The Resurrection

If you have your Bibles with you this morning, please open them to the Book of First Corinthians, First Corinthians. First Corinthians, Chapter fifteen, First Corinthians, Chapter fifteen. Very familiar passage, and I've taught on this passage a number of times in a number of different ways, from a number of different perspectives and angles. But I think it's like the rest of the Word of God, absolutely inexhaustible. And if that's true of all the Bible, I believe it's true, particularly true here in First Corinthians chapter fifteen, in the resurrection chapter. And there are many aspects of this chapter that we could look at. We're going to look at really those first nineteen verses, i'd say the first twenty verses, but really concentrating on those first nineteen verses and specifically verses twelve through nineteen addressing the issue of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the resurrection is really the fundamental doctrine, if you will, in our faith. And I don't say just a fundamental doctrine, but really the fundamental doctrine in our faith, because everything else that we believe really hinges on that. In fact, there is this validation and verification of everything that we believe that we find there in the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And I don't want to just sort of make that argument, and it's not something that I'm saying as by way of an opinion, but it's something that really is fleshed out here in One Corinthians fifteen, and you'll see in verses twelve through nineteen that this is the argument that Paul is making, that this is the crux of the matter, that there are so many other things that everything else really rises and falls with the resurrection. Everything else sort of rests on and hinges upon the truth of this doctrine. As such, Paul is making what I see as three arguments for the resurrection here. I want to allude to the first two, but then we're going to concentrate on the third. The first argument is what I like to call an argument from authority. You find that in verses one and two, and then there is an argument from history or evidence, and you find that in verses three through eleven, and then there is an argument from logic or reason. You find that in verses twelve through nineteen. And that's what we're going to be concentrating today, and Paul offers all of these arguments in turn, because they all matter. But you can't separate these arguments from one another. It's not as though he would say, yes, we need to just make the argument from authority and just leave it at that, or the argument from evidence and leave it at that, or the argument from logic and just leave it at that. He puts all of these things together, wrapped together in one, as it were, to leave us with the inescapable reality that not only is Christ raised, amen, but that means not everything. It means airthing. Right, that's beyond everything, it means airthing. So let's look first at the argument from authority. Look at verse one. Now, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. Here's this is the argument from authority. All. Since I'm reminding you, brother, I'm bringing to your attention you've heard from me before. Now let me put this in context. You will see from the flow of his argument in One Corinthians, chapter fifteen that there are those surrounding the Christian community in Corinth who want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to. Hold on to their worldview, a worldview which excludes the very concept of res According to their worldview, the idea that anyone could be raised from the dead is ludicrous, it doesn't work, it's a non starter for them. They do not believe in the idea of resurrection. And this is very. Important because we live in a day in an age where the predominant worldview in our culture is the worldview of secular humanism. And in the worldview of secular humanism, one of the foundations of foundations of secular humanism is the idea of naturalistic materialism. Nature is a closed system and matter is all that matters. If you can't see it, touch it, here it, smell it, taste it right, then it's just not real. It's not noble. The only way we know things is through our senses and through observation of that which is in nature. And again, nature is a closed system. There is nothing outside of nature, which means that by definition, there is no supernatural. So, according to the secular humanist worldview, even though secular humanists will talk about God and higher powers and things of this nature. But according to the worldview, there is no supernatural So when we talk about God, we're not talking about God in the theistic sense. We're not talking about God in the supernatural sense. We're talking about some theoretical feeling or power or spirit that unites things, but not God in the supernatural sense. So, according to the modern worldview of secular humanism, a person who was a secular humanist who wanted to attach themselves to the Christian community would be a person who, on the one hand would deny even the possibility of something like a resurrection, but on the other hand, would want to hold Jesus in high esteem. Do we know people like this, We most assuredly do. I've studied under people like this. I've taken courses from people who were magnificent instructors in Greek and New Testament, and I started my journey. I was a student athlete at Rice University. Came to faith late. I did not grow up in Christianity. I did not grow up around Christianity. I was raised in the home of a practicing Buddhist, never heard the Gospel to my first year at university, so having come to faith late and being a student athlete at Rice University. Right, it's a secular institution, but they had a religion program. So I took some courses in religion at Rice as a new believer, and I remember sitting in courses on the New Testament taught by men who knew the Greek New Testament backwards and forwards, who had written books on the Greek New Testament. You know, who loved the literature of the Greek New Testament, but who were unbelievers, who did not believe in things like resurrection, who knew the Bible better than the ninety nine percent of Christians will ever know the Bible, did not believe in things like resurrection. You have friends and family members like this, who, on the one hand, hold Jesus in high esteem. Right, most other religions are like Muslims are like this. Muslims hold Jesus in high esteem. He's a highly honored and revered prophet. Resurrection absolutely not, absolutely not. Buddhists, well, oh, Jesus and high esteem as a wonderful man and and teacher and wise sage and and spiritual man, and. Profit even resurrection, ah, not so much. American politics is filled with men and women who are in churches today and in churches all the time when they're running for office, who will talk about Christianity and Christian ethics and and and the Bible. And they want to and they want to They want to wrap the Bible and the cross and the flag and and and hold to a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. And don't believe in things like the resurrection. And so don't think that this is some obscure concept that Paul had to deal with, but we don't. It is true today again. Some of you have friends and family members who revere Jesus but don't believe in the supernatural, don't believe in the resurrection. He was a good man, he was a good teacher, but no on the resurrection. They want to hold to the moral teachings of Jesus, but not the resurrection. Some of you don't just have friends and family members like this. For some of you, I'm describing you this morning. Jesus a good man, Jesus a good teacher, but this supernatural stuff that this this stuff was added later. There's an entire movement of scholars, so called Christian scholars, and they have a group called the Jesus Seminar, and the Jesus Seminar is filled with people with PhDs from high powered places like Duke Divinity School and Vanderbilt and have it right who write, you know, articles that appear in things like Time and People and where they're essentially arguing that Jesus was a real historical figure. But what has been added to this historical figure is this sort of supernatural mythology that now exists surrounding him. And we have to separate the Jesus of faith from the Jesus of history. This is the kind of language that is used by these individuals who will make the same arguments that Paul is dealing with right here in First Corinthians. And it's ironic because one of the things that they argue is the idea of resurrection came later we'll deal with that, but for now, look at the argument from authority. Paul says, I remind you, brothers of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved. He preached it, they received it, they're standing in it, and they're saved by it. But there's an. If clause, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. Now, let me break down what Paul is saying here. Paul is saying that if you believe the gospel that I preached and the way I preached it, and if that is what you have received, and if that is where you're taking your stand, then you are being saved. However, if you are. Believing something other than, something less than or something more than, the gospel that I preached to you, then you've believed in vain. Your faith is empty, your faith is meaningless. Unless you believe in the gospel that I preached. You are not an insider, but you're an outsider. In other words, Paul would say that an individual who calls themselves a Christian while denying the essential doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is actually not a Christian at all. Your belief is empty, it's futile, it's vain. Let me illustrate it for you. Let's say, for example, that when I come up came up here, that I had been sitting in a chair up here. You know, sometimes you have the pulpit chairs and the pastors will sit in the popit chairs, And by the way, thank you so much for not having that. And you know I'm sitting here. But now I stand up and I deliver my message. And in the. Seat that was behind me somebody removed while I was standing here, and I finished preaching, and take a couple steps back and sit in that chair. Now here's the question. Do I believe with every fiber of my being that that chair is there? Will my belief in itself hold me up when I sit down? No, because the object of my belief would no longer. Your faith is only meaningful if the object of your faith is meaningful. And Paul says, if the object of your faith is a Jesus who was not raised, your faith is meaningless. It's himty, it's vain. You are not a Christian. You cannot deny the resurrection and be a Christian. You cannot. You cannot. And if that offends you, let me tell you two things right off the bat. Number one, I don't write the mail, I just deliver it. Amen. Being offended at me for saying that is like being offended at the postman who brings you a bill that you don't like. Amen. But here's the other thing. Imagine this, if you will. Imagine if I stood up here, you know, and somebody was here and they had a you know, and I saw earlier today a USC license plate, right, and I came up to that person and I said, let's see man fight on men of Troy. They were like, wait, wait, wait you you are you a Trojan? I most assuredly am awesome. And they said, well, you know I graduated in whatever two thousand. How about you? I said, well, you know, I never really I never graduated. Oh that's cool man. You know you didn't got You're still a Trojan. I mean you went, you know, you stilled there. I was like, what, Actually I didn't go. Wait what? Yeah? No, but you know, I grew up in South Central, you know, and I lived close to SC always rooted for the Trojans, right, that's my team. So you know, that's how I'm a Trojan. Now, if they looked at me and said, brother, I'm sorry, but the University of Southern California reserves the right to only matriculate and graduate those who meet its requirements and standards. You haven't done that, so it's illegitimate for you to call yourself a Trojan. Would any of us be offended by USC for doing that? The answer is no, because we have more respect for USC than we do for God. Because when USC says, Nope, there's a standard and a requirement, you haven't met it. You're not a Trojan. We go that's right. But when God says there's a standard for calling yourself a Christian, you haven't met it. Therefore you're not a Christian. We're offended by God, but not by USC. That's the argument from authority. Paul's first argument is you are not allowed to identify yourself as a Christian when you deny the essential doctrines of the Christian faith, which means that those individuals in the Jesus Seminar who are professors of New Testament and professors of theology, and you know, with PhDs and credentials and all of these sorts of things, who are denying the essentials of the Christian faith, they're not Christians. And again I'm not saying this. The Bible is saying this. The Bible is saying this. That's the argument from authority. There's a second argument, and this is the argument from evidence. And he's explaining and expanding on his first argument, he says, for I delivered to you as a first importance. Remember, remember what he says. First, Right, you say you believe the gospel that I preached. Right, that's great. If you're standing on that gospel and believing in that gospel, that's what saves you. Right. But if you don't believe the gospel that I preached, your faith is empty, it's vain, it's useless as meaningless. Now he's going to expand on that four. I delivered to you as a first importance. What I also received that Christ died for us ends in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures. That he appeared to Cephis, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, last of all, as to one untimely born. He appeared to me also, for I'm the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God. I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me, whether then it was I or they. So we preached and so you believed. Look at that at the beginning of the end, he says, I delivered to you as a first importance, how did you deliver it? Through his preaching? And the last verse, so we preached, so you believed. Remember his first argument, the argument from authority. You're saying you're a Christian, which means you're saying that you believe the gospel that I preached. And now he's saying, here's the gospel that I preached, and he summarizes it. This is not everything that Paul preached, but these are essential doctrines, and the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ the essential doctrine. In other words, if you don't believe the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, then you don't believe the gospel that I preached. If you don't believe the gospel that I preached, stop calling yourself a Christian. Now it sounds like he's just trying to be offensive, but he's absolutely not, because what's Paul's desire. Paul's desire in preaching the gospel is not to shut people out, but to welcome people in. Amen. So when you hear this, there's a kind of a sting of offense to this, right, But understand the person here. Paul is not saying, Hey, I'm a member of an exclusive club. Stop claiming to be part of this exclusive club. You're not a part of this exclusive club. Here's Paul's heart. Paul's heart is I preach the gospel because I want you to be a Christian, but you're not believing the gospel that I preached, which means, on the one hand, stop saying that you're a Christian, and number two, repent and believe the gospel that I preach, because it's the only way in do you see the difference. Paul is not saying I'm a member of an exclusive club, but I want you to stop pretending. Paul is saying you must not have heard me correctly, and I want you to hear me correctly. And he uses the argument here from evidence whatever quickly. First he uses the argument of fulfilled prophecy. Look at verse three. I delivered to you as the first importance. But I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, was buried, was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. That's the first thing. He goes to the scriptures. I preached to you that Christ fulfilled the prophecies that we have in the scriptures. That's number one. Look at the second one. He uses the eyewitness accounts and that he appeared to Sephus or Peter, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, to all the apostles. Right, here's the amazing thing. He's using the argument of the fulfilled prophecy. Secondly, I witness testimony. Now watch this if you do the math, because again the Jesus Seminar and others, they're saying that this idea of resurrection and the supernatural stuff this was added later. That's their argument. There's the Christ of history and the Christ of faith. This stuff was added later. If you do the math here, you add it up, and there's over five hundred people whom Paul references here. I'm sorry, over six hundred people that he references here. Five hundred's the resurrected Christ at once. He says, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time. Most of them are still alive. That's two hundred and fifty one people. Heymen, most of those people are still alive. Two fifty one plus to twelve, right, that's to sixty three. Then this reference to all the apostles, probably referring to the hundred or so in the upper room, right, So we're well over three hundred people. Why is that significant. Here's why it's significant. Paul is saying that at the time he's writing this, there are over three hundred eyewitnesses to the resurrection who are still alive, which means that the evidence is falsifiable. Now that sounds like a bad thing, right, falsifiable because fall is bad, right falsifiable? No, No, no, that's a good thing. That's a good thing. Let's go to a courtroom, shall we. Really quick? If we go to courtroom and you're going to offer evidence, right, here's here's my testimony. Great, there's your testimony. Should we believe your testimony? Yes, because I'm convincing. No, that doesn't help you very much. But if you can say, yes, here's my testimony, and there are over three hundred people whom you can ask who could verify my testimony. So don't just believe me. If I'm lying, you can right now go and find people who will tell you, uh uh, he's lying. That's what it means for something to be falsifiable. It means I'm offering you evidence that you can go right now and check. And if I'm lying, there are people who can and will say to you he's lying, as opposed to you just need to believe me. This separates Christianity from every other religion in the world. This is not a man who had a religious experience, who had a spiritual visitation, who wrote with no corroboration, and you just got to believe him. He's saying right now today as I write this, there are over three hundred people, and some of them he names. You can find these people and put your hands on them, and many of them also wrote about the resurrection, so fulfilled prophecy. Secondly, I wouldn't testimony, and let me just clear something up here. He says, he appeared to Peter and then he appeared to the twelve. And then people go, well, wait a minute, uh huh. He didn't appear to the twelve because Judas had already hanged himself, so he didn't appear to the twelve. He only appeared to the eleven. Well, if you have time, go read the book of Acts in the Acts chapter one, and here's what you'll discover. And Acts chapter one, the apostles determined that number twelve was very important, so they didn't just stick with eleven. The number twelve. Jesus chose twelve. There were twelve tribes of Israel, right, and he chose twelve. Apostles that number was important. So what did they do in Acts chapter one? In Acts chapter one, they elected Matthias to replaced Judas so that there would be twelve. But in order to elect someone to replace Judas, one of the qualifications was they had to have seen the risen Christ. So this reference to the twelve is a reference to the twelve that includes Matthias, not Judas. And I just say that because there's always somebody. And by the way, that's not a bad thing. Amen, be a Borean. But there's always somebody comes up, you know what you said him here to the twelve and I'm just a friend of mine at work. Now I tried to share this passage and they come up and they said, wait a minute, Judas had already hanged himself, and he doesn't. You know. This reference to the twelve includes Matthias, and one of the requirements for replacing Judas was you had to have seen the resurrected Christ. Let's move on to the last piece verse eight. Last of all, that's the one untimely born to me. He ippi had also to me the last piece of evidence that he uses. It's his personal experience. You know. The difference between him and us. Not only do we lead with that, but we don't offer anything else. My personal story is everything. No, and actually it's not. And without the other pieces of evidence, his personal story would carry very little weight. It's the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. There's the eyewitness testimony, and oh, by the way, there's me. There's me. But here's where we want to get to. There's the argument from authority, then there's the argument from evidence, and then here's the argument from logic, and this is powerful. Paul basically argues that if there's no such thing as resurrection, there are seven things I said two seven things that follow that must follow, as inexorably as night follows day. And this is incredibly important for those people who say they bisecular humanism, for those people who say, you know, I don't believe in resurrection. Jesus, yes, resurrection. No, there are. Seven things that you are arguing, whether you want to or not. There are seven things that you are saying, whether you intend to or not, these seven things have to be true if there's no such thing as resurrection. Look at verse Thwell, now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? Right? Remember that's that's the problem that he's addressing. That there are people there hanging around the church and korinthro are arguing there's no such thing as resurrection. And he's saying, but if there is no resurrection of the dead, number one, then not even Christ has been raised. That's number one. If there's no such thing as resurrection, then not even Christ has been raised. Now hold onto that one and put it in your pocket, because that one is everything. There's number one. If you're arguing that there's no such thing as resurrection, that that just doesn't fit in your worldview, then number one, you're saying Christ has not been raised. Number two, verse fourteen. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain. That's number two. If Christ has not been raised and we preach a resurrected Christ, then our preaching is vain. It's useless. And here's where it gets interesting, right because people who deny the resurrection, they don't want to come back and say, listen, preaching is useless. No no, no, no no no no no no no no. Preaching is good. Preaching is important. It's important that people go to church, and it's important that people hear sermons. It's important that you know, preachers help people to be good and to be. Moral, and it's important. It's important that you do that and you believe that. So it's really important to you. I respect your faith. No, actually you don't, because my faith is in a resurrected Christ, and I preach Christ crucified and resurrected. And if I preach a resurrected Christ, and if that is the foundation upon which my preaching is built, then anyone who argues there's no such thing as resurrection is arguing that my preaching is vain, vain, meaning empty, whether you want to or not. Thirdly, and your faith is vain. Your faith is meaningless. Number one, Christ is not raised. Number two, preaching is empty. Number three, your faith is empty. Why because the object of your faith is nonexistent. There is no resurrected Christ in whom you can place your faith. Your faith is useless without a resurrected Christ. Oh no, no, no no. But faith is important? Why Why is faith important? Faith is only as important as the object of your faith. And if the object of your faith is non existent, then just having faith is a useless exercise. Number four, we are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that he raised Christ to me, did not raise If it is true that the dead are not raised. Its Number four is you're calling me a liar. And again people don't like this. No, no, no, no no no. I would never say that you're a liar because I know that that is a meaningful part of your faith and that you believe that. But if I believe something that's not true, and if I'm telling other people to believe something that's not true, I am lying to them. And someone who lies to other people is altogether now a liar. I might be a well meaning liar, but I'm a liar nonetheless, if there's no such thing as resurrection. But it's worse than that, Guys, I'm a blaspheming liar because I'm not just lying, I'm lying on God. It's one thing for me to just lie, it's a whole other thing for me to lie on God because I'm saying that God did something that he did not do. And again, I've never run into anyone who denies the resurrection who intends to call me a liar. But you need to understand that, logically speaking, you have no other choice. Because if there's no such thing as resurrection, and my entire life and ministry is built on the proclamation of the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, i am a blaspheming liar Verse eighteen. I'm sorry, Verse seventeen. Here's the fifth thing. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins that's the fifth thing. If there is no resurrection, there is no forgiveness of sin. If there is no resurrection, you are still in your sins. If there is no resurrection, then that great exchange didn't happen. If there is no resurrection, we are arguing that man fell in Adam, and that all have sin and falls short of the glory of God, and that sinful man, left to himself, can face nothing but the justice of a righteous God and the wrath of a righteous God, and that by definition a holy and righteous God must punish sin. He has to. And we are saying that what has happened is that God has done that, He has punished sin in Christ as our substitute, who died of vicarious, substitutionary atoning death on the Cross. That Christ died for sin, once for all, the just, for the unjust, in order that he might bring us back to God. As Isaiah says, all we like sheep, had gone astray, each of us had turned to his own way. But God has laid upon him the iniquity of us. All that Christ died for sin. He was the sinless one, the perfect lamb of God, the Son of God rapped in flesh whom God made him, who knew no sin to be sin for us. And so on the. Cross Christ dies as a substitute. For thousands of years, lambs. Were brought, bulls were brought. To the altar so that God could show us a picture that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. But these things were just the foreshadowing of the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. So that Christ, the god Man, dies for sin, and God pours out his wrath on his own son so that he might forgive my sin. But beyond that, Christ didn't just die of vicarious death. He lived a perfect righteous life so that God made him hou Nuna sent no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him, so that He could make us righteous through the vicarious righteous life that Christ lived. So my sin is imputed to Christ on the cross. His righteousness is imputed to me on the cross. And the only evidence that God has accepted this great exchange is that Jesus didn't stay dead. If he had sins to bear, he would have stayed dead. But because he was sinless and because his vicarious death was accepted. On my behalf. God gave me a receipt for that great exchange, and the receipt is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If there is no resurrection, there was no great exchange. If there was no resurrection, my sin is not forgiven six verse eighteen. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If there is no such thing as resurrection, your loved ones who have died truly are lost. They're gone the dead legged dogs. You'll never see them again. Isn't it amazing that on the one hand people want to argue that there's no such thing as resurrection, but when somebody dies, they want to talk about people resting in peace. They want to talk about seeing them again someday. But if your worldview does not have room for resurrection, Christ is not raised. Preaching is vain, faith is vain. I'm a liar. You're still in your sins, and the people who have died before us are lost and will never be reunited with Him again. You can't have it both ways. But even the people who want to deny resurrection want to have hope when they stand before closed coffin. But you can't if there is no resurrection of the dead. Seven If in Christ we have hoped in this life only, we are, of all people most to be pitied. We are the most pathetic lot on the planet. If there is no resurrection. But what are we doing here today? What are we doing every day? Why not just end it all? Or eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we all die. This is the argument from logic. But again, at every point, people who would deny the resurrection would want to say, well, no, no, no, I'm not saying that. Well is actually you are. But here's the thing. Look at the beginning of verse twenty. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead. You know what, here's the beauty. The argument from authority is based on the fact that Christ is risen. The argument from evidence is based on the fact that Christ is risen, which means that when he gives the argument from logic, he's saying, here's seven things that you have to be saying if you are arguing against resurrection. But oh, by the way, I've already proved through authority and evidence that Christ is raised, which means you actually get to flip the script. There is resurrection, which means number one, Christ is risen. He is not dead, he is alive. Christ is risen, which means number two, preaching is not vain, but it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes. Number three, your faith is not vain, but you've actually placed faith in Christ himself, who is raised, and in the same power that raised Christ from the dead. Number four, I'm not a liar. I'm a truth teller, and I am telling the most important truth that any man has ever told to another man. Number five, I'm not in my sins, but they were buried with Christ, and I am forgiven. Number six, those who have died in Christ are not lost to me. I know where they are and I will be reunited with them. And number seven, you are going to hear a rumor one day that Vodie Wakam is doing more. Don't you believe it? Don't you believe it? Don't you believe it? Because though I die, I will rise with Christ. It will not be the end of me, because Christ is raised and I do will be raised with Christ. That is why he is called the first born from the dead. Folks, you don't talk about a first born unless there's others who are born after him. Don't you pity me? You pity the one who wants to hold on to Jesus without holding onto the resurrection. You pity the one who has absolutely no hope because they have no resurrected Christ. Don't you dare pity the one who believes and the death, burial and resurrection of the only begotten Son of God, because they are in need. The only people who have hope, that is hope, Christ is raised. I've had the privilege of standing in his empty tomb. Christ is Listen. You know the amazing thing about standing in the empty tube. Here we are in the middle of the Old City in Jerusalem. It's hustling, and it's bustling, and there are people all over the place just outside of this area, and the overwhelming majority of them are going about their lives oblivious, having rejected the Messiah, and all the while here I am standing in his empty tomb because He is. Risen. And one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ not was, but is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And the reason he is Lord and not was Lord is because Christ is risen. I don't know how you came here today or why you came here today. I don't know what you came here believing today or hoping in today. But if it is anything other than the finished work of Jesus Christ, turn from that, Turn from that flee to Christ. Pray that God would gret you eyes to see that He would gret you faith to believe not only that Christ is risen, but that he died for sin, and that by faith that can include your set