back to index2019-04-21: Resurrection: Foundations of Christianity
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Alright, if you could turn your Bibles with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, we're looking 00:00:08.240 |
1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 12 through 19. 00:00:12.320 |
We're going to be looking at the whole chapter, but I want to just read this portion. 00:00:19.640 |
Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you 00:00:24.600 |
say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 00:00:27.340 |
If there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ 00:00:30.840 |
has not been raised, then our preaching is vain. 00:00:35.480 |
Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that 00:00:40.880 |
He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. 00:00:45.240 |
For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ has not been 00:00:52.560 |
And those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 00:00:56.040 |
If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. 00:01:05.680 |
Father God, we pray for your grace, we pray for the Holy Spirit's mighty work, not only 00:01:13.500 |
in us, but all throughout the world, Lord God, as thousands, hundreds of thousands, 00:01:18.800 |
millions of people who are gathered together this morning to celebrate the resurrection 00:01:23.860 |
I pray, Lord God, that the power of the resurrection will have its effect in our worship, in our 00:01:28.600 |
fellowship, in the preaching, in the singing. 00:01:37.480 |
I pray, Lord God, that you would open the minds of those who do not yet believe, that 00:01:41.920 |
they may see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ this morning. 00:01:45.640 |
Lord, we ask that you would anoint this time. 00:01:49.600 |
May your sweet presence, Lord God, be made known in all that we do. 00:02:01.440 |
Can somebody claim to be a Christian and yet do not believe the bodily resurrection of 00:02:12.040 |
Can somebody genuinely be a Christian and yet do not believe the bodily resurrection 00:02:20.480 |
Now, for whatever the reason, there are some people in certain circles and in some liberal 00:02:28.280 |
churches that argue that the bodily resurrection does not matter, that there is things to be 00:02:35.960 |
salvaged whether you believe in the real resurrection of Jesus Christ or not. 00:02:40.640 |
One of these people is Professor Korb, who teaches at the New York University, and this 00:02:48.600 |
The miracle of a bodily resurrection is something I rejected without moving away from its basic 00:02:55.240 |
What I mean is that we can reach the lowest points of our lives of going deep into a place 00:02:59.760 |
that feels like death and then find our way out again. 00:03:03.600 |
That's the story the resurrection now tells me. 00:03:06.720 |
And at Easter, this is expressed in community and at its best through the compassion of 00:03:13.280 |
In other words, what he is saying is even if you do not believe in the bodily resurrection 00:03:17.640 |
of Jesus Christ, to him, resurrection is the idea that if you fall into darkness, if bad 00:03:28.360 |
And the idea of coming out of darkness and making something of your life is what the 00:03:38.980 |
Is the resurrection the center of Christian faith or it is not? 00:03:45.840 |
Jesus himself said in Matthew chapter 16, 4, when they kept on asking, "You say you're 00:03:51.740 |
the Messiah, people are saying you're the Messiah, give us proof," Jesus said, "An 00:03:56.880 |
evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and a sign will not be given to it 00:04:00.880 |
except the sign of Jonah," meaning the resurrection. 00:04:04.640 |
He pointed to the resurrection as the central activity that was going to prove everything 00:04:11.920 |
Everything he said, everything he did, everything that he proclaimed that he came to do rises 00:04:17.580 |
and falls on the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:04:24.440 |
If you ever play Jenga, you know, you're taking the pieces out and there's that one piece. 00:04:29.360 |
You touch that wrong, everything else is going to fall. 00:04:33.040 |
Well, the resurrection is the Christian Jenga. 00:04:37.120 |
And if you mess with that, if you reject the bodily resurrection of Christ, everything 00:04:45.760 |
In fact, in 1 Corinthians 15, 3 to 8, Paul says, "For I delivered to you as of first 00:04:54.640 |
Now when he says what is first important, he's talking about what is most important, 00:04:59.560 |
that in all of his preaching, all of his sacrifices, everything that's been going on in the first 00:05:04.160 |
century, Paul says, and he summarizes, "In the first importance, what I received, I will 00:05:10.800 |
give to you," and he says, "that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." 00:05:16.560 |
And then he says that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. 00:05:27.400 |
That's put in the Bible because these men who have been propagating this for 2,000 years, 00:05:32.400 |
I mean, first century, these guys basically began to tell this story. 00:05:40.200 |
Paul says in the previous passage that he appeared to the 12 disciples, his resurrection 00:05:44.080 |
physically, and then he appeared to 500 men, and then he appeared to the other apostles, 00:05:52.040 |
Now if we take that just literally, that alone is about 500 and some people. 00:05:59.400 |
But again, remember, they didn't count the number of people the way we count today. 00:06:05.380 |
We have somewhere in this room maybe around 300 to 350 people in the room. 00:06:10.880 |
And that's typically how we would count people. 00:06:14.320 |
At that time, when they counted, they only counted men, and I know that may not sound 00:06:18.160 |
fair, but the women and children did not have voting rights. 00:06:22.160 |
They didn't have rights at that time, so they only counted men. 00:06:25.400 |
So when they said in the Bible that they fed 5,000 people, they're referring to 5,000 men. 00:06:31.560 |
So if you count the way we would normally count, it would be probably close to 10,000 00:06:36.940 |
So here, when it says he showed himself to 500 men, now we don't know the exact number, 00:06:47.540 |
At the minimum, it says that he showed himself to 500, possibly over 1,000 people as eyewitnesses 00:06:59.620 |
Some people just may dismiss that and say, "Well, they're all telling a lie. 00:07:30.240 |
Because we remember, when you did lie, why did you lie? 00:07:35.360 |
You don't tell lies to make yourself look bad. 00:07:39.300 |
You don't tell lies that's going to hurt you. 00:07:41.880 |
Typically, we compromise, we stretch the truth or exaggerate or outright lie to protect yourself 00:07:50.900 |
because of personal benefit, whether that may be taxes or whether that may be something 00:07:56.440 |
that you say to your boss, but people lie and exaggerate to protect themselves. 00:08:04.040 |
But every single one of these people who are eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ, they ended up, 00:08:10.480 |
many of them, giving their lives telling this supposed lie. 00:08:14.780 |
Many of these people came from very prominent families. 00:08:18.440 |
Apostle Paul himself may have been a senator of the nation of Israel. 00:08:23.520 |
His disciple was the greatest scholar of that time, a Roman citizen. 00:08:30.980 |
And everybody who was attached to Apostle Paul, helping in his ministry, basically ended 00:08:38.500 |
So what possible motivation would there have been for these hundreds, possibly thousands 00:08:43.320 |
of people who were supposedly eyewitnesses and went to their grave telling this lie, 00:08:49.680 |
forfeiting everything that they had before they met Christ? 00:08:53.600 |
Now because of this, majority of New Testament scholars, Christian and non-Christians alike, 00:09:00.880 |
do not deny that the early eyewitnesses actually think they saw something. 00:09:09.080 |
They don't deny that these people were making it, because it doesn't make sense for thousands 00:09:11.740 |
of people to give their life saying they saw the resurrected Christ. 00:09:16.720 |
So today, the percentages, three-fourths of New Testament scholars, this is Christian 00:09:22.920 |
and non-Christians put together, three-fourths of New Testament scholars do not deny that 00:09:28.320 |
the eyewitnesses, at the minimum, believe what they were saying. 00:09:36.600 |
But let me ask you this morning, if I could convince you that the resurrection didn't 00:09:45.720 |
Maybe you come to Resurrection Sunday and the pastor tries to convince you that it did 00:09:50.360 |
What if I could convince you it didn't happen? 00:10:00.580 |
What would change in your life if I did such a great job this morning and convinced you 00:10:11.200 |
Some people may say, "Well, you know, it didn't happen, but at least I have good friends. 00:10:27.880 |
You know, we live in a culture today where neighborhoods and communities just don't exist. 00:10:33.720 |
Even at work, you work at your cubicle and you do your job and you may have some connection, 00:10:37.320 |
but for the most part, community has broken down. 00:10:43.000 |
And everybody lives in, you know, pretty much in isolation. 00:10:46.120 |
You go to your home, how many of you are good friends with your neighbors? 00:10:51.080 |
Everybody just drives into their, you know, into their garage and shut the door. 00:10:54.400 |
And then you may make eye contact when you take your trash out every once in a while, 00:10:57.760 |
but outside of that, neighborhoods don't exist. 00:11:05.280 |
We had a group of friends, you know, and when you have birthday parties, you have a lot 00:11:10.400 |
If you weren't at church, you might have two or three friends, maybe, depending on who 00:11:15.280 |
But for the most part, this is where you have friendship. 00:11:19.680 |
If the resurrection did not happen, how would it affect your life? 00:11:33.160 |
Paul actually argues, if the resurrection didn't happen, he argues, there's three things 00:11:39.320 |
that he says in this text that I want to go over today, and why the resurrection is the 00:11:48.040 |
First of all, Paul says, "If Jesus was not raised from the dead, our preaching and our 00:11:57.480 |
"And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in 00:12:03.720 |
We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that He raised 00:12:07.960 |
Christ, whom He did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised. 00:12:13.440 |
The word "vain" basically means empty or hollow. 00:12:18.760 |
Or in Ecclesiastes, it basically means meaningless. 00:12:25.440 |
A couple weeks ago, our family went to Korea, and my oldest son, Jeremy, he had his favorite 00:12:36.680 |
That word was repeated out of his mouth probably over a thousand times. 00:12:40.600 |
And "siregi" is a Korean word for trash, basically. 00:12:49.360 |
And so every opportunity they got, they used their Korean. 00:12:55.520 |
But basically, "siregi" basically means it's trash. 00:13:05.360 |
If Jesus was not raised from the dead, our faith, our preaching, our life is trash. 00:13:15.440 |
If all it is, is a placebo, like this professor says, if all the resurrection, if all Christianity 00:13:24.920 |
is simply a placebo to trick ourselves and hold on to it like a security blanket, he 00:13:37.120 |
I remember when I was a youth pastor, every once in a while, I would have a parent who 00:13:44.360 |
And the reason why they would be angry was that they would drop off their kids. 00:13:47.760 |
And these are, you know, many of them from unbelieving parents. 00:13:50.240 |
And they would drop off their kids, and they would love it in the beginning. 00:13:53.240 |
And the reason why they would love it is because they had free babysitting. 00:13:56.880 |
And I was a youth pastor, and we had a local church, and we had a nice basketball court 00:14:02.680 |
And so I was a full-time youth pastor, so I just hung around church all the time. 00:14:06.360 |
You know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I just lived there. 00:14:11.200 |
So a lot of the youth group kids would just come and hang out at the church. 00:14:14.560 |
They would bring their backpack, and they would do their homework, and in between, they 00:14:24.000 |
And then the older people, older kids would pick up the younger kids, and if they got 00:14:31.680 |
So some of the kids who were getting into trouble, you know, they were at church. 00:14:40.040 |
So the parents loved it, until some of the kids started getting serious. 00:14:44.600 |
And some of them started talking about going into ministry, possibly going to missions. 00:14:48.760 |
And all of a sudden, the parents started getting upset. 00:14:52.560 |
They loved it when they were getting good morals, but we didn't want you to get too 00:15:02.800 |
Sometimes they would tell me to my face, or they would look at me and just walk away, 00:15:08.440 |
I had a parent, not during that time, but I had a parent get straight up and call me 00:15:11.560 |
a liar, that people like me are the ones who are ruining society, teaching people lies. 00:15:18.800 |
The reason why it doesn't bother me is because I understand where they're coming from. 00:15:23.400 |
If you do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then yeah, I'm influencing 00:15:30.480 |
I'm preaching a gospel that challenges them to pick up their cross, to see this world 00:15:37.360 |
as rubbish, and to look forward to the next world. 00:15:41.560 |
So the gospel that I'm preaching to an unbeliever is offensive. 00:15:46.880 |
What I didn't understand is if a Christian sees their child, and all they see is when 00:15:52.520 |
their child comes, "Oh, he's getting good morals, he's being protected, and good things 00:15:57.560 |
are happening to them," then they either did not understand what it is that we preach, 00:16:07.800 |
Paul says if the resurrection did not happen, he says it is completely rubbish. 00:16:15.480 |
In fact, he says in verse 19, "If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are 00:16:23.600 |
In other words, there's nothing to be salvaged, it's complete "siregi." 00:16:38.960 |
And then even at Stanford, he made the Dean's List. 00:16:41.760 |
So at the end of his sophomore year, I mean, it's hard enough to just get in just to get 00:16:48.720 |
And so every once in a while, our friends would talk, and we'd talk about him and how 00:16:52.240 |
great he's doing, and once that guy graduates from Stanford, I mean, he's made. 00:16:59.080 |
But then at the end of his sophomore year, we heard that he dropped out of school. 00:17:03.800 |
And next thing we hear is that he went to missions. 00:17:06.600 |
We forgot where he went, but he went to some strange place to become a full-time missionary. 00:17:12.840 |
And I remember some of my non-Christian friends or people who are very nominal wondering, 00:17:19.760 |
That guy could have come out of Stanford, and he just automatically, just the fact that 00:17:23.800 |
he came out of Stanford, he could have gotten any job. 00:17:28.200 |
And yet he forfeited all of that to spend the rest of his life living in an uncomfortable 00:17:39.000 |
If Christ was not resurrected from the dead, he's to be pitied. 00:17:45.160 |
He forfeited everything to preach this gospel. 00:17:48.080 |
Do you know why the resurrection of Jesus Christ was at the center of the message in 00:17:56.800 |
You can give a theological answer, because theologically, you know, it means this and 00:18:01.360 |
Do you know why in the preaching of the early church, why the resurrection was central and 00:18:13.440 |
What else would you be talking about if you saw the resurrected Christ? 00:18:21.960 |
It was not to understand the Trinity and his identity. 00:18:29.920 |
What else would you be preaching if you met the resurrected Christ? 00:18:36.160 |
If he was not resurrected from the dead, he said, all of it crumbles. 00:18:41.280 |
Number two, if Jesus was not raised from the dead, we would still be in our sins. 00:18:47.680 |
Chapter 15, verse 16, "For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised, 00:18:51.960 |
and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile." 00:19:01.880 |
Your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. 00:19:07.520 |
Remember when Jesus was going into Jerusalem from Bethany? 00:19:13.720 |
Something random happened, or at least on the surface it seems random. 00:19:17.280 |
He's walking by, and he's hungry, and he walks toward the fig tree, and the fig tree doesn't 00:19:26.680 |
I mean, then he goes to the temple, cleanses the temple, and all this stuff happens, but 00:19:30.040 |
then it just seems like Jesus has bad temper. 00:19:34.840 |
He gets angry at the fig tree, and then he goes to the temple, and he flips over tables 00:19:41.320 |
I remember years ago, I was trying to share the gospel with this man, and we were going 00:19:46.640 |
over other parts of the gospel, and he was really coming along. 00:19:51.040 |
And he was asking questions about eternity, about the gospel, I was telling him what to 00:19:55.800 |
And then one day, he said, he went into that story, and he said, "I don't understand the 00:20:05.040 |
So I did my best and tried to explain to him about, you know, berry fruit and things like 00:20:14.560 |
We'd move along and read something else, and then a couple weeks later, he would ask me, 00:20:23.240 |
Now, I was thinking, like, all the things that he would stumble over, you know, the 00:20:27.720 |
Jericho, the walls come tumbling down, or the worldwide flood where everybody dies. 00:20:33.560 |
You know, there's plenty of things that I would think that he would stumble over, the 00:20:40.240 |
There's so many things that I could think about, but he just could not get over this 00:20:46.560 |
And I think he had maybe a Buddhist background, and he considered that sacred, but he just 00:20:56.280 |
Because of that, I took some time to really meditate and think about, like, why... 00:20:59.640 |
Because it does seem random, at least on the surface. 00:21:03.960 |
You have to understand what Jesus came to do, and especially that week where he was 00:21:11.800 |
It says in Mark 11, verse 13, that the time of the gathering had not yet come. 00:21:17.600 |
In other words, for most fig trees, the harvesting happens sometime in early summer, where it's 00:21:24.440 |
full bloom and the farmers come and they get all the figs and they put it in a basket and 00:21:31.400 |
In other words, he said that time had not come. 00:21:33.680 |
So Jesus was walking probably sometime late March, maybe sometime in April. 00:21:38.640 |
In other words, it was probably in full bloom, but not yet ready to harvest. 00:21:43.160 |
In other words, the tree should have been filled with fig tree, because they didn't 00:21:49.080 |
And yet when he walked by, there was no figs on it, and he condemns it. 00:22:03.980 |
He created this fig tree for the purpose of bearing figs. 00:22:14.280 |
The whole purpose of a fig tree for its existence is to bear figs. 00:22:22.620 |
So basically, he had every right as the creator of this tree to say, "You're useless." 00:22:28.880 |
Obviously, that was pointing to something greater than that. 00:22:34.260 |
How many of us, if we created something, it didn't work, that we would put it in the corner 00:22:40.040 |
and highlight it and take care of it and put it in the closet, right? 00:22:45.760 |
Give it to White Elephant Present Exchange, bring in couponers, wherever it is. 00:22:54.120 |
You just put it out, because you have no use for it, because you created it for something 00:23:05.040 |
It's not functioning the way I created it, what I created it for. 00:23:09.840 |
The scripture says that we have all been created to give glory to God. 00:23:16.040 |
All of creation cries out to His glory, except for mankind. 00:23:21.880 |
Mankind is in rebellion against God, but instead of condemning us, what did He do? 00:23:36.440 |
What He did to the fig tree, if the fig tree deserved to die, how much more mankind who 00:23:44.640 |
shakes His fist at God, saying, "I am not going to worship you." 00:23:50.880 |
Yet instead of condemning mankind, He came, He absorbed sin upon Himself. 00:23:54.400 |
He who knew no sin became sin, so that you and I might become the righteousness of God. 00:23:59.720 |
Scripture says in Hebrews 9.27, "Just as it is appointed for man to die once, after that 00:24:07.880 |
In Romans 6.23, "For the wages of sin is death." 00:24:13.280 |
What He did to the fig tree is what every human being deserves in his sin. 00:24:19.760 |
And yet He says, "If the resurrection did not happen, you are still in your sins." 00:24:26.440 |
In 1 Timothy 1.15, it is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus 00:24:31.720 |
came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am the foremost. 00:24:40.420 |
He didn't come to make your marriages better, so that you can have a better retirement or 00:24:44.460 |
your business would go better, because the primary problem of mankind is inside. 00:24:53.220 |
Changing the president, changing the society, making better investments, doesn't change 00:25:03.980 |
There has not been a president in the United States who is not a sinner. 00:25:09.140 |
Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, or Libertarian or just confused, whatever 00:25:15.660 |
you may be, there has never been a president from the beginning till now and in the future 00:25:22.860 |
who is not a sinner, who doesn't wrestle with his own lust, who doesn't wrestle with 00:25:36.020 |
None of you have been raised by anybody else other than a sinner. 00:25:44.860 |
Every single one of us has been raised by a mother who struggles with sin, by a father 00:25:53.220 |
The answer is not with our family, because we are all sinners who have fallen short of 00:26:01.860 |
The Bible describes this as the state of mankind. 00:26:07.320 |
I've said this before, and I'm going to say this again because people keep reminding me 00:26:26.940 |
The reason why I don't like food in China, and I'm going to say it again, because I've 00:26:34.300 |
Diarrhea, vomiting, everything that comes along with food poisoning. 00:26:40.700 |
I've experienced it so many times through traveling that I would go there for a week, 00:26:46.380 |
two weeks, or three weeks, and if you have food poisoning, it ruins the trip. 00:26:51.820 |
It doesn't matter how beautiful the place is. 00:26:55.140 |
It doesn't matter the purpose or why I was there. 00:27:03.740 |
So I'm hyper-cautious with what I eat in China and in India. 00:27:12.500 |
Everywhere I travel, I'm very sensitive because I don't want to ruin the trip. 00:27:25.060 |
You can be in the most beautiful place in the world with the most beautiful people in 00:27:33.340 |
The state of mankind, the Bible says, is that we're all spiritually sick. 00:27:50.460 |
But when we are sick spiritually, it ruins everything. 00:27:54.940 |
That's what the Bible says that mankind experiences, and we're running, thinking that if we have 00:27:59.020 |
the right president, if we have the right politics, if we have the right job, if we 00:28:02.780 |
can communicate better with my wife, if I can raise better children, if I had better 00:28:07.140 |
money for the retirement, that somehow that's going to fix things. 00:28:14.740 |
Because the only answer to our sins is the resurrected Christ. 00:28:21.600 |
And that's why it says if Christ has not been risen, we are still in our sins. 00:28:32.100 |
Third and finally, it says if Jesus was not raised from the dead, death is final. 00:28:42.060 |
I remember I went to one of the saddest funerals. 00:28:46.980 |
I've been to funerals where there's young children, and, you know, whether they were 00:28:54.460 |
And obviously, they're gut-wrenching funerals. 00:28:56.300 |
But I went to one of the saddest funerals, this young man who died right after he graduated 00:29:04.340 |
He went out, got drunk, on the way home, he swerved to the right, hit a tree, got thrown 00:29:14.460 |
I went to his funeral and filled with unbelieving friends, unbelieving parents. 00:29:21.020 |
And at the eulogy, his dad came up trying to make sense. 00:29:25.180 |
This guy spent all his life, he just graduated UCSD, and, you know, his life is, you know, 00:29:34.780 |
His dad comes up and he says, he looks at his son's friends who are sitting there grieving 00:29:56.740 |
That was a non-Christian trying to make sense. 00:30:07.820 |
Right when he graduates college and bright future ahead of him, all he can make sense 00:30:18.660 |
Paul paused and said, "If Jesus was not resurrected from the dead and this is all we have, let 00:30:33.140 |
Let the next generation worry about the next generation. 00:30:43.100 |
But Romans 8 and 11, it says, "If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells 00:30:46.580 |
in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies 00:30:54.080 |
This resurrection is not simply about Jesus' resurrection. 00:30:58.780 |
He was the first fruit among many who will be resurrected. 00:31:03.780 |
So when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we're celebrating the hope that one 00:31:09.580 |
day when we die, we will also be resurrected like him. 00:31:16.500 |
That whatever it is that you experience here, it is not final. 00:31:20.540 |
That's why it says in verse 42 and on, "So also is the resurrection of the dead. 00:31:24.540 |
It is sown perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body. 00:31:29.940 |
It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. 00:31:31.740 |
It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 00:31:34.020 |
It is sown natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." 00:31:39.940 |
Basically, this is describing our current state. 00:32:04.500 |
We will be sown in weakness but raised in power. 00:32:06.820 |
We'll be sown natural body but we'll be raised with a spiritual body. 00:32:10.480 |
The word for perishable basically means corruption, decay, ruined, ultimately leading to death. 00:32:16.800 |
And that's why in 1 Corinthians 1.18, the gospel describes those who are not Christians 00:32:27.360 |
Psalm 90 verse 12, "So teach us to number our days that we may present to you a heart 00:32:35.440 |
Say, "Lord, teach me to know that I'm going to die one day." 00:32:45.320 |
What a morbid thing to say, especially on a resurrected Sunday. 00:32:59.080 |
Because it's supposed to be about life, about resurrection. 00:33:15.180 |
Because until we recognize that we are living in a perishable body, that we would not look 00:33:27.040 |
We're going to pour all our energy and our time and our hope in that which is perishable. 00:33:32.980 |
That's why he says, "To have a heart of wisdom that we need to know how short this life is." 00:33:39.880 |
I remember my 25th birthday like it was yesterday. 00:33:46.720 |
There's plenty of people in this room who are older than me, so I'm not going to act 00:33:56.880 |
It was my first birthday that we were celebrating as a married couple. 00:34:05.640 |
And I remember walking into the room and she had this Korean soup that she made for me 00:34:19.640 |
I mean, it was just so memorable for me because it was my first birthday with my new wife. 00:34:30.000 |
I mean, we're like a mist that comes and goes. 00:34:33.400 |
And I know when we're younger, we live like we have all the time in the world. 00:34:38.040 |
But one of the benefits of getting older is you know that's not the case. 00:34:41.080 |
I don't have to convince older people that that's not the case. 00:34:47.400 |
He says, "Teach me to number my days so that I may know the preciousness of what it is 00:34:58.880 |
We live in this perishable body until we recognize what it is that we have. 00:35:07.420 |
We don't recognize what it is that we have in Christ. 00:35:11.440 |
Paul says in Romans chapter 7, "What I want to do, I do not do. 00:35:16.880 |
And then he says, "Oh, what a wretched man that I am." 00:35:21.120 |
Until we recognize the wretchedness of the position that you and I are in, we think that 00:35:33.440 |
We celebrate over little accomplishments that in eternity means nothing. 00:35:38.400 |
We celebrate, take pictures of little nice places that we visited and that keeps us going 00:35:44.760 |
We go eat things, experience things, buy things that temporarily causes us to forget the bigger 00:35:53.360 |
And we just move on from month to month, week to week, year to year, and from life 00:36:11.560 |
But in the very next passage he says, "But thanks be to God that there is deliverance." 00:36:19.800 |
The resurrection reminds us that even though we will die with perishable body, we will 00:36:27.320 |
First Corinthians 15, 52, "In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, 00:36:31.280 |
for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed. 00:36:36.000 |
For the perishable must put on the imperishable and the mortal must put on immortality." 00:36:41.880 |
We will be sown in dishonor, which means disgrace, lust, covening, anger, pride, and shame. 00:36:56.000 |
You know, so much of our life is really about self-glory, right? 00:37:05.520 |
That's why we spend so much time in front of the mirror in the morning. 00:37:12.440 |
Sometimes we study so hard because we want to make something of ourselves. 00:37:20.320 |
All of it for greater glory, for improvement, not realizing that our core pursuit of our 00:37:30.440 |
own glory is what is suffocating the life that God desires for us. 00:37:42.400 |
When He comes in glory, we will be glorified with Him. 00:37:49.200 |
Resurrection is a promise that no matter what happens in this world, that Christ is going 00:37:58.420 |
We will be sown in weakness, physically, emotionally, intellectually, and by our will. 00:38:07.080 |
There's a reason why He says, "Do not trust your heart. 00:38:08.640 |
It is deceitful because our emotions have been tainted." 00:38:12.360 |
He says, "Do not lean on your own understanding because our intellect has been tainted by 00:38:17.920 |
Do not make vows because you don't know if you're going to be able to keep it because 00:38:27.640 |
I remember, you know, in my early 40s, my knee started hurting and I went to the doctors 00:38:32.080 |
and the doctor looked at my knees and he said, "Basically, stop playing basketball." 00:38:35.360 |
Some of you guys who are obsessed with basketball may understand. 00:38:39.440 |
The other people kind of like, "You're going to think that I'm crazy." 00:38:43.320 |
But I remember when he told me to stop playing basketball, I felt like a part of my life 00:38:47.560 |
was dying because I played so much basketball when I was younger. 00:38:54.840 |
I was maybe a little idle, you know what I mean? 00:39:12.320 |
I literally played basketball maybe six, seven times a week sometimes. 00:39:16.560 |
And I was a youth pastor, so I was always with guys who were more than willing to play. 00:39:24.720 |
So when finally when the doctor said, "Your knee can't handle it anymore. 00:39:28.400 |
You overused it and you should stop playing basketball." 00:39:31.240 |
I remember coming home thinking, "I need to get a second opinion." 00:39:38.320 |
And then later on when I realized that that was probably the case, a small part of me 00:39:44.000 |
It is a part of me that should have died because I was too competitive. 00:39:50.800 |
And there's probably some people in this room who were stumbled because of it. 00:39:53.600 |
So it was a good thing that I couldn't play competitively anymore. 00:39:57.920 |
So it was a reminder to me that no matter how healthy you are, no matter how strong 00:40:04.480 |
you are, no matter how young you are, it takes its toll on all of us in time. 00:40:11.360 |
He said, "We will be sown in weakness, but we will be raised in power." 00:40:18.880 |
You know the comic books, the Avengers, and all this has become so popular in recent days. 00:40:26.600 |
So the common question that people ask each other is, "What superpower would you want?" 00:40:32.440 |
People always ask, "What would you do with a million dollars if you won the lottery?" 00:40:40.360 |
I hear some people say, "I wanted the power to be invisible." 00:40:50.600 |
And I never understood why people don't say Superman. 00:40:54.400 |
Because Superman basically can do everything. 00:40:58.360 |
Why do you have to be invisible when you can beat everybody up? 00:41:01.520 |
Why do you have to worry about what other people think? 00:41:04.080 |
He's fast enough to turn the globe backwards and change time. 00:41:12.880 |
Anyway, why people even choose anything else, I don't understand. 00:41:21.480 |
We're just kind of thinking, "Oh, if I was, if I did this." 00:41:24.200 |
But the Scripture says that when Christ was resurrected and he became the first fruit 00:41:31.280 |
among many, that Jesus Christ is the heir of all that God is. 00:41:39.200 |
The God who controls the universe, who created the universe, who created the universe that 00:41:46.680 |
That God, Jesus Christ, is the heir of all things. 00:41:50.000 |
And he said, "Because we become adopted children, we are what? 00:41:55.960 |
So this idea of wanting to be Superman is just a fantasy. 00:42:00.120 |
But the reality of his resurrection is when we die and when Christ comes in glory, we 00:42:11.120 |
If you truly believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, how can we hope for anything 00:42:18.280 |
less than what Christ has done for us in his resurrection? 00:42:24.920 |
It is sown a natural body, but we will be raised a spiritual body. 00:42:30.120 |
Heaven, never in the Scripture, is described as a place where you're going to go live in 00:42:37.280 |
You know, when we were little, I don't know about you, but I've heard so many stories 00:42:42.760 |
So when I was little, I pictured a mansion, right? 00:42:45.840 |
My parents weren't rich, so we never had a nice house. 00:42:48.120 |
So I was like, "One of these days, we're going to live in the biggest mansion, and I'm going 00:42:52.480 |
to work so hard, and I'm going to sacrifice, bring many people to Christ, so when I get 00:43:10.200 |
There's no promise that when we get to heaven that we're going to be better looking. 00:43:20.320 |
The only consistent thing that's mentioned in Scripture is that heaven is a place where 00:43:32.200 |
I don't think it's going to look a lot different than here, to be honest. 00:43:36.040 |
I don't know if there's going to be brown chairs. 00:43:38.800 |
I don't know what the food is going to be like. 00:43:41.240 |
It doesn't describe it, but I don't think it's going to be a lot different than this, 00:43:45.960 |
because what ruined creation is not the dirt. 00:43:51.200 |
What ruined creation is not the weather, is not the depleting ozone layer. 00:44:04.680 |
When he was resurrected, he said, "He's going to take us to a place where God dwells, and 00:44:13.160 |
And when there is no sin, there is no more crying. 00:44:18.320 |
When there is no sin, there is no frustration. 00:44:23.520 |
Where there is no sin, there are no empty promises. 00:44:28.560 |
When there is no sin, there is no more loneliness. 00:44:37.860 |
Where there is no sin, there is no broken families. 00:44:42.920 |
When there is no sin, there is no more lust, there's no more hatred, no more slander, no 00:44:50.320 |
All our hungering and thirsting are going to be satisfied. 00:45:08.640 |
Some of you, some of you live with physical pain. 00:45:19.300 |
There's some relief, but in the end, it's just for years, you're suffering, you've taken 00:45:24.600 |
medication, you've done everything possible, and you're slowly beginning to realize that 00:45:34.640 |
Some of you come from broken families, and the scars of being raised in a home where 00:45:42.320 |
there was constant contention and those memories haunt you. 00:45:48.360 |
You're afraid of relationships as a result of that. 00:46:00.160 |
You've been molested by people that you trusted, and you don't know what to do with that. 00:46:07.440 |
I don't know how many people that I've prayed for or talked to seeking some relief for what's 00:46:22.520 |
And they live with that horrendous memory in their teens, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s. 00:46:33.360 |
Some of you were raised and you don't know your mom. 00:46:40.440 |
Some of you were raised and you have no recollection of your dad. 00:46:46.480 |
Some of you are suffocating because of financial burdens. 00:46:53.720 |
If Christ was not raised from the dead, that's all you got. 00:47:08.080 |
Just suck it up and move on because that's it. 00:47:17.480 |
And some of you, some of you are living with the shame of what you did in the past, and 00:47:29.080 |
If Christ was not raised from the dead, my preaching is in vain. 00:47:46.800 |
You live with the pain of living in this fallen world, and that's it. 00:47:55.200 |
And the only hope that you have is that one day you will die, and that's it, and suffering 00:48:02.480 |
If Christ was not raised from the dead, that's it. 00:48:15.720 |
All these kids who are sleeping without food in their stomach, children in Kenya, both 00:48:24.200 |
parents died because of AIDS walking around homeless, young girls who are being forced 00:48:31.360 |
into prostitution because they just happened to be born in a home that the parents did 00:48:44.700 |
If Christ is not raised, all we can say is tough luck, tough luck. 00:49:04.280 |
If Christ was not raised from the dead, his resurrection changes everything. 00:49:17.720 |
He didn't die to give us a placebo, to hold on to this empty blanket, to feel a little 00:49:42.780 |
I want to encourage you, those of you who are here who do not know Christ, maybe all 00:49:52.800 |
the questions that you have and why this life just does not make sense is because you've 00:50:02.360 |
God created you for a purpose and you have no idea what that is. 00:50:06.240 |
And you're just trying to make sense of why you're here, where we're headed, where we 00:50:09.360 |
came from, and you just can't get the answer. 00:50:12.940 |
Could it possibly be you're looking for answers outside of the only one who can give you that 00:50:20.400 |
What separates us from this Creator, the Bible says, is our own sins. 00:50:24.420 |
And until we confess our sins, there's a barrier between us and God that we can never get to 00:50:35.020 |
Instead of condemning us like that fig tree, He put that guilt, He put that shame upon 00:50:43.180 |
But not only did He absorb it, He was resurrected and given us new life. 00:50:56.940 |
But the moment I met the Lord, everything made sense. 00:51:04.260 |
A God who is completely sovereign allowed those things to happen to bring me to Him. 00:51:10.980 |
To everything that I was angry about, overnight I found my answer in Christ. 00:51:16.860 |
What could have easily led to years of anger and rebellion turned into source for greater 00:51:27.180 |
I want to encourage you, if that's you, you're searching and you're lost, and you've been 00:51:34.740 |
trying to look for it in your friends, your family, your parents, in government, in education 00:51:51.900 |
I've dedicated my whole life because I believe that with all my heart. 00:52:20.220 |
If you haven't prayed to Him in a while, if you haven't searched Him in a while, if you 00:52:26.980 |
haven't connected with Him in a while, there's nothing more important for you to do today 00:52:32.100 |
than to cry out to the Lord and receive forgiveness. 00:52:42.420 |
There's nothing more important in this world than to receive this Jesus, ask for forgiveness, 00:52:49.100 |
to be reconciled with the Creator, and then live the rest of your life telling other people 00:53:17.580 |
Some of you might be sitting there thinking, "I've heard this so many times, and I believe 00:53:33.300 |
If the resurrection did not happen, what will you lose today? 00:53:46.500 |
What is it about your life that you would say, "If He wasn't raised from the dead, my 00:53:51.660 |
life is empty, because I gave everything to follow Him, because I believe this." 00:54:00.900 |
The resurrection demands, it demands our confession. 00:54:07.580 |
Either we believe it and give our life in exchange for His, or we don't believe it and 00:54:20.480 |
I pray with all my heart that that is not the case. 00:54:25.020 |
I pray with all my heart that you would come to the conviction that we celebrate the bodily 00:54:34.260 |
resurrection, the real resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:54:38.220 |
And one day when He comes, we will be glorified with Him. 00:54:43.780 |
Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.