You may be seated. You know, as we sing Psalm 119 together, and a psalm that really causes us to think properly about the Word of God, and specifically the law of God, how we are to live now as the redeemed people, we must remember that the psalm is placed in the context of being redeemed. And so it's our response to God and His grace to long to hear him speak in his word and receive it by faith and obey, whether believing or enacting. This evening, we're going to continue looking at the first stage of the exaltation of Christ, Christ's resurrection. And so I'd like to just read this larger catechism question again, as this is guiding our study as we look at several perspectives on the resurrection. We're basically guided by what we confess about the resurrection in larger catechism question 52. So please give your attention as I read this. How was Christ exalted in his resurrection? Christ was exalted in his resurrection in that not having seen corruption and death, of which it was not possible for him to be held, and having the very same body in which he suffered with the essential properties thereof, but without mortality and other common infirmities belonging to this life. Really united to his soul, he rose again from the dead the third day by his own power, whereby he declared himself to be the Son of God, to have satisfied divine justice, to have vanquished death and him that had the power of death, and to be Lord of quick and dead, all which he did as a public person, the head of his church, for their justification, quickening and in grace, support against enemies, and to assure them of their resurrection from the dead at the last day. We're going to look at several passages of scripture this evening to really focus on what we say here, that Christ raised himself by his own power, and we'll look at a little bit broader understanding of that. how his work of raising himself and God's work of raising Christ declared Jesus to be the Son of God, to have a satisfied divine justice, and at the end, again, as we considered last week, how the resurrection assures us of the resurrection on the last day because Christ has the power. and he demonstrated the power to raise us from the grave when he was raised from the grave on the third day. So there is an outline on the back of the bulletin and there is a long stream of scripture references. So if you were or you are asleep or you're getting a little tired, I have an opportunity to do some before we focus our study as we go through these several passages of Scripture. You can flip along through the Bible with me. A couple of them are, some of them are out of order, but nevertheless we're going to try to go from left to right here in our list of scripture passages. First I'd like to begin with Acts 2 verses 22 through 24. Acts 2, 22 through 24. You can listen to the reading of the scriptures or you can kind of try to turn and follow along. Acts 2, 22 through 24. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosening the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. And then we'll turn over to 2 Corinthians 4, verses 13 and 14. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, I believe and so I spoke, we also believe and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. And then turn back to Romans 4, verses 1 through 4. Lord willing, we'll look at this in more detail, but this is a rather challenging little section of scripture, this introduction of Paul. Listen as I read verses one through four. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead. And then I'm gonna throw a curve ball, since that's the theme of the day, and read Romans 8-11. If this spirit, meaning the Holy Spirit, if this spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. All right, and then turn to the Gospel of John, chapter two. John 2 verses 13 through 22. The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And in the temple, he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold pigeons, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of trade. His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me. And so the Jews said to him, what sign do you show us for doing these things? And Jesus answered them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews said then, it has taken 46 years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days? But Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. And then John chapter 10, verses 17 and 18. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up. This charge I have received from my father. And then 1 Timothy 3.16. First Timothy 3.16. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. Let us pray. Our God and our Heavenly Father, we do look to you and confess our need of your help to understand your word, but especially to understand Christ and your work in saving us through Christ and the meaning of your great works in raising Christ from the grave. So this evening, Lord, build our faith. Instruct us by your spirit speaking in your word. We ask in the name of our savior, Jesus Christ, the living word, who's enthroned at your right hand. Amen. As I've been preaching on the resurrection, have been a little nervous to make a statement, not because I don't believe it's true, but it's hard to say because it's a pretty dramatic and serious statement. But we need to embrace it. And that is that Christianity, our faith, our hope of salvation, rest upon the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, what makes me nervous about that is if someone could prove that the resurrection were not a historical event. Then, as Paul says, if Christ has not been raised, we are most to be pitied for placing our hope in him. But that's just the human spineless side of me. Because indeed, Christ has been raised from the grave. And therefore, since he has been raised from the grave, we know that the gospel is true and there is no salvation outside of faith in Christ. There is no hope for a single sinner outside of being united to Christ in faith, calling him Lord, and as Paul says, professing him Lord, and as Paul says, believing that God raised him from the grave. See, the resurrection changes the game. Without the resurrection, we're fools. But because Christ has been raised from the grave, we indeed have eternal life in him. And there's no other hope for mankind anywhere. And so the resurrection, thinking about this doctrine that seems so familiar to us, the resurrection has an apologetic use for our life. In other words, it makes an argument in our life that helps us believe. It's an apologetic use. There's an apologetic use of the resurrection for our faith to build it up. You see, the Resurrection argues that the Bible is true, because in the Bible, it gives the historical evidence that Christ rose from the grave. And the resurrection argues that salvation is truly found in Jesus Christ alone. He wasn't one of those charlatan messiahs that came in the years before the incarnation of Christ or the years after the incarnation of Christ. And you know, I think that the resurrection, therefore, And the apologetic of the resurrection, it should give us confidence in evangelism. I think this is very important. And especially if you're like me and just you're not the sharpest guy in the room or woman in the room, and you know there are smarter people that can argue way better than you. The apologetic of the resurrection, it should give you confidence to call people to faith in Christ. You see, we can urge people to believe the gospel, and we can urge them to turn to Christ, because at the end of the day, no matter whether or not you can understand someone's argument in resisting Christ, or even the words that they use, the vocabulary, at the end of the day, Jesus rose from the grave just as he promised, and just as was promised for more than 1,000 years before, or 2,000 years, with anticipated in Abraham on Mount Moriah, anticipated in Genesis 3.15, anticipated in David's heart in Psalm 16. So we can urge people to believe the gospel and to turn to Christ because Jesus rose from the grave as he's promised. Now, the problem is always thinking about how we deal with people out there. Maybe you are here. Maybe you've been raised in the church, you were born to Christian parents, you were baptized into the church, you've been catechized. And maybe you're here and you need to be confronted with the resurrection of Christ so that you might turn to him and be saved. The resurrection has an apologetic that should give us confidence in evangelism. And if you have not clinged to Christ yet, you have the gospel before you in your mind, you understand it, but you're hesitant for some reason to turn to Christ. You need to be convinced by the work of God in raising Christ from the grave on the third day and believe today. But I think the resurrection also is an apologetic for our souls. It's an in-house apologetic for our souls as believers. In 2 Corinthians 6, 7, Paul urged us to live by faith and not by sight. And so if you're honest with yourself, living by faith, it's hard. Living by faith in what God reveals to be true and not by what we see and reason from the world is hard. Faith is intellectual. Faith acts upon what we know to be true as revealed by God in the scriptures. And so Christ, he has given us the Bible to study so that we might know the gospel and so that we might submit our lives to it. And yet along the way, what do we do? We struggle to live by faith because we struggle with, ultimately, whether we can discern the error or the problem or not, we ultimately struggle with doubt about the truth of Christ. You know, and this is a phenomena that I think happens in the secular world. I participated in teaching a few people to ski or snowboard in the past few years, and whether it's skiing or snowboard, I've noticed a very similar struggle to the Christian life. When you're on skis or you're on a snowboard, you have to learn to do what seems insane, and you have to look down the mountain, down the fall line. And it doesn't matter if you're on cliffs or real steeps. The safest place, the thing you need to do is look straight down. You will not be able to turn or stop or control your ski or snowboard unless you look down and lean your weight down the hill. But what everyone does is it's kind of universal. Everyone, when they first get on those contraptions, they lean uphill. They want to grab the mountain behind them because they think that's safer. But that's the most dangerous position. And here's the thing. Until this student listens to their instructor, Turn or stop safely. It doesn't seem natural to lean down where I'm going to fall to my death. But you actually, when you learn to ski, you have to believe that looking down hills is the only way those little skis or the snowboard will work. And actually, when you're an older skier, what happens is you're, or snowboarder, as you ski, you get scared and you lean back and you forget what is true. You see, and there's so many times in our lives when God's word is hard to believe. You ask questions like, am I really forgiven? Even me, could God forgive me for what I have done? I don't know if that is ever in your heart. Sometimes we struggle to believe and live in the freedom of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ. Even the Bible is very clear. Some of us live as if God couldn't have forgiven me and we bear the weight of wrath that Christ is already born. Sometimes the right act in a particular circumstance often seems unnatural. And our hearts and minds say, I want to do this thing. But Christ in his infinite wisdom says, no, this is how you glorify me. And the pain that you face when you have to submit to Christ, sometimes you think, is it really worth it? You feel like you're going to be left bankrupt. The commands of Christ seem so hard at times. And when most people in our world, they follow another religion of the many religions out there, it's easy to hesitate and question our faith in Christ or wonder if the gospel is real. Could this one religion, this one book truly be absolute truth? It's easy to wonder, can Christ really save me? And these questions become especially easy when you get sick and you get cancer or something and you face the possibility of death. These questions become real when you see the consequences that you're gonna face as one who is a disciple of Christ bearing witness to his name. But you must remember that the resurrection is an apologetic that speaks and argues for faith and obedience in our souls. See, the resurrection of Christ should convince our hearts and our minds and our wills that the Bible is true. And the Bible is true no matter what we see in the world. The resurrection should convince us to go on living by faith and not by sight. The resurrection, it should make us see beyond this present life, whether it is the joy you're experiencing now or the suffering you're experiencing now. And it should make us find joy in knowing that we will be raised to eternal life in Christ also. You see, the resurrection made a statement. It said something. And so tonight, we're going to consider who spoke with the resurrection and what they said to us in this amazing act. So let's consider who spoke. the agents of the resurrection. Let me ask you a question real quick. Who raised Jesus from the grave? It's a trick question. I don't think anyone would have answered correctly. Well, except unless they knew what I was wanting to ask. In one sense, you can say that one agent raised Jesus. But in another sense, you must say that three agents participated in the resurrection. And so maybe the right answer to who raised Jesus from the grave is this, each person of the Godhead participated in raising Christ from the grave. So let's consider each person of the Godhead and the evidence in the Bible. God the Father comes first. I want you to consider what Paul wrote in Acts 2.24 when he, or actually not Paul, sorry, Luke wrote about recording Peter's sermon. Peter preached God raised Jesus up, loosening the pains of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. Now here God refers to God the Father in contrast to Jesus the Son of God. Now if you want to go somewhere that's a very interesting and easy place to learn about hard theology and the work of Christ and the significance of his resurrection, just read Acts and work through all of these sermons. Because throughout the sermons of Peter and Paul and Acts, these apostles testify that God raised Jesus Christ from the grave, and it's very clear. In Galatians 1, when he wrote to his church, Paul wrote, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, and he says something about God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead. So these are a couple of many references in the Bible that indicate that God, the Father, raised the Son. And actually, if you were to just survey all the places in the scriptures, what you'd find is that most of the times, Jesus is described as resurrected, and as he's described as resurrected, Jesus is the object. And so if you don't know grammar, the object means it's the person or the thing that something happens to. So Jesus is resurrected by someone most of the time when you look at an apostle references Christ being raised from the grave. And most of those times God the Father is the subject. God the Father is usually named as raising Christ from the grave. And so who's the first agent of the resurrection? The Bible's clear. God the Father is an agent of the resurrection. God the Father raised Christ from the grave. So that's the first answer to who raised Christ from the grave. And ultimately, who made this apologetic argument to our hearts? Second, let's consider the Holy Spirit. Now this is a little bit harder, and it takes a little bit of time. And I'm not going to go through the time, but I'm going to boil it down to the answer. As we read the Bible closer, you see that not only the Father participated in raising Christ from the grave, but we find that the Spirit was involved also. That's why we read in Romans 1-4, Paul wrote there that Christ was declared to be son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness. And that spirit of holiness phrase really refers to the Holy Spirit, the second person of the Trinity. And then it says, by the resurrection from the dead. I think ultimately this passage indicates that the spirit of God played a role. in raising Christ from the grave. But think again about what we read in Romans 8. Verse 11, if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So very clearly here in Romans 8-11, the Holy Spirit has power to function on behalf of God the Father to raise us from the grave. And so I think the Bible teaches that, and certainly Paul believed that the Holy Spirit of God was involved in raising Christ from the grave also. He was also an agent of the resurrection. He also spoke in the resurrection. Well, let's consider the testimony of Christ himself, the role of Christ the Son in the resurrection. We read John 2 because we see part of Christ's testimony to what happened at the resurrection. In John 2, the Pharisees asked Jesus to give them a sign that he had authority to cleanse the temple and he claimed to be the Son of God. They said, all right, show us that you can come into the temple and you can mess stuff up and you can yell at us and you can drive us out. And Jesus said, here is the sign that I am the Son of God. Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up. And John, as he thought back to what happened and as the Spirit of Christ reminded John and taught him what really happened there, John recognized that Jesus was really saying that he had the power to raise himself from the grave. He wasn't talking about that temple of stone, he was talking about himself as the true temple. And when they put him to death, he will raise himself from the grave. Later in John 10, Jesus claimed that he had authority as God and power to raise himself from the grave. And so we really have to take Jesus Christ at his word. He also was an agent of the resurrection. And really, that's why our catechism, as it talks about how Christ was exalted in his resurrection, we see that he was exalted and his power as son of God was demonstrated as he raised himself from the grave. And so what do we learn about these details in scripture? We learn about the Godhead, or what we call the Trinity, and we see how it functions. The simple explanation of what the Bible says independently about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and the Resurrection is this, that the agents of the Resurrection are the whole Trinity. The whole Trinity acted together. Christ's divine nature raises human nature from the grave as a work of God himself. And one theologian, Kelly, wrote, where one person of the Godhead is present and active, the others are also present and active. For the persons of the Trinity are not separate persons as are created persons. And so what do we conclude? Each person of the Trinity acted to raise Jesus from the grave. And therefore, each person of the Trinity, of the divine Godhead, said something on that day when Jesus was raised. And so let's consider our second point, the amens of the resurrection. I want you to remember this, the agents of the resurrection, each person of the Godhead, and the amens of the resurrection. Do you know what amen means? It's really in Greek, that word is translated over and over again in the Gospel of John this way, when Jesus says, truly, truly, that's amen and amen. Amen means truly, amen means so it will be. It's an authoritative declaration that something is true. And so what did God declare was true about Jesus in the work of the resurrection? You have some fill-in-the-blanks here. The first is found in Romans 4, and it's very clear. Christ was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead. That's the first amen. There's this big question, even I think there is a question of, in the faith of the apostles, just as Abraham had faith, but a weak faith, the quivering faith. I think each of the apostles may have wondered, okay, I believe what Jesus said. That'd be nice if someone would say, and so it is. C.S. Lewis properly wrote that Christ must be a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. And so think about what Christ said. Over and over and over in the Bible, Jesus called God, my father. In John, he constantly refers to my father who sent me. Often Jesus identified himself as God's son. These are the words, the self-disclosure of Jesus Christ and who he was. And then the covenant of grace in the Old Testament promised that Christ would be God's son when God promised and gave the Davidic covenant to David in 2 Samuel 7 and elsewhere. And so Jesus, I think C.S. Lewis is right, he's a liar, or he's totally nuts, or he really is the son of God. But you see, Paul didn't let us sit around contemplating this question very long. For Paul, the resurrection answered Jesus' claim to be the Son of God. If you have any question in your mind that Jesus really was the Messiah and Son of God, then the Bible says look to the resurrection. God himself, that every person of the Trinity, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit says, say, look to the resurrection. Because when God raised Christ from the grave, it was as if he said, truly, truly, Jesus Christ really is the Son of God. So you see the resurrection, it argues that Jesus is the Son of God, it makes it apologetic to our heart that we might believe that what Jesus said is true. And so do you struggle to comprehend the incarnation and the virgin birth that Jesus came, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, he was both God and man? Do you claim the other, do you struggle to understand and believe the other claims of Christ? Well, at the end of the day, listen to the triune God. At the end of the day, the resurrection declares that Jesus was not just a man born in Bethlehem, but Jesus is the Son of God in the flesh. Next, God declared that Jesus is righteous. And that's the second blink. God declared that Jesus is righteous. Paul makes this point in 1 Timothy 3.16, he wrote, the Son of God was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit. Now that word vindicated is that same word we use for justify in Greek. You just have to translate it different based on the context. In this context, Paul means that the Holy Spirit cleared Jesus from blame and proved that Jesus was righteous and the son of God. And this is so important. It was important that the spirit of God cleared his name and vindicated that he was truly righteous because how did he die? If Jesus is sacrificed for our sins, God requires a righteous sacrifice. He requires a spotless lamb or else that sacrifice dies for its own sin. But we have a problem when we think about the way in which Jesus died on the cross. It seemed to the whole world that Christ were a criminal. But when God raised Jesus from the grave, He declared to us that Jesus was the acceptable sacrifice because he was righteous. He did not die for his sins. The grave could not contain him because he had been obedient to God the Father, obedient even to the point of death, a death on the cross. And so the resurrection declares that God accepted Jesus' perfect obedience on our behalf. The resurrection, it should remove any question that Christ has taken away your sin on the cross, because indeed, as when Paul interprets what happened, saying that he was vindicated by the Spirit, you know that the spotless lamb that God promised to provide from the garden to Mount Moriah, to Isaiah, to the cross, he died and his blood paid the wrath and curse of God for our sins. So the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they declare that Jesus was righteous. He did not die for his sins, but in fact, he died for our sins. And when he was raised, the triune God declared that our salvation was purchased. And last, I want you to consider what Christ Jesus declared in the resurrection. In John 5, 21, Jesus made a bold claim, and the whole purpose of that was to win our trust in him. He said, for as the father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the son gives life to whom he will. Now those are huge claims. Jesus is saying, I have life in myself and I can give you life. And later Jesus said, for as the father has life in self he has granted, the son also do have life in himself. And later Jesus said to the Pharisees, you refuse to come to me that you may have life. And that rebuke, As with all of God's rebukes, the call and the invitation to come to Christ and be saved was there. The claim that he would give them life if they would only come and call upon him. And then Jesus comforted Martha as she was weeping over Lazarus's death. You see, Lazarus's death, it was all to demonstrate that Jesus was was the son of God with that miracle of raising Lazarus from the grave, but it also had a very subjective and impersonal function in the life of Martha and in our lives. She wept for the death of her brother, saying, if you had been here, he would not have died. She even had faith that Jesus was the Son of God, but she was mourning, and she needed Christ to argue to her heart, to believe. And Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Martha, do you believe this? She said, yes, I believe. And later, Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave, confirming, declaring that what he said was true. And you need to ask this question of yourself. This is really not just for Martha, it's for all of us. Do you believe that Jesus can and will give you eternal life? It's a bold claim. Foolish people have died trusting in the wrong person. Foolish people have died questioning Christ's power. So do you believe that Jesus can and will give you eternal life? He claimed to have the power and the authority to raise us from the grave to eternal life. And then he showed up on the third day and he raised himself from the grave. And that act declared this to all of us, that Jesus has the power to raise you from the grave. It's a third amen. So it will be in the resurrection. So if you struggle to believe that Jesus was being honest, when he said, come to me and I will give you life, You need to stop struggling because he declared it was true when he raised himself from the grave with his own power. And so let's ask that question that we often ask, can Christ really save me? And the answer is yes. If you want proof, look to the resurrection. It is an apologetic to convince our hearts to turn to Christ for salvation. It's God's, the triune God's apologetic to continue and bear every pound and pain from the cross we must bear as Christ's disciples. If anyone says that Jesus is anything less than the Son of God, They haven't learned about the resurrection of Christ, and maybe it's good to be gracious and declare the resurrection of Christ to them, or they simply deny it in a high-handed sin of suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. But you see, the resurrection is an apologetic to our heart. The resurrection is a game changer. We must use that great act of exalting Christ and his power when he was raised from the grave on the third day. We must use the resurrection to help our unbelief. So whenever you struggle to believe the amazing claims of Christ in the gospel, remember the resurrection, because God, the triune God, is declaring to you. that his word and his promise to save you in Christ is true. The resurrection argues that Christ is all he said he was. And when the resurrection confirms the gospel in our hearts, it really should make following Christ worth it. Whatever it is, that tempts you, that gives you a hesitation as you seek Christ and His righteousness, the resurrection should make following Christ worth it. And it should give us joy and comfort under the pain and trials of this life, really just like Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4. where he said, and since we have the same spirit of faith according to what is written, I believe and therefore I spoke. We also believe and therefore speak knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes. That grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. And therefore, we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. He may not be an apostle, none of us are apostles, but there. That declaration that Christ is the Son of God, that He is righteous, that He has the power to raise us from the grave, that should have the same effect in us as it did in the apostles, that no matter what they faced, even as they died for the sake of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we might have the scriptures, that we might hear the good news of salvation. Even though they died what would be horrible deaths, even though they suffered to the point of, I think, despairing of life itself, they found great joy in that affliction, knowing that because Christ raised from the grave, they are sure of God's promise that they will be raised, that they have received eternal life, that they will be glorified. when Christ returns. And so, can Christ save you? Yes. Believe it, because the resurrection of Christ declares it. Let us pray. Father, please do write on our hearts a confidence that your word is true. Cause the news of the resurrection of Christ to have its effect on our hearts and our faith and our lives. That we may go from here with a stronger faith and confidence. That we might live by faith and not by sight. That we might not question your grace that we've been forgiven of our sins and are indeed righteous before you, as righteous as your perfect Son. And Father, cause the message of the death and the resurrection of Christ your Son to go out powerfully and may your Spirit argue to the hearts of the lost from here to the ends of the earth replacing their heart of stone with a heart of flesh that they might also know with us that everyone who calls upon the name of Jesus, your son, will be saved. Lord, we're gonna go from here, and some of us are gonna still struggle with what you call us to do tomorrow, with dealing with our past and even present sin, with fearing, facing those opportunities to give an apologetic of Christ and to proclaim the gospel. Father, we ask that your spirit would write your word upon our hearts, growing us in grace, that indeed we might bear witness to your son and his work and his resurrection all of our lives. We thank you for the great hope that when we hear Christ's call to us on the day of the Lord, that call will come and be accompanied by the power of your spirit to raise us from the grave to eternal life. To the world, these things seem crazy, but Lord, you've revealed that this is the true hope of every believer. So give us that hope that we might live with the joy of salvation. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.