Christ Is Risen: The Map to Get Home
First B Jackson
2024-03-31

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

----
Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Good morning. So I grew up on Easter doing the call and response. I don't know if anybody else grew up with that.

Where you say Christ is risen, and everybody says, he is risen indeed. So let's do that. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Awesome.

Okay. So I wanted to just read a quick scripture before we started because I thought it was beautiful. It was from Luke 24, and it's verses one through eight. On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

But when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen.

Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee? The son of man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners. Be crucified, and on the third day, he raised again. Then they remembered that these words. So if you feel comfortable, we're gonna start our worship.

If you'd like to stand and join us. Amen.

Hey. Good morning. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to First Baptist Church. Have a seat. Happy Easter.

So glad to have you all here today. If anybody wants to, now is a great opportunity to move forward. Lots of empty seats up here, very full on the back. So if you wanna be one of those brave people, I'll give you a prize today. I will give you a prize if somebody listens to us.

You're already there. No. Come on. But for real, we would love it if you guys would move forward, especially if you've been coming here for a while, make some room for folks in the back. That'd be great.

As for morning announcements, the super exciting, happy, happy Good Times Budgeting Workshop is coming up. If you are interested in getting a budget together, if you just find yourself having a lot of questions, maybe you're just getting started in life and you want some advice, come on by. It's free April 16. It's it's the twenty third and thirtieth from six to eight. The first half of each of those sessions will be a little class.

The second half will actually be hands on time when you can work with your your loved ones to to make a budget, and I it is actually gonna be super exciting. Please bring your comfy slippers, your snacks, and your spouse if you have one. If not, maybe you'll find one. We'll we'll put it in the budget. It'll be great.

I'm I'm a part of that. Please RSVP if you would, though. It'd be really helpful. You never know. Things happen.

Miracles. I wanna see you at Owana. We don't have Owana for this upcoming week, but a week from tomorrow, we'll be back. You can find out more information on the website if if you have any questions. We always need volunteers for connect hour and the Monday night meal.

You can sign up down the hall. It's on the wall. It's a great way to get to to serve other people, and we'll we'll help pay for that too. So if you have any questions, feel free to ask me or Addy. There is a men's lunch study on Thursdays down the hall at 11:55.

Come and go as you please, guys. We would love to have you. And Brad, I believe we're doing that this week still. Right? He gives me the thumbs up.

We're still going for it this week. So come on, Brian. Bring bring a lunch, maybe something to share. Who knows? Next slide there, the Men's Alliance will be Wednesday, April 10 at 06:30.

Usually, it's the first Wednesday. This week this month, because of spring break, we're gonna push it back a week. April 10, super early in the morning, but we'll feed you, and we'll do a little Bible study. Great way to get connected, guys, too. And what's the net that's that's all we got.

Okay. But there's one more. Well, there isn't gonna be any high school, middle school kids Sunday school today. They normally will be down in the library, but we'd like to have everybody stay up here with us this week. And pastor Carl, pastor Ray, and pastor Mike are all out this week.

And Diane is leaving tomorrow, so it's gonna be very quiet around here. So feel free to call me with an encouraging word. I'll be the only person on staff. Take take it easy on me, would you? Just take it easy.

But we we're so thankful for all of our volunteers filling in with music today and downstairs. Thank you all for being here. God bless you. And why don't you stand up and greet one another just to say hello to everybody around you. We'll come back with some music in a sec.

Thank you.

I see his hand of mercy, I hear his voice of cheer,

and just the

time I need him, he's always near.

He

lives. He lives. Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me alongside their way. Lives.

He lives salvation to and care I know the I know that he is leading through all the stormy blast the day of his appearing

Alright. I'm gonna say a quick prayer for our offering this morning. God, we thank you for this time to be together and celebrate you and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus this morning. We pray for all of our our friends and family members traveling this weekend and the coming week. We pray for safety for them.

And we pray for your blessing on these gifts, financial gifts, and gifts of service and time that folks are giving. We pray that that would just work to glorify you and all for you and not for our our glory. Amen.

Alright. So it is time for children's church. We're just not doing middle school or high school, just to clarify for everybody. Got it? Great.

And if you think you're gonna hear anything that pretty from me, you are gonna be series of disappointments. Happy Easter. So if we haven't met, my name is Brad Yates. I have the terrifying privilege of serving as an elder here, and I am not Ray McDaniel. So start with a question.

Have you ever been lost? And I mean like lost, lost. Like I have no idea where I am, and I'm pretty sure that dog wants to eat me lost. I grew up in an era or I grew up driving in an era just before GPS and cell phones became omnipresent. And for my seventeenth birthday, my dad bought my friends and I tickets to see Robert O'Keefe play at the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth.

Now I grew up in Dallas, and Fort Worth is close to Dallas, but it's not Dallas. And so for 17 year old me to navigate home in the dark, I lost sight of what I needed. And we didn't have the Grand Teton in the middle of the Texas Prairie to serve as a bearing no matter where you are. And I really could have used that because I got on what I thought was the right highway. And we were having so much fun recounting the concert and the songs and the encore and all that, that I didn't realize we were lost off of what should have been a thirty minute drive until we were about 40 miles south of the Oklahoma border.

And at this point, it is late at night. So we pull out the old Mapsco map, if any of you all remember these. If you don't, I bought one just to show it for you here today. But this map, it was the truth that I needed in order to get home. It showed me that I-35W was actually different from I-35E and was not taking me towards home, but instead towards certain death in Oklahoma.

So similarly today, Paul is pointing us to the map, to the basic truth that we need in order to get home. Our text for today, as it says up there on the slide, is first Corinthians fifteen fourteen through 20. And I'll read it all today, and we're gonna focus in on a couple key verses that are here in yellow. 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? 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 also is in vain. Moreover, we are found even to be false witnesses of God because we testified against God that he raised Christ whom he did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins.

Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. And if we have hoped in Christ only in this life, we are all of most people to be pitied. But the fact is Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are who are asleep. So Paul has been summarizing the entirety of his letter to the church in Corinth. Throughout that letter, he's been dealing with a number of pressing issues, but he's closing with this, that if any of you do not believe that Christ was raised from the dead, you are missing out not on a major portion, but on the entirety of Christian belief.

This is so fundamental that you cannot go on in the Christian faith without understanding the resurrection. Paul talks a lot about hope in his letters. And what he's telling us here, and so what I'm gonna focus on today, is that whenever we read hope in the New Testament, we can think hope in what? The resurrection. Amen.

Because our hope is not in the gospel of good works or of following a good teacher, but in the gospel that Jesus Christ, the eternal son of God, that he died for your sins, that he gave you peace with God that when you could never achieve it on your own, as Paul says in Romans five. That through him, we are reborn and will one day follow Christ in the resurrection. In contrast, I think our immediate culture tries to portray spirituality as kind of a cruise ship buffet, where you can mix different cuisines and still end up with a decent meal. You can do the caprese salad and sushi and guacamole and prime rib, and it somehow still works when you're eating at at what I call the squat and gobble. But but it it it it's it's not like that for us.

The culture wants you to listen to the teachings of Jesus about serving the poor or about loving your neighbor, but they don't want you to hear anything about the exclusive claims that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. No. The common confusion is that we can somehow have a little bit of Jesus, that we can call ourselves Christians without making him lord of our lives and everything in it. But Paul is saying here, and he's echoing the direct claims of Christ, that Jesus is the only way to God, Not just some vague idea of Jesus, not just not just the name, but the specific belief that he lived a perfect life and died the death that we deserve. And that on the third day, he was resurrected and now sits at the right hand of the throne of God.

Now for the longest time, I didn't understand this. I attended church, but I wanted to live life my way. And I never could have articulated it at the time. But that internal struggle over who was actually lord of my life, whether it was me or Jesus, that was tearing me apart from the inside. Thankfully, I had men in my life who, like Paul and our message today, pointed me to the true hope, to the real gospel.

Because otherwise, there is no telling what my life would be like today. So if that's you, if that sounds anything like you, know that we are not trying to chase you out of here. We are so glad that you were here. We are so grateful that you were trusting us with your time. Now what we are trying to do is point you to the truth so that you can be aware of it and can do something about it, can experience the life change that comes from the gospel.

Said another way, in the Christian faith, there are some nonnegotiables. A decent list of these is the Nicene Creed. I'd encourage each and every one of you to read it this week. It would be great to do a line by line study of it as a church one day, but for today, we're gonna focus on what Paul is talking about in our text, the foundation of the whole thing, the resurrection. Because it is, after all, Easter Sunday

Amen.

Which is not about bunnies or candy or eggs or depending on where you're from, seersucker suits and pastel dresses, but is instead a celebration that Christ is risen. So for our key text today, as I said, we're gonna look at these two verses. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins. If we have hoped in Christ only in this life, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Do you believe this? Really believe it. Does it shape your life? Or do we say that this is true on Sunday, and then we live Monday through Saturday like functional atheists? There's a great couple of quotes by AW Tozier that I think are appropriate here, which is that we tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.

This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the church. He goes on in the same book to say this more famous quote, which is what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. Worship is either pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. What we are constantly trying to do, and specifically today, is to have those high views of God. And what Paul is saying in our text today is that if you need a foundation of the faith, if you need to get a bearing, if you need a map when you are heading to demise in a spiritual Oklahoma, you can look to the resurrection.

We can have hope in it. We can trust in it. And God has shown us his own nature in it most completely in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Because if we dwell on this, it is the most life changing fact we can ever encounter. The worst day in history becomes good when our God was crucified, though he had been found innocent.

Good Friday is good even though God himself was unjustly murdered. Good Friday is good through the power of the resurrection. Many men throughout history have claimed to be a divine leader, that they had some unique inspiration from God, maybe they were a messiah, or they claimed to be God himself. But none of them could authenticate their message. They all died old and prosperous, and they died.

We can go see where they're buried. None of them were resurrected, but Jesus was. And that is critically important to us for two reasons today. One, what it proves, and two, what it achieves. So with that in mind, our outline for today because we're Baptist, we gotta use a little alliteration just to warn my new friends from Fresh Life.

Provenance of the resurrection, purpose of the resurrection, people of the resurrection. The providence, what it authenticated, what it proved. Purpose, what it achieved, and people, what are we to do about it? So the providence of the resurrection. This is borrowing an art term for alliteration.

What it authenticated. Because Jesus was authenticated. He said a lot of crazy stuff in his ministry, And I'm not going to cover each of these. It's probably too small a font now that I see it up on the big screen. But this is just a survey of things that I've that I've pulled out of out of the gospels.

Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. Similarly, all these others are claims to exclusivity. Then here's two at the end with Jesus prophesying his own resurrection. John two, destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up.

He warns the Jews. He says, an evil and adulterous generation wants a sign, and so a sign will not be given it except the sign of Jonah. Think about how dramatic it is what Jesus is saying here. These are bold claims to be God, to forgive sins, to be the resurrection. Remember when Jesus talked about the resurrection, he didn't just say he would be resurrected.

He said, like in John 11, I am the resurrection. These are not the claims of a good moral teacher. And I think many of you know that, but it's just worth reminding ourselves of that truth. Because there is a silent and growing heresy in our culture, and I don't think it's something that's being taught in the churches. But polls show it's something that people who call themselves Christians are increasingly believing, and we have to teach against it.

It's a lie from the enemy. Look at the exclusivity of Jesus' claims. This is not something that a normal person or a good teacher would claim. Now C. S.

Lewis wasn't the one who invented it, but he did popularize the paradigm of lord, liar, and lunatic. And here's the gist. It's that good teachers, good people, they don't say things like this. They don't make these claims. And before you think, well, maybe the disciples made this up.

It's been historically proven time and time again that these exact claims are the reason why the Sanhedrin conspired with the Romans to have Jesus killed. And it's the reason why all 11 of the faithful disciples were brutally martyred when all they had to do was say, this isn't true. All 11 of them. Because governments don't really kill good moral teachers. The resurrection is proof that Jesus wasn't a liar or lunatic, but the Lord, the eternal son of God.

This is why when critics wanna tear down Christianity, the thoughtful ones, they go after the resurrection. The funny bit though is if you study the history of the veracity of the resurrection, my bet is that you end up becoming a Christian. There are four guys that this famously happened to that actually ended up becoming authors, and here's a few of them if you want to look into it. They come from different backgrounds. So whatever your background, whatever your angle, even for for mature believers, reevaluate the resurrection.

Have that sure knowledge in your heart, and you will benefit from it. So if you're not all in on Jesus, bring your good questions. I would love to talk to you about what mine were before I really dedicated my life to Christ. Or bring yours, and we can talk about it. But know that for the most part, they're answered in satisfaction by looking at the cross and the resurrection.

Similarly, if you've never done a deep dive into the history of the faith or of Jesus, you're probably only vaguely aware of the idea that Jesus was the long prophesied and awaited for Messiah. Because Jesus didn't initiate a new faith at his coming. No. He perfected the thousands of years of prophecy that pointed to him. Here's what Jesus himself said in John five.

He said to the Jews, you examine the scriptures because you think that in them, have eternal life. And it is those very scriptures that testify about me. One of those scriptures that he was pointing to is we call them the servant songs, the most famous being in Isaiah 53. Here's verse five. But he was pierced for our offenses.

He was crushed for our wrongdoings. The punishment of our well-being was laid upon him, and by his wounds, we are healed. Amen. Later, King David wrote in Psalm 22. He's writing about the coming Messiah.

He said, they pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look. They stare at me. They divide my garments among them, and they cast lots for my clothing.

In Psalm 16, and these are the same words that Peter later quotes in his first ever sermon at Pentecost. So if I think it's a big deal summing in for Easter, Peter preaching at Pentecost would probably laugh at that. But he write he writes of the resurrection, for you will not abandon my soul to Sheol. You will not allow your holy one to undergo decay. Guys, by his wounds, we are healed.

Our sin is paid for. And what Paul is saying today, what Peter here is quoting and what David had foretold is that in the resurrection, we have receipts because Jesus was approved. We had certainty that Christ's payment was sufficient. For example, if you look at the the Old Testament, the Jewish system of sacrifices in Leviticus one through eight, you were always going back to the temple. There was the burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering.

You were always going back. And those offerings alone didn't reconcile you to God. The faith that you had in God that he would accept those sacrifices and the perfect sacrifice that is to come, that's what reconciled you to God. That was your righteousness, as Paul calls it in Romans four. But now we have the perfect offering.

We have the one Passover lamb whose righteousness and self sacrifice was sufficient enough that the entire system of sacrifices and ceremonial law was completed. And this isn't about Easter, but this one's for free. This is why there's a lot of confusion out there. Why do we as Christians still follow the moral law in the Old Testament, but not the civil and the ceremonial law? It's because it was completed.

So we can follow the moral law in the Old Testament, but we also get to eat bacon and shrimp. And if you want that tattoo, you can get it. We have freedom in Christ. And aren't we glad for it? We are.

And we get to be sure of it through the resurrection. Because in Exodus, that sacrificial lamb died, and he didn't come back. And that would be really creepy. A zombie lamb. And I don't want to eat the same same lamb chop twice.

But our lamb, the lamb of God, the lion of Judah, he rose again on the third day, fulfilling the scriptures and displaying the faithfulness and holiness of God. So God approved the sacrifice of Christ at the resurrection, and he approves of us if we would but identify with Christ in his death, his burial, and his resurrection. That's what we signify when we do public baptism. So point to the purpose of the resurrection. It glorified God.

It displayed the faithfulness of God and gave us a more sure hope in him, and it's to his glory. Because we have to remind ourselves and everyone around us constantly that that's the point of everything, is the glory of God. That was true of Jesus. That was true of Paul. That's true of Ray and me and all of you here is to glorify God.

And I know that's a bunch of churchy words, but I'm trying to be very specific in that. Because God showed us a lot about himself in the birth and the crucifixion and the resurrection. So that when we and the angels worship him, we do so more accurately and with hope. If I tell you that I love my wife, Natalie, because she's five feet tall and has black hair and is super adventurous, and then you meet my wife, you're gonna recognize that none of what I just told you is exactly true. We can only love somebody well and glorify them well when we do so accurately.

Paul writes this in the church to the Philippians, famously in chapter two, talking about Jesus that he already existed in the form of God and did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a bond servant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Guys, God showed us and showed the heavenly realms, as Paul talks about in Ephesians three ten, that he is truly perfect and demands perfection from us. But knowing that we were sinful, he made provision for us and then loved us enough to redeem us when we fail. Doesn't that sound like a good father?

Like the best father? That the standard is perfection, but that there is grace and love to meet us when we fail, no matter what, and that he had the strength and the wisdom to make it all work for good. Because before the redemption of mankind, Satan and the demons, just like the new atheist movement, could accuse God of being all powerful, but not of being all good or all loving. And stay with me here because this is powerful medicine. Because God not only created us, but he gave us a will.

And when we rebel against him, he could prove his love and faithfulness to us anyway, all as a part of his plan. And this is what happened at the cross and at the empty tomb. Because at the cross, God showed us that he himself demanded atonement with his perfect standard, and yet was willing to pay for our sins to allow us to be reconciled to him. At the empty tomb, he showed us that he was merciful and loving and that the one perfect payment would be sufficient forever. And you need to know that doesn't cheapen grace.

It doesn't make our sin okay, but it makes it paid for. Whatever you have done, for however long you have done it, it's been paid for expensively by the blood of the very God himself. And why is this good medicine? It's because when we can't see the point of what God is doing in our lives, we can still trust him because no matter what's going on, God actively put himself through worse voluntarily. And then he showed it would never need to happen again.

There's a saying that you may have heard that when we can't trust or we can't see God's hand, we can still trust his heart. And this is why well, not that. This is why it's true. Because Jesus was the first fruits of the ultimate reality, the eternal life that is to come. Because we can recall from the gospel accounts of the resurrection that Jesus didn't just disappear from the grave on the third day.

We don't have a missing body claim. Scripture says he did all of the following. Too small again. Walked around for forty days and appeared to at least 500 people. This is a short list of things that he did between the resurrection and the ascension.

So clearly, the gospel claim is not a missing body. The gospel claim and the hope of the church is resurrection. It's a new body, the truest version of us that has eternal life and doesn't bear the stains of a world marked by sin. We will then follow Jesus in that resurrection, but we need to get our ideas right around what resurrection means. Because just like angels, they're not babies, they're not your dead great grandparents, and they're not timid.

Just like that, our resurrection hope is not that we will be floating around on clouds like chubby babies playing the harp. That would be a terrible way to spend eternity. No. It's an eternal restoration of all things made right. It is an unveiling of God's truest purpose for each and every one of us, that we will work without growing tired.

We will fight battles for God without even the possibility of losing. We will enjoy the unveiled company of the creator God of the universe. There will be no sickness, there will be no sorrow, and there will be no death. You've all heard it said that time heals all wounds. And while that is partially true, how much more will it be actually true in eternity?

Because for those of us that are in Christ, it will make every bad thing, every sickness, every trauma, every loss, all brokenness, not only that it never happened, but that it was actually a good thing in hindsight. Because if every sad thing just becomes untrue, then there's no real point in suffering. We're just supposed to look through it. But instead, the Bible calls us time and time again to rejoice in trials, not for the trials, but to rejoice in trials. And we can do that when we have an eye towards eternity.

Because if everything truly works for our good, then we can rejoice in those trials. Okay. So the purpose of the resurrection. Two points. It displayed the faithfulness of God that that perfect sacrifice satisfied his divine justice.

And two, it showed Jesus as the first fruits of our ultimate reality. It showed us what it's gonna be like for us. So how do we now, in view of that, live as people of the resurrection? Because we have the power of the resurrection in us. Simply put, we don't live as if this world is all that there is.

Because if you don't follow Jesus, you better live your best life now. You better get it right. Because this world has all the good in it that you are ever going to get. In spite of popular cultural claims, hell is not going to be a place of rock and roll rebellion and partying. There will be nothing good in hell.

There will be no music. There will be no friendship. There will be no light. There will only be sorrow and regret. Instead, if you have a hope in the resurrection, then you can truly do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

And that doesn't mean that I get to dunk a basketball or tear a phone book in front of you guys. What it means is that I can have peace in my life regardless of circumstances. I don't have to live my best life now. And when there is tragedy, and gosh, this church has seen it already in this year, we grieve, but we don't grieve as those without hope as Paul writes in first dusk four. No.

We grieve because we miss our brother or our sister in Christ. We miss our friends, but we know that we'll see them again at the resurrection that is to come. And living as as if life this life is not all that there is, it also sets us free from the scarcity mentality that's so pervasive in this world. It sets us free from this idea that I gotta get mine. We have that idea around money or time or leisure or powder days, and it's a lie.

But the interesting thing about any resource, any gift, any talent is it's only when you've given a bunch of it away that you can truly have mastery over it. Only then can you recognize that it's a lie that you need just a little bit more or that you don't have enough. So how do we become people of the resurrection today, church? Whoever we are, whatever stage we're in, we just take the next step in faithfulness, not to be satisfied with where we currently are. It's progress, not perfection.

So I've put it in three categories today. We're gonna call it decider, disciple, and discipler. So a decider, this is somebody that has not yet put their personal faith in Jesus. You need to know that you are not just a debtor in prison. You are not just a slave.

You are not just somebody in a dead end job or a sick person in need of medicine. You are dead in your sins, and you are in the grave. But so was Jesus. And he is the only man to ever defeat death. And because he did, if we would but believe in him and make him lord of our life, then we will get to participate in that resurrection with him.

And this isn't just a resuscitation. Thank God. Because I don't want this broken body that gets hurt, that gets sick, that needs sleep. I want the new resurrection body. I want the one that can work or run without ever getting tired.

I want the one without this goofy neurological thing that I've been dealing with for a few years. Because our resurrection bodies, they will be perfect. And I don't just mean that as like a linear improvement on where we are now. We're not just gonna taller or stronger or better looking. We will be new in ways that we can't even fathom.

Not different in degree, but in kind. Like the difference between a seed and a flower. Paul, later in our text in First Corinthians 15, he describes our current bodies as seeds that need to go in the ground and die in order for our resurrection bodies to flower. And here's a crazy example, if maybe you've never thought too much about this. Did you know that we're probably going to have way more senses than we do now?

Like we won't be dependent upon just sight, taste, touch, smell and sound. We're gonna have new senses, thousands of them. It will be like trying to explain the sunrise to somebody that was born blind. And it's also that we can better understand, appreciate, and therefore, glorify God. So if you've not yet made a personal decision to follow Jesus, would you take that step in faith today?

Because we're not ever guaranteed tomorrow. Whereas for our disciples, these are people if you have made a decision, then pursue what Jesus has called you to. Abide in him, as Jesus said in John 15, because he gave us each other to help do that. So join the church. Join a small group.

Don't be that disembodied hand or foot lying bloodied in the corner. Happy Easter. Find someone to disciple you Because we don't get freed from our sin to choose ourselves or our hobbies or even our families as master. We are set free so that we can choose Jesus as the only good master. We get to daily choose the best master, the good shepherd, the one who laid his life down for his flock.

We get to live with joy and purpose, and we get to have the true freedom that comes from serving the only kingdom that will actually live forever, the only one that brings true life. This is how we get to live as Christ, to die as gain. Because if I can find joy and purpose in my life, and if I'm doing it in serving Christ and someone has a problem with it, and they hurry along my otherwise inevitable demise, then I get to be home with Jesus. And at first in the intermediate paradise, like Jesus promised to the thief on the cross, and then after the second coming with that resurrected body here on the new earth where all things are made new. Third, for our disciples.

These are for the mature Christians. Keep going. If you have spiritual maturity, then be serving the body, be leading, help it reproduce, die to self, find others that need your leadership and wisdom. When Jesus gave the great commission in Matthew 28 right before the ascension, he didn't call us to make converts. He called us to make disciples.

We can and should live as if God has a purpose for each and every one of us to serve the kingdom. So what do we do about this? All of us. We cannot want anything more than we want Jesus himself. Even salvation, even the fruits of the spirit, the good works, the salvation body, all of these are great things, but we cannot want them more than we want Jesus himself.

He is what our primary hope is in. But because God is perfect, he's made it so that if you want Jesus, you get him, and you get everything else thrown in with it. You get the Holy Spirit. You get the resurrection body. You get the joy and purpose of a life well lived.

God has promised that for those who love him, who truly love him, that all things work for our ultimate good. That's true of each and every one of us. It's true of our brothers and sisters around the world that face persecution, physical and legal, every day because of their faith. It was true of Paul when he got his head chopped off after being in prison. Because if this world is not all that there is, it this is but a dim vision of what ultimate reality will be.

And so when we throw in with the church, when we commit, we'll still sin, but we'll no longer be owned by it. For the first time in our lives, we'll be set free for the desire to desire the things that God wants us. We'll be free to glorify him. I don't have a slide for this, but in in John six, Jesus says that we get to rest in him. He says in verse 37, whoever comes to me, I will never drive away.

So many of us are looking for God. I hear it when people say, where is God? He feels distant. Church, he's right where he said he would be. He's here in the midst of his people whenever we gather together, what we call the church, the ecclesia.

In every one of us that have made a real decision to submit to him. And when we gather together, he's here with power. And, yes, we live out our calling imperfectly, but we get to remind ourselves and everyone around us that there is grace there to meet us in it. And we get to see miracles. We get to see dead people walk.

We get to see people set free from the bonds of sin and shame and and slavery to despair and addiction. They can be set free here in Christ. Because the resurrection presents us with a choice that cannot be avoided, cannot be qualified. And hear me. Either you believe that Jesus was resurrected or you don't.

There is no middle ground. In John eight, Jesus said, I told you that you would die in your sins. If you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins. If Jesus rose from the dead, it changes everything. And if he did not, then we are fools.

There is no third choice. If he is who he said he is, then we give everything for him. Not just Sundays, not just some fixed percentage of our money, everything. There is no claim on our lives that Jesus cannot make, and yet his burden is light. And any other burden that we take on will crush us and bury us.

Or we're all fools, and there's no point to any of this. And it's a huge waste of time, money, and effort. But guys, this bet, it cannot be hedged, and we must bet our entire life on it. But because of the resurrection, we can have hope. Not in the, I hope it snows tomorrow or I really hope this time winter's over, But in the the resurrection is true.

Therefore, my hope cannot be shaken. So I'll challenge you to think on a few closing comments because I really don't want this to be an annual Easter ceremony. I want this to be resurrection day for our hearts, for each of us, no matter where we are in our walk with the Lord. Each of us to be reborn as Jesus said in John three. Because how much did it cost your God to love you?

So many people these days, they don't want to accept an idea in their hearts of a God that is both perfect and holy and merciful and loving. We tend to forget one aspect or the other, and they are both shown in perfect display at the cross and at the resurrection. Because Jesus paid the debt so perfectly that God resurrected him as the first fruits of what is to come. We cannot incur a debt to God greater than what Jesus has already paid for if we but put our faith in him. I'll invite the band back up, but what you need to know is that Jesus was the only truly willing sacrifice history.

Yes. There have been other martyrs. Yes. There have been other sacrifices. But all of those were by mortal men and women that were already going to die anyway.

Jesus was the only one as we looked at in Philippians two that never really had to die, but he took on flesh for you. When he was in the Garden Of Gethsemane, he set his face to die for you, for me. And God is just. He cannot accept payment for what has already been paid. So I've said this before, and I'll say it again.

Christian, please hear me. Stop trying to earn what has already been given to you. Because tomorrow is April Fool's Day. And Paul says in our text today that if there is no resurrection, then we are fools. But church, we're not fools.

Because Jesus did walk out of that tomb, and history has never been the same and neither have I. Jim Elliot, who would be murdered shortly after writing this, he died trying to witness to an unreached tribe in Ecuador. He wrote this, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Jim knew that he would rise again at the last day, and so he was no fool. Don't be a fool.

Don't live denying the truth of resurrection. When I was lost after that concert some twenty years ago, I pulled out the map, and I knew that I was a long way from home. But Paul is showing us today how to get there. Whether you've wandered away from home or you've never been there, the resurrection is the key to life. Believe in it.

Profess that Jesus is your savior and Lord. That the grave is empty. Receive the Holy Spirit. Read and share the written and inspired word of God. Church, he is risen.

Happy Easter. Thank you.

When Christ shall come

Amen. For a benediction today, I'd like to read to you a prayer that was for the church in Ephesus. It's from Ephesians three, and I wanna pray this over everybody today. I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord's holy people.

Amen.