sown In dishonor Rises in glory For every single one of us Who've received a phone call And from that moment on Life changed You have your life Pre phone call And you have your life Post phone call The promise for Christians Is that when we gather At a funeral To mourn

A saint Someone who's Placed their faith In Jesus That we gather As a group of people Who are heartbroken And who hurt Because of the loved one We've lost But we don't gather Without hope Because we have a king Who once had a group Of friends Gather around the tomb Heartbroken And hurting And then he came Walking out And the hope for us Because of that risen king Is that we will rise Our resurrection

Is secure And that all fear And guilt And shame And sin That we can't seem To beat That you've fought For your entire life That you've begged God To release you from That you've asked And pleaded And it's come to the point Where you've begun to think This is going to be With me Forever Every single person Who has a sin battle That is good for a little while And then comes Rearing its ugly head

The promise is That you're weak And you're dishonorable And you're perishable But Jesus Christ Rose from the grave And there will one day Be power An imperishable body And glory Because our God Didn't stay dead The resurrection of Jesus Gives us hope In a glorious Future resurrection That we can hold tightly to In the midst of everything We face now Verse 53 For this perishable body Must put on the imperishable And this mortal body Must put on the

On immortality When the perishable Puts on the imperishable And the mortal Puts on immortality Then shall come to pass The saying that is written He's quoting Isaiah Death is swallowed up In victory Oh death Where is your victory Oh death Where is your sting The sting Of death Is sin And the power Of sin Is the law But thanks be to God Who gives us the victory Through our Lord Jesus Christ

All right I want to explain Verse 56 for us quickly The sting of death Is sin And the power Of sin Is the law So he says The sting of death Is sin And the power Of sin Is the law Okay so the law Is the right rules That God gives That he speaks Into the world And says this is how You ought to live Once those rules Came in You became

Excessively Sinful I'll give you an example Of this My son Gets spanked On a regular basis At my house Because my house Has rules Don't touch that Put that down No You can't have Four popsicles When he goes to His grandmother's house And I say How did he do She says He was great What she means is I never said no There is no power

Of the law At her house Not at least The way it is At my house The power Of the law The power Of sin Is the law What makes Your sin Evident And present And clear Is the law Is the Your sin Is the law So I look at my son And say Don't do that Suddenly there is A law

That he can now Show Clearly and evidently How sinful he is As he looks at me Judges the distance Between us And decides I can do it About three times Before he gets here That was him At about nine months On an outlet Don't touch that Looked at me But the law Showed his sinfulness So what Paul's saying Is that the power of sin Is in the law That all of the things That God said This is how you ought to live

They just show us How much sin Is at work In us For people who think People aren't that sinful It's because they've never Really tried Try to be really gracious And generous And caring And kind And considerate And loving Try that for a really long time Try to be moral For a long time What you'll get Is guilt and shame Or you'll convince yourself There is no God Because you'll never Live up to that And then he says

The sting of death Is sin Death came into the world Because of sin And it's painful Because of sin Death has a sting to it Because we die In our sin That we stand before God In our sin But he says The sting of death Is sin And the power of sin Is the law But thanks be to God Who gives us The victory Through our Lord Jesus Christ If you are in Jesus The law has no claim on you Sin has been paid

And there will be no sting In death Where is your victory? Death Where is your sting? It does not exist For the Christian Because the moment You take your last breath You take your next first one Into eternity When you stand before a king Made holy And blameless And righteous Because Jesus Christ Died for your sin And rose To give you his life And we follow after him He's the firstborn Among the dead And we rise To be resurrected

To glory As all of those Who follow after him As brothers and sisters Made righteous Through Jesus There is no sting In death For a Christian There is no victory Of death Death Will claim us Once And when we go Through death We can look back At it and say Jesus is coming I've read about Your end You see You killed him once And he rose forever

And one day He's calling your number Death And you'll never Claim anyone again Because sin No longer has power Because Jesus Upheld the law For me But if Jesus Didn't rise We've got nothing If Jesus Christ Just died He does not Conquer death He does not Fulfill the law He does not Pay for our sin Death has a sting Sin claims us And the law

Accuses us But we're told That we have one Who stands before The throne of God And who has Disarmed the enemy That sin no longer Has a claim That the law Can no longer Accus us And that when we die We're ushered Into glory Where we're met By a God Who loves us Because he loves us In Jesus Jesus' resurrection life Is alive in you Now Justice will be served

You have the hope Of a future resurrection And victory Is already yours In Christ Those are true If you have placed Your faith In Jesus They're true What do we do With that How does Paul Tell us to respond Matt and Bianca Are going to come up here As we kind of Finish this out This morning Here's what Paul says Is the response For us In Christ Who have

Believed on him For salvation Not just Know that this Happened But actually Believe That he Paid the penalty Of our sin We've trusted in him We've placed our faith In him He says all of this About the resurrection He says all of this About the victory That we have in Christ And then in verse 58 He says Therefore Which just means Because all of this Is true

Therefore my beloved Brothers Be Steadfast Immovable Always Abounding In the work Of the Lord Knowing that In the Lord Your labor Is not In vain Paul's conclusion To this Is don't Go anywhere Don't Go anywhere Be Steadfast Those of you Who are

Tired Those of you Who are Doubting Your hope Is in The resurrection Of Jesus Don't shift To something else Those of you Who have begun To ask the question Am I good enough You've already Moved That was never Your hope To be good enough To be holy enough To be To do enough Your hope Is in

The resurrection Of Jesus Stay There Be steadfast Immovable And then he says Keep working Every bit Of every ounce Of sweat And blood And tears And sacrifice Every penny Spent Because there's A resurrection Because there's A future home Because this life Isn't all we get It's worth it Don't stop

Don't take Your boots Off Don't clock Out Keep working Don't go Anywhere Keep working Let's pray Father I pray That the Reality And the power Of the resurrection Would sink So deeply Into our soul To be the Foundation for Everything for Us And I pray The Lord

That through Your spirit Alive in Us That we Would keep Working That we Would be Steadfast Immovable And always Abounding In your work In your name Amen It's It's It's It's It's It's It I'm It's

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That through Your spirit Alive in Us That we Would keep Working That we Would be Steadfast Immovable And always Abounding In your work In your name Amen It's It's It's It's It's It's It I'm It's

It's It's It's It's It's It's It's It's It's It's It's Ill It's It's It's

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Resurrection and Return

Transcript

We are in our third week of our Jesus series, and so we've just set aside three weeks coming out of Easter to just talk about Jesus. We said we were going to look at some specific aspects of who He was and what He accomplished and what the Bible says about Him. And so the first week we kind of spent some time talking about who He was as a human, that He has had a disproportionate effect on the earth. So that Jesus lived in a rural hick town of the Roman Empire where there are things like Uncle Daddy's and that kind of stuff. He kind of grew up in this area, and He lived to be about 33. And when He died, He had about 120 people following Him, and it really didn't make a whole lot of sense.

He never did any of the things you're supposed to do to be famous. He talked a lot about a kingdom, but He didn't do what you're supposed to do to be a king. He didn't do what you're supposed to do to lead a rebellion against the Roman Empire. It didn't make sense, the impact that He's had in history. And so we just looked at the fact that not only is that true, but He also walked around claiming to be God. And so then we looked and said that He is God, that Jesus is God who became a human.

And then that last week we spent some time talking about the crucifixion, that Jesus' primary mission, the reason He came to earth was to die, to be crucified. And so we looked at what it means for us that God died, what the crucifixion was and what that accomplished on our behalf. And so tonight we're going to be looking at the resurrection. We're going to be talking about the fact that Jesus didn't stay dead. He came back to life. So resurrection, we're not saying that He came back as a life force.

We're not saying that His spirit came back. We're not saying that He was reincarnated into some other form. What we're saying is that Jesus resurrected, that He, Jesus the man who was God, was taken to a cross, was beaten brutally, was hung on a cross, was murdered, was executed, had a spear run through His side after He was dead, was laid in a tomb after being wrapped up in some cloths and put pounds and pounds of ointment and wrappings, grave clothes on Him. And that three days later that same Jesus, that same body was walking around talking to people, eating, letting people touch the holes in His hands and the holes in His side that He was resurrected, that He came back to life.

And so that's what we're going to be talking about tonight. We're going to be spending some time looking at the resurrection and Jesus' return. And we're going to be coming out of 1 Corinthians 15. And so the resurrection proves all the other stuff that Jesus said and did. It affirms it. It confirms it.

It proves it. So Jesus walks around saying that He's God, and that's awkward. Like, I would suggest to you, don't say that at work tomorrow. Just don't be like over at the coffee maker and be like, yes, you know, it's kind of hard for me to wake up in the morning because I'm God. Like, I just wouldn't suggest it. And so, you know, but Jesus walks around saying He's God.

He talks a lot about this kingdom, that He's going to set up a kingdom. And He keeps saying, I'm going to die. Like, He keeps telling His disciples He's going to die. So the point that He's talking about His kingdom and He's like, okay, this isn't how you set up a kingdom. This isn't how you lead a rebellion. So He's talking to His disciples.

He's like, all right, we're going to set up a kingdom. And they're like, all right, what's the plan? He's like, well, first, I'm going to die. I mean, to the point that Peter takes Him to the side and is like, I don't think you understand how this works. Like, a kingdom needs a king. I think you're doing it wrong.

Like, you shouldn't die. This isn't how this is going to work. Like, we agree that you're going to be king. Dying isn't a good process for that. It's going to be hard for you to lead this. So, like, if I was going to lead a rebellion, I wouldn't say, step one, murder me.

Like, that's just, you just don't do that because then what would happen to the rebellion? Like, it wouldn't work out well. And so Jesus says He's going to be king, and His purpose is to die. And so His disciples think that's weird. He doesn't do what you ought to do to set up an earthly kingdom. But Jesus was setting up an eternal kingdom, and He knew something His disciples didn't.

And so what we're going to do is we're going to hop into this text. And this is what Paul saw in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 12. And so we started in 1 Corinthians 15 on Easter, and we walked through the first bit where Paul basically says, that I delivered to you as of first importance that which I also received, that Jesus, that Christ, died in accordance with the Scriptures, died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He rose again in accordance with the Scriptures. And then he goes through all these people that Jesus, after He rose, talked to and saw.

And then he goes to this part where we're picking up in 12. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. So what Paul's saying is that he's talking to this church, and he's proclaiming Christ is raised, but he's saying some of you are saying there is no resurrection, that Jesus didn't raise from the dead. And so he's going to unpack this, and basically what he's going to say is, let's look at, he's going to walk through and say, let's look at what it means for us if Christ was not raised.

So if the resurrection verifies and solidifies everything for us as Christians, Paul's going to unpack this as, okay, I just want to let you know, if there is no resurrection, this is what that means for us. And so that's what we're going to look at now. Verse 13, But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. So he's saying it's a waste of time.

So what Paul would say is, this right here is a waste of time if Jesus hasn't been raised. And I would agree with him. Paul says preaching is in vain. So he's like, I wouldn't be doing this. I went to school to play football, and I got a business degree. I wouldn't be doing this if Christ hadn't been raised.

Like, that's, I just, I wouldn't be here. And y'all wouldn't be here either. So he says our preaching is in vain, our faith is in vain. He says we are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testify about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised. And so what he's saying is, he's talking to a Jewish audience. So they believe in God, and he's saying, look, we're even lying about God.

Like, we're making stuff up about God, and that's not okay, because we're going to meet him one day, and we probably shouldn't have run around lying about it. He said this is a problem. So, for if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised, that's verse 16. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

So what he says there is, if Christ has been raised, your sins are still on you. Like, you haven't been forgiven of them, he hasn't taken them away. And those who have fallen asleep, and fall asleep just means, it means died. It's just a nice way of saying died. He doesn't mean falling asleep. He doesn't mean, like, if Christ hasn't been raised, and that guy fell asleep, well, then he's perished.

He means died. And what he's saying is that they've died in their sins, so they're in trouble. Like, they still have issues between them and God, and so it's a problem now. They've not only died, but they've perished, if Christ hasn't been raised. We're still in our sins. And then he says this, if in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

So what Paul's saying is, if Christ hasn't been raised, people shouldn't be mad at us. They should feel sorry for us if Christ hasn't been raised. What Paul's saying is that the Christian life should look so radical, should only make sense in light of the resurrection, that if Christ hasn't been raised, we've really made some bad decisions. If our hope is only here, so that we're told as Christians that Jesus is going to save us from our sins, that we're going to be taken to heaven and live in eternity with him, but our hope is only here, then we're in trouble. If when we die, Christ hasn't been raised, then we're in trouble, because we as Christians have lived our lives in a way that only makes sense.

We've banked on the resurrection. Now, I think that was true for Paul. We're going to look at a passage where he kind of lays out some of the stuff that's happened in his life. I don't know for American Christians how often that is true. I just don't know if my neighbors look at me and go, if the resurrection isn't true, if what Chet tells me about Jesus isn't true, I feel sorry for him because of the decisions he makes. It would be like if you had a friend who was trying to start a business, and they were banking everything.

They had cashed in everything they had to get this business going. They had leveraged all of their time, all of their effort, all of their money, all of their savings to get this business going. You'd be looking at them going, I hope this business works out for you. And if it does, it'll be a good thing. If people want this product, if this works out. But if it doesn't, I feel sorry for you because you don't have anywhere else to go.

Like all your eggs are in that basket. That's what Paul says it's supposed to look like for Christians. Now, my wife and I were watching the movie Walter Mitty. It's a recent movie with Ben Stiller in it, and I enjoyed it. It had a little bit of like independent film kind of qualities to it. So it was like slowly killing Anna the entire time that we watched it.

We got to the end of it, and she's going, oh, how long is this movie? And I'm like, shh, shh. Because they're in the end. It is the part where they're saying the things that connect everything, and you're finding out. It's all coming together. And she's going, oh.

And I said, shh. And she goes, you can't be serious. She's looking at the side of my face. You can't be serious. You're enjoying this right now? And I'm like, I'm trying to watch the movie.

No, seriously, say this movie is garbage. Just say the movie is garbage. I'm like, be quiet. She's like, this is garbage. You can't honestly be enjoying this. So I had to pause it and be like, look, I am enjoying this, and you need to be quiet because they're saying things.

But in the movie, maybe I just gave you a little bit too big of a picture of what it looks like when I'm watching this. But in the movie, Walter Mitty works at Time Magazine, and what he does is he develops films. So he's in this creepy-looking basement thing with one other dude, and they send in pictures. And Time Magazine has pictures of all over the world. So war-torn regions, the tops of mountains, like anywhere that seems, you know, they're on shipping decks and oil rigs, and they're sending him all these pictures.

And all he does is he shows up to work, and he develops the film. And so in the movie, Walter Mitty has all of these, like, people will be just talking to him, and then he just, like, zones out and is imagining that he's doing some kind of a great cliff dive thing or fighting people and saving stuff. Like, all of this kind of, the whole time he zones out. And I feel like sometimes we've all got a little bit of Walter Mitty in us. We've all got a little bit of times where we just, we dream of pouring our lives out for something. We dream of having our life mean more than what the American dream says it's supposed to mean.

We have these moments when we're like, I wish I was just a part of something bigger. And that my overall goal wasn't just to stack up comforts around myself. Like, is that my goal? I have these moments where I'm like, is my goal to have a certain Job so that I can retreat to my home in the evenings and have a screen and then hopefully get a bigger screen and a bigger screen and better sound system and a comfortable couch so I can just sink into comfort and escape from the world. There are these moments, certainly, we have dreams where we've thought about maximizing our comfort. We've had dreams where we've daydreamed about maximizing our vacations or our sex life or our toys or anything.

We've had dreams, but we're not particularly proud of those. I'm not even drawn to those, but I feel like there's something in all of us that says, God, I wish I could just be a part of something where I leveraged everything for something bigger, for something that mattered more. I just wish that I could have my life be the adrenaline rush of pushing my chips all in on something. And what Paul is saying is that is the Christian life and that if Christ hasn't been raised, we are most to be pitied. People should feel sorry for us. And Paul, when he says this, it's true for him.

I'm going to read you all part of 2 Corinthians. It's his second letter he wrote to the Corinthians. I'm just going to read through it really quick. It's in chapter 11 if you want to check it out later. But he's talking about his life with Christ and he says this, For with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death.

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship. Through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

And apart from these things, there's daily pressure on me for the anxiety for all the churches. What Paul's saying is I've leveraged everything. Banking on Jesus. I've leveraged everything on Christ. And he says, And if the resurrection isn't true, you should just feel sorry for me. Because I've put everything in on this.

It's the same thing we see with the disciples. We see the disciples after, the guys that hung out with Jesus were trained by him for three years. After he dies, they're hiding. They're like scared. They're inside locked doors in Jerusalem. It's like these huddled up.

They're fearing that somebody's going to try to come get them. All the time it says that they're locking their doors. And at one point, Peter's like, I guess I'm going to just go fishing. I'm going to go back to what I was doing. And so they're afraid and they're confused and they don't know what's happening. And then Jesus shows back up and starts talking to them.

He rose again and starts talking to them. And then we see in the book of Acts, all of the disciples are sold out for the gospel. There's one point where they're taken in front of the Sanhedrin, the same people that crucified Jesus. And the Sanhedrin says, we want you to shut up and quit talking about Jesus. And the disciples say, you do what you got to do. We're not going to stop talking about Jesus.

It ain't happening. And so they beat them. And it says, the disciples left rejoicing that they'd had the opportunity to be beaten for the name of Jesus. That's a different crew than the guys that were hiding. That's a whole different group of guys. Every single one of those 11 guys was martyred, murdered for their faith in Jesus.

And all of them were like, I'm not shutting up. I've gone all in on this. I saw him. I saw him face to face. I touched him. I watched him eat.

And I'm going all in. I'm going all in that there is a resurrection and that this thing that Jesus has started, his kingdom, is true and it's real and I'm all in. And so what Paul says is for Christians who've gone all in, if the resurrection isn't true, people should feel sorry for us. And then he says this in verse 20. So verse 19, If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied, but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead.

So he just turns everything back on his head and he says, in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. This is what Paul's saying. Paul's saying, I may have pushed all my chips in, but I got a winning hand. Paul's saying, I may have invested everything I have. I haven't diversified at all, but I've got a guaranteed return on investment. My ROI is on lock.

That's what Paul's saying. And that's true for Christians. We can push everything in and in fact, Christ has been raised. Not a moment, not a breath, not a dollar, not an ounce of sweat or blood that's poured out for Jesus is going to return void because Christ has been raised. You know what that means? It means that Christians can live the life we've always dreamed about living.

It means that we actually have something bigger to pour ourselves into. Something that actually matters, that actually has worth, that actually has value. It means that Christians ought to be leveraging everything we have for the gospel because in fact, Christ has been raised. This little warm up, this prelude that we have on earth is just that. We've got a little while to pour everything we have out for Christ because he has been raised. We've got an eternity to come and we can live lives poured out for what is important, for what is true and what is right.

We get to. Verse 20, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. So what that means, first fruits is the first fruit you get from a harvest. So when you have a harvest and you get a little bit of fruit, that's your first fruits. And what it's saying is that Jesus is the first fruits from the dead, first fruits of those who are going to be raised. And what the first fruits mean is that there is a harvest.

So the first fruits are just the first to come of the rest of the harvest. And so all it's saying is that Jesus rose, but he's just the first one. Everyone else is going to be resurrected as well. We're going to be raised to life. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. the Bible's very clear. We were intended to live forever.

I don't know if y'all know that. I just want to make that clear. We were intended to live forever. Sin caused death to enter into the world, but we were designed, we have souls that are designed to live forever. And everyone in this room will die and will live forever. So everyone in this room will die and will continue on, our souls will continue on for eternity.

But he says, For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. Let me unpack that real quick. Adam. Of Adam and Eve fame. You may have seen pictures of him naked in a garden with some lady.

That's Adam, Adam and Eve. He was the first man ever created and he kept it together sinlessly for like a chapter in the Bible. And then he sinned, he messed it up, botched it up. And so Adam started off with a clean slate. He and God were in a right relationship and he had a clean slate so that he could choose to follow God, to live in the right relationship with God and thereby add righteousness to his slate or he could choose to rebel against God to worship himself as God and thereby mess up his slate, not have a clean slate anymore. He chose to rebel.

So Adam chose to bring sin into the world and when he did he ushered in death. All of us were born without a clean slate. Everyone in this room, we weren't born with a clean slate. We were born with the slate that Adam gave us which is a sinful, messed up, broken slate. Like our hearts didn't start off good and get turned bad. They started off bad.

Anybody who has little kids knows this. And I can just tell you we were all little kids at one point. Nobody, we talked about this some last week, we had to be taught how to be generous. We had to be taught how to share, how to love. We had to be taught that certain things are virtuous and good. Like we sing little songs to teach kids like honesty is the best and you shouldn't lie because then you'd be a jerk.

Like we teach them little songs to teach them about truth and honesty and generosity and sharing. Like we don't, nobody has to teach kids songs about how to be selfish and how to be mean to each other and when someone has something you want punch them in the face. Like we don't have to tell that to kids, they just do that on their own. And so none of us were born with a clean slate. We were all off. We're all twisted.

We're all broken. We're all pointing in the wrong direction. And so in Adam all die. In Adam we're all born. We're going to live and we're going to die. We're going to be sinful and broken and twisted and off and in Adam all die.

And then it says in Christ all shall be made alive. Now in Christ Jesus comes this is what we talked about. He came and he lived a perfect sinless life. That he lived in a right relationship with God and that his purpose was to die. The Bible says that our sin was placed on him and that Jesus was crushed. He bore our iniquities by his stripes were healed.

That Jesus died for our sin. He took our sin. The Bible says he became our sin and that in him we become righteous. That Jesus takes our sin and he dies for our sin and that when he rose again he conquered sin and death and hell on our behalf and that we can have life. Let me tell you this. Those of us who are in Christ you do not have a clean slate.

Jesus does not give you a clean slate. He gives you a slate that has his righteousness already applied to it. He doesn't just clean our slate and give it back to us. He takes our sin he cleans our slate off and then he applies his righteousness his account his goodness his humility his generosity his love it's applied to our account. Everything you've ever looked at in a human and thought man I like that about that guy. Man I wish I could be more like that girl. everything Jesus had and did and modeled for us perfectly and that has been applied to our account.

About that guy. Man I wish I could be more like that girl. everything Jesus had and did and modeled for us perfectly and that has been applied to our account. I'm so glad let me tell you something for those of us in Christ you don't want a clean slate you want Jesus' slate you want to sit behind him in class and Mark down his answers that's how you want to do that. That's how that works. Jesus doesn't

Hand us a clean slate I'm so glad because if Jesus had taken it and said alright I took your sin slate's clean now keep it together I'd have been like keep it together yes is up to me to do good from now on yes oh crap is it bad to say that in front of you and Jesus would be like and he'd give it back and he had to Mark it up and I would have kept it together for like

14 Seconds I don't even know depending on how much I breathed in between the time he handed it to me like that's not how that works though his slate is applied to our account we were made righteous in Jesus and so all of us are going to die in Adam but in Christ all will be made alive we'll all be brought back we'll all be given life for those of us who are in Christ who have placed our faith and our hope in the resurrection who have banked

On the resurrection not our good deeds not our hard work not on our ability to clean our slate and add good things to it but on the resurrection on the fact that Jesus died in our place for our sins so that we might have life in him so it says this 22 for as in Adam all die have you noticed that all die raise your hand in this room if you're going to die okay exactly now

There's a little bit of us that's like man that was kind of morbid why did he make us raise our hand for that like if I had said raise your hand if you get hungry everybody would be like oh I'll get hungry and he wouldn't have been too worried about it but it's like man I didn't want to raise my hand and say I was going to die like that was just kind of rude like why would you bring that up there's something about us that never sees death as normal or okay

It's as natural as breathing it's as natural as birth it's as natural as eating and sleeping but there's something about us that screams inside of us every time death is brought up or occurs this is wrong this is broken and this shouldn't happen because it shouldn't Adam had a clean slate and he messed it up we weren't supposed to die we're going to live for eternity

But Adam's ushered in death Jesus brings in life so for as in Adam all die so also in Christ shall all be made alive but each in his own order Christ the first fruits then at his coming those who belong to Christ okay so Jesus rose again over 2,000 years ago rose again wasn't reincarnated didn't come back as a spirit came back as Jesus the Jesus who was walking around talking to people talks and trains

His disciples for a little bit longer appears to a bunch of people talks to people and then he ascends into heaven bodily like he takes off into heaven I don't know what that looked like I think it was cool but he ascends into heaven and we're told that he rules and reigns as a king over all of creation and that he's coming back so he rose again and he's coming back and he's going to

Claim all of those who are in him so it says but each in his own order Christ the first fruits then at his coming those who belong to Christ you don't belong to Christ by being good if that was the test if Jesus came back to get moral good people he'd come back to the earth and be like oh okay there aren't any that's how that would work the Bible says we've all sinned

And fallen short and in Christ all are going Adam all are going to die Jesus comes back and gets those who are in him who've placed their faith and their hope in him not in their works not in their effort not in their good deeds or ability to think well in him in his death and resurrection on their behalf so he comes and gets all of those

Who belong to Christ then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and every power for he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet so Jesus comes back he rescues his people and he destroys his enemies Jesus came humbly once Jesus suffered once Jesus died

Once he doesn't do it again when he returns he claims his people and he destroys his enemy every kingdom every power every authority everything that's ever stood up in opposition to the one true and right king of this world will be destroyed by Jesus and brought and put under his feet we often think of Jesus as a Galilean peasant and he was but he is no longer

He is a reigning king and the picture that the Bible brings up all the time is this king who returns to rescue his people and to crush his enemies the Bible talks about being led both his enemies and those who he set free being led in triumphal procession so that Jesus rides out he gets his people and he crushes his enemy and like a warrior king he leads them back into the city

To God those who he's taken captive and the captives that he set free that those of us in Christ will get to follow in that train celebrating the fact that we were slaves to sin we were given to death we were going to be destroyed by every rule and dominion and power and that Jesus showed up and destroyed them on our behalf and rescued us Jesus is king and he's God and he rules

And he reigns forever and his kingdom there is no end and so what he came to accomplish when he came to die he wasn't setting up a kingdom that could run from the time he was 33 to the time he was 80 his goal wasn't a 47 year kingdom his goal wasn't to own the little piece of the world that Rome had or to carve out a niche and own Jerusalem that's not the kingdom

That Jesus came to set up he came to destroy our ultimate enemies of sin and death and Satan and hell so that he might be king of all that he has created that he could be king over every breath and every atom and everything that exists in all of creation because he created it all it belongs to him and it is his and he is king over it it says this the last enemy to be destroyed is death for God has put all things in subjection

Under his feet we stop there Jesus Jesus destroys death I love that the grim reaper dresses up like Jesus for Halloween because Jesus is the only thing scarier than the grim reaper that's how that works the grim reaper checks under his bed for Jesus like that's Jesus it destroys death so I just want to let you know as a Christian when you go to die feel free to with your last breath say hey death

Jesus is coming for both of us I'm just not scared about it see those of us in Christ Jesus is going to return and he's going to take us to be his and he's going to destroy all of his enemies so that in heaven in his reign where he is king there is no sin and there is no pain and there is no death he comes to set it back right to the way it was at a great cost to himself a great cost to himself

That we might be his people and that the world might be back under his rule and his reign the band's going to come back up and play and I just want to wrap this series up I want us to talk for just a second Jesus is God who became a man who lived perfectly sinlessly on our behalf he's God who went to the cross to die because we had rebelled against him and we deserved wrath

And pain and punishment and destruction and that Jesus took that wrath and pain and punishment and destruction on our behalf that he put his sin put our sin on himself and was crushed for it as God's enemy all of God's enemies will be destroyed and Jesus was crushed as God's enemy so that we who were God's enemies

Could be made right with God and when it comes to the end the process is the same everyone will be made alive those who are in Christ who have had him be crushed on their behalf will be alive in him for eternity in his joy and his peace because his righteousness has been applied to our account and those who remain outside of Christ will be destroyed

As God's enemy will be crushed as Jesus was crushed on our behalf so Jesus is God who became a man he's God who died on our behalf and he's the God who rules and reigns who rose from the grave and who is returning to make his church his own to bring his people to himself and to rule over eternity and we

Who are Christians those of us in the room who say I follow Jesus he's died on my behalf let me tell you you don't have a clean slate you don't you have righteousness God looks at you the same way he looks at Jesus all of Jesus' grace and humility and generosity have been applied to us and we can go all in we get to

We get to leverage everything we have for the expanse of the gospel nothing is too much Jesus has already given us everything nothing is too much nothing he could ask of our time of our finances of our life of where we live and how we work and how we interact with our neighbors it can never be too much because he's already given us everything so if you're in here and you're a Jesus follower you say

Jesus' account has been applied to mine my sins have been put on him he's given me his righteousness I just want to invite you to go all in to live like Paul to leverage everything you have for the gospel that doesn't mean you move to Africa maybe maybe Jesus tells you to if he does pack your stuff that might just mean that you leverage everything you have in your neighborhood everything you have

At work that you walk in community and repentance and you pursue everyone around you with the gospel and here's the good news you don't have to be good at it because your account is not clean your slate is not white clean it's already righteous because of Jesus I'm not saying go earn it I'm saying hop in with a clean slate that already has all of Jesus' righteousness applied to it

And if you're in here today and you're not a Jesus follower in fact Christ has been raised we can have life and hope in him so I would just invite you to believe to repent and to to know that Jesus paid for your sin that in Adam you are going to die but in Christ you can be made alive real life

True life joy and hope for eternity in Jesus so if you're a Jesus follower go all in and if you don't follow Jesus if you haven't repented of your sin if you haven't placed your hope in him you're still working to prove your worth and your merit in life you're still working to be good enough I would invite you

To realize you never will be but in Jesus you can be so we're going to sing we're going to praise Jesus the God who came who lived perfectly on our behalf who died in our place who rose again and is coming back to rescue his church and crush his enemies Jesus we thank you for who you are we thank you for your grace thank you for the love that you've poured out

On us and we thank you that you are king and God I pray right now that as a warrior king you would advance your kingdom in the hearts and lives of the people in this room that God you would bring about repentance that you would conquer all of the areas in our souls and our hearts where we set up defenses against you that God as king

You would expand your kingdom of grace and of love and of mercy we thank you that in you we have life in Jesus name we pray amen

Guest User 4/20/14 Guest User 4/20/14

Easter Sunday

Transcript

Well, my name is Chet Phillips. I'm excited to be here. We're going to be looking in 1 Corinthians 15 tonight. We're going to spend most of our time there. We will jump at one point back to the Old Testament. We'll be in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

If you don't have a Bible, just hold your hand up and we'll get some to you. So just hold your hand up so we'll hand them out. We've got some guys that will be coming around. If you don't own a Bible, take that one home. That's our gift to you. We want you to have a Bible.

If you do own a Bible, leave that one here. Bring yours with you next time or we'll let you borrow it again. So it will be 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This is the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth. And so this is what he says, verse 1. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you.

Gospel meaning good news. Of the good news I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved. If you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. That he was buried.

That he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. Okay, we're going to stop for just a second. Paul says, I delivered you as of first importance. As primary, as foundational. I delivered you as of first importance that Christ died in accordance with the scriptures. That he was buried and that he rose again in accordance with the scriptures.

You may have heard a lot of things about what the Bible is about. You may have heard a lot of things about taught from the Bible. That it's some sort of a do's and don'ts list. So it's the do's and don'ts of the destined and damned. Or it's God's guidebook to life. It's God's road map to life.

You may have heard somebody open it up and teach you how to 10 steps to be a better whatever. To be a better father, a better wife, a better son. Paul says, I delivered to you as of first importance the gospel. That Jesus died, that he was buried and that he rose again. The Bible doesn't come out swinging against evolution. The Bible doesn't come out joining a political party.

Jesus doesn't vote straight ticket Republican. I'm sorry. He doesn't. He never rode an elephant. He did ride a donkey, but he wasn't a Democrat. He wasn't.

I hate to break it to you. He shatters all of our preconceived notions. He shatters all of our political parties. He doesn't come out chasing after some cause or or anything other. First importance is that Jesus Christ came to earth, that he died for sinners, that he was buried and that he rose again. That's what the Bible is going to come out swinging on.

It's going to come out fighting for pointing to Jesus. Paul says, according to the scriptures, Old Testament and New Testament, New Testament fighting for and pointing to Jesus. So if you're in here tonight and you'd say, I'm a believer, I'm a Christian, I follow Jesus. That's first importance for you. That's foundational. You grow in the gospel.

You don't grow away from it. You don't enter in by the gospel and then learn the deep things of God. You grow in the gospel. That's the foundation for us. And if you're here tonight and you're just checking out this whole Jesus thing, we're glad you're here. We think this is a very safe place to come check out Jesus.

We're not going to be pushy about things and we're all rough and messed up. And we just want you to invite you to hang out and be messed up with us. We all need Jesus. None of us are special or great, but we believe that Jesus is. We'd say, welcome. Come hang out.

And when you approach the Bible, this is of first importance. So you've got to answer and wrestle with the question, did Christ die for sinners? Was he buried? And did he rise again? That's it. That's the one you've got to wrestle with.

Then you can argue about study and dig into all the rest of it, but that's of first importance. And so that's what Paul comes out and says. And so that's what we're going to be digging into tonight. You see, Jesus was a good man, but that's not why people follow him. He was a moral man, but that's not why we're in this room tonight. He taught good things.

That's not why we're here. We're here because he was crucified. He died. He was put in a tomb. And then on Sunday this morning, he walked out. That's why we're here.

That's why people follow Jesus. That's why billions, with a B, people gathered today to celebrate Easter because of this. And so that's what we're going to talk about tonight. So we're going to look at. So we're just going to walk through this passage.

Verse 3. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with Scripture. Okay, so Christ is Jesus. You've heard Jesus Christ. Christ is not his last name. It's an office.

It means Messiah. So his last name would have been Son of Joseph is how they would have said his last name. So Christ isn't his last name. Christ is the office. So this is Jesus.

The Bible tells us that Jesus was God who lived a perfect life. He was the Son of God, came to earth, lived a perfect life in our place. He says, Christ died for our sins. I want to unpack that real quick. God created and designed the world to exist in relationship with himself, and we have done that very, very poorly. We have loved.

The Bible would say that sin is us loving anything else more than God. Us loving and pursuing and setting as our highest aim anything else more than God. And we know this is true, that when we love something over and against something else, it messes us up. We have disordered love. So that if I love success, or someone loves success more than anything, then they'll work really long hours and neglect their children.

Or if you love your status or approval more than the truth, then you'll lie and you'll bend the truth to make yourself look good. Because you love that more than you love honor and you love dignity. If someone loved wealth, if money was their highest aim, then they'd be willing to do whatever it took to get there. So they'll bend the rules as much as they have to to get to money. And so the Bible is going to say that when we come out loving anything else more than God, when he's not our highest aim, that we've rebelled against him and that we have sin. And so Jesus comes living a perfect, sinless life to die for sinners.

So Paul says that he delivered you as a first portents, that what I also receive, that Christ died for our sins. The Bible says in Romans 6.23 that the wages of sin is death, that what we earn when we sin is death. So we punch the clock and we earn at the end of the time to hand us a paycheck and that's death. That's all we can earn with our rebellion. That's all we can earn with our sin. Jesus never sinned, so he never earned death.

And then he died in our place, swapping places with us. So Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. That's verse 3. We're going to flip back to Isaiah 53. It's kind of in the middle of your Bible. This was written, what we're about to read was written 700 years before Jesus was born.

So we're going to come back to 1 Corinthians. We're flipping to Isaiah 53. So hold your finger where 1 Corinthians is because we're coming right back to it. Unless you like to live dangerously and then you can take your finger out. But you're going to have to find it again later.

So anyway, Isaiah 53. This was written by the prophet Isaiah 700 years before Jesus was born. So this is what Paul is saying when he died in accordance with the scriptures. It's over and over again in the Old Testament. We're just going to read this one chapter just for the sake of time. Who has believed what he has heard from us?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him. This is talking about Jesus. There was nothing innately wonderful about him. He was a Galilean peasant.

He wasn't in a palace. He wasn't a king. He didn't strut around and people automatically bow to him. There was nothing, no beauty, no form of majesty that we should look at him. Verse 3. He was despised and rejected by men.

A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. Old Testament law said that anyone who was hung on a tree was cursed by God.

And so Jesus was nailed to a cross on our behalf. He was stricken, smitten by God. Verse 5. But he was wounded for our transgressions. And he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.

So he took our punishment so that we might have peace. And with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted.

Yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. And like a sheep before it shears is silent. So he opened not his mouth. So Jesus when he was on trial. When he was being accused. When they were taking him and beating him.

When they were putting a bag over his head and punching him. So he couldn't see where the blows were coming from. So he couldn't flinch. He couldn't prepare. He never defended himself. He never stepped up and told him.

Wait I don't deserve this. He kept his mouth shut. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And as for his generation. Who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living. Stricken for the transgression of my people.

And they made his grave with the wicked. He was crucified in between two thieves. And with a rich man in his death. He used a borrowed tomb from a rich man. Named Joseph of Arimathea. He borrowed a tomb.

Which was okay. He wasn't planning on using it long. With a rich man in his death. Although he had done no violence. And there was no deceit in his mouth. So Jesus was sinless.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt. He shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. So Jesus died for guilt.

And then those who believe are his offspring. Or those that come from that. They're set free from them. Out of the anguish of his soul. He shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one.

My servant make many to be accounted righteous. And he shall bear their iniquities. That Jesus took our sin. Our iniquity. And he makes us be accounted righteous. That we aren't actually righteous.

That before God we are. Because he took our sin. And gave us his righteousness. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many. And he shall divide the spoil with the strong. Because he poured out his soul to death.

And was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many. And makes intercession for the transgressors. 1 Corinthians 15. So that's what Paul's talking about.

When he said Christ died in accordance with the scriptures. That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. This was not a new idea. This had been being prophesied. Over and over and over again. That someone was going to come.

Someone was going to be stricken. Chastised so that we might have peace. That through his stripes we would be healed. That we would. As Zechariah said. We would look on the one whom they pierced.

That Jesus was going to die. So that we could have life. Okay. So. Verse 3. For I deliver to you as of first importance.

This is it. This is foundational. That what I also received. That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. That he was buried. Okay.

Okay. So far. Weird. But relatively normal. It's weird. But it's pretty normal.

Okay. So. Jesus. It says he died for our sins. So that's.

That's a little weird. People can die for a cause. Or they could be martyred for something. Or they could be. You know. Die for a country or something.

When it says he died for our sins though. It's talking about an actual trans. First action. Where our iniquity was laid on him. Our sin was laid on him. And he was crushed on behalf of us.

And he actually accomplished something in his death. Not just. You know. He died for his country. That kind of thing. So.

So that's a little weird. But he died and was buried. That's pretty normal. Pretty. Most people do that. I was reading a study the other day.

And I don't remember who. Put it out. But the death rate. On planet earth. Is hovering right around 100% right now. It stays up there for the most part.

From what I can tell. The mortality rates. Staying pretty high guys. So it's like. Something like 10 out of 10 people. Are going to die.

Yeah. I know. It's crazy. I'm thinking they should fix this at some point. So. That's pretty normal.

He died. That's what. That's what people do. He died and was buried. That's pretty normal. Okay.

Especially if you crucify someone. That's. That's what happens. He was executed. That's just a process. By which we speed up death.

And so he was. Dead and buried. Verse 4. That he was buried. That he was raised. On the third day.

In accordance with the scriptures. Okay. Now that got really weird. You see. The Bible is going to come out. And say that Jesus didn't.

Stay. Dead. That. On. Friday. He was crucified.

That he bled out. That after he died. Professional executioners. Said he was dead. And then. Just to be certain.

Took a spear. And ran it into his side. Piercing his heart. Then they took him down. Wrapped him in claws. And put him in a cave.

He was dead. Dead. Buried. And then on Sunday. He was walking. And talking.

That's weird. He was alive. Not. Not an apparition. He was alive. See.

This is why we get together. And celebrate. This is why Christians. Billions of Christians. Are all over the world. To celebrate.

Because Jesus. Didn't stay dead. He didn't come down here. Just to start some new form of religion. He didn't. Because he didn't do any of the things.

You're supposed to do. To start some new form of religion. He wrote down. Zero things. That we know of. Zero.

Like if I was going to start a new religion. First thing you do. Is you write out. How you get to be in the religion. So like.

Eating at Cracker Barrel. Makes you more holy. Like you know. I'd have a list of things. You know. I'd be up at the top somewhere.

Like biscuits. Equal sacrament. Like I don't know. It's like. It's important. He didn't do this.

The only time we ever know. That he wrote anything down. It was in the sand. If you want. Just. I'm going to help you all out.

If you want. What you're writing down. To last a while. Sand. Is a horrible medium. For that.

It really is. That's why. When you have like. Your beach girlfriend. You write that out in sand. Doug.

Hearts. Jess. Until the tide comes in. If you. Heart. Jess a little more.

Get a tree. And a knife. You know. Or do something classy. Like. A putt putt place.

You know. Just carve that in. At one of the little things. At a putt plus. Or. Or.

You know. Put it in stone. Write it down or something. But if you write it in sand. So he.

He didn't do. What it takes to. To start a religious movement. He got. A ragtag bunch of scrubs. That he.

Taught things to. That he built with. But he wasn't. Trying to push forward. Some religious agenda. Every time there.

A bunch of people got around. Jesus said. His hardest. Stuff. And ran people away. John chapter 6.

One of my favorite. Chapters in the bible. He tells people. To drink his blood. And to eat his flesh. And what he's talking about.

Is that they. You have to embrace. The cross. To be a Jesus follower. That Jesus following. Does not come.

Without the price of death. And they said. We think it's weird. That you said that. So he said it.

Six more. Times. And then they leave. And I think he was like. Good. I didn't think.

I didn't want to say it. Seven times. My goodness. And he looks at his disciples. And says. Y'all leaving too?

And they were like. No. And that's weird. But no. We're going to stick around. He didn't do.

What he was supposed to. To start a religion. But he didn't come. To start a religion. He came. To die.

Of first importance. Jesus Christ. Came to live. A perfect life. And to be crucified. On our behalf.

To be buried. As scripture said. He was going to be. And to on the third day. Rise again. That's what he came to do.

And that's exactly. What he did. That Jesus. Died. In our place. And he rose.

You see. If we just had Friday. We just had good Friday. And they said. That Jesus died. For our sin.

That would be nice. But we wouldn't know. We could say that. But we wouldn't know. We'd always be. Stuck.

Going. Did he really? Did he really accomplish it? But we don't just have Friday. We have Sunday. When Jesus rose.

And God put his seal. Of approval on him. And assured us. That our hope. Is not in vain. But that Jesus is alive.

And that the grave. Has been conquered. And that we can have life in him. And that our sin. Can be covered. All right.

Let's keep going. Four. That he was buried. That he was raised on the third day. In accordance with the scriptures. And then he appeared to Cephas.

Which Cephas is just. Peter. It's just in a different language. But both mean rock. Appeared to Cephas. Then to the twelve.

Then he appeared to more than. Five hundred brothers. At what time. Most of whom are still alive. Though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James.

Then to all the apostles. Okay. So. Jesus. Comes back to life. And starts walking around.

And talking to people. He appears to five hundred people. At one time. I love that Paul puts that in there. And he said. Some have fallen asleep.

But most of them are still alive. So what Paul is saying. Is I'm writing this. When there's a bunch of people. Who can. Verify what I'm saying.

At this time. When he wrote this. Cephas was still around. James was still around. All they had to do. Was be like.

Hey. I got this letter from Paul. Is that true? Yeah. That's true. Oh.

Okay. Like that was easy. Like. You could fact check this. It wasn't. Some kind of something.

Written hundreds of years later. He's writing it. He said. Most of these people are still alive. You can go ask them. But.

Jesus. All right. So Jesus. Dead. Alive. Eating.

Laughing. Walking. Talking. Alive. Still had scars. But alive.

He shows up. I love when. He shows up to his disciples at one point. And they freak out because they think he's a ghost. Which is appropriate. That's how death works.

You don't see those people again. Like. You don't talk to somebody and they're like. Yeah. I had to go to my grandmother's funeral. But it's okay.

I'll see her at vacation this summer. No. You won't. That's not how that works. So Jesus died.

And then he shows up and starts talking to him. And they all think he's a ghost. And I love this. So they're freaking out. They think he's a ghost. And Jesus says.

Do ghosts have flesh and blood? And then he takes some food and he eats it. To prove that he was actually alive. He was actually there. What I love about that was. Jesus doesn't say.

Hey fool. Ghosts aren't real. What he says is. Ghosts don't have feet. It's like. Wait a second.

I got to have a follow up question. Like. It's almost like he smacked one of them. Could a ghost do that? I don't know. I've never met one.

But Jesus shows up. And he was alive. He ate with him. He showed Thomas the scars in his hand and in his side. He was alive. He really rose.

Really had a body. Let people touch him alive. So Jesus died and he rose. And that's good news. And I'm about to show you. Give you an example of why that is good news.

So. Verse 7. Then he appeared to James. Then to all the apostles. Last of all. As to one untimely born.

He appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles. Unworthy to be called an apostle. Because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God.

I am what I am. And his grace. Grace just means unmerited favor. Unearned love. It's grace. It's just given to us.

And his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary. I worked harder than any of them. Though it was not I. But the grace of God that is with me.

So Paul says. I'm unworthy to be called an apostle. Because I persecuted the church of God. Let me tell you why this is such good news. Paul. Was the worst.

And that's great. Because that means I've got hope. Paul persecuted the church. Anybody who had the name of Christian. He hunted them down. Killed them.

Enjoyed it. He said he was zealous for it. He was looking for more opportunities. To go snatch people out of their homes. Have them arrested. Or murdered.

He was zealous for it. He had papers of people he could go arrest. And was on his way to do it. And Jesus showed up. And should have crushed him. But Jesus shows up.

And says. No I'm going to give you grace. You haven't earned it. And you don't deserve it. I'm going to give you grace. And that's great news.

Because you know who can get unearned grace. Everybody. You know who gets to be a Christian. Murderers. Liars. Perverts.

Addicts. Broken people. Thieves. Religious. Uptight. Snobby.

Prudes. People. Get to be Christians. None of us. Has anything. That we bring to God.

And say. Look at what I've earned. Look at what I've done. Look at what I've accomplished. None of us. We all get.

Grace. Which is. Unmerited. Unearned. Jesus's. Love on us.

For no other reason. Than. He's good. And he's loving. You see Paul. It had nothing to do with Paul's goodness.

Or badness. It had everything to do with Jesus's. Goodness. Your relationship to Jesus. Has nothing whatsoever to do with your goodness. Or your badness.

It has everything to do. With Jesus's. Goodness. And regardless of how messed up we are. Which I'm going to be honest with you. Very messed up.

Jesus is very. Very. Good. And his grace is sufficient. For all of us. And that's why that's.

Good. News. You see. Paul. When he met Jesus. He had a Friday problem.

Some of us in this room. We have a Friday problem. We just had. Good Friday. We just celebrated. Good Friday.

When Paul met Jesus. He had a Friday problem. Which meant that he. Did not know. That he deserved. To be crushed.

For his sin. Paul did not realize. That what happened to Jesus. On the cross. Was for Paul. That it was the punishment.

That Paul deserved. That Paul. Deserved to have met out on him. That it was met out on Jesus. In his place. Some of us are in here.

And that's. That's where we are. We've. Minimalized. We tried to act like. Our sin isn't a big deal.

That our rebellion. Our love of other things. Other than God. Our disordered love. Aren't a big deal. Aren't a problem.

That. That's some sort of social construct. That. That's not a real thing. We have. Sin.

And even for the people in the room. That would say. I don't believe in this whole concept of sin. I would ask this question. Why do you feel guilty? Why do you feel like you don't measure up?

Why do you often feel like you're falling short of some ideal that you don't believe exists? We have sin. And some of us need to realize that Jesus on Friday paid for our sin. That he was beaten. Brutally beaten. That he was hung on a cross.

Nailed through his hands and his feet. That he hung there for six hours. And that he died. Because we have sin. That deserves to be punished. So Paul when he realized his sin.

Then had a Sunday problem. Which was now that I see my sin. Now that I know how unworthy I am. I deserve to be crushed. And I'm not sure that you're capable of taking this away. But see Jesus rose on Sunday.

Conquering sin on our behalf. That our sin can be paid out on Friday. And taken away on Sunday. That Jesus in the gospel. Rescues us both from the penalty. And the power of our sin.

That he takes it away from us. So some of us in here are saying. I know I'm a sinner. I know I'm broken. I know I'm messed up. I know this isn't right.

But Jesus rose from the grave. He takes away all sin. There are no sins too big for Jesus to take away. There is no problem too big for Jesus to handle. You sin like a human. And he saves like a God.

You are not bigger and badder than Jesus is. And he is capable of rescuing all of us. And it's given freely to us. And this is very good news. That we can admit our sin. Admit that we're broken.

And be set free. And be rescued. And redeemed. I love naps. They're the best. It's an awkward transition.

But it was a really good statement. That's true. I love naps. I love them. They're the best. And so any chance I get.

I'll take a nap. I can take a nap. I can fall asleep inside of like five minutes. So I can take a nap for like seven. Like and I'll be fine. Like that's great.

Seven minute naps. Wonderful. So I remember one time when Anna and I first got married. We had. I don't know what we've been doing. We were worn out.

Or we had a day off or something. So we decided to take a nap. And it was one of those naps where I slept on my face. Like you know how good that is. And you just. You just.

You sleep flat out. Like that's how tired I was. Like I didn't even bother to get comfortable. I just like slumped over. And was sound asleep. And.

But we had to be somewhere. So I had set an alarm. And I had an old school alarm that I've had since. I was starting middle school. And that thing. Still have it.

It's one of those. Eh. Eh. Eh. Eh. Alarms.

Like the ones that are pure evil. It's like. I think it's made out of cats or something. It's awful. And so. It makes that.

Eh. Eh. And so I had set that alarm. It goes off. I mean I was out of it. But I start waking up.

And I'm like. Oh. Okay. So I sit up. My alarm's going. Eh.

Eh. Eh. And I reach for it. And I reach for it again. I had been sleeping like this. And both of my arms were sound asleep from here down.

I mean. Done. But. This was like the best I could do. And so the thing. And it's torture.

Because now I'm awake staring at this thing. I just woke up. Which. I'm grumpy. And this alarm's going. Eh.

Eh. Eh. And so I'm sitting there. And I look over at Anna. She's gone. Doesn't even notice it.

And so I'm looking at her like. I really wish she would help with this. But she. She's. She's asleep like this. Like every once in a while.

I swear she's sleeping. Knows I'm looking at her. And she's just faking it. She's sleeping like she's on the front of a Hallmark card or something. And so I'm staring at her. And it's not even.

She hadn't even flinched. And I'm going. Wake up. You know. And so I'm thinking like. What do I do?

Do I go back and forth. Get my arms going. And then I could. I could pop her. You know. I guess I could have talked loudly.

But I was half asleep. I'm not thinking through this right. To wake her up. So. But she looked so.

You know. Just. Like I just was like. Well. I can't. So.

I turned back around. My alarm's going off. Still. Eh. Eh. Can't do anything about it.

I was really glad. That it was just the alarm that had gone off. And it wasn't like a home invasion or something. I'd have been in trouble. Unless. I've thought about this.

Unless I could have convinced them. That I knew something they didn't know. Because what would have happened was. I would have jumped out of bed. And gone. And then tried to kick them.

And they'd have thought. I don't know what kind of kung fu stuff I'm getting into here. But you can take it down brother. Eh. So I'm sitting there.

Staring at this alarm. And there's nothing I can do about it. I look over at Anna. She's completely oblivious to the fact that we have a problem. And I know that we have a problem. And can't do anything about it.

And the truth is. Some of us are sitting in those two seats tonight. Some of you are sitting and saying. I know I have sin. I know I have brokenness. I've been trying to fix it.

And I can't. And some of you. Have been oblivious to it. But it's still a problem. And what we needed. Was for a third party to walk in.

And fix the situation. And what every single one of us in this room needed. Was for a third party to step in. And fix the situation. And his name was Jesus. And he lived a perfect sinless life.

On our behalf. And he was crushed. For our iniquities. He was. The chastisement of us. Was placed on him.

For our sins. He was beaten. He was bruised. By his stripes. We can be healed. That he would make many.

To be accounted righteous. Because he would take on. The iniquities of the world. Jesus stepped in. And he solved the problem. By going to the cross.

And he assured our hope of salvation. By rising from the dead. That in Jesus. We can have life. And hope. Everyone in this room.

Has sin. And the truth is. Your sin. Will be paid for. The question is. Will it be paid by you.

Or by Jesus. At some point. We will stand before the creator. Of the universe. Jesus has given us. The opportunity.

To have our sin. Paid for. Forever. Because sin has. Consequences. Grave.

Consequences. So much so. That the son of God. Had to come to earth. And be crushed for it. But we have the hope.

Of salvation. That we can place. Our faith. In Jesus. And that all of our sin. All of the worst.

Of all of us. Can be placed on him. And he can die for it. And that on Sunday. He can rise again. And take it away forever.

And that through him. We can be accounted. Righteous. That God can look at us. And say. That we're beloved.

That we're cared for. And that we're okay. Because when he looks at us. He sees Jesus. And that's grace. And that's good news.

And that's why billions of people. Have gotten together today. To celebrate that the grave. Is empty. And that Jesus. Is alive.

Man's going to come back up. We're going to sing. And we're going to celebrate. That Jesus has paid our debt. And set us free. That in him we have hope.

And life. Forever. That the grave. Is empty. That Jesus did die. But that he didn't.

Stay dead. Let's pray. God. I thank you. For your grace. I thank you.

That someone like Paul. Who actively. Worked to destroy your church. Can be rescued. Because that gives hope. For all of us.

That we don't earn grace. So that we're all. Able to receive it. God. I pray that you would help us. See our sin.

Very clearly. Feel the weight. Of our sin. Our rebellion. Our love for other things. Other than you.

Very clearly. So that we can know. And love the cross more. So that we can grow. In our love. For the gospel.

More. You said that those. Who are forgiven more. Love more. And God. We pray that you would help us.

See the weight. Of our rebellion. So that we can see. The greatness. Of our God and Savior. We love you.

In Jesus name. Amen.

Christ and Resurrection

Resurrection and Return

Easter Sunday

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