The Resurrection Of Christ

It is associated with Passover, a few days after Passover, and I checked my calendar and Passover this year was April the 12th, the beginning of Passover, so we're in that ballpark here of the time of the resurrection. The word Easter is actually used in the New Testament in the book of Acts one time, kind of unusual because it's translated in pretty much every other place, Passover. And yet, one time, it mentions this idea of Easter, and I've not been throughout the years.

I don't believe it's a biblical concept to celebrate special days. I think we need to have liberty to allow people to do that, but the New Testament does not ask us to honor any special days like the Old Testament did. There were many special days in the Old Testament, feast days where the congregation would come together and the whole of Israel would honor a special week or a special day.

But in the New Testament, the only thing we're asked to remember is the Lord's death, and do that as often as you will in the Lord's Supper. Romans chapter 14, just to clarify that, it says this, One man esteems one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

So I don't know that it's a real big issue. The only issue I have with special days is when you take a special day and worship a false god, or you worship like a Halloween or things of that nature, or you make a Christmas time about Santa Claus and a tree and all of those things. But special days, and so Brother John and I were talking this week, there was possibly going to be some visitors coming here from India.

And so we were considering here, I was talking about, he was talking about me having a message on the resurrection, and so we want to do that here this morning without our visitors. But a message on the resurrection is always a good message. And I sit back there and I think of myself, even up until the last 15 or 20 years, when you talk about the resurrection, you know, I thought about the resurrection and the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead, and Lazarus was raised from the dead, and there's a number of people that are related, the little, Jairus' daughter raised from the dead, there's a number of people who were raised up from the dead, and you accept something and you say, yes, Jesus Christ was raised from the dead as a theological truth, a fact, but what does that truly mean to me? How does that affect my life, and what impact does it have on me, and so to have a better understanding of the resurrection, that's my heart here this morning as I share it with you on this subject of the resurrection.

Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and you all jumped ahead of me here, but my first passage is also in Luke chapter 24, it's been hit on twice, and it'll be a third time here, but I'd like to read, you don't have to turn there, we're going to turn here in a little bit to another passage, but in Luke chapter 24 it says this, now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them, these are the ladies, the spices were prepared for the dead body, and they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher, and they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus, and it came to pass as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold two men stood by them in shining garments, and as they were afraid, and bowed their faces to the earth, they said unto them, why seek you the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. He is not here.

That's a message from the angels. He is risen. He is risen, and that resurrection is a bodily resurrection.

He was laid in the grave physically, bodily, and he was resurrected bodily, and I'd like to spend some time on that, and you know when I have, when I prepare in the morning, often times I prepare, and the Lord just impresses upon my heart, just so, you know I get the message always first, and I'm the one that gets to respond to the message first, but you know this message here, it just brings clarity again to what life is all about, and the purpose of life, and so I trust it will come to your heart as clear as it came to mine here this morning, just going through here, and pondering what does the resurrection really mean to me, and what is it, how can it motivate me to live in accordance to the will of God. Let's have a word of prayer, and then we'll pick up here on the subject of the resurrection. Lord, Heavenly Father, we come boldly unto the throne of grace this morning by a new and living way, by the blood of Jesus, and we want to acknowledge, and accept, and believe the record that you gave of your son.

Not only was he born of the Virgin Mary, not only was he brought into this world by the Holy Ghost, not only did he live without sin as a perfect Lamb of God, but he also was crucified and was buried, and three days later he rose again from the dead, and I believe that with all my heart, and I want to testify here this morning of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and Lord, may our hearts be opened, and may the Spirit of God minister grace to each heart, and motivate us, and help us to see clearer vision for the purpose of life. So thank you again for all that you've done for us. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Well, a major theme, like the resurrection, always gets back to the central theme of the gospel. The gospel. As a matter of fact, if you see the gospel taught or exemplified in the New Testament, you'll find that the resurrection is a part of the message of the gospel.

One needs to understand and believe that Jesus Christ not only died for your sins, not only was buried, but was also resurrected. And someone mentioned here this morning, I think it was Brother Chad, a little bit about that. I remember as a young Christian, reading through my Bible, and coming across that place where the scripture says that we are saved by His death.

And I thought, there you go. We are saved by His death. The wages of sin is death.

And yes, Jesus needed to die, and so we are saved by His death. When He was on the cross, just the fact that He died is what saves me. And that was satisfying for a while, until I kept reading.

And then it says we are saved by His blood. Oh, and I remembered in the Old Testament that there was no remission of sin without the shedding of blood. And so the importance of the Lord's blood being shed and that centurion coming and piercing His side with a sword and the blood flowing out of Him.

You know, it wasn't just the lamb in the Old Testament that was killed, the blood was shed. And that blood was taken into the mercy seat and put on the mercy seat as an offering for sin. And so I thought I had it figured out, it's death and blood, until I kept reading.

And then it says we are saved by His life. Saved by His life. And so yes, we should sing, saved by the blood, and saved by His death, and saved also by His life.

And you know, God was good enough to give us one passage here that brings all of these out. In one passage here, and I love this passage in Romans chapter 5, and you don't have to turn ever. Listen as I read what Paul says here in Romans 5. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And so in that passage, we are justified by His blood, we are saved or reconciled through His death, and we are saved by His life.

And that is the complete story there. And you need all those components. The death of the Lord Jesus, the suffering and the bleeding and the shedding of blood, and also the life, which is what we want to talk about here this morning.

The life, the life. Had Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood and they put Him in the tomb and there was no resurrection, you and I would be, as we heard this morning, we would be lost with two of those components and yet lacking in the last one. And so I believe that we need all three of those components and of course the Lord fulfilled all of them.

So turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15 here this morning. It's, no excuse me, yeah 1 Corinthians 15, that's the resurrection chapter here and I'm not going to go through this chapter here this morning, but I want to start off how Paul starts this chapter. It's all about the resurrection.

But before he actually gets into this resurrection, he wants to clarify the gospel. And so let's read down through here starting in verse number 1. Moreover brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all, this is what we all need to keep in memory, that we might be saved.

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that He was buried and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And this is what we need to have in our memory. We need to keep in our hearts and believe in order to be saved.

First of all that He died for our sins. He died for our sins. 1 John chapter 2 verse 2 says, and He is a propitiation for our sins.

That's our sins. The church's sins. And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

And so we think of, yes the Lord died for our sins and the church's sins, but He also, when He died on the cross, He also died for the sins of the whole world. Now I want you to think about that just for a minute. Let this thought kind of lay heavily upon you as we go into this message.

But Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. Now let's say there's 12, 13 billion people throughout history and that's a lot of people. And can you just remember or imagine all the sins that have been committed throughout history.

All the heinous sins that have been committed throughout history. You find, you know, Stalin and Hitler and some of these Jeffrey Dahmers up here in Cleveland, Ohio and just some of the most atrocious sins that have been committed throughout history. And yet we're told here that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world.

Every thought that was out of line, the wicked imaginations of men's heart and every word, every blasphemous word, every evil word, every slander, every malicious spoken word and every deed, every deed. It's just amazing. Not only is there 12 billion people, and I'm just kind of wanting to stress this thought, but not only is there 12 billion, 13 billion throughout history, maybe more than that, I don't know.

There's like 8, 9 billion today and this population has been exploding. But all the sins of all these people and ours here, all of this has been laid upon Him. It's been laid upon His back.

That's a lot of weight and that's a lot of guilt and that's a lot of condemnation, especially when we're told that the wages of sin is death. The soul that sins it shall die. And that's certainly something that's too heavy for a man to bear and that's why we've talked about this in the past that it's not just a man, it's the Son of God.

And God took upon Himself the form of a human being. He was God's only begotten Son and He came into this world. And so you just picture the weight of the sin of the world upon the Lord Jesus Christ as He's there dying in the place of sinners who should have died and have the wages of sin upon them.

So I think it's a good message for all of us when we go out we can say, whosoever will let him come and drink of the water of life freely because the Lord has taken care of all the sins. Now look at 1 Corinthians 15 and I'd like to look a little deeper here in verse number 4. It says that He was buried and then He rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Three days.

He was three days in this state of being buried. What happened during those three days? And what's the purpose here of the three days? Well this is actually fulfillment of prophecy. In Matthew chapter 12 Jesus said this, for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, even so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

So that word heart there means in the middle of the earth. So just like as you can imagine, I was talking with the children, I read that story to them this week, but you can imagine being Jonah, we'll see that story here in just a minute, but Jonah being three days and three nights in the whale's belly. Even so in the same way, the Son of Man shall be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

So the Lord is likening His experience after His crucifixion for those three days to Jonah's experience. And I never realized this until I was looking at that here this week, but turn with me to Jonah. I'd like to read a passage here, a couple of passages from Jonah in the Old Testament here.

Jonah is right ahead of Micah and right after Amos, if you can connect in any of those. Jonah, this is an interesting story here, but in Jonah chapter number one in verse 17, when the Lord likens His burial and resurrection, His death, burial and resurrection to Jonah's account, if you go back and read here in chapter one, verse 17, it says this. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me out of the belly of hell, cried I, Hades, and thou heard us my voice, for thou hast cast me into the deep in the midst of the seas, and the floods can pass me about, all thy billows and thy waves pass over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight, yet will I look again toward thy holy temple. The waters can pass me about even to the soul.

The depth closed me around about. The weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains.

By the way, just throw this out, this was written many years ago, long before they had submarines and could understand what's going on, and yet God told us way back then what was on the bottom of the sea. Places where men had never seen before. He said there's mountains down there.

Guess what they find when they go down there? Mountains. There's mountains. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains.

The earth with her bars is about me forever, yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. Now I want you to notice here that Jonah is used by Jesus as an example. Just like Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, even so must the Son of Man be three days and three nights into the heart of the earth.

Notice here the words that put Jonah way down. Way down. Look at verse number three, for thou hast cast me into the deep.

Verse number five, the waters compassed me about even to the soul. The depth closed me round about, and in verse six, I went down to the bottoms. I don't know how Jonah knew that, but he was inside the whale's belly, but he sure felt like he was going.

You can tell when you're going down. When you're in an airplane and you're starting to go down, you can tell. I'm sure when you're in a stomach, you're going down, down, down.

By the way, I checked it out. Children, how many of you know how deep a whale can go in the ocean water? How deep can a whale go? Anyone want to make a guess? Any of you know anything about whales? 2,000 feet. Oh, that's an immature whale that can go 2,000 feet.

My, how many? Two miles. You probably looked it up on the phone, didn't you? Actually, two miles is the answer. Two miles.

Some whales can go as deep as two miles. Can you imagine that? That's about, how many feet would that be? 10,000 feet deep. Two miles.

So, the Lord here, he likens his descension. We talk about he descended into the heart of the earth. Ephesians 2.9, now he had descended.

What is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? So, Jonah is a type of that. He's a figure. I went down to the bottom in this hell that I was in.

It was awful. It was difficult. Now, let me just show this, share this, because I'm totally under the belief that Jesus finished the work on the cross.

When he cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Then he said, it is finished. It is finished. I think salvation was wrought there on the cross, and yet there is a physical side of death that for three days and three nights he went down, it says, he went down into the lower parts of the earth.

But I like verse number nine here in Jonah chapter two. It says, but I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed salvation is of the Lord.

Salvation. And look at verse ten, and the Lord spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. That's salvation right there.

You know, when Jesus came up out of that lower place, he, he, phew. As a matter of fact, the Bible talks about how when Jesus was resurrected, graves were opened up. It was a, it was a pretty powerful event.

He came out from the lower parts of the earth, just like Jonah. Jonah was down there in that whale's belly, and God said, salvation is of the Lord, or Jonah said, salvation is the Lord, and the Lord spake, and the fish vomited him out. And those are pictures there of the resurrection, the resurrection coming out from the lower parts.

And then here's something I thought is really a profound thought. I've never seen this before, but I think this story is a picture of the resurrection and, and the new birth. And, but notice what it says in chapter three, verse one, the next verse, and the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time.

The, I wrote in here, being born again, the second time resurrected to live, saying, arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Isn't it interesting that when the Lord was raised up from the dead, he said, now go and preach the gospel.

Call men to repentance and to faith in the Lord Jesus. And Jonah is a beautiful example of this. He was, he was vomited up, and the Lord said, now, by the way, the Lord came, he suffered, he died, he was buried.

Three days later, he was raised. He ascended up to heaven and he came back and lives in us. And he sends us out just like Jonah was sent, go and go and take this message.

Brother, there's no greater message for us in the body of Christ than to let people know that, that sin has been atoned for and your sins have been paid for. What a, we never, we never lose sight of that reality, that the gospel is good news, that the world needs to hear that Jesus Christ, sir, something you need to know is that Jesus Christ has paid for your sin. Oh my, we ought to never lose sight of that simple, simple message.

Well, let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 here. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse number three. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.

Now it says here that he died for our sins. Now I know that's a thought that you have. So you sit here and you say, ah, Jesus died for my sins.

But, but what is, what does that mean or why is that so important? Why is the resurrection such an important doctrine for us to embrace? Well, I'm going to give you an analogy here, a story, an illustration, share with you why it's so important. Let's just say, for example, that one of you is greatly indebted to a bunch of evil people, maybe a gang of some sort or, or some evil person, the devil is the likeness there, and you're indebted and you owe this group of people or this individual a hundred, two hundred thousand dollars, and you have no way to pay. Isn't that way it is? We're sinners, we have no way to pay.

And the person that we owe, and yes, we violated our, our, our, our Lord and his law, but the devil has the power of death. And according to the scriptures, he has the keys to hell, but Jesus took those keys from, from death and hell, he took those keys. And so this individual was hunting you for your life, and you can't pay it, and you're always looking around your, the corners around and trying to find out where this guy's, or these people are going to shoot you or take your life.

And so you're living in fear all the time because you have this great debt. And so someone comes to you, gracious person, and says, you know, how much, I heard you owe $200,000. And I just want you to know that I love you and care about you.

And just like the Lord says he loves us, he commends his love toward us. And he says to you, I want to take care of this debt for you. Yeah, okay, that's wonderful.

You take care of my debt, and I'm excited, and, and yes, it's a good thing. Take care of my debt. And the man asks, or the woman, whoever it is, asks, who are these people that you owe? And I tell them, these are the people, I don't know where they're at, but these are the people I owe.

And if, you know, if you can give them the money, hopefully that'll take care of this debt. And so that person says, well, I want to take care of it for you. I'll see if I can find them, and I'll take care of the debt for you.

So this person starts to look, look for these individuals or individual who, who is holding this debt over you. And, and a couple of hours go by, and maybe a day goes by, and you don't hear anything. And maybe two days go by, and you still haven't heard from this person.

People are asking, where is this person? Other people know him. They don't know where he's at. Well, he, he told me he was going to pay off my debt, and, and he's going to go back to these people who are very vicious people, and, and I hope he can get my, my debt paid off.

Well, three days go by, four days go by, a week goes by, and still nothing. You have not heard back from him. That's not a good sign, is it? Two weeks go by.

Police are sent. They try to find this guy, can't find him. Let's say about four, four weeks go by, and all of a sudden, the policeman calls you and says, hey, we found him.

He's dead in the field, out here in this farmer's field. Now, what does that mean to you? Oh boy, I'm in trouble. I'm still in trouble, right? These people, they killed him.

I am still indebted to these, this gang of mobsters. I'm still indebted, and I'm still in fear. He's dead.

What happens if Jesus stays in the grave? What happens in your heart if Jesus stays in the grave? He took your sin down into death, and death took him out. What does that mean for you and I? Not, not good. Not, not much hope there, is it? But let's say, take the same story, and this, this man, a couple of days later, comes back.

He's all excited. He says, I found these people that you owed the money to, and I gave them the two hundred thousand dollars, and your debt is cleared, and he gives this testimony of having to, to having paid your debt. All of a sudden, things change, isn't it? Isn't that the way? Ah, my debt has been paid.

So, I was thinking about that. You know, what is the words that Jesus said when he came back to his disciples and told them? After three days, he was gone. What did he say? And some of you jumped ahead and already read a part, part of it, but I want to read to you his words that he shared with his disciples after taking care of that debt, being raised, and then coming back and sharing with them these words.

Listen to what he says. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said unto them, Peace be unto you. That's where he starts.

Peace be unto you. Now, what do you think he's saying? You know, if that man would have come back, and I would have owed that two hundred thousand dollar debt, and the first words to me was, peace be unto you. You're at peace.

You can be at peace. Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted and supposed that they had seen a spirit, and he said unto them, Why are you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold, my hands and my feet, that it is I myself, handle me, and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have.

Now, they questioned whether or not he was a physical person, that maybe he was a spirit. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy and wonder, they were confused or perplexed.

He said unto them, Have you here any meat? Now, the Lord's going to eat right in front of them to show them he's real. He's not a spirit. And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and honeycomb.

I can imagine him handing it to them and saying, Now watch, see what happens to this food. See if we can see it go down him. Is he a spirit? And he took it, and he did eat before them.

He ate right in front of them to show them, I am a physical resurrected body. I'm like you. I have a little different body than you.

And he said unto them, These are the words which I spoke unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. And he said unto them, This is this.

Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations, starting in Jerusalem. And behold, I send the promise of my father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem. In other words, I have come back from death.

I have come back. And you imagine, I can just imagine, you know, all the sins of the world being weighed upon him. He having to take the punishment, those sins, probably all the devils of hell sitting on top of him, trying to keep him under.

And yet, by the power of God, he was raised up. He overcame death and the devil. And he comes and says like that man would have said to you, It's taken care of.

And you know what? I want you to go out and tell everybody that forgiveness of sins is available to all remission of sin. That's on his heart. It wasn't, you know, a hundred other doctrines, but his heart was remission of sin should be preached in all the world.

Let humanity, let all of humanity know that that I have taken care of it. And that's what drives the missionary spirit, isn't it? That's what drives people to go to the ends of the earth because of those words. I have been resurrected.

I have taken sin and death and I have overcome them and paid and made atonement for them. And now I am raised up and I'm alive. You know, in the book of Revelation there in Revelation chapter one, Jesus said, I was dead, but I'm alive forevermore.

And yes, I realize that a lot of people today aren't hearing that message, but still the greatest message you can ever share with anyone. And that is founded upon the premise that Jesus Christ or the truth that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. So the Lord has taken the weight of sin and death to its lowest place, the heart of the earth, and has overcome them by his resurrection.

The songwriter said, up from the grave he arose with a triumph over his foes. He arose a victor from the dark domain. Think of Jonah down there in the dark and the dark domain.

He arose a victor from the dark domain and he lives forever with his saints to reign. He was vomited out. And you know, he was vomited out, he had a message.

He had a message. And that message was effective in Nineveh to turn people from their sin and to turn them to the Lord. And that's the same thing that was on the heart of the Lord when he came up.

He said, here's the message. And I'm going to give you the power to do it. I'll give you my spirit.

And you can take that message just like Jonah. And that message is this, that sin has been paid for. Just stop and think about that for a minute.

Some of you sitting here, just think about, you know, the guilt and condemnation that sin brings to humanity, the fear, the anxiety, all the mental breakdowns and all the physical problems because of the guilt of the conscience. And I mean, it was, someone said that 99% of the people that are in Saint of Sodom are in there because of their guilt and condemnations. It's sin, it's unforgiveness.

And just to think here today that sin has been entirely paid for. And after being paid for, he rose from the dead, even though the wages of sin is death. Even though death weighed upon him because of the sins of the world, he was able to overcome that.

And he is alive. So it's understandable that the first words out of his mouth is now, go he and preach the gospel. Jonah, I've given you a second chance.

Jonah, go. And Jonah does. He goes and preaches the gospel.

Hebrews chapter two, let me read to you here. And there's many verses that we could look at, but Hebrews chapter two says this, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death, through death, through his death and his dissension, through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. And so when I think of the resurrection, I think most importantly that, yeah, he was resurrected.

I understand that. But through his death and resurrection, I no longer have to fear death. Because the scripture says there when you fear death, you're under the power of the devil.

He controls people through the fear of death. And so the gospel, faith in the gospel delivers us from the fear of death. Well, what if Jesus had not risen? Well, death would have overcome him.

And in my heart, I would have thought if death has overcome him, death will overcome me. But because he lives, I think someone picked that song out, I serve a risen savior because he lives, I can live also. Turn with me to first Corinthians chapter 15 again.

First Corinthians chapter 15. By the way, I like to remind us all of this. If you're looking for purpose in life, if you're looking for vision in life, if you're looking for something that's meaningful other than just feeding your face and going through life, right here it is.

Preach a resurrected Jesus. That's what life's all about. Preach a resurrected Jesus.

Preach that the ills and the condemnation that comes because of the sin of the world has been taken care of and set people free from those things that are holding them back. Well, first Corinthians 15 in verse 19, by the way, this whole chapter is dealing with the resurrection, talks about the kind of body that we're going to have just like Jesus' body. But in first Corinthians 15 in verse number 19, it says this, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. Now, what is a first fruit? Well, the first fruit is you'd put a field in, a harvest or crop in, and the first fruits were the portion that the farmer would go out and sample and take off a first fruit, just a small portion. And then the harvest would come later on.

There was a feast called the Feast of First Fruits. It says here that Christ is the first fruits of them that slept. Verse 21, for since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits and afterward, they that are Christ at his coming. So the harvest is when the Lord Jesus returns.

And as someone suggested here this morning, the song, it may be at morn, it may be at noon, Christ returneth. And that'll be the time when Jesus who showed us as the first fruits showed us he was raised from the dead. All they who put their faith in him, believe on him, will come up at the harvest, at the resurrection.

And so he's shown us the way. And so my question here this morning to you is, is your faith, a genuine faith in the Lord Jesus, his death bear on resurrection? And yes, a resurrection is a wonderful thing, but most people who celebrate today, Easter, don't really understand what that resurrection means for them. What does it mean for me? It means that he took my sins into the grave and he overcome mine.

And he's raised from the dead. I don't have to be afraid. I don't have to fear.

And so we can praise God and give him honor and glory for what he has done through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I believe many people today will go to churches like maybe Catholic churches, Methodist churches, Episcopal churches, churches all over, and they'll talk about resurrection. They'll talk about these things, but they'll miss the point.

They'll miss the purpose. I don't want us to miss the purpose of the resurrection. So can we thank the Lord here this morning and just honor him? Again, be reminded how important it is that he came up out of the grave.

If there is no resurrection, the Bible says your faith is vain. You're yet in your sins. I don't know.

He went to pay my debt and he never came back. The devil and death destroyed him. He never returned.

I'm still in bondage. I'm still in debt. But know the Lord came back and he said, go and preach.

The debt is paid. And there's no better purpose for life than to share with people that message. And I would encourage all of us to just take that to heart, not only for our own life, but also for others.

All right, let's close. We'll have a word of prayer and then we'll open it up for anyone who'd like to share here this morning. Heavenly Father, we again want to honor you and thank you for the truth and what you did nearly 2,000 years ago in raising your son from the dead.

And Lord, taking the son of God into death and bringing him out victorious. Lord, we want to honor you and praise you for that, that all of us here in this room today can be free. Free from the fear of death, free from condemnation.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Lord, may we rejoice in that. And also, Lord, may we, as Jonah, as we are, as we understand the resurrection, may we go forth and declare these things to others that their sin has been atoned for through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, Lord, motivate us and empower us by your spirit to boldly proclaim that truth around the world. Lord, I pray that someone here this morning would be sent out as a missionary to the ends of the earth because of this wonderful message, that they would get a vision of how to help humanity before the day of judgment comes. Even as Jonah was said, yet 40 days and I'll destroy the place.

Lord, our 40 days are ending. And Lord, may you cause us to be raised up for your purposes. Pray your blessing on each one here today.

In Jesus' name. Amen.