The Something Is A Someone and Jesus Rose From The Dead

Well, good morning, Good News Church.

All right, so this is my first week back from sabbatical,

and so I had a decision to make as to what is going to be the first thing

that I address once I come back.

That felt like it was sort of an important decision,

so I asked Ron Lynch, what should I preach about?

And he said, I think you should preach about 15 minutes.

I'm just kidding.

He did not say that.

The truth is, when I was on sabbatical,

I had a conversation with a friend of mine,

and that conversation actually inspired this sermon.

So here's the story. I have a good friend who I've been hanging out with lately, and he,

not too long ago, he told me that he was an agnostic. And agnostic is a word that most,

I guess it has multiple meanings, but typically when someone says they're an agnostic, it means

they are saying, I don't know whether there is a God or not, right? It's different than atheist.

Atheist typically means I'm pretty sure there's not a God. But agnostic is, I don't know if there's

a God or not. And so I was talking with him. I invited him to come to church with me. He did come

to church with me, not this church, a different church that I was attending this summer. And we

went to lunch afterwards and we were talking about God. And after the conversation, as I drove home,

I think it was on the drive home, I was thinking about a couple of things that I said in that

conversation that I thought to myself, oh, I would really like to share this with my whole congregation.

Like I'm very happy that I got to tell him, but I really would like to tell everybody these two

things. And so as I was driving home that day, that's what I was thinking. I think, well, I guess

preaching, I guess this is what I'm going to tell them. And so these are the two thoughts. We talked

about a lot of things that afternoon, but the two thoughts that I wanted to share with all of you are

the something is a someone and Jesus rose from the dead. And so I'm going to start with the first

point. The first point, the something is a someone came about because as I was talking with my friend

and as he was, like we were eating, you know, lunch at a restaurant. And as he was describing

his agnosticism to me, he said something like this. It's pretty close to a quote. He said,

I believe that there is something out there, but I don't know what it is. And you may know this,

this is an incredibly common belief. Do you have friends and family who say the same kind of things?

Yes. Some people say it this way. They will say, well, the world had to come from somewhere.

So I guess I believe in God, but I mean, I don't know who or what it is. Or maybe some people say

it this way. Have you ever heard people say, I believe in a higher power? Have you heard that?

For sure there's a higher power, but I don't know its name. I don't know how it works. I don't know.

I just, but there is something above us that brings meaning and purpose to the world. But I

don't know. There's just some sort of power higher than us. Some people say it this way. Have you ever

heard someone say that they say, I am spiritual, but not religious? Okay. That is a label that is

used a lot lately. And it means that the person, typically it means the person believes in some

kind of supernatural something, right? That's why they're saying they're spiritual, but they do not

have a commitment to Christianity or Hinduism or any religion for that matter, right? They just

believe in some kind of supernatural something. And these kinds of beliefs are very common. And it

seems to me they have gotten much more common over my lifetime. I didn't do any research on this,

but I would just say over the past 40 years or so, I would say that's probably one of the fastest

growing worldviews in America. Lots of people think this way. And in a room this size, I figured

there may very well be some of you who lean that way. Some of you might lean toward, like, I don't

know about God. I don't know about Jesus. I don't know about the Bible. I think there's a something,

but I don't know what it is. Some of you might believe that, and maybe you were dragged here by

a friend who has more specific beliefs than you, and you're like, okay, I'll go. And maybe some of

you weren't dragged here at all. Like, maybe you were like, no, I'm an open-minded person. I don't

know what it is and I would be happy to go with you to your thing and listen to what they have to

say. But I can imagine there may be some of you here that lean that way. There's a something,

but I don't know. And I would also imagine there are many of you in this room who are Christians

and you have a friend or a family member who thinks this way. And so that's why I wanted to

share these thoughts with you. So when my friend said, I believe that something is out there.

First of all, I agreed with him. Okay. I don't remember if I said, I agree with you, if I nodded

my head, but I definitely made it clear I agree with him because there is something out there.

And then I said to him, I said, after I showed to him, like, I agree with you, there's something

out there. I said, I want you to consider that the something is a someone. And so what comes next is

sort of the gist of what I said to him that day. This is not the exact wording. I don't even remember

exactly what I said that day, but this is kind of the idea that I tried to share with him that day.

That the thing that you recognize is there and is a something, is a someone.

And the way that we know it's a someone, the way that we know that there is a God,

is because of morality.

I mean, there may be multiple ways we know,

but one of the ways we know about God is because morality is real.

Like transcendent, you ought to do this and you ought not do this.

Like that which we call morality is real.

It exists.

We all know that it exists.

Even though you can't touch it, feel it, taste it, or smell it,

we know for sure that it's a thing.

And we know that it had to come from someone.

virtually everyone I've ever met, maybe one exception, but virtually everyone I have ever met

agrees there is such a thing as right and wrong. Okay. Now, sometimes we disagree on what is right

and what is wrong. I've definitely seen that where someone's like, this is the right thing. And

someone says no. And someone else says, I think that's wrong. And someone else says, I don't think

it's wrong. But I've definitely seen people disagree on what is right and wrong. But it seems the

thing that everyone I've ever met in my whole life agrees is there is something though that is right

and wrong. There is should and should not. Okay? There is the way things are supposed to be,

and there is the way things are not supposed to be. Everyone knows that, that we believe,

and this is important to get, not simply that we believe in true and false, which that's another

thing everybody believes. I never believes there's true things and there's false things. But more than

just believing in true and false, everyone believes that in ought to and ought not. This ought to be

done. This thing is terrible. It ought never to be done. Okay. Let me give you an example. I'm

going to say a sentence. I think everybody in the room is going to agree with a three-year-old who

spills her milk. Shouldn't be killed for it. Everybody agree. Yeah. I figured, I figured that

that'd be the least controversial thing I would say this morning. Everybody agrees with that. A

three-year-old who spills her milk shouldn't be killed for it. No, she should. That would be an

overreaction. That would be wrong to do. That would be evil to do, right? Everybody knows that. You

that. You don't have to be a Christian to know that. Like there's just something in us magically.

Okay. I think it's actually divinely put there. There's something in us that just knows regardless

of religion, you could believe you could be any religion or no religion. And you just know that

that's true. And not only do you know that's true, you are, you are aware that it's not just your

personal opinion. Like you don't think like, it's my preference that the three-year-old that spills

the milk not be killed for it. Like there's something in you that goes, no, no, no, that

shouldn't happen, and that is objectively true. It's not my opinion. That is the way it ought to be.

And the way you, we believe it so hard. If there is someone that doesn't agree that that's the way

it ought to be, like if there is someone who does try to kill the three-year-old for spilling their

milk, what do we do? We don't go, oh, that's their opinion. It's different than mine. We try to stop

them from doing it, don't we? We try to stop them even if we have to use force, even if it's against

their will. Because we all know innately there is this transcendent right and wrong that is above

everybody. Even the people that don't believe in all the same right and wrongs. Like there is this

right and wrong that's above everybody. And humans are for some reason obligated to it, whether they

agree or not. And so it includes a lot of other things just than how we treat three-year-olds.

It's like, it's the fact that we all understand,

like, I ought not steal from you

and you ought not steal from me

and I shouldn't burn your house down

and you shouldn't burn my house down.

Like, everyone knows that moral rules exist

and that they are binding.

Okay, what I mean by binding

is they're not our personal preferences.

That's what I was meaning earlier when I say

someone who has a different preference,

we believe they should be stopped, right?

If someone's trying to burn your house down,

you don't go, well, that's what their opinion is,

that they ought to burn houses down, right?

If the person says, sorry, I got to burn your house down.

This is what I prefer, right?

You would say, no, you are obligated not to do that, right?

Where does that obligation come from?

We know it's there.

We know it's real.

Where does that obligation come from?

I'm going to tell you something I learned in a seminary class years ago.

Professor John Frame taught me this.

You can only be obligated to persons, not things.

Have you ever thought about that? Sort of simple, but really deep. You can only be obligated to

persons, not things. So let me give you an example. Because I think you know this deep inside,

even if you've never thought about it before. Imagine if you are the last person in the state

of Florida. Okay, everyone else is gone. You're the only person in the whole state. Empty buildings

are everywhere, empty highways. Okay, they're all gone. So can you picture it? Do whatever you got

to get there. You can imagine whatever happened. The rapture happened. Aliens abducted everyone.

I don't care how you get to the point. I just want you to imagine you're there in Florida,

no other humans. And let's say you're on the road driving. Okay. I guess you're driving to Georgia

to see if there's other humans up there. Let's say you're on the road driving and the whole

state is desolate. Here's my question for you. Are you obligated to obey traffic laws?

Yeah, I figured everybody would say no.

And even if there are a few of you that are like really like rule keepers,

I would imagine that even you would acknowledge the reason you think maybe you should keep track of traffic laws in an empty Florida

is because you know there once was a lawmaker that said so when they put up all the signs.

But most of us would realize if the lawmakers are gone and the enforcers are gone and the judges are gone and everybody's all gone,

then there's no more obligations because you can only be obligated to persons, not to things, not to signs,

but to persons, right?

So for there to be an obligation,

there has to be a lawmaker.

For there to continue to be obligations,

there has to keep being lawmakers

and judges and law enforcers, right?

Without that, you don't have law

because you just have objects.

You following me?

So our obligations are not to the signs themselves,

but to the persons who are responsible for putting up the signs and enforcing the signs.

And that's the point.

If there are laws, and everybody knows there are,

if there are moral laws, right?

If there are things that should and shouldn't, then there has to be a lawmaker.

There has to be a judge that knows whether someone did it or didn't do it.

There has to be an enforcer, some sort of reaction to the breaking of the law.

For there to be a moral code, and everyone knows there must be one,

you have to have a lawmaker.

And if there are transcendent laws above all of us,

then there must be a transcendent lawmaker above all of us.

If the rules apply to everybody,

if don't kill the three-year-old applies to everybody,

then there must be a transcendent lawmaker above everybody.

You following?

So what I'm saying, in other words, is we cannot just say,

well, there's this thing, there's this,

Like right and wrong exists,

therefore there must be something out there.

No, no, no, we've got to admit,

right and wrong exists,

therefore there must be someone out there.

You following me?

Okay, now this matches with what the Bible teaches, okay?

The Bible presents God as a person,

not as a force, not as an energy,

not as some sort of generic thing, like a someone.

And so I wanna show you two Bible verses.

There are a lot of Bible verses that back this up.

I'm just gonna show you two very famous ones.

And I will let you know,

I did not specifically quote these verses to my friend

when we were sitting there at the table, okay?

This is just bonus material for you, okay?

When I was talking to him at lunch,

I was not preaching a sermon to him, right?

We were talking back and forth.

So this is a little bit different.

I am preaching a sermon to you.

When I was with him, I used less words

because it was a dialogue.

And I did not pull out a Bible and go,

now let me teach you Matthew chapter six

restaurant. However, this is not a restaurant. This is a church and I want to quote some Bible.

So here we go. I'm putting it in. Matthew chapter six, verse nine. This is one of the most famous

verses in the Bible. Jesus is teaching his disciples how to pray. And when he teaches his disciples how

to pray, what does he say? He says, therefore you should pray like this. What are the next four words?

Our father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. When you pray, you are to pray our father in

heaven. Jesus did not tell his disciples to communicate with some sort of like generic higher

power. He says, our father in heaven is who you're talking to. That's personal and that's relational.

The other one I wanted to show you, and I don't know if I've ever pointed this out here, but this

is really cool to me. And this one is really related to the idea of God's law. When I'm saying

like for there to be laws, there has to be a person behind them. One of the places you see this is in

commandments. So if you go in your Bible to Exodus chapter 20, you will find a passage of scripture

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

that is as equally famous as the one I just read to you. Okay. The 10 commandments are very, very

well known. In fact, the 10 commandments, I would say probably everybody knows there are 10 commandments,

right? Now, most people cannot name the 10 commandments. Okay. Most people do not know all 10.

But in my experience, most people can name like two or three. They'll go, well, don't kill people,

don't steal, don't lie, and some others. All right, and so most people can usually name two, three,

maybe four, but everyone knows there's 10, and they're really famous. So what is on the screen

right now is the first of the Ten Commandments. This is Exodus chapter 20, verse 3, and this is

Exodus 20:3

commandment number one. Do not have other gods besides me, okay? That's the first commandment.

What is interesting to me is this. Though this is the first commandment of the 10,

this is not where the 10 commandments start. Did you know that? Actually, and there's a hint here,

you can kind of tell this is not where they start. No, no, no, don't give it ahead of time. Let me,

let me reveal it. Go back. Okay. Exodus chapter 20, the fact that this is verse three

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

should give you a hint that there were some words that came before this. Okay. So this is the first

commandment. Do not have other gods before me. But before the first commandment, there was a preamble.

Okay, almost, I would say, a little known preamble.

Okay, if they were to put the Ten Commandments chiseled into stone

before commandment number one, there'd be a little paragraph

because God said some stuff before he said commandment number one.

Okay, now let's go ahead and look at what it is.

Let's add the first two verses of the chapter.

This is what it begins.

It says, then God spoke all these words,

and here's where the quotation begins.

Before commandment number one, God said this,

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt,

out of the place of slavery.

And then he said, do not have other gods besides me.

Now that's significant.

Do you see that?

That when God gave them these commandments,

first of all, he says, I am,

and the word there is actually Yahweh.

It's translated into English sometimes as the Lord,

but it's his personal name, Yahweh, your God,

and I brought you out of the land of Egypt.

And then he says the commands.

And so I guess I want you to notice,

God, when he gives his law to his people,

He did not expect them to obey laws unattached from a person, right?

He started by introducing himself.

He started by giving them his name.

He started by saying, I am your God and your savior.

Therefore, these are my obligations.

The obligations don't just come from nowhere.

They don't come from inanimate objects.

They come from a person and he introduces himself first and then gives them the obligations.

So if you are here today and you are an agnostic, if you are here today and you are someone who has

come to the point in your life where you would say, there's something out there.

I want to challenge you to not stop there.

Take the next step because it's the next logical step.

There is enough evidence before you that you should be able to say, there's someone out there.

because I could only be obligated to a person.

All right, that brings us to the second point, okay?

Which someone is it?

I could imagine someone like,

okay, let's say you're right, Mario.

It's not just a something.

Whatever the higher power is, is a someone.

But which someone?

A lot of people have different ideas about God, right?

Is it the someone of Islam?

Is it the someones of Hinduism?

Like, which God is God?

So here's my answer for you. The one who showed up.

What do you need to know in order to know which God is God? There is a God who has revealed himself

to us. He did so in Jesus and he confirmed this by Jesus rising from the dead. How can you know

which God is God? This is the thing you need to know to know which God is God. Jesus rose from the

dead. The God who has revealed himself to this world is connected to Jesus. He's the God Jesus

taught us about. He's the God Jesus claimed to be one with. Now, why should we take Jesus's word for

it? Because he rose from the dead. I can remember a long time ago hearing a preacher say, if there's

a guy who can predict his death and then die and come back to life, I'm his religion, whatever that

is. Whatever that is. Like, whatever he believes, that's what I believe. If someone can do that,

then I'm on his team, and I believe whatever he believes. So, at this point in my conversation,

I tried to explain to my friend the historical reliability of the resurrection of Jesus.

So what do we know historically when it comes to Jesus? Well, first of all, we know that Jesus

existed, right? And Jesus of Nazareth existed. We don't have to, I don't think, argue that point.

Everybody knows that. Historians know that. Jesus is a historical figure. As far as I can tell,

I've never heard of any credible historian or maybe even anyone. I mean, I may be someone who's

not thought about it, but anybody who's like looked into the history of Jesus, I don't think I've known

of like any sort of credible historian who denies that Jesus existed as a historical figure. Plenty

of people who would say he's not the son of God, but I don't think there's any historians out there

going, Jesus of Nazareth didn't exist. He's a fictional character that was made up. There's

too much evidence that he was a person who existed at that time. And not only is it a historical

figure that we know existed, we even know when and where Jesus existed and lived, right? We know

that it wasn't in 1000 BC and we know that it wasn't in 1776. We know that it was in the first

century. And we know that it wasn't in China and we know that it wasn't in South America. We know

that it

right? Okay. We also know that this Jesus was a religious figure who had followers.

He had a bunch of followers and we know that he was a religious figure with followers

because we have copies of the documents that they wrote back then. There were eyewitness accounts

that were written about Jesus during the first century. There was correspondence that was written

down between Jesus's followers. Like they wrote each other letters and stuff and we have copies

of those letters that have survived. We have correspondence from back and forth between Jesus'

followers. And his followers, we know by the documentation that we have, his followers in the

first century made claims about him. They made supernatural claims about him. They claimed that

he did miraculous things. Several of them claimed they saw him do those miraculous things. And one

of the biggest miraculous things that they said they saw was that he rose again. The resurrection

is probably the biggest miracle that they all said, this is what we saw. And then many other

people walked around and said, this is what they said he saw, right? And so this was the thing that

was being said in the first century. Jesus died and he rose again. So I want to read to you one

of these accounts, okay? A first century account of someone who talked about Jesus's resurrection

and having seen it. And so this is 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I realize you might go, yeah, Mario,

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

but that's the Bible. That's not a historical account. Hold on. Before 1 Corinthians was ever

in the Bible, it was a document that existed in the first century. Are you following me? Like,

just because it got put in the Bible doesn't change anything. Like, there was a guy in the

first century that wrote stuff down, and we have the words that he wrote, okay? So we can look and

go, this is what they were saying at the time. Yes, it happens to be bound in the Bible now,

but it's a historical document. It's a thing that a guy in the first century wrote,

and look at what he said. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 3, and this is the Apostle Paul talking

1 Corinthians 15:3

to the Christians in Corinth. He says, for I passed on to you as most important, what I also received,

that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, that he was buried. Now here it is.

This is early on. This is like year 50. Okay. Not like 1950, like the first one. Okay. Like BCE, AD,

whatever you use, 50 or 55, somewhere around there. I think it was during the reign of Nero.

Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day.

And you can tell when he says, I passed it on to you, he's not writing it down now for the first time.

They had been talking about it before he even wrote it down.

But it happens to come up in this letter.

He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.

That's the claim.

And look what he says.

He says, and that he appeared.

This is meaning people, this is the people that saw him alive again after he was dead.

He appeared to Cephas and then to the 12.

Then he appeared to over 500 brothers at one time.

Most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep.

And then he appeared to James and then to all the apostles.

Last of all, as to one abnormally born,

he also appeared to me.

That's an excerpt from a letter

that was written in the first century, okay?

The claim was Jesus Christ came back to life

on the third day and tons of people saw it, okay?

So that's what was written.

So what I'm saying is this isn't religion, it's history.

Now I realize you might say, wait,

well, no, that's not history, Mario.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not history

because there are plenty of atheist historians

who do not believe Jesus rose again from the grave.

Oh yes, yes, I agree, okay?

At this point, I am not saying

that the resurrection is history, okay?

Although I totally believe that,

but that's not the point I'm making right this moment.

The point that I'm making right this moment is

his followers claimed that it happened in the first century.

That's history.

Like the fact that they said it and wrote it down

and claimed that it was happening in their lifetimes, okay?

That's what the most of whom are still alive.

They were saying this happened in our lifetimes.

That claim is historical.

Like I'm not saying, so right now,

later on, I'm gonna tell you Jesus rose again for the grave.

But for right now, I'm not even saying that.

Right now, I'm just saying at that time,

that's what they said.

that's historical and not religious, that they were saying it. So you may not believe what Paul

says in this letter, but that's what he said. And everyone knows that's what he said. And several

other people said the same thing. And even an atheist could read this and acknowledge,

not necessarily acknowledge that he rose again, but they could acknowledge they were saying it back

then. They were writing about it back then. The claim happened back then for sure.

It is historically verified that Jesus's followers were making these claims at that time.

And because of that, a bunch of things happened in the first century that we are aware of

historically. We know that in the first century, people wrote about Jesus. We know in the first

century, people talked about Jesus. We can tell that there was probably way more talking than

there was writing because back then, first of all, they didn't have, you know, they couldn't type up

anything. You didn't have any newspapers. Most of the world was illiterate. So when people started

talking about Jesus rising from the dead, the average person, if they wanted to tell someone

about that. Like they can't write stuff. They would just go tell people. And so you could tell

there's lots of verbal testimony that happened. And the few written documents that we have back up the

fact that people were going around and talking about it. And then a few of them wrote it down.

So people were writing this stuff down. People were going around saying it verbally. And this

is what's crazy. The people who are writing it down and the people who are going around saying

it verbally were doing this in an environment where they would be persecuted for it. I don't

know if you know much about the first century in the Roman Empire, but it was a rough time for

Christians. If you wanted to go around and say things like, Jesus rose again from the grave,

Caesar is not Lord, Jesus is Lord, you would be killed for that. You could be imprisoned for that.

You could have your possessions confiscated for that. You could be beheaded for that. You could

be thrown to the lions for that. You could be, in the case of Nero, you could be set on fire

and used to illuminate his courtyard at night for that.

That's the kind of stuff that happened

during the time period of Nero

and the time period of Diocletian

and different Caesars that were hostile to Christianity.

And these people went around and wrote it down anyway.

And these people went around and said it anyway.

They had this like fortitude and bravery

that almost doesn't make sense.

Like they started going around the world telling everybody

and they had this bravery that's kind of brave that you'd have

if you had a whole bunch of people who weren't scared of dying.

Who didn't think of, like if you had a bunch of people that were like,

I'm not worried about dying.

I know someone that can undo death.

So I'm just going to go for it.

You have like tens of thousands of people doing this

for some reason in the first century.

You also have Sunday becomes sort of a sacred day.

somewhere around the end of the first century

or the beginning of the second century.

It seems to have been referred to as the Lord's Day

as early as the late first century.

And then after that time period,

you have these people starting treating Sunday

like it's special.

My best understanding is the reason that's weird

is because Sunday was not special before then.

It was just the first day of the week.

There was no special, we've got to honor the Lord

and all that on Sunday.

Sunday was just a normal day, normal day, normal day,

like your Monday, that's what Sunday was,

I think for a long time.

And then suddenly in the first century, something happened

and people started honoring Sunday as if it was a special thing,

as if something happened on a Sunday that changed the way they're going to live.

Even one group of people, and this is crazy,

Jewish people who had honored Saturday as the special day for centuries.

Okay, centuries.

It was the seventh day, the seventh day, the seventh day.

And some of those people seem to have abandoned that and switched to the first day.

Why? What in the world happened on the first day? Something it seems like happened on a Sunday

that changed people's religious views, and it happened somewhere in the first century.

And a new religion kind of appeared out of nowhere. There's like, as far as like tracking

Christianity, this is how it goes. Prior to the first century, there's like no Christianity,

no Christianity, no Christianity. And then suddenly the first century hits and it's like there,

fully formed. Tens of thousands of people all become Christians in the same century,

right around all in the same time period, out of nowhere.

People who had believed other things suddenly switched it.

People who believed resurrection was something

that happened to everybody at the end of time,

suddenly believe it happened to one person

in the middle of time.

People, like there was this change in belief

and these people went around saying these things

and churches started.

There were no churches for a long time.

No churches, no churches, no churches.

Then first century happened

and suddenly people are starting churches

all over the Mediterranean world.

Even when it's illegal,

they're gathering together in these churches.

And this religion that we now know of is Christianity,

which didn't even have a name at that point.

It just sort of didn't exist.

And then so one day it did.

And so what I'm saying is, historically speaking,

that stuff happened.

Everybody knows that stuff happened 2000 years ago.

Even if you don't believe in the resurrection,

all of those other things that I just described

happened in the first century.

Now here's the question.

what caused all of that

like it's somewhat indisputable that history took an interesting turn 2000 years ago stuff

happened you're like well i wouldn't have predicted that interesting history took an

interesting turn in the middle of the first century what caused it because every event has a cause

what happened, something significant had to have happened, around 30 BCE that led to all this. I

guess I'm asking you is, what was the first domino that hit that caused all the other dominoes to fall?

Because we know all the other dominoes fell. So what was the first one that got it all kicked off?

It seems to me, and I did not make this up, a lot of people agree with me on this,

If Jesus rose again from the grave,

all the rest of the dominoes make sense.

It makes sense why history did what it did after that.

But if Jesus did not rise again from the grave,

what other event happened?

What other significant event happened around that time

that caused all of that?

Because if the really popular view of Jesus is true,

I don't think it would have caused that.

And when I say the popular view of Jesus, I mean this,

at least for me, it seems to me,

a lot of people outside of church,

this is their belief of Jesus,

that he was a nice guy, okay?

He was a carpenter and he was very nice

and he was very wise.

And he went around saying things

like blessed are the peacemakers

and do unto others as you would have them do unto you

and love your neighbor as yourself, okay?

Which I believe he did walk around

and say all those things.

But it seems to me they believe

that's how you would summarize his life.

He was a wise, kind carpenter

who went around saying wonderful things

like blessed are the peacemakers.

And what I'm saying is if that was what,

like if Jesus went around and said,

love your neighbor as yourself

and then died and stayed dead

like everybody else who's ever lived,

it wouldn't have caused all that

that happened in the second half of the first century

and the first half of the second century.

Wise guy with cool phrases wouldn't have caused all that

the switch to Sunday and cut off my head

and everyone must know,

and we're not afraid of dying.

That doesn't come from,

bless the peacemakers.

So why does it matter that Christ rose from the dead?

First of all, it indicates which God

is the someone who is above us all.

There's enough evidence that we know

there's a something out there.

The something is a someone.

Which someone is it?

Jesus, the God connected to Jesus,

the father of Jesus, which God is the someone who is above us all? And then the second thing that I

wanted to tell you about why it matters that Christ rose from the dead is this quote that I heard from

a guy named Votie Bauckham. Votie Bauckham is a preacher who I like a lot. And I came across this

quote. I did not, the quote I'm about to read to you, I did not read it to my friend that day when

we were sitting at the, when we were sitting at the lunch table. I did not have this quote at that

time. I discovered it since then. But then when I came across it, I went, oh, this is how I'm going

to end the sermon. So I want to read to you what Voddie Bauckham said about this. This was a long

time ago. I looked at, it was a video I found of his and he looked way younger than he does now.

Okay. So this is what he said. And he said, there is, I don't know why I included that,

that doesn't matter. Okay. This is what he said. He said, there is one who conquered death.

We don't hope that death can be overcome. We know that death has been overcome.

We serve a risen savior.

We worship Christ in our midst.

We don't just memorialize Christ who was.

We worship Christ.

Now, I don't know if that makes perfect sense

to you out of context,

but what he was talking about,

first of all, he had mentioned in the sermon

that there are different religions

and essentially all the different religions

other than Christianity

kind of have this hope that death can be overcome.

If you do these things and obey these rules

and follow these practices,

hopefully there'll be an afterlife

that's better than a bad one.

and so what he's saying here is no we don't just hope the death might be overcome he's saying we

know that it has already been overcome and then when he says we worship Christ in our midst we

don't just memorialize Christ who was the resurrection is so significant Christians are

not just people who are really into history and we have this historical figure that we admire a lot

I mean that happens a lot of times where we look back at someone and we memorialize the stuff they

did in their life right we people do it with Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln and George

Washington. But that's not what this is. If Jesus rose again, then he's not the Christ who was. He

is right now. Like we are worshiping him. We're not worshiping someone who was. Like we're

worshiping someone who is, who exists right now, who hears what we're saying because he's in our

midst this morning. So that's what I wanted to share with you. The something is a someone.

and Jesus rose from the dead.

Let's pray.

God, I pray for anybody in here

who does not know you yet.

Like my friend.

In fact, I pray for my friend in particular

and anybody here who is like my friend.

That they look at this world and they go,

there's something out there.

I don't know exactly what.

I pray that you would reveal yourself to them.

I pray that they would do their part

and placing their faith in you and seeking you.

I pray that they would know there is a someone

and the moral obligations they innately feel are real.

They're not little phantom feelings that we have.

They're real.

And I pray for my friend and anybody else in this room

or anybody else listening online,

that they would know, Jesus, you rose again from the grave

and the world changed at that point

and we must place our faith in you

and we must trust in what you, Jesus said about God

and everything.

So I pray that there would be people

who become followers of you today

and I pray those of us who are Christians

who have friends like this,

that this would be helpful for us

to be able to know how we may speak to our friends

and pray for them and love them.

So I thank you for this opportunity

and I pray that you would use it for your will.

we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Let me end with these good words from God's word.

For what I passed on to you is most important. I also received that Christ died for our sins

according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day

according to the scriptures. That is good news.

Applaus