So anyway, let's just bow for a word of prayer, and then we'll look into God's word this morning. Precious Father, we marvel that you sent your Son to redeem this fallen world. We are filled with wonder at the thought that the Lord Jesus Christ took on human flesh and willingly experienced crucifixion and death and burial. Father, we marvel even more that he rose from the dead And that the empty grave calls forth our adoring honor in worship. And we remember Him. And that resurrection is an emblem of assurance for us, and the most vivid earthly symbol of our hope. And we know beyond question that the Lord Jesus Christ rose bodily, because all four Gospel writers attest to this marvelous fact. Father, even the apostles and the hundreds of other eyewitnesses all faithfully proclaim the truth of the resurrection. Never was their testimony ever seriously challenged. Father, we thank you that history vindicates the resurrection and the church affirms it. And the powerful influence of the gospel proves it conclusively. And our heart's experience knows it well. For just as Christ was raised physically from the dead by your glory, we too were spiritually resurrected to walk in newness of life. And the life we now live in this flesh, in this body, we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us. Father, we thank you for this day. Christ's resurrection is the precious truth that we want to lift up. It's that resurrection that vindicates His atoning work for us. It's that resurrection that proves that you accepted His sacrifice on the cross in our behalf. That resurrection is the seal of your approval for all that the Lord Jesus did as He laid down His life for our sakes, and He was raised for our justification." Father, we just, again, pray for our church in these days. We pray that we might be able to have an impact in this community. We pray, Lord, that as our lives go forth from this place, that we might be able to show forth Christ, the living Christ, in our lives. Father, we just pray that as we go forth we might make a difference for the cause of Christ. Father, we just pray for some of those who are struggling and for those who are ministering. We commit them to You. We pray for some of our senior saints. Lord, we pray that You would draw them close to Yourself in these days. We pray, Lord, for those who have such as Diane and Ken and for Joan and Jim and Bob and for Pat David and some of these who are challenged physically and challenged by the encroachment of older age. Father, we ask, Lord, that they would begin to see you more and more, that as time goes by, Lord, may each of us be focused more and more on you. We pray, Lord, for Again, for our missionaries, we pray for Marty Zeid and for John Kaufman and Andy Ferrier. We pray for them as they minister with Midwest Messianic Center and their outreach to Jewish folks who need to hear the gospel. We pray for one of our sister churches up in Jacksonville, Illinois, the Jacksonville Bible Church today, and for Pastor Andrew Lafferty and for his ministry up there, even on this Lord's Day. We thank You, Lord, for this day. We give it over to You. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Take your Bibles and turn to John chapter 19, as we take a glimpse at the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the victor over death. The victor over... John chapter 19, beginning with verse 38. And I'm still trying to get there. In my newish Bible, the pages don't turn as quick. John 19, beginning with verse 38, reading through chapter 20, verse 10. Now after these things, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate granted permission, so he came and took away his body. And Nicodemus, who had first come to him by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred liters. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices as the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where He was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb which no one had yet been laid. Therefore, because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark. and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. And she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb, and the two were running together. And the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first. And stooping in and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came following him and entered the tomb, and he saw the linen wrappings lying there. and the face cloth, which had been on his head, not lined with the linen wrappings, but folded up in a place by itself. So the other disciple, who had first come to the tomb, then also entered, and he saw and believed. For as yet they had not understood, did not understand the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. And so the disciples went away, went away again to where they were staying. There's a guy by the name of Frank Morrison who was, I guess he was a British lawyer back in the 1920s and 30s, a respectable man, a man whose thinking had been shaped by people like biologist Thomas Huxley and others like that. Frank Morrison wanted to write a book to disprove the resurrection He ended up writing that book, published in 1930. The book of that, that book he wrote is entitled, Who Moved the Stone? In the preface of that book, Morrison wrote this. This book, as it was originally planned, was left high and dry, like those Thames barges in London, when the great river goes out to meet the incoming sea. This writer discovered one day that not only could he no longer write the book as he once conceived it, but that he would not if he could." Unquote. Morrison, instead of writing the book to disprove the resurrection, came to the place where he had to write a book that show that the resurrection was true. And so today we want to look at a passage that proclaims the resurrection of Christ. Jesus lived, He died, and He rose again. There is no other religious leader in the history of mankind that can make that statement, that Has there been any religious leader who has bodily come back from death? If there has been such a person, then follow him or her. But there has not. There has not. No religious leader has proven himself or herself as Jesus did. Only Jesus rose bodily from the grave. And so we want to look at a passage this morning. that proclaims that. And as we look at the beginning of this passage, we want to begin in verse 31, where we see the certainty of Christ's death in chapter 19, verses 31, and I started at verse 38 this morning. I should have started at 31. My bad. But back in verse 31, I'll read it. It says, then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might take him away. Jesus had died. In fact, verse 30 makes the statement, if you go back one verse to verse 30, therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. Teltelestai, one Greek word there, translated with those three English words, it is finished. One Greek word, teltelestai, meaning it is finished, it is complete. Again, it's in the perfect tense in the Greek, something that had a beginning and it has ongoing results. It's as though in verse 30 that Jesus literally willed his own death at a particular point in time. He willed it. I remember when I was about somewhere between 10 and 12, I went to my first funeral. In fact, in a very short period of time, not only did my great-grandfather die, but my uncle died at a very young age of 39. Perhaps you remember your first funeral that you attended as a youngster, if you had such an opportunity. I did, and I remember as a 10, 11, 12 year old, somewhere in there, it's all kind of fuzzy now, I can't really remember the date, but I remember going in both occasions, two funerals, very closely together, maybe six months apart, seeing an open casket and seeing a corpse and wondering, where did that person go? I had the intuitive sense as an 11-year-old to think that this can't be the end, because I had been raised in a church that taught Easter truth. It was a Lutheran church, and they proclaimed the resurrection of Christ. They didn't emphasize the gospel as clearly as they should have. But I had, even as a young mind, the belief that there's something more than this corpse that's lying horizontal in front of me. That person is somewhere else right now. Death is not extinction. Death is not sort of an extended coma. It's something else than that. Jesus, in verse 30, literally willed Himself to death. And I remind in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 21-23, this is a blessed Christian truth. Paul says this, so then let no one boast in men. We don't boast in men. We don't boast in certain authors or writers or preachers. For all things belong to you. As a Christian, we have been given so much. We have a heritage. These things have been given to us from God. All things, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life, and then he says, or death. What? Death is something that's given to a Christian? That sounds, how can that fit? But death is a blessing. For me to live is Christ, and to die is what? Gain. It's gain. So, whether Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. Jesus died. He died because he willed himself to death. He controlled his own dying. It was no surprise. Satan had tried to kill him on previous occasions. You remember that even at his birth, there was Herod who wanted to, who murdered all the babies, two years of age and younger. Then there was later on in Jesus' ministry, he goes into his hometown of Nazareth, and he said a few things that they didn't like, and they tried to throw him off a cliff. And there were other times when they tried to murder Jesus, but it was always before the appointed time. But when the time came, Jesus willingly and purposely gave up His own life. He is the master of death. He controls His own death. Back in verse 28, it says, after this Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, He came to the place where He knew everything was finished. And you can figure out about the time of His death. He was placed on the cross around nine in the morning, and He died around three in the afternoon. And it was important for him to be placed in the grave before six that night, because verse 31 says it was the Jewish day of preparation. Verse 31 says it was the day of preparation, the day before the Passover. And this particular Passover was a particularly high day, It's not like a normal Sabbath day. It's a high day. The Passover was a yearly event, and it was a special day, and Jesus had to be in the grave before Passover began, which would be at 6 p.m. So if he died at 3 p.m. in the afternoon, there's just three hours for him to be placed into his tomb, because after all, the Jews had a law. It goes all back to Deuteronomy chapter 21, if a man has committed sin worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day. For he who is hanged is accursed of God, so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance. that dead body has to be buried before the Sabbath. And it's just amazing to me that the Jews were aware of that, and their priority reeks with hypocrisy, because here are these Jews who did not want the dead body of their Messiah to hang on the cross so that they could obey their law. They crucified their Messiah, put him in the grave so that they could obey their law. There's something kind of wonky about that, something that reeks with hypocrisy. Their priority was simply to obey the law and to kill their Messiah. They literally killed the Son of God. Of course, it was all in the plan of God, of course. And so they purposed to do that. Back in verse 32, so in verse 31, go back to verse 31, they asked Pilate that their legs might be broken. Well, there was probably about a squad of four Roman soldiers there who were experts in death. Do you think a Roman soldier would recognize a dead person if he saw one? Yes. And it was typical for people who were crucified to be hanging there for two or three days before they actually died. It's such a horrible thing, because, you know, you have the spikes going through your wrists here, not through your hand. It would be going through your wrists about here and here, because that would hold you. It would tear through at this point. You have to put it in the wrist here. And they would put it into the arch of the foot. And a person who's being crucified, in order to breathe, he would have to press up on the little ledge that was placed there so he could get a breath. Literally, when you died from crucifixion, you died from asphyxiation. You couldn't breathe. And to get a breath, you have to lift up so that your lungs could be in a position to take in some air. And you would do that repeatedly with your back on a very coarse wooden cross. And if you'd already been beaten, as Jesus was, you're rubbing your lacerated back up and down on a coarse piece of wood over and over again just to get your next breath. Very, very abusive. soldiers would come, if they wanted to bring about death, they would come and break the legs of those who were crucified. But verse 33, by the way, when they would break those legs, they would bring something the equivalent of a sledgehammer. It would be a large, wooden, heavy mallet. They would sling against the leg of the crucified one and break his legs like a heavy mallet, like a sledgehammer. When they came to Jesus, He was already dead. Surprising. Because usually, again, people lasted for two or three days on the cross. Jesus was already, He willed Himself to death at the proper time. He has to be in the grave by 6 p.m. in order to get three days and three nights that he was to be in the grave. So verse 33, when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, and they did not break his legs. Other verses. Speaking of Christ, they shall leave none of it until morning, nor break a bone of it, according to the statute of the Passover. That's regarding the Passover lamb. Passover lamb could not have any broken limbs in it. Psalm 34 says He keeps all of His bones. Not one of them is broken. When Jesus died, not one of His bones were to be broken. If He had broken bones at the time of His death, that would have invalidated the prophecies that were made regarding Him. Jesus controlled His death. He controlled what would happen. Every part of this, every detail of it, was fulfilled. And so the Roman soldier says he's already dead. Verse 34, so in order to prove that, one of the soldiers, verse 34, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. Again, it's interesting that when Jesus died, Romans, or excuse me, Psalm 69, verse 20 says, reproach has broken my heart. Some have suggested that Christ died of a broken heart, based upon that verse. His grave was assigned with the wicked men. As we are gonna see in a minute, he's going to be, typically, the Romans would take the crucified bodies and throw them all into a common grave. But Jesus, as we're going to see, was given a particular place where a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, gives up his tomb, his rich man's tomb, to lay the body of Jesus. And so, verse 34, they pierced his side. They secure the fact that he was dead. Zechariah 12, verse 10 says that one day they will look upon him whom they pierced. Remember that verse, Zechariah 12, verse 10? That the Jews one day when they receive Jesus, they will look on him whom they pierced. Particularly that Roman soldier pierced him, but they, the Jews, did it by virtue of guaranteeing that he was placed there on the cross. Verse 35 goes on to say, And he who has seen has borne witness, and his witness is true. And he knows that he is telling the truth so that you may believe. This is not heresy. This is truth. Jesus controlled every aspect of his death. No broken bones. He was pierced through his side. Even those things that took place after his death, he guaranteed, he made sure that they were fulfilled. There were these physical evidences of his death. But you march on here. Beginning with verse 38 through 40, Jesus here continues to exhibit His power over death. It says there in verse 38, as we read, Joseph of Arimathea being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly had, because of his fear of the Jews, Joseph of Arimathea was kind of a coward. But now all of a sudden, this coward who had a fear of the Jews, he goes to the most important, powerful man in all of Judea. He goes to Pontius Pilate and requests the body of Jesus. What could turn this cowardly man, and I'm not begrudging him, I would feel the same way. But he goes to Pilate in an act of sheer courage to request the body of Jesus. What would make him want to do that? Well, his love for Christ, his desire to please Him. Certainly there was a moving of his heart. to fulfill Scripture so that Jesus would be able to use his tomb. Jesus moved in the heart, the Spirit of God moved in the heart of Joseph of Arimathea to cause him to go to Pilate so that Joseph could get the body of Jesus and place it in the tomb so that Scripture might be fulfilled. Jesus is moving and ruling over the hearts of people, whether you see it or not. And so he's placed in the tomb. Verse 38, Pilate granted it. Verse 39, you see Nicodemus there. Remember Nicodemus back in John chapter three, who came to Jesus by night? Nicodemus was kind of a coward, too, to be seen with Jesus. And now he, along with Joseph of Arimathea, are taking the dead corpse of Christ and putting it in the tomb. Again, what moved Nicodemus to do that? Well, it was the Spirit of God. Nicodemus was a changed man. In verse 40, they took the body of Jesus, bound it in linen and wrappings with spices as the burial custom of the Jews. The Jews did not embalm bodies, by the way. We embalm bodies. It sounds like it's kind of a gross thought. They're gonna take all your innards out, and they're gonna pump all kinds of fluid on the inside of you. We embalm bodies in order to preserve the body, at least for a little while. The Jews never do that. They would make sure that the body was in the grave very quickly, but they would have all these wrappings, and all these spices, and this nice, sweetly smelling material that they would wrap in with the corpse. And it would be quite weighty. There would be a lot of extra weight between the wrappings and all the spices. It would add a significant amount of weight to this corpse. Well, they would do that, and they would throw in the spices, wrap one time around, throw in some more spices, so it's kind of like when you're making, I don't know, ladies make cinnamon bread. You've got this dough, and you've got the cinnamon and whatever you put in there, and you wrap it, and you keep doing this, and you add layers, and you alternate between the... see, I'm showing my ignorance of the process, but it's when you're making some kind of cinnamon bread or some kind of bread like that, you have the different layers in there. that you're building. And that's how they did this here, all with the point of preparing his body, because they loved him. Then it's interesting, back in Matthew chapter 20, verse 40, Jesus told them He says, just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And the way the Jews counted time, any part of a day was considered a full day. So he goes in Friday night before six o'clock, so he's in the grave Friday night, Saturday, and he comes out Sunday, three days. Now, I always had a little bit of a mental leap about that, but see, then I realized I was told the Jews count any part of a day as a full day, and sometimes we do that. If I say I'm gonna go somewhere, and I'm gonna be gone for three days, if I go today, and the next couple days, we might say I'm gone three days. It just depends on how you count. Well, they would count any part of a day as a full day. So Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, there's your three days. He was three days in the grave, Matthew 12, verse 40. And so, verse 39. They're preparing the body. Verse 40, they took Jesus and wrapped it. Verse 41, they placed the crucified body in the garden. There's the tomb where no one had been laid. Verse 41. Verse 42, therefore, because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. The certainty of Christ's death. There was no doubt about the death of Christ. This takes us really quickly to the silence of Christ in the tomb, verses 41 and 42, which I've already read. Just one quick note here. He has to be in, as I said, before 6 p.m., before sundown, for Friday to count as part of those three days. So they're working overtime. He dies at 3 in the afternoon. He's in the grave before 6 p.m. at night. and there's silence. He's there in the tomb of a rich man. Now I'm going to proceed to the third point here, because this is where we want to get to the glorious end of this particular idea. We find Christ's separation from the grave, Christ's glorious separation. Here's the climax to it all. And again, we're gonna see how Jesus controls every detail of His dying, and every detail of His burial, and every detail of His resurrection. Christ is there via the Spirit of God to make sure every detail is fulfilled as it should be. You remember back in the Old Testament, back in Psalm 16, David wrote a thousand years. David wrote this a thousand years before Christ. David wrote, therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices. My flesh also will dwell securely. For you, this is a messianic psalm, you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will you allow your Holy One to undergo decay. you will make known to me the path of life. In your presence the fullness of joy, in your right hand there are pleasures forevermore." Psalm 16 is the prophecy, one place in the Old Testament. There are other places that speak of the resurrection very, very explicitly. You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, neither will you allow your Holy One to undergo decay." Death is followed by resurrection. Even the Old Testament proclaims that. So we come back to our text, chapter 20, verse 1, and it says there, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. She's shocked. She came back to perhaps complete some of the process of his burial that was not complete. They had to perhaps hurry a little quickly to get him in before the Passover at six. So there was perhaps some unfinished work to do. She came back early while it was still dark to perhaps – but she couldn't do that on the Passover day, so she comes the next day on Sunday, the next day after the Passover. The stone is gone. We learned what happened back in Matthew chapter 27, verse 66. And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard, they set a seal on the stone. And it goes on, it talks about while the grave was secure, it says in chapter 28 of Matthew, which I forgot to put up here, that there was a severe earthquake that occurred. A severe earthquake. And the stone was rolled away. Matthew 28, verse two. And so, the tomb was empty. Verse two goes on to say, so she ran, she came to Simon Peter, she's gonna go talk to the men, and the other disciple, that would be John, by the way, every time the text says the other disciple, it's John, the apostle John, he never uses his name. He never refers to himself as John, he just calls himself the other disciple, or the disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him. So, verse 3, Peter and the other disciples went forth, and as they were going to the tomb, the two were running together, and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter. He had to get that little dig into Peter. Peter was kind of a slowpoke. John was a faster runner than Peter. We do know that now about them, that John was much faster than Peter. but we're going to learn something more about Peter here. And they were running together, verse 4, and the other disciple ran ahead faster, and he came to the tomb first, verse 5, and stooping in, he saw, that is, John saw the Linen Rapids line there, and he did not go in. He did not go in. He was cautious. He was a little bit pensive, a little bit curious, and he wasn't gonna go gangbusters into this place where Jesus was laid. Verse six, and to Simon Peter also, came following him and entered the tomb. Peter says, get out of the way, John, I'm going in. I'm checking this out. Kind of like a detective. He came in, verse six. He entered the tomb, and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face cloth which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but folded up in a place by itself, kind of nice and neatly laid there. By the way, if the body of Jesus was stolen, as some people propose today, first of all, you wouldn't take the time to take the wrappings off. A thief is in a hurry. He wants to get in and get out. If Jesus' body was stolen, as so many people want to think, why did they leave the linen wrappings? And why were the linen wrappings so nicely laid out? So kind of head napkin there, separate from the rest of it. They're not just kind of, you know, men, sometimes when you take your clothes off, you just throw them in the corner and have the maid pick up your dirty underwear. Okay, no, no, no, no, this is nice and neatly laid out. A person who's stealing the body of Jesus doesn't do that, no. And so, you find in verse, moving on to verse seven, verse eight rather, so the other disciple who had first come to the tomb, that would be John, John, Tells us that again, that he was the first one there, and also entered, and he saw, and he believed. He was told, they all were told, on four, five, six different occasions during the ministry of Christ, Jesus told His disciples over and over again that He was going to die, and He was going to be placed in the hands of the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees. They were going to kill Him, and He was going to rise again. He said that several times, and all of a sudden, this is beginning to click, finally, in the mind of John. He believed. It all began to come together right here. He believed in the resurrection of Christ at this particular moment, verse eight. What a text. Verse nine, for as yet, they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead, but John, up until that point, So the disciples went away again where they were staying. So you see here, you see the shed grave closed, you see the tomb is empty, you see all of these proofs. Jesus controlled the very moment of his death, he controlled the details after his death, even up to his resurrection. I say all this to remind us, in conclusion, Remember, Jesus said back in John chapter 2, it was early in his ministry. In John chapter 2, Jesus is standing around the temple with his disciples. He's teaching them. And the Pharisees and the religious leaders are there, and Jesus said to them, because even then they were beginning to plot against Jesus. In John chapter 2, Jesus says, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Well, the Jews, that would be the religious leaders, the religious elites, said to Jesus, it took us 46 years to build this temple and you're gonna raise it up in three days? Guys aren't quite getting it here. There's a disconnect somewhere. But he was speaking of the temple of his body. And so when he was raised from the dead, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. Then over in John chapter 11, after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus said to, I believe it was Martha, as she was grieving, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life, and he who believes in me will live even if he dies. For us as Christians, the resurrection, the bodily resurrection of Christ ought to be something that affects everything. I have this hope, not only for the future, but also for the present, that Jesus is changing me. He is making me more like Christ, and then one day I will be totally glorified as Christ was glorified. And you and I do not have to fear death. When we see that corpse laid out at a funeral, If they do an open casket, I think people aren't doing that as much anymore, but when you see that corpse, you can know where that person is going if they were a follower of Christ. Now, technically, in closing, everybody gets resurrected. Everybody, whether they're believers or not, everybody gets a resurrected body suited for the place to which they are going. To those who are saved, they get a resurrected body that's glorified, suited for our next life with the Lord in the new heavens and the new earth, as described in 2 Peter 3. For those who are outside of Christ, they get a body that will be suited for the eternal punishment, which they will bear for forever and ever. And the question this morning is, as you're sitting here, Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? There are perhaps somebody here today who does not know Christ as their Savior. There are perhaps people here who think they know Christ as their Savior, but they don't. Jesus talks about people who will think that they're saved, and they're not. For instance, in Matthew chapter 7, Jesus says, many will say to Me, Lord, Lord, look at all the good things we have done in Your name, Matthew 7, verses 21 and 22. And Jesus will say to them, depart from Me, I never knew you, but I thought I knew you. I thought I was one of yours. Shock of shock, I'm not one of yours. And off to the eternal punishment that you go. They're going to be people who are good people who will not go to heaven. Good people don't make it to heaven, by the way. Only perfect people go. You say, well, that's impossible. Exactly. That's why I need a Savior. That's why you need a Savior. Good people don't go to heaven. Good people go to a Christless eternity. You have to be perfect. Jesus says, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will in no wise enter the kingdom of God. Good people do not go to heaven. Only perfect people go to heaven. That's why we need a savior. There's gonna be lots of good people who think they're saved and they're not. That's one of the most shocking verses in all the Bible. Matthew chapter seven, verses 21 and 22 are the people who think they're saved and they are not. You need to read that and think about that and consider your own relationship with Christ. If I were to die today, do I know that I'm going to heaven? Do I know I'm going to spend eternity with him? We serve a risen Savior. Let's just bow for a quick word of prayer as the team comes forward for our final song. Father, we just thank you this morning. for the joy of being together and reminding ourselves of the great reality of life and death. is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Oh, what a glorious event that was, and how we look forward to our resurrection with you, how clearly Jesus demonstrated His deity, controlling His dying, controlling the details of His burial and His resurrection, how clearly He did fulfill the prophecies, how clearly He did prove to us that He conquers death, and because He lives, we live also. Whoever believes in Him shall never, never die. Oh, Father, I pray for all that are here this morning, that all of us here would truly enter into Your glory one day and know that by experience. We just commend the rest of this day for Your glory. We ask these things in Jesus' name.