Unsexy Church

Season 3 Episode 14: Why The Resurrection Matters

• First Baptist Tampa • Season 1 • Episode 14

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The Unsexy Church Podcast

New episodes drop every Wednesday Morning

ABOUT THE PODCAST

The Unsexy Church is a weekly podcast exploring the real, everyday life within our church family. Each week, join Pastor Bob (Senior Pastor) and Darren (Worship & Discipleship Pastor) as they sit down to discuss a wide variety of subjects—from deep theological questions to the practical, often "unsexy" work of following Jesus and building a healthy local church.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO THRIVE?

We want to help every person make a genuine commitment to follow Jesus and then follow through with that commitment in Connecting People to a Thriving Life in Christ. These Thriving disciples should Dig In to the Bible, Grow Up in Christ, and Branch Outinto the community.

Our Mission: To Connect People to a Thriving Life in Christ. What is a thriving life in Christ? Scripture says that Jesus Christ came “that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Our mission in the city of Tampa is to make disciples who follow the pattern of the believer in Psalm 1 and desire God’s glory above all things.

NEXT STEPS

Are you looking to get connected or learn more about First Baptist Tampa? We would love to help you find your place in our community.

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Wherever you are in life, you have a purpose. First Baptist Tampa wants to help you find your next step.

Our Student & Young Adult Ministries:

SPEAKER_00

Hey gang. Welcome back to the Unsexy Church Podcast, ministry of First Baptist Church, Tampa, where our mission is to help you connect to a thriving life in Christ. And as always, I'm joined by Pastor Bob. Hey, Darren. How are you, man? You're getting better at that introduction. It's so getting more sexy all the time.

SPEAKER_01

One of the I better watch it. You better calm that down.

SPEAKER_00

Can't have that. And producer extraordinaire, Jordan. Hello. Hello. Hello. So glad you're here today. Yes. I'm glad I'm here. Yep. Me too, man. Yeah. Yeah. It's been uh uh a really uh it's been a good day. We've always have staff meetings on Monday, and uh that's uh that's always a good time. You never know what's gonna be said or what what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01

But uh did we have a good weekend at the church last weekend?

Reagan Assassination Attempt Story

SPEAKER_00

Well, we'll see. The reason I said that is because uh it hasn't happened yet. We're actually uh pre-recording this because we've got some schedule conflicts coming up, so we wanted to go ahead and just pre-re record this. But uh so this will drop on March 30th. No, this won't drop on March 30th. We'll pretend like we're recording this on March 30th. March 30th is because my fun fact of the day comes from March 30th. All right. So that's where we that's where we've got to be now. How unsexy was that? I don't even know what day it is right now. With all days April 1st. Okay. I can tell you that we will will have had a great weekend at FBC Tampa. It's always good to gather with uh folks here in Tampa, just sing his praise, pray together, be in the word together. Just it's a good it's a good time. On this day, on this day, March 30th, 1981. Oh, wow, we're in the 80s. All right, you're still not alive, you're already. He's not alive yet. He's not he's not even a twinkling his daddy's eye yet.

SPEAKER_01

81 or almost in middle school, with you and I.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. We were in sixth grade, I believe. That's about right. Yeah. Because I kind of remember this. Oh, really? You'll you'll remember this. Uh uh on this day, March 30th, President Ronald Reagan is shot. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You remember that? Yeah. I I was at my grandma's house for some reason. I don't remember why I wasn't in school, but I wasn't in school. So you can tell us about Hinckley and Jodie Foster?

SPEAKER_01

I exact. Did I just ruin the whole thing?

SPEAKER_00

No, but that's just weird stuff. Is that not weird? Yeah, we'll talk about that a little bit. Okay. So, but I I mean, so he Ronald Reagan walks out of the building, had a was talking, had some kind of meeting with labor representatives. Yeah, gave a speech at a luncheon or something. Yeah. Yeah. Came out of a hotel. Yep. And uh John Hinckley, I think he's like 25 years old at this point, um, shoots like six shots toward Reagan, hits Reagan in the left lung, uh, hits three other people, uh Brady. Brady. Um, who he hits him in the head, actually gets shot in the eye. Right. Uh hits a DC policeman and then a secret serviceman.

SPEAKER_01

Who shields the president?

SPEAKER_00

Who shields the president? He literally jumps in front of the president and shields him. Exactly. And so uh they they whisk Reagan into the presidential limo. They they take him to the hospital. He's 70 years old. Okay. And they don't realize at first he's been shot. He doesn't realize he's been, he just gets into the limo.

SPEAKER_01

He doesn't know he's been shot. I think it was a ricochet off the limousine, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That if I remember right. Yeah. And so he does, you know, he doesn't know they don't, and so they they take him to a hospital. 70 years old, the man gets out of the limo and walks into the hospital unassisted.

SPEAKER_01

Ronnie was the real deal, man.

SPEAKER_00

I just don't know if they make him like that anymore. I not very much, anyway. I just think that that's cool. And then as they're prepping him up, the quote in the operating room is awesome. This is just so Ronald Reagan, right? I mean, if you don't, whether you're conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat Democrat, you've got to love Reagan. I mean, he's just such such a good, so so great on his quotes. But um, he's getting prepped, ready for surgery. Oh, and by, I mean, his lung is collapsed. Right. So he's walked into the hospital. They're prepping him for surgery, and he and Nancy's there and he says, Nancy, I forgot to duck. Forgot to what? Dunk. Oh. Like, and then he and then he tells he goes, he looks up at the surgeons and the people who assist, you know, they're gonna assist him. He goes, And I hope you guys are Republicans. I just love it, man. It just, oh god.

SPEAKER_01

I think the response was we all are today, sir. Exactly, man.

Why The Resurrection Matters

SPEAKER_00

Just so that's cool. It was really, really cool. He survived, by the way. He did survive. He survived. He went back to doing some executive duties the very next day. I mean, this guy, he he's the awesome, but Hinckley, not so awesome, right? I mean, just a disturbed man. Deranged. Deranged. Um, obsessed with Jody Foster, uh obsessed with the movie Taxi Driver, and which she was in, and where the plot, I've never seen that movie, but the plot was uh someone was gonna kill a senator, a fictional senator. And so he was he'd seen this movie over a dozen times, which doesn't sound like anything to today. But back in the day, you had to go to the movie theater and spend all that money a dozen times. I mean, that that was something, that was a commitment. So he'd seen that movie over a dozen times and was supposedly reenacting that kind of kind of thing. But anyway, but the best part of the whole thing is is Reagan's quotes and then him just getting right back to work, man. And by A by the end of April, he was back in the office con consistently, just uh it was crazy. Crazy. Yeah. On this day, sixth grade. Sixth grade. I remember. Oh man, pretty wild. Yeah. So today uh we're gonna talk about um last week we talked about the uh crucifixion, which is a sad part of the story in a sense, uh a beautiful part. This week we're gonna talk about the resurrection.

SPEAKER_01

Sunday is resurrection Sunday.

SPEAKER_00

Sunday is resurrection Sunday. Yes, that's right. Every Sunday is resurrection Sunday, but we specifically uh set aside this Sunday every every year to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Um so I guess I'm just gonna ask you a bunch of questions, Bob. Why who cares? Why I mean we do obviously. Everyone, everyone should. So why should we care, right? What what's the why um this okay, what is it? So what? This so this cr this Jewish rabbi who was an instigator of political reform, you know, is crucified by a corrupt Roman government and and turned over by a corrupt religious system. What does that matter to me?

SPEAKER_01

What well if he was just a Jewish rabbi who was a reformer and crucified by some corrupt political people, it would mean nothing to us. But he wasn't just that. Exactly. And and he was the son of God, fully God, fully man, came to take our sin upon himself. He died on the cross, God punished him in our place, he was buried, um, and then he resurrected, and that is the crux of our hope. If that is not true, then we are to be pitied, 1 Corinthians chapter 15 says. So this is the absolute crux of our faith, and we should believe in it. Right. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

We should care about it. What are some things maybe like what are maybe what are some important things that the resurrection accomplish or re or help uh help us think through the the the resurrection? I've got a few things like you just mentioned one of them. If you know I said, you know, why does this ordinary man matter? You know, it because he's not an ordinary man, right? He's a son of God, and the resurrection proves that, right? Right. How does the resurrection prove the or validate the deity of Christ? He claimed to be deity, and people out there will say that he never claimed to be God, and they just are not reading the scriptures but because he did claim to be God.

SPEAKER_01

And so how does the resurrection prove that and the people of his day knew he was claiming to be God because they picked up stones to kill him a few times?

SPEAKER_00

Exactly, exactly.

Proof Jesus Is God

SPEAKER_01

The resurrection um proves that he is God for a couple of reasons. Um sorry, I should say too, um the bodily resurrection. Yes, not a spiritual resurrection, a physical resurrection. Um it it number one, because he claimed it was gonna happen prior to it happening. He told his disciples, he told multiple people, I'm gonna go to Jerusalem and I'm gonna be mistreated, they're gonna kill me, I'll be buried, and three days later I'll rise again. And he told them over and over again. Well, if most people tell you that, you think they're nuts. You crazy. That's not gonna happen. But what if it actually did happen, right? And so it proves that he is who he claimed to be because it actually happened. And there is proof that he actually resurrected bodily from the grave. It also proves that his sacrifice was acceptable to the father, right, who raises him back from the dead. It uh proves that he has power over sin. It proves that he has power over death, it proves that he has power over the enemy. So all of these things are why it is important that we believe the resurrection.

The Resurrection As The Receipt

SPEAKER_00

So he claimed to be he claimed that he was gonna do this and he did it, validates his his his deity. Yes. Um, and not only did Jesus himself, while he was walking on earth in the flesh, claim that this was gonna happen, uh, but is a it's a fulfillment of scripture, right? We see it through the through the old testament, which we talked a lot last week about the crucifixion and how that points to uh Jesus Christ's ultimate sacrifice on the on the cross. But we also see uh like one just all through the old old testament this resurrection is foretold, right? And I I just think about Psalm 24. Someone someone said uh Psalm 22 is a crucifixion psalm, Psalm 23 is like the the death psalm, and then uh Psalm 24 is a resurrection psalm. Who is this king of glory? You just picture him bursting out of the grave, right? In the sin, and like who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and and mighty. Be lifted up, oh you gates, be lifted up, oh you doors. Who is this king? Make way for the king of glory, right? So it's fulfillment of all those prophetic truths. Exactly. Uh the Old Testament said it was going to happen. Jesus Christ Himself said it was gonna happen, it fulfills scripture. Um somebody said uh if the res or if the the crucifixion was the payment for the for sin, the resurrection is the receipt. What does that mean? It's the proof that it it is the proof that it was accepted. Accepted, right? Right. Yeah. If you return something, you've got to have proof that it was it was paid for it's been paid for. Exactly. And and the resurrection is the receipt for that. Yeah. Um, why is it important that we mentioned this a few minutes ago, a couple of minutes ago, why is it important that it is a bodily resurrection and not just a spiritual resurrection? Because why, I mean, I've heard you know, well-intentioned people say things like, you know, well, Jesus, of course, Jesus Christ resurrected. He's living spiritually within us today. It was this it was a spiritual resurrection, right? The spirit of Christ and his teachings and his his philosophies are going on and on, you know, so that's the resurrection.

SPEAKER_01

Sure. Except that's not what the Bible teaches in any way, shape, or form, right? The Bible teaches clearly it was a bodily resurrection. People touched him, people talked to him, he ate post-resurrection.

SPEAKER_00

So Thomas, you know, sticks my gotta stick my hand in his side, right? Here are my hands, here's my side, right? He's eating fish on the shore with the disciples. Yeah.

Why A Bodily Resurrection Matters

SPEAKER_01

So number one, the Bible doesn't describe it as a spiritual resurrection, it describes it as a bodily resurrection. Number two, because he has been resurrected, we can be resurrected, and that is also a bodily resurrection, fulfilling scripture, right? That um we will be resurrected just as he was. Um by the way, everyone is resurrected. Exactly. Believer or unbeliever, we're all resurrected, and our spirit and our body are reunited to face eternity.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Either with Christ for those who have trusted in his sacrifice on the cross as their means of salvation, or separated from Christ for those who have rejected that truth. So there is a bodily resurrection that's going to take place, but we can be Jesus was the first fruits of the resurrection, meaning there are going to be more and we can have hope that God, we can have a confidence that God is going to resurrect us just as he did his son.

SPEAKER_00

How do we know that what Jesus did was enough? Like why, why, you know, like Jesus, you know, his payment was sufficient. Was sufficient. And and well and we don't have to add anything to that, right? I mean the hymn says it. Jesus paid it all, all the Him owe, right? How do we I think the resurrection helps us see that, right? How would that how does that help us see that?

Enough For Salvation And Revelation 5

SPEAKER_01

Well we see that the wage of sin throughout Scripture is death. We see that the the price for our sin is a blood sacrifice, and we see in the book of Romans that there are no sacrifices that were sufficient other than the once-for-all perfectly satisfactory um sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So we see that. And then we see in Jesus being resurrected from the dead that God has received that sacrifice, He's accepted that on our behalf. There's no more payment that is necessary, it's paid in full.

SPEAKER_00

This is a way, uh, probably like for me, like as I think through it, like the way, I mean, that Christ has fulfilled the law, right? He says, you know, I didn't come to abolish the law or set it aside. Uh I came to fulfill it, right? Right. And and we don't sacrifice anymore, right? Because what you said earlier, Jesus is the once for all sacrifice. All the other sacrifices were were foreshadow and pointing toward the lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world. And so um Jesus fulfills the law for us totally here. He he pays the full payment for for that.

SPEAKER_01

Sunday, we're we're gonna be talking about this on resurrection Sunday. We're gonna be looking at a different passage for an Easter passage. We're gonna be looking in the book of Revelation, chapter five, uh, where we see John in the throne room of God and and and God holding the the scroll, which is you know the his his will and testament, his plan for man. Uh and no one is worthy to come take that scroll out of his hand. Nobody in earth or on earth or under earth, nobody in heaven, under heaven, nobody. Uh and they begin and John begins to weep. To weep, yeah. He he cries because he recognizes there's nobody worthy to take this uh responsibility from God. And then one of the elders says, Stop crying and look. Yeah. And he sees next to the the to the throne a lamb standing as if slain. Uh so we're just gonna unpack that on Sunday. What does that mean? A lamb who is standing as if slain, victorious in the presence of God, this lamb who is also the lion of Judah. So that that that's where we're going Sunday. So I'm excited to be preaching that text and uh that we'll we'll celebrate. So that's another reason why we can say the resurrection is is is sufficient because Jesus is the only one worthy to take the scroll from the Father's hand because he is the Lamb standing having been slain.

Defeating Death And 1 Corinthians 15

SPEAKER_00

No, exactly. I'm excited. I'm excited about this Sunday, man. That's gonna be good. That's gonna be really good. So, you know, we just see uh you know, this the validation of his deity, we see the the payment is accepted, we see the fulfillment of the law, fulfillment of scripture, we see that our resurrection through this is is guaranteed. Um he I think Jesus Christ defeats death and sin in this. How do how does the resurrection defeat death? I mean, I think this is kind of an obvious point, but I mean he's no longer dead, right? But how does he how does that defeat death for all of us?

SPEAKER_01

Well, death is the the the final battle, right? That death is the final enemy that we all fear, death, right? We have no control over death, but Christ does, right? So we all sin, we know we all sin because we all die. We all die spiritually, we all die physically, um, and we have no control over that, we have no power over that. But Christ is the life giver, he is the way, the truth, the life.

SPEAKER_00

What does the chat John chapter one says? In him was life. And that life was light in me. So he life is contained in him, he's not contained in life.

SPEAKER_01

And he says, John uh 11, I've come that you might have life and that you might have it abundantly, right? I've come to give you life. He is the life giver, and he has power over death. Death could not hold him, death could not defeat him. As much as it tried, could not do it.

SPEAKER_00

About ready to burst out in song over here. It's good stuff. It's good stuff. Um Jesus even says, you know, I I lay my life down, and if I lay it down, I can I can take it back up. Take it back up again. Right. I mean, he's just he is in sovereign even over death, even over this last enemy. And then in the in the Corinthian church, um you know, we probably the f most famous resurrection text as far as New Testament is doctrine goes is first Corinthians 15. You know, there's people that thought that they had missed the resurrection, they thought you know all these kind of things were going on, and Paul, Paul starts going in, and there are some people that say the resurrection aren't isn't gonna happen, and all this there is there is no resurrection, right? All this all this kind of stuff. And Paul just kind of lays out a case why it's so important. What does he say there?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I I would encourage everybody to to use 1 Corinthians 15 just kind of as a as a basis for their their devotional thoughts this week, their their thoughts. So uh so basically, Paul, as he's writing, he's he's addressing this issue of people in the church not believing in the resurrection. And so he gives some basic affirmations in the first 11 verses. Christ died. He literally died, yeah, he was buried, he was placed in a grave, it was a borrowed grave, he rose on the third day from the dead, bodily resurrection. He he says no one disputes that, right? No one disputes that Jesus wasn't in the grave after the third day.

SPEAKER_00

And as I think it's good to point out, I mean, he appeared to over 500 people.

SPEAKER_01

He appeared to over 500 people over a period of 40 days. He touched them, he taught them, he ate with them, he walked with them. He's walking around with them, yeah. He he is alive, right? Um we go on and we see the changed lives of the disciples who are cowering prior to this, and after seeing the resurrected Jesus Christ, they their lives are literally changed.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, these supernatural boldness.

SPEAKER_01

They do. And these these men literally lay down their lives. You don't lay down your life for a lie, not one that you you understand to not be true, right? So their lives are changed. So Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, he says, here are the basic assumptions, here are the basic affirmations. This is what happened. But then he says, here's your assumption. None of that happened. And if you assume that that happened, that's a bitter assumption. Because if you assume that happened, then our foundation is faulty, what we believe is faulty. Our faith is futile, he says. You're you're believing in vain. If Christ isn't rise, hasn't risen from the dead, you're believing in the vain in vain. And if he hasn't risen from the dead, then you're still in your sins and you're still doomed to death, separation from God. So if all of those, if if Christ has not been resurrected, everything is ruinous. Right. Everything is ruinous. This is all for nothing. Right. Yeah. Um, but he gets to verse 19 and he says, but Christ has been resurrected from the dead. And our lives um are are not hopeless. Uh I think that's actually verse 20. Um, and our lives are not hopeless. Um He is the first fruits. Um, He is our firm foundation, our faith is effective, um, our forgiveness is accomplished, our future is secure, our hope is sure. The resurrection changes everything.

SPEAKER_00

It just guarantees everything in the Christian life for us. All the promises of God are yes and Jesus, right? That's right.

SPEAKER_01

And so, man, just and it splits human history. It literally splits human history. That's a great point. Everything before it points to it, everything after it points back to it. And it literally splits the human calendar.

SPEAKER_00

And what you do with this fact, what you do with the resurrection, um that just determines it splits your life. It does. Right. It determines everything about your life, about your life.

Responding To The Resurrection

SPEAKER_01

Either here on earth or your eternal life. Exactly. Yeah.

Easter Week Services And Closing

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. And so, man, we just would encourage those who maybe are listening to Unsexy and don't know Christ, don't know what we're talking about, man. Just to understand that all of us are sinners and fall short of the glory of God, right? We we we've all sinned, we've all broken his law. He's a good, gracious king who's created all things and uh and and we've broken his law. And like a good king would, he punishes uh people who break his law. He punishes rebels. Rightly, exactly. And in his grace and his mercy and his wisdom, he gives us a son to take that punishment for us. And so if if that's you just realizing that today, man, we just encourage you to place your faith and trust in in the resurrec in the crucifixion and resurrection of of of Jesus. Um just uh maybe just a few things, man. We're we're gonna celebrate this this weekend, I think, in in a great way. We're gonna we have Wednesday night services, uh, we're going through the book of Romans right now, and then uh Friday we have a a uh special service at noon. Good good Friday. What does that look like for us?

SPEAKER_01

That's a it's one of my favorite services, but it's it's it's one of our more solemn, kind of stripped-down services, not a whole lot of bells and whistles. Not that we have a whole lot of bells and whistles to begin with, because we are the unsexy church. We are the unsexy church. But it it really is just a time to focus on what took place at the cross, the transaction that took place at the cross. God took our sin and placed it on Jesus' shoulders, and when we trust in him, he takes his righteousness and places it on us. So just a just a reverent time of reflection, scripture reading, some psalms, songs, uh, and just looking at the cross. So that that that's that good Friday service.

SPEAKER_00

Wow. Yeah, so we'll hit we'll do that. Good Friday at noon. If you can break away from work, spend your lunch hour with us. It's usually one hour. Yeah, at the most, yeah, right. Yeah. So we don't uh we don't prolong it, but uh but it's a good it is a good service. It's a good reminder uh before we get to Sunday. And Sunday, uh we have two services, one at 8 30, one at 10 45. So identical.

SPEAKER_01

They'll be the same.

SPEAKER_00

So pick a time and exactly. Um and so maybe like you said earlier, maybe this this week, just spend some time praying through, reading through uh First Corinthians 15 and just thanking God for what He's done for us, thanking Him for Um the resurrection because it means everything to us. Without without it, you know, we're to be most pitied among all men.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, if you've never considered the truth of the resurrection, I would encourage you just examine it. Yeah, research it, dig into it.

SPEAKER_00

That's a you know, there's so many theories out there. We didn't get into any of this kind of stuff, but you know, the the swoon theory, he wasn't really dead. Right. Somehow he survived all that flogging and and he survived the crucifixion and even survived being thrown into a tomb and and treated for burial and all that, and somehow got out of the tomb, you know, I just there's or they went to the wrong grave the next day. In their sorrow.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. There's so many We try to explain away the supernatural when we just accept the truth and the evidence that God gives us, which is undeniable when you just examine it. Yeah. So yeah. Exactly. And if you're if it we'd love for you to come worship with us this weekend, but go somewhere. Yeah. Right? Go somewhere Bible believing that's gonna truly celebrate the crucifixion and resurrection and just give God everything you've got.

SPEAKER_00

Yep. Yep. Well, man, it's been a good spent a good uh 30 minutes or so talking about the resurrection. Looking forward to this Sunday for sure. Look forward to every Sunday, but this Sunday, just especially looking forward to. So don't forget, if you're out there, give us a five-star rating, write us a review, share it with your friends, family, coworkers, neighbors. Send us your questions or your topics that you want an unsexy take on. You can DM us on Instagram. And as always, stay unsexy.

Head Shot

Bob Block

Host
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Darren Selvidge

Host