[0:00] All right, so tonight we're rolling up our series called The Crux. If you're new tonight or you're visiting, we've been doing this series throughout the period of Easter called The Crux.
[0:16] And The Crux is a Latin phrase which means literally the cross. It also means to get to the heart of the issue at hand. And so it's really appropriate that this series is called The Crux because we believe that the cross of Jesus is at the very heart of human history, that everything revolves around it, that it can either save you or condemn you, the cross of Christ.
[0:40] And so we particularly focus in on this at Easter time, but it's good for us to remember throughout the year the cross of Jesus. And tonight we're going to talk about the resurrection. Firstly, Jesus' resurrection and what it means for our resurrection.
[0:54] We just heard a little bit about that in that passage that we just read. Generally, we preach verse by verse through whole books of the Bible. Tonight I'm not going to be preaching on 52, 53 verses.
[1:05] Just so you know, just let your shoulders relax a little bit. I'm not going to be doing that. I'm going to be pulling a few ideas out of tonight's text along with saying some other stuff.
[1:16] So just to bring you up to speed with where we've been at so far. The first week in this series, we looked at Jesus as our substitute. So we saw that the wrath of God burns justly against all of us as sinners, that the penalty for sin is death, and that every one of us is on a road to hell, condemnation, separation from God.
[1:42] And that would be just if every one of us went there at the end of our days. But Jesus in dying on the cross is a substitute for us. He dies in our place for our sin, takes the wrath of God upon himself so that we can be reconciled to God and spend eternity with him.
[1:58] That's what we learned in the first week. Second week, we talked about Jesus paying our debt. So again, we owe a spiritual debt to God on account of our sin. It's a debt that we can never pay.
[2:09] The price is far too high. And so we talked about the fact that if you have a debt that you can't pay, the price is too high, you need three things. We said you need a mediator, a redeemer, and a ransom.
[2:22] A mediator brokers a deal between you and the one that you're indebted to. A redeemer is someone who pays the debt that you cannot pay, and a ransom is the fee, the figure that they pay on your behalf.
[2:35] And so we saw that Jesus is all three of those things for us. And in his death on the cross, he is our mediator. Remember the Lord's Supper tonight. Jesus said the night before he died that he was the mediator of a new covenant.
[2:48] See that language right throughout the book of Hebrews, that Jesus mediates a new covenant, a new arrangement between us and God whereby we can enjoy reconciliation and peace. And so he's our mediator.
[2:59] He's also our redeemer. So he's the one who pays the price for our sin by dying in our place. He pays it instead of us. And he's also, of course, our ransom.
[3:10] He's the fee that is paid. His blood is the blood that's shed. And that's what secures peace with God on our behalf. So Jesus pays our debt by being our mediator, redeemer, and our ransom.
[3:21] Next week we talked about Jesus as our example. And I really focused in particularly on Jesus as our example of how to suffer well. So we talked about suffering and maturity, suffering and eternity, suffering and humility and suffering and sovereignty.
[3:39] Went through a sweep of the Bible and the New Testament in particular and saw how Jesus leads the way for us to suffer well in this life where we know much suffering. And I cried a lot and some of you did too.
[3:51] And I'm just going to put that behind us now. That's the last time you're going to see me cry, all right? So that was a couple of weeks ago. Then last week Andrew was here and he preached for us on Easter Day about the vindication of Jesus on the cross.
[4:04] That Jesus died but he wasn't left there in death. No, God raised him from the dead three days later and so vindicated him. Basically Jesus' resurrection was God the Father saying, that price that you paid was enough.
[4:21] The blood that Jesus shed was enough for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus as mediator, redeemer and ransom is sufficient for my wrath to be satisfied.
[4:33] So he raised him from the dead. And we're going to talk a bit about that tonight. But we're going to step forward from the Easter Day resurrection to be looking at our own resurrection, what that means for us and practically how does the fact that we will be raised, as the text from Daniel tonight said, either raised to eternal salvation or raised to eternal damnation, how does that affect how we live each day?
[4:58] How does the resurrection affect each day now, not just in the future when it happens, all right? So that's where we're headed. I'd like to pray for us too. So why don't we bow our heads and I'll pray and ask God for some help.
[5:18] Father, we thank you so much for guiding us through this series as we've been looking at the cross of Christ, what it means for us. I pray tonight that you would continue to reveal yourself, particularly to those people who are here who aren't yet believers, who are struggling with Jesus' death and resurrection, aren't sure if they're convinced of its truth and validity, aren't sure if it applies to them, aren't sure if your death can be enough to cover their sin.
[5:47] I pray for them, that you would save them, that they would see in Jesus the atonement, the forgiveness of their sins. I pray for those of us who have been Christians for a long time and perhaps we've become just a little bit cold towards the magnificent truth of the cross and the resurrection.
[6:09] I pray that you'd warm our hearts to it and that you'd help us to see how we ought to live in light of this resurrection, what it means for us and how we ought to look forward to our own resurrection.
[6:22] We pray these things in Jesus' good name. Amen. Brenton, do you want to do one last thing after reading all those verses? Can you just pick up that book there and bring it to me?
[6:35] Normally I've got a cordless mic, but I feel a little bit... Thanks, mate. It's good. I'm going to be doing some... I've got some notes tonight. So, yeah.
[6:47] I'm going to be reading a little bit from a great book called Vintage Jesus. It's a book that I'm happy to buy for you. If you're here tonight and you're not a Christian or perhaps struggling with some of the things you've been hearing, send me out and buy a copy.
[7:01] So, just to kick off, I want to start with a quote from a great theologian named Hugh Hefner. Okay?
[7:12] So, Hugh Hefner, if you don't know, if you're a Christian, right? No, if you don't know, Hugh Hefner is the founder, the Lord and saviour of the Playboy empire.
[7:27] Okay? And I just need to say, I hate Playboy. I hate porn. I hate anyone who peddles porn. Right? I think it's a terrible tool and agent of Satan that ensnares and enslaves weak men like you and me and increasingly weak women like you.
[7:51] So, I just want to distance myself from Hugh Hefner as much as possible, but at the same time, read a quote from him because I think it's very revealing about where a lot of society is at today.
[8:07] So, Playboy interviewed Hefner and they asked him this question, what do you believe happens after death? And he replied with this, he says, I haven't a clue.
[8:18] I'm always struck by the people who think they have a clue. That's us. It's perfectly clear to me that religion is a myth. It's something we have invented to explain the inexplicable.
[8:31] My religion and the spiritual side of my life come from a sense of connection to humankind and nature on this planet and in the universe. I am in overwhelming awe of it all.
[8:42] It is so fantastic, so complex, so beyond comprehension. What does it all mean? If it has any meaning at all. But how can it exist if it doesn't have some kind of meaning?
[8:53] He's getting into a conversation with himself. I think anyone who suggests that they have an answer is motivated by the need to invent answers because we have no such answers. That's Hugh Hefner's view of eternity.
[9:07] And he summarizes really what I think is a very pervasive kind of idea when it comes to life after death and that is that we cannot know for sure what happens after death.
[9:19] Therefore, we have to relegate all theories, all understandings, all beliefs about eternal life or life after death to the rubbish tip of faith and wishful thinking.
[9:34] Just when we talk about belief and religion and spirituality in general, there's often this dichotomy between fact and faith.
[9:45] You with me? Come across this? Some things are facts, science, banking, maths, right? Other things to do with faith. Stuff we don't really understand.
[9:56] God, heaven, hell, that kind of thing. And so what I want to do for you tonight, and this is just in response to conversations with you guys over the last couple of weeks where you guys have been saying to me and some of you in particular, I just don't know if I can trust that Jesus was raised from the dead.
[10:12] And it's a good question to raise because dead people don't come back to life, right? Dead people generally don't get resurrected. Dead people stay dead. So I understand the question, but to say that we can't know is to misunderstand and neglect a lot of the facts that we have in front of us when it comes to Jesus' own resurrection.
[10:35] So that's what I'm going to focus in on now, some of the evidence for Jesus' resurrection. And you can do some more reading on this. You can look at the biblical evidence. You can look at the circumstantial evidence. You can look at the historical evidence.
[10:46] I'm just going to zero in on the biblical evidence for Jesus' resurrection. Then we're going to move from Jesus' resurrection to our resurrection, what it means for us today.
[10:58] Okay? So I've got seven lines of biblical evidence for Jesus' resurrection. First of all, Jesus died on the cross.
[11:11] Jesus died on the cross. All right? We've been talking about this for weeks now. It's a fact. Jesus died on the cross. There are many scholars today, modernist scholars, scholars who have, you know, more degrees than Fahrenheit, educated beyond their intelligence, scholars who just sit in an ivory tower and don't really understand much at all will say that Jesus didn't really die on the cross.
[11:33] Into this group are a lot of Muslim scholars who want to deny that Jesus really, in fact, died on the cross. And just a brief look at the biblical and historical evidence for the crucifixion will tell you quite conclusively that Jesus died on the cross.
[11:52] Just as a brief recap, we've remembered this during Good Friday and this Easter season in particular, but you remember that the night before Jesus died, he spent a sleepless night in prayer and then undergoing a false trial at the hands of the Jewish leaders, after which he was beaten savagely.
[12:08] Savagely, they stuck a crown of thorns on his head and smashed it into place. Then he went and underwent a flogging. This was given at the word of Pilate.
[12:18] They flogged him. Many men at this day, back in Jesus' day, would have died through the flogging alone. That it was that brutal. They actually have done a bit of archaeology around this and have found some of the flogging cat-o'-nine-tails whips that they would use.
[12:35] And in each cord of these whips, they would put pieces of broken pottery and bone. And the reason they would do that, it was so that when you got struck in the back with this whip, it would literally rip the flesh from your back so that your ribs were exposed, your lungs were exposed.
[12:53] Men would die through a beating and a flogging like that. Jesus survived that and moved through to the crucifixion. Just the most excruciating death that you could experience.
[13:05] Remember, we spoke a couple of weeks ago about the fact that the word excruciating literally means out of the cross. That they invented a word to try and capture the pain that someone would go through in that crucifixion.
[13:19] So five to seven inch spikes were driven through his wrists and through his feet, probably centering right on the most sensitive nerve in your body, in your wrist.
[13:31] You would undergo that kind of torture and then be hoisted up on a Roman crossbar. And the way that you would die as a result of crucifixion, if not from the beatings and the floggings and the nails through your hands and feet, would be through asphyxiation.
[13:47] So literally, you'd have to push up on those nails in order to grab a breath. And when you had survived as long as you could and you were out of juice, you would just let yourself go and that's how people would die.
[14:00] They would die of asphyxiation, not being able to breathe. Some would say that Jesus didn't really die on the cross, that he swooned, that he faked it. That really he was alive when they put him in the tomb and he managed to get himself out through upwards of 50 kilos of linens and wrappings.
[14:19] And he appeared three days later, good as new, and he had faked the whole thing. Some people would have us believe in that, which I think is a greater miracle than the resurrection, if you're going to believe that.
[14:32] In addition to the crucifixion itself, Jesus was stabbed through the side with a spear, right through his ribcage. Water and blood poured out and some medical scholars have asserted that this was in fact a spear puncturing his heart sack, sack around your heart, which contains water and out from his broken heart flowed this water and blood.
[14:57] So if he survived the sleepless night, the dehydration, the beatings, the floggings, the crucifixion and the severed heart, he was then put in this tomb with it sealed for three days, as I said, wrapped in upwards of 50 kilos of linen and left there.
[15:16] Some would say that Jesus feigned his death. I would say to you that those people are either insane or incredibly, incredibly blind to the facts. Jesus was dead.
[15:28] The question is, what happened to him after that? So my next line of evidence, after Jesus' death. Number two, Jesus appeared physically after his death.
[15:48] Jesus appeared physically after his death. Some Jehovah's Witnesses, some other religions, would have us believe that Jesus did appear to his disciples, but he only appeared to be a human.
[16:00] He was really just a spirit, some kind of ghost who had appeared to his followers, really he had long gone to heaven, but he'd come back to sort of give them a G up at half time.
[16:11] He was coming in to give them a little pep talk, and so he appeared to be real. This, of course, doesn't stand up to the biblical evidence at all. We read in Luke 24, verses 36 to 43.
[16:25] He says, Luke writes, as though we're talking about these things, the disciples together after Jesus' death, all a bit defeated, their leader had been killed in a gruesome way, they were talking about these things, and Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, Peace to you.
[16:45] But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. So they're with these critics at the moment. They think he's probably just a spirit. This is a little bit too weird that he would be back with them after they saw him die.
[16:59] They thought he was a spirit, and he said to them, Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.
[17:15] And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet, and while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, Have you anything here to eat? It's a man after my own heart.
[17:26] Have you anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it before them. Jesus appeared physically, not a spirit, not a ghost, not a hallucination, but physically with them in the room.
[17:42] They touched his hands and his feet. They saw that he was a physical person. He ate fish with them. This was a physical, resurrected Jesus. Don't believe anyone who tries to tell you that Jesus just appeared that way.
[17:58] He was physically with them. Number three, I'm going to do six or less, I think, but anyway, let's keep going. Jesus' resurrection was recorded as scripture shortly after it happened.
[18:11] Earliest documents we have from the book of Mark, the book of 1 Corinthians that we're in tonight, date them very, very early after Jesus' death. And so in them, as we heard in the reading tonight, Paul talks about Jesus' bodily resurrection.
[18:24] Mark records Jesus' bodily resurrection. We have John that I just read, all of the Gospels recording his bodily resurrection. And they're all, particularly Mark and 1 Corinthians, are very, very soon, written very soon after the fact.
[18:38] Now, the big idea is, and you'll read this in 1 Corinthians 15, if you look at the little passage before our passage tonight, Paul gives this as evidence to the truth, the historical fact of Jesus' resurrection.
[18:50] And this is the reason. If something like that happened, and it was written down as scripture, and people were still alive, who were there when Jesus was dead, and buried, and rose again, those people could easily come forward and say, hang on, this is ridiculous, none of this happened, we've never seen him since it happened, he's still in the tomb, I'll go and get him for you.
[19:10] Those people could go and do that. They were alive at the time of this writing. No one did it, no one disputed it, because everyone knew it to be true. So, scripture, very soon after Jesus' death.
[19:22] Myth, and made up fantasy, could not have grown up in the few years afterwards. Another one, Jesus' resurrection became part of the early Christian creeds.
[19:35] So, you see in that passage at the start of 1 Corinthians 15, probably the earliest creed we have for Christianity. Being the night service, maybe you don't know about the creeds that we have, that we have in the prayer book, like the Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed, but these are creeds that were written down hundreds of years ago to affirm what we believe as the truth.
[19:56] And probably the earliest Christian creed was that in 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul says, I hand it on to you of first importance that Jesus died, he was buried, third day he rose again.
[20:08] Now, that creed became part of the standard teaching doctrinal statement of the early Christians, again, in the first few years, perhaps even months, after Jesus' resurrection.
[20:22] So, the same, it's fact for the same reason that it could have easily been disproved. It wasn't disproved, it became part of the creeds that we say to this day a couple of thousand years later.
[20:33] These are the creeds that every Christian on earth agrees with. Orthodox, Catholic, Christians of all stripes and colours will agree on this truth. Jesus died, he was buried and then he rose again from the dead.
[20:48] This was a creed right back in perhaps the weeks, perhaps the months, if not the years following his death. I've got one or two more. This is a good one.
[21:00] Jesus' resurrection convinced his family to worship him as God. If you look through the Gospels, you'll notice that, or perhaps we just back it up a little bit, you need to know that Jesus' mum, Mary, was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus but consequently, you know, her and Joseph did what married couples should do and, you know, had sex and had babies and so Jesus ended up with a couple of brothers at least, if not brothers and sisters and two of his brothers, James and Jude, didn't really believe him during his earthly ministry that he was the son of God and you can understand this, right?
[21:39] I've got two brothers. If my older brother came to me and Andrew and said, listen, I know we've been hanging out for a while.
[21:51] John, I'm sorry for that wedgie that I gave you last week. That was, well, it wasn't sinful but I shouldn't have done it and Andrew, I've been calling you a girl's name since you were a little kid.
[22:05] I'm sorry about that. Listen, I'm the son of God. This is what you need to know. I'm the son. We wouldn't believe him, would we? I wouldn't believe him as my brother and so this is what happened with Jude and James and we read and I think it's John 7, 5 that his brothers didn't believe he was God.
[22:22] They were trying to usher him away from the spotlight. They were a bit embarrassed about him. Similarly, Mary, she had more of an idea but we see that not until really the book of Acts that she is worshipping Jesus and the point is that Mary as Jesus' mum and Jude and James as his brothers went from being a little bit concerned about him to worshipping him.
[22:45] Jude and James became pastors in the early church. James was the pastor of the big Jerusalem church. Both of them penned books in the New Testament, James and Jude and Mary falls down and worships her own son in the book of Acts.
[23:03] I've got a daughter now. I change her nappies. It would take a lot for me to fall down and worship her. Mary's changing Jesus' nappies. She's smacking him for being a naughty boy and whatever.
[23:14] She turns around and worships him. Now, what has happened to take Mary and Jude and James from being slightly concerned about Jesus to worshipping him as God, Lord and Saviour?
[23:28] It's the resurrection. It's the resurrection. It's the same with Thomas, remember, who doubted that Jesus had really been raised.
[23:39] He said, I'm not going to believe that until I see his hands and his feet. Jesus appears to him and says, listen, this is me. Thomas falls down and says, my Lord and my God.
[23:52] So, this is what happens. Jesus is raised from the dead and it's the catalyst for the disciples, for his brothers, for his mother to worship him and devote their lives to him.
[24:03] Maybe do one more. Yeah, okay, in the same way, the resurrection of Jesus was enough to turn even his most bitter enemies into followers.
[24:16] It's one thing to make your brother, your mother follow you, but what about your most bitter enemies? And of course, we have the example of Paul who wrote this letter that we're looking at tonight. I think it's Acts chapter 9 that describes his conversion.
[24:29] Before his conversion, he was known as Saul. He was the most bitter enemy of the church. He threw Christians into jail. He murdered Christians. He oversaw the murder and execution of one of the first Christian deacons, Stephen.
[24:42] And he went from that guy who dragged Christians off to prison to the guy who is the greatest missionary that's ever lived in the preponderance of the New Testament. And what happened in order for him to turn from that life of religious devotion to a particularly harsh form of Judaism as Saul to be the greatest missionary that's ever lived?
[25:06] What happened? The risen Jesus met him on the road to Damascus. Remember the story? Phenomenal story. Jesus, the risen Jesus meets him on that road and says, Saul, what are you doing?
[25:19] Why are you persecuting my church? He's converted. He falls down blind. Some dude prays for him. The scales fall off his eyes and he commits the rest of his life to follow Jesus.
[25:31] He went from affluence and a good standing in society with a good job murdering Christians and he went to become one of the greatest Christian missionaries that's ever lived because of the fact of the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
[25:46] As I said, there's far more biblical evidence that you could look into. There's far more circumstantial and historical evidence that you could look into. There's a great quote actually. Let me just remember.
[25:59] Who's the guy from Oxford? That's right. Professor of modern history at Oxford. Thomas Arnold said, no one fact. Just listen to this. Look at me while I say this.
[26:09] No one fact of history is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort than the fact that Christ died and rose from the dead.
[26:27] Last time I looked, Oxford University is a pretty good university and there you've got the professor of history from that university saying that the resurrection of Jesus is the most well supported fact in the history of mankind.
[26:47] If you want to talk more about this then we'd love to do that. We've got people who'd love to meet with you one to one who can go through some of this stuff. We've got people who go to Bible college, people who do this for a living, really look into these things in depth and we'd love to walk with you through that.
[27:01] I just want to switch gears now and start talking about us as believers what does this truth about the resurrection of Jesus mean for us in terms of our resurrection and how we should live in response to it.
[27:17] Many of you would say does it really matter? I mean you've just spent I don't know a few minutes talking about the facts of the resurrection the evidence for the resurrection does it really matter?
[27:31] I mean would it make any difference to us as believers if the resurrection bit wasn't true? Jesus still died on the cross right? He still demonstrated his love for us in that way but what so what if he didn't rise?
[27:44] What does Paul say to that? Turning your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 15 to our passage tonight this is what Paul says to people who are saying that very thing in his church in the church in Corinth they were starting to say listen resurrection resurrection is a hard thing to believe dead people tend to stay dead does it really matter if Christ wasn't raised and he says this verse 12 now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead if there is no resurrection of the dead then Christ has not been raised and if Christ has not been raised then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain we are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified of God that he raised Christ whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised for if the dead are not raised then Christ has not been raised if Christ has not been raised your faith is futile and you are still in your sins then those who have died in
[28:54] Christ have perished if for this life only we have hoped in Christ we are of all people to be pitied what he's saying is this without the resurrection we've got nothing nothing resurrection is like the Jenga piece right at the bottom right if you pull that out everything about Christianity crumbles there's nothing left if the dead are not raised your faith has been in vain Jesus is still dead he's still in that tomb he's still wrapped up in that linen it's just bones there what he said about himself rising from the dead I think it's Mark chapter 831 where he just said outright this is what's going to happen I'm going to be betrayed I'm going to die I'm going to be raised up again three days later what he said was a lie so he's a liar and he's a dead liar and he's of no use to you at all because everything he said about being
[30:01] Messiah about being God about being Saviour is a lie as well we can't trust anything and the big one that he goes into here the big reason why it's all in vain picks up on last week's sermon really on vindication the fact that if Jesus isn't raised from the dead that then God has not vindicated him God has looked down at the death of Jesus and he said it's a good effort I guess but not really what I had in mind don't really want to affirm what you did there he hasn't vindicated him if Jesus wasn't raised from the dead then it's tantamount to the father saying that's not good enough for the satisfaction of my wrath that's not good enough for the forgiveness of your sins if the dead are raised if
[31:07] Jesus was raised from the dead then it's the father saying amen to that Jesus death is enough it is finished your sins have been forgiven heaven awaits my wrath has been dealt with see why it's such a big deal that's why he says if Christ has not been raised your faith is futile and you are still in your sins have ever thought about how that's kind of a weird thing to say if the dead are not raised if Jesus was not raised then you are still in your sins it wasn't Jesus resurrection that paid for your sins we've said for weeks now that it was Jesus death that paid for your sins so wouldn't it still count if his blood was shed for you wouldn't it still count if Jesus wasn't raised it's an interesting thing that he says but I think what he means is exactly what we've just been saying that though
[32:09] Jesus blood was the blood that paid for your sin it's Jesus resurrection that shows us that the father is satisfied with Jesus death if it wasn't for the resurrection then we could say yeah Jesus death and his blood pay for our sin but we can't be sure we can't be 100% sure we would go to our deathbeds thinking we really hope that what he said is true that blood pays for sin but it's not that way is it we can be assured of our resurrection from the dead we can be assured of eternal life with God in heaven because Jesus was raised from the dead by his father as a means of vindicating him and what he did for us I just want to finish with a couple of questions for us a couple of practical matters first of all what does it mean to you that you yourself will be resurrected that every person in this room will undergo a resurrection from the dead
[33:24] I mean everyone here whether you believe in Jesus or not we know from Daniel 12 from our Old Testament reading tonight that everyone will be raised some to eternal punishment and some to eternal life everyone goes through a resurrection some people will inherit a physical body in order to undergo the condemnation and punishment of God for eternity and some will inherit a physical body so as to enjoy the pleasures of God for eternity that's the truth so what does that mean for us right now it would be easy to put that off into the future sometime many of you here are young death seems like a long way off but even for some of you who are young you may have already lived more than half your life we don't know what's coming around the corner we don't know if we will die we don't know if Jesus will return what does it mean you will be resurrected
[34:29] I think there's a lot of mystery really wrapped up in all of this I do a few funerals here and I always am struck during the eulogies right you want to know what people think about life after death just come to a few funerals and listen to the eulogies and for the most part at least for the funerals that aren't of believers there's a lot of mystery around what's going on with these people right now after death what's happened to them are they in the great golf course in the sky are they you know just one guy said you know the person was going to be like a drop absorbed by the ocean is it like that is it sitting on a cloud eating Philadelphia cheese like being part of a really bad and annoying ad is that what it's like I think even within the church there's a lot of mystery about what happens after death I know some of you who are doing theological study right now writing essays on the intermediate state right what happens when we die let me just spell it out for you real quick and just really simplistically when you die that's not the end when you die the destination that you end up at is not your final destination there isn't a one step process to eternal life there's a two step process the
[35:56] Bible teaches us that when we die we either go to a place called Hades or a place called heaven or paradise Jesus said to the thief on the cross remember when he confessed faith in Jesus he said today you'll be with me in paradise and this is the place that all of us go believers or unbelievers people who are going to hell go to Hades people are going to heaven or to the new heavens and new earth go to this place called paradise or heaven and it's here that we wait it's here that we wait without bodies disembodied state right it's a spiritual state while we wait for Jesus to return and this is where we are some will try and tell you seventh day adventists and some Christians will try and tell you that in this state we will sleep kind of soul sleep I don't believe that's true I think we will consciously wait for the coming of the Messiah Jesus his second coming and we will be longing for and awaiting our resurrection bodies the
[37:03] Bible says that when Jesus returns we will inherit a physical resurrected body you can read along with me in verse 50 of tonight's passage Paul says what I'm saying brothers and sisters is this flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable listen I will tell you a mystery we will not all die but we will all be changed what he's saying is some of you won't die it's not an inevitability taxes is death isn't if Jesus comes back first you don't die you just go straight there to the judgment seat right so we will not all die but we will all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed the dead will be raised imperishable everyone who's ever died will be raised again with a resurrected body not unlike
[38:09] Jesus resurrected body eat fish people can touch you it's a physical resurrection likewise the place that is provided for us either hell or new heavens and new earth will be a physical reality very much like this earth but without sin without devastation without death without sickness without tears without sorrow without Satan without demons a perfect resurrected earth so the bible is very clear to us all will die unless Jesus comes back first all will undergo a period of waiting in Hades or in heaven paradise and all will receive a resurrected body with which to live in for all of eternity that body can undergo condemnation and punishment for eternity in hell if you don't trust in
[39:14] Jesus or it can experience joy and pleasure infinitely in heaven in the new heavens and the new earth for eternity and that's really the choice that every one of us is given and it all comes down to whether we trust in Jesus we've been talking about the cross for a lot of weeks now we've been talking about the benefits and merits of Jesus death on the cross and really what it comes down to tonight is a choice for you when you receive that resurrected body are you going to experience that separation from the love of God or are you going to experience the infinite joy of peace and life with God I would commend you to think hard about that during communion tonight if you're not a believer this would be a great opportunity for you not to come forward and eat but to spend some time thinking about these things
[40:23] I would encourage you implore you beg you to make a decision tonight speak to us about it you're not alone once you become a Christian you become part of a family and we would love to encourage you coach you and build you up through that period as we wait for Jesus return one more thing I just want to say for you guys who are Christians people have just become Christians what does this mean that you will inherit a physical resurrected body to enjoy the pleasures of God forever and ever what does it mean now what does it mean tomorrow at work right what does it mean throughout the week this week I think what it means for us is reckless risk taking abandon as we spread the good news of Jesus throughout the earth
[41:24] I think that's what it means God has promised you a physical resurrected body that cannot die cannot be tortured right cannot be torn to pieces cannot experience suffering and sickness and death in any way he's promised you that for eternity what he's given you in the meantime is a heartbeat and I think what that means is we can afford to throw away our lives for the good of the kingdom I think that's what Paul's getting at if you look I'll finish with this alright he says verse 30 this is why he's so annoyed at people for saying that there's not going to be any resurrection because it makes no sense of his life alright see if it makes sense of yours verse 30 why are we putting ourselves in danger every hour there's no resurrection why are we putting ourselves in danger every hour
[42:25] I die every day that that that that is as certain brothers and sisters as my boasting of you I boast that I make in Christ Jesus our Lord if with merely human hopes I fought with wild animals at Ephesus what would I have gained by it if the dead are not raised let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die Dave Matthews song right there any Dave Matthews fans no you are Ryan it's you and me buddy it's biblical let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die popular pagan saying it the day let's just get drunk let's eat what we want the body doesn't survive beyond death we're going to die anyway who cares let's eat drink and get naked if there's no resurrection do not be deceived bad company ruins good morals come to a sober and right mind and sin no more for some people have no knowledge of
[43:27] God I say this to your shame I wonder if you're ashamed tonight if Jesus was raised from the dead which is an incontrovertible historical biblical fact that means that we too will be raised from the dead Bible is clear that we will inherit a physical body either eternal condemnation or eternal life and if that is true and if God has promised that for you and you have a heartbeat on earth then be like Paul give it up give up your money give up your possessions give up your hopes dreams for this life or at the very least don't get annoyed when God asks everything of you the very least don't get annoyed that God wants you to speak the truth to your friends and neighbours at the very least don't put money over ministry at the very least don't put any earthly idol ahead of what
[44:33] God would have for you in Christ you can risk it all because all of it is yet to come you can risk it all because all of it that's of any value is yet to come I'm going to leave you with that I'm going to pray for us let's bow our heads we're bowing before our great God and Saviour Jesus who died on the cross for us was raised again for our salvation to guarantee that we too will be raised that's who are coming before so I just want us to come before him with reverence and ask him for help Lord Jesus we thank you so so much for your death on the cross for us it was the ultimate sacrifice you lived a perfect life that life that we could never live not one of us could live that life and yet you died our death in our place for our sin was an undeserved death and yet you willingly did it for our salvation father we thank you so much for raising
[46:00] Jesus from the dead that it's a fact of history that you raised him bodily from the dead never to die again and in doing so you said amen Jesus death is enough my wrath has been satisfied the debt has been paid the blood was shed the sins have been forgiven we thank you for the resurrection of Jesus Lord now I pray I pray so so sincerely Lord that we would not finish just with that knowledge in our minds but we would turn it back on ourselves and ask the question what will we do what will we do as we wait for the trumpet to sound or as we wait for our execution as a missionary we wait to be hit by a bus or we wait to die on our death bed as an 80 90 100 year old person
[47:07] Lord whatever shape our lives take please give us courage boldness and the assurance that comes when we know that we will inherit eternal life in a new heavens a new earth where we will experience physical spiritual emotional pleasure forever and ever God I pray for this church pray for us as a family just as a family Lord that we would encourage one another to live that kind of life whether you're calling us to the mission field whether you're calling us to full time ministry or whether you're calling us to speak to the guy in the next desk tomorrow morning please help us to encourage one another on to speak your truth finally Lord I just want to pray real quickly for my friends here tonight who aren't believers who haven't yet come to trust in
[48:13] Jesus death and resurrection for them Lord no amount of preaching I can do and convincing about evidence and so on can do anything for them in their heart that your Holy Spirit can change people's hearts so I pray that you would do that now just work in their heart Lord make it soft to your truth pray that they would come to faith even tonight I pray this in Jesus good name Amen