Turn to Matthew chapter 28 if you'd like to follow along. You can also put a thumb in Romans chapter 10, we'll be there later on, but we'll read first from Matthew chapter 28. It's a little bit surprising since Great Britain has been celebrating Easter for so long to read last Sunday that a quarter of the people who describe themselves as Christians in Great Britain do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus, a survey commissioned by the BBC suggested last Sunday. It's not surprising that a quarter of the people in Great Britain don't believe in the resurrection. What's surprising is a quarter of the people who claim to be Christians don't believe in the resurrection. I would imagine that about the same numbers are true over on this side of the pond as are true on that side. Seventeen percent of all people surveyed believe the Bible version word for word. That is, they believe everything the Bible teaches. Exactly half of all the people surveyed said they didn't believe in any resurrection at all. Of course, that's changed quite a bit. First thing my wife said when we pulled out on the main road to come here, she said, you know, when I was a child everything was closed on Easter morning. Now, that also tells you how old we are. What I want to do this morning is talk about why we should believe in the resurrection of Christ. There are a number of reasons. We're only going to consider two of them. The first one is that if you believe the Bible, you should believe in the resurrection of Christ because The Bible is very clear in its teaching. Not just clear, it's very repetitive in its teaching about this truth. So if you're in Matthew chapter 28, let's read together the first 10 verses there. Follow along with me and I'll read out loud. now after the sabbath toward the dawn of the first day of the week this is the day we call sunday because the sabbath was the day that we call saturday so after the saturday was over as it began to dawn toward the next day by the way it was i believe the fourth century when the names of the days were changed to coordinate with Norse mythology gods. So it's called Sunday. Today it is the day we gather to worship. As it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. that is where they laid Jesus. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone, and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen. As he said, Come and see the place where he lay, Then go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and behold, He is going before you to Galilee. There you will see Him. See, the angel said to them, I have told you so. So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell the disciples. That might have been the first time they'd all had an ongoing conversation with an angel. It's not surprising that they were a little frightened at that, and they ran to tell the disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, and they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me." Now, does that passage teach that Jesus was raised from the dead? Clearly. Also Mark chapter 16 in the first 20 verses. Luke chapter 24 dedicates 53 verses to a description of this. John chapter 20, 31 verses in chapter 20, and then the first 25 in chapter 21. All of these record not only the resurrection event, but also the various circumstances of Jesus' 10 appearances after His resurrection. Say, He appeared 10 different times? Indeed, He did. And He did because He wanted to make sure that everyone knew He was alive. He was not in the grave anymore. If He died on the cross and stayed in the grave, we would not be meeting here this morning. He was raised from the dead. And one of the reasons we should believe it is because it is very clear in these 149 verses in the Gospels, not just that He was actually raised, but the response of people to His resurrection. Now, is it only in the Gospels? No. Turn to the book of Acts. It's mentioned numerous times in Acts. Too many for us to repeat here this morning. But you remember in chapter 1 when the disciples gathered together, Judas wasn't with him. He'd committed suicide for having betrayed the Lord who was innocent. And the disciples immediately said, we need to choose a replacement for Judas. And here was the qualification, verse 22. One of these men must become with us a witness of His, not His death, His resurrection. Not His good deeds in life, His resurrection. Not all of His miracles, His resurrection. Peter said on the day of Pentecost that almost a thousand years before Jesus was raised from the dead, in chapter 2 verse 31, that David foresaw and predicted the resurrection of the Messiah, the Christ, in Psalm 16. Peter preached on Solomon's porch at the temple in Acts chapter 3 verse 15 that God had raised Christ from the dead. The apostles in Jerusalem in chapter 4 and verse 2 were proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. They were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus in 4.33 and we could go almost chapter for chapter. through Acts. Does the Bible teach the resurrection of Jesus Christ? It absolutely does. How can someone claim to be a follower of Christ and yet not accept the resurrection of Christ? It certainly is not because The Scriptures do not say. In Athens, in Acts chapter 17 verse 18, Paul was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. Now what was all of this preaching on the resurrection of Christ if it was not grounded on the real event? Why keep saying this if it's not true? If it never did happen? What about the resurrection teaching in the New Testament epistles? Well, if you just look up the noun, resurrection, and everywhere it's used in the Bible, you'll find it nine times from the book of Romans all the way to the end of the epistles, the beginning of Revelation. Just the noun is mentioned and then the word, that's the noun resurrection. The word raised or risen is used even more times. The entire 58 verses of 1 Corinthians 15 are dedicated to a discussion of the resurrection doctrine that Paul preached. A doctrine that Paul himself says is firmly grounded on the literal historical physical, permanent resurrection of Christ. In fact, Paul's going to say this in 1 Corinthians. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, which they did proclaim Him as being raised from the dead, if that's true, he says, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? We should write this to every British subject. How can you possibly say that there is no resurrection from the dead if the apostles have preached, if all the New Testament teachers have taught that Christ was raised from the dead? And then he goes on to say, 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 vain and your faith is vain. Anglicanism is vain and I pick on them because they're the national denomination of Great Britain. But anybody, anybody who denies the resurrection of Christ is denying the gospel message. I want you to get this from what he says here. There is no Christian faith apart from the resurrection of Christ. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4, 14, he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus. What that means is if the Lord Jesus was raised, then we will be raised as well. In Ephesians chapter 1, the Apostle Paul said that God's supernatural power was evident when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. 1 Peter 1.22 says we've placed our faith in God the Father who raised Christ from the dead. Even in Revelation 5, There's an appearance of the throne room in heaven. Angels are there, the 24 elders are there, the Father is there, and guess who appears? Jesus Christ. Why is he there? Because he is alive. because he is not dead. He has been raised. And there is predicted in Revelation chapter 19, an event that will guarantee that everyone knows he is alive. And that is that he's coming back. He is returning. So what shall we say to all of this? And much more evidence that Jesus was raised. Well, one man said, the epistles depend entirely on the assumption that Jesus is a living, reigning Savior who is now the exalted head of the church, who is to be trusted, worshipped, adored, and who will someday return in power and great glory to reign as King over the earth. Why should we believe in the resurrection? Because the Bible plainly teaches it. Because it is an essential part of the Christian religion. Since the Lord Jesus Christ did it, then we cannot be a follower of Christ and deny that he did it. But this is not the only reason. Now there are quite a few. We could take some time, and we did this in one of the classes, that I teach over at the college. We talked about the importance of the resurrection to regeneration. We talked about the importance of the resurrection to our growth in holiness, our walk of sanctification. But I really only want to focus on one thing for lack of having a very long morning service or wanting to have a very long morning service. Now you can turn to Romans chapter 10. The resurrection of Christ is essential to the gospel message because it saves us from sin. Romans chapter 10 is found in the middle of one of Paul's longest epistles, 16 chapters. Probably the key phrase in the letter to the Romans is this expression, the righteousness of God. Sometimes the phrase in the book of Romans refers to an attribute of God being righteous. And what that means is that everything he does is right. Everything he does is just. But the phrase that focuses on what we're going to be looking at is the righteousness of God being a gift that God gives to sinners so that they can go to heaven, so that they can be saved, so that God will accept them. We accept God's gift of righteousness by believing. Believing in what? By believing that Christ died on the cross for me and rose again. There are some who believe that you have to do the best you can in order to be acceptable to God. In other words, I'm trying. I try to be good. I don't always succeed, but I do try to be a good person. There are others who think that you have to keep the Old Testament law in order to be acceptable to God. People will say this, I try and keep the Ten Commandments. You know, when somebody says that, always ask them, what are they? Because if they don't know what they are, how in the world can they be trying to keep them? See, I try and keep all the laws in Edmonton. I don't have any idea what all the laws in Edmonton are. I park somewhere and I get a ticket. Why? I found out that that's a law that I shouldn't park there. So what are they? God says you shall not have any gods before me. He says you shall not take my name in vain. He says you shall not make any images to bow down to them, to show them reverence by bowing and making the sign of the cross or anything like that. He says that we should honor our father and mother, that we should not commit murder, that we should not commit adultery, that we should not steal, that we should not lie, that we should not covet. The last one's probably the worst one for North America since our entire advertising industry is based on coveting. But yet people still say, well, I try and do my best to keep the Ten Commandments and I hope that God will like me for that. Still others think that you have to be sincere in whatever faith you choose in order to be acceptable to God. But if we're going to follow what the Scriptures teach, Paul the Apostle in Romans teaches that in order to be accepted by God, I have to receive His righteousness. I have to trust in Christ. Notice how Paul's going to explain this in Romans chapter 10. We're only going to look at verses 9 and 10. He is contrasting the message of salvation by faith with what most of the Jews are trying to do, salvation through works. And he's saying that salvation through works or by works, doing works of the law in the Old Testament to try and be saved, that does not save, he says. Why not? Well, because no one can be good enough. No one can keep all of the Old Testament commands. So how does the message of salvation by faith work? Well, in verse 9, let's read the passage together and see what he's going to say there, because I want us just to think about how that verse is put together, and then we're going to talk about the various details of it. Verse 9 says, because we'll just leave that off. I don't want to explain all that leads up to it. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead or that God did raise him from the dead, you will be saved. Now that verse teaches that there are two conditions. Do you see the two conditions there? and that there's one result if you meet the two conditions. You see the result there? What's the first condition? Well, you must confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. This is a public, verbalized commitment of unconditional surrender to Jesus Christ and His work on my behalf. I'm not just saying that Jesus is someone's Lord. I'm saying that He's my Lord. And if you were doing this, you would be saying He is your Lord. Now, what's the Lord? Someone who rules you. Someone who is king over your life. So that's the first condition. I have to confess with my mouth, make a public commitment that Jesus is the Lord of my life. The second condition, number two, you must believe in your heart. And what is it that I have to believe in my heart? that God, that is God the Father, has raised Him, that is God the Son, from the dead. So it's not just an outward confession that saves. This must be accompanied by a genuine inward faith. I have to mean what I'm saying. One fellow said to Paul, it matters that we believe, but it also matters what we believe. You cannot be saved by having faith, some vague idea of belief. No, it matters what we believe. Now that always has raised a question with me. Why is it that Paul says the sinner must believe in the resurrection of Christ in order to be saved? I mean, in fact, what I would expect to have him say is that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that he really is, you will be saved. But that's not what he says. He says in the second condition, you have to believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. So what about people who don't believe that? Well, why? Why? That's what we're after. Why did he say, that we have to believe in the resurrection. I have said it's important that we do believe it, that without believing it we cannot be saved. What was the resurrection about that made it so critical to the preaching of the apostles, to the writing of the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, to even the description of future prophecy in Revelation? Well, I think as an illustration, do you remember when Solomon prayed to dedicate the temple to the Lord as a place of prayer? This, by the way, is why Jesus said, my house shall be called a house of prayer. Solomon's prayer is what made that true. How do we know that God accepted his prayer? We say, well, when he finished praying, the Shekinah glory of the Lord came down and filled the temple so that the priest couldn't even minister inside of there. And this was God saying, yes, I hear your prayer. Yes, I will accept those conditions. If my people pray toward this place, I will hear them. Well, the resurrection was the same kind of thing. The resurrection is the Father's public acknowledgement that His Son is, in fact, everything He claimed to be. That He really accomplished everything He truly set out to accomplish and said that He would accomplish. It is the Father saying to the Son, I accept your shed blood as payment for sinners' sin. And on the condition of their faith, I will accept them as my own children." This is why the resurrection is so important. It was the Father's affirmation. And by the way, the Father's not the only one said to participate. Jesus said, I lay down my life for myself and I will take it up again for myself. He participated in His own resurrection. Why? Because it was His declaration. It has been finished. The cross is sufficient. There is nothing more that needs to be done to save sinners. Everything has been done. All you need to do is receive it. as your own. And when I do that, it is me saying to the Father, I believe your son's life and death and resurrection are sufficient for my justification. I believe that's all I need. Why? What is the result that's promised if I meet those two conditions? You will be saved. How do I know that's true? Well, because the Bible's very clear that God always keeps His word. He never makes a promise He does not keep, and He promised He would save me, and He will save me. But I also know it's true because of what verse 10 says. Why is that true? How do I know that I will be saved? Because with the heart one believes and is justified. He is declared by God to be righteous and therefore accepted by God. And with the mouth one confesses and is saved. So the big question this morning is, have you done this? It doesn't matter what else is true about your life. Have you fulfilled these two conditions? Now you know how to be converted. You can't say nobody ever explained it to me. We've gone through this carefully this morning. It has been explained. The question is, will you accept it? This is not the only place where this is taught. Back in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, or 15 rather, remember that's the chapter where all 58 verses talk about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and how that affects us? Paul begins that chapter by telling the Corinthian church, I delivered to you as of first importance What I also received, and remember how Paul received it by the way, he received the truth directly from Christ. He tells us in Galatians 1 that he did not get it from the other apostles. He received it directly from Christ. And what truth was that? That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures and that He was buried. That He was raised the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. And that He appeared to Cephas then to the twelve. In other words, Paul's gospel message included the resurrection. Why did it? Because it has to. Or it's not the gospel. It's not the saving message if it doesn't include the resurrection. Remember that the disciples immediately choose a replacement for Judas, a fellow named Matthias. One of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection. See, Peter preached in Acts 3 that God raised Jesus from the dead. Why did Peter preach that? Because Jesus' resurrection is an essential part of the gospel message. I have to confess with my mouth that Jesus is my Lord. But then I have to believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead in order to be saved. Now, one pastor said, You can be an admirer of Christ and His teachings without believing in His resurrection. In that case, your relationship is primarily with His ideas and not with the person since you believe that the person is dead. However, that type of relationship is no different than the one you may share with Plato's ideas or even Buddha's ideas. It is the type of relationship that has no transcending consequences. It may affect your life here on earth in varying degrees, but all of that effect will end when you die. What's worse, when you die you are still lost in your sins and alienated from God. On the other hand, a relationship with the living Christ is altogether different. That type of relationship is accompanied by the benefits that follow Christ's redemptive work of the cross and His resurrection. Not only are you saved by Christ's death, but you have hope of eternal life through His resurrection, and you are reconciled with God for all eternity. Unlike the admirer of Jesus, The greatest benefits of this type of relationship is not found or those benefits are not found in this life. The greatest benefits begin when my mortal body dies. That's when it all begins. Now we believe that, but one day we will experience that. We think that that's true. One day we will know that it's true. So have you confessed with your mouth that Jesus is your Lord? Have you believed in your heart that God raised Him from the dead? Or have you been saved? Why does it matter? Because Jesus is the living, reigning Savior, who is now the exalted head of the church, who is to be trusted and worshipped and adored, who will someday return in power and great glory to reign as King over all the earth. Let's pray. Father, thank you for being so clear in your Lord, help us not in the hardness of our heart. Say that we don't think it's true. Deny your revelation. And in doing so, calling you a liar. Oh God, we pray that you would help us. Help us to be true to your word. We thank you for what you'll do. In Jesus' name, amen. ♪ Be thou my vision, O ruler of my heart ♪