What NO Resurrection of Jesus Means to Me...
- NO Resurrection = NO Reason for FFAITH (1 Cor 15:13-15a)
- NO Resurrection = NO Victory over DEATH (1 Cor 15:15b-16)
- NO Resurrection = NO Forgiveness of SIN (1 Cor 15:17)
- NO Resurrection = NO REUNION with deceased loved ones (1 Cor 15:18)
- NO Resurrection = NO HOPE (1 Cor 15:19)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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It says, verse 1, "When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Siloam brought spices so that they might go and anoint him." At this point Jesus was crucified and he was laid in a tomb and the tomb was sealed with a rock.
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Verse 2 says, "And very early on the first day of the week when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.
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And they were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?" And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back.
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It was very large.
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And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.
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And he said to them, "Do not be alarmed.
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You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.
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He is risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid Him?
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But go, tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you to Galilee.
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There you will see Him, just as He told you.' And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them.
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And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." Understand that the message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not just part of our message.
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The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the very heart of the gospel.
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Look at these verses with me.
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Romans 1, 4, the Apostle Paul says, "Jesus was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness," how so Paul?
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"By his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord." It was the message of the early disciples.
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Acts chapter 4 says, "And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching to people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
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And again, Romans 10, 9, the Apostle Paul says, "Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." And you know, several years ago, I had a man come into my office.
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He had this enormously large tan satchel.
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And quite honestly, I wondered if there was a body in it.
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But he came into my office and he said, "I need to talk to you." I said, "Great, sit down." We sat down and the man proceeded to tell me that he was the king of Africa.
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His parents, the former king and queen of Africa, which I didn't even know continents had kings and queens.
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Did you know that?
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parents, the former king and queen of Africa, were murdered. And now he's the king of Africa and he went into great detail about the circumstances surrounding their murder. And he told me this story for over an hour. And when he was done, he stood up, picked up his bag, and threw it on his shoulder and walked out the door. And I'm sitting in my office thinking the same thing you'd be thinking, which is what? Why did you tell me that story? Right? Like, what does that have to do with me? But understand, that happens every Easter. There are people that come to church and they hear this incredibly interesting story about a man who was crucified, a man who was buried in a tomb, and they put guards in front of the tomb, and he rose from the dead, and there are people that'll walk out the door and say, "Well, that was an interesting story." But like me sitting in office, they think, "But what does that have to do with me?" Well, the answer is what? The answer is everything. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
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1 Corinthians chapter 15. In this portion of Scripture, Paul is focusing on the gospel. He said, "Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved." And the heart of the message of the gospel is the death, verse 3, and the resurrection, in verse 4, of Jesus Christ.
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Paul says this is in accordance with the Scriptures.
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The Old Testament tells us that God's Holy One would not see decay.
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The Old Testament tells us that the Messiah would suffer on behalf of His people, and that He would raise from the dead.
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And Paul also tells us, as we read earlier, that this was witnessed by several hundred people.
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But I want us to focus on verses 12 through 19 because in this passage Paul plays the "what if" game concerning the resurrection, meaning this.
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What if the resurrection didn't happen?
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Now, I read for you out of Mark's account what happened when the ladies showed up at the tomb.
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And here in this passage, what we're going to look at is Paul saying, "What if that story went a little differently?
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What if those ladies showed up carrying their spices, and those guards are still standing there?
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And the rock is still in front of the tomb.
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The guards sort of shush them away.
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On your way.
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Keep moving.
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Then they leave, completely hopeless.
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Paul says, "What if the resurrection didn't happen?" So in your outline, I want you to write these notes down.
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What no resurrection of Jesus means to me.
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What no resurrection of Jesus means to me.
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Look at verse 12.
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Paul says, "Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?" Now he gets into this "what if" game.
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He says, "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.
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We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that He raised Christ.
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Let's stop there.
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I jot this down first of all in your outline, "No resurrection equals no reason for faith." No resurrection equals no reason for faith.
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Do you see what Paul said there?
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We are wasting our time.
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This morning, you got up and got dressed and drove to a middle school auditorium, and I'm here to announce that you have completely wasted your morning if Jesus didn't raise from the dead.
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All the time you spend praying, meaningless.
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The time you spend reading the Word, the time you spend studying and listening to preaching of the gospel, all the church attendance, all the Christian books, all the seminars and conferences you've been to, waste of time, waste of money, if Jesus didn't raise from the dead.
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And some would say, "Well, we'd still have the wonderful teachings of Jesus." Really?
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You'd have the wonderful teachings of some martyr who clearly proclaimed that he would die and raise from the dead, and he didn't do it.
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And that's the guy you're following, right?
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This guy who all through his ministry, "I'm going to die, I'm going to be raised from the dead, I'm going to die, I'm going to be raised from the dead," and he died and he didn't raise from the dead, and you're still following that guy?
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No resurrection means no reason for faith.
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So foolish that we would be here this morning.
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Secondly, write this down, no resurrection means no victory over death.
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Looking up in verse 15, he says, "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.
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For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised." victory over death. No resurrection means Jesus hasn't been raised, you won't be raised.
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There's no victory over death. So here's what's going to happen to you. You're going to live a few hard, miserable years in this evil, miserable place. And then you're going to die and they're going to stick you in a box.
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Hopefully somebody has something nice to say about you at your memorial service.
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And that is it.
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That's as good as it gets.
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Because no resurrection means there's no victory over death.
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And number three, drop this down, no resurrection means no forgiveness of sin.
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Verse 17 says, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
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You still stand condemned." Someday, you're going to have to stand before God, and you're going to have to give an account for every single wrong thing that you've done.
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Standing before a holy, perfect God, who will judge you for every single sin that you have committed and cast you out of his presence into hell forever. Because no resurrection means no forgiveness of sin. Number four, no resurrection means no reunion with deceased loved ones. Look at verse 18. He says, "Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished?
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What about those who have put their faith in this Jesus Christ and they died?
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Paul says if there is no resurrection, it's over for them too.
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This one really hits home, doesn't it?
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Think about Grandma.
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Think about your mother who had passed away, or your father.
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For some of you, think about your spouse who has left this earth before you.
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Anyone have a close friend who died tragically in an accident or to cancer?
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no resurrection, that means you're never going to see them again.
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They are gone and it is all over.
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No resurrection means no reunion with deceased loved ones.
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And finally, number five, this sort of sums it up.
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No resurrection equals no hope.
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No resurrection equals no hope.
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Then those, I'm sorry, verse 19 rather, "If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied." No resurrection means no hope.
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Even our present lives are changed.
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We are miserable, pathetic people, devoting our lives to what?
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Devoting our lives to what?
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A lie.
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So what are you drinking Kool-Aid?
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You waiting for the mothership to come and pick you up?
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And if people joke and laugh, but if there's no resurrection, you're just like those people.
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You're just like those people.
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Drink the Kool-Aid, wait for the mothership.
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You're like those people that maybe dedicate their entire lives to Star Wars or Dungeons and Dragons or some kind of fantasy thing.
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That's why Paul says, "If there's no resurrection, we are of all people most to be pitied." Did you catch a load of those people?
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They actually pay money to rent a school auditorium, and they sing all their little songs, and they get up and talk about this guy who died like 2,000 years ago.
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Those people are pathetic.
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Those people are so lame.
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Well, as we walk down the dark path of these verses, look at verse 20.
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Paul says, "But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead." That statement makes all the difference because here's the reality.
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Christ did rise from the dead.
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So I would say enough of the hypothetical "what if" statements.
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Because the resurrection of Jesus Christ is an actual historic event, we can confidently go back through and state the opposite of all of these statements.
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Right?
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Paul's saying, "If there's no resurrection, this is true.
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And if there's no resurrection, this is true." Well, because there is a resurrection, that changes everything that we just said.
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So why don't you go back, why don't you take your pen or your pencil, and you're going to cross out the word "no." So what "no resurrection of Jesus" means to me, cross out the word "no." And write the word "the." What the resurrection of Jesus means to me.
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I want to go through this list again.
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I'll be honest with you, I wasn't the greatest at math, but something I do remember is when you are balancing these equations, like when you take something off of one side, you're supposed to take it off the other side.
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Right? Is that right? Is that still true, Carrie?
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Okay.
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All right.
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So here's what I want you to do.
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Paul says Christ did raise from the dead.
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And when you look at the opposites of all these statements, then you can really grasp how the resurrection of Jesus Christ hits you.
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With every single thing that your heart needs and every single thing that your heart longs for, the resurrection means everything.
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So number one, we had said no resurrection equals no reason for faith.
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Cross out both of those no's and what do you have?
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Resurrection equals reason for faith.
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And church, you have reason to believe.
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You have reason to believe.
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If Jesus Christ didn't raise from the dead these men who testified that Paul had already mentioned, these men all knew that.
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And do you know every single one of them died?
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All of the apostles died for the testimony of Jesus Christ, with the exception of John who was exiled to the island of Patmos, imprisoned for the gospel of Christ.
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So you mean to tell me that all of these men knew that Jesus didn't raise from the dead, but at threat of death wouldn't say, "Ok, you know what, it was all a big lie.
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We just made it up." These men were willing to lay their life down because they knew that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a reality.
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Who would die for a lie?
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So this isn't mythology or fairy tale theology, this is a real faith that's rooted in real history.
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Jesus is different than every other religious leader who ever lived.
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You can line them all up.
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You can line up the Buddha and Confucius and Mohammed and Charles Taze Russell and Mary Baker Eddy and Joseph Smith.
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You can line up all of these religious leaders beside Jesus.
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And there's only one who's ever risen from the dead, and that is Jesus of Nazareth.
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So because Jesus resurrected, that means we have a reason for our faith.
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That empty tomb stands as a testimony throughout all of history that our faith is in something.
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Our faith is in a reality.
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Number two, we said no resurrection means no victory over death.
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Well, Paul said, "But in fact Christ did raise from the dead." So when we change our equation, what do we have?
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Resurrection equals victory over death.
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Resurrection equals victory over death.
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Jesus Christ did not come into the world to turn bad people into good people.
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Jesus Christ came into the world to turn dead people into alive people.
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The Bible says that you are, by nature, you are dead in your sins.
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And that's not some kind of a poetic metaphor, some kind of flowery language to talk about our existence.
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Literally, it's "You're dead in your sins.
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That is your natural state." What does a dead person need?
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What does a dead person need?
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A dead person doesn't need more information.
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A dead person doesn't need a pep talk.
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The next time you're driving by a funeral home, crash the funeral, you have my permission, but just walk in and go to that dead person and try to give them a pep talk.
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Come on, you're not really dead.
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You just have a negative self-image.
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You're not really dead, you're just ignorant.
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I'm going to tell you a bunch of stuff.
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What does a dead person need?
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A dead person needs life, right?
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A dead person needs life.
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Look down at verses 21 and 22.
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We're just going to look at the first part of these verses quickly. Paul says, "For as by a man came death." What man? What are you talking about? Look at verse 22. "For as in Adam all die." Death, according to the Bible, is connected with Adam's sin. You remember the story? God, when He created the world, He created this place of paradise and And He put man in the Garden of Eden, and out of man He created woman.
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And God had one rule.
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Do you remember what the rule was?
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Genesis 2, 16 and 17 says, "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree of the Garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for the day that you eat of it you will surely die.'" You know, I always wondered, if God didn't want man to eat off of that tree, then why did he put the tree there in the first place?
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Anybody else ever wonder that?
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Why did he put that tree there in the first place?
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I believe that was to give man the choice.
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You see, without that option, it would be real easy for Satan to come along and say, "Yeah, of course, of course they follow you.
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There's no alternative.
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You put them in a place of perfection and they don't have a choice to embrace you or to reject you.
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All they can do is just embrace you." And I believe that's why God gave man the choice, just as He gives every one of us a choice in what we're going to do with this message.
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But God told Adam, "In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die." Now when you read this story, it's not like Adam and Eve like ate from the fruit and it was like BOOM!
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Dropped over dead the minute they took the bite.
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It's like, well what does that mean?
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Well if you actually study this passage in the original Hebrew, when he says "you will surely die," literally what that phrase says, God says "dying, you will die." this, spiritually they died. Spiritually when they rebelled, when they disobeyed God, they were separated from God and physically a process started. They started to wear out.
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Ultimately dying. Yes, God gave them a grace period to continue to live on in the flesh, But ultimately, they would die.
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That's why, you're like, "Okay, King of Africa thing, what does this have to do with me?" Well, Adam brought sin and death into the world.
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I've had so many people tell me, "You know, I don't really like that.
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I think I should get the choice." Anybody else with me on that?
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"I think I should get the choice.
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I get an idea.
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How about God creates like this Garden of Eden for me, and He puts me in it, and He gives me one rule, and things will turn out differently if I'm in Adam's shoes.
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I should get the chance." Well, whether you think that's fair or not, that's how it is, you know. I should have been seven feet tall and extremely good-looking and athletic. It didn't happen. Strike one, two and three on those. It didn't happen. I don't think that's fair. Here's the reality.
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That's just what I inherited. That's just what was passed down to me. And when it comes to sin, we're all in that boat. We got what was passed down to us from Adam.
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But look at verses 21 and 22 again.
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It says, "For as by man came death," look at this next phrase, "by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead." So Adam brought sin and death into the world, and when Jesus Christ came, you know the Bible actually calls him the second Adam?
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He brought resurrection.
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For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." The life of Christ and the life of His people are inseparably tied together.
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That's why this message is so crucial.
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This is how Jesus said it in John 14, 19.
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Jesus said, "Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me." Listen to this phrase.
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Jesus said, "Because I live, you also will live." Jesus said, "Because I will resurrect from the dead, that will provide a glorious resurrection for you as well." We have life because Jesus rose from the dead.
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So resurrection means we have a reason for our faith and resurrection means we have victory over death.
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Thirdly, we said no resurrection equals no forgiveness of sin.
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Well again, scratch out the word "no" on both sides of the equation and what do you have?
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Resurrection means forgiveness of sin.
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Without the resurrection, we would have no confidence in standing before God.
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If He hadn't risen from the dead, then we would know that the Father was not pleased with His sacrifice.
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Jesus' sacrifice was not successful.
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It didn't work.
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It didn't atone for our sins, and therefore the Father did not exalt Him and did not take Him into glory because Jesus did not do what He was supposed to do if He didn't rise from the dead.
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But on the other hand, if Jesus was raised from the dead, He was taken to the right hand of God, He was seated at the throne of God on His right hand, affirmed by God as having perfectly accomplished our redemption.
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That means there is forgiveness of sins.
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On the cross, do you remember Jesus cried out, "It is finished." is.
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Some would say, "Well, his life was over and Jesus was crying out, basically, in essence, 'They got me!'" But that's not what he was saying at all.
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Do you realize that word "it" is finished in the Greek?
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It's one word and it's "tetelestai." And do you know archaeologists found ancient receipts, like, you know, your Walmart receipts?
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They found ancient receipts that had the word "Tetelestai" stamped on them.
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Because what that word literally means is "paid in full." That's what Jesus was crying out from the cross.
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Paid in full.
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And understand that the resurrection is what validated the sacrifice.
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You see, if Jesus just died and stayed in the tomb, then today we'd be saying, "Well, He was a good man with good teaching and he laid his life down, but that was kind of it.
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His resurrection proved that yes, he defeated death, but he also defeated sin.
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And because of Jesus, your sin is forgiven.
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Listen, all of it.
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Okay?
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All of it.
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There are people that believe that you ask God for forgiveness and He forgives you, but then you sin and now all of a sudden you're not forgiven.
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You're out of fellowship with God and until you ask for forgiveness again, you and God are in a bad place with each other.
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That is not what the Bible teaches.
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And the Bible says that you are forgiven.
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That is all of your sins past.
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Those are all of the sins that you're going to commit today, and those are all of the sins that you're going to commit tomorrow, if God gives you tomorrow.
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They're all forgiven.
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You're going to go, "Pastor Jeff, I'm not sure I understand that." Well, when Jesus died on the cross and He rose from the dead, how many of your sins that moment in time were yet future?" The answer was all of them, right?
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All of your sins were yet future.
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So isn't it a glorious thing to know that I'm going to screw up tomorrow, but God has already forgiven me for that.
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And I don't have to walk this tightrope of fear like, "As long as I do the right thing, God's happy with me.
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I mess up, he's mad at me." That's not the gospel.
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The gospel says that you are forgiven and you are adopted as a child of God.
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And just like nothing will ever keep my sons from being my sons, even walking out of a sermon will not keep Him from being my Son.
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No matter how bad He acts in church, He will always be my Son.
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If you're a child of God, you have to understand that's how secure you are.
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You are His child.
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There is nothing that can separate you from His love.
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And yes, there are times, great sermon illustration, there are times that God corrects us with His discipline.
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But that doesn't mean He's mad at us, and that doesn't mean we've lost our forgiveness.
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That means that we're a child that He loves.
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But we are forgiven.
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There's no ceremony, there's no special prayers, there's nothing else that we can bring to the table to sort of fire up God for the forgiveness thing one more time because I blew it last week when Jesus died and when He rose from the dead.
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And you received that.
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You are forgiven.
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You are forgiven.
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Number four, we said no resurrection equals no reunion with deceased loved ones.
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You can cross out the word "no" on both sides of that equation, because Paul said that Jesus did raise from the dead.
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So instead of saying, "Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished," the opposite of that is true, then those who have fallen asleep in Christ will never perish.
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I love that he uses the expression "fallen asleep." You know why he uses that expression?
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Because that's used of someone that's about to get back up.
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You know, when I take a nap at home, Aaron doesn't go to the kids and say, "Well, your father's fallen asleep.
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You're never going to see him again." He's going to get back up.
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There's going to be a glorious reunion in heaven.
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And yes, the biggest glory is going to be face to face with my Savior.
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The biggest glory is going to be in the presence of God, worshiping Him.
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But it is also true that there's going to be a glorious reunion.
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I want you to think of all those who have gone ahead of us.
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Think of all of those who have gone ahead, all your family and friends that have left this earth before you, waiting for the mother of all reunion parties and the joy of never parting ways again.
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Resurrection means reunion with deceased loved ones.
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Number five, we said no resurrection equals no hope.
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I'm pleased to report that you can scratch out the word no on both sides of that equation.
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Resurrection means hope.
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He says. If in Christ we have hope in this life only.
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We are of all people most to be pitied.
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I want to say this as humbly as I can so you understand what Paul is saying, but there is a sense in which Christians shouldn't be pitied, but Christians really should be envied.
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I do not mean that in an arrogant way at all.
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Please hear me.
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But you understand, Christians are the only people walking the planet that live in a win-win situation.
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Do you know that?
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The only people.
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You can take your celebrities, your athletes, your businessmen, your multi-millionaires that seem like they have everything, and if they don't have Christ, it might be win here, but it's going to be tremendous loss after death.
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But for the born again believer in Christ, we have eternal life now.
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We have fellowship in the church now.
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We have the joy of the Lord now.
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We have His strength and His grace through a hard world now.
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And then when we die, we get to be in His presence.
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That's why Paul said in Philippians 1, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." He said, "I can't lose.
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Flip a coin, heads I win, tails I win.
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If I stay here, I get to serve the Lord." And that is so awesome.
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I get to serve Jesus and I get to see Jesus transform people's lives.
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Yeah, Paul, but what if they show up tomorrow and give you the haircut at the shoulders?
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Paul's like, "That's even better!
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Because then I'll get to be with Jesus.
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So I either get to serve Him or I get to be with Him.
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I'm going to win-win." Resurrection means hope.
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means hope. I want you to jump down to verse 54 and 55. We had read this earlier. But Paul, he goes on and he just says so much in this chapter about the resurrection. He just like, he just like breaks into this taunt. He says, "Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, Where is your victory, O death?
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Where is your sting?
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Paul is taunting death because God gave us the victory through Jesus Christ.
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What victory?
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He defeated death by raising from the dead.
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He says, "Oh death, where is your sting?" You know how to take the sting from a bee?
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You let it sting you, right?
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Once a bee stings you, certain kinds of bees, don't experiment with this by the way.
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Don't go home and like kick beehives thinking you're going to, okay.
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But certain bees, once they sting you, right, that's it.
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They're done.
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And that's why Paul says, "Death, where's your sting?" Because Jesus Christ stepped in and He took the sting on Himself.
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And now death, like the honeybee, it doesn't have a sting.
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So Paul's like, "Where's your sting, death?" "You got nothing!" Because Jesus took it.
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So do you want to have a meaningful faith?
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Do you want victory over death?
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Do you want forgiveness of sin?
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Do you want a reunion with your loved ones?
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And do you want a living hope?
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And I would remind you the Bible says that you need to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.
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Confess means literally to agree with God.
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says Jesus is Lord and confession means you're agreeing with God. Yes, God. I see Jesus is Lord. I agree with you. And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. That's really the heart of the matter. Believing that Jesus Christ took your sin on himself to pay the penalty and rose from the dead to eternal life.
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If you've never done that, today's the day.
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And I'd like you to bow your heads with me.
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I'd like you to bow your heads because today, if you've never taken that step, today can be the greatest day of your life.
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Today can be the day that you say something like, "Father, I knew this message, but I never really understood what it had to do with me.
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Father, I realize that the only hope that I have in this life and when I leave this earth, the only hope that I have rests in the person of Jesus Christ and in the work that He already accomplished.
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The Bible says that we need to first of all acknowledge that we are sinners.
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There's not a person in this room, myself included, myself especially, that deserves anything from God.
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The Bible says that God chooses to love us.
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God has poured out His grace by offering this gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ.
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You need to acknowledge that you're a sinner.
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You need to acknowledge that you too have rebelled against God.
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You need to embrace Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
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You need to cry out to Him to say, "Jesus, You are my only hope.
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There is no forgiveness anywhere else.
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There is no other philosophy that carries the truth of God like you do, Jesus.
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There is no other religious leader that has risen from the dead like you did, Jesus.
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that you are a sinner and come to Jesus Christ for life because He is the only one that can give it.
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And Father, with our heads bowed, we rest in your sovereignty, Father, because we know that you are looking into every heart right now.
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I don't know what's going on in each heart, God, but you do.
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And you know God that there are people in this room that walked in here that maybe knew the message but have never received the message, that knew about Jesus but have never allowed His life to reign in their lives.
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Have never embraced this resurrection from the dead that He offers because He accomplished it.
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Father, I pray that today is the day that people would wrestle with this message.
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You've given us one opportunity.
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You've given us one life where we can accept you or we can reject you.
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And I pray, Father, for the person that's been playing games, or the person that's just been blatantly saying no to you.
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I pray that today is the day of new things.
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I pray that today is the day of starting over.
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And Father, we thank you for that empty tomb.
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And Father, we believe that that stone was rolled away, not to let Jesus out, but to let us look in to see that He is alive forevermore.
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We praise You in the glorious name of Your Son, forever and ever.
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Amen.
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Thank you.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Why is the resurrection of Jesus the heart of the Gospel message?
What would it mean if He didn’t raise from the dead?
What does it mean to you that He did?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!