Good morning. I'm not sure who gets the privilege. You guys getting to listen to me or me, the privilege of opening God's word, but it's a joy to be with you and to truly worship the Lord together. Let's ask the Lord to guide us. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to open your word. And I pray that you would guide me to help us focus on you. And we pray that your word would speak to us. And we pray it in Christ's name, amen. Are you ever scared to share your faith? Or do you ever feel like you're just floating along on the winds of a busy life or the social dangers that are lurking around every corner? Do you ever feel like that? Or do you look at your life and say, boy, I lack the fervor and the focus that Christians ought to have? And as you've wondered that, have you ever wondered what took or what transformed those cowardly disciples into courageous diplomats for the coming King? I really think that we find the answer to those questions in the resurrection, in the Easter story. But many times the Easter story is told like this. Sunday morning, the ladies were going down to the tomb and when they got there, there were these angels that said, why are you looking for the living among the dead? So they got happy and ran back and told the disciples and they went down and they were happy. He's not dead. So they all lived happily ever after. And we're left with this hallmark fuzzy feeling. When Jesus encountered his disciples, when he encountered people after his resurrection, what were the words on his lips, the first things out of his mouth? Don't be afraid. Fear not. Why did he have to say that? Well, first of all, these people were afraid for their lives. Jesus had just been crucified, and they thought they might be next. Second of all, dead people don't come back from the dead. They don't come back from the grave. So with all reason, he said, don't be afraid. So today, I'd like for us to look past the fairy tale ending, and I'd like us to see the resurrection as something that anchors our faith, gives us stability, keeps us on the ground, but then launches us into a service that honors the Lord, that glorifies him, that is not for the applause of men, that it's not for some cheap thrill or even for money sometimes, but really for God's glory. And oftentimes we miss the importance and the impact of the resurrection because we settle for a fuzzy Hallmark feeling the way we tell the Easter story. But to do this, we need to jump about two months ahead after the resurrection. Jesus spent 40 days preaching, teaching, instructing, and probably more the teaching side of it, instructing them about God's kingdom. That was 40 days. Jesus ascends. 10 days later, that's 50 days, right? He ascends to the Holy Spirit. The apostles have just gone out preaching and seeing God's spirit convert Jews in droves, mostly Jews at least. They'd spoken in tongues, no experience for them. They were demonstrating that the same Jesus was still empowering their preaching that had preached back in the time of the gospels. No longer do we see these cowers, but we see courageous men willing to die preaching. What changed? Was it the Holy Spirit? Well, I don't think it was just that. You and I have the same Holy Spirit living in us that they had in them. And the saying goes, we don't need more of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit just needs more of me. I think that's true. I don't think it was just the Holy Spirit. It was that they had seen Jesus risen from the dead. They had encountered him. These apostles were quickly met with fierce opposition. They were shining the light of the gospel all around, but the Jews, Israel did not like it. John 111, 111, excuse me, I flopped it. He came unto his own and his own received him not. They were the fiercest opposition that he found. The apex of their rejection was what? When they had him killed. They said, we'll get rid of him. But in killing him, what did they do? That was the worst mistake they could have done to try to shut him up. We know that Jesus had to die in order to be God's lamb that takes away our sins. But he also had to be raised from the dead to guarantee us, demonstrate for us that God accepted that payment. That a person dies is no big deal. that Jesus died was because he was not a sinner, but that he came back from the life must mean something, and it does. The Jews tried to pass him off as a fraud, but the resurrection showed them to be the fraudulent ones, the ones that were wrong. Do you remember the end of Matthew 28? We saw right there in Matthew 27 that they put this guard because they didn't want the second mistake to be worse than the first. Do you remember what happened? The angels come, or the angel comes, opens the door of the tomb, rolls the rock away. The guard falls down dead. And when they find the tomb empty, they run back to these leaders and they say, ah, we got a problem. And what did the leaders say? They said, okay, this is what we're going to do. Here's some cash to keep your story straight. Don't worry about the fact that you just committed a capital offense. We'll cover for you. And the end of that story there is, and this was common knowledge, it wasn't a conspiracy theory. Everybody knew in Jerusalem that that is what had happened. They couldn't deal with the resurrection. The book of Acts shows us how important the resurrection was to the apostles. And I would like to throw that challenge out to you. Read the book of Acts and see how the resurrection is so important to the apostles' preaching. You can do that with a lot of other topics, but I would encourage that if you have trouble reading large portions, I'd encourage you to listen to it. That is something that helps me, but we can't read the whole book of Acts today. So I would like for us to focus on most of chapter three and part of chapter four. So if you have your Bible and you would like to follow along, I invite you to open it to chapter three of the book of Acts. If you just want to listen, that's fine too. Because it is a story. Remember, we're about 50 days, at least, maybe two months past the resurrection. Acts 3 verse 1 says, Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple. Who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Peter and John are going up to pray. They pass a man that they've probably passed many times. They recognized him, I think. Why? Because he was always there. In Bolivia, you have the people that ask alms, that beg. And if you are familiar with an area, you'll see the same people. And these poor people oftentimes are exploited by their families. They actually make pretty good money. So the family members are more than happy to get them there to work on time. and take them home because you got to pick up the paycheck. We don't know that that's what's going on here, but it's entirely a normal scenario. And I think that Peter and John were probably about to go in and Peter stops and looks at the guy and he says, look on us. And how do you think this beggar, this lame man turned I think he turned to his hand extended expected a trinket. He didn't expect what God Peter was going to say. And Peter fastening his eyes upon him with john said look on us. and he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Verse six, then Peter said, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee, in the name of who? Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up. Immediately, his feet and ankle bones received strength, and he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. Quite a way to go to church. And when all the people saw him walking and praising God, and they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple, and they were filled and wondered with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him. And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's Greatly Wandering. When Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we have made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his son Jesus, whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But he denied the Holy One and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. And his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know. Yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I wat that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But those things which God before had shown by the mouth of his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. And now let's jump to verse 26. Talking to the Jews, these people in the temple, unto you first God, having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. The question we want to ask is why did Jesus do this miracle? Was it simply an act of compassion? No. It was more than that. He wanted to preach the resurrection. And that's why verse 16, he says, And his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see, and know, yea, that faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Dead men don't do things. Jesus was still working. And that's why he was so intent on saying, it's Jesus that has done this. The Jews couldn't deny that Jesus was dead, that he died. That was pretty obvious. They had to try to keep him dead. Their accusation of fraud before was now bouncing back and burning them. And if we look in chapter four, Starting in verse 7, we find Peter and John eventually threatened with their lives, but they're before the Jewish leaders answering for this event that had happened in the temple. They wanted Jesus to stay dead. Acts 4 verse 7 says this, And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power or by what name have ye done this? Can you imagine what Peter's thinking about this, this time? I'm so glad you asked. I'd be glad to answer that question. You're listening for the answer, right? And he says, Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel, If we this day be examined to the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole, be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him, that this man stand here before you whole. Peter wanted to preach the resurrection. The resurrection is the proof that the salvation that he preached and that he was trusting in was true, that it was sufficient, that it did the job. The resurrection is what makes our gospel eternal beyond this life. It's what makes the gospel of Jesus Christ different than any other religion. You can find moralism anywhere. Eternal life, you can't. There's a song that I really like. But unfortunately, the chorus kind of messes it up. You know the song, I think. You ask me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart. You know how the Mormons are instructed to tell people to know how to discern whether what they're saying is true or not? You're supposed to have this inner burning in your heart. And I think a lot of different religions would with, in like manner, say something like, yeah, I have Buddha in my heart. Yeah, I have God in my heart. Yeah, I have, is that proof? I think we'd be better off like the other song that says, Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Where do we find the resurrection? We find it in God's word. We know it's true. The Bible tells us so. Why are the apostles so convinced that what they were preaching was true? Because they had encountered Christ. They were so convinced that they were willing to die preaching that he was raised from the dead. They didn't die because they were obnoxious. They didn't die because of their political views. They died because they believed in the resurrection and they made sure everybody knew it. That's why they were martyred. And according to tradition, we have 11 apostles died, martyrs deaths. John escaped it, but I think that's because God had another job for him to do, to write down some important information for us. But think of Thomas and Paul. Think of Paul first. He didn't meet Jesus before he died on the cross or before he ascended. He met him where? On the road to Damascus. They keep messing that up. But what was Paul before? He was a religious zealot. He was probably in a lucrative business. He had a lot of prominence. He was a student of a big doctor, and he gave it all up to be stoned, to be imprisoned. But he died convinced that what he was preaching wasn't craziness. It was a matter of life and death for those that heard it. What about Thomas? The first time Jesus came to visit the disciples after his resurrection, Thomas wasn't there. Jesus walks in. Well, let's back up. And Thomas says, come on, guys. You guys have taken this far enough. That's kind of a bad joke, don't you think? I'm not gonna believe if I can't stick my hands, my fingers in those wounds or my hand in his side. A week later, he gets that opportunity. Jesus comes in and I don't think he was deriding Thomas because of the words later. I think he says, okay, Thomas, here it is. Go ahead. It's okay. And what did Thomas, how did he reply with his pledge of allegiance? My Lord and my God. And we talk about William Carey being the first missionary, Baptist missionary to India. But tradition tells us that Thomas went there and he was martyred there. Preaching what? The resurrection. What changed these cowering disciples into courageous diplomats for the coming king? It was their encounter with Jesus. Those words that Jesus had with Thomas there were important, weren't they? He said, you believe because you saw. Blessed are those who don't get that opportunity. But yet we do get that opportunity because we can open God's word and have that same opportunity. We also see the importance of the resurrection, not just in the book of Acts, but also in the early creeds of the church. That's something that was brought out down in the seminar, how creeds continue to grow. And a lot of that's like the handbook at work or at college. Why does it grow? And pardon the term, but because of stupid people. Behind every stupid rule, there should be somebody's signature. Yeah, that's my fault. Nobody admits it though. But as the doctrinal fallacies grow, there's more and more need for larger doctrinal statements. What I understand with one of the first doctrinal statements of the church creeds of the local church in English is only three words. Jesus is Lord. Does that mean Jesus is in charge? It means something way more than that. before Jesus came, you have, because of the conquest of Alexander the Great and all of that, and the captivity of Israel, you have a lot of Jews speaking Greek, and they wanted the Old Testament in their language. So in that translation, from Hebrew to Greek, they did something so that they wouldn't break the third commandment. Don't take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Instead of translating or transliterating, we could say Jehovah or Yahweh into Greek, they said, we're just gonna play it safe and we're gonna use Lord. And you can see this in the New Testament when they quote the Septuagint, what would have been Yahweh or Jehovah is a lot of times in the English translations is capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. So as we read our New Testament, we have to distinguish, is this saying that Jesus was just in charge, he's the boss, or is it saying Jesus is Jehovah? Jesus is the creator. Jesus is the essence of God. And I think one of the best places, one of my favorite places that we find that is when the angels are talking to the shepherds and they're announcing Jesus' birth. They say, over here in Bethlehem, in this manger, wrapped up in swaddling clothes, is who? The Savior, who is Christ, the Lord. What are they saying? This isn't just the guy who's in charge. It's not just the guy who's gonna replace Herod. This is Jehovah, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. The deity of Christ was the anchor point for the early church, for us, it should be, that Jesus is more than just a man, that he is God of gods. So that was their first creed, to my understanding. The second creed of the early church was a responsive creed, or at least one that came after the first. The leader would get up and say, he is risen. And the congregation would say, Two truths that the early church made a big deal. Why? Because without them, we're not Christians. They are the foundation of who we are when we say we're Christians. So I'd like to ask you, how important is the resurrection to you? Would you die for it? Is it the foundation of your faith? Is it what launches you forward to live for life for God's glory? Or is it just another fact you archive with all the rest of your doctrines? We don't need other miracles. We have the greatest miracle of all written for us here. Could God do miracles? Yes, he can. But why is she to give us other miracles if we're not going to pay attention to the greatest one of all? All the miracles that we see in the book of Acts in the Gospels were temporary. There were only signs. This lame guy died. Lazarus died. There were only signs. Why would we need more if we're going to ignore the greatest one of all? And I'd like you to challenge I'd like to challenge you to meditate on the resurrection. And I've already given you one way to do that. Read through the book of Acts and see how it was incorporated into the preaching of the apostles, how it anchored their faith and launched them out. But you can do that through the whole Bible. You can do that in the epistles. You can do that in the book of Revelation. Another fun thing to do is to look in the Old Testament, where it's seen that resurrection is part of God's plan. And I'm gonna finish fairly abruptly, partly because I want this to be, I would like this to be a starting point for your meditation and not the ending. But to finish, I would like us to move to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15 is a long chapter. It's a hard chapter. to try to get your mind around. But in closing, I'd like for us to just look at the last few verses of chapter 15. We have the fact of the resurrection. Jesus is risen from the dead, but we also have the hope of our resurrection. That's what awaits us in Christ. And that's what he started, without reading all the context, That's what he's talking about in verse 54. It says, when this corruption, this body that you see before you now, puts on incorruption, it gets the new life. And this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Paul says that on the basis of the resurrection. If there is no resurrection, there's no basis for him to tell us, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. It's nonsensical. So I'd like to leave that with you today. Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for you know that your labor is not in vain in him. He is risen. Let's pray. Thank you, Father. that our faith is not in vain because you have proven to us that it isn't. Lord, I pray that you would help us to hold on to our risen Savior that is coming for us. And each day walk closer to him, more in tune with what he loves and loving him more. And we pray these things in Christ's name, amen.