The Living Savior

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

• The Rumor, and 1 Corinthians 15
• If Christ Is Not Risen, Preaching and Witness Are Vain
• Your Faith Is Futile, and You Are Still in Your Sins
• Made Alive with Christ
• Of All Men Most Pitiable—and Yet We Have Hope

The Rumor, and 1 Corinthians 15

I heard a rumor. You want to hear it? Jesus rose from the dead. You guys hear that rumor? Think it’s true? Yep. That’s a modern version of amen. Yep. 1 Corinthians 15. We’re going to look at the Apostle Paul’s reflections on this rumor about Jesus being alive after He died. First Corinthians 15, we’re going to start in verse 1. Paul says in verse 1, “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel.” What’s the gospel mean? Good news, glad tidings. “I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.” That sounds odd, believing in vain, because if you believe, don’t you believe? Well, maybe you believe, maybe you don’t believe. Maybe you believed in vain. “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: 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 that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am 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; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.”

In this passage, Paul is addressing a problem in Corinth, and the problem was that there were some in Corinth who were professing Christ and saying they were Christians, but they said, based upon their philosophy and their worldview, that in fact it was not possible for the dead to rise. So they didn’t realize they were essentially denying the gospel by their view, by saying that there’s no such thing as a resurrection. Now this was rooted in a Greek view of matter. Well, I mean matter, I mean, you know, matter, matter, physical things, which is evil. They believed that matter was evil. Spirit was good. Or God and matter never really intertwined, if you will, never really connected. And so God didn’t care about the body. God only cared about the spirit. Now this strain of thinking is called Gnosticism, and it is actually fairly present in the church today. And you hear a lot of teaching which is implicitly gnostic in the sense that it emphasizes the spirit but it totally ignores the physical creation, it ignores the value of the body, it ignores things that are relevant to matter, if you will. Matter doesn’t matter. So you get this weird dichotomy where people are actually living in sin, but they’re fine with God because their heart’s right. You get a lot of that. “Oh, my God knows my heart.” He sure does. And it’s not what you think.

So this divorce from matter was a problem in the early church. It’s really a problem now. I’ve read statistics that between 30 and 45% of Christians deny that Jesus rose from the grave physically. Huh? ’Tis true. ’Tis true. So if you don’t believe that Jesus rose from the grave physically and you’re going to church on Easter, what are you celebrating? Not really. I mean, I’m being sincere. What are you celebrating? So what kind of message would you hear? The resurrection story is a metaphor, and it tells us about hope, or it tells us about the triumph of the spirit over man. I mean, you know what, what, what? What? What? What? So Paul tells us that the physical, when he says resurrection, he obviously means the physical resurrection because he’s combating the view that a physical body cannot rise. And when you go further in the chapter, he gets into the very intricate arguments about the nature of matter and the fact that different kinds of different aspects of creation have different bodies, as he calls them. So when he says that Jesus rose from the dead, he means it’s a literal resurrection, a physical resurrection. There was then a physical ascension and the Bible tells us there will be a physical return. Not just in the spirit realm, but in space, time, and in matter. Matter really does matter.

If Christ Is Not Risen, Preaching and Witness Are Vain

Paul approaches this subject from a negative point of view, if you will, because he says this: okay, let’s take your argument and say it’s true. He says, let’s go ahead and assume for a moment that the dead, not Jesus, but the dead, based upon your gnostic worldview, can’t rise. Let’s just take that for granted for a moment, and let’s think about the implications of that. And that’s what he does in verses 12 through 19. So let’s look briefly at some of the implications of the denial of the resurrection. The first one is this, he says to them, if the dead do not rise, then the apostolic preaching is in vain. Verse 14: “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.” In other words, he’s saying, if what you’re saying is true, [audio unclear] it’s false, because it’s based upon a lie that Jesus rose from the dead. And when you read the Bible, what you see is that in the New Testament, it talks about the resurrection of Jesus all the time, interwoven with all kinds of doctrines. Because Jesus rose from the dead, this is in the New Testament, it says that because He rose from the dead, He is the Messiah. It says because He rose from the dead, He was truly God in the flesh. Because He rose from the dead, He is truly the Judge of all the earth. Because He rose from the dead, He is the basis and ground of our justification before God. Because He rose from the dead, He is the life of the new birth. Because He rose from the dead, He’s the power of sanctification. Because He rose from the dead, there’s a future glorious resurrection. If you say Jesus did not rise from the dead, you have denied all of those doctrines. All is vain if Christ has not risen, because all these doctrines are interwoven with the truth of His resurrection. To deny the one is to deny them all.

Secondly, Paul says not only is the apostolic preaching in vain, he says that the apostolic witness is not only vain, meaning false and empty, but it’s a form of deception. Notice what he says here in verse 15. “Yes, and we,” meaning the apostles that he referred to here, and the brethren, all those that were witnessing to the resurrection because they had seen Jesus after His death, “are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up, if in fact the dead do not rise.” In other words, we’re saying He rose from the dead because we’ve seen Him, but if the dead don’t rise, He didn’t rise, we didn’t see Him. In other words, what you’re really saying, Corinthians, is that we’re liars. When the apostles bore witness of the resurrection, they were claiming to represent the truth. They weren’t attempting to give us inspiration. They were claiming something that was a historical fact. They claimed that they themselves saw the risen Christ. That’s why Paul says here earlier in verse 5, “and that He was seen by Cephas,” that is Peter, “then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.” He gives this list. This person saw Jesus, this person saw Jesus, this group saw Jesus, this group saw Jesus. They are all witnesses to a historical fact that after He was laid in the grave, He came out of the grave and He was alive. But if there’s no resurrection from the dead, all of these witnesses, 500 and more, all of them are liars. That’s what Paul is saying. Do you realize you’re calling me a liar? And not only that, but they deliberately lied. They were deceivers. And therefore those who today preach and teach that Jesus literally rose from the grave, they are deceivers and liars also. The worst kind of lying, of course, is lying in the name of God. Right? So the apostles not only were deceivers, but they misrepresented God in their lives. They weren’t simply lying. They were lying in God’s name. They were distorting what God had said.

In other words, the apostles asserted the reality of Christ’s resurrection, not only on the basis of their own experience, that’s verses 5 through 8, but also on the basis of the divine testimony of the Old Testament Scriptures. “I preached to you the gospel,” and here he says in verse 3, “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: 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.” In other words, I’m declaring to you not only what we’ve seen, I’m declaring to you what the Scriptures, in this case the Old Testament, taught. We are witnessing not only what we’ve seen, we are witnessing for God and we are witnessing for the Word of God. So not only did they lie about their experience, they were misrepresenting and lying about the Old Testament Bible. Therefore if Christ has not risen, not only is the New Testament all false, but the Old Testament’s false. So those who deny the resurrection of Jesus also implicitly deny the inspiration and authority of the Old Testament, because the Old Testament teaches that the Messiah, who is Jesus, would truly rise from the dead. And when you look at the Old Testament, what it teaches us is that the resurrection was evidence that Jesus was the Messiah, Psalm 16, that the resurrection proved that Jesus was the Son of God, Psalm 2. We could go through all of these psalms where the resurrection is referred to over and over and over and over. We see the Messiah talked about in the Old Testament and it either explicitly says that His soul would not be left in Hades, Psalm 16, or there are types and analogies, all of which refer to the resurrection. Melchizedek, no genealogy, meaning lives forever. The sacrifice of the two birds, one is slain, one is freed, and it flies away. Death and life. The firstfruits, Aaron’s rod that blossomed, a dead branch that brings forth fruit. All of these things speak of resurrection and of life in the old covenant. So if Christ did not rise, then the apostolic witness is vain and void. In a word, they were liars. They deceived in the name of God. The New Testament is empty and the Old Testament is false. But the Corinthians were professing Christians. Now that’s really not thinking through your position, you know what I mean? Thinking it through all the way.

Your Faith Is Futile, and You Are Still in Your Sins

But Paul goes on and says it’s even worse than that, because he says thirdly that if Christ did not rise then your faith, he says, is in vain. Verse 17. Well, verse 14 he says at the end, “and your faith is also empty,” but then he says in verse 17, “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” This clearly follows from everything that has been said, because if the apostolic teaching is vain and we put our faith in that teaching, then it follows that our faith is vain. And what they’ve said is false, deceptive, a lie. To believe a lie means you’re deceived. Your faith is of no value, right? And thus the result, he says, is that you are yet in your sins. In other words, the doctrine [audio unclear]

We’re talking to people about Christ and we say God loves you. Jesus died for you. God loves you so much, Jesus would die for you. God loved you so much that He would send His Son to die on a cross for you. God loves you so much that He would become a man in what we call the incarnation. That’s the gospel. Right? Am I not right? You often hear the gospel, that’s the gospel. Well that’s not really good news if you think about it. Because if the message ends with Jesus either on the cross, then it’s not really good news. There’s no confirmation or affirmation that anything Jesus taught was true or anything that He claimed was true, if He’s in the grave. I mean, He even said, “I’m the resurrection and the life,” but you’re still in the grave. “Believe in Me, you’ll live forever,” but you’re still in the grave. You know, they say you can take Buddha out of Buddhism, but you can’t take Christ out of Christianity. Because Jesus and what He did is inseparable from the present salvation of those who have faith in Him.

The gospel is not simply that God loves you enough that a Son would die for you. The gospel is that we, all of us, because of our sins have been separated from God. The Bible calls it spiritual death. You can have physical life but not have spiritual life. I don’t have my phone on me, I left it in my office. But it’s kind of like you’re on your phone, you know, and you’re frustrated because you’re trying to get a Wi-Fi signal, right? Well, you’re the phone and you’re disconnected from the Wi-Fi, and that’s God. Now the phone works, the problem is you’re not connected. You’re alive, but you’re not alive, right? We’re naturally alive, but we’re not spiritual. We’re alienated, the Bible says, from the life of God. So this is what the Bible refers to as death. It’s spiritual death. It results and culminates in a physical death, but it’s spiritual death even though alive. Sounds like a paradox. So we’re alienated by nature from the life of God, called spiritual death. Well, we need someone to deal with death. We need someone who can conquer death. Right? Now, what’s the cause of death? What causes death? Sin. So, death isn’t natural. Actually, death is very unnatural. Anytime you experience the death of a loved one, you realize how unnatural it is. It’s unnatural. But it’s common. Happens to all. So it’s common, but it’s not really natural. It’s unnatural, and it’s a result of sin. So therefore to deal with death, you’ve got to deal with sin.

So Jesus, the Bible tells us, when He hung on the cross, the sins of the world were being placed on Jesus. In other words, sin by its nature has to be dealt with, punished by God because He’s holy and righteous. But because of great love and mercy, instead of pouring His judgment on us, His Son chose to take our place so that the punishment for our sins would fall on His Son so that we would not have to be punished. And so the sin problem is dealt with by the fact that God Himself in the person of the Son took our place to bear the just wrath of God so that we would not have to. Well that’s a great story, but is it true? How would we ever know? Well we would know if the tomb is empty. That’s how we would know. If Jesus was still in the grave then we would not know if sin was ever really dealt with. Because to conquer the grave is to prove that sin has been conquered. Because sin is the cause of the grave. Right? Go a little bit farther in 1 Corinthians 15 and Paul essentially says this, says the same thing. He says in verse 54 of this chapter 15, “So when this corruptible” body of ours “has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ’Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?’” Listen to this, this is the key. “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.” The sting of death is sin. No sin, no death. To conquer death you have to conquer sin. So when Jesus rose from the grave it was historical proof that He had defeated sin, that He had put sin away once and for all. And it could be verified by the empty tomb.

So the Corinthians are saying, no, we don’t think bodies can be resurrected because they’re defiled and God doesn’t like matter, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So Paul says, well, then you’re in your sins. [audio unclear] for your sin. If there’s no resurrection, Christ did not atone for sins. He did not pay the penalty. He’s still in the grave. He did not defeat the power of sin and death. Thus he says to them, therefore you’re still in your sin and you’re still under God’s judgment. Not only that, he says, he’s saying, he says you’re not born again, you’re not regenerated. If Christ was not quickened to eternal life, quickened from the grave, then neither are we quickened in the new birth. We do not possess newness of life, but we’re still dead in trespasses and sins. Thus, also there’s no power for sanctification. If Christ is not risen from the dead, He does not dwell in our hearts currently to give us new life and power over sin. Your faith, in other words, is in vain.

Made Alive with Christ

Now, let’s look at one more text. Go to Corinthians chapter 2, because I want you to see this. Did I say Corinthians? That’s not what I meant. Go to Ephesians. Paul wrote them both, it doesn’t matter. Ephesians 2. Paul prays—well we’ll start in 1, I want you to see this. “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Now notice, you, 2:1, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” Remember I just talked about spiritual death, separated from the life of God. “In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

[audio unclear] The thing to note is that Paul says that they were dead, but now they were made alive. They were now saved, he says. They were made alive, how? By the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even when, verse 5, we were dead in trespasses, He, God, made us alive together with Christ. This section of chapter 2 is an explanation of what Paul is praying for here in chapter 1, that we would know the power of the resurrection. We would see that our salvation is: Jesus Christ died on the cross, He was representing His people who died in Him. When He was buried, we were buried. And when He was risen, we were risen. And when He was ascended, we were ascended. Paul says that we’re seated in the heavenly places. Like, why not? I’m on earth. You are united to Jesus Christ, a spiritual union which began the moment you were born again. Thus in Him you were seated in the heavenlies. You can all applaud that. But you see, if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, we’re still in our sins, right? We’re still dead? Our faith is vain.

And then Paul says two more things about it, back in 1 Corinthians 15. He says that if Christ then is not risen from the dead, then the dead in Christ, meaning professing Christians who’ve already passed away, then they are perished. The denial of Christ’s resurrection means that all who professed Christ and die have no future hope, no future resurrection, but are perished or lost, if you will. This is another way of saying that without the resurrection of Christ, there’s no atonement by Christ, there’s no future salvation for those who die as Christians, in other words, there’s no hope beyond this life. And that’s why Paul says lastly, fifthly and lastly, that if there’s no resurrection of Christ, then we Christians are most pitiable, or the old King James says, we are most miserable, miserable. Verse 19: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.”

Of All Men Most Pitiable—and Yet We Have Hope

[audio unclear] One of the things I love about the Bible and love about Paul and love about Jesus is their sanctified common sense. In other words, he’s saying, you know, my teaching isn’t about inspiration. My teaching isn’t about making you feel good getting through the day. That’s not what this is about. This is about one thing: is what I’m saying true or is it false? Is it true or is it false? And there’s implications to whether it’s true or whether it’s false. Some people don’t care if things are true as long as they feel good. No, truly. Truly. Does the message make me feel good? I’ve had people tell me in my face, I don’t like your preaching, because you mentioned sin. Like, okay. I don’t know what to tell you. I didn’t make it up. But the point is, I don’t feel good by hearing that. I totally understand. But, you know, we can’t revel in the glory and grace of God if we talk like we deserve it all because we’re so awesome. You know what I’m saying? I mean, the Scripture communicates the message that God loves us, not because we’re so awesome, it’s because we’re not awesome. You know what grace means, right? Want to tell me what grace means? Unmerited favor. The key word though is not favor, it’s unmerited. It’s undeserved favor. The key word is undeserved. Well, why is it undeserved? Why is it unmerited? Because we’ve sinned. We don’t deserve it. That’s what makes God’s love so amazing and so startling. And when you first realize that God loved you, like, holy cow, I don’t deserve this. And you don’t. I don’t. We don’t deserve it. Mercy, great in love. And His love is only astounding to those who see that they don’t deserve it.

So Paul says if we only have hope in this life, meaning our message gives us some kind of something to look forward to, but it’s not real. If it’s not true, he says, we’re, of all men, most pitiable, most, most miserable. Why? Because our entire [audio unclear] because the Scriptures aren’t inspired, remember? The Old Testament’s no, the New Testament, written by liars, we have no guidance, no light from God. We endure ridicule and persecution for no reason because there’s no future resurrection. We’re denying ourselves in this life for no good reason. There’s no future reward. We truly, if Christ has not risen, then we are really fools for professing Him and sacrificing for Him. If Christ has not risen then Christianity is one big fat falsehood, every aspect of it, not some of it, all of it, because all of it is tied to the resurrection. So buffet Christianity just isn’t what the Bible teaches. You can’t pick and choose the part you like. It’s not a salad bar where you can take all the verses about God loving me and not the verses about sin, or the verses of God loves the world but not the verses about the future. [audio unclear] because you’re inviting people to come into a relationship [audio unclear] or ask Jesus in your heart. And you can debate how accurate that phraseology is; what my point is, that makes no sense if He’s lying in a grave. Jesus is alive. And so we’re asking people to come into a relationship with Jesus Christ. We’re introducing one friend to another. And He is present through His Spirit. He’s present and He [audio unclear] the lives of the twelve, and He continues to transform lives even today. And when you read the history of the church, it is astounding to see the risen Christ operating in history and in the lives of people. Because of the resurrection of Jesus, there truly is victory over death. And we in this life need not fear death because the Bible tells us that death is really a gateway into eternal life. As through death we enter [audio unclear]

What happens when you get older? You see when you’re young and you’re healthy and you have all those natural hormones and you feel vibrant and invincible. You’re like, hey, anything. You get a little older and you think, well, you know, I wouldn’t mind a new elbow. I could use a new back. He starts to appreciate the promise, right? When you go through hard things in life, you lose people you love that you want to see again. You are hurt by friends and enemies. And you begin to appreciate the promises that when we see the Lord in heaven, that He’s going to wipe away every tear. There’ll be no more sorrow, no more crying. If there’s crying in heaven, there will be tears of joy. No more sadness, no more grief, no more heartache, no more disappointment, no more betrayal, no more lies, no more slander. All will be done away with, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. We’re talking about entering into a state where there’s victory over sin, and it proves what a fear it is. And I think that someday we’ll be free from that conflict. Free from fighting against temptation. Free from fighting against lust, against greed, against anger, against pride. Free from that battle because the victory has finally been fully manifested. Amen? Over Satan, no more harassing thoughts, no more discouragement, no more oppression from the evil one. He’ll be thrown into the lake of fire. Jesus Christ’s resurrection victory is our victory. It begins to be manifested now because when He gives us His Spirit we receive new life now. We are born again now. We are forgiven or justified now. We are redeemed now. And as we grow, we see a greater manifestation of His victory in our lives. But the ultimate fulfillment is when we meet Him in heaven. And that is why we have hope. And in the Bible, hope does not mean maybe. It means confident expectation. Confident. Confident expectation. I didn’t have to hope that Easter was coming today. I knew it was coming. I looked forward to it and in that sense I had hope. But I wasn’t worried, “Oh no. There might not be an Easter this year.” When your children look forward to the Easter basket or when they look forward to Christmas gifts, they’re not wringing their hands like, “Oh, I hope Christmas comes.” They know it’s coming. And they’re like, come on, hurry. That’s hope. Not worry, not fear, confident expectation.

So let me conclude where we began. 35, 40, 45%—I’ve read different polls—of people claiming to be Christians deny the resurrection, physical resurrection. They’re believers who don’t believe. So let me just ask you this, do you believe the resurrection? I mean, do you really believe it? I mean, not as a like, you know, just underlining your Bible, believe it. On a plaque in your bathroom, believe it. It’s actually a good place for a resurrection verse, don’t you think about it? Just when you get older, you know, put it right by the vanity, when you look in the mirror every day, see them wrinkles forming. Yeah, resurrection, I believe it now. Come, Lord Jesus. Some eternal Botox, Jesus. Right? Hey, the Bible says we get a new body. I’m just talking about what the Bible says. But do we really believe? That’s the question. And if we believe, we’ll live it. If we believe it, we’ll live like we believe it. Amen. And if we believe it, we’ll be telling people about this resurrected Christ that we know. We know Him because He is alive and He’s alive in our lives. And because we can know Him, they can know Him too. Let’s stand and we’re going to conclude with a prayer and a worship song.

Let’s bow our heads together. I know most of you here, but I don’t know all of you. And if you aren’t sure about your relationship with Christ, I want to encourage you to settle the matter. [audio unclear] He was willing to take your place. He was willing to bear the sins that you committed so that you could be forgiven and enter into a relationship with God. So that any obstacles between you and God in terms of your sin would be dealt with. And so now the obstacle is your faith or your unbelief. So the invitation of Jesus is, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Come to Me. The gospel message is so simple that children can understand and come to know Jesus. Christ died for you, He rose from the dead, He’s ascended into heaven and He’s inviting you to come into a relationship with Him because He is alive. In your own words and your own heart, “Dear Jesus, be my Savior. Dear Lord, I know that I have sinned. I ask that You forgive me, Lord. I thank You that You died on that cross for my sins and You rose from the dead. Be my Savior.” “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” Yes, to Jesus today. And you can be born again and receive new life, forgiveness of your sins, and you can begin the most exciting, astounding journey of your life in getting to know Christ personally. Jesus, we thank You that You’ve done it all and You ask us to believe. I pray that each one here today would truly embrace You by faith. I pray that we Christians would truly believe in the resurrection, that we would preach it and we will live it. We ask this for Your glory, in Jesus’ name, amen.