He Is Risen | Sunday, March 31, 2024

Good morning, Cross Connection Church. You can be seated. He is risen! Oh good, you guys know that one. He is risen indeed! Perfect! I love it when you guys are right on the mark. You all get an A+ on that quiz this morning for sure. Report cards will be out soon. No, they won't; there's no report cards.

Welcome to Cross Connection Church! If you are new or visiting, we're glad that you are here this morning. Of course, this is an important day in the church calendar, and I would say it's not just an important day in the church calendar; it is perhaps the celebration of the most important event in all of human history. At least, that is the way that Christians understand the Scriptures.

On that early morning of Easter Sunday, the first Resurrection Sunday, when some of Jesus's first followers came to the tomb, they found it open and empty. Mark's Gospel, chapter 16, says that an angelic messenger said, "You are seeking Jesus of Nazareth. He is not here; He is risen." Then, in Matthew's Gospel, they are told to go and proclaim it to the rest of His followers that He is risen.

This day is the celebration of the most important event in the Christian faith, and like I said, I think it is the most important event in the whole of human history. As the Apostle Paul understood and saw it, it is the event that marks the Christian faith. Without it, there is no Christian faith. Without the resurrection, there is no Christianity. As Paul saw it, you can kind of pack it up and go home because none of this makes any sense without the resurrection.

A number of years ago, there was a book that came out from what I would say is a Christian author, although some of the author's beliefs are somewhat questionable. In the book, he made the point that if it turned out that the resurrection didn't happen, Christianity would still have value because of the important teachings of Jesus Christ. I would say that actually is not what the early apostles believed, and that's not what we find in the Gospels. Without the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, there really is no Christianity.

Paul said it like this in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15: "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found as liars, false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ from the dead, whom He did not raise up if, in fact, there is no resurrection." For if the dead do not rise...

If Christ is not risen, then your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Those who have died or fallen asleep in Christ have simply perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied. He could not have said it more clearly than that. The resurrection is the most important event in Christianity. If Christ did not rise from the dead, then what is taught and believed by many makes no sense whatsoever. The Christian faith rises and falls upon the event of the resurrection. If you disprove the resurrection, then Christianity fails. If you prove the resurrection, then you prove everything else about the faith.

If Christ rose from the dead, then He is who He claimed to be. He claimed to be the Son of God. He claimed to be the Christ. He answered in the affirmative when He was asked if He was the Messiah. Therefore, the claims of Christ stand: there is a God, there is a Heaven, there is a hell, and there is life beyond the grave if Christ rose from the dead.

Because this is true, the resurrection has been the central focus for many Bible scholars and teachers for a very long time. Much scholarship has been committed to the focus of the resurrection. Thousands of pages have been written as proofs for the resurrection, and they have been put forward to defend what is called apologetics for the resurrection. There is a lot of scholarship on this from scholars and apologists who defend the arguments for the resurrection.

I have read a number of their works; some of them are really good, although some of them are quite large. There is a great book by N.T. Wright called "The Resurrection of the Son of God," which is very good. There is another book by a guy named Michael Lona called "The Resurrection of Jesus Christ," which is also a very large, thick book. Just recently, a scholar by the name of Gary Habermas released the first of what I think is going to be four volumes on the resurrection, and his first volume is 1,500 pages. These are huge books on proofs for the resurrection.

What is amazing is that even critical scholarship—scholars who are critical of the belief that Christians hold that Jesus rose from the dead bodily—agree on a number of points.

Christians agree that Jesus died by crucifixion outside the city of Jerusalem, crucified by the Romans. They also agree that he was buried in a tomb and that a few days later, that tomb was found empty by his disciples. They do not have a good explanation for how that happened. They agree that his disciples saw something. Critical scholars might say they hallucinated or just saw a vision of someone they loved who had died. However, the Scriptures declare plainly that they had seen the Risen Lord. Their conclusion is that Jesus, who died by crucifixion, was buried and rose again on the third day. That is what they went on to proclaim.

There are many different ways to approach the resurrection and to provide proofs for it. All of them are compelling and very helpful. In fact, Gary Habermas, who has written the first of four volumes on the resurrection, holds to these minimal facts that are agreed upon even by critical scholars. However, the proof that stands out to me the most is the transformation that took place in the lives of Jesus's followers. They were radically transformed by coming into contact with the Risen Lord in such a magnificent way that the transformation is ultimately best explained by the fact that they saw Jesus raised from the dead.

This morning, I want you to take out your Bible if you have it. If you don’t, you can raise your hand, and one of us will bring you one. We are going to turn to a book near the end of the Bible, one of the Epistles of John. It is called First John. If you turn to the very last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, and then turn a little bit to the left, you will find a series of very short books: First, Second, and Third John, Jude, and then Revelation. First John is where we are going to be, in chapter 1.

Last week, if you were here on Palm Sunday, I had us go to the Gospel of John, chapter 1, and we looked at the opening words of that passage. Now we are going to look at the First Epistle of John, chapter 1, and the first opening verses of that. We will get to it in just a moment, but as you are turning there, I think it is worth taking a moment to explain that the John who wrote the Gospel of John and the Epistles of First, Second, and Third John, and who is also considered to be the John who wrote the Book of Revelation, is not the same John that I spent most of my time talking about last week.

This week, we are focusing on a central figure in the Gospel story: John the Baptist. How many of you have heard the name John the Baptist before? It is important to note that John the Baptist is not the same John as the author who wrote the Gospel of John, First, Second, and Third John, and Revelation. They are two different individuals named John, both significant characters in the Scriptures.

We have the Apostle John and we have John the Baptist. Today, we are looking at the Apostle John, who is as important as John the Baptist. I believe he wrote the Gospel of John, as well as First, Second, and Third John, and he also penned the Book of Revelation. He was one of Jesus's earliest followers.

John was likely the youngest of Jesus's followers, with many historians believing he could have been as young as 15 years old when he began to follow Jesus. He lived a long life dedicated to following Him. John was the brother of James and the son of a man named Zebedee. He hailed from the region of the Sea of Galilee, probably from a town called Bethsaida, which is situated in the hills above the Sea of Galilee.

Zebedee, John's father, was a fisherman, and both John and his brother followed in his footsteps. Alongside them were two other fishermen from the same town: Andrew and Simon, who we know as Peter. They were likely friends and may have been business partners as well. Andrew, Peter, James, and John became some of Jesus's first followers.

They probably fished together and were in business together when this traveling preacher came to their area in Galilee and called them to follow Him. At that time, there was already a multitude of people beginning to follow Jesus. However, when you delve into the Gospels, you discover that many of those who followed Jesus did not do so for the best reasons.

If you go through the list of names of those who were Jesus's disciples, you will find James, John, Peter, and Andrew on that list. However, you would also find Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot among them.

Thomas, Bartholomew, and all the other disciples who were with Jesus did not begin to follow Him with the best motives. They came to Him, like many people, believing that Jesus was the Messiah. The term "Messiah" is a Hebrew word that means "the anointed one," and it carried significant weight. In the several hundred years leading up to the time of Jesus, there were prophets in Israel who spoke of the coming Messiah. The Jewish people believed that an anointed one would arrive; in Hebrew, He would be called Messiah, and in Greek, Christos or Christ. They were looking for the Christ and the Messiah, hoping that He would come as a conquering King, a political mover who would cast off the oppression they were living under.

At that time, the Jewish people were under the cloud of the Roman Empire, feeling the weight of its oppression. Like many others under Roman rule, they longed to be freed from this tyranny. The people in Jesus's day, including John, were hoping for a political leader who would come, shake things up, and rid them of the Romans. When this preacher began to speak with great authority, multitudes began to follow Him, expecting that He was the Messiah they had been waiting for. There was a lot of baggage attached to the word "Messiah," and they believed He would come to destroy the occupying Romans and restore Israel as the kingdom over all the earth.

Jesus's disciples were not immune to that desire; they came to Him looking for a leader who would establish a great movement. They were likely excited about being part of His inner circle. When they entered Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday, which we celebrated last week, they were at the height of anticipation, expectation, and joy in what they were witnessing. However, all of these disciples, including John, had a certain mindset about what the Messiah would do and who He was. Understanding this context helps explain why the disciples were constantly bickering among themselves about who would be the greatest in His kingdom.

Can sometimes have this kind of flowery view of James, John, and Peter, and it's good to honor what God did through these individuals. However, early on, they followed Jesus for lousy reasons. All of them wanted to be the greatest in His kingdom, and so they argued with each other, saying, "Well, I'm better than you," and "I'm better than you."

John, in the Gospel of John, refers to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." Peter, of course, seems to have had some sort of sibling rivalry with John. They were not blood brothers, but they were close. I read this in the Scriptures, and while I may be reading into it, I don't think I am. I can imagine the conversations they had, with John saying, "I'm the disciple whom Jesus loves," and Peter responding, "Well, I'm the one who walked on water." They went back and forth about this all the time.

James and John were so desirous of having a strong position with Jesus when He came into His kingdom that they got their mother involved. They had their Jewish mother come and speak to Jesus, asking, "Hey, when you come into your kingdom, can my boys, James and John, sit on your right hand and your left hand?" I'm sure the other disciples thought that was wrong. They must have wondered how James and John could get their mother involved in this whole thing.

James and John were given a special name by Jesus; He called them the "Sons of Thunder." Why? Because they came into a town in the region of Samaria at one point in the Gospels, and they were not well received. So, James and John came to Jesus and asked, "Hey, can we call down fire from heaven like Elijah did and destroy all the people in that town?" These guys were expecting to have great authority and power by being close to Jesus, maybe even occupying the chairs on His right hand and left hand. They constantly argued with the other disciples about who would be the greatest in the kingdom.

In fact, at one point in the Gospel, His disciples came to Him and said, "Listen, we've left everything to follow you. What are we going to get when we come into your kingdom?"

Point number one, if you're taking notes this morning: Jesus's earliest followers followed Him for lousy reasons. There's no other way to say it. Read the Gospels; it's very clear that when they first began following Him, they did so for lousy reasons.

Reasons. Now, if we're honest, we have to admit that some of us begin to follow Jesus for maybe not the best reasons. At the beginning, we may follow Jesus just for what He can do for us, that He can make our lives better. Unfortunately, there is a way in which the message of the Gospel is preached on televisions in America that invites people to follow Jesus for the wrong kinds of reasons. The idea that if you follow Jesus, you will get health, wealth, and prosperity can appeal to the baser inclinations of our flesh. We come to Jesus for what we can get from Him.

To be honest, sometimes our prayers sound much more like we're going through the drive-thru at In-N-Out than like we're actually worshiping the King of Kings to whom we are speaking. We say, "I want this, and I want that," and we don't hold the ketchup. There are so many ways in which we can show or expose that we might be following Jesus for the wrong reasons, just like Jesus's earliest followers did.

However, there was a radical transformation that took place in these individuals. Here they are, preparing with Jesus to come into Jerusalem for His final week. I think that His early disciples, John included, didn’t fully comprehend who Jesus really was, and they certainly didn’t understand exactly what He came to do. But when they entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, they had to be excited by what they were seeing. Multitudes of people were crowding around Jesus as He rode into the city on a donkey. The people were singing, "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" They were saying, "Save us now!"

They were declaring with their words and actions, "You are the Messiah! You are King! You are Christ!" They took their outer garments and put them on the ground so that His donkey could walk over them. They waved palm branches and laid them down. All of Jesus's disciples were crowded around, and in my mind, I see them as if they were part of the Secret Service, like His group, His posse. You have to be certain they were excited about this. In their minds, they were already playing out what was going to happen: "We are going to Jerusalem, everything's going to get crazy, it's going to get real, and we are going to be with Him, ruling and reigning."

Anticipating and elevating the significance of the moment, the first thing the Gospels tell us Jesus did when He came into Jerusalem was to go into the temple and cleanse it of those who were buying and selling in the temple precincts and courts, where they ought not to have been. You can imagine that by this point, His disciples were thinking, "Yes, finally! He is stepping into the role we knew He was going to take."

The following days after that, what was Jesus doing between the time He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and the night of the Passover? He was in the temple teaching and arguing with the religious establishment, which many of the common people of the day saw as crooked and out of alignment. Jesus was calling the religious leaders to task—the Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees, and the Herodians. He said to them multiple times, "You guys are hypocrites. You are blind guides. You will be judged because on the outside you look great, but on the inside you are like ravenous wolves."

You can be certain that John, James, Peter, Bartholomew, Thomas, Simon the Zealot, and Judas were all thinking, "Yes, yes, yes! Finally!" After chastising the religious establishment, Jesus left the temple. The Gospel of Matthew records in chapters 23 and 24 that He said to His disciples, "Do you see all of this? It is going to be destroyed. Not one stone will be left upon another." They must have been thinking, "That's right! He is going to destroy it all, and He will establish His kingdom. We will be right there with Him."

His words were literally fulfilled within 40 years of Him saying that. This temple, this place, was destroyed when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in the year 70 AD. He was there roughly between 30 to 32 AD when He made these statements, and it would indeed be literally destroyed.

However, Jesus's tone changed on the night of the Passover, the most important night in Jewish history. It was a night unlike any other, when they would gather together to partake of the Passover. The first question that would start the feast would come from one of the youngest children: "Why is this night not like other nights?" Jesus gathered with His disciples on this most significant night.

Jewish history is marked by significant events, and one of the most somber moments occurred when Jesus gathered with His disciples. He began to tell them that one of them would betray Him. In Matthew 26:20, He says to them, "All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night. Some of you are going to deny Me." When He says this, all of them respond, insisting that there is no way they would ever deny Him. They affirm their fidelity and commitment to Him.

However, just a few hours later, Judas, one of the twelve and one of Jesus's closest friends and followers, betrayed Him with a kiss for thirty pieces of silver. The rest of His disciples fled in fear. Before the sun rose the next day, Peter denied Him three times. Jesus then went to stand trial before the Jewish ruling body, the Sanhedrin, and the chief priests. He was subsequently sent to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. After standing before Herod, He returned to Pontius Pilate once again to be condemned to die. After undergoing a horrific beating, He was crucified on a Roman cross outside of Jerusalem. By sundown, Jesus was dead and hastily buried in a newly cut tomb.

What happened to that group of people who had said, "We will die with You before we deny You," just hours before?

Point number two, if you're taking notes: when Jesus died, His earliest followers fled in fear. They began following Him for lousy reasons. They wanted power, position, and privilege; they wanted to be in a position to rule and reign with Him, believing Jesus was the Messiah. However, everything fell apart when Jesus was crucified, and they fled in fear. They had pledged their fidelity, yet none of them showed up to take Him down from the cross. None of His disciples were present when He was laid in the tomb. It was actually a couple of secret followers, one named Joseph of Arimathea and another named...

Nicodemus and the rest of them were hiding for fear. John Chapter 2 says that the doors were shut and the disciples were assembled for fear of the religious council of the Jews. This was the same group that said they could drink of the cup that Jesus would drink from, the same group that said, "Even if we have to die with you, we will not deny you."

The Sunday following the crucifixion, Jesus's disciples were hiding. Not only were they hiding, but they were also planning their exodus from Jerusalem. They thought they just had to get out of town. In fact, Luke 24 tells us that two of his disciples, whose names we do not know, actually left Jerusalem to go to a town called Emmaus on their way home, probably back to Galilee. As they traveled, the risen Jesus met with them and had a conversation with them. They did not understand that it was him at first. He asked them why they were so downcast and why they seemed so depressed. They replied, "Are you a stranger in Jerusalem? You don't know what's been happening." He asked, "What things have been happening?" They said, "Well, Jesus of Nazareth—we had believed that he might be the Messiah, but he's dead, and I guess not."

They lost hope. Their hope of power, their hope of position, and their hope of being with him, sitting upon thrones, were gone. Their expectations of greatness were dashed, and their presumptuous plans for power were crushed. So why didn't his once faithful and promising disciples just go home? What changed to take them from being faithful followers, who followed him for less than noble reasons at the start, to hiding in fear? Why didn't they just leave and go back to their businesses? That certainly would seem to be the apparent outcome, but that was not what happened.

Those who hid in fear on the Saturday following Jesus's death and burial, and even through much of the day we know as the day of Resurrection, had a dramatic turnaround. Those fearful deniers became bold witnesses of him. For the rest of their lives, many of them died as martyrs, being put to death for their proclamations. They attested to one very clear thing: Jesus, who died on the cross, was indeed the Messiah.

The cross was seen alive by them after He rose from the dead. Point number three: the resurrection is the only plausible explanation for the transformation of the disciples. Something radical happened, and even those who are critical scholars of the resurrection agree that there was something dramatic that occurred.

They will downplay it, but if you read the writings of one of the most well-known critical scholars of our day, Bart Ehrman, who is a scholar out in North Carolina, you will find that he agrees the disciples, the early followers of Jesus, saw something. He may not know what they saw, but he does not believe in miracles, so he concludes it could not have been a resurrection. Instead, he suggests that maybe they had a hallucination. Regardless of what they saw, it radically transformed them. Even the critical scholars agree that the resurrection is the only plausible explanation for the transformation of the disciples.

Some fifty years after His resurrection, after the disciples watched their friend be arrested, beaten, crucified, and buried, the Apostle John wrote these words in 1 John, chapter 1, verse 1: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of Life."

It is important to remember what John had said previously in the opening of the Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Here again, he talks about that which was from the beginning—the Word that became flesh. He emphasizes that they heard and saw Him with their own eyes. They encountered the one who was incarnate; the Word became flesh, and their hands handled Him, concerning the Logos, the Word of Life.

The life was manifested, and they have seen it and bear witness to it. They declare to you that eternal life, which was with the Father, was manifested, made clear, or revealed to us. That which we have seen and heard, we declare to you, so that you may also have fellowship (koinonia) with us. Truly, our fellowship is with God.

The Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, wrote these things to you so that your joy may be full. Some fifty years or so after John had seen the Risen Lord, he says, "I want to tell you about life that was manifested to me—eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed and shown to me. I touched Him after He had died on the cross and was buried in the tomb. He rose from the dead, and I saw Him. I had a meal with Him. I interacted with Him. I talked with Him. He was manifested to us, and because of that, we can have fellowship with one another and fellowship with God. We can live life in connection with God and one another, and our joy can be full." That's what John says here in this passage.

Now, what's amazing is that when John writes these words in 1 John chapter 1, during those years from the time that Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead to the time that John penned these words, all of his friends had also died as martyrs during that period. If we study Jewish or Christian history, we find that James, the brother of John, was the first of the Apostles to be martyred. He was a victim of King Herod Agrippa, who seized him when he was in Jerusalem. The story is told in Acts 12:2, around the year 42, so maybe about ten years after Jesus had risen from the dead. James was beheaded.

Andrew, Peter's brother, was crucified in what we now know as the nation of Turkey. Thomas was pierced through by spears by four soldiers after bringing the gospel to modern-day India. Philip brought the gospel to North Africa, where he was eventually arrested and tortured to death. Matthew, the author of the Gospel of Matthew, traveled to modern-day Iran (Persia at that time) and Ethiopia. Tradition holds that he was stabbed to death in Ethiopia. James, the son of Alphaeus, ministered in Syria, where it's believed that he was stoned and clubbed to death for his faith in Christ. Simon the Zealot ministered in Iran (Persia) and was killed after refusing to sacrifice to the sun god. Peter was crucified upside down in Rome around 64 to 66 AD. The Apostle Paul, who became a follower and Apostle after that point, was beheaded in Rome shortly after Peter was killed.

What was it that united these individuals together? They tell us exactly what united them. It wasn't just that they were called by Jesus; it wasn't just...

The early followers of Jesus were united in their testimony as faithful Apostles because they had seen the Risen Lord. This was their shared experience; they had witnessed Jesus alive after His burial, and this encounter radically transformed their lives. They were no longer seeking the same things they had pursued when they first began to follow Him. If that were not the case, why would they willingly die as martyrs, often with no money to their names? At that point in time, they were no longer fearful and hiding. The resurrection is the only plausible explanation for the transformation of the disciples; they had seen the Risen Lord.

It is common for modern people to express skepticism about the resurrection. Many might say, "I'm not really sure, because normally when people die, they stay dead and don’t come back to life." The early followers of Jesus shared this skepticism. In fact, every time the resurrection was mentioned in the book of Acts, there was a similar reaction. A great example of this is found in Acts chapter 17, where the Apostle Paul preaches about the resurrection. As soon as he mentions it, many listeners dismiss him, saying, "Oh, come on, you're one of those weirdos."

Even prominent figures like John and Peter were skeptical. Thomas, one of Jesus's disciples, famously declared that unless he saw Jesus and put his hands in His scars and side, he could not believe it. The idea of resurrection was too far-fetched for them. They were skeptical even when Jesus told them multiple times that He would rise from the dead. He said, "We're going to Jerusalem; I am to be crucified, I am going to die, and on the third day, I will rise again." The disciples had no comprehension of what a resurrection meant.

In Mark chapter 9, as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone about the things they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They kept this word to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead could possibly mean. Jesus had told them He would rise, and their response was one of confusion. In Mark 9:31, He taught His disciples, saying, "The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men."

He will kill him, and after he is killed, he will rise again on the third day. However, they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him. They were confused, thinking, "We don't really know what that means. You're going to rise from the dead?"

You see, the resurrection might seem implausible to us. We might think, "Well, we're so modern, and we have all this technology and understanding. We know that dead people don't rise from the dead." So, we conclude that the resurrection probably didn't happen because we believe we are so smart. But 2,000 years ago, they questioned whether or not it was real until they saw the Risen Lord.

Life was manifested, as John says, and we have seen it. We bear witness and declare to you that eternal life, which was with the Father, was manifested to us. That which we have seen, we declare to you, and that which we have heard, that you also might have fellowship with us. Truly, our fellowship is with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. These things we write so that your joy may be full.

Point number four: There is no eternal life, fullness of joy, and fellowship with the Father without the resurrection. It is the crux of the Christian faith. There is no eternal life, fullness of joy, and fellowship with the Father without the resurrection.

And it's even bigger than that. As I already alluded to previously, there is no Christianity without Christ rising from the dead.

In 1 Corinthians 15:1, Paul writes, "Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel, the good news that I preached to you, which you also received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you have believed in vain."

Here’s the gospel I delivered to you, Paul says, "first of all, that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, and that He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures."

He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that, He was seen by over 500 individuals at once, of whom the greater part remain to this time; Paul says they are still alive, and you can go talk to them. Some have died, but afterward, He was seen by James.

Then, by all of the Apostles, and last of all, he was seen by me, one born out of due time. If Christ has preached that He raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:13), then Christ is not risen. If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is empty. Yes, and we are found as false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up if, in fact, the dead do not rise.

For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. If Christ is not risen, then your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Then also, those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied.

Point number five, and I'll wrap it up: if there is no resurrection, then there is no point to Christianity. It all hangs upon this. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and on the third day, He rose again according to the Scriptures. He was seen by dozens, hundreds of witnesses whose lives were radically transformed by what they saw, heard, and touched after He had died. They went to their deaths as martyrs, proclaiming, as they did, "Christ is risen."

Everything about the Christian faith hangs on the empty tomb, and it hangs entirely upon the resurrection. It is the central good thing to the good news that is called the Gospel. If it is true, as I believe that it is, and the evidence supports that it is, then it proves that Jesus is a prophet. He predicted that He would die and rise. It confirms that He is the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah. It validates that He is the Son of God; it validates His divinity and debunks His detractors. If He rose from the dead, it doesn't matter what anybody says against Him. He rose from the dead, and it settles the problem of sin.

Because He died for our sins, it destroys death, which is what Paul goes on to say in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. It secures our salvation and gives us hope for future restoration and resurrection ourselves. As I've said many times before, I hope that everything I say when you come here on a Sunday morning is just a reminder of things you already know. I hope that you know these things, but if you don't, I want you to know this: Jesus Christ came into the world to rescue and save sinners.

Jesus Christ came into this world to seek and to save that which is lost. He came into this world to give His life as a ransom for many, to give life and that more abundantly. His resurrection proves that that's exactly what He is able to do; that's what He came to do. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. That is the good news of the Gospel. Amen! That is the good news that I hope you know, and if you have never heard it before today, you've heard it now. I hope that you would put your trust and your faith in Him because He is risen, risen indeed!

It's good news. Would you stand with me as we prepare to close our service? Father God, I thank You for the good news of the Gospel. Jesus, we who were far from You, separated from You because of sin, alienated because of rebellion and stubbornness, without hope in this world, because of Your death on the cross, we have the opportunity to experience Your resurrecting power in our lives. You raise us from deadness to life, bringing us from darkness to light. We who were not a people could be made a people; we who had not obtained mercy might receive mercy by Your grace. Jesus, You who knew no sin became sin for us that we might receive Your...

Righteousness brings a joy, as John talked about in 1 John chapter 1—a joy that is full, a joy that is increasing unto abundance and lasts for eternity. This is because of what You accomplished on the cross when You said, "It is finished." You paid the debt so that we might have life.

As we are in an attitude of prayer this morning, I want to give you an opportunity to respond to the gospel, the good news, and to receive the gift of grace and forgiveness that is found in Jesus Christ. I invite all of our prayer team leaders and any of our elders to come up here and stand up front. If you are on the prayer team, elders, or pastors, please come up here and stand in front.

In this moment of prayer, if you would like to receive the hope, the joy, the love, the forgiveness, the grace, and the mercy that Christ offers, remember what the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 10: if you believe that God raised Him from the dead and confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, you will be saved. The passage also says that all who trust in Him will not be ashamed.

If you would like to receive that grace this morning, while we are in an attitude of prayer, would you just lift up your hand so I can see it? Is there anyone here this morning who would like to receive that grace? God bless you; I see you there in the middle. Anyone else? Lift it up high. I see you over here on my left. Praise the Lord! I see both of you. I see you in the middle over here on my right. A number of you—praise the Lord! Lift it up high so I can see it.

I want to lead you in a very simple prayer. It is just a prayer of faith. Prayer is us talking to God, and we believe that God hears us and responds to our prayers. If you confess Him and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. That is what the Scriptures say. So, wherever you are, if you raised your hand or even if you didn't, I invite you to pray this simple prayer along with me.

Dear Lord Jesus, I recognize my need for You. I know that I have done things that...

Are against your nature. I pray that you would forgive me of my sin and help me to follow you by faith, to be a new creation in you. Father, give me your grace. Pour out your Spirit upon me and help me to follow you by faith. In Jesus' name, amen.