The Effects of The Resurrection (Jake Enns)

We're continuing our series in First Corinthians and are in a

part of the book where Paul deals with the very central core

issue of the Christian faith, namely the resurrection of Jesus

Christ. Everything in the Christian

faith hinges on this one reality, this one truth.

If Jesus did not rise, as we heard last Sunday, then the

whole story of the Gospel doesn't mean anything.

It's empty, it's hollow. Then it's just an empty story.

But if Jesus did rise, that literally changes everything.

The resurrection does make him Lord and King, as he claimed to

be. The New Testament writers, when

they wrote the Gospels and the epistles, they did not question

did Jesus rise from the dead? That was not a question to them.

That was fact. They knew, they had seen, they

had heard, they had touched that, experienced the presence

of the risen Christ. It's one thing to doubt an idea,

to doubt a belief, or to doubt a story.

But you cannot deny reality. You cannot deny facts.

You cannot deny something that happens to you.

Nobody else may believe you, but this is what happened to you.

The disciples had been told Jesus would rise.

They didn't understand it. They didn't grasp it.

Their minds were not there and of course, was hidden from them,

but they didn't understand. And when Jesus was still with

them, before he was crucified, they all had talked about.

They had turned up, yeah, this is a Kingdom coming, and he's

going to be the Lord. He's going to be king.

And but they misunderstood the content of it.

They had they had faith in Jesus.

He's the Messiah. Jesus knew he was the Messiah,

but their understanding was vastly different.

They had figured this out. Jesus would be king.

He'd been Messiah, this death thing that was not part of the

equation at all. And then Jesus would rule and

they would be part of his leading leaders in this Kingdom.

The Kingdom of David would be restored as they had seen it in

the past, as they had heard about in the past.

But then very suddenly, very unexpectedly, everything had

gone very, very wrong. Jesus had gotten himself

arrested hours after they had this wonderful supper, the

Passover feast. Hours after that, just hours.

Not only had gotten arrested, he was brought into the court and

tried unjustly. He was tortured, was beaten and

crucified and dead and put in a tomb.

That was a fact. They believed all that.

He was in the tomb. It was over.

It's done. Gone.

The religious leaders, they too knew it's over.

Finished. This Nazarene, this Jewish

Carpenter never going to cause us problems again.

He's done. He's finished.

Pilot knew he was finished. Pharisees knew he was finished.

The decision He was done. It's safe to say this there has

never been a greater contrast in realities than these two, the

death of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

There's never been a wider gap, a bigger contrast.

The hope, the promise, the expectation, the anticipation of

Jesus the Messiah to in less than 24 hours, a devastating,

complete and utter, total sense of loss, despair and fear for

the disciples. That was it.

That was the end, The real, literal end.

With Jesus now in the tomb. It's over.

He's dead, He's gone. He's in the grave, he's in the

Messiah. But then at Easter, the story

changes. And we've heard the story many

times. He didn't stay in the grave.

He rose from the dead, much to the surprise, surprise and shock

of everybody except himself. He knew this.

Then right after he was raised, the disciples struggled.

Who could blame them? We would too.

But as soon, but very soon, they, they, they, they.

Yeah, he's real. He's real.

He's here. This whole thing came back.

He met with them, he talked with them, ate with them, and they

gained confidence in him. Oh yeah, he's alive and he's

back and don't understand this, but it's true.

It's real. Then just before Jesus left went

to heaven, he gathered his disciples one last time and had

this question they asked him about but what was going on in

Acts verse one to six won't turn to this he says they say so when

they had come together they asked him, Lord, will you at

this time restore the Kingdom of Israel.

But the fascinating thing is their mindsets were still pre

resurrection thinking they hadn't shifted yet that would

come at Pentecost. He had talked about a Kingdom.

They had no idea how far apart their thinking was from what

Jesus thinking was what Jesus knew was going to happen.

Yes, he died. He was in a tomb.

He's risen, but the purpose why? What for?

Not to restore an earthly political Kingdom, as they were

anticipating. This was not God's purpose for

sending Jesus. He had a far greater, far

deeper, more powerful purpose than that.

Jesus made them no promise. It's not for you to know the

times and dates, the Father said, but you'll receive power

when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

And on it goes for the apostles. The resurrection was not an

idea. It was not a future, it was not

a dream. It was true.

It had happened. What the resurrection was for

the apostles initially, it was not what it was for Jesus.

The purpose of the resurrection was to bring life, for there had

been death and was death. It was to conquer death.

Jesus did that. So what difference does it make?

What difference does it make to you and I today?

Our title is The Effects of the Resurrection.

Last Sunday we heard of the importance of the resurrection.

It is vitally, absolutely, totally important, but what does

it do? The apostles had been given the

mandate by Jesus in Matthew 28 to go and tell everyone else to

make disciples, baptize them, teach them everything Jesus had

taught them. The question was not had it

happened that Jesus had risen from the dead?

It had happened and now everything followed from that.

The resurrection was then and is today of utmost importance.

And as I mentioned last Sunday, the title was The Importance of

the resurrection Today it's the effects of the resurrection.

And if you followed last Sunday when Pastor Joe preached on

this, you may have noticed as you read the Scripture in the

ESV translation, the word IF was used frequently, frequently by

the Apostle Paul to describe the reality.

Paul mentioned a number of negatives.

If the resurrection did not happen then and if the

resurrection had not happened then five times the word if is

used in that passage that we heard last Sunday.

Paul was teaching the Corinthian believers that the resurrection

had happened and but what if it didn't happen?

There were some people really questioned, do we rise from the

dead? Don't we rise from the dead and

so on. Paul says it's reality.

And so this morning we want to go and look at First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 15:20–34

15 verse 20 to 34. Let's read First Corinthians

chapter 20 verse to chapter 5, verse 20 to 34.

Let's turn our Bibles to that. Paul writes.

But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first

fruits of those who fallen asleep.

For as by a man came, death by a man has come also the

resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also

in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in His own

order. Christ the first fruits, then in

His coming those who belong to Christ.

Then comes the end, when He delivers the Kingdom of God to

the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority

and power. For He must reign until He's put

all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed

is death. For God has put all things in

subjection under His feet. 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. 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, that God may be All

in all. Otherwise, why do people mean?

What do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead?

If the dead are not raised at all, why are people being

baptized on their behalf? Why are we in danger?

Every hour I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have

in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die every day.

What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts

at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, let

us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals.

Wake up from your drunken stupor as is right, and do not go on

sinning, for some have no knowledge of God.

I say this to your shame. Paul was not just thinking this,

he knew this. This was real.

He had experienced the risen Lord.

The resurrection has a deep purpose which we must focus

focus on for us to have an understanding of it.

In this passage, Paul focused on the difference it made that

Jesus had risen from the dead, on the impact it had on him, on

the people, and will yet have on everything, all in creation

included. To Paul, before he was a

follower of Jesus, he knew Jesus had not risen from the dead.

He was dead. Paul knew that this Jewish

Carpenter had been arrested, killed, buried.

He was dead, but then he experienced him.

He had heard them talk about it, but he was a Pharisee and he

wanted to get rid of these Christians.

But now for Paul, after he became a follower of Jesus, it

was no longer after he got got arrested by Jesus, so to speak.

Jesus revealed himself to him on the road to Damascus and after

that he was a changed man. The impact was huge.

This reality was the foundation of everything with which He

built, and all everything else flowed out of that.

He says in verse 20. But in fact, Christ has been

raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen

asleep. The impact of the resurrection

is that death no longer has power over God's people.

Death is no longer the end. First point is death was

conquered to get to the roots of what happened.

We may ask this do we even understand what life is and an

opposition to life or life are contrast to like do we

understand what death is? Every human being in this room

and everywhere else has a beginning.

Every human being has a beginning from their mom and

dad. Parents impart life to their

offspring. All children are the result of a

husband and wife or a man and a woman.

Our lives that we live did not just spring into existence of

nothing. Life comes from life and

ultimately from God. All of it has a beginning and as

we know it. All of life comes from life.

But life as we know it in our physical bodies today, it is not

permanent. It dies.

It ends one day. My physical life, as you see me

and I see you, will one day end. Sooner or later we will die.

Death is the great separator, the great divider that no one

gets past. But Jesus overpowered it.

He came back as a man. He died as a man, rose as a man.

He was real. He's real for Jesus, this

journey to become a man, to live as a man, that's what the event

season is all about, to serve as a man, to suffer as a man, die

as a man, hard and painful rode as it was, but after he died, he

came back. He rose from the dead, and the

reason he could rise from the dead was because of who he was

and what he was as God's Son. He had not sinned, but took our

sin and died for it. And the reason Jesus came to

this earth in the 1st place had everything to do with addressing

the sin problem. He says in verse 21.

For as by man came, death, by man also has come the

resurrection of the dead. Jesus was a man, God in human

flesh, but a man. This is important to note for

us. Death was introduced through

Adam when that man Adam sinned. When that happened, all of

humanity was swept under the curse of death, and that curse

continues today. But then through another man,

death was overpowered. It was conquered, he says in

verse 22. For as in Adam all die, so also

in Christ shall all be made alive.

You and I concluded the death that came through Adam was

defeated at the cross by the by Jesus dying and rising from the

dead, from the tomb. Paul also writes that in Jesus

all will be made alive. Every soul will exist in

eternity in the state of conscious awareness throughout

all eternity. Jesus taught us much.

There is no end to quote UN quote this life that we've been

given. Yes, we're dead spiritually.

It's a wide topic. We can, we won't go into that

this morning, but spiritually we're dead, born dead in sin,

but not dead in a way that we're not aware, not dead as in God

not speaking to us. Jesus said this in John chapter

John 5:26

5 verse 26. For as the Father has life in

himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and

he's given him authority to execute judgment because he is

the Son of man. He says next verse do not marvel

at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs

will hear his voice and come out those who've done good to the

resurrection of life and those who've done evil to the

resurrection of judgment. This is universal.

There's no human being who will he got past the judgment seat or

he he skipped past. He's not going to no every one

of us is going that journey. When the Bible talks about the

judgment of God on evil people, it talks about those who are

dead and sin. They too will be judged.

They're not dead as in having no awareness.

They're very much aware when the Bible teaches about the judgment

of God and sin for those who've died, the only way that judgment

works is if they're not dead, as being unaware.

They're judged, but in a state of awareness, a conscious

awareness. For Jesus as a man, physical

death was something he chose. He chose to die.

He talks about this in the Gospel of John.

I give my life. He says he chose to experience

it. But then Jesus turns around and

turns that curse of death into a bridge to life.

And he says to his disciples in John 12, it says to the people

in John 12 verse 424, truly, truly, I say to you, unless a

grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains

alone. But if it dies, it bears much

fruit. He, he was that grain of wheat.

You see the positive that comes out of the negative by rising

from the dead, by choosing to die and then rising from the

dead, Jesus overpowered death. Jesus would would not have

conquered death if he had not died.

But through him dying as a man and rising from the dead, the

dead as a man, he gained that authority.

He said all authority through Jesus Christ, death as we know

it will abolish, will be abolished.

It will never be anymore. It's going to it's going to be

it's going to end. But it's interesting how Paul

words this, he says, but each in his own order was 23 Christ the

first fruits, then at his coming, those who belong to

Christ when Jesus and when Paul talks about the first words

here, he talks, he's referring back to Leviticus chapter 23,

Leviticus 23:9

verse 9. When the Israelites would

harvest their fields, they were told by God and the law the very

first part of the of the crop, let's say the chief of grain.

You bring that first chief to the to the temple and you give

it as a sacrifice. Whatever came off the fields,

whether it was grapes or whatever it was, you bring the

first part to God. And so when when Paul writes

this to the Corinthian church, they had a very good

understanding, no doubt of what Paul meant here.

And commentator that I read sometimes by the name of David

Guzik in his commentary in this passage, he mentions that this

is a direct connection from Paul's writing here to the story

to the book of the law and Leviticus.

And Paul is saying that the new life in Christ is a sign of our

new life coming and following as well.

Jesus was the first fruits. He was the first one.

And some here might think that. Well, yeah, but no, he wasn't

the first one. Wait a minute.

There was, you know, he raised Lazarus.

And in the Old Testament, Elijah raised the widow's son.

Jesus raised a few more. He wasn't the first one.

Yes, he was. And this is where, again, I

refer to David Guzik. He says this.

He says Lazarus died again. Elijah, the widow's son, he died

again. When Jesus raised the synagogue

ruler's little daughter, she died again.

Everybody in the flesh is was born.

Is is who's born and dies and is resurrected, still dies, but not

Jesus. That resurrection is different.

That's a different, totally different resurrection.

On the one hand, we already we all know what physical life is,

but when our bodies died, they won't remain dead.

There's coming a resurrection that's different.

Our bodies will die, but we will rise to a new life that is never

going to stop. The resurrection of Jesus is

different, never to die again. That's the greatest promise, the

greatest hope, the greatest blessing that we can look

forward to and also the greatest fear because those who are not

ready for Jesus, who've not put their trust in faith in what

will they do? That's the bridge, that's the

pivot, that's the that's the pin on which it all hangs.

He did that for our sake. He had a very specific purpose

and that's what the effects of it is.

He changed everything. He the world uses death as a

tool. You don't like somebody, kill

them. That's what governments do,

right? They don't like that country.

Let's just kill those kill our enemies.

Let's kill those who don't like us.

Death is a tool to to to separate, to to isolate, to to

get rid of a problem, destroy human life.

That's what evil people do. And they killed Jesus.

Get rid of him. But they didn't count on who he

was. They didn't understand who he

was and what he would do. They couldn't permanently kill

him. He was holy.

He was God in the flesh. And he rose again, and he rose

to reign. His reign will be an absolute,

total, complete reign for all eternity.

And when he returns, those in the graves will rise.

Jesus will reign, he's Paul says after that.

Then comes the end, verse 24, when he delivers the Kingdom to

God the Father after destroying, listen, every rule and every

authority and power, for he must reign until he has put all his

enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed

is death. You see, folks, there's so much

here which you don't have time to unpack, but this is true.

The resurrection of Jesus is about the resurrection.

It's about new life, but it's greater.

It's about rule. It's about ruling.

There's a purpose and meaning behind it.

And that brings us to the second point.

Jesus resurrection reign means the end of all earthly human

rule. This scares some people so badly

because they want to rule. They want to be in control.

No, Jesus will rule. When Jesus sent the Spirit of

Pentecost and the Spirit and dwelt the disciples, they got

it. Then they understood.

Then it clicked. Jesus had risen from the dead,

not just to give us a nice, convenient, happy life on earth.

Oh, that may happen or may not happen.

We don't know that it may. We don't know.

Some people live very wealthy, comfortable, convenient lives.

Others just struggle and struggle.

That was not the purpose of the resurrection.

To fix that. The purpose of the resurrection

was to bring them into relationship with God.

Easy life for hard life doesn't matter.

Jesus will reign over all creation.

Every ruler, every power, every government, he will destroy

every form of it. But of course, our world power

study don't believe this, at least not in their time, so to

speak. It may happen that something

will go wrong. Their country will not be any

more. But hey, in our time, we're

going to fight. We're going to make sure that

we're in control. Harry tried it.

Then following the destruction of all earthly rule, Jesus will

then hand the Kingdom to his Father.

And Paul is teaching is that all begins with God, it all exists

with God and everything and everyone again will be in

submission and surrender to God. This is a real reality that many

people do not like to think about.

Many people would have no problem with Jesus, Jesus

rescuing them from pain, you know, from hell and a lot of

other things in this world. But just the idea I'm going to

have to submit, surrender. No, the question is not if.

The question is, when we don't get to decide that, the only

thing you and I, we can decide is this, how will we respond to

the call? We can decide to surrender.

We can decide to submit voluntarily and allow Him to

cleanse us, to purify us and sanctify us and make us His

children. We can do that.

He gives us opportunity. He draws us, and we can do that.

Or we can say, no, I'm going to rule myself.

I'm my own person. The question is on which side of

this will we end up? God wants us with him.

The world wants us with evil. The world's always had problems

with God. The world will have problems

with God to the very end of time.

Read Revelation. You see it started that way.

Adam and Eve were perfect, decided to disobey God and got

removed from the guard and got kicked out.

Cain killed his brother. Abel introduced murder into the

world. God destroyed the first world

through a flood because of all the sin.

God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their life of debauchery.

God destroyed Pharaoh because of his sin.

God destroyed the nations of Canaan because of their

continually idolatrous life. It went on and on through

scripture continues to this day, but it will end.

The world always wants to make God into someone, something that

fits their own desires, someone that can tame and and makes

submissive to them. And Jesus not open to that, He

will destroy it. Jesus now reigns in the hearts

of his people, his children, the church.

One day he'll reign over everything.

These are often spoken parables to people trying to convey these

realities, these truths of what was coming.

And they know most of the time didn't get it.

And there's one. And then Matthew 21, verse 33 to

Matthew 21:33–41

41, I want to read that. And I want us to think, do we

get it? He says this here, another

parable. There was a master of a house

who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a wine

press in it and built a tower, and at least the tenants and

went to another country. When the season of fruit drew

near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit.

And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed

another and stoned another. And Guinea sent other servants

more than the first, and they did the same to them.

Finally he sent the son to them, saying, they will respect my

son. But when the tenants saw the

son, they said to themselves, this is the heir, come, let's

kill him and have his inheritance.

And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed

him. When the when therefore the

owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those

tenants? They said to him, the audience,

he will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the

vineyard to other tenants who will put give him the fruits in

their seasons. We read of Jesus as a meek and

mild gentle savor. And he is that he truly is.

But he's also a conquering king. He's also a judge, He's a ruler,

and that aspect is just as important and vital to remember

and hold an intention with the other part, back to First

Corinthians chapter 1528, Paul says when all things are

subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected

to the Father, to him who put all things in subjection to him,

that God may be All in all. And so that's the last point.

The resurrection means complete unity and perfection restored.

That's another effect of the resurrection.

We live in a very incomplete and a very fragmented world.

We all know that. But as long as you and I, as we

look to this world for meaning and purpose and fulfillment and

direction, we are going to fail. It is only when we put our hope

and our trust in the finished work of Jesus and surrender

ourselves to Him that what He has promised will come.

Then we can live in the joy of His resurrection.

Christ's resurrection is our point of reference and how we

function in in this world, how we relate to each other.

Whatever we do in our day-to-day lives, how we live and interact

with people will reveal what our reference points is.

So do you and I, do we live in that light and that mind frame,

frame frame setup? Do we live in that?

Are we living in joy or are we living in a way?

No, The world is still what we make our decisions by.

The world is still what we go by when we plan ahead.

If we're not living in joy, then we're not living up to the

potential of what belongs to us in Christ.

Because of Christ's resurrection, what it means for

us, we have peace and in peace look forward to spending

eternity with Christ. And this current life leads up

to it. The current temporary trials and

struggles we face, they're small compared to what God has

prepared for us. The Bible talks about fearing

God and it's true Proverbs many passages, but not as in being

terrified him as a hard ruler in the sense that he's out to get

us. He's a holy God, a just got a

God, but also love and truth and grace.

These two things are both true. We must remember to choose to

love Jesus puts us in a relationship with God.

When he offers us salvation, we receive it and we love and live

with Him. To reject Him puts us under His

judgement. Our lives are so much more than

the gist, the here and now. We live our physical lives

knowing we will one day die and we'll be buried.

But it's not the end. It's a transition from one life

to the next. Paul goes on in, in his his

attempts to try to, to bring this to, to, to, to a close or

to, to give emphasis to this. He says verse 29.

Otherwise, why do people, what do people mean by being baptized

on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at

all, why are people baptized on their behalf?

This is one of those verses where you just don't know what

exactly Paul is getting at. Again, I want to refer to

commentator David Guzik on this passage.

He says the plain meaning of the original language is the same,

that some people are being baptized on behalf of those

who've died. Paul's point is, if there if

there's no resurrection, why is this happening?

Why are they doing it? And he goes on to explain this a

bit and I'll use a few make a few comments on what he says

about this, but doesn't mean that I understand it nor that

he's right either. He says there's about 30

different applications or interpretations that are given

to this passage. Some say it's it's it has to do

with that was a common practice. Baptisms happened everywhere.

Baptism was common and it wasn't just Christians who believed in

the afterlife. And Paul does not say why do

they, why do we baptize? He says why do they or why do

people? That's the phrase he uses.

So, but Paul closed that portion with remind that our life is

based on the resurrection and the resurrection is not an an

isolated idea. And So what does Paul exactly

mean with this verse? I do believe the Corinthians

knew we probably don't. At least I would use that as my

own stand. I don't claim to explain it, but

what I do tell people is don't create a theology out of out of

a verse or short passage. That's unclear.

And so that's where I'll leave it at that.

Paul points his own hardships and and this conference, he says

in verse 30, why are we in danger every hour?

He believed this, he lived this, he pursued this to his own

physical detriment. And in the end, as, as far as we

know, Paul was killed for his faith.

He says in verse 31, I protest, brothers, by my pride in you,

which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day.

What do I gain if humanly speaking, fought with beasts of

Ephesus, if the dead are not raised, let's eat and drink and

for tomorrow we die. If this is not real, he goes

back to what we hear earlier in the 15th chapter.

If this is not real, then there's no meaning, no purpose,

no destiny, nothing. But he's not doubting that.

He's not questioning that. But for those who do, he says,

what's the logic? What's the rationale?

And if this life is the only life we have, if this life is

all there is, then there's no answer to the deepest emotional

desires and longings of the spirit.

And there are literally people who literally say they believe

that there's nothing beyond this.

Some writers have put it this way, and I agree with them.

For instance, one writer put it this way, he says just as water

is there to quench physical thirst as food is there to

quench physical hunger, as rest is there to to satisfy physical

for, to for physical fatigue, as there's love to satisfy

emotional desire. There's an answer to the

spiritual longing in our souls to the counterpart that meets

its needs. That's not just an idea that

happened when Jesus rose from the dead.

It's important that we keep this in in context that we focus on

this, not allow us to be influenced and drawn away.

He says in verse 33, do not be deceived.

Bad company ruins good morals. Where do you get your

information from? What's your point of reference?

Don't look to the wrong, the wrong direction.

The direction we go in life is where life will take us.

What we become is evident by what we follow the church in

Corinth had heard a lot from Paul in this letter by now, but

here he's telling keep focused on God and also fix it on the

world. Paul called him to live for

Christ not to become people that look very much like the world.

He challenges them Verse 34 wake up from your drunken stupor as

is right and do not go on sinning for some of no knowledge

of God and would be one thing if you ended it here, but it

doesn't. He says I say this to your

shame. Does our life look like a

resurrected life? Has the resurrection impacted

me? Has it impacted me?

Has it made a difference? A person who does not know God,

does not believe in God, does not live for God versus a person

who says, oh, I live for Jesus. I became baptized.

I'm a member of the church. I go to church, I teach Sunday

school. I serve in this committee and

that committee. How different are those lives?

Does one live a resurrected life and one not?

A lot of people call themselves Christians, but they're not

real. It's anybody in especially North

America, anybody can say I'm a born again believer who's to

prove otherwise. But in persecuted countries

where you're told you'll be killed for your faith, that's a

totally different story. Just heard a little story this

last week of a woman. She shared how she stood before

the judge before in a court and there was the prosecutor and

there was people there in the court and they said to her, if

you tell us that you're a Christian, you'll be raped and

imprisoned and killed. If you tell us you're a Muslim,

you'll go free out those doors. But we want your testimony.

What do you, what do you have to say for yourself?

She shared her story. She believed in Christ, the

resurrected Christ. She staked everything on him.

When she was done sharing her story, the same man who said

that to her begged her for a Bible.

She was willing to risk it all because she believed.

The question is, how much do we believe?

Is it real to us? Are we serious about this?

The victory of Jesus over death is a victory over everything our

own lives to. He died to pay for this.

He rose. It no longer has power and we

can face anything and everything this world may throw at us as we

walk in faithfulness and obedience.

We have a path to God, to eternity with him.

Let's pray. Lord, we know you died on a

cross. You suffered and died so we

could be freed from sin and the freedom that you brought, you

brought when you rose from the grave.

Today, Lord, we know the story. Even though it's an old story,

it's new. We know it is just as powerful

today. That was the one that happened

and it's ongoing today. We ask Lord that the gospel

would not be in vain for us, something that we hear but makes

no difference. No, instead we pray that the

gospel will be for us a living word, changing our hearts and

minds, turning our hearts to You.

May we be faithful, Lord, as we seek to worship You, live our

lives as a light and a witness to Your resurrection.