1 Corinthians 15:1-11

good morning everyone happy easter we are so thankful you are celebrating with us this morning our call to worship is from first peter 1 3-6 blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ according to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled and unfading kept in heaven for you who by god's power are being guarded through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time in this you rejoice it's in this truth that we rejoice that we are

born again to a living hope through the resurrection of jesus not some dead martyr in a grave but a living risen savior who is seated at the right hand of god who has defeated sin and death once and for all who would call on him for salvation this is the risen savior we worship would you praise him with us praise him with us this morning as we celebrate this truth through song go ahead and stand with us [Music] god sent his son they called jesus he came to love he lived and died to buy my pardon an empty grave [Music] [Music] because he [Music] is

gone because i know [Music] don't be afraid to clap [Music] and then one day across the river lost my life [Music] is [Music] [Music] he holds the future [Music] just [Music] because he lives because he lives [Music] gone because i [Music] is [Music] is [Music] he lives [Music] come now [Music] let's start sing [Music] [Music] so let's start [Music] the glory is yours forever [Music] the greatest days are still ahead he's just getting started [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the glory is yours forevermore [Music] [Music] the glory is yours forevermore the greatest days are still ahead always just getting started [Music] and give him high praise

[Music] give him high praise give them high praise [Music] nations [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] he's worthy [Music] the glory is yours forever [Music] [Music] the glory is yours forever oh we're just getting started [Music] we should give him high praise and give our king a clap [Music] in romans 5 10-11 it says for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to god by the death of his son much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life more than that we also rejoice in god through our lord jesus christ through whom we have now received reconciliation this morning we celebrate

that we have a firm foundation and it's in nothing that we have done we celebrate the free gift that jesus has given to us and it's through him alone through christ alone in christ alone my hope is found he is my light my strength my song this cornerstone is solid ground [Music] heights of love what depths of peace when fears [Music] i [Music] in christ alone who took on flesh [Music] in righteousness scorned by the ones he came to save till on the cross has jesus died the wrath of god was [Music] [Music] there in the ground his body lay light of the world by

darkness [Music] [Laughter] [Music] glorious again and as he stands in victory since curse is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] sinking sand [Music] is [Music] [Music] jesus commands my days [Music] [Music] of christmas [Music] so [Music] [Music] how great the chasm that lay between us how high the mountain i could not climb in desperation i turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night and through the darkness your lovingkindness tore through the shadows of my soul the work is finished the end is written jesus christ [Music] such boundless grace the god of ages step down from glory to where i sing and bear

my [Music] the king of kings calls me his [Music] jesus christ [Music] [Music] its grip hallelujah me you have broken every chain there's salvation in your name jesus christ [Music] is [Music] jesus christ [Music] then came the morning and steal the promise your buried body begin to breathe out of the silence [Music] your buried body begin to breathe out of the silence [Music] jesus yours [Music] praise the one who set me free [Music] you have broken every chain in salvation in your name jesus christ [Music] hallelujah [Music] jesus christ jesus christ [Music] god we are free and we are free indeed because of you and

what you have done for us god we just stand here this morning easter morning and we look back a good friday you on the cross taking our sin but not leaving it there not just wiping our sin away god but you rose you came back to life and you brought us with you into that life god and that's what we rejoiced this morning that you've given us life that no other thing or person can give you have given us life to the fullest peace to the fullest god we praise you this morning and you alone for you are so worthy to be praised we pray

all these things in jesus name amen we ended our good friday service with um jesus on the cross breathing his last breath in his final words it is finished now let's continue on in the story looking at luke 24 5-12 but on the first day of the week at early dawn they went to the tomb taking the spices they had prepared and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb but when they went in they did not find the body of the lord jesus while they were perplexed about this behold two men stood by them in dazzling apparel and as they were frightened and

bowed their faces to the ground the men said to them why do you seek the living among the dead he is not here but has risen remember how he told you while he was still in galilee the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise and they remembered his words and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest now is mary magdalene and joanna and mary the mother of james and all the other women with them who told these things to the apostles but

these words seem to them an idol tale and they did not believe them but peter rose and ran to the tomb stooping and looking in he saw the linen cloths by themselves and he went home marveling at what had happened father we may we just be in awe of the most glorious work that has been done maybe look back at the cross and remember the weight the heaviness the sorrow knowing that our sin is what was nailed to the cross and that jesus took our place and died the death that we deserved that god help us to continue looking forward and remembering that that is

not where it stops god maybe we remember the truth of his resurrection remembering that only he could do what he did and because of this we have all the hope let us reflect on that today we pray amen amen good morning you can be seated at this time we're going to dismiss the little pentecostals uh in the church the three to five-year-olds uh they can i'm sorry if you've got a pentecostal background but um but they can go to their class and they'll head out for the rest of us if you have your bibles i want you to go ahead and grab them either open

them up or turn them on whatever version or form of a bible that you're using we're going to be in first corinthians chapter 15 today first corinthians chapter 15. we're going to be looking at the first 11 verses of this passage as we talk about the resurrection of jesus and obviously that's going to be the message i mean this is easter this is resurrection sunday we're going to be looking at the resurrection of christ and we're going to be looking at the significance of this and why it is so important for us to not only just draw attention to this annually but to also just

draw attention to this daily in our lives as we just live because this is all of christianity hinges on whether or not jesus rose from the grave all of it hinges on this singular event and that's why i want to look at this passage because that's exactly what paul is doing in preaching to this church in corinth is he's calling them back to remember this significant news because he wants to remind them of who they are in christ who they are as a church in the very means by which they exist as a church they exist as christians they exist as believers is on this

singular truth of the good news of jesus christ and so for us today this isn't going to be um honestly anything that you've not heard before if you've attended an easter service in the past and if you're a believer in here and you attend church regularly again this is not going to be anything new i don't have uh some refreshing new spin on the easter message i remember you know kind of in my early years i took a class on on preaching and that class i'm preaching for whatever reason one of the professors said you need to keep your best sermon for easter and then

i remember one of the students actually kind of challenging that and being like that kind of puts a lot of pressure on one sunday on one sermon to be preached and he said well then you're kind of missing the point if you hold everything on what you preach on easter and then let that be the foundation for everything that you preach from there on out it's all preaching the same thing it's all preaching the good news of jesus life his death and his resurrection and we then apply that to literally every sermon that we preach every single week so you want to be a good

husband and a good wife it comes back to the life death and resurrection of jesus christ you want to be a good neighbor it comes back to this good news you want to be a good parent it comes back to this you want to be a good co-worker or business owner or whatever it looks like it comes back to this good news it comes back to jesus taking away your sins which makes you a terrible husband a terrible spouse a terrible friend a terrible co-worker a terrible fill in the blank he removes that sin and he forgives you and he cleanses you and he raises

you to a new life so that we can actually live out righteously how to be a husband that is like christ a wife that is like christ a co-worker that is like christ we can't do those things if it's not for the news of jesus christ and what he has purchased for us what he has done for us and so that's why we want to just remind ourselves every single week of this good news of jesus and as we will do today so i'm just going to walk through this passage with you so that again our minds our hearts will just be renewed and that

we will continue to worship jesus in this way starting in verse 1 he says now i would remind you brothers of the gospel that i preached to you which you received in which you stand and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word i preached to you unless you believed in vain now that's an important couple of verses in scripture right there those two verses they say a lot and we're going to come back to them because paul is doing or what he's doing here is he's wanting to provide assurance of faith for the church in corinth he's wanting to

remind them of the only thing that allows them to stand and that allows them to be saved he's reminding them of the reason for why they exist as a church he's reminding them of the power of the gospel and this is what easter represents for us as well it just reminds us of the truth that we hope to never forget and that's why he begins it with let me remind you why does he have to remind them because we as humans we're prone to forget are we not like how much you don't have to this is rhetorical so don't answer this but how much money

is your is in your bank account right now to the cent you don't know because you've already forgotten do you know where your birth certificate is right now okay maybe some of you do if you're responsible all right some of us have to like call their mom right like how many of you know what your gpa was when you graduated high school or college maybe some of you if you're proud of it but for others we want to forget those things right if you know all three of those things right now to the scent like there's something wrong with you but that's the side point

we are prone to forget things and that's why the apostle paul here is drawing their attention back because they're prone to forget we we get caught up in the busyness of life we get caught up in the work life balance that we have we get caught up in these things and we forget the most foundational principles and truths that should actually define our lives that we should actually be living by and so he wants them to be reminded and again i'm going to come back to these two verses because i believe they're profound and necessary for us to know what it means to really hold

fast to the word that he preached unless you believed in vain that that truth is important in being able to receive stand and be saved by the gospel in order for it to be our reality so the question i hope you're asking in your mind is if it's so important to remind us of this gospel what is this gospel what is this gospel if it is necessary to be reminded of well we see it in verse 3 starting here for i delivered to you as of first importance what i also received that christ died for our sins in accordance to the scriptures that he was

buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to cephas and 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 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 so whether then it was i or they so we preach and so you believed so i want to walk through six points that are just walking through this passage here six points that are drawing our attention that are pulling our minds back to remember the significance of each of these things because all together it's the good news but even individually each of these points just have so much to do with your daily life how you follow christ how you live

in christ and how you spread this news as you encounter others and so the first point that i want you to see is that christ is of first importance like if we were to end history right now and someone were to ask what was the one thing that we should remember like if there were to be like one last newspaper that was going to be printed with a headline on it to sum up all of history and to draw attention to the greatest headline that has ever existed what would the headline be according to god the headline for all of human history would be this

one thing of first importance the main thing is that christ lived a perfect life that he died of death and that he was buried and that he rose again three days later that would be according to god the greatest thing that has ever happened in all of human history that's why paul says this is of first importance no everything else pedals in comparison the headline is not going to read the the rise and fall of the roman empire the headline is not going to be the independence of the united states from the great britain like it's not going to be that it's not going to

be the building of the great pyramids it's not going to be your political party that won an election it's not going to be any of those things that we at times think are the greatest thing that we might have experienced but rather the headline is going to read that the god man jesus christ came and he lived a perfect life he died the death that we deserved and three days later he rose from the grave this is the most important thing and greatest of importance to all of humans literally all of human history literally hinges on this event i mean we we respectively gauge time

by the person of jesus christ before christ and a d and o dominate the year of the lord i mean everything hinges on jesus everything and not only just our human history but our eternity hinges on the person and work of jesus christ it's important and that's why he is saying it is of first and greatest importance as ron burgundy quotes of himself i'll paraphrase jesus is kind of a big deal here all right he's kind of a big deal he should not be merely an add-on to your work-life balance and this is kind of where we're kind of i'm going to throw some application

in here because jesus is of first importance i hope we do not manage our relationship with jesus like we manage the relationships we have with everyone else because at best if you're a really close friend with someone else in our busyness of our culture and whatnot you might get to see them once a week once every other week and you have to schedule those meetings out if you got children you got to work that out like there's so many things that you have to work out in order to just see someone else to be able to relate with them to be in their lives and

have them in their life to be able to be honest with one another and actually share what's going on in your life and what's not going on in your life like it takes work but at best you might see someone once a week maybe twice a week not the way it is with jesus and i hope that's not the way that we're gauging our relationship with him because he is of first importance he is not someone that we schedule time to be with maybe once a day maybe once every few days when we think about it or when it fits our work-life balance but rather

he should be the relationship that defines all of our work-life balance he should be the relationship that is informing all of those things so that when we wake up in the morning and we're looking at our schedule for the day we're running it by jesus and saying does this look good in a schedule that's going to honor you and glorify you in all things whether i'm eating or drinking or whatever i'm doing as first corinthians says do we let him define our relationships and our lives as if he is of first importance or do we get to him whenever it's convenient and important to us

that one's a hard one to hear but what jesus does for us is he promises something for us and this is good news he promises something for us that no other person in this room can promise you even your spouses he promises i can be i will be with you always to the end of the age because of the good news because of his life because of his death because of his resurrection when we enter into relationship with him that was the the whole point of what we looked at on friday night and good friday was him bearing his bearing our sins on the cross

that created the chasm between us and god the reason why he took our sins on the cross and was put to death was so that he could bridge that chasm and bring us back to god in relationship and the way that that relationship works is that god tells us through jesus christ i'm going to be with you always no one else can promise you that no one and so we can have assurance of faith in christ that wherever we go jesus is with us to be able to always talk to him to be able to always lean on him to be able to always ask

for his wisdom to be able to always ask for his shoulder to cry on to be able to always just need him and use him whenever we need him for power and strength to be able to get through the lives that we are living and in that way we actually have life abundance christ is always with us because he is of first importance no other religious leader can promise that like no other religious leader of other world religions can promise what jesus has promised to his followers that i will be with you always muhammad cannot promise that to muslims joseph smith cannot promise that to

mormons abraham cannot promise that to jews you can like moses couldn't promise that no other world religious leader can promise what jesus has has literally offered for us and has executed for us in his resurrection you can go visit the graves of everybody that i've mentioned except for moses because no one knows where his grave is god hit him somewhere in the rocks on the side of a mountain and you can search that on your own it's pretty fascinating but no one knows everyone else you can go see their tomb jesus's tomb you go visit it it's empty because of what we're celebrating today so

that's the first point jesus is of first importance the second point verse three for i deliver to you as a first importance what i also received that christ died for our sins christ died for our sins again this is what we celebrated on good friday at the gathering on friday night we read first peter 2 22-25 and i want to read it again for you he committed no sin neither was the seat found in his mouth when he was reviled he did not revile in return when he suffered he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly he himself bore our

sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and that we might live to righteousness that's everything i'm talking about like that's the hope that we have in this good news is that we might die to sin and live to righteousness and the only way that that happens is through the power of christ bearing our sins and putting them to death on the cross he died for our sins by his wounds you have been healed for you were like sheep that stray but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls christ's death was a substitution for the death

that we owe god he paid it all as we sang when jesus died on the cross he did not say i did my part to save you now you go and do yours i that's not what he said on the cross he says the work is finished the work is finished that's why this is a gift that's why this is grace that god extends to us there's nothing that we have to do to earn this good news that comes to us there's nothing that we have to do in order to make sure that he bears our sins on the cross it is a gift for

us and he says in john 19 30 it's finished he kills your sin by becoming sin and allowing god's wrath to crush him and kill him and we all fit in that category of sinners that have placed him there on the cross romans 3 23 is clear about that for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god i looked it up in the greek to see what all meant and it means all like it's everyone we're all in that same boat and you're like no my precious baby that's boring like they're a little angel just wait just wait we are all sinners

in need of saving grace and that's why jesus came to substitute himself because we are deserving of death we're deserving of god's wrath and he takes it for us on the cross and he bears the weight of god's wrath in our place so that that wrath towards us could be diverted away placed on jesus and then in return god grants us and gives us the righteousness of jesus that's it corinthians 5 21 one of my favorite verses you hear me preach it all the time or just say it all the time that he who knew no sin like it says here he committed no sin

he who knew no sin he was perfect in his life he became sin he became you and went to the cross so that you and i might then become his righteousness the righteous for the unrighteous martin luther calls it the great exchange the great substitution and that's exactly what jesus purchased for us at the cross that's the second point the third point is that he was buried that he was buried people oftentimes call this silent saturday like what are we doing on saturday while jesus is buried we're just sitting in the silence but there's significance in the fact that jesus needed to be buried god

literally held a funeral for your sin that's what's going on it's a funeral for your sin i want you to think about that god put jesus in the grave for three days to guarantee that sin was dead once and for all that jesus didn't merely pass out on the cross and then wake back up a little later that's actually a theory out there called the swoon theory that they believe that he just passed out for a little while and that he came back uh he just woke up from his nap that's what a lot of people try to preach in order to uh disprove the

resurrection and so god said i'm going to make sure that they realize that he's dead dead and the swoon theory knowing what they did and beating him and torturing him and nailing him to a cross like it's going to take a little longer if you're just napping and you're just waking up from that and you're just you're not god but you're just this man who everyone believed to be the son of god if he's just a man and was napping and woke up it's going to take him a little longer than 40 days to recover from what they did in order for him to fix

some breakfast for peter on the on the shore just a few weeks later in order to restore him after he denied him three times it takes a resurrection from the dead to be able to do what jesus did he was buried and not only that but his burial this this this is just him according to the scriptures fulfilling what was already prophesied isaiah 53 9 talks about the fact that he would be buried in a rich man's tomb so that had to happen and it's true he was he was buried in a rich man's tomb it's also to fulfill the illustrations that we see in

the old testament of jonah being in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights that that is to fulfill the fact that this illustration is coming true in the messiah jesus christ who is actually ultimately providing salvation for all of us so that's the third point jesus was buried the fourth point is that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures the resurrection from the dead is the sealed assurance that we all need to believe jesus is truly the son of god is truly the son of god if the whole thing was taken to a world court and

the lawyer was testifying on behalf of jesus saying he was the son of god this is the clenching and final statement it's the clenching and final statement that wins it for christianity every single time because before jesus died and resurrected whenever he would go out and ask a simple question who do the people say that i am a lot of them would just give references of great prophets great teachers just you're just an all around just a great person but the only way that you can actually prove to be the son of god is if you die and then you show that you are greater

than death and you come back from it up until this point that's what they're warring with in their soul is whether or not jesus if he dies will he come back to life and he's essentially preaching and telling them you're going to kill me because of the claim that i'm about to make i am god i am god and i have the ability and the authority to forgive sins by what i'm going to do on the cross and they're all looking at him like you're a madman you're crazy so what we're going to do is we're going to put you to death because what you're

saying if you're not god by claiming to be god that's blasphemy and that actually is lawful for them to put someone to death based upon that so they're saying if you're god we're going to put it to the test we're going to kill you we're going to crucify you and if you come back to if you come back to life then maybe there was something to it maybe we actually didn't miss it and we just killed god that's exactly what they did god uses our sin i mean this is what blows my mind because satan thinks he won satan's whole thing is let me get

jesus out of the way and the very thing that satan uses in his mind to defeat jesus is the thing that defeats satan i'm going to kill jesus not realizing that by killing him i'm actually playing into god's entire plan from the beginning that i am going to kill my son and i'm going to put all the sins of the world on him and that three days later because my wrath is satisfied towards all of your brokenness and all of your sins and all of your bad thoughts and everything that you have done that is straying like sheep from the lord that's not living a

life of righteousness all of those things placed on jesus because his wrath is satisfied jesus no longer has to remain dead because the wrath of god is satisfied therefore the authority that god has to literally speak things into existence to create life he is able to look at jesus dead in the grave and resurrect him on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and here's why that's good news for us is because jesus as it says he's the first fruits of the resurrection he's the first fruits of the resurrection i want you to see this because this this is the big kind of question

that the church in corinth had and that they're kind of wrestling with and that their culture was wrestling with it's just this idea of resurrection a lot of them did not believe that there would be a resurrection and so paul just attacks it and dives into it so where you're at jump down to verse 12 in first corinthians 15 and you'll see this play out where paul really wants to just elaborate on this one point here about the resurrection he says now if christ is proclaimed is raised from the dead how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead but

if there is no resurrection of the dead then not even christ has been raised and if christ has not been raised then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain it's all meaningless if he didn't raise from the dead we are even found to be misrepresenting god because we testified about god that he raised christ whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised for if the dead are not raised not even christ has been raised and if christ has not been raised your faith is futile and you are still in your sins essentially he's saying

like if if christ has not been raised then the whole thing's a sham the whole thing doesn't mean anything if he's still in the grave and then technically if he's still in the grave the wrath of god is not satisfied your sins are still in place your sins have not been taken care of then those also who have fallen asleep in christ have perished and if christ if in christ we have hope in this life only we are of all people most to be pitied what he's essentially saying is if they're believing in christ and christ never raised from the dead and they're being persecuted

for it they of all people should be the most pitied because they're not living it up while they're living in this kind of mere existence and then nothing happens when they die like if christ does not raise from the dead and this is all there is then do what you want do what you want live how you want try to live it up because this is the closest thing that you're going to get to a proverbial heaven that possibly exists if jesus did not raise from the grave if he was not the son of god if he did not do what he said he came

to do then christianity is the worst hobby that you could possibly find in this world there's so many other better things to do then do what we do if jesus did not raise from the grave that's what paul is getting at but he says in verse 20 but in fact christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep and that's just another way of saying those who have died for as by a man came death by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead what he's saying there is by a man adam came death for everybody

because when adam and eve sinned the way in which sin is passed down is through the seed of man so if you're born from a father and a mother you're a sinner and i don't care how much our culture right now is trying to re-structure science biology works between a man and a woman having relations and burying a child sin is passed down through those relations and there's no one in this room who has not been born from a man and a woman who have had relations you are sinners because through adam everyone has sinned and what he's now saying is that through one man

jesus everyone is able to become righteous for as in adam all die so also in christ shall all be made alive but each in his own order christ the firstfruits then at his coming those who belong to christ is the first fruit of the resurrection to this new glorified state this new glorified body and then at his second coming we all get that same body we all get that same glorified body that i know and i know y'all know that i joke about this all the time but for those over the age of 27 you're looking forward to a glorified body you're looking forward to

that day where you don't dislocate your shoulder when you're sleeping at night when you don't have any pain when you're not popping ibuprofen like candy on a regular basis like you you're just looking forward to that day where you don't have to experience pain anymore we don't have to experience just loss anymore tears anymore you don't have to worry about any of those things fear of losing a loved one ever again because death has been taken care of and that glorified body we will never experience death ever again ever but rather all we get to experience is joy and life to the fullest for eternity

that's what the resurrection guarantees for us in christ jesus and that's the fourth point god raised jesus from the grave because he has defeated death and he is raised to this new life this new glorified state that he promises for each one of us who believe in him the fifth one is that he appeared to cephas and 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 who is his brother then to all the apostles and last of all is to one untimely born he

appeared to me for i am the least of the apostles unworthy to be called an apostle because i persecuted the church of god why did jesus think it necessary to appear to us after he rose from the grave because it then establishes the method by which god is spreading his gospel that he is spreading his good news it's going to be delivered through witnesses through witnesses and in our case here it's literally delivered through eyewitnesses paul here is delivering his witness testimony of him meeting the resurrected jesus on the road to damascus peter's letter letters that we looked at in first and second peter are

him delivering his eyewitness testimony that jesus did in fact raised from the grave and appeared to peter after the fact for 40 days ministering to peter during that time restoring him back to his ministry i love the apostle john's opening of his letters this is what he says in first john 1 1-4 that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of the life that is jesus the life that was made manifest that came to the world we have seen it and testify to it

and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the father and was made manifest to us that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the father and with the son jesus christ we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete what he's saying is the greatest thing for us to do is share this good news of jesus christ whom we've heard from whom we've seen who we've touched after his resurrection we're sharing this news so that you would believe and be brought back

to god and enter into this fellowship that we have with god who is with the father and with the son we're with all of them we're just enjoying relationship with him and it that is the greatest thing that we get to experience in this life this side of glory is sharing this news and seeing people believe in him and come to know him and have their sins forgiven have their shame taken away have their guilt dealt with and have their death paid for once and for all like that's what he's preaching and that's what gets so exciting about sharing the good news of jesus christ

is because you see people go from death to eternal life in christ forever i mean when you wrap your mind around that that's sharing this good news that paul is sharing that is drawing our attention to that is saying this is the most important thing that you could possibly experience and remember when you share it with someone else and the light bulb goes off and faith comes alive and they believe in jesus christ for the first time what you are witnessing is not only in the here and now them having some hope but also witnessing that their eternity and their eternal destination has changed you've

changed their address they're no longer going to hell but they are now going to heaven that they are going to be able to experience life with christ forever and that's why he's able to say this this completes our joy like we have joy in christ but what completes it even that much more is that we get to see others come to christ we get to bring other people into this i mean how about our poor doubting thomas in the way that he looks at it in john 20 24-29 like there's some in this room right now who were like i don't know i don't know

that's where thomas was thomas the twin that's where he was this is what he says now thomas one of the twelve okay like he was with jesus for three years one of the twelve called the twin was was not with them when jesus came this is after the resurrection so the other disciples told him we've seen the lord but he said to them unless i see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side i am never going to believe man like he sounds like a joy to be around

right eight days later his disciples were inside again and thomas was with them i love this i don't know why this is in there maybe it's if i had if i had a superpower it would be teleportation like i just would love to be able to teleport don't know why i just i would love to and this is this is the only hope i have in the scriptures that in our glorified bodies we get to teleport it literally says oh no i gotta find my place i lost it okay verse 26 thomas was with them and although the doors were locked jesus came and stood

among them and said peace be with you i just love that like doors were locked and he just shows up i think he teleported in there and i think that's just one of the side points to file away in the glorified body is that we're going to get to do this then he said to thomas put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side do not disbelieve but believe thomas answered him my lord and my god and jesus said to him always kind of just a little bit of constructive criticism if you will have you

believed because you've seen me blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed that's you and me and i think that's in the story for those who have that posture of i gotta stick my finger in the hole in order to be able to see whether or not jesus actually is alive i gotta see it with my eyes i gotta taste it i gotta feel it and he did that he answered that for thomas and i think that's in there so that for those who need kind of that hard evidence are able to see this eyewitness testimony that it happened it happened for

someone who struggled in that way but for us today we don't have that privilege of going back 2 000 years ago in those 40 days after his resurrection to be able to interact with jesus during that specific time before he ascended into heaven but what we do have is what's been going on for the last two thousand years is this eyewitness testimony that's been recorded down into scriptures and has then been going out for the last two thousand years and has been spreading people sharing this news that jesus lived a perfect life that he died a death that you and i deserve and that three

days later he came back from the grave defeating death and sin and evil once and for all and guaranteeing for us that believe in him that the same thing will happen we will be put to death in christ that we will be raised to a new life and that we don't have to worry about the consequences of our sin anymore that we get to live a life unto righteousness every single day in our relationships that we have right now in our works that we have right now and everything that we do right now we can live unto righteousness we can glorify god we can worship

him in everything whether it's word or drink whatever it is that we're doing we get to worship him because he's dealt with our sin once and for all we see the eyewitness testimony we believe we believe that he is who he says he is and so that's the last question that i want to finish with you that's the fifth point do you believe the gospel because it's the gospels the good news is the grace of god as he says in verse 10 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 i love this because it sounds like paul's bragging but he's not bragging based on what he can accomplish he's bragging on what the grace of god has accomplished in his life that he has taken him from a persecutor of the church and has so transformed him by this good news of jesus christ that it has now literally altered the life of paul to where he's doing anything and everything in his work-life balance to make sure that the good news of jesus christ is being spread is being

preached is being shared for others to have this one opportunity to believe so back to verse one and two i said i was going to go back there let me remind you brothers of the gospel i preached to you which you received in which you stand and by which you are being saved it's received not earned received like when you've received something from someone like maybe think think birthday all right you're not doing anything on your birthdays to earn gifts that people give to you on their own initiative they're going out and they're thinking of you they're purchasing gifts for you and they're coming and

bringing it to you and you receive them and you open them up and you believe that they're good friends who have helped you out you know they've done something nice for you that's what we're doing here with the gospel is that is a gift that we receive a free gift free to the point that jesus on the cross says it's paid for and full and it's finished nothing for you to do it's done nothing for you to do it's done i think you just need to hear that again and then as you receive it you're then able to stand in it which is a signal

of a resurrection the reason why we baptize by immersion is because it's signifying the exact same thing that jesus christ has gone through in his personal life death and resurrection that we are put to death in christ and that we are raised to walk to stand in the newness of life standing in the gospel of jesus christ and that is what is saving us that's what is saving us unless you believed in vain the way jesus's brother shares this news about whether or not you've believed in vain as he puts it this way because be honest james did not believe until post-resurrection i mean how

hard would it be for you to convince your siblings that you're the son of god like that's going to be kind of hard right so james was not a believer in jesus until after the resurrection and that's why it says in this account that he appeared to cephas and then to the 12 and then to over 500 believers and then he eventually got to james like he finally got to james and convinced james i i wasn't lying there's a reason why you were always at fault for the things that broke in our house because i never did anything wrong like that's what like james is

like it makes sense now why i always get the beatings this is what james says someone will say you have faith and i have works show me your faith apart from your works and i will show you my faith by my works you believe that god is one well you do well even the demons believe and they shudder do you want to be shown you foolish person that faith apart from works is useless what james is saying here is that there was this group of people these hellenistic jews who were saying that they believe in jesus but yet their lives showed no change no dying

to sin and living unto righteousness that when they heard this news of what jesus has done for them they ascribe to it intellectually and said that's good i like that but did not actually believe it unto salvation to the point that it changed their lives and changed the way that they scheduled out their work-life balance that actually changed the way that they live their lives and do everything for the glory unto god whether eating or drinking or whatever it is that you're doing it changed them the easiest way to say it is if there's no change there's no jesus if there's no change there's no

belief there's no belief whether or not you believe in jesus is going to be based on whether or not it changes your life that it changes your affections the way the old testament talks about this is that it removes the heart of stone and it gives you a living heart that is beating and and pumping blood that is coming from the foot of the cross that is breathing life into you that is honoring and worshiping god and bending you towards that direction rather than straying like sheep there's going to be a change and that change proves whether or not we believe it doesn't earn anything

it's not something that is keeping your salvation it's just proving whether or not it's legit proving whether or not you actually believe in him how do you know if your belief is in vain echoing james and paul here you'll work harder than anyone by the grace of god to live and preach the gospel that's what they're saying you'll you'll as paul said you'll work harder than anyone to put your sin to death and to live unto the righteousness of god because he's changed you he's transformed you he saved you the grace of god given to you the perfect sinless life of jesus christ the substitutionary

atoning death of jesus and finally the death defeating and assurance of faith producing resurrection of jesus christ do you believe this good news for salvation if you believe this news what i want to do now is i want to invite you to join us in the greatest meal of all time the lord's supper when we commune together to remember this great news to remember this great news that is of first importance they always say that you know breakfast is the most important meal of the day communion is representing the most important meal of our lives it's it's feasting on the good news of jesus christ

that he is the bread of life for us that's what we're celebrating in this if if today is one of those moments where you're like you know what i've i've struggled with this throughout my life whether or not this is true whether this is legit we're telling you not just based on what dwayne thought was just a good idea to share but going to the scriptures of eyewitnesses who were with jesus and who recorded these things inspired by the holy spirit to write them down and to pass them along for generations to come they're wanting us to know that in our sin god loves you

and he sent jesus jesus left the comfort of heaven the presence of angels his authority sitting on the throne at the right hand of his father he left that and he entered into the world i mean again i know that what we believe is foolish when you wrap it all up that god came down in the form of a baby born of a virgin like when you go back to how i was talking about the biology of things that doesn't make sense unless god does it and god did it the holy spirit gave mary a child and that child was born and because that child

was not born of an earthly father sin did not pass down to him and he then lived a perfect life fully obedient to his father living out everything that we are supposed to earn he did it exactly he fulfilled all of the law all of the old testament all of the i mean we when we talk about the law you tend to think of the ten commandments we're talking there's over 600 laws that were throughout the old testament that you are to live by and abide by in order to be a standard of righteousness and he did not miss one he abided by all of

it perfectly he lived the perfect life that you're supposed to live that you're called to live by god in order to be in relationship with him not only did he earn that perfect life and righteousness but then he goes and he substitutes himself for us the righteous becomes the unrighteous and he dies the death on the cross that you and i deserve because we broke all the laws he dies the death and he steps in our place and he absorbs the wrath of god and he's put to death and he's buried our sin with him because the wrath of god was satisfied god brings him

back to life and resurrects him on the third day and he appears i mean over 500 people he appears to them god did this i'm back i'm back and i'm here to do the same thing for you believe me trust me that's always asking believe me and trust me and that's what we're asking if you've never done that before today if you believe we're inviting you to this meal that's just representing him breaking his body and shedding his blood so that you could be brought back to god so that you could be brought into the fellowship so you can have joy and life and life

abundant not only in the here and now but for eternity for eternity do you believe and if you are believing for the first time today we would love to know that so if you've come with somebody let them know so they can let us know if you want to come find uh myself or josh or ransford after afterward come find one of us and say hey you know what i i was blind now see i didn't believe now i believe we would love to follow up with that in baptism in growing in your relationship with jesus being able to put to death your sin daily

and be able to walk in righteousness to be able to be discipled in that way we would love to follow up with that the first step we'll invite you to this meal so let's stand together if you do not have the elements they're back there on that little black table in the back please go and grab some and we will come back and we will celebrate jesus together the apostle paul to the church in corinth letting them know what this meal signifies what it illustrates he says this to them for i received from the lord but i also deliver to you that the lord jesus

on the night when he was betrayed he took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and he said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me this is him giving them a way just like paul's doing in first corinthians 15 giving them a way to as often as you break this bread you're remembering me breaking my body for you so that you don't have to go through that in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in

remembrance of me the only way to forgive sins is to have death be paid and the way that good that god has illustrated that throughout the entire old testament is through all these sacrifices of these animals where blood was shed to cover sins and it was always temporary because the only thing that could do it once and for all is it had to be a perfect sacrifice a perfect human sacrifice that shed perfect blood to cover all sins that's exactly what jesus was the perfect sacrifice in shedding his blood to forgive our sins and appease the wrath of god for as often as you eat

this bread and you drink the cup you proclaim the lord's death until he comes let's worship him now together in proclaiming his death in the assurance that we have that three days later he also rose from the grave [Music] in the darkness we were waiting without hope and without light till from heaven you came running there was mercy in your eyes to fulfill the law and prophets to a virgin came the word from a throne of endless [Music] praise the father praise the son praise the spirit three in one god of glory majesty praise forever to the king of kings [Music] to reveal the kingdom

coming and to reconcile the lost to redeem the whole creation you did not despise the cross for even in your suffering you thought to the other side knowing this was our salvation jesus for our sake you died [Music] raise the spirit free [Music] in the morning that he rose all of heaven held its breath till the stone was moved for good for the lamb had conquered death and the dead rose from their tombs and the angels stood it all for the souls of all who come to the father are restored in [Music] shall not kneel and shall not fail by its blood and in his

name in its freedom i am free for the love of jesus christ who has resurrected me [Music] praise our father praise the son praise us here [Music] praise forever the [Music] the sun [Music] praise the spirit three in one god of glory martial [Music] of kings [Music] [Music] father god what a gift you have given us we not lose sight of the truth that we celebrate here at this time of easter may this not be something that we just come to you once a year