The Resurrection and the Hope

Transcript

Well good morning family. He is risen. Amen. If you would be so kind as to turn with me in your Bibles to 1st Corinthians chapter 15. If you don’t have a Bible there are some Bibles in front of you and in the chair in front of you. 1st Corinthians is about towards the very end of the book. For those of you who are unaware of how a Bible functions the big numbers are the chapters the little numbers are the verses and we’ll be reading from 1st Corinthians 15 chapter 15 beginning at verse 3 making our way to verse 10.

For I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received. 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 that he appeared to Cephas then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time. Most of whom are still alive though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James. Then to all the apostles. Last of all as to one untimely born he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles. Unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am and his grace towards me was not in vain. On the contrary I worked harder than any of them. Though it was not I but the grace

of God that is in me. Brothers and sisters this is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray. Our Father and our God we thank you for your Word. We thank you that your Word has given us everything necessary to understand reality. The truth that you in fact came died and rose again. We pray God that as we approach your Word you would give us eyes to see this truth. Help us to understand it and help us to delight in the hope that this passage provides Christians. We pray these things in Christ’s name. Amen. Well for those of you who don’t know who I am my name is Thomas. I’m one of the pastors here. I have the privilege of serving here as a staff pastor. Many of you who do know me you know that I tend to travel a bit for ministry. Though challenging it may be to

The Jefferson Bible

travel to fly and move around the country one of the things that I absolutely love about traveling is the uninterrupted time for study. Very good. There’s no cell service on a plane so no one can call me. I’m not distracted by emails slack messages or any other push notification that demands my attention and there’s really not much you can do except for sit in your seat and wait till you get to where you’re going. So I tend to make the best use of my time by using my travel time as study time and that study time usually is centered around a sermon that I need to prepare or perhaps a sermon series that I’m going to dive into or maybe it’s a book on theology dealing with a particular doctrine that I’ll eventually be preaching in a sermon. Well some of my friends and mentors have

been telling me that I should use my travel time not for work but for personal time. Maybe that I should start using my flying time to explore other things other interests outside of the Bible or church or sermons. So I decided a few months back that I would give it a try the next time I had a series of flights that I needed to catch and so many of you know last week I was traveling to Northern California and I knew I had to prepare a sermon for Good Friday and Easter in one week. But instead I decided I’m gonna take that time to dive into another area of interest. So I decided that I would begin to study on this particular flight randomly Thomas Jefferson. Okay that yeah it is what it is. I don’t know why I chose to dive deep into the life of

Thomas Jefferson. Maybe it’s because I’ve been thinking a lot about history, the United States, the Declaration of Independence and how all that came together. I wasn’t really focused on that in high school but for whatever reason out of all the founding fathers Jefferson made the cut. Now there are a lot of things that I did not know about Jefferson. Strange and interesting things. But perhaps what’s more interesting is how in my attempt to use my travel time for personal time and not study for something outside of my sermon prep Thomas Jefferson made its way into the introduction of my sermon. Okay I promise it was not intentional but given what I learned about Thomas Jefferson and given what today is all about I could not help myself. Because as I was studying Thomas Jefferson I learned that though he did not consider himself a Christian he was very interested in the teachings of Jesus Christ. He had a great

interest in the life of Jesus but was critical about certain aspects concerning Christianity. Particularly the aspects that were connected to the supernatural claims of Christianity. And that’s because Thomas Jefferson was what you might call a naturalist. Someone who believed that reason and observation are the primary means of understanding the world around them. And because he was a naturalist one of the ways he attempted to reconcile his deep interest in Jesus but dismiss all the supernatural claims was to create his own version of the New Testament known as the Jefferson Bible. This is legit. Which focused on the moral teachings of Jesus and the parables. And the way that Jefferson created this Bible was by literally taking a razor blade and cutting out various passages of the New Testament which he then pasted into a blank book. Leaving out all of the miracles. All the references to Jesus as divinity. Basically all the

supernatural elements that made him feel uncomfortable or that seemed unreasonable. Now you might be curious much like I was especially considering that today is Resurrection Sunday. How did Thomas Jefferson in his Bible deal with the resurrection? After all the resurrection is both fact and supernatural. So what did he do? He just left it out. He ends his Bible. I mean literally ends his Bible following the crucifixion narrative with Jesus being laid in the tomb. No mention whatsoever about the most significant part in the life of Jesus which is his resurrection from the dead. And that’s because Jefferson’s most significant part concerning the life of Jesus was on the morality of Jesus. The character of Jesus. The truth-telling nature of Jesus. The wisdom of Jesus. The compassion of Jesus. And the forgiveness of Jesus. And most importantly Jesus’s love for others. Everything else in Jefferson’s mind

could easily be dismissed. And listen this idea isn’t unique to Thomas Jefferson. Many people in our world think this exact same way. They loved the morality of Jesus. They loved the character of Jesus. They loved the way Jesus loved other people. They loved what he taught. But they dismiss what he taught about himself. Namely his claim to be God. And that he died as a ransom. And that he raised from the grave. So I would submit to you this morning that Jefferson and others who think like him have a very limited view of reality. Because the resurrection is not just a supernatural claim. It’s historical fact that can be verified through evidence. Especially through reason and observation. And by ignoring this evidence Jefferson and others in our world fail to understand not only the reality of the supernatural resurrection. But the purpose for which Jesus actually came. The whole purpose for Jesus coming to earth was not to

help us be a more ethical or more moral people. But to save us from the fact that we will never be moral enough. I mean if you think about it the fact that Jefferson appealed to Jesus as a moral and ethical example to follow. Just screams that the world needs an example. Because of our deficiency in our morality. Jesus came precisely because of humanity’s immorality. And if Jefferson claims that Jesus is a great moral example that we ought to follow after. Then how could Jefferson refuse Jesus’s moral imperative to repent and believe in the gospel. It’s just inconsistent. Which I’ve recently come to realize is consistently the case with Jefferson’s ideas. You cannot just razor-cut out the parts of Jesus that you like and paste them into your own personal and rational worldview. You must take Jesus as a whole. Including his resurrection and his call to repent and believe the gospel. Brothers and sisters

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The Gospel Facts

this morning we gather together with great joy to celebrate the actual fact that Christ has raised from the grave. Our faith brothers and sisters is not an unreasonable faith. It is completely reasonable. Our faith is built on empirical evidence like reason and observation. And because the resurrection is actually true. Then we can know for sure that all the other claims and promises of Jesus are true. And this brothers and sisters is exactly what our text this morning is all about. The reasonable verifiable reality of the resurrection and its implications for what it means as Christians. So let’s begin our time this morning by looking to God’s word beginning at verses 3 and 4. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. 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. So right out of the gate the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit gives us this most significant most glorious truth the world has ever known. Christ died for our sins. Christ was buried. Christ was raised. Paul in these two verses shatters all the world’s presuppositions assumptions and misunderstandings concerning what Jesus specifically came to do. Essentially in this first section we get the mission statement of Jesus. Listen he did not come as a mere moral guide for us to follow after. He did not come as some sage or spiritual guru to provide us with the best ethical practices for humanity. No Paul gives us as plainly as possible this threefold mission statement of Jesus. Christ has died for our sins. Christ was buried. And Christ was raised. These three truths these three historical facts together make up the gospel of Jesus Christ which we call the good news. In these three truths when

comprehensively understood when honestly embraced powerfully and supernaturally save people. Romans 1 16 says the gospel is the power of God for salvation to anyone who believes. So you want salvation? You got to believe. Not just the parts you like. Not just the parts you conveniently cut out. But the whole of the gospel. The whole gospel must be understood believed to experience the power of God for salvation. And listen because it’s vital for us to understand the parts to see how it relates to the whole. What I want to do is briefly accentuate the parts. These historical facts by breaking them down into three categories. The proof of purchase. The proof of death. And the proof of life. So first the historical fact Christ died for our sins. Notice first that Paul didn’t say Christ died for us period. And thanks be to God for that. Thanks be to

God that he didn’t just die for us. Because if he did just die as Thomas Jefferson and others presumed that would do nothing for us. Sure it would be a great sentiment. But it would do nothing to deal with our greatest issue. A lot of people die for other people. There are countless people who have laid down their lives for their spouses. For their children. For their fellow soldiers. Holy men throughout history have died for other people. It’s not altogether uncommon for people to sacrifice their life for the good or benefit of other people. And that’s good. That is a good and great thing. It’s loving. It’s noble. And it’s selfless. But as good as those things are it doesn’t deal with our greatest issue. See Christ didn’t just die. He died for our sins. Christ died to deal with our greatest dilemma. Which as Thomas Jefferson makes completely clear is a

moral dilemma. See our greatest issue is that we are sinners. And I know for some that’s a very uncomfortable truth to swallow. But it is the truth nonetheless. This is the reality. Whether we admit it or not. Friends this world is a dark and evil world. Full of hate and hostility. And it only takes a few moments of reason and observation to realize that this world is full of bad people. Who do very bad things. Unthinkable things. Most of those things done in the name of morality. But as much as we observe the world around us and see the sin that’s out there in all of its ugliness. We must look inward to see the sin in our own hearts. But friends we often fail to do this. And that’s because humanity seems to have what you might call a subjective moral standard. Most people believe that

since they are not as bad as those people on burn side. Because we haven’t done those kinds of bad things. That we’re comparatively good. And therefore we don’t need to examine the sin in our own lives. They believe they’re decent people. They might even do good things. They don’t do drugs. They give money to the Portland rescue mission. They even wear their seat belts and never text when they drive. So they actually believe that they’re not as bad to be called a sinner. Or to be placed in the category of sinner. So the word sinner gets downgraded to something like bad habits. Or moral mistakes. Because most people believe that the word sinner is exclusively reserved for the worst, most vile kinds of people. But notice that most people’s subjective moral standard is measured by themselves. We often use ourselves as the grid or the standard to examine that which is good or bad or

right or wrong. But hidden in our self-righteousness and our self-deception is our obvious sin. God’s Word tells us truthfully that there is none righteous. Not anyone. We all sin. And if we fail to see that, then we are calling God a liar. The real objective reality, friends, is that we are all sinners. We’re all sinners. And here’s the thing. The greater reality is that sin has consequences. And I don’t even really need to qualify that statement because we know it instinctively, intuitively. Each one of us has a bent towards justice. We all want to punish people when we are personally violated. When someone sins against us, we want justice. And we often demand justice to the fullest extent of the law. But our own sense of justice, friends, is precisely what condemns us. When we sin, we are first and foremost sinning against a holy and perfect God who is perfectly

just. And punishment to the fullest extent of the law, if the judge is perfect, is death. It’s a death sentence. This is the bad news because this death sentence is without appeal. It’s inescapable and we cannot do anything to change the verdict. There’s no amount of community service, no amount of moral goodness. There is no karma sufficient to make it right. Somebody has to pay the penalty for our sin, which means somebody has to die to pay for those sins. Jesus came to die so that he could pay for our sins. His death was the punishment that we deserved. He died in our place and his death is the proof of purchase, the proof that our sin is paid for. The second historical fact is that Christ was buried. This is oftentimes overlooked, but it is central to the gospel. Jesus was crucified and was buried in a tomb. He died. A literal death. In all the way

death. He wasn’t partially dead. He wasn’t unconscious. He wasn’t in a coma. He was all the way dead. In fact, in the Gospel of John, it tells us that this man named Joseph of Arimathea, who was a member of the Jewish council and part of the Jewish religious leaders that aimed to crucify Jesus, he went to Pilate and he requested the body of Jesus so that he could prepare the dead body for burial. Pilate let him have the body of Jesus, but before he let him have the body, Pilate made sure to send a Roman governor to pierce the side of Jesus to effectively prove that Jesus had indeed died on the cross. Also, Nicodemus, another Jewish religious leader, he helped to prepare Jesus’s body for burial, which means both Joseph, Nicodemus, and the Roman soldiers all provide direct evidence of Jesus’s death because they were eyewitnesses to it, especially when

they prepared his body for burial. And this is a very important reality. This reason is so important for us because in order to be raised from the dead, one has to actually be dead. The claim of a resurrection could not be authenticated if the death was first not authenticated, and his burial, friends, was the proof of death. And this burial serves as the necessary bridge to the third historical fact, Christ was raised. Christ was resurrected on the third day. This here is the foundational piece of the Gospel. This is what validates our faith and makes it legitimate. The Bible says if Christ has not been raised, then our faith is futile, meaning we’re foolish. This is what confirms for the Christian that Jesus is God, that he is who he says he is. There’s been a lot of people who have claimed to be God, but then they die, and that’s it. Nothing more. Jesus died,

was buried, and was raised, proving that he is God. And if you notice, Paul stresses two times when explaining the Gospel, that it’s according to the Scriptures. Paul is doing this to stress the fact that the Old Testament has long been pointing to what would happen to Jesus. The Old Testament foretold that the Son of God would come to take away the sins of the world through a bloody death on a cross, that he would die, that he would be buried, and that he would conquer the grave and be raised from death to life. The Scriptures foretold this long ago, that it would happen. And it actually happened, and the resurrection fulfilled it. The resurrection is the proof of life. Brothers and sisters, this is the Gospel. Christ died for our sins, Christ was buried, Christ was raised. Proof of purchase, proof of death, proof of life. And all of this confirmed, all

Eyewitness Testimony

of this confirmed by these three historical facts, and we see that it would be totally bogus if this were just a mere claim, if no one saw the resurrected Jesus. If there was no proof, we would all be fools to trust in this Gospel. If there were no evidence, we are wasting our time. But this is what separates Christianity from all other religions. Verifiable proof, eyewitness proof, through reason and observation. Look at verse 5. He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Hold there for a second. All these witnesses to Christ’s appearing, all these people saw him after he was in the grave. And these people gave eyewitness account of his life and his

resurrection. This is precisely why Paul mentions these people in the Bible, to give us the proof. But Paul mentioning these people is more than just proof of the resurrection. There’s a lot more going on with these groups of people. One group would have been sufficient. Paul could have simply said Jesus appeared to more than 500 people at one time, and all of those people would have been included in that one group. But he does more than that, because he has something to accentuate with these various groups of people. So his list is not only apologetic and chronological, but it’s also an encouragement to us. He starts with Peter. Paul calls him by his Greek name Cephas. He starts with Peter because Jesus and Peter were very close. Peter was in the inner circle of the disciples. And if you remember, on the night that Jesus was betrayed, it was

Peter, his very close friend, who said, I will stand with you, Jesus. I will ride with you. But Peter ends up denying him three times. Can you imagine how Peter must have felt in the wake of this betrayal? What Peter must have been thinking? I have abandoned my friend, my God, and my king when he needed me the most. What I’ve done is so horrible and so disloyal. How could he ever forgive me for such a horrible thing? Paul mentions Peter first to highlight the forgiveness of Jesus, who forgives his friend that abandoned him in the most profound way. Jesus forgives him, and then Jesus commissions him back into ministry. And this is what Jesus says to us. Child, you’re forgiven. No matter how many times you trip up, I forgive you. Now go and tell other people about what I’ve done. Then Jesus appears to the twelve, which is shorthand for the twelve disciples that

followed Jesus exclusively, minus Judas. These men gave their lives to follow Jesus, their careers, their dreams, their aspirations. They gave up family and friends. And when Jesus was crucified, they likely wondered, was it all worth it? Was all of this for nothing? Jesus appears to them to show them it was worth it, to encourage them to continue to follow after Jesus. Friends, Jesus is worth giving up everything for. Then to the 500. Notice how Paul refers to the fact that most of these folks were still alive at the time this book was written. This is just in case those people needed to do a bit of fact-checking. Essentially, Paul was saying, we have witnesses. You don’t believe me? Go ask them. They were there. They’ll tell you. It’s legit. Then Paul mentions James, the half-brother of Jesus. This is very interesting. You know, before the

resurrection, James didn’t believe that Jesus was God. In fact, James used to mock Jesus. You could imagine James living in the shadows of a perfect sibling, how that must have made him feel growing up. The Gospel of John tells us that even Jesus’s brothers didn’t believe him. Perhaps it was this encounter with the resurrected Jesus where James is confronted by who he really is, where his perspective changes, where the reality sets in, where he finally embraces his half-brother by faith. Then Paul mentioned that Jesus appeared to all the apostles. He appeared to encourage and commission the people who would flip the world upside down for the sake of the gospel. All of these people, witnesses to the resurrected Jesus. You know, in a court of law, this kind of eyewitness testimony would be overwhelming evidence for the proof of the resurrection. Yet still, so many people do not believe. This is normative in our naturalistic,

cut-and-paste, alternative-fact culture. But the truth is, unbelief really has nothing to do with evidence or reason. It has everything to do with human autonomy. Rather than see what is verifiably true, people in their pursuit of expressive individualism or total independence, they suppress the truth that’s made plain and obvious. They suppress it in unrighteousness to live with a sense of human autonomy. And listen, we understand this because the drive for independence, for personal autonomy, exists in all of our hearts. We were born broken and bent to do what we want to do. And this is why we need the gospel, to fix our broken and bent hearts. And Paul mentions himself in the next verses as an example of someone who was extremely broken and bent against God. And we see that in verses 8 and 10, 8 through 10. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least

of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Not only was Paul the very last to become an apostle, Paul’s experience with Jesus was drastically different from the other apostles. Paul refers to himself as one untimely born, and this is a very strange phrase to say, but really what this means is that Paul was born spiritually dead. In fact, he was so far spiritually dead that there was no reason to even attempt to resuscitate or to save. He was too far gone to be born. He was the least deserving, which made him the least of the apostles.

Grace for the Worst

And Paul didn’t have this kind of peaceful and gradual introduction to Jesus like the other disciples. It wasn’t like the fishermen who were hanging out and fishing, and Jesus said, hey, drop your nets and follow me, and they made the decision to go and follow him. It wasn’t like the tax collector who heard that Jesus extends dignity and forgiveness to even people like tax collectors. No, Paul’s introduction to Jesus was violent, shocking, and abrasive. And Paul’s background was very different from the other apostles. Paul was a persecutor of Christians, and to put it bluntly, Paul’s hatred towards Jesus caused him to kill the followers of Jesus. Paul, unlike the other apostles, was a murderer, a religious terrorist, a self-righteous, prideful, religiously motivated persecutor of the church, which made him the worst kind of person. Humanly speaking, he was unredeemable, unforgivable, and unsavable. But the resurrected Jesus

extended grace and mercy to Paul. Look at the extent of Jesus’s compassion and love. Paul was an enemy of God, a killer of God’s beloved people, yet God does the unthinkable. He rescues Paul from his pride and hatred. He rescues Paul from his religious self-righteousness. He rescues Paul from his murderous heart. He forgives him, and he saves him. God makes a man who was untimely born, born again. With the same power that raised Jesus to life, God raised Paul, who was spiritually dead, to life. This is what the grace of God does. This is what the power of the resurrection does. It takes the worst of people, the most wicked, the most vile, the meanest, the ugliest, the most self-righteous, the one who appears too far gone to be reached, and he rescues and raises them from spiritual death to spiritual life. He redeems the unredeemable. He forgives the

unforgivable, and he saves the unsavable. Now, maybe you’re here this morning, and you believe that you are too bad of a person to be embraced by this Jesus. Maybe you’re here this morning, and you believe that you’re too far gone to experience this kind of grace, this kind of mercy, this kind of forgiveness for your sins. I’m here to tell you, you’re not. You’re not too far gone. There’s no better place for you to be than in this room right now, because this room is full of people who have been the recipients of his grace and forgiveness. This room is full of bad people, just as bad as Paul. There wasn’t anything good about us. There wasn’t anything special about us. We weren’t the smartest group of people. I didn’t even know much about Thomas Jefferson. We weren’t moral enough. We did nothing to earn this forgiveness.

We could do nothing to save ourselves. We simply trusted in Jesus who died for our sins, who was buried, and who raised from the grave to save us. Do you want this Jesus this morning? Do you want this Jesus this morning? Friend, he can be yours. You can experience the forgiveness of sin, the removal of guilt, and peace with God. The Bible tells us that anyone who turns and trusts in him will have forgiveness of sin and the promise of his presence for all of eternity. You could do that right where you are, in the quiet of your heart. Ask God to make himself known to you. Ask God to help you to believe. Ask him to forgive you of your sins. Ask him to save you, and he will be merciful to you. He will meet you right where you are. And listen, you don’t have to clean

yourself up. Don’t leave here today thinking to myself, well, I’ll go home, I’ll throw out all those things that I do that are bad, and then I’ll come back next week, and I’ll be ready. Don’t clean yourself up. Come to Jesus with empty hands, dirty and stained, and he will clean you up. That’s what he does. He’s in the business of saving filthy and dirty sinners like you and me, and he can do it this morning if you would just call upon his name. Do that this morning. The apostle Paul was the worst of sinners and the least of the apostles, but by the grace of God, he became what he is a Christian, a follower of Jesus, a devoted child of God. In many ways, the depths of Paul’s sin only accentuated the depths of God’s grace. Jesus says, those who are forgiven much,

love much. And this is what you see with Paul. He was not delusional about the depths of his sin. He was well-acquainted with his former life. When he says he works harder than the other apostles, his work is referring to his love. He’s saying, my work of love is more than others because I’ve experienced God’s love in a way that they have not. His sin was so significant that God saving him was so scandalous. See, Paul was so overwhelmed at how far God would go, how far the grace of God would go to save him that he responded by giving his life to love in the Lord’s work. He knows firsthand that God is a God of love that saves sinful people. And this love is not a shallow, sentimental, or uncertain love. It’s a real, tangible, costly, and verifiable love. His love led him to the cross where he died for our sins, and the resurrection is

Promises We Can Trust

the proof that our sin is paid for. But listen, the reliability and all that it says to us, the evidence and all that it says, it’s not simply proof for non-Christians who are in this room that Jesus, in fact, died and was raised from the grave. Though that is true, it’s not merely proof. It’s so much more than that for the Christian. The resurrection is true, and because of that, for the Christian, it means that all the promises of God are true for us. And God has made some audacious promises for those who would follow him. And his resurrection, dear Christian, is the proof that he is a promise keeper. He cannot lie, and he will not break his promises to us. And what are these promises that we can bank on as Christians because of the reality of the resurrection? Well, we have the promise of salvation and forgiveness.

We have the promise of acceptance with Christ, so we don’t need to worry about the sins of our past or question if we’re good with God. We never have to worry about our sins keeping us from God. No matter what those sins were, and no matter what those sins are, no matter what those sins will be, they’re paid for. We have endless access to him, and nothing or no one can take that away from you. This is the hope that we have in the power of the resurrection. But it’s more than that. We have the promise of the Holy Spirit to empower us and to guide us, to lead us in wisdom as we walk in this wicked world, to provide us with comfort and peace when everything in this world seems difficult and seemingly spinning out of control. Our governments are crazy. The people are crazy. We’re afraid. Everything seems out of control.

God has promised to be with us. There’s nothing to be afraid of. God has promised to give us power and strength when we live in a life that glorifies him, to overcome sin and temptation. He’s promised to give us the strength to grow in holiness and obedience and to bear fruit that reflects his godly character. We have the promise of peace and joy, the promise of his real tangible presence, the promise that there is indeed purpose for all of your suffering. There is purpose in your suffering, dear Christian. God has promised it. He’s promised peace and comfort in the midst of sorrow. He’s given us rest and calm in the midst of crazy worry and crazy anxieties. He’s promised that he’s not only the God that’s in control of everything, but he is the God who cares specifically for you. He cares for you. He promises that he will provide your every need.

He’s already provided for your greatest need, which is the sin that separated you from God. He promises to provide for all your other needs. Why would he not provide for those needs? And when we bring our needs to him in prayer, he promises that he will hear our prayer. He is not a God who has closed his ears to his people and left us alone. He’s not done that. He’s listening. He bends his ears to his beloved children. He promises to answer according to his perfect purposes and according to our greater good. And he promises hope, friends, hope for today and hope for the future. Christian, are you struggling in this world? Does this world seem dark and heavy? Do you feel trapped under the weight of it? Do you feel unknown or forgotten? Does this world seem overwhelming and unsatisfying? Do you wish to escape it? Are you broken?

Are you hurting? Are you depressed? Are you in pain? Are you spiritually and physically struggling to hold things together? I know it’s hard, but we have hope because God has promised that he is near and he will never leave you and he will never forsake you. And I know how dark it gets and how lonely you can feel and how far he seems. Listen, his promises confirm otherwise. The Lord draws near to all who call upon his name. And friends, we can have hope because our future is secure. God has paid for our greatest need. We will live for all of eternity. God, through his death and resurrection, has granted us immortality. Immortality. That means all the things about this world that are weighing you down, let it go. We have immortality. We have a future hope. God has promised to create a new heaven and a new world where

there will be no more pain, no more suffering, no more sorrow, no more death, no more loneliness, no more unknownness, no more fear, no more anxiety. This dark world is momentary. The deepest despair that you’re facing is transient. This life is fleeting, but the promise of God is that we will be with him for all of eternity in his new and better world. A perfect world in the presence of a perfect king, the king who rose victoriously from the grave. And because of a new and better world, because that awaits us as hard as life can be, for the Christian, we can press on. We can press on through this dark world because everything will be made right. Friends, Jesus is alive. He’s alive. You can trust all the promises, even if you don’t feel like it’s true, because the resurrection proves that it’s true and that his promises are true.

Brothers and sisters, this is why we celebrate the resurrection with so much joy, so much passion, so much zeal, because the resurrection means everything for us. It means everything. That Jesus did everything he said he would do, that he will do everything he promised to do, that he will do everything he said he will finally do on that great and glorious day when he returns. And there is no greater joy and there is no greater hope than that, my friends. Brothers and sisters, Christ has risen. He has risen indeed. Let’s pray. Father, what greater hope do we have than the hope of the resurrection in all that provides for Christians? We have nothing to fear in this life because your resurrection has taken care of everything that would assault us, of everything that would hinder us, of everything that would cause for us to be afraid. We have life because you have demonstrated life beyond the grave.

And we pray, O Lord and God, that as we celebrate this day, that we would take this to our friends, and to our cities, and to our neighbors, and to our coworkers, and tell them that Jesus is alive. And because Jesus is alive, we can be satisfied in him, and we can live for our future hope, and we can be with him for all of eternity. Help us center our hopes, and our dreams, and our lives on the reality of the resurrection and what it means for us as Christians. Thank you for saving us. Thank you for dying. Thank you for conquering the grave. Thank you for raising from death to life to secure all the promises of God in Jesus. Thank you. We praise you, our great God and our risen King. Amen.