WEBVTT 00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:05.440 None of you out there is beyond the pale. 00:00:05.599 --> 00:00:11.119 None of you is so far from God that you're just in this place of cold darkness and God's forgotten about you. 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:12.240 Not at all. 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:13.679 Not at all. 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:22.160 This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God. 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:27.199 For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org. 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:31.039 Amen. 00:00:31.199 --> 00:00:31.600 Amen. 00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:32.399 Let's pray together. 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:43.359 Father, we uh thank you for the for the life uh that you live, the death that you endured, uh, the burial uh that you underwent, and the resurrection that you demonstrated. 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:48.479 Uh and because of that, Lord, it's a reminder that you're the first fruit of those from among the dead. 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:55.759 And so uh for us who believe uh death is not the end, it is just the beginning to everything that we've looked forward to. 00:00:55.920 --> 00:00:59.840 And so, Lord, today, let I want to sing a little bit louder like we just sang about. 00:00:59.920 --> 00:01:01.280 I want to sing a little bit louder. 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:07.280 I want the gospel to ring and resonate out of me to the glory of God and the edification of my people. 00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:10.239 And so, Holy Spirit, illuminate the word today. 00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:17.040 Let us be reminded and reoriented as we remember all the things that Easter reminds us of. 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:19.359 Now, Holy Spirit, have your way with us now. 00:01:19.519 --> 00:01:20.799 We pray in Jesus' name. 00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:22.959 And everyone said, Amen. 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:23.599 Amen. 00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:26.000 You can have a seat if you're if you're standing. 00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:28.719 Uh if you've got a Bible there at home, take it if it would. 00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:31.439 If you wouldn't open up to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 00:01:31.599 --> 00:01:33.200 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:37.359 I want to talk to you on this Easter Sunday about what Easter reminds us of. 00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:39.040 What Easter reminds us of. 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:43.920 Whether you go to church every Sunday or you just go to church once a year and it's during Easter. 00:01:44.079 --> 00:01:47.840 Uh everybody engages in specific behaviors this time of year. 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:49.599 Uh, depending on how you're wired up. 00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:55.439 Some people get a new pair of wranglers, get their boots shined, some people get a new dress, they get an Easter hat for their kids. 00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:59.120 Mom buys a big 38-pound ham, whatever you do. 00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:05.760 Uh, but there's something in you that's kind of reminded and reoriented around, hey, I want to go to church on this day. 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:09.680 You may think 51 other Sundays of the year, the church is full of hypocrites. 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:15.199 I don't care about those people, but on that day, hey, there's something in me that kind of is drawn towards this. 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:20.319 And so I want to give you words for what you're being reminded of from the word this morning. 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:27.280 Now I want to read the first 11 verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 15 as we think about what Easter reminds us of. 00:02:27.520 --> 00:02:37.599 The Bible says this, uh, 1 Corinthians 15, 1, Paul says, now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel that I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand and by which you are being saved. 00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:41.919 If you hold fast to the word that I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. 00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:45.439 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:55.759 That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures, and then he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 00:02:55.919 --> 00:03:01.680 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom were still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:08.800 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:14.800 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 00:03:15.199 --> 00:03:21.280 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me was not in vain. 00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:28.479 On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 00:03:28.719 --> 00:03:34.000 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:43.520 This is uh uh one of the greatest passages on the resurrection, and I just want to use it uh just to remind us uh what Easter reminds us of. 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:45.599 And it's basically four things right out of the text. 00:03:45.759 --> 00:03:48.479 The first thing is this is that Easter reminds us of the gospel. 00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:50.240 Easter reminds us of the gospel. 00:03:50.400 --> 00:04:00.000 Paul begins this great chapter by saying, I want to remind you, brothers, of the gospel that I preach to you, which you received, which you in which you stand and by which you're being saved. 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:05.759 Then he says, unless uh if you hold fast to the word that I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:10.240 And it reminds us, Easter reminds us first and foremost of the gospel. 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:12.879 And I want to remind you of the gospel for two reasons. 00:04:13.039 --> 00:04:16.639 Number one, right here in the text, because many people believed in vain. 00:04:16.879 --> 00:04:18.399 Many people believe in vain. 00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:24.079 But now we say vain, we mean little to no consequence in their actual lived life. 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:32.879 They said some words or they felt a feeling at vacation Bible school when they were nine or when they were 15 at youth camp or whatever, but it never really shows up. 00:04:32.959 --> 00:04:40.480 The truth that they professed never really gets trafficked in their life and lived out in the nitty-gritty details of their relationship. 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:49.839 They're not forgiving, they're not gracious, they're not loving, they keep score, and over time they just kind of get to a point where they choke on their own hypocrisy and they're like, who am I kidding? 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:51.279 I really don't believe this. 00:04:51.439 --> 00:04:53.519 I don't read the Bible, not because I don't believe it anymore. 00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:55.600 It's just it's so foreign to me. 00:04:55.839 --> 00:04:59.680 The life that these people live looks nothing like the life that I live. 00:04:59.759 --> 00:05:00.399 And here's why. 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:04.399 Not because the Bible isn't true, it's just that these people believed in vain. 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:12.800 They might have given emotional assent to the truths of Christianity, but they did not have an experience, a transforming experience. 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:20.480 As that great theologian Sting said in his autobiography, as he was talking about the fact that he's never really been born again. 00:05:20.639 --> 00:05:21.680 He said it like this. 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:24.000 This is what the gospel does to people. 00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:28.160 He said, I've never had a born-again experience, and I say that with some regret. 00:05:28.319 --> 00:05:37.199 Oh, I've given lip service to the idea, but a devastating, ego-destroying, ontological epiphany I simply have not had. 00:05:37.759 --> 00:05:38.879 Now hear that again. 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:46.000 Not all the other gibberish, but this this here's Sting, a man that's made almost a billion dollars in the music industry, and he says this. 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:48.319 I say this with some regret. 00:05:48.800 --> 00:05:50.959 He's believed a lot of things. 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:54.319 But what he's believed is just can be summed up with one word. 00:05:54.399 --> 00:05:56.160 The Bible uses the word vain. 00:05:56.800 --> 00:05:57.199 Vain. 00:05:57.279 --> 00:06:03.439 I want to remind you of the gospel because many people believe in vain because they don't believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus. 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:08.240 Secondly, here's another reason is because our natural drift is towards forgetting. 00:06:08.399 --> 00:06:11.439 Our natural drift is people is towards forgetting. 00:06:11.519 --> 00:06:19.439 It's kind of like, oh, if you want to see uh what I mean, think of the last tragedy that that befell America, our country. 00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:19.839 Okay? 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:21.120 Uh it was 9-11. 00:06:21.279 --> 00:06:25.920 The Sunday after 9-11, churches were packed, and people are like, oh, this is spiritual awakening. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:27.920 The next Sunday, back to normal. 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:31.680 Because we start off great and then we just kind of drift. 00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:34.560 Our natural tendency is to drift. 00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:41.519 And the drift started a couple generations ago, and now we are seeing the bad fruit of what began a long time ago. 00:06:41.600 --> 00:06:47.279 With my, I use myself as an example, with my grandparents' generation, the gospel was believed. 00:06:47.439 --> 00:06:49.040 It was just, of course, we go to church. 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:50.639 I mean, those cats believed it so much. 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:53.360 They went Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. 00:06:53.439 --> 00:06:56.800 I'm not saying let's get crazy and get back to that, but the gospel was believed. 00:06:56.959 --> 00:06:59.279 It was just, of course, this is what we do, okay? 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:03.360 So with that generation, with my parents' generation, the gospel was assumed. 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:04.399 It's just assumed. 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:05.680 Hey, everybody believes this, right? 00:07:05.759 --> 00:07:07.600 I mean, you're you're good, you're good, we're good, okay. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:08.399 Let's go. 00:07:08.560 --> 00:07:14.959 We don't have to get down to the nitty-gritty details of who Jesus is and what he died on the cross and what he died for. 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:22.639 So the gospel was believed by one generation, it was assumed by the next generation, my generation, we confused the gospel. 00:07:22.879 --> 00:07:33.199 We begin to kind of mix in this stuff like the new age and self-help and pop psychology, and the gospel got the the gospel waters got a little muddied and a little murky. 00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:34.319 It's just confused. 00:07:34.399 --> 00:07:38.240 It's hard to see Jesus as the blazing center of it all. 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:41.439 And now my kids' generation, the gospel's lost. 00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:43.920 They're called post-Christian. 00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:48.079 We're afraid to say what's obvious is that we just lost the gospel. 00:07:48.319 --> 00:07:49.759 We lost the gospel. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:55.439 Uh a writer that I've been reading a book recently by a guy named Kevin DeYoung, he captures it really well. 00:07:55.600 --> 00:08:00.399 He says this, he says the only thing more difficult than finding the truth is not losing it. 00:08:00.560 --> 00:08:03.839 What starts out as new and precious becomes plain and old. 00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:07.439 What begins a thrilling discovery becomes a rote exercise. 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:15.439 What provokes one generation to sacrifice and passion becomes in the next generation a case for rebellion and apathy. 00:08:15.680 --> 00:08:22.800 The chief theological task now facing the Western church is not to reinvent or to be relevant, but to remember. 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:25.759 We must remember the old, old story. 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:29.040 We must remember the faith once for all delivered to the saints. 00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:34.480 We must remember the truths that spark reformation, revival, and regeneration. 00:08:34.799 --> 00:08:36.399 And so I agree with that. 00:08:36.559 --> 00:08:38.000 I agree with the Apostle Paul. 00:08:38.159 --> 00:08:40.639 He says, I want to remind you, brothers, of the gospel. 00:08:40.879 --> 00:08:43.919 Easter reminds us first and foremost of the gospel. 00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:48.879 This gospel, he distinguishes it from all the other false, insufficient gospels out there. 00:08:49.039 --> 00:08:52.960 He says, I want to remind you of the gospel, brothers, that I preached to you. 00:08:53.120 --> 00:08:57.360 This is what you believe, this is the thing upon which you have taken your stand. 00:08:57.519 --> 00:09:01.919 This gospel, you can receive it, you can stand in it, you can be saved by it. 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:06.399 It's rigorous, it's nourishing to the soul, it is engaging to the mind. 00:09:06.559 --> 00:09:16.159 It's not some fairy tale for little kids and women, but men really outgrow it, and now I can connect with God in my deer stand just as good as I can in a church. 00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:23.519 I wonder how many men are driving to their deer leash right now, even though it's not deer season, to connect with God during COVID-19. 00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:29.120 If that was really a sustainable reality, you you would all be right there right now. 00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:30.559 But it's not. 00:09:30.799 --> 00:09:36.000 It's an excuse for people who've drifted and forgotten the gospel. 00:09:36.159 --> 00:09:39.120 We've forgotten what this is all about. 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:46.000 This reality that we were created to grow into because everything else is ill-fitting, insufficient, and never enough. 00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:48.960 And so Easter reminds us, first of all, of the gospel. 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:52.159 Paul says, I want to remind you of the gospel that I preach to you. 00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:59.279 I'm never going to get tired as your pastor of reminding you of the gospel, of just coming back and saying, I'm not here to be creative. 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:02.559 I'm here to, I'm not here to say things no one's ever said before. 00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:10.720 I'm here to bear the torch that fell flaming from the hands of faithful men and women and remind you of the gospel on this Easter Sunday. 00:10:10.879 --> 00:10:13.919 Secondly, Easter reminds us what is most important. 00:10:14.080 --> 00:10:16.399 It reminds us what is most important. 00:10:16.799 --> 00:10:26.000 Truth and tragedy both have this capacity to kind of remind us hey, I'm not sure that that thing I thought really was important is important anymore. 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:26.639 Like right now. 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:30.399 Is anybody just obsessed over who's gonna win the next bachelor? 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:34.639 It just kind of fades into this kind of, I don't even want to confess anybody. 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:35.919 I watched that, okay? 00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:40.799 Is anybody really obsessed where Tua Toga Waloa is gonna go in the draft? 00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:43.600 Great guy, great believer, I'm not dogging on the guy. 00:10:43.679 --> 00:10:48.159 It's just, I don't think people are just like, oh my gosh, when is LeBron gonna get back on the court? 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:50.320 Because that's the thing that matters most for me. 00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:55.279 My life is somehow deficient because basketball has been postponed. 00:10:56.240 --> 00:11:00.879 Here's one of the things that it reminds us what matters in truth and tragedy. 00:11:01.039 --> 00:11:05.120 Tragedy also ought to remind us, hey, who are the real heroes in this world? 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:10.559 Is the hero the guy that makes$25 million a year playing a football, beats his girlfriend, and abuses drugs? 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:12.080 Is that really a hero? 00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:21.279 Or is the hero some molecular biologist who's not slept in three days, who's locked up in a lab somewhere because, quote unquote, she's on to something. 00:11:21.440 --> 00:11:26.559 And she never got married because all the men that she dated were just like, you, you're married to your work, okay? 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:28.159 You can't give me enough time. 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:29.759 And so she's on to something. 00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:34.799 What if this woman goes on to discover a cure for the coronavirus four months from now? 00:11:34.879 --> 00:11:40.240 And the only stipulation for letting her research go is that she says, you can't charge people for this. 00:11:40.480 --> 00:11:45.200 Pharmaceutical companies could just cover their costs, but beyond that, it's free to the world. 00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:55.759 I mean, she never married, she's got six cats, she drives like a 91 Volvo, and she lives in a rootie-tootie small apartment on the outskirts of Delaware somewhere. 00:11:56.320 --> 00:12:00.000 They said, I just submit to you today that that woman would be the hero. 00:12:00.399 --> 00:12:04.960 But no one will remember that Joe Burrow is going to go number one in the draft this year. 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:06.799 See, here's the thing. 00:12:06.960 --> 00:12:13.600 Again, truth and tragedy have this capacity to kind of remind and reorient us around what is most important. 00:12:13.919 --> 00:12:18.480 And Paul does the same thing right here after he says, I want to remind you of the gospel. 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:23.360 He says in verse 3, for I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received. 00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:25.200 And then he just lists off these things. 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:27.759 I just want to just punch list a couple of them. 00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:30.480 He says, first of all, that Christ died for our sins. 00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:32.080 That Christ died for our sins. 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:36.480 He never just kind of leaves it vague and unnamed, the death of Jesus. 00:12:36.720 --> 00:12:37.840 No, that Christ died. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:40.720 Because we would fill that in and consume that upon our lust. 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:42.720 He says that Christ died for our sins. 00:12:42.799 --> 00:12:51.120 And because Christ died, not of natural causes, but for our sins, the death of Jesus is purposeful and it's personal. 00:12:51.600 --> 00:12:53.759 It's purposeful and it's personal. 00:12:53.840 --> 00:12:55.440 Here's what I want you to take away from that. 00:12:55.600 --> 00:13:03.440 Regardless of where you are right now, wherever you're watching this, whatever you've done in your life, whether you did it last night or even this morning, here's what I want you to hear. 00:13:03.600 --> 00:13:11.679 Because Jesus Christ died for our sins, I want you to just hear this, just God just kind of whispering over the addiction you can't seem to break. 00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:13.039 Just this is simple truth. 00:13:13.200 --> 00:13:14.720 It doesn't have to be this way. 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:16.720 It doesn't have to be this way. 00:13:16.960 --> 00:13:22.960 Because a perfect God sacrificed his perfect Son for your sins and for my sins. 00:13:23.039 --> 00:13:26.480 And so your sins don't have to have power over you anymore. 00:13:26.639 --> 00:13:28.720 That's the great news of the gospel. 00:13:28.799 --> 00:13:30.799 That's the great news on this Easter. 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:34.720 This is a great reminder of, hey, these things are most important. 00:13:34.960 --> 00:13:38.480 These are the things you should build and bank your life and your intellect on. 00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:40.399 Secondly, he says that he was buried. 00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:41.279 That he was buried. 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:43.360 We kind of just skip over that, like, oh, okay. 00:13:43.679 --> 00:13:46.960 Burial is the confirmation that a person is actually dead. 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:51.120 Otherwise, take one of your kids in the backyard and start digging a hole and say, lay down. 00:13:51.279 --> 00:13:52.559 Let me know how that goes. 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:54.879 It'll be like, what are you doing? 00:13:55.200 --> 00:13:58.960 This is like uh this is like a mud fight. 00:13:59.279 --> 00:14:04.080 Burial is the most tangible reminder that, oh yeah, he he actually did die. 00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:14.399 He didn't swoon, he didn't just fall asleep, they didn't give him some kind of off-the-count, uh, uh, all the market drug where he just kind of looked like he was dead. 00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:21.200 People have to come up, they jump through all these mental hoops to explain what the Bible just makes obvious. 00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:24.480 Here's the third thing he says that matters, that he was raised on the third day. 00:14:24.799 --> 00:14:27.679 That the resurrection is a sign that God's accepted. 00:14:27.919 --> 00:14:31.600 The death of Jesus is payment in full for all of your sins. 00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:34.559 Fourthly, that he appeared. 00:14:34.799 --> 00:14:35.519 That he appeared. 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:38.240 Verse 6 says that he appeared to over 500. 00:14:38.399 --> 00:14:44.480 List all these people he appeared to, we'll get to that in a minute, but he says he appeared to over 500 brothers, most of whom are still alive. 00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:47.679 Now, what that means is these people could have come along and said, you know what? 00:14:47.759 --> 00:14:52.879 Um when 1 Corinthians was recorded and said, Hey, uh Paul, that's not how it happened at all. 00:14:53.279 --> 00:14:56.799 They could have disproved it from the beginning, but they didn't. 00:14:57.039 --> 00:14:58.960 You think we're skeptical nowadays? 00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:01.360 I mean, this was the age of wisdom. 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:08.960 These people were so skeptical, and these are the people that Paul debated in the public square, and he crushed their intellect. 00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:11.279 You don't think they wanted to get back at him? 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:14.480 These people were alive and yet they had nothing to say. 00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:15.679 Because it's the truth. 00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:17.679 This is exactly how it happened. 00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:21.600 And lastly, that the Bible is reliable and authoritative. 00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:22.799 Here's what matters. 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:24.879 These are the things that are most important. 00:15:25.039 --> 00:15:32.480 Notice he says in here twice, he mentions this phrase, and he says, hey, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. 00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:37.039 Verse 4, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures. 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:40.399 Now, notice that the Bible doesn't say like the Bible says. 00:15:40.559 --> 00:15:45.679 That's that would become this circular logic, like too dum-de-dumb, therefore too dum-de-dum. 00:15:45.759 --> 00:15:57.679 You can't uh tick tock, games like you can't question this because this just kind of makes sense because the Bible says, but no, no, the Bible's willing to put itself out there and it says it like this, in accordance with the scriptures. 00:15:57.759 --> 00:16:02.320 In other words, before it happened, the scriptures, the Bible said it was going to happen. 00:16:02.559 --> 00:16:03.679 Hear that again. 00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:13.519 Before it happened, in accordance with the scriptures means not that the Bible predicted it, though it did, but the Bible went on record as saying, this is how it's going to shake out. 00:16:13.759 --> 00:16:16.000 This is what's going to happen. 00:16:16.320 --> 00:16:20.879 And all I had to do to discount the entire Bible was not happen that way. 00:16:21.120 --> 00:16:22.320 And yet it did. 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:25.200 Here's what it should cause you to do. 00:16:25.279 --> 00:16:27.600 Here's where that should engage your mind today. 00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:30.799 You should ask yourself, okay, that's right there. 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:32.159 That guy didn't make that up. 00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:36.000 If it didn't happen, then the Bible could be proven wrong, but it did. 00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:37.279 So what is the resurrection? 00:16:37.440 --> 00:16:41.200 What does the resurrection mean for me when it comes to the Bible? 00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:46.000 Here's the third thing that Easter reminds us of is that God reveals himself. 00:16:46.720 --> 00:16:48.320 That God reveals himself. 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:52.159 He's listening. 00:16:52.240 --> 00:17:02.960 I said, after he was raised, he says in verse five, and then he appeared to Cephas, and then to the twelve, and then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:07.599 Then he appeared to James, then all the apostles, and last of all, to one untimely born. 00:17:07.759 --> 00:17:10.000 Paul says, He appeared also to me. 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:14.000 See, Easter remind us reminds us that God reveals himself. 00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:15.359 Now, why is that a big deal? 00:17:15.519 --> 00:17:17.039 You don't have to go looking for him. 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:21.200 He's revealing himself, and he has been since the very beginning. 00:17:21.359 --> 00:17:22.400 Do you did you know that? 00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:28.559 One of the first things God does is give, he creates tangible proof of his existence. 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:40.160 Now, if you wanted to leave it a mystery, or hey, you gotta kind of meditate and you gotta go through all these ascetic practices, and then you might get up to the level of nirvana where I dwell and you can believe that I exist. 00:17:40.319 --> 00:17:41.920 That's not the God of the Bible. 00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:48.400 That's that's some Eastern mysticism nonsense that puts all the responsibility on you. 00:17:48.640 --> 00:17:53.279 The God of the Bible, the only God who was and is and is to come, didn't do it that way. 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:57.839 What he did was you don't have to have a Bible, you don't have to have ever gone to church. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:01.680 You could be sitting there right now and just thinking, I'm atheist, I'm agnostic. 00:18:01.839 --> 00:18:03.119 This is crazy. 00:18:03.279 --> 00:18:04.480 How do you believe this? 00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:12.559 Remember, I said a few minutes ago, in accordance with the scriptures, in other words, the Bible went first and said, This is how it's gonna happen, and then it happened that way? 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:13.839 In the same way. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:16.240 The first thing God does is create. 00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:21.519 By creating, he establishes the most tangible proof of his existence. 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:25.440 The Bible says it like this in Genesis 1, starting in verse 1. 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:28.960 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:30.640 Just stop right there. 00:18:30.880 --> 00:18:33.519 Not a big complex sentence, eight or nine words. 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:36.799 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:41.599 Before God created the heavens and the earth, there was a beginning, not for God, but for us. 00:18:41.839 --> 00:18:53.759 It's God kind of saying, Hey, let me, let me, I want you to know not just that I exist, so you can win arguments in a bar somewhere with your buddies while you're playing sports trivia on the flat screen TVs, waiting on your chicken wings to arrive. 00:18:53.920 --> 00:18:54.559 No, no, no. 00:18:54.720 --> 00:19:00.400 God says, in the beginning, I existed before I did anything, but I wanted you to know that I existed. 00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:02.079 So guess what I did? 00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:04.720 I created everything. 00:19:05.119 --> 00:19:16.240 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 00:19:16.400 --> 00:19:19.039 And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. 00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:29.920 And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness, and God called the light day and the darkness night, and there was evening and there was morning the first day. 00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:38.400 Now you have to ask yourself, if nothing else existed to motivate you, what motivated God to create anything? 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:40.000 You're smart people. 00:19:40.160 --> 00:19:40.880 Think about it. 00:19:41.119 --> 00:19:42.079 Let me ask you again. 00:19:42.240 --> 00:19:47.759 If nothing existed for God to look at and say, you know what, I want to prove myself to you that I'm good, watch this. 00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:49.599 Boom, here comes a dolphin. 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:51.440 Boom, duckbilled platypus. 00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:52.799 How about that, huh? 00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:56.480 Oh, not impressed, boom, ostrich. 00:19:57.599 --> 00:20:02.000 No, nothing existed to motivate God except God. 00:20:02.640 --> 00:20:06.400 And the motive of God in creation is that he wants you to know him. 00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:19.839 He wants not just to believe intellectually that there's a higher power out there so that you can get in a circle with other people in recovery and kind of go, hey, I need a power greater than myself to help me regain control. 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:20.559 No, no, no. 00:20:20.640 --> 00:20:26.240 So that you could taste and see and intimately experience the God that created everything. 00:20:26.480 --> 00:20:28.160 This is why he does it. 00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:29.680 Because he wants you to know him. 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:35.119 He wants you to know not just that he's real, but that he's knowable and he's available. 00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:36.319 What do you mean? 00:20:36.559 --> 00:20:37.759 The Bible says this. 00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:47.519 That Genesis 1:1, very first verse in the Bible, later in the New Testament, the book of Romans, chapter 1, says it like this for what can be known about God is plain to them. 00:20:47.839 --> 00:20:49.519 Because God has shown it to them. 00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:51.680 They didn't have to go looking for it. 00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:56.000 They didn't have to say, God just kind of said, Hey, I want to show you. 00:20:56.240 --> 00:20:57.200 I want to show you. 00:20:57.440 --> 00:20:58.640 Check this out. 00:20:59.440 --> 00:21:06.799 For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and his divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world. 00:21:07.039 --> 00:21:11.680 In the things that have been made, so that they are without excuse. 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:14.799 See, what God did is God created creation. 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:18.480 Everything. 00:21:18.640 --> 00:21:20.799 Their six-day rhythm of creation. 00:21:20.960 --> 00:21:25.680 God spoke, God, God said, let there be this, there was this, and God said it's good. 00:21:25.839 --> 00:21:29.200 God said, Let there be this, there was this, and God says it was good. 00:21:29.279 --> 00:21:31.119 And on the seventh day, he rested. 00:21:31.279 --> 00:21:39.920 And here's what humanity has done: God demonstrates his existence, his availability, his reality, and the thing that motivates him is his glory. 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:43.920 And he's like, I want you just to know me and live lives that glorify me. 00:21:44.079 --> 00:21:51.920 And what we've done is we turned our back on the sun, on the creator God, and fell in love with the shadow of what God created. 00:21:52.720 --> 00:21:54.400 Horrible idolatry. 00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:59.759 He's like, Oh, well, you know, let's just worship and serve creation instead of the creator who is. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:01.119 Forever praised. 00:22:01.279 --> 00:22:14.480 We took what God intended to remind us of Him, and we consumed it upon our lust, and it just reminded of us and our civic and social responsibility to be these activists that take care of creation. 00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:20.240 And we didn't read in the Old Testament where it says, hey, God feeds the wild beasts that you don't even know exist. 00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:23.359 You think God needs your help to sustain this? 00:22:23.440 --> 00:22:26.079 And I'm not saying we don't be good stewards of creation. 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:34.880 I'm saying that we don't turn our back on the creator and fall in love with what he created without asking this question: how did this get here? 00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:44.319 And please leave out the tectonic plates and erosion and flawed data from Charles Darwin. 00:22:44.480 --> 00:22:46.559 Please, it's all been disproven. 00:22:48.079 --> 00:22:54.720 So you got to ask ourselves, hey, is this God really a God that reveals himself and has been from the beginning? 00:22:54.880 --> 00:22:58.000 Here in the text, listen to the people that God revealed himself to. 00:22:58.160 --> 00:23:00.319 Ask yourself where I see myself on that list. 00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:01.680 He just lists it out there. 00:23:01.839 --> 00:23:07.359 He says, He says, hey, in accordance with the scriptures, verse 5, and then he appeared, and he starts with Cephas. 00:23:07.759 --> 00:23:09.680 Cephas, not a name you're probably familiar with. 00:23:09.759 --> 00:23:12.240 You're not going, hey, is that kind of what where's that guy? 00:23:13.119 --> 00:23:15.839 His name you're probably more familiar with is Peter. 00:23:16.559 --> 00:23:17.119 Peter. 00:23:17.279 --> 00:23:22.559 And so God reveals himself to Cephas, Peter, people who've blown it. 00:23:23.440 --> 00:23:29.279 People who are like, hey, I did what I said I'd never do, and I ain't got a leg to stand on. 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:32.960 And God appears to him. 00:23:33.440 --> 00:23:39.039 Matter of fact, one of his post-resurrection experiences, he tells people, hey, go tell my disciples and Peter. 00:23:39.200 --> 00:23:42.319 I don't want Peter to slink off in shame and just think, oh man, I blew it. 00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:43.440 I had one chance. 00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:47.839 So if you're out there this morning and you've just blown it, you said, I would never do that. 00:23:47.920 --> 00:23:49.279 You know, God, I'll never do that. 00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:50.480 I promise you I'll never do it. 00:23:50.720 --> 00:23:51.759 And you did it. 00:23:52.079 --> 00:23:54.079 God will reveal himself to you. 00:23:54.240 --> 00:23:55.920 Next on the list is the 12. 00:23:56.079 --> 00:24:04.720 The 12, his 12 disciples who that referring to, people who doubted it, who failed to keep their word, people who fell asleep, a couple of them in the garden, right before they came to rest, Jesus. 00:24:04.799 --> 00:24:06.960 He's like, could you not stay awake for an hour? 00:24:07.200 --> 00:24:08.079 Come on, man. 00:24:08.799 --> 00:24:10.640 I thought you guys were with me. 00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:12.720 They doubted it. 00:24:12.880 --> 00:24:13.759 He appears to them. 00:24:13.920 --> 00:24:18.160 The 500 brothers, those who wanted to believe it, kind of like, I hope this is true. 00:24:18.400 --> 00:24:27.119 By the way, people in the Bible, many of them did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God, that he was deity until after the resurrection. 00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:32.640 And he didn't get out of the tomb on Easter Sunday and look and kind of go, hey, hey, what'd I say? 00:24:32.799 --> 00:24:33.119 Okay? 00:24:33.359 --> 00:24:34.799 How do you like me now? 00:24:35.279 --> 00:24:35.599 No. 00:24:36.240 --> 00:24:38.799 Because he's full of grace and truth. 00:24:39.119 --> 00:24:43.839 He comes to these people and just appears and says he appears to James, which is his brother. 00:24:44.319 --> 00:24:45.440 Can you imagine? 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:51.680 Telling people all along, hey, listen, the Son of God's gonna go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of men, but they don't worry. 00:24:51.759 --> 00:24:54.400 They're gonna tear this temple down three days, I'm gonna raise it back up. 00:24:54.480 --> 00:24:55.759 And your brother just rolls his eyes. 00:24:55.920 --> 00:24:58.319 Show off! Can you believe him? 00:24:58.480 --> 00:24:59.599 Come on, man. 00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:05.680 And your brother watches you be nailed to a stick on a rainy Friday by a bunch of religious goofballs. 00:25:06.079 --> 00:25:08.640 And then he's like, well, it was fun while it lasted. 00:25:09.440 --> 00:25:11.519 And then he appears to his brother. 00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:17.039 What I'm saying is this is that God appears to your family members who need it. 00:25:17.759 --> 00:25:22.000 Why don't you just stop right now and just kind of just pray and just ask the Lord, just think of somebody. 00:25:22.079 --> 00:25:24.240 Don't point at him like, I'm praying for you. 00:25:24.400 --> 00:25:27.200 Hope God reveals himself to you because you stop being mean to me. 00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:27.920 No, no, no. 00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:29.119 It's bigger than that. 00:25:29.279 --> 00:25:33.759 Just, just maybe in the quietness of your head and heart, you could say, hey God, would you reveal yourself? 00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:35.680 You appeared to people in the Bible. 00:25:35.920 --> 00:25:37.200 Would you reveal yourself? 00:25:37.359 --> 00:25:40.880 Would you make manifest and obvious your reality to this person? 00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:42.400 I've had conversations with them. 00:25:42.480 --> 00:25:47.759 I've tried to win debates with them, and all it's done is push them further and further away from God. 00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:55.599 Despite my best efforts to be consistent, I've been inconsistent in front of them, and it's caused them to doubt and to mock me in my faith. 00:25:55.759 --> 00:26:00.240 But if you just reveal yourself to them, that would change everything. 00:26:00.480 --> 00:26:04.640 After James, it says all the apostles, these followers who still have questions. 00:26:04.799 --> 00:26:07.039 And then lastly, Paul says, To me. 00:26:07.839 --> 00:26:08.480 To me. 00:26:09.119 --> 00:26:11.519 Someone who's ashamed of how he's lived. 00:26:11.759 --> 00:26:17.440 I don't know how you are watching this, but if you have shame in you for how you've lived, the Bible relates to you. 00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:19.359 This guy, Paul, look at what he says. 00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:22.720 He says, and and last of all, as to one untimely born. 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:27.759 Those two little phrases, untimely born is where we get our English word miscarriage or abortion. 00:26:27.920 --> 00:26:33.839 What Paul is saying is that, hey, uh, he refers to himself as somebody that, hey, I felt like my life was worthless. 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:37.119 Nobody cared if I lived or if I died, I didn't matter. 00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:39.680 And people saw him, he persecuted Christians. 00:26:39.759 --> 00:26:41.680 This is what he did for a living, okay? 00:26:41.839 --> 00:26:44.880 He was the biggest adversary of the church. 00:26:45.039 --> 00:26:48.160 And so he persecuted or killed Christians. 00:26:48.240 --> 00:26:51.200 And he's like, hey, I, and last of all, he appeared to me. 00:26:51.359 --> 00:26:52.480 I wasn't just angry. 00:26:52.559 --> 00:26:54.720