Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Good morning, church family.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: Man, What a joy to be together today.
[00:00:08] Speaker A: Amen.
You have to. I do this every year.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: But you're going to have to indulge the grouchy old Baptist pastor and me for just a moment before we continue on.
There is a.
There is a tradition amongst Christians of many persuasions that goes back a long, stinking time, which is on Easter Sunday.
The pastor says, he is risen. And you guys respond by shouting, he is risen indeed.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: Can we do that? Can we do that? Okay. All right. He is risen.
Amen.
What a God we worship. What?
Here's the thing, guys. We're here together today not just because it's Sunday, but because it's Easter Sunday.
There's something about the story of Easter that we just summarized in two quick lines, right? There's something about the story of Easter that is so. Just. Just enticing, right?
This is the story that God himself entered into our broken world and lived among us. That he met us in our sin and our need. That he lived this perfect life, but was betrayed to an unjust death. But sleep, somehow in that death on the cross, found a way to take the punishment for the sin of the whole world that he paid for you and for me to have life and to have forgiveness. And because of who he was, because of the work he accomplished, death itself could not hold him. So that after only three days, the tomb opened and Jesus is heart began beating and his lungs began breathing, and he walked out of that tomb in glory and power, in victory. Like, that's what is encapsulated when we say, Jesus has risen. Indeed, when he walked out of the tomb, he made a way for us to exodus our hearts from the bondage of sin into the freedom of life and his kingdom. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Right?
But I have an honest question to ask.
Like, we celebrate that, and in this context of church people, of Easter Sunday, of hearing these pretty songs, that is an easy thing to Amen.
But I think it's actually really important to stop back and just say, why does this story actually matter?
And here's what I mean by that. Like, look, I get it. I'm asking that question as the pastor, right? And. And so it's like, well, okay, but here's the thing, guys. That story that we just heard, that we just talked about, that is why Christianity exists outside of the cultural expectation of family gatherings and, like, starburst jelly beans. Like, that's why we're here this morning, right? That's why Easter Sunday is a thing. So what Is it about this story, the story of Easter, the story of the gospel that is so compelling?
This may surprise you guys, but I have a lot of discussions about faith. I know in my line of work that seems strange, but I do. I have a lot of discussions about faith and about religion. And one of the things that comes up often in my discussions with people who aren't practicing faith actively is this idea that faith or even religion in general really just kind of exists as a comfort, a self comfort. I've heard it said that religious practice in general really is just like a coping mechanism against the fear of death.
And on the surface, that actually makes sense, right? Like people, generally speaking, don't want to die. And so a promise that after death you get all sorts of goodies and then get to see Grandma. Like, that's actually comforting, even if it is a little silly and unrealistic.
That sound familiar to anyone? Is that like, internally or Some of you are going, no, no. Yeah, that's pretty much where I'm at. Listen, I get it.
And again, I know that as a pastor, my next thought is going to be a little obvious, but bear with me.
I genuinely believe that understanding of faith and religion is entirely and fundamentally wrong.
Yes, faith can be and should be
[00:04:28] Speaker B: a comfort for us in the face of death and loss.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: But I would argue that that is
[00:04:35] Speaker B: simply a side effect of what faith really is.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: I think faith is a morally right
[00:04:42] Speaker B: reaction to the injustice that is death.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: A morally right reaction to the injustice of death. See, I think on a deep. On a fundamental level, all of us
[00:04:56] Speaker B: know that there is something wrong with death.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: And I mean morally wrong.
But here's the deal. We live our whole lives surrounded by death, even in little ways, right? Like every meal you eat, some animal
[00:05:10] Speaker B: or some plant died to make it possible.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: Every time we wash our hands, we destroy countless little bitty life forms. Heck, have you ever seen a kid, a group of kids find, like, a
[00:05:21] Speaker B: dead squirrel on a playground, right?
[00:05:22] Speaker A: Like it's.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: It.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: It becomes all of the emotional energy for the rest of the afternoon.
When a person dies, something in our
[00:05:33] Speaker B: deepest person, even though we're surrounded by the reality of death all the time, when someone dies, even someone we're not necessarily close to, something in our person goes, no, no, no, no, no, that should not be.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: Yes, it's scary.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: But. But think about this for a minute. Is that your core experience of death?
[00:05:53] Speaker A: No, not fear.
Sorrow.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: Right?
[00:05:58] Speaker A: When we see death, we go, that's wrong. That shouldn't happen. Most of us don't attend Funerals with fear. We attend funerals with sorrow. This isn't fair.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: This shouldn't have happened.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: I mean, sure, it happens to literally everyone, everywhere, but it shouldn't, right?
I would argue that all of us,
[00:06:18] Speaker B: all of us universally, all human beings through time and space, are moral creatures.
[00:06:24] Speaker A: That something in our very DNA tells
[00:06:27] Speaker B: us death should not be.
CS Lewis famously argued that this universal experience of morality was actually an argument for the existence of God.
Some people say that morality is a construct. It's a social consensus, right?
[00:06:42] Speaker A: Whatever a given community decides the rules are, that's what morality.
And to some extent, that is true, right? Like we all know pink and blue are not really boy and girl colors. We just decided that at some point as a society, this one goes this way, this one goes that way, and that way. All the companies can sell you two sets of all the baby stuff, right? Like that. That we know that stuff's kind of made up, but at the same time, we really do know that's not the whole truth.
Some things are. Are wrong, really wrong, because strength, because victory, does not determine right and wrong. Right. Like if the Nazis won World War II, that would not make the Holocaust right.
It would still be wrong, even if the people in charge said it was right.
Lewis taught us that morality is larger than humanity because it's this spark of the divine image within us, that it points us back to our creator and
[00:07:42] Speaker B: ultimately his goodwill for his creation.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: Yes, sin has distorted morality, and there are all sorts of things that societies
[00:07:50] Speaker B: decide and live by that are destructive.
[00:07:52] Speaker A: But each of us in our core knows that there is such a thing as right and wrong. And we feel compelled to conform ourselves and our world to that outside standard.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: So if this universal human experience of morality, if that points us to God,
[00:08:10] Speaker A: well, then what does God say about reality?
[00:08:13] Speaker B: Like, what has he said about what is right and what is wrong about how this world should work? How does God tell this story?
[00:08:21] Speaker A: Well, if you look at what the
[00:08:22] Speaker B: scripture teaches, we see that he says he made us for life, that sin that brings about death and separation, that
[00:08:30] Speaker A: sin and death are the old, ancient, original enemy. And that as much as our hearts do feel fear, this, we know deeply that we were made for something more
[00:08:41] Speaker B: than what's broken and sinful in this world.
And again, this echoes Lewis's thoughts in the same book in Mere Christianity. He has this famous quote where he says, if I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world church. This is why we Hate death not out of fear, but out of the sense of justice, out of a sense that this is not right, that this is our enemy.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: That even though it's strong, even though all of us experience it, even though we're surrounded by it, even though it affects every single person we know and love, that we are much more like the French freedom fighters in World War II, stuck behind enemy lines, not submitting to the authority over us.
We know it's wrong and we rail against it.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: Which brings us to our text for today.
[00:09:38] Speaker A: Now, I want to pre apologize. That was a long introduction and that is not an indication of how long the rest of the sermon is, I promise. But it's Easter. I'm allowed to get a little excited. So we're going to be in First Corinthians 15 today. If you want to go ahead and turn there, if you don't have a Bible with you this morning, we have Bibles around the room.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: Look underneath the rose.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: They're somewhere around there.
[00:09:59] Speaker B: Really believe in the importance of access to God's word here, to manual fellowship. So, by the way, if you're here today and you don't own a Bible, I'd encourage you to just take one of those pew Bibles home or even talk to one of the pastors and we'll get you a nicer one.
[00:10:11] Speaker A: My point today is going to be simple.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: As we look at this text, our
[00:10:15] Speaker A: hearts long for the Gospel. We long for resurrection. It's the morally right reaction to the reality of death and the curse. And here's the thing, beloved of Jesus, as we look at the truth of the Scripture, we find that as much as our heart longs for resurrection, we have a God who freely gives it, who makes it freely and readily available to you, the deepest desires of your heart. It cost him dearly, and yet he freely gives it to us. And that, at its core, is purely and simply wonderful.
That our God would give us what we actually need, what we actually long for. And so my main point today is this. The resurrection of Jesus is a wonder to behold.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: The proper response to the amazing love of God is to simply sit in wonder and awe and worship.
So pray with me and let's jump into this text. Jesus, we need you this morning.
Spirit, we need you to be our discipler. We need you to be our encourager, our challenger.
God, we ask that you would illuminate your text to us. For those of us who are in this space, who are far from you, who have seen our faith grow stale, who have bound our hearts Wandering far from the truth and power of your presence, we pray that you would gently, kindly, joyfully draw us back to you today.
For those of us who are sitting in the calluses of our hearts, the sin patterns, the parts of our story that we don't want to deal with, that have caused us to spiritually dry up, I pray that in love you would challenge us afresh and draw us to the opportunity to new life in you. For those of us who are in you, Lord, I pray that you would bring us to a place of remembrance and joy today, regardless of the needs of our heart. Lord, we know that you are the one who knows them, that you are
[00:12:11] Speaker A: the one who guides them.
[00:12:12] Speaker B: And so, God, we pray that you
[00:12:13] Speaker A: would speak to each of us today
[00:12:15] Speaker B: as our heart needs and that we would leave here today blessed, encouraged, challenged, reminded by your spirit.
God, you are the only one who can do this. So we pray it in your name, Jesus. Amen.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: First Corinthians 15. Starting in the first verse, we read this.
Now, I want to make clear to you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand and by which you were being saved. If you hold to the message I preached to you, unless you believed in vain, for I passed on to you as most important, what I also received.
That Christ died for our sins according to the scripture, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12. Then he appeared to over 500 brothers and sisters at one time. Most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. And last of all, as one born at the wrong time, he also appeared to me. For I am the least of the apostles, not worthy 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. Yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me, whether then it is I or they.
So we proclaim, and so you have believed.
Okay, to put that in context, really quick, this text is part of a letter that Paul wrote to a church in Corinth. This is a church that Paul helped plant during his second missionary journey. You can read about it in Acts 18.
The things you need to know to
[00:13:55] Speaker B: kind of set us up for this
[00:13:56] Speaker A: is that this was a deeply hellenized city. What that means is it was really dominated by Greek culture and by Roman accesses. They had in fact, like, engaged the Gospel with genuine affection and repentance. But it was a hard fought battle. Paul had to push through the legalistic and judgmental Jewish community in the city who scoffed at Gentiles becoming followers of God. And then after the church was planted, Paul had to deal with the fleshly and worldly loves of this Romanized culture in Corinth. Like, if you ever have a moment where you think, man, my church is really struggling, like, it's not that great, read First Corinthians and I promise you, you will feel better about your church. Like, if they got in, surely we get in also, right? Like, this is a, this church struggled with all sorts of sins, from bitterness and fighting and gossip to flagrant sexual immorality, all the way to intellectual and philosophical doubts.
By the time Paul is writing this letter, he's genuinely concerned for this church. Like, he loves them, he, he believes in their faith, but he's challenging them to actually live out their faith in earnest.
[00:15:12] Speaker B: They claim Christ, but they very obviously
[00:15:15] Speaker A: live like the world.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: So Paul is challenging them to engage the gospel afresh.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: And I gotta be honest, guys, I get the feeling in a space like
[00:15:26] Speaker B: this, that sort of invitation is actually probably really appropriate and important for many of us, right?
[00:15:33] Speaker A: Like, whether it's your intellectual doubts, whether it's your apathy, whether it's your love
[00:15:39] Speaker B: of the things of the world, many of us, many of us have drifted from the faith we once claimed.
And you need to know something.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: If that's you today, if you are here right now purely because it's a
[00:15:52] Speaker B: familial expectation and you're at a place
[00:15:55] Speaker A: where you go, man, I don't know,
[00:15:56] Speaker B: like, I'm just, I just feel far from the Lord. I'm just not prioritizing these things. I'm not pursuing these things right now. You need to know something.
We all do that, we all do that.
There's no, there's no shame or judgment from this church family to you right now because we all, like sheep, have gone astray.
We all do that.
Sometimes you need brothers and sisters in Christ to come alongside you and just kick you in the butt and remind you of the truth and remind you of the things that really matter. And if you are here today feeling far from the Lord, thank you for being here.
Even if you literally just came to make your grandma happy. Thank you for being here.
Because the gospel has power.
Because we love you, because we welcome you, and because Christ is calling you to Consider him and consider his invitation afresh. He's doing that for all of us today.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: This is, by the way, exactly what
[00:16:52] Speaker B: Paul does for the Corinthians. He brings them back to this really basic Gospel story.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: He says, okay, okay, okay. Let me remind you what I preached to you the first time. Remember the thing I preached, the thing you believed, the thing that's actively saving everyone who believes it. Let me bring you back to that gospel. And what does he name as the gospel truth that people believe that saves them?
Several specific historical statements. Did you catch that?
I think it's one of the strangest things about this text. Paul doesn't point out anything abstract or emotional. There's no spiritual or psychological ideas. He points them to several concrete, physical, historical claims.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: You see this?
[00:17:38] Speaker A: He says, Jesus died according to what the scripture taught. This death was for our sins. He was buried three days later, in accordance with the same scriptural teaching, he was resurrected. And then he lists out eyewitnesses to these claims from the original 12 apostles
[00:17:53] Speaker B: all the way up to himself.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: This is a stark reminder for us that Christianity has always been this really
[00:18:02] Speaker B: earthy and tangible belief system.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: Right? Like, this is not meant as a dig, but if you do comparative religious study, what you find is that most world religions go one of two ways. They either began in these secret, private revelations.
Someone went off by themselves and heard from God, and no one else got
[00:18:24] Speaker B: to see about it or hear about it, like Mormonism or Islam.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: Or they're steeped in ancient prehistorical narratives that are so old they blur the line between history and allegory. And the practitioners don't really care which one they are.
[00:18:39] Speaker B: This is like Hinduism or Buddhism, but
[00:18:42] Speaker A: Christianity has always been right in the
[00:18:45] Speaker B: middle of this, rooted in these specific,
[00:18:49] Speaker A: concrete, public historical claims.
It's a unique facet of the faith we follow all the way back to the earliest Christians. You got to know something. Paul's letters were the earliest written New Testament scriptures, right? Like, these were written down before most of them, before the Gospels were written down. This is early Christian teaching. And how does Paul describe the gospel? By making concrete, specific historical claims. You need to understand something. Like every single year around Easter, some news site or multiple news sites will have some, like, shock and awe, clickbait article where they go, new evidence finds out Jesus didn't really die, and he's living in Sacramento. Like, it's always something like that, right?
It's always a strange thing.
But here's the reality.
No serious scholar actually questions that Jesus
[00:19:45] Speaker B: of Nazareth lived and died Period.
[00:19:49] Speaker A: There are some on the fringe of
[00:19:51] Speaker B: historical scholarship that will say, I don't even think.
[00:19:54] Speaker A: But they are quite the minority, the vast majority. There is no strong academic, by the way, outside of Christian faith.
[00:20:04] Speaker B: There is no strong academic consensus that Jesus didn't exist.
[00:20:08] Speaker A: Bart Ehrman, who is famously an atheistic
[00:20:11] Speaker B: historian and Bible scholar, says the crucifixion
[00:20:13] Speaker A: of Jesus by Romans is one of the most secure facts of history. History we have, period.
[00:20:19] Speaker B: No one seriously questions that Jesus was here, that he was crucified. No one seriously questions that his followers
[00:20:25] Speaker A: were entirely convinced that he was their God and their Savior.
[00:20:30] Speaker B: That's one of the important pieces to catch here.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: I mean, they would not have remained so doggedly loyal and unified if they
[00:20:38] Speaker B: were purposefully lying or if they were charlatans.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: They wouldn't have all serious scholars who studied. No, no, they, his followers obviously believed what they said.
That's not the question.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: The question is whether they were correct, right?
[00:20:56] Speaker A: It's not whether or not Jesus lived and died. It's not whether or not his followers
[00:20:59] Speaker B: were convinced he rose from the dead.
[00:21:01] Speaker A: It's whether or not they were correct.
Jesus lived and died.
[00:21:06] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:21:06] Speaker A: But is he God?
That's a really important question.
Is he the Savior of humanity from our sin?
Hold on to that.
What we need to understand here is from day one, Christians have claimed that Jesus literally, physically and bodily rose from the dead and was witnessed by tons of eyewitnesses. And it is this fact, this resurrection, and the evidence of it that gives credence to their devotion, their claims, and the invitation to receive Jesus as our own Lord and Savior. Christians have believed this and proclaimed this since day one.
[00:21:47] Speaker B: This is the core of Christianity.
[00:21:49] Speaker A: Read on with me in verse 12.
Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain. And so is your faith. Moreover, we are found to be false witnesses about God because we have testified wrongly about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise up, if in fact, the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless.
You are still in your sins. And those then who have fallen asleep in Christ have simply perished.
If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone.
[00:22:37] Speaker B: Paul makes this exact point in the text.
[00:22:41] Speaker A: It all comes back to the resurrection of Jesus.
It either literally happened or it didn't.
There's no in between. There's no turning this into an allegory or hyper spiritualizing it. It either happened or it didn't.
Now you need to understand something.
Human beings don't generally raise from the dead.
I know, but here's the thing that's always been true.
Like Romans weren't somehow magically more likely to believe in the resurrection because they didn't have access to modern science and read it.
In fact, I would say they were most likely less likely to believe in the idea of resurrection because they didn't have 2,000 years of cultural pressure from Christianity as a world religion making them think about that idea.
Human beings don't come back to life once they die. That's not a thing.
[00:23:39] Speaker B: But here's the deal.
Without the resurrection of Jesus, Christianity is pointless.
By the way, it's worse than pointless.
It's actively harmful and destructive to human flourishing.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: I had a pastor friend who would say Christianity is a terrible hobby.
And by the way, that's true.
If Jesus didn't literally, factually, physically, bodily rise from the dead, then all of Christian teaching falls apart.
All the stuff we do is a waste of time.
All that giving of your time and your money, all that self discipline, all that putting others above yourself, all that stuff is wasted.
If Christ didn't rise from the dead, if Christ did not resurrect, you should
[00:24:30] Speaker B: not be here right now.
[00:24:32] Speaker A: You should be taking the limited hours
[00:24:34] Speaker B: and minutes you have and making the most of them.
Right, guys? The amazing and audacious claim that Jesus rose from the dead is the singular claim upon which all of Christianity rises or falls. Read honestly in verse 20.
[00:24:52] Speaker A: But as it is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, and the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all be made alive, but each to his own order. Christ the first fruits afterwards at his coming, those who belong to Christ. And then comes the end when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he abolishes all rule and all authority and all power. For he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet. And the last enemy to be abolished is death. For God has put everything under his feet. And when it says everything is put under him, it's obvious that he who
[00:25:30] Speaker B: puts everything under him is the exception.
[00:25:32] Speaker A: But when everything is subject to Christ and the Son himself will also be subject to the One who subjected everything to him so that God may be all in all.
[00:25:42] Speaker B: This is the word of the Lord for us today.
Beloved Jesus has risen from the dead, physically, literally, historically, bodily.
And notice, by the way, I think this is so interesting.
Notice that Paul doesn't give some great intellectual proof here.
[00:26:01] Speaker A: He has already told us there are plenty of eyewitnesses, including himself, and so he sees no need for evidence beyond this.
[00:26:10] Speaker B: Right?
[00:26:11] Speaker A: I saw Jesus. He really didn't rise from the dead. Yeah, that's it. I'm done. Moving on. And by the way, Paul is so certain of this that he self destructs his entire life on this belief. If you go into acts and actually in Galatians 1 and read the story of Paul's life, oh my gosh, this belief destroys his career, destroys his family, destroys his community, destroys his safety, his financial security. He lives his life trial after trial, suffering after suffering because of his firsthand experience of the resurrected Jesus. And because of that experience, it's enough for him to base every facet of his life upon he met the resurrected Jesus and that was it. And notice, by the way, he didn't even meet him bodily like Paul met Jesus after Jesus ascension to heaven.
[00:27:05] Speaker B: But the reality is this, guys, once you meet the risen Lord, once you encounter the resurrected Jesus, the rest is a foregone conclusion.
[00:27:17] Speaker A: Just in the same way that if Christ didn't resurrect, the whole thing falls apart.
[00:27:20] Speaker B: The whole thing's a waste of time.
[00:27:22] Speaker A: If Christ did resurrect, then all of the rest of it falls into place.
All of the rest of it comes in to play at that point, guys, the resurrection of Jesus is an act of supernatural authority that speaks to the truth of all his teaching.
If he did in fact raised from the dead, then everything else goes with it.
If he did raise from the dead, then his teaching is given weightiness.
It means the God of the universe actually lived as one of us, but lived without sin that he chose to die the death that sin rightfully earned, the just wrath of God. For sin was poured out on Jesus. And the Spirit of God rose Jesus from the dead. An act of pure authority that placed even death itself under the feet of Jesus.
[00:28:16] Speaker B: That's what the resurrection means in this text tells us, by the way, that there's even more to it than that, that Jesus didn't just die to pay the price for our sins. He doesn't just take the consequence for us. And he does that, but he goes beyond that.
[00:28:33] Speaker A: So he doesn't just take the consequences of our sins, he makes a way
[00:28:37] Speaker B: for us to benefit from his perfect righteousness.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: This.
I'm going to give an example here.
[00:28:42] Speaker B: It's a little weird, but I think it's helpful.
I love gardening. Like in a hypothetical sense.
[00:28:48] Speaker A: And here. And here's what I mean by that.
Here's what I mean by that.
Every year about this time, I go
[00:28:56] Speaker B: to Lowe's and I look at all the plants and I imagine all those peppers and tomatoes and cucumbers growing in my backyard.
[00:29:06] Speaker A: And I imagine my children coming around me with joy. Father, thank you for providing us this fresh produce. And we pick it together and we make beautiful salads and everyone eats them and they go, oh, this is so healthy and nutritious.
[00:29:19] Speaker B: That's how my children talk at home. You guys, you guys, I'm sure you
[00:29:22] Speaker A: know, And I imagine that and think, yes, this is who I am. I'm a gardener.
And so I get all these plants and I plant them and I'm so excited.
And then I never touch them again and they all die.
Anyone else? Just me. Okay, here's what I want you to imagine.
Imagine you're me for a moment, and you make your summer garden.
And your next door neighbor also goes
[00:29:50] Speaker B: to Lowe's and makes a summer garden.
[00:29:52] Speaker A: And you go out there and you do all the work. You plow up the ground, you put in the plants, you put the little labels in, you put the rabbit netting up, like all the stuff you're supposed to do. And then you promptly move on with your life and never touch the garden ever again.
[00:30:04] Speaker B: Right?
[00:30:05] Speaker A: But your neighbor, your neighbor's actually a gardener. And so they go out there every day and they do the work and they pull out the weeds and they put the right stuff in the soil. See, that's how good I am at gardening.
[00:30:16] Speaker B: I said they put the right stuff in the soil.
[00:30:20] Speaker A: They pick the bugs off. I don't know what they actually do, okay? I've never done this.
They actually do the work.
And then harvest day comes along and you look out that window in the
[00:30:32] Speaker B: back of your kitchen and you see the hellscape that is your garden.
[00:30:36] Speaker A: Thorns and brambles.
[00:30:38] Speaker B: A shriveled up, sun dried tomato that
[00:30:40] Speaker A: wasn't meant to be sun dried, but you just left it on the vine.
And then over in their yard is
[00:30:47] Speaker B: this gorgeous, luscious garden, right?
[00:30:49] Speaker A: And you get a knock on your front door and there's your neighbor with their gardening gloves, with their basket, and they say, hey, neighbor, I just been thinking about it.
I know, you got a lot going on. I want to go back and actually
[00:31:03] Speaker B: take care of your garden. Is that cool? I want to go back and harvest it for you.
[00:31:07] Speaker A: And you think about the thorns and
[00:31:09] Speaker B: brambles, and you go, I don't want you to do that. And they go, I want to.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: And so they go back there and
[00:31:16] Speaker B: they start digging through your garden, and they pull up all the dead plants and they pull out the thorns and they're getting the scratches and the cuts, and they're pulling up these shriveled, gross little tomatoes.
[00:31:25] Speaker A: And in the midst of that, they
[00:31:26] Speaker B: give you a basket and your own set of gloves and say, hey, you
[00:31:28] Speaker A: know, I've been thinking about it. Why don't you harvest my garden?
[00:31:32] Speaker B: And you go, ah, I'm not doing that. And they go, I want you to. I want you to have it.
[00:31:36] Speaker A: I want your family to.
[00:31:37] Speaker B: I know you guys have a lot going on.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: I want your family to have that.
[00:31:40] Speaker B: It's a silly analogy, but here's why
[00:31:42] Speaker A: I think it's helpful.
[00:31:44] Speaker B: If Christ had just showed up and taken the punishment for our sin, that would be a grace that is unimaginable.
That would be a kindness that is beyond imagination.
But Christ didn't just do that.
Christ didn't just take our sin, but also gave us his righteousness.
That's the power of the gospel.
[00:32:11] Speaker A: So Christ, his resurrection becomes the first
[00:32:14] Speaker B: fruit, a precursor to our own resurrection. Beloved, this is the gospel invitation that Jesus, victory over death becomes your victory over death.
Come on, church.
[00:32:29] Speaker A: This, beloved, is the love of God in action.
Because Jesus work accomplished on the cross and in that empty tomb, sin is not given the final word on you
[00:32:39] Speaker B: and me, we get to receive the benefits of Christ's own righteousness. Paul said it to the Roman church like this.
[00:32:47] Speaker A: For while we were still helpless at just the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person. Though for a good person, perhaps someone might dare to die. But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath?
For if we, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. How much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life?
And not only that, but we boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation. Beloved, Jesus work for you.
His death and his resurrection, they prove his love.
They're the love of God in action. He poured out that love for you and for me. Even in our sin, even in our doubts, even in our failures, even in our pride, even in our wandering, even in our spiritual dryness and apathy. Jesus responds to you and me with love.
And he takes the step toward us.
He comes to us.
He freely gave himself to you. He loves you.
Jesus really loves you. You specifically.
He thinks about you.
He cares about you, you, all of us but you.
[00:34:30] Speaker B: When Jesus described His own work to his disciples, he said, the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, to give his life as a ransom for many beloved. Jesus loves you so much that he puts his life where his mouth is.
[00:34:48] Speaker A: He serves you.
[00:34:48] Speaker B: He gives Himself for you. And you can respond to that love, that today the love of God is a glorious thing, a strong thing, and it saves us.
[00:34:59] Speaker A: It's stronger than the power of death.
[00:35:02] Speaker B: Jesus is able to make right the age old injustice of sin and death.
[00:35:07] Speaker A: He doesn't destroy the sting of death to ease our fears. No, he is righting an injustice, restoring all things to his good, original design. He is drawing his creation to life, to harmony, to peace, to holiness. And you are invited to live in that glorious reality.
If you're here today, Band, if you
[00:35:30] Speaker B: want to come back up and you don't yet know Christ, I would. I would urge you to consider Him.
To consider the truth that. That he knows you, like, really knows you, knows your sins, knows your failures, knows your strengths, knows your weaknesses.
And he loves you.
He gave Himself for me. He rose from the dead and he is calling you today.
Come back to that question.
Did he actually raise? Did it actually happen?
[00:36:00] Speaker A: It's a big question.
[00:36:02] Speaker B: And if you're someone who's considering that, I would ask you to consider this question also.
If God actually is who the Bible says He is.
Yes.
If he actually is who the Bible says He is, wouldn't you expect him to do something like this?
If God really did make all things and really does care about his creation
[00:36:26] Speaker A: and really is so full of compassionate
[00:36:29] Speaker B: love and perfect justice that he actually cares about you and me, wouldn't you expect him to intercede?
To not let the curse of sin, to not let the evils and injustices of this world have the final say, wouldn't you expect him to inject Himself
[00:36:46] Speaker A: into human history and say, not in my creation.
[00:36:51] Speaker B: That's exactly what the Bible describes.
A God who's not content with the reality of suffering and injustice and death and evil.
A God who actually says, my creatures are Too important.
[00:37:05] Speaker A: They're too precious to me. I love them too much.
[00:37:08] Speaker B: I will not allow this cursed world to be the final say on them.
Jesus said, seek and you shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened. Seek Christ with an open mind and an open heart and see what he does. See if you meet him, because I'm confident you will, confident you can experience Him. You can be saved by him today.
[00:37:34] Speaker A: And by the way, that's not just for the people in the room who
[00:37:37] Speaker B: are still considering the call of Jesus. If you're in the room today and you're someone who feels like your faith has just fallen off the rails, someone who's wandered far from Jesus, it doesn't matter. The reason doesn't matter. We all do it.
We all have seasons, short and long of spiritual rebellion and spiritual dryness.
Painful, hard things happen to us, or even just our own laziness and apathy.
We fall off the rails,
[00:38:06] Speaker A: all of
[00:38:06] Speaker B: us, like Streep gone astray. Beloved, know this. He loves you.
He is calling you back to him today. He longs for you to return to Him. All you have to do is come back to Him.
There is no judgment or shame. He. He already took all that.
To return to Christ is to find joy and forgiveness. It's to find invitation.
And if you're in this room and you know Jesus deeply, if you're in
[00:38:34] Speaker A: a place of joy and strength in your faith today, know this.
[00:38:38] Speaker B: The invitation is the same for you to come back to Christ, to come to him fresh today, to find life and joy in the power of the Gospel, to join with Jesus in the work of going with him out into the world to seek and save the lost, to invite the lost sheep to come to their good shepherd.
You know, in Acts, when Paul was ministering in Corinth, he began to grow in discouragement.
There was so much opposition to the work. And he had a moment where Christ himself comforted him in the Spirit. And Christ said these words to Paul in that time. He said, I am with you, and
[00:39:15] Speaker A: no one will lay a hand on
[00:39:17] Speaker B: you or hurt you. Because I have many people in this city,
[00:39:23] Speaker A: beloved.
[00:39:23] Speaker B: Jesus has many in this city.
He is already around us, already in this place, already in our community, already doing the work.
He has many in this room.
He has many in your family.
Jesus sees you.
Jesus knows you. He loves you. He's calling you.
And beloved, that is a wonder to behold.
