The Cross of Christ Pt 3: The Victory

Calvary Chapel this morning. We want to welcome all of you. And those joining us online, we welcome you this morning. I want to encourage you this morning as we're spending the Resurrection Sunday. Resurrection. Jesus has risen from the dead. He indeed is risen. Amen? Amen. God is good.

Sing out with us. We want to give the Lord praise this morning. He's good to us. Father, just bless our time now as we start this service, as we come to you, Lord. May we sing as unto you this morning. Based on how we feel necessarily, those are like the caboose of the train. They change. They kind of wobble around a little bit sometimes. Father, we just ask that we would sing

by faith. Pour our hearts out to you, Lord, expressing your worthiness. Yes, it should be Lord this so much that he sent his only begotten son to die on that cross for us.

Raised from the dead, he's now ascended at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us. Oh, thank you, Lord Jesus. I praise you, Lord. You're concerned. You've got things on your heart. You have a Jesus, the Messiah, who loves you and who is faithful. He leaves us nor forsakes us.

He prays God.

He is still. And all Jesus separates us through glory to his name. Father, we thank you for this time of worship now. And so may we continue in the heart of worship as we learn of you through the study of your word. Would you anoint Pastor Ryan with the power of your Holy Spirit to teach us this morning? Would you give us the ears to hear what you have, the eyes to see, the eyes to

to see clearly your direct heart to perceive what you want us to know inside the strength to yield and be obedient to that which you call us to do as we walk with you from day to day father we look to you the author and finisher of our faith we can't do it without you lord we are simply nothing without you we thank you for the work of the cross we thank you for the resurrection and we thank you for the ascension lord that you are up there interceding for us and you stand in our our stead when satan accuses you remind us as we know in first john two verses one and two there that you are an advocate you say i died for him the accusation that doesn't stand i they accepted me he took our place thank you jesus now may we live

in that victory in jesus name amen the lord bless you let's have some fellowship you are locating your seat if you could scoot to the middle because i think there's still a handful of people looking for seats so if you could kind of scoot in that way we can see if there's any available seats and if you grab your bulletin we'll go over a handful of announcements over on the left hand side of your bulletin are the things that are going on throughout the week we would love to have you come join us for that over the middle section of your bulletin a couple of things to take note of this is the last day for the sign up for the mowing ministry so if you're interested in

helping out with the mowing ministry that sign up is out there in the lobby and then also there's no college group this week because i want you to go enjoy easter with your families so and that being said happy resurrection sunday i'm glad that everyone's here this morning so all right those are the things that are going on so if you would make sure that your mobile device is silent and you're not going to be able to hear me talk about the resurrection sunday this morning we are going to be in psalm 16 psalm 16 looking at the new american standard for this part just so that we sound the same if you need a copy there may be one in a row around you if not it's time to make a friend so as you're turning to psalm 16 if you are able please stand in the

honor of the reading of god's word i will read the odd verses if you will follow along with pastor allen and the even verses psalm 16 a mishdom of david preserve me oh god for i take refuge in you as for the saints who are in the earth they are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight the sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied i shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood nor will i take their names upon my lips the lord is the portion of my inheritance and my up. You support my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me. I will bless the Lord who has counseled me. Indeed, my mind instructs me in the

night. I have set the Lord continually before me because he is at my right hand. I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory rejoices. My flesh also will dwell securely. For you will not abandon my soul to shield, nor will you allow your Holy One to undergo decay. And read verse 11 with me. You will make known to me the path of life. In your presence is fullness

of joy. In your right hand, there are pleasures forever. And Father, we do praise you for who you are and praise you that you showed us the path to life and it came through Jesus. Lord, I thank you for that promise of the resurrection given to us there in Psalm 16. And Lord, as we take time to celebrate, reflect, and hopefully learn a little bit more about the new life that

we have in you because of what you did for us, may your Holy Spirit minister to our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We come now to our third and final study in the series of the cross of the cross of Christ, part three. So we'll get into that. Now, before we get into our section

of scripture, a few words by way of introduction. Again, we're celebrating the resurrection today. And as I've been kind of meditating on the resurrection this week and meditating on what Jesus has done for us and just thinking about life in general, I thought, you know, there's a major lesson that I've learned both in life and in ministry. And that is that we were not created for death.

Death is unnatural to us as believers in Jesus Christ. And death is unnatural to us as human beings. That's why death is so hard to deal with. It's so hard to wrap your mind around. And the grieving process is so difficult because it's not what we were created for. We were created to live forever with God. But there was a problem that came into the world and that came into the world

in the garden. And that problem was sin. Sin brought death into the world, which is why we're told in the book of Romans that the wages of sin is death. So Jesus came to, to deal with that problem. He came to deal first of all with the problem of sin and ultimately the problem of death. And that's what we really celebrate as we celebrate the resurrection of

Jesus Christ is that he dealt with both sin and death. And that's what we've been looking at these last three weeks, three studies, all about the cross of Christ and that he dealt with sin, which ultimately dealt with death, which gave us all hope. The first study, if you weren't with us was called the promise. We looked at the fact that the cross was always the plan.

The cross, Jesus Christ was always God's plan for redeeming humanity, for dealing with death, for dealing with sin, and ultimately to bring hope into our world. The second study that we looked at was the preparation. We saw last week as Jesus came riding into Jerusalem, exactly when Daniel said that he was going to ride into Jerusalem on what we celebrate as Palm Sunday, how he came riding into Jerusalem in that presentation of the sacrifice. And then we saw the examination of the sacrifice as Jesus lived among the people, not only for those three years, but specifically, for that one week, as he was tested by the religious rulers and as he taught in the synagogue

and in the temple. And then we saw the preparation of the sacrifice through his prayer in the garden as he knelt in the garden of Gethsemane and prayed, Lord, if there's any other way than let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. And as we went through this week, we celebrated what Jesus did for us on that cross. We celebrated the sacrifice that he made for us, that he, willingly laid down his life as a substitutionary sacrifice for us on the cross. But now that we

have seen the plan, now that we have seen the preparation today, it's time to talk about the victory. And as we talk about the victory, I want to look at first Corinthians chapter 15. Now we're only going to look at the first 22 verses. I would highly encourage you at some point in time to go back and read all of first Corinthians 15, because it truly is one of the greatest teachings, not only on resurrection in general, but on the resurrection in general.

But on the resurrection of Jesus Christ in all of the New Testament. But in these first 22 verses, as we look at the victory of Jesus Christ over death, there's four things, four lessons that we're going to see about the resurrection. We're going to see the gospel. We're going to see the proof of the resurrection, the necessity of the resurrection, and then the life of the resurrection.

And so we start off in chapter 15, verse one, and this is what it says. Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel, which I preached, to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which you are saved. If you hold fast the word, which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I deliver to you as of first importance, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures. Now, just,

just for quick background, so you understand why Paul is doing this. The church in Corinth was a church that Paul had established, and it had a lot of problems. Paul had answered a good number of these issues, but they also had questions. And one of the questions they had was about the resurrection. What happens after we die? Some were teaching that nothing happens after you die. You

die and that's it, game over. And Paul now is going to give a defense for the resurrection. And so he starts off in that defense by talking about simply the gospel. And I love the way that he refers to the gospel. He refers to it as, the gospel that I have preached. And as he talks about the gospel that he's preached, he says three things about it. It's the gospel that I preached that you received, because that's what you have

to do with the gospel. The gospel has to be received. It can't just be something that you know about. It has to be something that you receive for yourself, and we receive it by faith. He says that you received in which you stand, because the gospel is what gives us firm standing in the world that we live in now, and firm standing before the Father, and by which you are

saved. It is the one thing that ultimately saves humanity. It is the one thing that can save you. He says, this is the gospel that I have preached. And then he goes on to describe what I call the threefold work of the gospel. Ready? Number one is what he says here. He says, for I delivered, verse three, to you as a first importance, what I also received. Number one, that Christ died for our sins

according to the scriptures. There's three things in there I'd like to point out to you as well. Number one, that Christ died. And I think sometimes we don't pay attention as closely as we should to that fact. Christ died for you, that he saw you, and he said, I love them. I love that person so much that I'm going to give my life for them, not just go out of my way to do

something nice for them, but I'm actually going to sacrifice my life for them as a substitutionary sacrifice. I'm going to die in their place. I was teaching this to a group of kids, two different groups of kids this week, and I used an example. I said, imagine if you were to die in their place, if you will. These are kids now. They've just gotten their driver's license. You've just gotten

your driver's license, and you're late to school. And you go speeding through a school zone where there's a bunch of little kids playing. And you're in a hurry, so you're not paying attention, and you're well exceeding the speed limit, 20 over. That's a felony. And you hit one of those little kids, and one of those little kids dies. And you stand before the judge, completely guilty. The

judge finds you guilty, and he sentences you to whatever you need to be sentenced to. I said, I want you to think about the dad of that little kid stepping in and saying, I want you to go free. I will serve your sentence for you. You see, that's what Jesus did for us. We had committed the worst crimes known to man, and rather than us having to deal with it ourselves,

he said, I will give my life for them. Christ died. But what did he die for? He died for our sins. And that's an important word because it's a word that we don't like in our culture. I actually watched an entire reel of somebody saying, we can't say that Christ died for our sins because that makes us all really bad people. We need to make it more palatable than that.

Say Christ died because he loves us, not he died because of your sins. That makes you a really bad person. Look, I got news for you kids. You're all really bad people, okay? I'm a really bad people. As a matter of fact, I'm the chief of sinners. I'm the worst one here. And Jesus died for me. And you are not much different than me. Christ died for our sins. And I think that's an important thing for us to pay attention to because

too many people will live their lives justifying everything that they do saying, yeah, I'm not that bad of a person because after all, I've never killed anybody, right? That's usually the thing that we use. I've never murdered anyone. But here's the thing. We're still guilty of sin. And Jesus said, I love them so much that I'm going to die for their sins because their sins are an

offense to God, which means that they will have to experience death. Christ died for our sins. And then the last part, great, according to the scriptures. Isn't that great? That's what we spent a couple of weeks looking at, right? Is the fact that all of the Old Testament scriptures all testified to the coming of Jesus Christ for one reason and one reason only, to be the substitutionary sacrifice for your

sins. He says, I declared to you the gospel, number one, that Christ died for our sins, number two, and that he was buried. Seems logical, right? That's an important point that needs to be made because at one time, I don't know if this teaching still goes around or not, but at one time, there was a teaching. Jesus didn't actually die, that the resurrection was a hoax, that it was called the swoon theory,

that Jesus just almost mimicked being dead. And so when he was in that tomb, because if you put somebody in a cold, dark space, they'll automatically revive back to life. And then he then came back to life and he never actually died. Well, listen, I do a lot of funerals, okay? I've yet to do one for an alive person. I've never seen them put a live body in the ground. And I'm usually

there for the whole thing. It's important to say that because you don't bury life, people. Jesus died for our sins. He died, he was buried, but then notice the third thing, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, that he was resurrected the third day according to the scriptures. It's so great that it says this because resurrection was also always God's plan,

and it was always going to be on the third day. It's fascinating. And I pointed this out to first service. If this is your first Sunday here, first of all, welcome. I'm so glad that you're here. This is your first Sunday here. But we have a reading plan that we're going through as a church. And with the goal of reading through the whole Bible, some are doing old, some are doing new, some are still two months behind.

It's okay. Wherever you are in this, we're doing this reading plan, right? But if you're going through the Old Testament, I would challenge you to do something, okay? I want you just, if you're an underliner, a note taker, you like to make little bubbles or keep track of things, keep track of every time the third day is a reference. In the Old Testament, because there's a lot of references to the third day

in the Old Testament. You know what the earliest references to the third day in the Old Testament is? It came with Abraham. Abraham was promised a son, and God finally provided him a son and named him Isaac. And when Isaac was about 40 years old, God tested Abraham's faith. And he told him, I want you to go and I want you to sacrifice your son, your only son, Isaac, to me. Now,

Abraham had a firm belief in God that Isaac was the one through whom the seed would continue, that all of the nations would be one. And he said, I want you to go and I want you to sacrifice him there. And so Abraham immediately wakes up early in the morning and he travels to Mount Moriah. He takes Isaac and he takes his servants with him and they get ready to go up on the mountain. Beautiful picture. When they arrive at Mount Moriah, they put the wood on the back of

Isaac, who's a picture of Jesus. Fascinating, isn't it? It's almost like God wanted us always to know. And he went up on the mountain and he laid Isaac down on the altar. Now, bear in mind, Isaac's about 40 years old. Abraham's about 140 years old. Who do you think can win that fight? Right? And so, although it's still your dad, you never can tell. Anyway, so he lays him down on

that altar. Isaac willingly lays himself on that altar. And right before he slays him, actually, I left one really good detail out. When they get ready to climb the mountain, Isaac sort of looks at his dad with untrustworthy eyes, right? He says, dad, I see the wood and I see the fire. I don't see a sacrifice. What are we doing here, dad? His dad makes a great

statement. He says, God will provide for himself a sacrifice. So they go up on the mountain. As they go up on the mountain, in Abraham's mind, he's been dead this whole time because he knew he had to sacrifice him. God stopped him. Guess how long it was from the day that they left to go to Mount Moriah to the day that he sacrificed him on Mount Moriah. And ultimately, Isaac, in his mind, was

raised from the dead. That's right. It was on the third day. We read a fascinating section in the Psalms. In Psalm 16, it says, you will show me the path of life. You will not allow your Holy One to undergo decay. Did you take note of that in Psalm 16, verse 10? Guess how many days it takes for decay to begin to set into the human body? It takes four days. So that means Jesus, if he was not to undergo decay,

had to be raised on the third day. It's interesting to follow that all the way through the Bible. It's interesting to follow that all the way through the Bible. It's interesting to follow that all the way through the Old Testament and see how often the third day is used as examples in the Old Testament. And so God said, you will be, or the gospel is that he was raised from the dead

on the third day, according to the scriptures. And brothers and sisters, my friends here this morning, that's the gospel, is that you are a sinner separated from God because of your sins. But because of the great love with which God loved you, he sent Jesus to be born of a virgin, to live a perfect life, to stretch out his arms on a cross, to die a perfect death, where he took all of your sin upon himself and was buried and faced separation from God for you, that you rightly deserve, and then was raised from the dead, proving that the sacrifice was accepted. Friends, that's the gospel. And all you have to do is receive it. How do you receive something,

Ryan? Well, if I was to come to you and bring you a gift today, how would you receive it? If I was like, look, you know what my favorite candy is? It's Cadbury eggs, right? Most polarizing candy that's made. And I love them. And so for me to give Cadbury eggs to somebody would mean I love them a lot. Like this, giving you the gift of my Cadbury eggs, right? Those sweet, crunchy, pudding-filled things. And I hand you the Cadbury

eggs. And I say, I give you this gift because I love you. All you have to do is receive it. How do you receive it? Thank you. Right? Just by faith. You believe that I'm giving it to you, so you receive it. And some of you here this morning need to receive the gift of God's salvation. Because you've never believed the gospel. And so he says, the first thing I want to declare to you

is the gospel of the resurrection. Well, we go on from there in verse five, and it says this, and that he appeared to Cephas, a continuation of the same sentence, then to the 12. And after that, he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James and then to all the apostles.

And last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me. For I am the least of the apostles and not fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. By the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me did not prove vain, but I have labored even more than all of them. Yet not I, but the grace of God within me. So whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.

So the second thing that he shows us after he shows us the gospel is he shows us the proof of the resurrection. And what he does is show us the proof of the resurrection is to go through all of the people that Jesus appeared to after he was resurrected from the dead. It starts off, first of all, with Cephas. It says after he was resurrected, he first of all appeared to Cephas.

Now, if you know very much about the resurrection story, Paul is listing people by importance and why those people need to be listed. But let's talk about the resurrection story really quickly, right? Most of us know the story, but let's talk about the resurrection story. Let's go over it again. Jesus had been crucified on a Friday. And after he was crucified,

they had to hurriedly put him into the grave. They had to hurriedly put him into the tomb because the Sabbath was coming and they couldn't do these things on the Sabbath day. So they weren't able to give him the proper burial that they should to anoint the body with all of the ointments and spices that they would normally anoint the body with. So early on the first day of the week, that Sunday, which by the way is why we all gather on a Sunday, first day of the week, the ladies went out to go anoint the body. The ladies, remember,

were the first ones to see him. The ladies go out to anoint the body. And so on their way, they're having this conversation amongst themselves. They're saying, who's going to move the stone for us? That stone probably weighed about a thousand pounds. Like who's going to move this stone for us? What are we going to do? And while they're on their way, there was a great earthquake. Interesting because within three days, there were two great earthquakes.

One took place right after Jesus yelled from the cross, it is finished. And that earthquake caused torn in two from top to bottom. And then on the morning when Jesus was resurrected, there was another earthquake. When that earthquake sounded, the angels rolled the stone away. Of course, Jesus didn't need the stone rolled away because he can walk through walls now, right?

They roll the stone away and the ladies show up and there's nobody. And they tell the ladies, don't you remember what Jesus said? Why are you looking for the living among the dead? Don't you remember what Jesus said? I will be resurrected on the third day. And so they go off. And they tell his disciples, of course, they don't all believe at first. And Jesus starts then

appearing to different individuals on this day after he was resurrected. Well, one of the individuals that he appeared to was Cephas or Peter. Why is it specific? Why does he specifically name Peter? Because do you remember what Peter did before Jesus was crucified? When Jesus was on trial, Peter was sitting around a fire with a group of people. And one of the young girls sitting there said, aren't you one of his disciples? He says, I have no

idea what you're talking about. I've never met that man before. Somebody else said, nah, I'm pretty sure I saw you with him earlier. Aren't you one of his disciples? He goes, ah, you don't know what you're talking about. And somebody goes, dude, you have a Galilean accent. Like it has to be, you had to have been with him. And he starts cursing and saying, nah, I don't know who you're

talking about. And then the rooster crowed and he remembered what Jesus said. Before the rooster crows, you will have denied me three times. And so Jesus shows up to Peter because he's so full of grace. Peter says, I'm sorry. He says, it's okay. Go feed my lambs. And then of course he shows up to the 12. As the day continues, Jesus goes and finds a couple of folks on the road to Emmaus, if you

know that story. They're on their way to Emmaus as they're walking home from the Passover celebration, still reeling from everything that had taken place from the weekend, still reeling from the crucifixion of the one who they had loved so much. And Jesus walked up and says, what are you guys talking about? And they're like, have you been living under a rock?

This Jesus was going to be our Messiah. We thought he was the one. And then they crucified him. Now we don't know what we're going to do. And we're told in the book of Luke and that story that he started at the beginning and he went all the way through the scriptures, showing them all of the places where it said that the Messiah would suffer. Can I just say, I want that to be on some

like heavenly YouTube or something. When we get there, we just dial up like sermon on the road to Emmaus and we can just take all of that in. Wouldn't that be epic to hear Jesus be like that? That's me. Judges, I was in there. You just don't know what I'm talking about. I'm not going to see me as well. That that's me. Right. I mean, it's just, it would be amazing for Jesus to point

all those things out to us. But then after he gets all the way to Emmaus and they get to their house, they're like, why don't you come in and eat with us? And he's like, all right, I'll come eat with you guys. And so, so they get ready to eat and he says, would you bless the meal? And so he blesses the meal and he breaks the bread and they look and they're like, and then he's gone.

He disappears. Right. And the next place he shows up later that evening is he shows up in Jerusalem in a locked up a room with the 12. Actually it was the 11 because Judas had already killed himself by this point in time. He shows up with the 11 and they're just like, oh my gosh. So you got Cephas, Peter, you got the 12 or the 11, if you will. And then next all he next up, it says that he showed up to more than

500 brethren at once. In other words, Jesus was on earth for 40 days after he was resurrected. And in those 40 days, he had separate times where he would meet with believers and he would teach them. And in one of those instances, 500 people showed up. And he says, most of those people are still alive today. Can you imagine what that would be like to be able to

show up and somebody say, listen, I got to tell you about the time that I saw Jesus. We've all seen Jesus. No, no. After he was resurrected. Tell me more. This would be amazing, right? Like they can go and say, no, I promise John knows he saw him. He says the 12 saw him, more than 500 people at once saw him. But if those don't get you, this is the one that gets me

the most. It says, and he appeared to James. Now, when you first read that, you don't think too much about it. You just think he's throwing names out there, right? After all, one of the apostles was named James. It was John's brother. And he already said he showed up to the 12, but that's not the James that's being referred to here. The James that's being referred to here is a different guy. The James referred to here

is the half brother of Jesus. And here's why that's important. The half brother of Jesus didn't believe in Jesus. Jesus had several brothers. Two of them were named James and Jude. They will go on to write epistles in the new Testament. None of them believe in Jesus. As a matter of fact, in John chapter, I think it was seven, they were like, you should go on down

to Jerusalem and just reveal yourself. If you're the Messiah, just go reveal yourself to everybody, knowing that that would mean certain death for him. I think it was in Mark chapter three, they went someplace where he was teaching and they tried to take him home because they thought he'd gone crazy because of all of the Messianic claims he was making. They didn't believe in Jesus. They didn't believe he was the Messiah. They might not have wanted to see him crucified,

but they didn't believe in him. And so Jesus shows up to James. He's like, hey, James, bring it in, buddy. Give me some love. Do you know that James would go on to become a pillar in the early church? One of the ones in the book of Acts that would help to set the doctrine for the church. He would go on to write the epistle of James. And what gets you more than

anything is he's going to go on to be murdered for the Jesus that he did not believe in while he was walking the earth. You know what changed him? He saw the resurrected Jesus. So if anybody wasn't going to lie about this, it was James because he didn't believe in him to begin with. He was a skeptic and he showed up and saw him. He says, and then to James, and then he appeared to

the apostles. And then he appeared to me, Paul's own testimony. He literally physically appeared to Paul. I believe that there were two instances where this took place. The first instance that it took place, I believe, was when he was on that road to Damascus. Remember, Paul was called Saul at that point in time, and he was a hater of Christians. He hated it. He hated it. He hated it.

He hated everything Jesus stood for because he stood against the religion that Paul had spent his life studying. And as he was on that road to Damascus to go round up more Christians, to bring them back, to be put into prison, he got knocked off his high horse. Actually, he was a good Jewish boy. He got knocked off his high donkey. And as he was riding to Damascus, he gets knocked down.

He gets blinded. And all he can see is, I'm going to avoid singing blinded by the light right now. All he could see was the light. He was blinded. He was blinded. He was blinded. He was blinded. He was blinded. He was blinded. He was blinded. He was blinded. He was blinded. He was blinded. He was blinded. He is the light, right? He says, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He says, who are you? He says,

I'm Jesus, whom you've been persecuting. Aren't you tired of fighting? Literally, the words in Acts are, isn't it hard to kick against the goads? But I put it in Ryan language. Aren't you tired of fighting? Aren't you tired of fighting against me? And perhaps this is a word for somebody that's here this morning. Perhaps this is a word for somebody who has either been fighting,

against coming to faith in Jesus Christ, or you've been fighting against surrendering and really living for Jesus Christ. Aren't you tired of fighting? Aren't you tired of fighting against it? Everything around you, everyone around you is telling you how great it is to follow Jesus, that you need to put your faith in Jesus. Your own conscience is telling you that you're living

a life of sin. Everybody around you knows you're living a life of sin. And then somebody drug you to this stupid church where a bald guy's up there telling you about Jesus. And you're sitting there thinking, I don't want to fight this anymore. And then I go and say, aren't you tired of fighting? Just surrender. Just surrender to Jesus. And that's exactly what Paul does. He says,

what do you want me to do? He says, I want you to go on into Damascus and somebody's going to pray with you. And so somebody, I believe that was Jesus that he saw at that point in time. And so somebody prays with him. Great scales fall off of his eyes and he starts preaching, but he's not ready yet to be the evangelist that God has called for him to be. He has to go live in Arabia, we're

three years. And in those three years, Jesus himself taught him. That's what I believe according to what it says in scripture. And so Paul says, and he came and talked to me. He appeared to me, but I want you to notice how Paul describes it. Then verse 17 or verse seven, then he appeared to James and then to all the apostles and then to me as one untimely born. For I am the least

of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. Now I want to tell you something. The people he listed here are people that actually literally physically saw Jesus. But what makes their testimony amazing is that them physically seeing Jesus changed their life dramatically. And I'm here to tell you right now, the greatest proof of the

fact that Jesus is alive is the lives that are changed by the savior. The greatest fact that is alive. The greatest proof of the fact that Jesus is alive is what he has done to change your life. That he has brought you from darkness to light that he hate that he has brought you from death to life. I was having a conversation with some, uh, with some, uh, teenagers the other day.

And we were talking about giving our testimonies. And, and one of the girls was like, I don't really have like a flashy testimony, which happens a lot with people that grew up in church. They don't really have like a flashy testimony. I just got saved. And I said what I told her, what I tell everybody else. It says that you need to understand something. You still went from dead to alive. That's a

testimony. You just weren't as decayed as some people are right. But you still went from dead to alive. And that's a testimony. Even if it's one that doesn't sound as flashy as everybody else's because the greatest testimony is the fact that you have been made alive in Christ. And that shows the entire world that Jesus is alive. I saw a great story this week. I posted it on the stories

of my Instagram. It was on, uh, it was on the Charlie Kirk show. And this girl had been a, uh, a content producer on OnlyFans, one of the most profitable content producers on OnlyFans. Okay. I learned new things this week. Apparently that's like an amateur porn website. Okay. I don't know what it is based on anything else other than what I read in this article. But what he posted is a, is a video

of this girl getting baptized because people started talking to her about Jesus. And she started realizing, my life is not mine. I am selling myself daily. And I don't want to do that anymore. I want my life to have value. And the only way it can have value is in Christ. And she gave her heart to Jesus Christ. And there's a video of her getting baptized. She is currently in the process of

trying to take all of the garbage off of OnlyFans, get all of her stuff off of there and trying to put out stuff that only glorifies Jesus, because that's what a living savior does in the lives of people is he takes people that are not his. And he takes people that are not his. And he takes people that are dead and he makes them alive. That's what he's done for me. That's what he's

done for a lot of you. And if you hear this morning, you've never put your faith in Jesus Christ. You're like, I don't know what you're talking about. Then today's the day for you to figure it out. And then today is the day for you to come to Jesus so that you can go from being dead to being alive, that you can go from darkness to light because he loves you. And he wants to

save you. He loves you. And he wants your life to be complete in him. That is the proof of Jesus. Well, he goes on now to talk about Jesus. And he says, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm going to talk about the necessity. He starts off in verse 12. Notice what he says. Now, if Christ has preached that he has been raised from the dead, how does some among you say that there is

no resurrection of the dead? If there's no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised in our preaching is vain. Your faith also is vain. Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he doesn't love. And he says, I don't know what you're talking about. That's

not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. Paul takes us to the very extent of what it would mean if there was no resurrection. Remember, there were those teaching

this at this point in time in the church. They were teaching that there was no resurrection. And he says, you need to understand the consequences of that teaching, the consequences of what you're saying. Because if that is true, then these other things are true. If there is no resurrection of the dead, first of all, Christ is not raised. In other words, all those things that I just said that God's able to do because Jesus is alive,

those can't take place anymore because Christ is not raised. Therefore, if Christ is not raised, it means that our preaching and your faith is in vain. The word vain means futile, but let me even greater. It means empty, without purpose or without success. In other words, your faith is pointless. If there is no resurrection from the dead, if Christ is not alive,

then your faith is absolutely pointless. He goes on to say, not only is your faith pointless, but we're all a bunch of liars. He says, we're all false witnesses because you know what message the apostles preached? The apostles preached the message of the fact that Jesus, is alive. In Peter's first message, he said, this Jesus, whom you crucified, God has raised from the dead. And in every message throughout the book of Acts, the one theme is that

Jesus is alive. Therefore, if Jesus is not alive, then these guys are a bunch of liars. And after all, if I'm going to spread a false story about somebody, would I stay in Jerusalem where the guy was crucified? Or would I go hundreds of miles away where my story couldn't be proven? Well, I'd go hundreds of miles away where my story couldn't be proven, wouldn't you?

Now they stick right there in Jerusalem. He says, that makes us false witnesses. We're just nothing but a bunch of liars. Not only does it make us false witnesses, and this is the one that maybe hurts the most, but you are still in your sins. That means that the stains, that means that the shame, that means that all of the bad stuff that you wear around on you all the time, apart

from Christ, you're still wearing around. See, here's the truth of the matter. Everybody, believer or unbeliever, will have to stand before God. You'll have to stand before God and give an account for everything that you've done. And if Jesus isn't alive and your faith is worthless, then you'll still stand before God wearing all of your sins. And do you know what

we're told in scripture that God can't be in the presence of? Sin. That's why anybody that stands in the presence of God gets evaporated. Because God can't be in the presence of sin, because he's holy. Therefore, if Jesus isn't alive, then you are still in your sins. Meaning that you're just as bad as when you started, and you're hopeless. And then the last thing he tells us,

that if Jesus is not alive, then all of those who die, just die. That's it. It means that that's the end. David Guzik, in his commentary, puts it this way. He says, everything rests on the resurrection and he gives us a list of things that that rest upon the resurrection of jesus christ the divinity of jesus rests upon the resurrection do you realize that we're told in the book of

romans that he was proven to be god when he was raised from the dead that he proved was proved to be the son of god with power when god raised him from the dead jesus made the claim that he was god thomas said show us the father and we will be content and jesus said have i been with you so long and you've not seen me if you have seen me you have seen the father that's a pretty bold statement he claimed to be god therefore if he's not raised from the dead he's not god so his divinity rests upon the resurrection his sovereignty rests upon the resurrection what we fail to see sometimes is that the cross was not jesus being a helpless victim the cross was jesus being a

sovereign sacrifice because he was in charge of the entire thing how can that be do you remember what he said when he was in the book of romans the garden and and peter was ready to start cutting people's heads off he said peter i could call down legions of angels anytime i wanted to and absolutely obliterate everyone here but that's not why i'm here i'm here to be a sacrifice and then when he stood before pilot remember pilot looked at him and he said don't you know don't you understand that i hold the power of life and death that i hold the power over you and jesus looks him in one of those few red letter sections in all of jesus's trial and says you wouldn't

have any power if it had not been given to you from above so his resurrection proves his sovereignty third it says his resurrection our justification rests upon his resurrection because he was crucified for our sins and he was resurrected for our justification number four our regeneration in other words being made new is because of his resurrection and then the last thing that that rests upon the resurrection is our resurrection and then the last thing that rests upon the resurrection is our resurrection because he lives we know that we live as well so everything hinges upon this and then he makes one last statement about this and it's in verse 19 and i want to

camp out on this for a couple of minutes it says if we have hoped in christ in this life only we are we are of all men most to be pitied if we have hoped in christ in this life only we are of all men most to be pitied but you know what i find is that most of the western culture church wants a jesus that deals with this life you know the savior a lot of us are looking for a lot of us are looking for the savior from our bills right not the buffalo bills i was praying for that back in january but but but but the bills we have to pay every month right we're looking for savior from the uh savior from our bills we're looking for a savior from our co-workers and the obnoxious people we have to be around

all the time we're we're we're looking for a for a savior from all of our worries we're looking for one that will politically set us free. That's what we're looking for. We're a lot like the children of Israel when Jesus came riding into Jerusalem on the donkey and they said, Hosanna, save now. They didn't mean from their sins. They meant from Rome. And we're looking

for a temporary savior. And because of that, our hope is in this life only. We all have bought into this idea that Jesus died on the cross to give us a better life. I need you to understand something. Does Jesus make your life better? Yes and no, right? I mean, it's both. Is it better? Yeah, because I have hope. Is it worse? I mean, sometimes, right? Like living for Jesus is hard.

I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to, you know, world peace in your own apartment. If you'll just put your faith in Jesus, brothers and sisters, you'll have that Mercedes you've always been looking for, right? That's not the gospel. Sometimes when you follow Jesus, really bad things happen in your life. Just ask Paul. Ask any of the disciples. You know,

how all of the disciples were killed? In really bad ways. So does following Jesus make your life better? Yes, because you have eternal hope. No, because sometimes life on this side of eternity, pretty hard. But he didn't come to save us and give us a better life on this side of eternity. He came to save us and give us a better life on the other side of eternity. We need to understand

that. And each person, we're told in the book of Ecclesiastes, God has set eternity in our hearts. That means that every person that sits in this room right now knows that there's got to be something beyond this life. There has to be something more than just working a 40, 50, 60 hour week, trying to save up some money, trying to pay off your house, trying to have a great car, trying to provide for your kids, trying to have a really nice retirement. There has to be more than

that. It's because there is more than that. But we are too focused on this earth and not focused enough on eternity. Jesus didn't die to give you a better life here. He died to save you for eternity. In the 70, 80, 90 years, in my grandma's case, 104, that you live on this earth is pretty short when you look at eternity. And so, my friends, if our hope is in this life only, if I'm

like, at least I got a nice car here, then man, I'm the most to be pitied. That brings us to the last part. So, we've seen the gospel of the resurrection. We've seen the proof of the resurrection. We've seen the necessity of the resurrection. Number four, we see the life. But now, Christ has been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by

a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ. All will be made alive. Look, if you're an underliner, a circler, you like to do bubbles, draw flowers next to things, put hearts on things, this is the verse to do it on, right? But now, Christ has been raised from the dead. Because that is one of the greatest transitions

you'll see in all of scripture. Did you notice it? Did you notice how Paul pulled a great political ad on us here? We went from worthless, hopeless, pointless, without anything in this world, to now Christ is alive. And now my life has hope. Now my life has worth. Now my life has a point. Because he lives. Because now Christ has been raised from the dead. It's the most beautiful

thought. It's the most beautiful fact. It's the most beautiful truth is that Christ is alive. You and I don't serve a dead savior. You and I don't serve a dead God. We can't go to the tomb where Jesus was buried and know that he is there. We can't go to someplace and visit his grave because he's not there. Because Jesus is alive. We can't go to the tomb where Jesus was buried and

alive. He came running out of the grave. He came leaping out of the grave. I also want to know what that looked like, right? Like I'm a little bit sad that no one was there to see it and be like, and then Jesus skipped out of the grave. Or maybe he, maybe he did a slow walk out of the grave, you know? I don't know how he did it, but he came out of the grave and he's alive. And because he's

alive, all of those things that would be true if he were dead, negate. They're all not true because now your life has a point and now you're saved from your sins because he is alive. He says, but now Christ has been raised from the dead. And you notice what it calls him. He says, and he is the first fruits of those who are asleep. Paul uses a great word here when he uses

the word first fruits, because there's both a secular meaning to this word and a Jewish meaning to this word. The Greeks viewed this word first fruits as an entrance fee, entering the games you name. They had to pay an entrance fee. It was called the first fruits fee that they had to pay. Well, if you think about it, that's what Jesus was for us, right? He's our entrance fee. He's our

entrance fee into eternal life, right? But the Jewish idea is really the idea that he's getting to here because the Jewish idea of first fruits actually comes out of the book of Leviticus. What they would do is when the harvest would be brought in, they would take the first sheaf of all of the harvest that would be made. And they would bring that to the temple and they would wave it before the Lord. And that's the first fruits that they would bring to the temple.

And that waving of that sacrifice or that offering of first fruits was both to represent and to anticipate the harvest. The first fruits was to represent and anticipate the harvest. Guess who the harvest is? It's all of us. We are the harvest. Jesus was raised from the dead and he was waved before the Lord as a first fruits offering. You and I, we are the harvest. You know what's great?

Okay. So, you know, the Jews, had all kinds of holidays that they had to celebrate. Jesus was crucified on Passover, right? Well, after Passover came the feast of first fruits. Guess what day they celebrated the feast of first fruits? Sunday. The day that Jesus was resurrected from the dead was the day of first fruits. And that's when Jesus was resurrected as our entrance fee and

as the anticipation and representation of the harvest. He says, for since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. As in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. Jesus and Adam are what we call federal heads. I know that's kind of a big theological term there, but let me explain it to you. They acted like an ambassador for all of us. When Adam sinned in the garden, when Adam sinned in the garden,

it passed sin and death on. It brought death into the world. It wasn't just him. He did something that had the effect across all of mankind. And now all of history is affected by death because of Adam, which is why when I get to heaven and I see Adam, I'm going to be like, that's not true. God's grace won't let me do that. I'll get there and I'll be like, come here, buddy. It's all good, man. I would have done the same thing. I love fruit too. It's okay.

Right? And he acted like a federal head for us and passed sin and death onto all of us. And now because of Adam, we all experienced death. But see, Jesus was what we call in scripture, the second Adam. He was the second federal head. He was the second ambassador. And so when Jesus came, he lived the perfect life that you and I can't live. So he did it for us. And then he died the

perfect substitutionary death that we deserve. He did it for us. And then he was resurrected for us so that we can be united with him in his death so that we can be united with him in his resurrection. And now, even though everyone who lives in Adam experiences death, everyone who lives in Christ has life. Yeah, get it. Come on now. I mean, right? This is good. And so everybody can be made alive because of what Jesus did.

And I want you to know that because I don't want to see anybody on their way to hell and me go, oh, shoot, I should have said something to them. Because Jesus offers a salvation to all. And as believers in Jesus Christ, we should every day be glorying in the fact that Jesus is alive. Do you know why the early church started meeting on Sunday? Because that's the day that Jesus raised from the dead. And so every Sunday was Easter Sunday.

Only they didn't call it Easter back then. They called it Resurrection Day. And so every Sunday they celebrated the fact that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Why do we only celebrate it once a year? Matter of fact, I would say, don't just celebrate it on Sunday. Celebrate it every ding-dong day of the week, right? Because he's alive. Because in Adam, all

die. And if you're here this morning and you've not put your faith in Jesus, you're in Adam. You still have that old federal head over you, meaning that death is what you're subjected to. I'm not talking about physical death. We're all subjected to physical death. I'm talking about real death. You know what real death is, right? Real death is eternal separation from God.

That's what real death is. All of us are going to end up seeing our loved ones and ourselves meet an end in this physical body. But for those of us that are believers in Jesus Christ, that end will simply be a new beginning, a continuation of the new life that we already have. So if you're here this morning and you're in, Adam, and death is what's coming for you, right? But if you're here this morning and you're in

Christ, man, death is just a doorway, right? Death is just a doorway into the next place that God has for us. And so he says, as in Adam all die, so in Christ all live. Now I want to close doing one thing here. Look over at verse 50. I want to go to the end of 1 Corinthians chapter 15 because these last nine verses are just great. It says in verse 50, Got me in the first service too.

Nor does the perishable inherit imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we will all be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the

imperishable and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, death, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,

that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. Amen? Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me,

we come to you now. And Lord, I thank you. Thank you for who you are. I thank you that you are alive. Even though you gave your life for us, we celebrate the fact that you were raised from the dead, proving that you are God, proving that you are good, and proving that we can be free. If our faith is in you. And so, Lord, I want to lift up every believer in Jesus Christ here this

morning. And Lord, may we be steadfast and immovable. And may we live as if our hope is not just in this earth, but Lord, may we live like our hope is eternal and it springs forth eternally. And so, Lord, do a work in the hearts of every believer in Jesus Christ here this morning. And Father, for those that have come here this morning and they don't know you yet,

Lord, this is all new to them. And maybe your Holy Spirit's even been, working on their heart this morning. And Lord, they're tired of fighting. Father, I pray that this morning would be that day, the day where they finally surrender to you. Lord, the day that they would accept the salvation of Jesus Christ, they would receive it by faith. So I got a real battle going on inside me right now, Lord.

I think I know what you're telling me to do. So with your heads bowed and your eyes closed, I have a question for you. If you're here this morning, you've never put your faith in Jesus Christ. You're here this morning, and this is maybe a little new to you. Then I want to ask you to do something for me. I want to ask you to make a decision, a decision to follow Jesus, a decision to say, I want to go from death to life.

So if that's you this morning, I just want you to put your hand up. If that's you this morning, I just want you to put your hand up and say, I want Jesus to be in my life. I want to go from dead to alive. So let's all do that. I want you to put your hand up and say, I want Jesus to be in my life. So let's all just repeat this prayer. Dear Father, I know that I'm a sinner

and I know that You're a Savior. Please come into my heart. Take away my sin and give me new life. In Jesus' name, amen. So Father, I lift those folks up to You. And Lord, I pray that You would do that work in their hearts. Continue to work in them as You see fit. And Lord, may You bless us as we go out from here as we celebrate with family and friends the fact that Jesus is alive.

Amen? Be blessed. This last song we're going to do is taken from John 1, verse 29, where John Baptist said to the boys as he looked over and saw Jesus, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And then, from then on, that gospel, all those different miracles that Jesus did, which proved He was who He said He was. And then, as we have listened to today,

that final thing was Him dying on the cross, raising from the dead, and ascending up at the right hand of the Father, praying for us, making intercession.

Behold. Now, let me get... I'll tell you what. Got a little squirky one on my voice. Be His Father's Son. They gazed steadfastly as You rose.

And the angel called Him. The same way you saw Him go up, you're going to see Him come again. Amen?