Father, as we now begin our journey into the Scriptures to contemplate the greatness of the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, we pray that you give us ears that can hear and hearts that can receive the implanted word of truth. We thank you for that, Lord. In Jesus name, Amen. So I'm going to read a lot of scripture and probably not do a ton of talking today. And my plan is to eventually get to one verse. And I don't do that very much. But there's a verse. It's something that Jesus said that's quite astounding. And it's in a context where usually if I'm reading that section of scripture, I just blast right past the fact that he said what he said and get to the heart of what was going on all around him and the whole story. But I want to park on that verse. in a minute, but I want to read you a few scripture passages as we contemplate the resurrection. So, to begin with, I want to read Luke 24. I read all the Gospels yesterday, all the resurrection stories, and I was trying to figure out which one do I want to read. And they're all wonderful. They're all a different point of view of the same event. They're eyewitness testimonies for the most part. But I want to read you Luke 24. And I'm going to read you verse 1 to 8. Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they and certain other women with them came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee saying, the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again? And they remembered his words. I picked that, and they're all glorious obviously, all the gospel perspectives are glorious, but I picked that in particular because I love that the angels said, why are you looking for a live person in a graveyard? I just love that that's the way it's conveyed. I want to look at chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians. Now that's a great chapter that deals with the resurrection of our Lord in detail. And I'm going to come back to it a couple times, but to begin with, let me read you verses 1 to 8 of 1 Corinthians 15. Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received. that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and that he was seen by Cephas, then by the Twelve, after that he was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that, he was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then, last of all, he was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. What an experience. And you know, I did a sermon a long time ago on that text and went through, and when you see the change in these individuals who had an experience of seeing the risen Christ, they weren't the same. They were never the same again. You know, when they see the risen Christ. James, his half-brother, I mean, it's just amazing that they went 180 and ended up being the leaders of the early church. And one more passage for you, then we'll move on. This is 2 Timothy 1, 8 through 10. And this is getting to the subject I want to talk about a little bit, so listen in. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." That's quite a statement. who abolished death in his death, burial, and resurrection. He brought life and immortality. I looked that up in my dictionary. I have an old, fallen apart, Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. And the word abolished in the English is translated here to abolished. In the dictionary it says that word abolished means to do away with holy. to destroy completely. And that led me in my study to the verse I want to study in a minute here. And it also led me to go read a little bit of John Owens, who wrote probably one of his more popular works, The Death of Death and The Death of Christ. So I want to read you some more. I thought it was going to be mostly scripture today. On the cross, my first point here, Jesus poured out his soul unto death. And that's in Isaiah 53, the old prophecy of Jesus and the cross in Isaiah 53. And you begin that and let's say verse 11 says, he shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge. My righteous servant shall justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because, and listen to this, because he poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors because he poured out his soul unto death. It doesn't say the Romans took his life. It doesn't say the Jews betrayed him and turned him over and took his life. It doesn't say the soldiers, the centurions took his life. The Bible says that Jesus of his own volition, poured out his soul unto death for you and me to pay for our sins. Psalm 22, which also prophetically speaks to the cross, in verse 14, seeing it from Jesus's perspective, right? So it's a personal pronoun here. I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me. I'm poured out like water. He poured out his soul unto death on the cross to pay for our sin. Paul Kretzmann, a commentator, writes, the fact that he poured out his life in death and he bore the sins of many is now the everlasting foundation of his work as our advocate with the Father. On the basis of that, he makes continual intercession for us. Such is Christ's work of vicarious atonement as it was preached to the believers of the Old Testament, as we now know that it has been fulfilled. He poured out his life unto death. He devastated death. He abolished death in his dying and in his resurrection. In Psalm 48, 14, for this is God, our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even to death, even to death. God will be our guide even to death. Andrew Bonar picks up on that in the original language and says, it is not our guide unto death, for the words of the Hebrew are actually, shall lead us over death. Surely it means if he who leads over death to resurrection, to cross the Jordan into Canaan. The word is used in Leviticus 15.25 for the word beyond in regard to time. And is not this the sense here, beyond the time of death, till death to us is over, till we've stood upon the grace of death? Yes. He it is who leads us onto this very last victory. He swallows up death and victory and leads us to trample upon death. That's what Jesus accomplished in his death and burial and resurrection. And one more scripture, then I'm going to get to this incredible verse. We'll unpack the verse. Hebrews 2.9, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. for all of mankind, right? So my remarkable promise, the remarkable statement, that Jesus made a lot of remarkable statements, but you have to say that this is a remarkable statement. And what I wanna read you is just one verse. It's John 8, 51. And then I wanna unpack it. So John 8, 51. These are the words of our Lord. Most assuredly, I say to you, If anyone keeps my word, he shall never see death. Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he shall never see death. He prefaces that statement with amen. What we typically would translate to amen. Sometimes it's translated truly, truly. Sometimes it's translated verily, verily. Here it's most assuredly. When we say amen, it's usually because somebody has said something. We say that's truth. Usually it's something to do with God and God's ways and God's actions. We say, Amen. That is true. Jesus, who is God speaking, puts that in front of his statements to say, this is truth. I'm going to give you a truth statement here. Bank on it. And that's what he says. And there's a condition to the promise. It's conditional, right? Because it says, I say to you, if. That's a conditional statement. If anyone keeps my word, he says. That's the condition. And if somebody meets the qualifying condition of anybody who keeps his word, the promise is, well, he will never see death. What's that mean? Let's unpack that a little bit. Before I look at the condition, I want you to see the universality of the condition. Because he says anyone, if anyone, keeps my word. And the gospel call is heralded to everyone. I know the Bible tells me that without God working in us, nobody's going to come to faith. God's got to do a work in us. We're given the gift of grace and repentance. I get all that. But the gospel call is to be heralded to everyone. Anybody who comes to God on Jesus' terms, on God's terms, will be saved. That's the simple promise of all of Scripture, right? And we just herald that news to people and see who's going to actually move their will in the direction of God. When they come into the family, ultimately, years later, I started reading the Bible after I came to the Lord, and I was like, oh, wait. I said, God, you were at work in me before I even turned to you? And yes, God was at work in me. Do you remember that when you came to the Lord? I was an adult. So I can still remember coming to the Lord. I remember going to church and sitting way in the back. And they would give invitations. And I had to hold onto the chair in front of me that I wouldn't go and walk the aisle, because God was drawing me strongly to himself, strongly. And I got saved in that back seat. That's where I was. I didn't know where to come forward. And I got saved in the back seat. I finally had to go to the pastor and say, hey, look, something's happened to me. I'm transformed. I need to get baptized, you know. And we followed through with that. But the condition of the promise is a universal invitation here, if anyone. If anyone. Anyone from royalty on down to street rogues. And that was me. I was a street kid. And to think there's room at the cross for me too. It didn't matter what your background was. It didn't matter what kind of stupidity you had walked into in your youth. There was room for you. You're one of the anyone's. And you'll see that throughout scripture. I'm going to read you a couple passages. John 7.37, on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, if anyone, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. John 10.9, Jesus says, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. Romans 10.11 says, for the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. Whoever, anyone, anyone that will come to God on his terms. 1 John 4.15, whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. And one last one for you, Acts 2, verse 38 and following. Then Peter said to them, he's preaching on the day of Pentecost, right? He preaches to everybody in the crowd. And they came from all over the place. Remember that? All these different representatives from various nations that were Jews. They had to come back for that great feast. And he says to them, repent. and let every one of you..." He's talking to the crowd. He's like, "...let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." Remember they had asked, what do we do? They were pricked of the heart. What do we do? And he says, "...let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off. I think he's speaking there to the Gentiles. And then he says, as many as the Lord our God will call. So within that one little text there, the invitation is to all of them. And then ultimately we know those that come is because the Lord our God has called you. He's called you. You heard his voice. And I still remember what that sounded like when the Lord was calling to me. I used to go to a men's Bible study with a man named Bill Enos. He went to Berkeley Baptist, and they had a men's breakfast on Mondays, I think. So I used to go to work a little bit late and go over there and have a sandwich. And we used to pray for like an hour, sometimes two hours. And we'd just sit around the table and pray for our families, our community, our church. And so I love Bill. I got to know him a little bit. And his testimony, he was actually a World War II pilot, and he crashed two airplanes. He was in two airplane crashes and survived. And then he was in the military, a little bit like your testimony. He went to church when he was serving in the military. And he said, and I don't know, I can't speak for his experience, and I can't validate his, I just know this is what he said. He says, I was in the back of the church In my mind's eye, I saw Jesus at the pulpit waving to me. Waving to me to come. And I couldn't discount that. I thought that wasn't my experience, but he said he literally had a vision of Christ waving to him like, Bill, are you going to come? I'm calling you. And Bill went and gave his life to ministry at that point. So let's look at our verse again. So the meaning of this condition, who keep my word. That's the condition. Those who keep my word, Jesus says. Well, a couple of things the Bible teaches us. One, we have to hear his word and understand it. God's the one who gives us ears to understand, to hear and understand. John 5.24, Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life. and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." There's a little key of what we're talking about here. You've passed from death to life. We have to hear his word, understand his word, and believe his word. Receive it as truth. And that's a turning point in any convert's life. The day you're done, you know, fighting against God, and you finally say, you know what, Lord, your word is true. I'm done. I'm done. I wrestled with God for a long time. I wrestled with God. I told my wife, I was like, I don't want to get duped into some cultic thing. I was not a Christian. I had family that grew up Christian, and I had family members that were leaders in Christian churches, but I was smarter than them. And I wasn't going to get duped into some, you know, fairy tale. And I wrestled with God a long time before God finally broke me, and broken before the Lord, and said, Lord, your word is true. You know, let every man be a liar, but your word is true. And just started realigning my thinking, my worldview, to the Bible. What a change that is. What a change. And how anti-cultural that is. It's so against the ways of the world. And the Bible speaks to that, doesn't it? You have to believe his word. In John 11, beginning of verse 23, it says, Jesus said to her, and we read this this morning. That was a wonderful segue into what we're looking at. But Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Lazarus has died. The girls, the sisters are upset. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection. What a statement. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. And this is what I love about this conversation is Jesus doesn't let it end there. He says, do you believe this? And that's the qualifier right there. Larry, do you believe this? It comes down to us as individuals where the Lord calls upon us to know his word, to understand his word, and to believe his word. And she wonderfully said, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the son of God who has come into the world. She had faith. She had faith. So we must keep his word, Jesus says. John 8.51, our verse. In Matthew 27.54, that same word is used. I looked at every use of the word in the Greek for the word that's translated here, to keep his word. And many times, like we'll see in Matthew 27.54, it's used in this way. To give us a little understanding, what does he mean that we keep his word? So in Matthew 27.54, it says, so when the centurion and those with him, speaking of Jesus, who were guarding Jesus. The word we're guarding is the same word kept. And James Boyce writes, the whole idea is to keep Christ's word and obey it as carefully as one would guard a criminal entrusted to one's care. Right? The whole idea is to keep Christ's word and obey it as carefully as one would guard a criminal entrusted to one's care. This isn't work salvation. We want to walk in his ways and obey his word because he saved us, right? So works don't lead to salvation, but salvation do put us on the path of works. The Bible speaks to that all over the place. So the meaning of the promise. Those who keep my word, he promises, will never see death. Will men and women die physically? We know that's true. Hebrews 9.27, it's been appointed for men to die once, but after this, the judgment. It's an appointment. I always look at that verse and think, well, it's on my calendar somewhere. I don't know where that day is. Could be today. But the Lord has got it on his calendar. There will be a generation, the Bible says, that won't die physically. Right? Jesus will return. It could be us guys. Wouldn't that be wonderful? You know, all of a sudden the sky rolls back like a sardine can and here comes the angels and Jesus and we're changed in the twinkling of an eye. I mean, let me read you the verse. 1 Corinthians 15, Behold, I tell you a mystery, we shall not all sleep. That's a euphemism for death. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible. And we, he means we who remain alive when he comes, we shall be changed. We're going to be transformed. We're going to be glorified at that instant, within the twinkling of an eye, in an instant, we'll be changed. But spiritually, we have passed from death to life. I was once spiritually dead. And I can remember. I can remember. I remember I heard a brother one time say, it's like zombies. We're the walking dead. I was dead to the things of God. I was dead to God. I can't remember exactly me changing. My wife remembers because it scared her. But you know, conversion is radical. And it really flipped my wife out because she wasn't there yet. And things were very different with me. But I can remember when the word of God became alive to me. I can remember that distinctly. I used to read it. I didn't understand it. And I would pray over it. And there was a day when God opened my eyes to his word and I began to understand it. And I know now from reading the scripture that's because the Holy Ghost was empowering me to understand his word. It was a transformative change that had taken place. Ephesians 2.1, and you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. Romans 4.23, now it is not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us, it shall be imputed to us who believe in him, who raised up Jesus the Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and he was raised because of our justification. Again, Paul Kretzmann writes about that, the expiation. That's a theological term, it just means the removal, right? As far as the East is to the West, the removal of our sin, the expiation. So the expiation through Christ's suffering on the cross, the atonement, the atonement is Jesus vicarious, which means in our stead, and not for his own sin, but for our sin, vicarious. But through the sufferings on the cross, the atonement of death, has been sealed by the resurrection of Christ. For it is a declaration before all the world that the object of Christ's death has been gained, that God has accepted the reconciliation, that the victory of Jesus is a formal and solemn absolution which God has pronounced upon sinful mankind. paid in full, right? It is finished. When Jesus uttered those words, really in the original language, he paid it all, paid in full. And we know that payment was fully accepted and his vicarious atonement actually achieved salvation for those that have come to him by faith because he was risen from the grave. He was raised for our justification. So a couple of points when we say that we'll never really taste death. And Matthew Henry did a good job with this, and I want to quote a little bit. He makes the point that because of our salvation, because Jesus rose from the dead, because we're his, that the property of death has been altered. Death to the believer is not what it was before we came to faith. It's a different thing altogether. We look at it differently. It's been transformed by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who overcame the grave. So Matthew Henry writes, the property of death is so altered to them that they do not see it as death. They do not see the terror of death. It is quite taken off. Their sight does not terminate in death. as theirs does who live by sense. No, they look so clearly, so comfortably through death and beyond death and are so taken up with their state on the other side of death that they overlook death and see it not. And I think that's getting to the heart of what Jesus is promising here. We don't fear the grave, right? That old song from the 70s, don't fear the reaper. We don't fear it because we know it's a doorway to the other side. I hope it's an adventure. If God doesn't send Jesus back beforehand and I have to go through the entryway of death to go to my Lord, it's going to be quite the event. I remember when my mom was dying, we were in the hospital room, and she died like two days later. And she goes, I'm going to die. And my dad was like, we all die, honey. Real empathy there from pops. We're all going to die, honey. And that stuck with me. And he's right. If Jesus doesn't come, we're going to go through that doorway. But I think Matthew Henry's onto something there, that the property of death has been altered forever. Because we don't fear that it's the end. You die and that's it. No, we see it as a doorway to glory, to bliss, to all these things we're looking at in the book of Revelation, right? To be at the throne, to be at the marriage supper. I was reading Max Lakeda this week, The Angels Were Silent, which is a really good book. And he ends that book talking about the next step for us will be the marriage supper of the Lamb. And then the last thing he put in the book was, see you at the table. And I thought, what a great word that is. See you at the table. Maybe that can be the last thing you say to me as I take my last breath. Larry, I'll see you at the table. We'll be right behind you. So the property of death has been altered, the power of death has been broken. The Bible speaks to that. And Matthew Henry says, "...the power of death is so broken, that though there is no remedy, but they must see death, yet they shall not see death forever, shall not be always shut up under its arrest. The day will come when death shall be swallowed up in victory." And we'll look at that verse in a minute. How God accomplished this for us. How did he do that? Well, through the resurrection of our Lord. His death, burial, and resurrection. And from the angels we saw, and just a little quote from Max Lucado. He says, No angelic shield protected his back from the whip. No holy helmet shielded his brow from the thorny crown. God crawled neck deep into the mire of humanity, plunged into the darkest cave of death. and emerged alive. That's what our Lord did. That's why we celebrate Easter. That's why we call it Resurrection Sunday. Because all that He's accomplished in His death, burial, and in His resurrection, He conquered the grave. Romans 8.11, But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Right? the necessity of the resurrection. And I told you I was reading a little bit of the death of death and the death of Christ, John Owen's great work. And I told Karen, I said, I'll just start off. I just did a search. And I thought, well, I just want to see what he says about death itself. So I did a search for the word death. And it's like 683 uses of the word death in this book. So you get a feel for what the book's about. It's about Jesus conquering death for us, right? So in his book, he writes this. Speaking of Jesus, he says, his death without his resurrection would have profited nothing for us. All our faith in him would have been vain. And you think, well, how could you say that, John Owens? Well, because the Bible says it. And Paul, writing to the Corinthian church... Remember, the Corinthian church had a lot of problems. But one of the problems they had was people were going around talking about, there's no resurrection. I don't know who's teaching about this resurrection. It doesn't happen. And Paul has to bring a strong correction. He almost uses that entire chapter to deal with it. So 1 Corinthians 15, beginning in verse 12, Paul writes to the church, now, if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how does someone among you say that there's no resurrection of the dead? And now he's gonna go through all the consequences. He's basically saying, let's take your position. There's no resurrection from the dead. Let me just lay out logically for you what the implications of that is. And that's what he does. So he says, but if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found to be 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. And if Christ is not risen, 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're of all men the most pitiable. People should just take pity on us. We're preaching lies and distortions. Everybody you've ever known that said they were a Christian and died, they're gone. You'll never see them again. There's no other side to the grave at all. It's all over. Our faith's in vain. We're just lying witnesses. It's pitiable. People should just take pity on us. And you know, the unbelieving world has that attitude about Christians. Those poor Christians, they're so misguided. Read some of the writings of Bill Nye, the science guy, who thinks Christianity is stifling all the world's advancement because we believe in this fairy tale and we keep propagating it. Believers are the most pitiable. In 1 Corinthians 15.30, I told you we were going to look at that chapter a bit. Paul writes, "...and why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? I affirm by the boasting in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, that I die daily." Paul didn't have an easy life. If you read the book of Acts, he says, I die daily. If in the manner of men I have fought with the beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me if the dead do not rise?" And then he says, if that was true, he writes, then let us just eat and drink because tomorrow we die. And I appreciate the honesty of the apostle Paul there, because I agree. I would either be a Christian today or an existentialist, one or the other. And if you don't know what an existentialist is, it's basically that philosophy. Life makes no sense. We come from nothing. We go to nowhere. I just eat, drink, and in the end, maybe you can have control over one thing, and that's the way you die. And a lot of existentialists commit suicide, because there's no hope. There's no hope. But the certainty, I'll end with this, the certainty of the glorious resurrection. Paul goes through that entire list in 1 Corinthians 15, and then you get to that thunderous verse 20, where Paul says, but now Christ is risen from the dead, and he's become the first fruits of those who've fallen asleep. Not only is there a resurrection from the dead, but Christ is raised. And because Christ is raised, we don't have to fear death. We don't have to taste death. We look beyond death to the other side where He's taken us. Our Savior holds the keys, right? Going back to our Revelation study, Revelation 1.18, I am He who lives and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of Hades and death. Our Savior, Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead, who has the keys of death for us. He also is the judge of the universe, but he's our Savior, right? And in Acts 17.31, Paul ties that to the resurrection. He says, because he is appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead. He is the judge of the universe, but he bled and died for us, right? I was reading an article yesterday about the Apostles' Creed, and there's that controversial line in the Apostles' Creed that says, you know, he was Pontius Pilate, he was born of the Virgin Mary, and you go through the whole creed, and then, you know, he died, he was buried, and he descended into hell. And I always liked Calvin on that, because Calvin said, no, the hell he went through that he descended to was on that cross, when the sky was dark, and he endured eternal hell for all of us that put our faith in Christ. And then the article said, there is no hell left for us, because Jesus tasted hell, so to speak, on our behalf in his atonement. And I think there's truth in that. Our Savior is also the judge. Our risen Lord is returning for us. Is that good news? for they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. And that's where we are, beloved. We're waiting for that glorious day. He has a work for us to do while we wait. But death has no sting, the Bible says. The sting of death was sin. And Jesus dealt with our sin. There's no sting, right? The stinger is out of the bee. We have nothing to look forward to but His glorious appearance or our glorious home going, right? With that said, I found a little poem and I'll read it to you. I thought it was good. It's called The Last Call. And as we head out of here today and we think about people we want to share the gospel with and the good news of the resurrection, The Last Call says, Life at best is very brief, Like the falling of a leaf, Like the binding of a sheaf, Be in time. Fleeting days are telling fast that the die will soon be cast, and the fatal line will be passed, so be in time. Fairest flowers soon decay, youth and beauty pass away. Oh, you have not long to stay, so be in time. While God's Spirit bids you come, Sinner, do not longer roam, lest you seal your hopeless doom. Be in time. Amen. That was Charles Harrison Mason. And maybe to this day, as you celebrate your own Resurrection Sunday festivities with your family, your loved ones, remember the time when God called you and what that felt like when you thought, He's calling me personally, and you answered that call. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the empty tomb, Lord, and all that that means for us as believers. Lord, we need not fear the grave. Lord, you've broken death and the tomb for us, Lord, that we instantly go to be with you upon leaving this world. And Lord, you'll even raise up our bodies gloriously, as your word says. Thank you for that and all you've accomplished. In Jesus' name, amen. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Go in the peace of Christ Jesus to a world that desperately needs to hear the Easter story in truth. In Jesus' name.