SPEAKER_00: I think we can all look back on our lives and we can probably identify certain points in our life where we would say that was a monumental moment in my life, that because of what happened, because of how it happened, because of the decision I made, that my life today looks the way it does.
SPEAKER_00: And that if things had happened different or if things had worked out different, that that my life today would be drastically different.
SPEAKER_00: For me, I could go back to the summer of 2011.
SPEAKER_00: My pivot point.
SPEAKER_00: 2011, working at summer camp in college, and the pivot point in my life is that at the beginning of summer, I got poison ivy.
SPEAKER_00: If I had never gotten poison ivy, I never would have met the camp nurse.
SPEAKER_00: I never would have asked the camp nurse to marry me.
SPEAKER_00: And my life today would look drastically different.
SPEAKER_00: So the pivotal point in my life is getting poison ivy in 2011.
SPEAKER_00: That's like where the hinge, where everything changed for me, was at that specific moment.
SPEAKER_00: Today, of course, is Easter Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Traditionally, the day on the calendar when the church gathers to celebrate an event known as the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: I told Diane, Happy Easter.
SPEAKER_00: She said, That's right.
SPEAKER_00: Resurrection Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection, what I would like to contend this morning, the resurrection is the pivot point for all of humanity.
SPEAKER_00: It is the event in human history that truly changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: It changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if depending on whether or not the resurrection happened, leads to two entirely different outcomes for humanity.
SPEAKER_00: Two entirely different results if Jesus did or didn't rise from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: This morning, the Bible is going to tell us what these two separate outcomes are.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to read of two very different possible realities.
SPEAKER_00: A reality in which there is no resurrection and a reality in which there is a resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to discover this morning that really it all boils down to this.
SPEAKER_00: Did Jesus rise from the dead or not?
SPEAKER_00: If, if he did, it changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: It changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for today.
SPEAKER_00: Thankful for this opportunity we have now to open up your word.
SPEAKER_00: Help me as I preach this morning to do my best to simply explain what your word says.
SPEAKER_00: We know this morning that ultimately it is your word that we need to hear because it is through your word that you speak to and communicate to us today.
SPEAKER_00: It is your very word.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Father, we've gathered here this morning because we want to hear from you.
SPEAKER_00: And we know, Father, that you have something to say in your word.
SPEAKER_00: So we ask that you would give us open ears, give us open hearts.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for those here this morning that perhaps are unsure of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that your word would do the work.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to see, help us to understand, help us to know that Jesus truly did rise from the dead, that he's living today, and that everything is different because of it.
SPEAKER_00: It's in his name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Open your Bibles if you haven't already to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, we will begin in verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians chapter 15, beginning in verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
SPEAKER_00: Paul, we notice in chapter 15 is addressing this question.
SPEAKER_00: This is the predominant question that Paul is seeking to answer in 1 Corinthians 15.
SPEAKER_00: Is there a resurrection from the dead?
SPEAKER_00: And there were many in the church in Corinth who were questioning this.
SPEAKER_00: They were questioning the feasibility, the possibility that there really is a bodily resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And they weren't unique.
SPEAKER_00: The dominant belief of the day in the Roman Empire was that there was no such thing as a bodily resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: This would have been the normal belief.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we have a quote here from one commentator on the Times that says, Christianity was born into a world where its central claim was known to be false.
SPEAKER_00: Outside of Judaism, nobody believed in the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Can you let that settle in for just a minute?
SPEAKER_00: This is the culture, the period of time into which Christianity was born.
SPEAKER_00: A time in which nobody believed in a bodily resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, here the core claim of Christianity is that there is a resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: We would say today that things really aren't all that different, are they?
SPEAKER_00: We are pressured to think that our belief in the resurrection as Christians is childlike, it's backwards, it's superstitious.
SPEAKER_00: After all, we believe in what is observable science.
SPEAKER_00: And because we cannot observe a resurrection from the dead, it must be a fairy tale.
SPEAKER_00: If this is true, if it's true that there is no resurrection of the dead, then what does that mean for me and you today?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Paul spells it out for us in the text.
SPEAKER_00: If you continue on, in verse 13, we read this.
SPEAKER_00: But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
SPEAKER_00: And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.
SPEAKER_00: We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised.
SPEAKER_00: For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
SPEAKER_00: And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.
SPEAKER_00: Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
SPEAKER_00: If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
SPEAKER_00: Paul lays out several ramifications here that if the resurrection were just a made-up story, this is what this would mean for me and you today.
SPEAKER_00: And the very first and most important concept here is that there would be no resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it's from this statement that then Paul draws out all of the other ramifications.
SPEAKER_00: If there is no resurrection, that that means Jesus never rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And if Jesus never rose from the dead, that's really bad news.
SPEAKER_00: Did you catch that in the text?
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of bad things that Paul lays out here.
SPEAKER_00: It's bad news if Jesus is still in the grave.
SPEAKER_00: What does he spell out for us?
SPEAKER_00: First of all, the apostles are all liars.
SPEAKER_00: The apostles are all liars.
SPEAKER_00: And so if the apostles are all liars, you can go ahead and you can take this and you can go toss it in the nearest waste bin.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why do I say that?
SPEAKER_00: Because if the apostles lied about the resurrection, why would you listen to anything else they have to say?
SPEAKER_00: This is what's so ridiculous about people that say, you know, I don't believe in like the superstitious stuff about the Bible, but like I believe there's good teachings and I believe there's moral teachings and it's a good way to live your life.
SPEAKER_00: And I'd say, what?
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: If these guys lied about Jesus rising from the dead, why would you take any moral advice from them?
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand how that doesn't make sense?
SPEAKER_00: Like if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, don't bother coming to church.
SPEAKER_00: Don't bother listening to what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: It's all hogwash, it's meaningless.
SPEAKER_00: This is Paul's point.
SPEAKER_00: He says if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, we're all liars.
SPEAKER_00: So don't listen to us.
SPEAKER_00: So this is the first ramification.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, he tells us what?
SPEAKER_00: You're still in your sin.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us that Jesus died on the cross in order to pay for sin.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reason for the crucifixion.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus died on the cross to receive the wrath of God on sin and to pay the price to redeem us so that we don't have to receive God's wrath for sin.
SPEAKER_00: He was our substitute sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And so if Jesus is still in the grave, what that communicates, what that signifies, is that his sacrifice was not sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus is still in the grave, it means that his payment wasn't enough.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't enough to pay for sin because he's still dead.
SPEAKER_00: Which means that there is still a payment for sin that is required, which therefore puts us in a precarious position this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Because now who's accountable for our sin?
SPEAKER_00: We are.
SPEAKER_00: We still have to pay.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, we could summarize the final ramification of this as having no hope.
SPEAKER_00: We have no hope.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus promised eternal life to those who believed in him.
SPEAKER_00: If you believe in me, you will receive everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus promised his followers victory over death, life everlasting with God.
SPEAKER_00: But if Jesus himself couldn't conquer death, then how can we believe him?
SPEAKER_00: How can we believe in his promise?
SPEAKER_00: If he's still dead in the grave, what authority does he have to say that he can give us life?
SPEAKER_00: If he can't even be alive himself?
SPEAKER_00: Do you recognize that if Jesus is still in the grave and we are placing all of our hope in a dead man, then we truly have no hope.
SPEAKER_00: We have no hope.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody here played Jenga before?
SPEAKER_00: Yes?
SPEAKER_00: A few?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, if you are a player of the game Jenga, you know how the game works, that there is a block tower that you construct to start the game.
SPEAKER_00: And as everybody goes around the table and takes their turns, you take out a block and then you put it on top.
SPEAKER_00: And your goal is to take out as many blocks as you can without knocking the tower over.
SPEAKER_00: And any expert in Jenga would tell you that you like do a little wiggle with the block, and if it's loose, you know it's good.
SPEAKER_00: But if it doesn't move, you know don't take that block out.
SPEAKER_00: Some people say that's cheating, but I disagree.
SPEAKER_00: If you get to a point in Jenga and you are the one that takes out the block and the tower collapses, you lose.
SPEAKER_00: Because you have taken out the one block that's holding the entire structure up.
SPEAKER_00: You've removed it, and the rest of the tower crumbles to the ground.
SPEAKER_00: This is the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the resurrection is to Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: Everything relies upon this.
SPEAKER_00: Did Jesus rise from the dead?
SPEAKER_00: If he rose from the dead, then everything else about Christianity, it all locks into place and makes perfect logical sense, and we believe it because everything's built on it.
SPEAKER_00: But if you take away the resurrection, then the rest of everything else that's involved with being a Christian, it just collapses to the ground.
SPEAKER_00: It has nothing to stand on.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand this morning how essential this is?
SPEAKER_00: It is everything.
SPEAKER_00: Did Jesus rise from the dead or did he not?
SPEAKER_00: That's what it boils down to.
SPEAKER_00: Seriously.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it boils down to.
SPEAKER_00: Which is why Paul makes sure to clarify in verse 20, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: The reality, the fact, is that Jesus truly did rise from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting, this time of year, of course, we, for those that enjoy watching college basketball, you know this is the year in which, or this is the time of year in which you fill out a bracket.
SPEAKER_00: You try to pick all of the right teams of who's going to win the March Madness tournament.
SPEAKER_00: And everybody that picked Michigan is looking really good right now.
SPEAKER_00: But did you know that they they always they always do these bracket challenges and they say, we'll offer you, you know, millions of dollars if you can pick the perfect bracket?
SPEAKER_00: Meaning you pick every single game exactly correct.
SPEAKER_00: So you don't get any wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And there's always a mass challenge.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's millions of people that fill out these brackets every year to try to pick the perfect bracket.
SPEAKER_00: But do you know, do you know what the statistical odds are of actually picking a bracket that is 100% correct?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what the statistical odds are?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna read some some events that are a higher likelihood than picking the perfect bracket.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready for this?
SPEAKER_00: You are more likely to be struck by lightning.
SPEAKER_00: Seriously, statistically speaking, you are more likely to be struck by lightning than to pick the perfect bracket.
SPEAKER_00: You are more likely to win the Powerball twice in your lifetime than to pick the perfect bracket.
SPEAKER_00: You are more likely to be attacked by a shark.
SPEAKER_00: You are more likely to be hit by a meteor.
SPEAKER_00: I think my favorite, if you add some of these statistics up, you are more likely to be eaten by a shark and get struck by lightning in the process.
SPEAKER_00: Statistically, this is true.
SPEAKER_00: Mathematically, this is true.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not lying, than it is to pick the perfect bracket.
SPEAKER_00: And yet I try every year.
SPEAKER_00: Every year there's a glimmer of hope.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe just maybe, I'll be the one.
SPEAKER_00: The reason I bring all of this up is because I think that there are many people today that think of the Christian faith in these terms.
SPEAKER_00: The statistical possibility that someone actually rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: You're basing your entire life, the entirety of your faith is based on the possibility that a man literally died and then laid in the ground three days and then woke up and walked out?
SPEAKER_00: That's what you're basing your faith on.
SPEAKER_00: And to a lot of people, they say, This is a fairy tale.
SPEAKER_00: This is a statistical impossibility.
SPEAKER_00: That's March Madness faith.
SPEAKER_00: So why are you bothering?
SPEAKER_00: Why do you bother?
SPEAKER_00: Your faith is absurd.
SPEAKER_00: But is it?
SPEAKER_00: Is it really?
SPEAKER_00: I want to walk through this morning just a few reasons why I think that this isn't this isn't a shot in the dark kind of a faith for the believer.
SPEAKER_00: But in fact, if your faith rests on the resurrection, you have very solid historical ground that you are standing on.
SPEAKER_00: That this God didn't make it so that it would be this crazy wild fantasy type thing that you have to believe.
SPEAKER_00: This is real.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you why.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of arguments that can be used.
SPEAKER_00: I picked out just a few of my favorite.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, the eyewitness accounts.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection, this is interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Most world religions are based off of like the experience of one person in isolation.
SPEAKER_00: Christianity is the exact opposite.
SPEAKER_00: Hundreds of people witnessed to the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Hundreds of people.
SPEAKER_00: They're listed in the pages of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Hundreds of people saw Jesus alive after he died on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: For example, you notice Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Peter, John, and the Roman guards all witness to the empty tomb right away.
SPEAKER_00: The eyewitnesses of the resurrected Jesus include, again, Mary Magdalene, the 11 remaining disciples on multiple occasions, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, James, that would be Jesus' half-brother James, and more than 500 people, the Bible tells us, 500 people all at once, which many people believe is a reference to when Jesus gave the Great Commission at the end of the book of Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: And then later Saul, who would become Paul, all of these individuals saw Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They witnessed, they saw it.
SPEAKER_00: So the eyewitness accounts are a powerful historical reality that give proof, that give veracity to the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that these eyewitness accounts, they were recorded accurately.
SPEAKER_00: These were accurately recorded.
SPEAKER_00: If you go to the book of Luke, and you don't have to go there, but I can read it for you, Luke chapter 1, verses 1 through 4.
SPEAKER_00: Says, inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all these things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that the gospel writer Luke, he gives the premise of writing the gospel record.
SPEAKER_00: And what is it?
SPEAKER_00: So that you can know for sure that these things actually happened.
SPEAKER_00: And so he went to great lengths interviewing eyewitnesses, establishing the correct record.
SPEAKER_00: This was investigative journalism.
SPEAKER_00: And Luke is collecting all this information and compiling it in an orderly way.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: So that people 2,000 years ago could read the accounts of the eyewitnesses and know what happened.
SPEAKER_00: You look at the other gospel.
SPEAKER_00: John writes a similar, it's his ending, it's in John's ending, but the ending at the ending of the Gospel of the Book of John, John writes something very similar.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm writing these things that you may know.
SPEAKER_00: You can know these things happened and believe.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so so these were recorded accurately, but then the question then becomes, well, how do we know?
SPEAKER_00: These are old, old documents.
SPEAKER_00: How do we know that they are actually accurate?
SPEAKER_00: Like, is this really what was written 2,000 years ago?
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we think of it like the game of telephone.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the game of telephone where you all sit in a circle and somebody whispers, you know, uh farmer pepper pepper farmer picked a bunch of purple pickles, prickly pickles.
SPEAKER_00: Like you'd give some kind of crazy statement, right?
SPEAKER_00: And it goes around the circle and you have to whisper it to the next person next to you.
SPEAKER_00: And they whisper it to them, and they whisper it to them.
SPEAKER_00: And by the time it gets to the end, it's some crazy phrase that was nothing like what was originally said because the words get jarbled up as you go along.
SPEAKER_00: And some people think, well, is that what happened with the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Luke did try to write down what happened, but this is like 2,000 years old.
SPEAKER_00: Did things get changed over time?
SPEAKER_00: The answer is no.
SPEAKER_00: You can do you can spend a lifetime studying uh this specific science, um, but you can go back and we have access to thousands of copies of scripture, going all the way back to the first and second century.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're talking about some of the copies that were written very shortly after the original documents were written.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what they have found?
SPEAKER_00: Everything is very much the same.
SPEAKER_00: That the the old, old copies from like the second century, they match them up with what we have today, and it's almost word for word, it's almost exactly the same.
SPEAKER_00: Which tells us what?
SPEAKER_00: This is reliable.
SPEAKER_00: You know that when you read the Gospel of Luke, that that is what he wrote 2,000 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: It is what he wrote.
SPEAKER_00: Now, whether you believe it or not, that's up to you.
SPEAKER_00: But this is accurate, it's a reliable record of what happened.
SPEAKER_00: So then that leads us to another question.
SPEAKER_00: What if the people that told the story of the resurrection all made it up?
SPEAKER_00: These hundreds of people, they all just made this all up because they really wanted what Jesus was saying to be true.
SPEAKER_00: So they made up the story later that he rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: They actually stole his body and hid it so that nobody would find it, right?
SPEAKER_00: This is what the religious leaders were worried about.
SPEAKER_00: So what if it was true?
SPEAKER_00: What if the disciples did make up the story?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if that were the case, if the disciples did make up the story of the resurrection, they would have created a much better story.
SPEAKER_00: What I mean by that is that the story of the resurrection was not a story that would have been easily believed by the Roman culture that they lived in.
SPEAKER_00: And there's several.
SPEAKER_00: Reasons why you could say that.
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is something you can study out yourself.
SPEAKER_00: But first of all, they wouldn't have included details of Jesus' suffering, his pain, and his weakness.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because these details repulsed the Romans.
SPEAKER_00: The Romans respected strength.
SPEAKER_00: They respected power.
SPEAKER_00: Their gods were powerful beings that were strong.
SPEAKER_00: Their gods that they worshiped, they liked them strong.
SPEAKER_00: And so here we have Jesus, you know, weeping in the garden and just, you know, getting captured by a few Roman soldiers, getting beaten and suffering.
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't, the Romans wouldn't like those details, yet they're included in the account.
SPEAKER_00: So if the disciples were trying to convince people of the truth, they would have written the story differently.
SPEAKER_00: Are you tracking with me?
SPEAKER_00: These details that they included, they point us to the fact that this was, this was not made up.
SPEAKER_00: This was just a true story.
SPEAKER_00: They were simply telling the details of what actually happened.
SPEAKER_00: If they made it up, they would not have included the testimony of the women.
SPEAKER_00: In those days, the testimony of the women was considered not as reliable as the testimony of men.
SPEAKER_00: And so if they were writing into their culture and they were making up a story, by the way, who were the ones that first discovered the empty tomb?
SPEAKER_00: The female disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Who did Jesus appear to first?
SPEAKER_00: The female disciples.
SPEAKER_00: If the disciples were trying to write a story that was believable to the Romans, guess who would have been the ones to discover the empty tomb?
SPEAKER_00: And guess who would have been the ones to have met the resurrected Jesus first?
SPEAKER_00: The men.
SPEAKER_00: And then you even have other pagan philosophers, a guy named Chelsus.
SPEAKER_00: You can look this up.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote in those times and he said, this would be a lot more believable if Jesus had actually appeared to like the rich and powerful people, like the rulers, the elites.
SPEAKER_00: Like, why didn't he go to the governor?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, again, so if the if the disciples were trying to make a story that was believable, it would be different than what they wrote down.
SPEAKER_00: They probably wouldn't have included the embarrassing details of them forsaking Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't have included the details of Peter denying Jesus three times.
SPEAKER_00: They looked pretty bad, didn't they?
SPEAKER_00: If they were making up the story, you make up a story, you're the hero of the story, aren't you?
SPEAKER_00: That's why I always sound so good in all my stories.
SPEAKER_00: Don't make yourself look bad.
SPEAKER_00: Seriously, the disciples wouldn't have included those details.
SPEAKER_00: These things, if you look back with a critical eye at the accounts, it's very enlightening.
SPEAKER_00: If it was a made-up story, it wouldn't read like this, which tells us what?
SPEAKER_00: They were just telling the truth.
SPEAKER_00: They were just telling what happened.
SPEAKER_00: Because it actually happened.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting as well if you think about how the disciples died.
SPEAKER_00: According to tradition, almost all of Jesus' disciples died horrific deaths.
SPEAKER_00: They were martyred.
SPEAKER_00: It is very rare to die for a lie.
SPEAKER_00: And there's research, I mean, there's modern research that goes into this that shows that under extreme severe suffering, physical suffering, and people will say anything.
SPEAKER_00: And they won't lie.
SPEAKER_00: They won't lie about, they won't hold to a lie.
SPEAKER_00: And all of them did.
SPEAKER_00: Every single one of them.
SPEAKER_00: You mean that this they all made up the story, and then they all suffered excruciating deaths in order to continue a lie?
SPEAKER_00: Not one of them, one of them, not one of them, would have said, okay, okay, don't kill me.
SPEAKER_00: We made it up.
SPEAKER_00: Not one did that?
SPEAKER_00: Again.
SPEAKER_00: We're just asking questions this morning.
SPEAKER_00: It's up to you to decide if you believe this or not, but this is, these are the things you've got to think through.
SPEAKER_00: How about the last one?
SPEAKER_00: The brothers, the half-brothers of Jesus, are recorded as being very skeptical of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They were very skeptical of him.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, they thought he was crazy.
SPEAKER_00: That's recorded for us.
SPEAKER_00: They thought he was crazy.
SPEAKER_00: And yet you mean to tell me that the half-brother of Jesus, James, eventually became the pastor of the church in Jerusalem, a church that suffered severe persecution, by the way?
SPEAKER_00: What happened?
SPEAKER_00: What only feasible events could have happened that would have caused somebody who was a severe skeptic to become a true believer and leader in the church?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe because he saw his half-brother alive after he died.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't that do it for you?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I was wrong.
SPEAKER_00: You were right.
SPEAKER_00: I believe you.
SPEAKER_00: Saul, another great example.
SPEAKER_00: Saul, it says Pharisee of the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: He had a zeal to persecute the church.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Saul was going around dragging people out, throwing them in prison.
SPEAKER_00: He was trying to stamp out Christianity before he could even get started.
SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden he becomes the greatest missionary in all of Christianity?
SPEAKER_00: What explains the conversion of someone like that?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe because he saw Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Oops.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
SPEAKER_00: I'll give my life to you now.
SPEAKER_00: Because guess what?
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection proves it.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: It's everything.
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, there's a lot more you could get into here.
SPEAKER_00: All of these things point us to the fact that belief in the resurrection is not a shot in the dark kind of a faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's not throwing a dart at the board and just randomly picking, oh, I guess I picked Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: What Christianity is founded on is historically verified in many different ways.
SPEAKER_00: That he truly did rise from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so now that we've established that, the good news.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus really did rise from the dead, how does that change everything for you this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Paul tells us, back to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, after he says, in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, he says, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
SPEAKER_00: For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
SPEAKER_00: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order.
SPEAKER_00: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: First major ramification if there is a resurrection, we're alive.
SPEAKER_00: We're made alive in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We notice in the text that Paul is drawing a contrast between Adam and Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And this is something he's going to dig into a little bit more as we continue on in chapter 15 in the next week or two.
SPEAKER_00: But we notice that Adam is pointed to as the one who sinned by rebelling against his creator.
SPEAKER_00: This is a reference to Genesis chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: He sinned, rebelled against his creator, and because of his sin, death entered into humanity.
SPEAKER_00: It's not as God originally designed.
SPEAKER_00: But because of Adam's rebellion, there was a divide, a chasm, a separation between God and man, an alienation that took place, and with that came death.
SPEAKER_00: And that's because of Adam's sin.
SPEAKER_00: And because we are all sons and daughters of Adam this morning, we read that we are born into this rebellion, and therefore we are born dead in our trespasses and in our sin.
SPEAKER_00: We are born estranged from God.
SPEAKER_00: We are born destined to suffer forever as a penalty for our sin and for our rebellion.
SPEAKER_00: But notice the contrast Paul draws here.
SPEAKER_00: He says, that's true for Adam, and we're all in Adam.
SPEAKER_00: But then Jesus came, the second Adam.
SPEAKER_00: And in the second Adam, in Jesus, he didn't bring death, he brought life.
SPEAKER_00: He brought life, which means that we all can be made alive.
SPEAKER_00: We can have our sins forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: We can be reconciled with God, and then we can have the promise of eternal life with God.
SPEAKER_00: This is all because of what Jesus did at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection makes all of this possible for us today.
SPEAKER_00: We can be made alive.
SPEAKER_00: And we recognize that Jesus tells us exactly how this happens.
SPEAKER_00: Believe in me.
SPEAKER_00: Trust in me.
SPEAKER_00: Place your faith and trust in me and in my sacrifice for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: And you will have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how can we be certain of this?
SPEAKER_00: We already alluded to this a little bit earlier.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus was dead in the grave, why would we ever believe he can give us life?
SPEAKER_00: But notice the term that Paul uses here in the text.
SPEAKER_00: What does he refer to?
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The first fruits.
SPEAKER_00: Gail asked me this morning if I'm going to do a garden this year.
SPEAKER_00: I said, maybe I'll do a couple pots.
SPEAKER_00: I've had my bad luck with gardening to last a lifetime, I feel like.
SPEAKER_00: But the one thing I could grow was something that required like no work.
SPEAKER_00: My strawberry patch.
SPEAKER_00: And and strawberry, it would be, we're getting close.
SPEAKER_00: We're getting close right around Father's Day.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they'd be really ripe and juicy.
SPEAKER_00: But you knew, you knew in the spring, you knew the patch had survived and was doing well when you would get to that first little green bulb, and you'd say, ah, strawberry season is nigh.
SPEAKER_00: And you'd look at that green bulb, and that, and so this is an agricultural term that referred to the very first part of the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason why it's called the first fruits is because it's the promise that if if you are starting to see fruits come from your plants, it is the promise that those are healthy, living, flourishing plants that are going to produce more.
SPEAKER_00: And I'd see that first strawberry and I'd say, here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Strawberry shortcake, liz warm up the oven, because more strawberries are coming.
SPEAKER_00: And that was the promise.
SPEAKER_00: It was the promise.
SPEAKER_00: And notice the beauty of how Paul uses this term.
SPEAKER_00: He says, the resurrection of Jesus is the first fruits, which tells us what today.
SPEAKER_00: There's more coming.
SPEAKER_00: There's more resurrection coming.
SPEAKER_00: And it's you and it's me, it's those who place their faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We have the assurance that if Jesus rose from the dead and is living today, that we too have this same resurrection life.
SPEAKER_00: The grave has no hold on you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If your faith is in Jesus, He's the first fruits.
SPEAKER_00: His resurrection offer is genuine.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the second ramification in verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
SPEAKER_00: For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
SPEAKER_00: The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
SPEAKER_00: For God has put all things in subjection under his feet.
SPEAKER_00: But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he is accepted, who put all things in subjection under him.
SPEAKER_00: But when all things are subjected to him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to Him who put all things in subjection under Him.
SPEAKER_00: The second ramification we read in the text, Jesus is the victor.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the victor.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is alive today.
SPEAKER_00: We read here in the text that there will come a day when he will come back.
SPEAKER_00: And when he comes back, that will be a momentous day, another pivot point in all of human history.
SPEAKER_00: Because what's Jesus going to do?
SPEAKER_00: He's going to come back to earth and he's going to establish his rule and his reign.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God will be here on earth, with Jesus as our King, in the flesh, ruling and reigning.
SPEAKER_00: His reign will be good, it will be just, it will be righteous, it will be the golden age of all of humanity when Jesus comes back and notice that at his return that this rule includes defeating and subjecting all the enemies of God.
SPEAKER_00: We notice this expressed a few different ways as we think about who are these enemies.
SPEAKER_00: In one sense, these are the human rulers who've rebelled against God, human kingdoms who have stood against the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We notice here that the kingdoms of men will be usurped and replaced with the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: We notice a reference to rule and authority and power.
SPEAKER_00: Some believe these are references to demonic forces, Satan and his demonic host who are standing in opposition to God.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, we notice death itself, the final enemy to be destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: Death.
SPEAKER_00: What's interesting is in verse 25, you notice that we read that he will reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
SPEAKER_00: It would have been common practice in ancient times, after an enemy had been conquered, for that enemy general or king or ruler to be brought before the conquering general, and he would be forced to kneel down at the feet of the one who had conquered.
SPEAKER_00: The imagery was that you had been completely and fully defeated, and that your head now stands under the feet of the one who's conquered you.
SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit like when I get into a wrestling match with my four sons, and I'm always the victor for now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm still the victor.
SPEAKER_00: And after the wrestling match is over, I like to go, I like to get over to my boys and I put my foot on them and I say, I'm the victor.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, ah, and they try to get out of me, but it's like, I'm the victor.
SPEAKER_00: They're under my feet, I've crushed them.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the imagery, this is the Old Testament imagery.
SPEAKER_00: It's possible this is what is being referred to here, but I actually think the reference goes even further than that.
SPEAKER_00: If you look in Genesis chapter 3, one of the darkest days in all of human history.
SPEAKER_00: Adam and Eve fall.
SPEAKER_00: They believe the lie of the serpent, the great deceiver, they disobey God.
SPEAKER_00: They think they know better, they think that what they can have is good and better than what God can offer.
SPEAKER_00: So they rebel against their creator.
SPEAKER_00: And sin and death enter into humanity.
SPEAKER_00: There are severe consequences to this.
SPEAKER_00: But woven into this very dark account is a glimmer of hope.
SPEAKER_00: And that glimmer of hope is mentioned in Genesis chapter 3 in verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: God addresses the serpent, the deceiver, the great enemy of God.
SPEAKER_00: And what does he tell him in verse 15?
SPEAKER_00: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.
SPEAKER_00: What God foretells here is that there is going to be a battle.
SPEAKER_00: There is a battle, there is a struggle that is going to take place throughout the course of human history.
SPEAKER_00: And that battle is between the seed of the woman, the descendants of the woman, and the seed of the serpent, the enemy of God.
SPEAKER_00: And this battle is going to be waged, and there's going to be this struggle and this hostility between these two forces until something happens.
SPEAKER_00: And what is that something that God tells us in this verse?
SPEAKER_00: He shall bruise your head.
SPEAKER_00: And you shall bruise his heel.
SPEAKER_00: Two different wounds.
SPEAKER_00: One painful, but not lethal, one absolutely lethal.
SPEAKER_00: And what we notice here, I think, is a direct connection to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
SPEAKER_00: When he says what?
SPEAKER_00: He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning that this is the fulfillment of the promise of Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: That there is coming a day when the enemies of God will have their heads crushed by the Son of God, the seed of the woman, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This victory has already been won at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: It's already been won.
SPEAKER_00: But there is a final, full, complete, and total victory that is coming on the day that Jesus comes back.
SPEAKER_00: And we notice on this day the enemies of God will be fully, totally, completely destroyed, crushed under the feet of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And then what?
SPEAKER_00: At the end of verse 28?
SPEAKER_00: That God may be all in all.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning the glory of God will be fully recognized and reflected in all of creation.
SPEAKER_00: The early church father Augustine commented on this verse and said this: God will be the consummation or the fulfillment of all our desiring, the object of our unending vision, of our unlessening love, of our unwearying praise.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God is the reason for your existence today, and he is the culmination of your existence.
SPEAKER_00: You will spend eternity in his presence, enjoying him, and delighting in his goodness for the rest of your days.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is clear.
SPEAKER_00: This is good news.
SPEAKER_00: But how is it good news to you?
SPEAKER_00: It requires that you receive the gift.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here this morning, any of you have never placed your own personal faith and trust in Jesus to save you, then your destiny is what we described in the first half of the sermon today.
SPEAKER_00: You are to be most pitied because you are without hope.
SPEAKER_00: But the beauty of Resurrection Sunday is that we do have hope today.
SPEAKER_00: And our hope is based on the historical fact that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead and offers you forgiveness for your sin and offers you eternal life if you choose to place your own personal faith and trust in Him.
SPEAKER_00: Could I challenge you this morning, if you've never done so?
SPEAKER_00: Don't leave here today.
SPEAKER_00: Don't leave here today without placing your faith and trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There are several folks here who would love to spend some time with you and explain to you more how you can know for sure that your sins are forgiven, how you can know for sure that you will participate in the resurrection of the dead with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, I'd be happy to spend some time with you and share more as well.
SPEAKER_00: But my challenge is don't leave here.
SPEAKER_00: Don't leave here if you don't know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know for sure that your destiny is secure.
SPEAKER_00: Are you thankful for the resurrection this morning?
SPEAKER_00: He is risen.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for today.
SPEAKER_00: Thankful for this opportunity we've had to open up your word and to talk about the resurrection and to look at what the Bible states with great clarity.
SPEAKER_00: That there are ultimately two destinies.
SPEAKER_00: There's two destinies.
SPEAKER_00: And if we don't, if we don't place our faith in Jesus, then we know that we are essentially doomed.
SPEAKER_00: Destined to have no hope.
SPEAKER_00: But we are so thankful this morning that Jesus truly did rise from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful he's alive today.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful that he has given us forgiveness, he's given us life, and that this is our hope today.
SPEAKER_00: Life everlasting with you.
SPEAKER_00: What could be better than that, God?
SPEAKER_00: We desire you, we want you, we love you, God.
SPEAKER_00: We can't wait to be with you forever.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name I pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.