1 Corinthians 15:1-6, 17-26, 30-32
1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
30 And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? 31 I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32 If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”
Discussion Questions
- Why do you think Paul calls this subject “a matter of first importance”?
- Why do the historical events of the resurrection matter? Why is it important that people saw Jesus afterward?
- If the resurrection didn’t happen, Paul says our faith is futile. What does that mean and why do you think he said that?
- If Jesus came back from the dead, and Christianity promises a similar experience for his followers, what does that mean for you if you believe?
- How can the resurrection make you a bold follower of Christ?
Transcript
4/9/2023 The Resurrection (Easter)
*This is a transcript from the sermon audio. This document has not been edited for spelling, grammar, or exactness.
All right. The rest of us, you can track down a Bible. What we do around here is we open the Scriptures week by week, and we go ordinarily we go through passages or sections of Scripture, and we allow space in our service for God to speak, for God to have the Word. And so that’s what we’re going to do. Right now, we’re in one Corinthians, chapter 15. So in the Bibles that we have here on site, that would be page nine, 90, 991 Corinthians, chapter 15. I’m going to read portions of this chapter. It has 58 verses, so we’re not doing all of them, so you’re welcome, but we’ll pull out some chunks. I’ll give us some indication of where we’re heading as we go through it. But let’s start in verse one, Corinthians 15. I’ll read it. Then we’ll pray and we’ll get to work.
This is verse one of chapter 15. Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the Gospel I preached to you which you’ve received and on which you have taken your stand. By this Gospel, you are saved if you hold firmly to the Word I preach to you. Otherwise you have believed in vain. For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Let’s skip down to verse 17. Now it says, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. You’re still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost, if only for this life we have hope. In Christ, we are, of all people, most to be pitied. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who’ve fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam, all die, so in Christ all will be made alive, but each in turn Christ the first fruits. Then when he comes, those who belong to him, then the end will come when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. Let’s skip down to verse 30 now, where it says and as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I face death every day. Yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
Let’s pray. Lord, as we’ve opened Your word together, we’re praying that by Your Spirit, through that Word, you would speak to each and every heart that’s in here. And I pray that you would help us to hear from you in a way that helps us to know what it is that you have accomplished in the sending of Your Son, his willingness to go to the cross and die in our place, and his ability to rise from the grave victorious. I pray that all of us in here and those who might be watching online, I pray that every single person who can hear My voice would respond with faith to the beauty and glory of what Jesus has done for us. We pray in his name. Amen.
Several years ago, I attended a funeral and a graveside service. I was not the officiant of that. There was a pastor there and he was using what my brother calls a pastor cookbook. It’s a three ring binder that you open up and it’s got the ready made things that if you’re dealing with this, you look in the index and you go, okay, this is what’s going on. You open it. By the way, I’m kind of teasing about that, but I do value those sorts of things. But anyways, this pastor had a pastor cookbook and so he opens it up to graveside service and he’s reading different things from that section and he’s reading things from One Corinthians Chapter 15 and he’s giving some reflection on that. And I’m sitting there, I’m listening to him. The service concludes and somebody that knows me, that knows that I’m in ministry comes over and they say to me, okay, everything he said that can’t be true. Is it talking about One Corinthians chapter 15 and the resurrection from the dead and all these different things that the Bible gives indication to? Because when you start to look at this, there’s a portion of it that it really does feel unbelievable. And the way in which the Scriptures kind of unfold how this will all occur. You might be at a funeral going, no, this is wild. That there is a bodily resurrection of Christ and a bodily resurrection of all in the future. And it just feels like otherworldly like what are we even talking about? This cannot be true. And you might be here feeling that today. You might be here thinking, okay, this stuff that we just read sounds pretty neat, but are you sure? And I’m here to try to convince you both of the plausibility of it, the reality of it, and that it is something that should order your life. So let’s get to work. I’m going to give you four different headings. There are 58 verses here, so I’m being very selective in what we’re looking at. But these four things I think will be significant for you so I’ll give them to you up front. Here they are. The resurrection and the gospel, the resurrection and faith, the resurrection and the future, and the resurrection and life. Let’s get after it.
THE RESURRECTION AND THE GOSPEL
The resurrection and the gospel. This would be verses one to eight. What it’s saying is there’s this message and the resurrection and whether or not that happened has a tremendous bearing on the accuracy of that message. Look at verse one. Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preach to you, which you’ve received and on which you’ve taken your stand. The gospel is a message. It’s an announcement of what God has done. It’s good news. And that message is a saving message. And so Paul goes to this city. He preaches this message. People hear it, receive it by faith. And a church springs up and he’s saying, now, I’m reminding you that’s what I preach to you this announcement of what God has done in the sending of his son and that son’s willingness to go to Calvary and die in your place. But he came back from the dead. That’s the good news of the gospel. It’s at the very heart of what Christianity is all about. It’s at the very heart of the Bible itself. One of the reasons why as a church, we say, hey, there are a lot of things we could kind of orient ourselves around. We want to be gospel centered because we see it as a matter of first importance. It’s the most essential aspect of the Christian faith, and it is an announcement of what God has done. It’s kind of like I was trying to remind myself of what it was like nine plus years ago when we were having our first child. And you send out the birth announcement, right? There are all these different things to give indication to family and friends of the significance of your life changing. And so you send out these birth announcements or you do a pregnancy reveal or a gender reveal and all these different things. Now, if I did that and I said to my friends, hey, we’re having a little girl, and some of my friends said, I don’t care, and I’m not going to change the way that I relate to you. I don’t give a rip about this. I’d be like, well, that’s rude, right? But what God has done is he has announced, he’s given us an announcement. That’s what the gospel is, it’s news. And so we don’t just get to deal with it like I’ll believe it or not believe it. It’s something he has accomplished. In fact, it’s unique in that way. Every other religion tells you there are a lot of things you have to do to be a good adherent of various religious experiences. But Christianity at the essence of what it is. It’s an announcement of what God has done. It’s finished. And certainly there are all kinds of implications of how we should live and choices we should make. But at the very heart of Christianity is the news that God sent His Son and His Son accomplished salvation for us. So there is this Gospel message and it is the message that you have received and on which you’ve taken your stand. By this Gospel you are saved. It’s a saving message. By this Gospel, you are saved if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you, otherwise you’ve believed in vain. It’s saying, there’s this announcement that God has made in the sending of His Son and we are to declare that that’s why we exist as a church. We’re to declare that message and those who hear it can experience salvation. Romans Ten, verse nine says it like this if you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. If you profess Christ as Lord and you believe Him to be the One who went to the cross in your place, died and did away with your sin, if you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So the Gospel message is a saving message and our hope is that people would hear that message and respond with faith. Now, obviously people can respond in a way that appears like they’re following Him, but it’s really a vain profession of faith. That’s why he says you have to hold firmly to the word I preach to you, otherwise you’ve believed in vain. It’s not enough to just make an emotional decision or to think, yeah, I’m going to do this, but I’m going to hedge my bets. It’s saying, no, you have to really, sincerely, truly believe this thing and it’ll show up because it’ll be a permanent feature of your life if you hold firmly to this message, then he says the resurrection is at the heart of it and the events, the historical events are essential to this message. Verse three for what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance. Top shelf, main thing. This is the news. Here it is, verse three that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. That Jesus came, he lived a perfect life, he goes to Calvary, he lays that life down and it is an atoning sacrifice for sin that he died for our sin, that he was willing to substitute Himself in our place to do away with sin. David Pryor says it like this there’s no true proclamation of the Gospel which does not explain the link between human sin and the death of Christ. If that was just something that happened, but it has no relationship to my sin, who cares? There is no Gospel at all unless the death of Christ can be seen to deal with sin once and for all. And that’s what the Lord was doing at Calvary when he went to the cross and he died in our place, according to the Scriptures. Here’s what he was doing. He was dying for our sin. Verse four says that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, that they placed him in the tomb, that the body of Christ was laid in a tomb. He was actually dead. But on the third day he came back from the dead, just as he indicated in advance. And then it tells us that he appeared. In other words, there’s evidence. You don’t just have to take my word for it. There is proof. He came back from the dead and he began appearing to Peter, named Cephas to the twelve disciples. And after that he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. He appeared to Peter, one of the close followers, then he appeared to the Twelve. There was a kid I was hanging out with yesterday, and he calls them the “recycles” – [he’s a] nine year old. So he appears to the Peter, but then to the Twelve “recycles” (the disciples) and to 500 people, and he says, listen, most of them right now are still alive. And what he’s doing then is he’s inviting inspection. If you think what I’m making is fabricated, if you think what I’m saying is made up, then you can go and ask for yourself. You can go and find some of these people and say, hey, I’m having a hard time here. You’re claiming that somebody who died is alive. I don’t understand how that works. Tell me that story again, and with 500 different eyewitnesses. You have an incredible and overwhelming amount of evidence for the reliability of this thing. In fact, as some people have noted, there’s more evidence for the resurrection than most of the historical events that we think happened, that we just take it at face value because a textbook told us. But the resurrection has all kinds of eyewitnesses and all kinds of different people who have written on this and observed this and documented it. So there is proof. And so when Paul writes this in the first century, he’s inviting inspection. But even today, even today, there is proof of the resurrection. And I would invite you to examine it. If you do not yet believe, look into the details of the resurrection. If you can write off the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you don’t ever have to go to church again. If you can write this thing off, then the whole thing falls apart. So it’s in your best interest to really examine this stuff. So the resurrection has a tremendous bearing on the good news of the gospel itself. The Gospel is the saving news of what God has done, but it hinges on whether or not Jesus did what he claimed to do, whether he died in our place on the cross and whether or not he came back from the grave.
THE RESURRECTION AND FAITH
The resurrection also has a tremendous amount of bearing on our faith. Look at verses 17 to 19. What it’s saying here is if he did not return from the dead, then faith in Him is futile. It’s worthless. It doesn’t have any value for you. If he didn’t come back from the dead, then this whole thing is really silly and a waste of time. Look at verse 17. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. You’re still in your sins. If Jesus did not come back from the dead, then to express a belief in Him and what he accomplished is worthless. Okay, our projector hanging over my head. It started doing weird things in the last couple of weeks. We’ve had it for a long time. We’ve had it since 2017. It’s been everywhere. Been over at Forest Ridge, it’s been at Harlem High School, it’s been at Blue Suede shoes, the tree farm, all these different places. It’s always done us a very solid job, but lately it’s doing some weird stuff, and so it’s glitching the screens going out. And we did some work on it even last night, trying to make sure that it would still work. Okay, we did some work on it last night, but if it fails today and I say it’s okay guys, I believe in this thing. I believe this thing will get us through our service. And I just start kind of chanting that I believe in this projector. I believe in this projector. I believe in this projector. It doesn’t matter how hard I believe or how much I say something like that. If it fails, it’s not getting us through the service, right? So if you place your faith in Christ and you just kind of have this wishful thinking that what he did will work for you. But as the argument is saying, hypothetically, what if he didn’t come back from the dead? Then your faith, that’s all it is. It’s wishful thinking. It’s a hopefulness that something’s going to happen. Because, your faith is bound up with the object of your faith. You are trusting in something, and in this case, you’re trusting in someone. And if he didn’t come back from the dead, you can have no hope. You can have no confidence that his work is finished. Now look at it from the other angle, though. If he did come back from the dead, which he did, spoiler alert. If he did come back from the dead, then game on. He accomplished what he set out to accomplish. He finished the work that he performed. In fact, Hebrews puts it like this for the joy sat before Him, he endured the cross scorning at shame and is seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. He’s sitting down right now because he finished his work. Tomorrow I’m going to sit down I’m standing right now. I got a lot of work to do today, but tomorrow I’m looking forward to sitting down. The Lord is sitting down. He’s alive and he is seated at the right hand of the Father. Your sins are forgiven if he didn’t come back from the dead. You’re still in your sins. Furthermore, there’s no hope for anyone who’s ever died. That’s what verse 18 is saying. Then those who’ve fallen asleep in Christ, they’re just lost. If there’s no resurrection, then when anyone dies, that should be the saddest day you ever experience, because there’s no prospect beyond the grave. But what do we say when we go to funerals? We are able to mourn, but as those who have hope, because we know that’s not the final chapter, that’s not the end of the story. But if he didn’t come back from the dead, then that’s it, curtain closed, game over. That person is gone, gone, gone, he says. Finally in verse 19, if only for this life, we have hope in Christ. We are, of all people, most to be pitied if Jesus didn’t come back from the dead. You look at a batch of believers and you can say what they do by ordering their lives according to a resurrected king. The time that they spend doing that, the efforts that they put forth and following Him, they are pitiable. If he’s dead, it doesn’t matter. We can go home, we can call it a day. But he did in fact come back from the dead. That’s what verse 20 says.
THE RESURRECTION AND THE FUTURE
The next point that I have here is the resurrection and the future. There is a future for us. Look at verse 20. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. He is alive. He’s the first fruits of those who’ve fallen asleep. He’s alive and he went first. It’s kind of lost on us. But if you have a harvest season, you do all your planting early on and then at harvest season you bring in the initial batch of crops. And in the first century. And even today, I feel like they still do this, where they have harvest parties, where farmers will get together, they bring in a little bit of their harvest, and then they celebrate, because they’re looking at what they have in hand and they’re going, there’s a lot more of this to come. Let’s party. So there’s a first fruits. Jesus Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection, meaning he went first. And it’s a preview of coming attractions. He did what we too will do, he went first. But we also will join Him in a similar fashion. And then it tells us this is why. Because he’s our representative. Verse 21 and 22 for since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. It’s reaching all the way back to the very beginning, to the first human being, Adam. And we’re reminded that through Adam’s rebellion against God, sin entered into the world and death is the consequence of that. So through Adam we all experience death. But through Christ there’s resurrection and life. So we look to Christ as the first fruits of what we too will experience. His body laid in the grave, but his body very much alive and revitalized and doing quite fine. And then finally, all these other things he is going to put under his feet. Then the end will come. When he hands over. Oh, I’m sorry. Verse 23. But each in turn, Christ the first fruits. Then when he comes, those who belong to Him, then the end will come. There’s an orderliness to this. In fact, that’s a military term. Each in turn, it’s a military term that’s saying God has a plan here. Christ went first. But that’s not all that’s going to happen. In fact, the chronology is laid out for us as he goes first. But then he’s going to come back and there will be more resurrections to come. So hang tight. And I know we’re 2000 years into the waiting period, so you might be like, come on, man. But God’s timing is very different from our timing. As we’re told in the Scripture, for Him, a day is like 1000 years. 1000 years are like a day. He’s in no hurry, but he is coming back. And the resurrection is a future feature. And what we find in verse 26, the last enemy to be destroyed is death. There’s a day coming where he’s going to, as the end of the Bible tells us, wipe all the tears away and there will be no more pain or death or sickness, for the old order of things is going away. And Jesus says from his throne, I am making all things new. I am making all things new. So eventually he will return and there will be an incredible resurrection at that day. Excuse me. So there’s a future for us. We think about the resurrection. It points us forward to realize, okay, if that’s true, then we are invincible. If that’s true, if there’s a coming resurrection for me, that actually changes my life. In fact, it changed the life of the disciples. Think about this. Why was it that the “recycles” were so scared before the resurrection? I mean, I’m talking like very, very afraid. Mark, one of the Gospel writers, a recycle, a follower of Christ, a disciple, he writes himself into the story. When Jesus gets arrested, somebody grabs his cloak and tugs on it and he loses his clothes and he’s naked running through the garden. Okay, if you’re so scared that you don’t have time to put your pants on, like, you know, you’re freaking out, you’re out of your mind. So he’s so scared. But then the resurrection happens and all of a sudden you’ve got the disciples who moments ago were so fearful, so concerned, so uncertain of themselves. And they find themselves standing in front of presidents and government officials and people who are threatening their lives and people who are saying, if you don’t shut your mouth about Jesus of Nazareth, we’ll kill you. And they’re like, have at it. How is it that they went from so afraid to so bold? Well, it was the resurrection used this before, but it’s so good. Remember on Star Wars where they’re on the Death Star and Obiwan is fighting Darth Vader? By the way, I’m not trying to make huge theological points from Star Wars, but this does help. They’re doing a lightsaber battle, and Luke looks over and he sees Obiwan. And Obiwan puts his lightsaber away, and he’s looking at Darth Vader and he says, strike me down, and I’ll become more powerful than you could ever imagine. And Darth Vader strikes him down. Now, Christians are kind of like that where we look at even the prospect of death and we say, have at it. Is that the worst you can do? Because death doesn’t have a claim on me, so I’m invincible. I can live my life in a way that reveals the glory of who God is, and I can make incredible sacrifices for him and for his glory. We’re invincible. So the resurrection gives us a hope of a future.
THE RESURRECTION AND LIFE
The resurrection finally gives us the hope of a radical life. That’s what Paul is saying here in verse 30. He’s saying, why would I choose to live this way if there were no resurrection? Why would I do this? In fact, if you just look at the life of Saul of Tarsus he’s later named Paul, and you think through what it was like before he surrendered his life to Christ, he had it pretty good. He had a lot of comforts. He had a lot of status. He had notoriety. He had a good vocation. He had a lot of things going his way. When he starts to follow Christ, it all goes sideways. He starts having all kinds of difficulties because he becomes a missionary church planter in the first century. And so he’s having to travel by way of ship. And I think Spirit Airlines got all their bad ideas from that period of time, but he’s traveling, and sometimes they’d be shipwrecked, or sometimes he’d be hungry or naked or he wouldn’t have the stuff that he would need. And everyone was hostile toward him. People were threatening his life nonstop. In fact, one time, an angry mob gathers around him and they stone him to death. They pick up rocks. They chuck the rocks at him until he’s lifeless, and they assume he’s dead. But he’s not dead. And he gets up and he’s like, okay, I got work to do. He gets after continuing to plant new churches. So he’s asking the question, which is a pretty significant question why would I do that if the resurrection wasn’t true. Look at verse 30. As for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I face death every day. Yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? He’s saying, Why would I choose to live my life in this way? If there is no hope of a resurrection? Why would I do that? I fought wild beasts. I think that’s the false teachers in Ephesus from Acts, chapter 19, they’re called beasts there. He went through all kinds of these difficult things, and he’s saying, if all I had was an earthly hope, why would I make these sacrifices? There’s danger if you follow the Lord. I’m just going to shoot straight with you today. If you follow the Lord, it will be incredibly hard. If you’re going to actually follow in the way of Jesus of Nazareth, it will be very, very challenging. Now, there is false teaching out there, and I get why it’s so attractive. There is a message out there that basically says, if you follow Jesus, everything tends to work out well. Yes, eventually, but in the short run, not so much. As a church, we found in a series this year a principle that I think is very, very helpful. It goes like this. If you read the Bible, here’s the timeline: suffering first, glories to follow. In the short run, it’s suffering. In the short run, it’s hard. But eventually the Lord returns and it eclipses all of the difficult things you’ve been through. The glory that will be revealed far outweighs the suffering that we go through. But that’s the principle. Short run, suffering, long run, glory. And that’s what the Lord taught. He said to people who wanted to follow him, I don’t even have a home. Foxes have dens, birds have nests, but the Son of man has no place to rest his head. You want to follow me? Get used to being inconvenienced. In John, chapter 16, he says, I’ve told you these things so that you may have peace in this world. You will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world. If you’re going to follow the Lord, it’ll be hard. It’ll be hard, but it’ll be worth it. Verse 32 he goes on to say it like this paul says, if the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. If there’s no resurrection, why don’t you go home and just party as hard as you can and just enjoy life and just drink it up? Because if there is no resurrection, to sacrifice on behalf of the Lord would be quite foolish. But if there is a resurrection, game on. Let’s give our lives over to Him entirely. Let’s live our lives in a way that reflect his beauty and his goodness. Let’s take up our cross and follow. Him. The Lord put it like this in Mark chapter eight whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. Spend your life for him. Give your life entirely to Him. Be willing to be inconvenience for Him and for his sake in the short run. Charles Thomas Studd, he wrote a hymn and he put it like this. He says, “Only one life twill soon be passed. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” Give your life over to the things that will last for all of eternity. You got one life. Make it count. All right, let me just be again, completely honest with you. Some of you are visitors here, and I’m just going to shoot straight with you. Here at our church, the way that we have organized ourselves is by really believing that the best strategy we have is to take you and encourage and equip you and then send you out. And in fact, we’ll do that here. In a little bit, I’ll send you out, I’ll remind you of your identity, and then I’ll deploy you to live for God and his glory. If you are here and that doesn’t interest you at all, you’re here and you’re a visitor and you’re like, well, I was hoping to come to a church where I’d just be made to feel good. And I’d leave here feeling encouraged and a little uplifted, a little Ted Talk, and then I can get back to my ordinary life. I just have to let you know. There are some Sundays that I leave here not feeling so well, because sometimes the Bible says things that confront me. And also I don’t get to just leave here and pretend like what happened didn’t matter because I believe that God is commissioning us to be his representatives in the world. So we gather to worship together to open the Word, but then we scatter and we go all over the state line area and we try to live our lives like Christ. And so we’re trying to co-opt your life. We’re trying to hijack your life and say, hey, the resurrection is so significant and the gospel message is such good news that we would love for it to become the feature of your life, that you would actually make decisions and choices that reflect your commitment to the Lord. That’s the kind of church that we are. And if you’re in, you’re in. We’d love for you to be a part of it. If you’re here and you’re just kicking the tires, we’re still very happy that you’re here. You just need to know the expectations up front. Eventually, we’re going to call on you to give your life entirely to the work of Christ, and it will be hard. But listen, there is a resurrection and there is a future glory. And Jesus did die, but he rose from the grave, so it will all be worth it in the long run. So would you give your life to Him by believing in Him and entrusting yourself to Him for his glory?
Let’s pray. Lord, we ask right now as we’ve gathered together and opened your word, we’re praying that by Your spirit you would impress upon us the significance of the resurrection. Help us, Lord, to see the beauty and the magnificence of what Christ accomplished on the cross and help us to see the evidence that he is alive. And so, Lord, we pray that you would make us bold people, people of faith who are living our lives in light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We pray in his name. Amen.