We're going to take a break from Luke and we're going to look at the resurrection, obviously. I'm going to look at a number of passages I was trying to figure out which passage I should preach on. I was praying about it. I was looking at Matthew 28, but then I got to thinking that there is so much that the resurrection speaks to and how it pertains to our life. I thought I would just do something different and just kind of approach this as more of a topical type sermon. We're going to go through different things in Scripture to demonstrate why the resurrection matters in our life. I'm going to go to a number of places I don't expect you to follow along as far as flipping to that page in the Bible and every single passage I'm going to look at. But when there are some that I want you to really look at, I'll let you know. But if you want to follow along, you can do that. Why the resurrection matters is what I've entitled this sermon. It does matter. Because if Christ has not been raised, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians, we're still in our sins. We have no hope. What we're doing here does not matter. We ought to be laughed at and we ought to go home and know our yard and do something like that. If Christ has not been raised. And I think that so many times we walk around in the Christian life, and I was thinking about this in terms of my own life this week as I was preparing for this sermon, of how so many times we can live defeated lives even as Christians. I mean, not walking in sin and things like that, but just feel down in the dumps and feel like we're no good, and we're not acceptable before God, and we just feel guilty and all of the rest. But when you start thinking about the resurrection and what Christ has done for you, then it changes everything. The resurrection is a game changer. Had Christ just went to the cross and died, that would have been good, but it would not have been enough. He had to be raised from the grave in order to give us life and to bring so many of these things that we're going to talk about this morning to our lives. Let's begin looking at a couple of things, and then we'll launch off into how the resurrection impacts our life and how it matters to our life. First of all, we know that the resurrection confirms Scripture. If we don't have a confirmation that this is the Word of God, then what happens is that if we don't believe the Word of God to be the Word of God, we're going to have doubts and everything else about God's Word and we will not stand sure on what God's Word says. But God's Word is true. The resurrection is one of those things that points to the fact that it is true and this is the Word of God. For example, If you go back to the Old Testament, you will find that prior to Jesus coming to this world and dying and rising again, you will find in the Old Testament there are many passages that reference the fact that Jesus, the Messiah, would come, and He wouldn't just come, but He would be raised from the grave. Let me give you just a couple. In Psalm 16, which is a messianic psalm, they're David, and we know it's a messianic psalm, and it's about Christ, because in the book of Acts, the apostles reference this passage, and they talk about how it is in reference to Christ. But Psalm 16, 10 through 11, At the end of that Messianic Psalm, it predicted what would happen in the life of Jesus. It says this, Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices, as though Christ was speaking about Himself. My flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, for you let your Holy One see corruption. In other words, the Holy One would not be left in the realm of the dead, nor would He suffer corruption. How so? His flesh, it would dwell secure, because it would be raised from from the grave. Another passage that is very pertinent to this discussion of the resurrection is Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53, we could read all of that, I'm not going to read the entire chapter. But verse 12, there God spoke to the prophet Isaiah and he said this, because he, speaking of Christ, and this is many years before Christ had even come to this world, it says he poured out his soul to death. and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sins of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. Did you catch that? He poured out his soul to death. He died. But not only that, but he lives to make intercession for the transgressors. If he died, how is it that he lives to make intercession for the transgressors? Well, we know, based upon the scriptures, that he rose from the grave. That's the only way. And Hebrews 7.25 alludes to this passage and puts it that way. It says, consequently he is able to save to the uttermost those who would draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. So that's two places in the scriptures that alluded to and spoke of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we fast forward to the New Testament. We have the Gospels. And the Gospels were recording what happened and what was said before Jesus even died and went to the cross. And in Mark 8.31 we read this about Jesus. For example, Jesus, when He was in Caesarea Philippi, when He was with His disciples prior to His death and resurrection, in Mark 8.31 Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be and be rejected by the elders, and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed. And after three days, he would rise again. Well, that time came, and he was crucified, just as the Bible had predicted. And not only that, he was raised from the grave. Many eyewitnesses saw that. In fact, when he was raised, We know that there were others who came up out of the tombs, many of the saints of the Old Testament, and they went into Jerusalem. And imagine that, though, the Scripture doesn't give us much information on that. But there was much testimony to the fact that Christ had been raised from the grave. Paul tells us, for example, in 1 Corinthians 15, that 500 eyewitnesses that he could refer the Corinthians out to, saw the resurrected Christ. And that's interesting because when Paul writes Corinthians, it's several years after the resurrection, and he's telling them Christ has been raised, and if you want to go see, or want some information on it, just go to these 500 that saw Christ who had been raised. Not only that, there were the apostles that saw Christ raised from the grave, and the Paul who wrote 1 Corinthians 15, that wonderful chapter on the resurrection, he was the one trying to convince the Corinthians that Christ had been raised. Why? Because he had seen the resurrected Christ. And that is a great argument that that this is true, because Paul was a hater of the Christians, he didn't want any part of the way, and so God reveals himself to Paul on the Damascus road, Christ himself, he saw the resurrected Christ, and here you have the changed life of an apostle who was ready to kill Christians, who now is on their side, a Christian himself, and he's testifying to the resurrection. Why would he have done that had he not truly seen the resurrected Christ? Then you also have the testimony of the apostles. When Christ died, they all scattered. When he went to the cross, they scattered. Peter denied him three times. But then we go on and we come to the book of Acts, and we see Christ being ascended to the right hand of the Father after He's been raised, and the disciples are never the same after the resurrection. You can just see that as you read. They were cowering, they were running, they were hiding, and then in the book of Acts, we see after the resurrection, they're bold. They say we ought to obey God rather than men. They go out and they preach the gospel and all of that. And skeptics might say, well, there's people all the time that go out for a cause that's not true. Well, that's true. But if they knew it was a lie and they knew that Christ died, they're not going to all of a sudden just be, they're not going to have such boldness. Nobody goes and dies knowing that it's a lie. They went out in boldness because they knew it was the truth that Christ had been raised from the grave, just as the Bible had predicted. And so, that's why the Apostle Paul, because of all of the truth surrounding the resurrection and what the Bible said, he could say to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15, 3-5, for I deliver to you of As a person first of what I also receive that is that is Paul is saying listen Corinthians I know you're I know you're skeptical of these things But don't you but don't you remember when I came when I came into that city as a missionary when none of you were saved I didn't know who was going to be saved I came into that city, and all I saw was pagans, and what did I do? I delivered to you a message of first importance. Paul went into that city, and this was the message he preached when there were no Christians there, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. So what Paul was saying to the Corinthians was this, When I came to Corinth and I preached to you that Christ had died for your sins, I could do that because it was in accordance with the Scriptures. And not only that, Paul was an eyewitness. He knew that Christ had been raised. But he had the Word of God to stand upon, that these things were true and they were based upon the Bible. It has its eyewitness accounts, people who have their lives changed and everything else, but we have the Bible that confirms it, and that's enough. We don't need Lazarus. After he died, he told Father Abraham, Send him in to the other guy that died, the poor man. Send him in to show my brothers not to come to this place. And what was the response of Abraham? He has the Word of God. They have the Law and the Prophets, that's enough. They don't need somebody to rise from the grave and go to their door and say, The resurrection is real, Christ's way is right. We have the Word of God to stand on. The Bible is true. It is not to be questioned because it is the Word of God. And you can question it all you want, but it will lead you to the truth if you're honest. It is the Word of God. Now the second thing that we find in Scripture, is that not only is the Bible true, and not only does it speak for itself, but the resurrection proves that Christ truly is the Son of God. In Romans chapter 1, Paul, when he's writing to the Romans, he speaks of the Gospel, and he makes reference to it there in chapter 1. As he addresses the Romans, he says this, that he was set apart from the gospel, which was basically promised beforehand through the prophets and the holy scriptures. And the gospel, verse 3, was concerning his son, who was a descendant from David, according to the flesh. And was declared to be the Son of God. How do we know that He was the Son of God? He was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ our Lord. How do we know that He is the Son of God? Well, no man has been raised like Christ. All other men have died. The ones that we do see that have been raised, like in the New Testament, we see the We see them, they die again, but Jesus was raised to live forevermore. He was the Son of God. We saw that in His baptism, when He came up out of the water, we heard the voice saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. So we see God's pleasure in Christ there, and we see them confirming He's the Son of God. And then at the end of his life, when he is raised from the grave, he is declared to be the Son of God, in power, according to the Spirit of holiness. And so, that is important, because as he was raised from the grave and it testified that he is the Son of God, That was a declaration not only that he was the Son of God, but this is the one who has come from the Father, from heaven itself, and we ought to listen to him and bow down and worship him as the Son of God. Why? Because he is qualified to save sinners like you and me, to give us hope in this dark world. We have those two things to stand upon. The Word of God that testifies to the Resurrection and the fact that the Resurrection proves that He is the Son of God and He is mighty to save. But how does the Resurrection impact our life? Well, let's look at a few things together of how the Resurrection impacts our life. The resurrection, first of all, it gives us hope in a fallen world that we live in. We live in a fallen world that is filled with all kinds of trouble. Ever since the time that Adam reached out and grabbed that fruit and ate and broke God's commandments, we have all been plunged from that point forward into, we're all under a curse, including everyone who has ever lived. And who will live that may be born? We're all under the curse. We all live in a world that is sin-filled. We live in a place that has been plunged into ruin and misery. We live in a place that is filled with sin and sickness and disease and despondency and despair and hardship and tragedies and difficulties and all of the rest. including death. Every single person is going to die. We live in a very hostile environment. Now, we can have our days where things seem good, and the sun is up, and the birds are chirping, and we got our bills paid, and life is good. But sooner or later, every single one of us is going to come under some type of sickness. hear of bad news or something, but we live in a world that has all kinds of problems. Job was one man who knew problems intimately and knew them well. Job 14.1, that is why Job said, Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. You may have the sunshine come up on you, and the birds may chirp here and there, but your days are very few. My days are very few. If God gives us the strength, we might live to be a hundred. We might live to be very, very, very few people. Probably less than one percent live over a hundred. Maybe a hundred and four or something like that. That is a rare thing. But most people will never even make it to 80. Many people won't make it to 50. Many people that I have known did not even make it past 18 years old when I was growing up. But despite the fact that They may not live to be that long or that old. Everyone is going to face them. Everyone has problems. Everybody has trials and difficulties in our life. And speaking of Joe, going back to his life, he was a righteous man. And he experienced all kinds of sorrow. In one day, he had ten children who died. Ten children that he loved dearly were lost in the same day. They died in the same day. Same day he gets news that his servants were killed. Those who worked for him. He lost his wealth. He was a wealthy man and lost it all in one day. Then shortly thereafter we find that He came down with boils all over his skin, and he was so miserable that he cursed the day that he was born. He wished that he would not even have been born, so he would not have had to face those troubles and those trials. But that was Job's lot, and you may not ever experience difficulties to that degree. But I guarantee you every one of you in here, including myself, will have things that will come up in our life that will be difficult. And maybe it's for the most part your life is pretty good. You will face death. The death rate is still one per person. Why? Because we live in a sin-cursed world that's been subjugated. and corruption, and life is full of troubles and difficulties, but no matter how hard life gets, even for the believers, we know that we have hope. And the only hope that we have is the Lord Jesus Christ and the resurrection of Christ. And the resurrection of Christ is our only hope, and it's our only hope of ever escaping this corruption. That's why Peter, when speaking to those exiles, Christians who were scattered abroad, undergoing persecution and everything else, when he wrote to those Christians, he said this, Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to what? A living hope. through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In other words, despite those light momentary afflictions as Paul calls them in 2 Corinthians, despite all of those trials and suffering and the pain they were going through, and having lost so much, there was hope, and the hope was found in the Lord Jesus Christ that He had been raised from the grave. Listen, listen. There is nothing in this world that you can cling to that will provide you with hope, except Christ. You can cling to your wealth, you can cling to a good job, you can cling to your family, you can cling to your friends, and all of those things, but they are quickly fading away. And there will come a day when you will die. And the only hope that you will have beyond the grave, and even in this life, is the Lord Jesus Christ. So Christ gives us hope, not just now, but for eternity. We also see that the hope of the resurrection Because Christ has been raised, it ensures that we can be born again. It ensures our regeneration. Going back to that passage in 1 Peter 1 and verses 3, he says that we are born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The resurrection, because Christ has been raised, We can be born again. We can be made anew. We were all in Adam. We were all cursed by Adam's sin. We have all sinned ourselves. Death is sure. All of those things. We're spiritually dead, but in Christ we can receive a new birth. In Christ we can be born again. We can have our heart reborn. We can have a new heart. A heart that has new desires. A new relationship towards sin. The sin that we once loved we now hate. All of that is because of the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done. Where the first man Adam brought sin and death, Jesus brought about life through the resurrection from the dead. Romans 5.17. who receive the abundance of grace and free gift of righteousness, reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. How is that so? Romans 6, 4. Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, that we too might walk in the newness of life. So just as in Adam, all were dead, all were spiritually dead and would die physically, in Christ those who are united to Him by faith were raised up with Christ from the dead. Not only physically in the future, but now spiritually because of what Christ did. Christ has done. So it ensures our regeneration that we can be born again. And why is that so important? Well, we know that if we're not born again, we'll never see the Kingdom of God. That's what John 3 says when Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus. Unless you're born again, you You cannot enter the kingdom of God. So it ensures our regeneration or that we are born again. But here's another thing that the resurrection does. The resurrection ensures that we can be justified before God. And this is very, very important. Because if we were not right before God, and we're not right before God apart from Christ, we are all guilty because of our sin. We are all guilty because we're in Adam. We have broken God's law, we've violated His commandments, a God who is holy, we have transgressed the law, we have done all kinds of evil things, and we're going to have to give an account for God. for our sins to God on judgment day. And the judge of all the earth who does what is right, he will judge rightly. He's not a bad judge like the ones that we have today who are unjust, but he's just and he's good, therefore he will execute the right sentence for the crime that has been committed. And all of us have broken the law of God, and we are guilty before God. Thankfully, Jesus has come, and because of his resurrection, he ensures that we can be justified before God. In Romans 3, 9-10, Paul says he gives a charge, he demonstrates where we all stand with the Lord. apart from Christ. He says, what then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. They thought they were okay because they were biological descendants from Abraham. But he says, for we have already charged that all, both Jew and Greek, are under sin, as it is written, none is righteous, no, not one. And he goes in this lengthy argument in Romans 3 and he shows how no one will be justified by the works of the law. No one can come to God by working their way because none is good, none is righteous, none seek after God. We're all sinners. We are vile and wicked sinners. But when Christ came into this world, He came and He lived the perfect life in our place. He died on the cross, the sinless Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world. And God the Father demonstrated that the work of Christ on the cross satisfied His wrath, and He approved of the work of Christ that He had done for sinners. And his declaration of approval was demonstrated by the fact that he raised Christ from the dead. As the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 2.8, because he, that is Christ, humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even to death on a cross, God has highly exalted him, that is raised him up. Therefore Paul could say of Jesus in Romans 4.25 that he was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Again, what does justification mean? It is God declaring to the sinner that you are no longer guilty. It's God declaring to the sinner that you have no guilt. Your sins have been forgiven and you are declared righteous before God. Now when Paul says in Romans 4.25 that he was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification, if we were to go back to that chapter, he has made a point by pointing us back to Abraham. Abraham was a sinful man. He came from a pagan land, God pulled him out of that, and God gave him promises that were found in Christ, and he believed, and he was declared righteous. So how is it that you and I, being guilty of sin, are made right with God? Well, it's not by works lest any man boast. It's not by going out and doing good things, because that would again be worse. We're not saved by works. The only way to be made right with God is not trying harder. It's not even trying to get rid of sin. We ought to repent, and we are to repent, as the Bible says. But how are we made right with God? How do we come to God on that day and stand faultless before His throne? How are we able to do that? It is because of the righteousness of Christ. Remember what the Bible says? He who knew no sin became sin that as He took on our sin became sin that we might become the righteousness of God. In Romans 3-4, Paul has made the declaration that no one is righteous by the works of the law. But now the righteousness of God has been made manifest, apart from the law, all the prophets bear witness to it. And where does this righteousness come from that comes from without? This foreign righteousness that we don't have? God has brought it, He's manifested it, and it's come through Jesus Christ. And we receive it by faith. All who believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, there's no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. If you trust in Christ, the finished work of Christ on the cross, you will be forgiven. For years, I struggled with doubting my salvation. And I remember when I was in seminary, I struggled up to that point with doubting my salvation. And one day I was reading Romans 3 and Romans 4, what Paul was saying about this righteousness. And in chapter 4, Paul points to Abraham, and he says, Abraham, he didn't work to our salvation or this righteousness, he simply believed. And I was reading this one day in my apartment, at Sarah and I's apartment, and in verse 20 it says, of Abraham. No one believed him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. And it says, that is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness. And I read that and I thought about that. That's quoting what took place in Genesis 15-6. Abraham went out, looked at the stars in the sky, God said, this is how many your descendants are going to be. And he believed, and God declared him righteous, not guilty. He imputed the righteousness of Christ to his account. It became his. And therefore, because he believed in Christ, because of the work of Christ, he was saved from his sins. The guilt, the burden rolled away. But as I was reading that passage, it went on to say this. But the words, it was counted to him. Now listen how good this is. It was counted to him. Well that's good for Abraham. But they were not written for his sake alone. But also, But for ours also, it will be counted to us who believe in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord. Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. And those who believe by faith, not works, but faith, they will hear the same words that Abraham heard that night. There in that eastern world, as Eden looked up in the sky and simply believed, he was counted righteous. Those words were not just for him, but for all who would believe on him who raised Christ from the dead. And when I heard those words and I read that, it was like the burden rolled away. It was like there was no fear of death, there was no guilt, condemnation. All of that was gone because I understood before that Christ alone saves. I believe I was saved. But the thing that I'd grown in my understanding of is justification by faith alone. By faith alone, not by reading our Bible, not by going to church, not by doing all of these things. We should do those things, but it's by faith alone in Christ that we are saved. And so we can be saved, we can receive the righteousness of Christ because he was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. So we can be justified because of the Resurrection. The other thing that we find in Scripture is that the hope of the Resurrection provides us with victory over sin. If you have your Bibles, turn to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. And this is so, so important for the victorious Christian life. In Romans 5, Paul talks about Adam as being our representative, our head, if you will. And in Adam, all die and all sin. But in Christ, we see that life has come. And in Romans chapter 6 and verse 8, we won't read this whole chapter, but I encourage you to go back and read it. In Romans chapter 6 and verse 8 it says this. Now if we have died with Christ, that is died to our old way of life, died doing things the way we want to do them, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. And death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. What Paul is doing here is he's saying, look, this is what Christ has done. He died. And what did he do when he died? He took on our sin. And then when he was raised, he defeated the power of sin, which is temptation, all of those things. He defeated the power of sin, and he defeated the consequence of sin. The soul that sins shall surely die, the Bible says. So death came as a result of sin, and Jesus in His resurrection defeated both. The power of sin and death itself. And so, those who are in Adam, who have now become in Christ because of their faith being united to Him by faith, now we, Paul says, must consider ourselves just dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. In other words, what was true of Adam was true of us, right? Adam sinned, we sinned, he's going to die, we're going to die, because we're united to him. But when we unite ourselves to Christ by faith, what is true of Christ becomes true of us. We've been raised, we've died to sin, and we're going to be raised one day physically. But look right now how it affects us. We have died to sin. We don't have to go on living defeated lives as Christians, when it comes to sin and everything else. We may look at our sinful selves and we think, I have no strength to live the victorious Christian life. I'm not where I should be in my sanctification. I'm weak, I'm discouraged, and on and on we go about ourselves, and poor pitiful me, and look at where I'm at. And we live defeated Christian lives. And then all the while, there we are rich in Christ. Why? Because He's been raised from the grave, and what is true of Him is true of us. He died to sin, and so we also are dead to sin. We don't have to go around living defeated and weak lives as Christians. But I think that's exactly what happens a lot of times because we don't understand the riches that are ours in Christ Jesus. I think that's why the Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 1 When he writes to these Gentiles who have come out of a pagan background, and if you will go to Ephesians chapter 1 verse 15, Paul writes to the Ephesians and they're thinking they're less than the Jews because the Jews, after all, they were God's chosen people. They were people that God had set His favor upon. To them belonged the covenants and the adoption and Christ and the promises and all of that. Here we are, Johnny-come-late Gentiles, and we're just second-rate citizens. But Paul says, no, that's not right. You're just in the same position as every Jew that has believed in Christ. for the Jews that have believed, they're yours too. And look what he says in Ephesians 1, verse 15. He says, for this reason, for what reason? Because of all that he lays out in chapter 1, verses 1-14, all that Christ has accomplished for them. He says, for this reason, because I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and your love towards all the saints. They loved Jesus. They just didn't know all that was theirs in Christ. He said, I did not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which you have been called." Listen to what he's praying for them. He wants them to know, with their eyes of their hearts enlightened, he wants them to know the hope to which they have been called. Because obviously they didn't know to the extent of that hope of what it truly entailed. He said, and not only that, but I want you to know what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints. This is what I pray for you, that you would know the riches of His glory. You know what Paul does throughout the book of Ephesians when he describes the riches and the things that are theirs? He adds superlative upon superlative. In other words, he adds all of these words that describe and are describing what they have. He doesn't just say, I want you to know what is yours in Christ. I want you to know what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints. And listen to this, verse 19, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power towards us who believe. Think about that. I want you to know the immeasurable greatness of His power towards us who believe. This power is according to the work of His great might, and what is this power? It is the power that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. That's the power that is available to every Christian. That is ours. There's none of it withheld from us. Paul says all things are yours in Christ in 1 Corinthians 4. All things have been given to you. God didn't withhold some things to give them to you later at some other point in time. But the moment you believed in Christ, these riches are yours. Every single one of them. This power, this power that raised Christ from the dead, far above all rule and authority and dominion, this power is available for us. Now you tell me, as you think about that, Why is there any reason for us to walk around with our heads down and despondent and living a life of defeat and everything else and feeling like, oh, I can't overcome this and I can't overcome this in life and all of the rest? I get it, we go through times when we feel down and beat up and powerless and feel like we have no victory. But what you and I need to do is we need to go back to the gospel. We need to be reminded of this truth that the power of Christ that raised Him from the dead is available to us to live the victorious Christian life over sin and temptation and all that life throws at us. We have the resurrection power working through us. But here's the thing. We don't access it. We don't yield to it. Because many times what we do is we walk by sight rather than faith. But when we look to Christ, it will change our attitude, it will change our outlook on life, and it will give us strength to deal with whatever life throws at us. Think about that, the riches that are yours in Christ Jesus. This week, earlier in the week, I don't know why, and maybe God just allowed this to happen for me to be able to bring this point out. But I kind of felt that way. I just felt off. I felt defeated in everything else and felt, man, I just, I wish I was a better Christian than what I am. Then I read this and it just lifted my spirit. When I recognized, why am I feeling this way? The power of Christ, the grace from the dead, it's mine, it's here. I have power in my life, I have hope in my life, I have riches that are mine, and it's all not because of anything I do or don't do, but it's because of what Christ So that's another thing that the hope of the resurrection does. But that's speaking of this life. But what about in the life to come? We have this resurrection power in our life. We have the ability to be born again and all of this. But what about when it comes to death? Because death will come to every single one of us. The death rate is still one per person. Every single one of us are getting older. I look in the mirror. I'm not as young as I used to be. I see more wrinkles every single day. I don't run as fast as I did or move quite the way I did in my 30s and 20s. The day is coming and it's quickly approaching all of us. We don't know when that day will be, when we'll take our last breath, but it is coming. But we don't have to despair. Why? Because of the hope of the resurrection. Go to 1 Corinthians 15 if you will. 1 Corinthians 15 is perhaps the greatest chapter that deals with the resurrection. Paul goes into all kinds of detail, and there is plenty to work through there, but we won't go through all of it. But 1 Corinthians 15, 20. Paul makes a statement and talks about life and Adam. He says in 1 Corinthians 15, 20 or 21, he says, for as by a man came death. That's Adam. Adam brought death. But then he says this, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Now when he says all there, he's saying all in Christ. All in Christ shall be made alive. If you're outside of Christ, you won't be raised to the newness of life. But there he says, in that passage, that Christ, because of him, Adam brought death, but Christ has brought life, the resurrection from the dead. And he goes on in this chapter as he works through talking about the implications of the resurrection. He says in verse 51 this. He says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. It's interesting, the Bible often talks about when someone dies, it's them being asleep. It's not a permanent thing. Because he says, But we shall be changed, verse 52, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, And we shall be changed. I heard a preacher years ago say that the graveyards on that day will look like plowed ground because the dead in Christ will have been raised and they will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. The resurrection day is coming. We celebrate this day as the resurrection day and we can celebrate the resurrection because Christ has been raised. But there's a day of resurrection when all who are in Christ will be raised, changed in the twinkling of an eye. And I believe that day is coming, and it is coming quickly. And the only way to know that you have eternal life, the only way to know that you will be raised from the grave and changed and transformed and brought into that eternal kingdom of God is to be in Christ. To put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, and to have your hope solely in Him, not in anything else, but to be clinging to Him by faith. And when that day comes, Paul goes on, he says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of the last trumpet. And he says, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised, and perishable, and we shall be changed, verse 53, for this perishable body, we all have one of those, it's perishing, it must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. We're mortal beings, we die, but you want to live forever? You want to live forever? Well then be in Christ, because on that day, if you're in Christ, your body will be changed, and this body that's mortal, It will put on immortality. It will be changed and it will be fit for all eternity. It will never grow old. It will never suffer and it will never die because of what the Lord Jesus Christ did. We may suffer in this life even as a believer with pain and illness and sickness. And all the earthly sufferings, though, when we look at them, they have an expiration date. They have an expiration date for the believer, and one day, that expiration date will expire for all of the diseases and sicknesses, and the pleasures of heaven will be ours. They will never end until we will go in our glorious bodies to be ever with the Lord and to walk to see Him just as He is, face to face, for all eternity. Now, I heard someone years ago say, well, it would be boring to live forever. And I got to thinking about that as a young boy, and I thought about that. That would be boring to live forever. It would be monotonous, right? I don't know that I would want to live forever on this side of eternity with all the things that I see as I get older and how bad it is. And I thought about that, but then I realized, you know what makes eternity living forever? Heaven, and what makes it eternal bliss is that God will be there. And God will be there, and we will get to enjoy Him as He is. And He's far greater than the things of this world. He's far greater. The Bible says we have no good apart from Him. And we will get to be in His presence forevermore. In that Messianic Psalm, Psalm 16, at the end of it, it says, At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. pleasures for ever and ever and ever and ever. I mean, we will be like a well and the infinite will just fill us and fill us and fill us and more and more and more and more of Him. That will be heaven. heaven, and it will be glorious because of what Christ has done. We will get to see Him as He is in His resurrected body, and we will see the One who has died for us. Now, in light of this, because we have this hope that in Christ we will be raised, The resurrection provides for us one more thing, and that is freedom from the fear of death. Death is a frightful thing. The Bible even speaks of it as being frightful. Even people who try to act like they don't fear it, I guarantee you, you get them in the right situation. They will fear death, especially if they understand what lies beyond the grave for those who do not know Christ. Acts 2.25 says this, God raised him up, loosing the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. Go to Hebrews 2, which speaks of Christ coming to this earth, dying and rising again, and it says why he did that. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death. That is the devil. And deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. If you're a Christian, you don't have to fear death. It's just a blip in time. You go from this life to that life. You go from this life, the Lord is with you, and then you go into the presence of the Lord. To live is Christ, to die is gain, Paul said. 1 Corinthians, again, 15, 20, 21. For as a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, and so also in Christ shall all be made alive. And then we'll hear that That final saying comes when this all happens. 1 Corinthians 15, 54, when the perishable puts on the imperishable, immortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the same that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? And that's because of the resurrection of Christ. We don't have to have any fear in death. And as we awake that day, as we long for that day, we are to be busy with the Lord's work. One last thing, and I will close with this. The resurrection ensures that our work, our labor, is not in vain. When Paul finishes 1 Corinthians 15, he says this in verse 58, he says, Therefore, brothers, in light of the resurrection, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Sometimes in ministry, I've just wanted to walk away. Pastoring over the years, I've just wanted to call it quits and say, forget it. What's this all for? All the pain and all you have to put up with and all of the rest? I thought that. I'm sure you thought that about living the Christian life. What's this all for? Why all this striving? Why try to be holy? Why do this? Because your labor is not in vain. The work that we do, if we're doing it for us or ourselves, we're going to get tired. But if we see it as the work of the Lord, and whatever it is that God has put in your life to be a ministry, whether it's ministering to one another, leading music, preaching, whatever, we ought to do it with all d'argusto. Why? Because our labor is not in vain. Knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain. At the end of life, after all of the labors, after all of your time doing whatever it is for the Lord, you may not see really any fruit in this life. And that gets discouraging. But there's many men who have had ministries like that. Jeremiah didn't even have a convert. Noah preached to a world that was full of sin and only eight of them made it into that ark. And it can be very discouraging sometimes. But know this, your labor is not in vain. And so Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 9-10, so whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. What's Paul talking about? Is he saying now, okay, you've got to work in order to earn your salvation? No, that's not what he's talking about. If we're in Christ, Christ is the one who makes us acceptable to God. Well, what's all this idea about working and laboring, standing before God, the judgment seat of Christ, and so forth? He's talking about a day when we will be judged and we will be rewarded for the work we do as believers. 1 Corinthians 3. Now if anyone builds on a foundation of gold with silver and precious stones, wood, hay, and straw, each one's work will be manifest. For that day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, that is, if your work was unto the Lord and out of love for others and so forth and not done out of selfish ambition or conceit or anything like that, He will receive rewards. And if anyone's works is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. You'd be saved, but you missed out on so much, because you did not labor. You got weary, you quit, and gave up, and became focused on yourself. So don't grow weary, as the Bible says. Don't grow weary in doing good. Why? Because one day you'll be rewarded for your work. All those labors that you did as a mother, trying to teach your children, and going through all that you did with them, and you were trying to do what was right, and pointing to the Lord, God doesn't overlook those things. All the times that you ministered to people, and they walked out, and never had anything to do with you, God sees all of that. Your labor is not in vain, because of the resurrection. We know that one day there's coming a day of reward. And when that day comes, what will it be like? Well, we know that those in Christ will be raised, but you say, well what about those who do not know Christ? Those people who are outside of Christ, what happens to them? Do they just get annihilated? No. The Bible makes clear what happens to them. Paul said in Acts 17, 30 through 31, he said, the pagans here in Athens who were worshiping idols, he said, the times of ignorance God has overlooked. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent. Why? Because he's fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man who he's appointed. And of this he has given assurance, basically, to these things. How? To all by raising him from the dead. There's coming a day of judgment. And the Bible tells us what's going to happen on that day. Daniel 7, 2. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some of them to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Even the unbeliever is going to be raised. Now, they're not going to be raised in quite the same way as a believer. A believer will undergo a transformation and their body will be fit for it. for the kingdom of God, but the others will be raised, and they will have a body, and they will have a soul, and that soul will go and perish for all eternity in hell. That's why John 5, 25, and 29 says, Truly, truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and now is here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live, for as the Father has life in Himself, so He's granted the Son also to have life in Himself, And He has given him authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out and those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. Resurrection to life or resurrection to judgment? Either way, the resurrection will affect your life. You will either be raised to be judged and thrown into hell for all eternity, or you will be raised to enjoy the presence of God who has at His right hand pleasures for all eternity. Those believers, those unbelievers who have died, they're in the grave, they're going to come out. Those ships that have went down, those pirates years ago, they're going to come out of that water. They're going to hear the voice and they're going to come out. They're going to come up from wherever they are. And they are going to be judged by God. And they will go out to a place of darkness, where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. And they will suffer not just in their soul, but as Jesus said, both body and soul will be thrown into hell. Listen up. Because Christ has been raised. You don't have to go there. Hell, as Jesus said in Matthew 25, was originally for the devil and his angels. It was not intended for men. But if you will put your trust in Christ alone for salvation, you can be delivered from the wrath of God. You can be delivered from guilt. You can be delivered from this judgment. And you can receive the righteousness that has come through Jesus Christ. And God can look upon you and declare you righteous, not guilty. And on that day when you die, you will go off to be with Him. And you will be able to stand faultless before His throne. Why? Because Christ has been raised and you are trusting in the finished work of Christ, His life, burial, death, resurrection, and ascension, and His second coming. And those who trust in Christ will be saved. My question for you in light of all of this is, where is your hope? What are you trusting in to save you? What are you trusting in in this life? Trouble comes. You see it all around you. The world has turned upside down since COVID. And it doesn't seem to be getting any better. What in the world are you trusting in? This world God has proven time and time again. His patience has been there for you. He's allowing you to have breath in your lungs. And you see all of this that has been taken away from you, how life used to be? These are just warning signs of, hey, these things, you can't trust in them. Trust in my Son. And if you've not trusted in Christ, trust in Him today. What do you do? To be saved. Well, you don't do anything, but you look unto Christ, and that's not a work. You trust in Christ to save you. You believe that He died for you, and you bank your eternal soul upon the Lord Jesus Christ to save you. And when you do that, you will hear the words just that were given to Abraham, that he will declare you righteous before his throne. And believer, stop living the defeated life. Come back to the resurrection over and over again and live the victorious life. Now, on your deathbed, In one day you'll live it for all eternity. But bank your whole life on this. Center your life upon the resurrection. Because this is our only hope in this sin-cursed world in which we live in. Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer. Father, as we come to you today, we thank you for the resurrection. Lord, we just touched on a few things that the resurrection has, the ways in which the resurrection has impacted our life. And we know that even for those outside of Christ, the resurrection has an impact on it as well, because they'll either be raised to the resurrection of life or to be raised for judgment. Father, I pray that no one in here be found outside of Jesus, and that You by Your Spirit would begin to convict them of their sin and their need of Christ, and may they look unto You for salvation. Father, we pray that You would just draw them by Your Spirit. Father, we pray. For every believer that we would not live defeated lives, but we would know the hope to which we have been called, the riches that are in Christ, that we have, and also the power that is at work within us that raised Christ from the dead. Lord, we ask these things in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.