Pastor Nathan - Easter - Resurrection Life

[0:00] So Nathan asked me to read, or actually asked anybody in my family, and then it landed on me. So I tried, I got shot down. Luke 24, so if you guys want to follow along, we're going to read Luke 24.

[0:14] We're going to read the first 12 verses about the resurrection. And, you know, it is such a wonderful thing, and I was sitting there thinking, you know, it's... You think about that Jesus was resurrected, and it kind of gives us that little bit of...

[0:29] Think about what it would be like to think about being resurrected if you never knew that anyone ever had been before, right? Believing in something that never happened. And so the fact that Jesus has been resurrected, and he was, and he was seen, and all that, it really gives you that extra boost of confidence, I guess, if you think about it, that we're not actually believing in something that is going to happen for us that hasn't happened before, right?

[0:51] So Jesus did it, and so this is one of the first accounts, so. Luke 24. On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they and certain other women with them came to the tomb, bringing spices which they had prepared.

[1:09] But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments.

[1:26] As they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again.

[1:49] And they remembered his words, and they returned from the tomb, and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles.

[2:07] And their words seemed like idle tales, and they did not believe them. But Peter arose and ran to the tomb, and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves.

[2:19] And he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened. Thanks, Joe.

[2:35] By the way, did we have the Sunday school class this morning? Yes, no? Or not Sunday, the children's church.

[2:47] Is that yes, no? No? Okay. So, no. I just wanted to make sure. Well, can you imagine, thanks, Joe, for reading that, on this momentous day that we celebrate today.

[3:06] You know, if you think about the story, right, this man comes to present himself. We've been reading in the book of Mark at the beginning when Jesus presented himself, or he was presented to the people of Israel.

[3:21] And this guy starts teaching all these wonderful things, performing miracles, and talking about a future kingdom that's coming.

[3:33] He gathers to himself twelve different disciples in a close-knit fellowship and then hundreds of more that follow him in some way or another.

[3:47] And there's so much excitement. This is the Messiah. This is the King who the Old Testament prophets told us was coming. And then that last week of his life, Jesus starts to talk about things that are kind of strange.

[4:06] He's made some comments before, but now he's talking about his blood and his body broken and on the Passover, and what does this all mean? And then things get scarier and darker.

[4:21] Jesus is arrested, and he's taken away by Roman soldiers. and he's put on trial, and he's beaten, and finally taken up to a cross where ultimately he sits up there, you know, a sight of just a bloody mess with a sign that said what?

[4:47] King of the Jews. Mocked and ridiculed. You can imagine what the disciples are thinking. I mean, they're going from hope and expectation to despair, right?

[5:03] And then finally, Jesus breathes his last as he says, it is finished. And they have no idea what's going on. What just happened?

[5:14] Our hope is gone. It's over. And then you have, what, two days?

[5:29] Three days? Three days and three nights. Yeah. I'm glad I've got somebody watching out for me.

[5:46] Three days, three nights of just nothing. Of a body and a grave. And then that day arrives, that morning that Joe just read about, which these ladies, they go to what?

[6:06] They go to do what ladies do. You know, they, I guess back then, they're going to prepare, they're going to, they didn't have time during that, when he was originally buried, they're going to go see if they can prepare the body with the spices that was typical of that time.

[6:24] And they, they hear the news from an angel. And what does it say? Why, the angel says, why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but he is risen.

[6:37] And then that angel reminds them, don't you remember some of these things that Jesus said? And I'm sure they didn't, right? They didn't remember, but then I'm sure it started all coming back to them.

[6:56] For, I don't know, it's probably over a thousand years, but there's been this, this saying or this greeting that Christians have made among one another.

[7:08] So, one believer will approach another believer and say, he is risen. And the response is, he is risen.

[7:20] What a, what a wonderful tradition. And why is that? Why, why that saying? Why that part of, why that kind of a tradition?

[7:30] Well, it's because Christianity rises and falls on the resurrection of Christ. If Jesus Christ is today, his body is still in the grave, then our faith is meaningless.

[7:48] It means nothing. In fact, the Bible says that itself. We're going to look at that today. If you want to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 in your Bible.

[8:01] Let's turn there. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This chapter written by Paul the Apostle who, as far as we know, never had any interactions with Jesus Christ during his earthly ministry, but was actually arrested by Jesus Christ in a vision later on and told to take the gospel, the message of his life, his death, his burial, and his resurrection basically to the whole world.

[8:36] But Paul wrote this in chapter 15, and it's about the resurrection, and he's writing to people who he's heard, probably just through the grapevine, so to speak, he's heard that there are some people here in Corinth that are teaching, that are saying, that are going along with this idea that this life that we're living, this is it, that there is no future life, there is no resurrection from the dead, there is no life after this one, and he's bringing some correction.

[9:09] So if we go to again chapter 15 and look at starting with verse 12, we'll read his instruction. Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

[9:26] Well if we teach, as Christians do, that Jesus rose from the dead, then how can you say that there is no physical resurrection of our bodies from the dead if he rose?

[9:39] Verse 13, but if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is also empty.

[9:54] Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he did not raise up, if in fact the dead do not rise.

[10:06] He's saying this, listen, if the dead do not rise, if there is no resurrection of the dead, for all of us, then Jesus didn't rise from the dead and our faith, the faith that we have, the Christian faith, it's meaningless, it's nothing, it's empty.

[10:23] What we're preaching is all lies. If in fact the dead do not rise, verse 16, for if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen, and if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile.

[10:37] You are still in your sins. then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. And if in this life only we have hope in Christ, then we are of all men most pitiable, most to be pitied.

[10:57] Us Christians, if the only hope that we have in Christ is in this life, and then it's over, what real good is that, right?

[11:11] We're to be pitied. Paul says elsewhere, I can't remember if it's in the same passage, but he says, if this life is it, then why don't we just eat and drink and be merry, for soon we will die, right?

[11:29] And that's how many people do live, right? They have no hope for the future, for an eternal life. So, well, I'm just going to try to get as much as I can out of this life, try to enjoy the pleasures if there are any.

[11:45] For some people, they might find very few. Pleasures of this life, as much as I can, eat and drink and be merry, for soon we will die.

[11:58] I want to focus on this last couple of sentences. He says, if Christ is not risen, verse 17, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

[12:11] There are two consequences to our faith if Christ did not rise from the dead. The first one is that we are still in our sins. We're still spiritually dead.

[12:27] We'll talk about spiritual death, what that means. Spiritual death is being separated from God. Jesus Christ said at one point, he says, and this is eternal life, that they would know you and the one that you sent.

[12:43] He said that in a prayer to the Father, so he was talking to the Father, that they would know you and the one that you sent. Eternal life is knowing God.

[12:54] Eternal death or spiritual death is being separated from God. In the Old Testament, one of the prophets said of Israel that your sins have separated you from God.

[13:06] And that's what sin does. And Paul calls this in several different places spiritual death. You're dead in your trespasses and sins.

[13:18] In Romans 5.23, he says, the wages of sin is death. It's a spiritual death. And so we who have sinned, has anybody here ever sinned, done something that causes you to feel guilty?

[13:40] And why do we feel guilty? Because we are. Usually, right? Because we are. And so it's part of the human experience that we all have experienced that feeling of guilt that comes from actually being guilty.

[14:02] And if we're in our sins, what are the wages of those sins? It is death. Spiritual death being separated from God. If Jesus didn't rise, we are still in our sins.

[14:16] And then he says this, then also, in verse 18, then also, those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. so those who have fallen asleep, those who are Christians who have fallen asleep, and what's he talking about there?

[14:32] He's talking about death. Those who have died, they're just gone. They've perished. Their life has been destroyed, and there's no more.

[14:44] If Christ did not rise from the dead. Those are the two consequences. Eternal separation from God, and then physical death that lasts really forever.

[15:02] But the Bible teaches over and over and over again, and we'll look at several scriptures, that through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have life.

[15:14] We have two kinds of life. One that we get right now and we enjoy here on the earth, right now, for those who believe this is what we experience, and then something that will come later, a life that will come later, that we'll experience in the future.

[15:35] Turn, if you will, to the book of Romans. If you're in 1 Corinthians, just turn back just one book. Romans chapter 6, chapter 6, and in this, Paul describes that spiritual life that is given to us who believe and trust in the Lord.

[16:04] Romans 6, chapter 4, says this, excuse me, Romans chapter 6, verse 4, says this, Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

[16:24] Again, we were buried with Him through baptism into death. Now, baptism, a lot of times we think of water, right? But that's not what this is talking about. If some of you might recall, there was a time Jesus was talking to His disciples and His disciples were, there were a couple of His disciples that were asking for like special preferential treatment in the coming kingdom.

[16:48] And He said, well, can you be baptized with the kind of baptism that I'm about to be baptized with? Or can you drink from the cup that I'm about to drink from?

[17:00] And they said, yes, we can. And He says, well, actually, you will. And what was He talking about? Drinking of a cup and being baptized with a baptism? He was talking about His death. He says, well, can you be baptized in death like I'm going to be?

[17:18] Well, actually, they were. We'll talk about that in a second, but most of Jesus' disciples were actually killed for their faith.

[17:30] So anyway, He's talking, this baptism, He's talking about death, a baptism into death. And so, we have, those of us who trust in Christ, we have been, in a spiritual sense, baptized into His death.

[17:46] We have experienced the death with Him. But also, what comes with that? We have been raised to walk in newness of life. Verse 5, for if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, and so we have been unified with Him for those who trust in Christ.

[18:06] We have been unified with Him. Just as He died, so also we died. Certainly, we also shall be, for if we have been united together in the likeness of death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.

[18:23] Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For He who has died has been freed from sin.

[18:35] Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.

[18:47] For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon yourself or consider yourself to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

[19:07] So the death that Jesus died, He died to sin. It says elsewhere that He became sin for us. He became an offering sin.

[19:18] He became like a sinner because sinners die. But He wasn't one. He became like one to identify with us, to be as we are in this world.

[19:33] And His death, He died to sin. If you're dead, can you sin anymore? No. You can't sin anymore. You have to be able to, you know, walk and talk and move and see, right, to be able to sin.

[19:52] So, but sin is symbolic, right? He died to sin, but then He raised to what? Where does it say?

[20:05] If we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives unto God.

[20:18] And so we are identified as believers in Him with His death, but also identified with His life, just as He was risen to live with God, to be seated with Him forever.

[20:34] So we have been raised up spiritually with new life. Ephesians 2, verse 4 says this, Ephesians 2, verse 4, But God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ, for by grace you have been saved, and He raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

[21:11] We were dead spiritually, but He made us alive together with Christ, not just on our own, but with Him. Just as He rose from the dead, we rose spiritually.

[21:31] In Romans chapter 10, if you want to turn there, Romans chapter, excuse me, Romans chapter 8, Romans chapter 8, verse 10. Romans chapter 8, Romans chapter 8, verse 10 says this, And if Christ is in you, those of you who believe, if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

[22:05] So we have this experience as believers. Our body is dying. We still have the effects of that death, of that immortality in our bodies.

[22:17] And for most of us, we will experience that physical death sometime in the future, short of Jesus coming before then.

[22:29] But we have life in our inner man, in our spirit. We are alive spiritually, and that's what He's talking about here. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

[22:44] What is that righteousness? It's the gift of righteousness that God gave to each one of us who trusts in Him, that we can become righteous and so become alive to Him.

[22:58] Verse 11, the next verse says this, But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

[23:18] So we have this life now, but Paul says, God's not done. He's not finished. There's coming a day in which God will also resurrect our physical bodies, and we will have completion.

[23:37] That life will be fully realized. And it's the Spirit, the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead. So the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God is the one that raised up the body of Christ to be raised from death into life.

[23:56] And that same Spirit who dwells in us now giving us spiritual life, one day will also give life to our mortal bodies through the Spirit that dwells in us.

[24:14] We'll skip down for a few verses to verse 23, and he says this, Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

[24:35] We're eagerly waiting. One day, it will be here. But for right now, we're waiting. If you turn back to 1 Corinthians, we're going to look at another section of that chapter 15, 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

[25:02] And see a little bit more that Paul has to say about this resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 20. But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

[25:23] He's talking about those who have died when he says those who have fallen asleep. But he's saying Jesus, who rose from the dead, has become a kind of first fruits.

[25:36] First fruits, if you know anything about a harvest, is the first part of the harvest, the initial part, the very first things that you harvest. And so, the resurrection is like a harvest and there's the beginning.

[25:54] And Jesus is the beginning. His resurrection is the first one to happen. Verse 21, for since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead.

[26:10] For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. This is a description of two men. The first man, Adam, in which through his sin death came to all men.

[26:25] But then through the last man, if you will, Jesus Christ, God who became a man, we all can be made alive.

[26:37] But he says this in verse 23, but each one in his own order. God doesn't just do this in any order. Christ the first fruits and afterwards those who are Christ's at his coming. Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father.

[26:54] When he puts an end to all rule and authority and power for he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. And the last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

[27:12] So there's still some death, right? We have been made spiritually alive, that spiritual death that we experience or have experienced in the past.

[27:24] We don't experience anymore. We have spiritual life. We're one with God, one with the Father. We have been made alive to him. But that physical death will ultimately be destroyed.

[27:38] It'll be the last enemy that will be destroyed. Death. There's a story that I want to look at in the book of John, if you turn there, about a man named Lazarus who died.

[27:56] This was a friend of Jesus. He had two sisters, Mary and Martha. And they sent word to him because Lazarus was sick.

[28:10] And Jesus made plans to go visit. And I'm sure they were, of course, thinking Jesus is a miracle worker and he's healing all these people.

[28:21] He can heal Lazarus. But before they got there, he got word, Lazarus has died. So when Jesus arrived, Martha came to him to greet him.

[28:36] John chapter 11, verse 20. Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him. But Mary was sitting in the house.

[28:48] Now Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.

[29:03] And Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. And Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

[29:15] You see, the Old Testament prophets, specifically Daniel, had talked about a day in which the dead would rise. Some to life and some to eternal death or damnation.

[29:30] So she knew that there would be a day coming in which the dead would rise. Jesus said to her this, I am the resurrection and the life.

[29:43] And he who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die.

[29:56] And they asked this question, do you believe this? And what was her answer? She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who has come into the world.

[30:08] Jesus said, listen, I am the resurrection and the life. Me. This was before his crucifixion, his resurrection.

[30:21] This was just kind of a peek into what would happen. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live.

[30:34] And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. It's not just a resurrection that's temporary. It's a resurrection unto life that goes on forever and ever and ever.

[30:50] So I ask the question here, what about you? Do you believe this? Yes. Well, some might say, well, I need evidence.

[31:11] Right? And we watched a movie the other night here at the church called The Most Reluctant Convert. It was about C.S. Lewis. C.S. Lewis grew up in this kind of, kind of, sort of Christian home.

[31:29] But his mother died when he was younger and his dad kind of, they stopped going to church and he decided when he was 14 years old, I don't believe in God anymore. And then over, he ended up going off to school and becoming quite brilliant and reading literature and going to school and learning all the kinds of things that you might want to know in the world.

[32:00] But it's called The Most Reluctant Convert because over time he started finding all this evidence, evidence one just for God, and eventually decided, well, I guess I have to believe in God.

[32:17] I have to become a theist. I can't be an atheist anymore. I have to become a theist because the evidence is too overwhelming. I don't really want to, but, well, I have to.

[32:30] There's too much evidence. And so, is there any evidence? We have evidence for God, but is there any evidence that Jesus rose from the dead?

[32:43] Some people ask that question. You know, one of the things that's interesting about Christianity is of all the different religions in the world, it is the easiest one to refute. Now, why do I say that?

[32:56] As a Christian, it's so easy to refute. And it's not that it's, I'll put it this way, it's the most falsifiable religion that's in existence.

[33:09] There's the most opportunity Christianity to prove it wrong because Christianity is based on historical events and historical events that did not happen in private but happened in public for many people to see.

[33:24] Jesus lived and walked the earth and performed miracles in public for all to see. He died on a cross in public for all to see.

[33:36] And when he rose from the grave, he appeared to, the Bible says, hundreds and hundreds of people. And so it would be easy, right, for a story like that that was done in front of so many people if it was false to say, oh, well, my neighbor so-and-so, you know, he saw that Jesus.

[34:03] He never saw any miracles. Or, you know, I was there, you know, during that time they said that Jesus was crucified. I didn't see anything. It wasn't there. No, this was something that everyone knew about at that time.

[34:21] And then there was a story that Jesus rose from the grave. And how can you prove that someone didn't rise from the grave?

[34:31] Well, where's their dead body, right? Just open up the tomb, look inside. Look. There's that rotting corpse.

[34:43] That's all you would have to do. And was there a compelling reason for the people of that time to try to prove to all those in the region that Jesus didn't really rise from the dead?

[34:56] Were there people who had a lot of reason to do that? Sure. But despite all of that, this Christian faith that started with just a handful of people grew and grew and grew because of something that happened in public that this man Jesus died on a cross and he rose again.

[35:23] and that tomb was empty and anybody could go to that tomb and look inside and it's empty even today.

[35:34] You know, you can go to Israel today and you know that it's hard to tell sometimes about, you know, something that happened 2,000 years ago but there's a very compelling location that a lot of people will take tourists to of an empty tomb and right outside the tomb is a garden just like there was outside of Jesus' tomb and another interesting thing about that tomb is that it was never finished.

[36:09] It was, it was, they had a spot in that tomb for two people and the one side was finished but the other, it never got completed and why would there be a tomb that never got finished, never got completed?

[36:24] Well, maybe it's because there was a man who was building that tomb for himself and his family or his wife but decided before it was finished that he needed to give that tomb up to someone else.

[36:39] You know, there are people even today who are still trying to prove that Jesus' body is dead in the ground, that his bones are out there somewhere. Does anybody know who James Cameron is?

[36:57] Remember that movie Titanic? What was that, 20 years ago or something? Blockbuster Hollywood movie made a billion dollars, I'm sure. I think it made close to two billion dollars.

[37:10] One movie, highest grossing movie if I remember correctly of all time at the time and I think it's still in the top few anyway. And so, the director of that movie, the producer and director of that movie, James Cameron, what do you do when you make a billion dollars making a blockbuster Hollywood movie?

[37:32] Well, you spend it trying to prove that Jesus didn't rise from the dead, evidently, because that's what he did. And he paid money to have researchers create a documentary and trying to prove.

[37:51] Found a grave and said, oh, well, here's a man, his name is Joshua, which is what Jesus is. He has a father named Joseph, it says there on his tomb, and this must be Jesus.

[38:02] And man, does anybody remember when that happened? It was all in the news. Well, you probably don't remember because it lasted about a week and it was exciting and then everybody realized, well, this doesn't have much to it.

[38:19] There's not much credibility to it. It's just the pieces don't fit together. This isn't Jesus of Nazareth, this is some other guy. So much evidence that Jesus rose from the dead.

[38:36] Almost, like I said before, almost all of the apostles, the original apostles, died proclaiming their faith in the resurrected Christ. And for many of them, all they had to do to preserve their lives was to say, you know what, it's all a hoax.

[38:54] That's all they had to do and they could have lived. You know, lots of people will, you know, do hoaxes, but how many people will die for a lie? For a hoax. Would there be 10 people that would die for a lie?

[39:10] Probably more like zero, right? But you know, we have so many opportunities today to look at evidence for the resurrection, for the life of Christ, for all that he did.

[39:24] You can read books like More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell or Cold Case Christianity is a newer one. Lots and lots of resources that point and show the historicity, the legitimacy of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

[39:40] But you know, for most of human history, people have not had access to that evidence, right? So how do people know when you told somebody, well, this man Jesus, in this book, he rose from the dead so that we could have new life.

[40:00] What's the evidence? You know, we sang this song today, this morning. He lives, he lives. And the very last refrain there is, you ask me how I know he lives.

[40:14] And what's the rest? He lives with my heart. The resurrected Christ lives in the heart of believers.

[40:27] believers. And I don't think that there's any greater evidence that Jesus is alive than seeing a life that you can look at and see is dead in sin and filth and vulgarity and see that life transformed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

[40:55] And you can tell by looking at someone. And I know many of us have experienced this. A friend, maybe we had in high school, and man, they were a piece of work.

[41:09] And for some of us in this room, this is our testimony, right? And then they trusted in Christ and their life changed and transformed in front of our eyes.

[41:24] Or maybe it was a family member. The witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ is in so many of us who have trusted in him and have that life flowing out of us.

[41:43] As Jesus said, he talked about that life flowing out as a fountain or rivers of living water. Going back to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and we'll look at the beginning now, how Paul starts it.

[41:59] start of the verse 4. Paul says this, Moreover, brethren, listen, I declare to you the gospel, the good news which I preached to you, which also you received and to which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

[42:26] Again, he's talking about unless there's nothing to the story. If there's nothing to the story, then your belief is empty, it's in vain. Verse 3, For I delivered to you, first of all, that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.

[42:51] And this is the message of Christianity, the message of the Bible. God himself came down to visit us.

[43:05] And he taught many good things, and he performed miracles that were exciting. But the primary reason he came was not to conquer a kingdom, not to write a great work of literature, but to die a cruel death on a cross.

[43:34] What did he die for? He died, it says here, for our sins. That was the purpose of his death. And that's the message of the Gospel, that Jesus died for our sins.

[43:46] He died for my sins, and he died for your sins. There's two options when it comes to our sins. Either you bear the guilt for your sins, or Jesus does.

[44:07] Either you and I bear the guilt for our sins, and the consequences that come with it, or we can allow what Jesus did, that he died for our sins, that he would bear the guilt, even though he was not guilty.

[44:32] By which also you are saved, it says there in verse 2. Saved? Saved from what? Well, saved from the consequences of our sin. You see, there's a day of judgment coming that Daniel talked about, that Jesus talked about, that Paul talks about, that Job talked about.

[44:52] Lots and lots of people talked about that day that was coming, in which God will judge the world according to righteousness. When you stand before God, will you stand before God bearing your own guilt?

[45:07] Well, I'm going to have to just suffer the consequences for my own guilt. Or would you be willing to let another one bear that guilt for you?

[45:20] And there's some people that say, you know what, I can handle it. I'll just try harder. Or, you know what, I'm just going to stand on my own two feet.

[45:36] I'm not going to ask for anybody's help. But what God offers us is this. If we're willing, we can make this great exchange. His life for our sins.

[45:53] That we can give up that guilt and take his life for ourselves. Instead of inheriting death, an eternal death, we can inherit eternal life.

[46:08] Because he died for us. And what does it say here, Paul say here, about this whole salvation thing?

[46:22] Verse 1 again, moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received. So I gave you a message, and you received it. in which you stand.

[46:36] And you don't just receive it, but you stand in it. This is where your life is. Your life is founded on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

[46:49] By which you are also saved, if you hold fast to that word which I preached to you. We receive the message, we stand on it, we hold fast to it, and this is our life.

[47:05] Our life in Christ. Just by believing a message. And so many people want to add things to it, right? Well, I also have to do this, and do this religious ritual, or that religious ritual.

[47:19] I have to try to do better. Maybe I have to do all these things. Maybe God will finally approve of me. But the message of the gospel is this.

[47:31] Just believe. Are you willing to trust Him? So on this Easter Sunday, if there's anyone here who's never done that, that's all you have to do.

[47:43] God, I don't want to bear my own guilt. I have plenty of it. I don't want to bear it. But you were willing to take it for me. I'm going to let you do that.

[47:55] I believe in you and what you did for me. Amen? Let's pray. Father, if there's anyone here today who's never made that decision, who's never reached out and said, God, I want you to take my sins, the ones that you bore on the cross, I want to receive that gift.

[48:20] I pray that you would work in their heart that they would receive that gift even today and not wait another moment. I thank you so much for this gift.

[48:33] You died, and you didn't just die, but you rose again to make sure that what you died for was accomplished in us.

[48:44] Thank you for the life that we have now in you. We are alive spiritually. We're being renewed day by day in our inner man.

[48:55] And I thank you also for the new life that we look forward to, that immortality, where these flesh and bone bodies will live forever, where death will finally be defeated forever.

[49:12] Amen. Amen. Thanks, everyone. Happy Easter, and we'll try this again. He is risen. He is risen indeed.

[49:23] We've got to do that one more time. And I want to hear us with some gusto. Ready? He is risen. He is risen indeed. Amen.

[49:35] Thanks, everybody. Amen. Amen.