We're continuing our series in First Corinthians and are in a
part of the book where Paul deals with the very central core
issue of the Christian faith, namely the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. Everything in the Christian
faith hinges on this one reality, this one truth.
If Jesus did not rise, as we heard last Sunday, then the
whole story of the Gospel doesn't mean anything.
It's empty, it's hollow. Then it's just an empty story.
But if Jesus did rise, that literally changes everything.
The resurrection does make him Lord and King, as he claimed to
be. The New Testament writers, when
they wrote the Gospels and the epistles, they did not question
did Jesus rise from the dead? That was not a question to them.
That was fact. They knew, they had seen, they
had heard, they had touched that, experienced the presence
of the risen Christ. It's one thing to doubt an idea,
to doubt a belief, or to doubt a story.
But you cannot deny reality. You cannot deny facts.
You cannot deny something that happens to you.
Nobody else may believe you, but this is what happened to you.
The disciples had been told Jesus would rise.
They didn't understand it. They didn't grasp it.
Their minds were not there and of course, was hidden from them,
but they didn't understand. And when Jesus was still with
them, before he was crucified, they all had talked about.
They had turned up, yeah, this is a Kingdom coming, and he's
going to be the Lord. He's going to be king.
And but they misunderstood the content of it.
They had they had faith in Jesus.
He's the Messiah. Jesus knew he was the Messiah,
but their understanding was vastly different.
They had figured this out. Jesus would be king.
He'd been Messiah, this death thing that was not part of the
equation at all. And then Jesus would rule and
they would be part of his leading leaders in this Kingdom.
The Kingdom of David would be restored as they had seen it in
the past, as they had heard about in the past.
But then very suddenly, very unexpectedly, everything had
gone very, very wrong. Jesus had gotten himself
arrested hours after they had this wonderful supper, the
Passover feast. Hours after that, just hours.
Not only had gotten arrested, he was brought into the court and
tried unjustly. He was tortured, was beaten and
crucified and dead and put in a tomb.
That was a fact. They believed all that.
He was in the tomb. It was over.
It's done. Gone.
The religious leaders, they too knew it's over.
Finished. This Nazarene, this Jewish
Carpenter never going to cause us problems again.
He's done. He's finished.
Pilot knew he was finished. Pharisees knew he was finished.
The decision He was done. It's safe to say this there has
never been a greater contrast in realities than these two, the
death of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
There's never been a wider gap, a bigger contrast.
The hope, the promise, the expectation, the anticipation of
Jesus the Messiah to in less than 24 hours, a devastating,
complete and utter, total sense of loss, despair and fear for
the disciples. That was it.
That was the end, The real, literal end.
With Jesus now in the tomb. It's over.
He's dead, He's gone. He's in the grave, he's in the
Messiah. But then at Easter, the story
changes. And we've heard the story many
times. He didn't stay in the grave.
He rose from the dead, much to the surprise, surprise and shock
of everybody except himself. He knew this.
Then right after he was raised, the disciples struggled.
Who could blame them? We would too.
But as soon, but very soon, they, they, they, they.
Yeah, he's real. He's real.
He's here. This whole thing came back.
He met with them, he talked with them, ate with them, and they
gained confidence in him. Oh yeah, he's alive and he's
back and don't understand this, but it's true.
It's real. Then just before Jesus left went
to heaven, he gathered his disciples one last time and had
this question they asked him about but what was going on in
Acts verse one to six won't turn to this he says they say so when
they had come together they asked him, Lord, will you at
this time restore the Kingdom of Israel.
But the fascinating thing is their mindsets were still pre
resurrection thinking they hadn't shifted yet that would
come at Pentecost. He had talked about a Kingdom.
They had no idea how far apart their thinking was from what
Jesus thinking was what Jesus knew was going to happen.
Yes, he died. He was in a tomb.
He's risen, but the purpose why? What for?
Not to restore an earthly political Kingdom, as they were
anticipating. This was not God's purpose for
sending Jesus. He had a far greater, far
deeper, more powerful purpose than that.
Jesus made them no promise. It's not for you to know the
times and dates, the Father said, but you'll receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
And on it goes for the apostles. The resurrection was not an
idea. It was not a future, it was not
a dream. It was true.
It had happened. What the resurrection was for
the apostles initially, it was not what it was for Jesus.
The purpose of the resurrection was to bring life, for there had
been death and was death. It was to conquer death.
Jesus did that. So what difference does it make?
What difference does it make to you and I today?
Our title is The Effects of the Resurrection.
Last Sunday we heard of the importance of the resurrection.
It is vitally, absolutely, totally important, but what does
it do? The apostles had been given the
mandate by Jesus in Matthew 28 to go and tell everyone else to
make disciples, baptize them, teach them everything Jesus had
taught them. The question was not had it
happened that Jesus had risen from the dead?
It had happened and now everything followed from that.
The resurrection was then and is today of utmost importance.
And as I mentioned last Sunday, the title was The Importance of
the resurrection Today it's the effects of the resurrection.
And if you followed last Sunday when Pastor Joe preached on
this, you may have noticed as you read the Scripture in the
ESV translation, the word IF was used frequently, frequently by
the Apostle Paul to describe the reality.
Paul mentioned a number of negatives.
If the resurrection did not happen then and if the
resurrection had not happened then five times the word if is
used in that passage that we heard last Sunday.
Paul was teaching the Corinthian believers that the resurrection
had happened and but what if it didn't happen?
There were some people really questioned, do we rise from the
dead? Don't we rise from the dead and
so on. Paul says it's reality.
And so this morning we want to go and look at First Corinthians
15 verse 20 to 34. Let's read First Corinthians
chapter 20 verse to chapter 5, verse 20 to 34.
Let's turn our Bibles to that. Paul writes.
But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first
fruits of those who fallen asleep.
For as by a man came, death by a man has come also the
resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also
in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in His own
order. Christ the first fruits, then in
His coming those who belong to Christ.
Then comes the end, when He delivers the Kingdom of God to
the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority
and power. For He must reign until He's put
all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed
is death. For God has put all things in
subjection under His feet. But when it says all things are
put in subjection, it is plain that He is accepted who put all
things in subjection under Him. When all things are subjected to
Him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to Him, who
put all things in subjection under Him, that God may be All
in all. Otherwise, why do people mean?
What do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead?
If the dead are not raised at all, why are people being
baptized on their behalf? Why are we in danger?
Every hour I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have
in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die every day.
What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts
at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, let
us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals.
Wake up from your drunken stupor as is right, and do not go on
sinning, for some have no knowledge of God.
I say this to your shame. Paul was not just thinking this,
he knew this. This was real.
He had experienced the risen Lord.
The resurrection has a deep purpose which we must focus
focus on for us to have an understanding of it.
In this passage, Paul focused on the difference it made that
Jesus had risen from the dead, on the impact it had on him, on
the people, and will yet have on everything, all in creation
included. To Paul, before he was a
follower of Jesus, he knew Jesus had not risen from the dead.
He was dead. Paul knew that this Jewish
Carpenter had been arrested, killed, buried.
He was dead, but then he experienced him.
He had heard them talk about it, but he was a Pharisee and he
wanted to get rid of these Christians.
But now for Paul, after he became a follower of Jesus, it
was no longer after he got got arrested by Jesus, so to speak.
Jesus revealed himself to him on the road to Damascus and after
that he was a changed man. The impact was huge.
This reality was the foundation of everything with which He
built, and all everything else flowed out of that.
He says in verse 20. But in fact, Christ has been
raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen
asleep. The impact of the resurrection
is that death no longer has power over God's people.
Death is no longer the end. First point is death was
conquered to get to the roots of what happened.
We may ask this do we even understand what life is and an
opposition to life or life are contrast to like do we
understand what death is? Every human being in this room
and everywhere else has a beginning.
Every human being has a beginning from their mom and
dad. Parents impart life to their
offspring. All children are the result of a
husband and wife or a man and a woman.
Our lives that we live did not just spring into existence of
nothing. Life comes from life and
ultimately from God. All of it has a beginning and as
we know it. All of life comes from life.
But life as we know it in our physical bodies today, it is not
permanent. It dies.
It ends one day. My physical life, as you see me
and I see you, will one day end. Sooner or later we will die.
Death is the great separator, the great divider that no one
gets past. But Jesus overpowered it.
He came back as a man. He died as a man, rose as a man.
He was real. He's real for Jesus, this
journey to become a man, to live as a man, that's what the event
season is all about, to serve as a man, to suffer as a man, die
as a man, hard and painful rode as it was, but after he died, he
came back. He rose from the dead, and the
reason he could rise from the dead was because of who he was
and what he was as God's Son. He had not sinned, but took our
sin and died for it. And the reason Jesus came to
this earth in the 1st place had everything to do with addressing
the sin problem. He says in verse 21.
For as by man came, death, by man also has come the
resurrection of the dead. Jesus was a man, God in human
flesh, but a man. This is important to note for
us. Death was introduced through
Adam when that man Adam sinned. When that happened, all of
humanity was swept under the curse of death, and that curse
continues today. But then through another man,
death was overpowered. It was conquered, he says in
verse 22. For as in Adam all die, so also
in Christ shall all be made alive.
You and I concluded the death that came through Adam was
defeated at the cross by the by Jesus dying and rising from the
dead, from the tomb. Paul also writes that in Jesus
all will be made alive. Every soul will exist in
eternity in the state of conscious awareness throughout
all eternity. Jesus taught us much.
There is no end to quote UN quote this life that we've been
given. Yes, we're dead spiritually.
It's a wide topic. We can, we won't go into that
this morning, but spiritually we're dead, born dead in sin,
but not dead in a way that we're not aware, not dead as in God
not speaking to us. Jesus said this in John chapter
5 verse 26. For as the Father has life in
himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and
he's given him authority to execute judgment because he is
the Son of man. He says next verse do not marvel
at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs
will hear his voice and come out those who've done good to the
resurrection of life and those who've done evil to the
resurrection of judgment. This is universal.
There's no human being who will he got past the judgment seat or
he he skipped past. He's not going to no every one
of us is going that journey. When the Bible talks about the
judgment of God on evil people, it talks about those who are
dead and sin. They too will be judged.
They're not dead as in having no awareness.
They're very much aware when the Bible teaches about the judgment
of God and sin for those who've died, the only way that judgment
works is if they're not dead, as being unaware.
They're judged, but in a state of awareness, a conscious
awareness. For Jesus as a man, physical
death was something he chose. He chose to die.
He talks about this in the Gospel of John.
I give my life. He says he chose to experience
it. But then Jesus turns around and
turns that curse of death into a bridge to life.
And he says to his disciples in John 12, it says to the people
in John 12 verse 424, truly, truly, I say to you, unless a
grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains
alone. But if it dies, it bears much
fruit. He, he was that grain of wheat.
You see the positive that comes out of the negative by rising
from the dead, by choosing to die and then rising from the
dead, Jesus overpowered death. Jesus would would not have
conquered death if he had not died.
But through him dying as a man and rising from the dead, the
dead as a man, he gained that authority.
He said all authority through Jesus Christ, death as we know
it will abolish, will be abolished.
It will never be anymore. It's going to it's going to be
it's going to end. But it's interesting how Paul
words this, he says, but each in his own order was 23 Christ the
first fruits, then at his coming, those who belong to
Christ when Jesus and when Paul talks about the first words
here, he talks, he's referring back to Leviticus chapter 23,
verse 9. When the Israelites would
harvest their fields, they were told by God and the law the very
first part of the of the crop, let's say the chief of grain.
You bring that first chief to the to the temple and you give
it as a sacrifice. Whatever came off the fields,
whether it was grapes or whatever it was, you bring the
first part to God. And so when when Paul writes
this to the Corinthian church, they had a very good
understanding, no doubt of what Paul meant here.
And commentator that I read sometimes by the name of David
Guzik in his commentary in this passage, he mentions that this
is a direct connection from Paul's writing here to the story
to the book of the law and Leviticus.
And Paul is saying that the new life in Christ is a sign of our
new life coming and following as well.
Jesus was the first fruits. He was the first one.
And some here might think that. Well, yeah, but no, he wasn't
the first one. Wait a minute.
There was, you know, he raised Lazarus.
And in the Old Testament, Elijah raised the widow's son.
Jesus raised a few more. He wasn't the first one.
Yes, he was. And this is where, again, I
refer to David Guzik. He says this.
He says Lazarus died again. Elijah, the widow's son, he died
again. When Jesus raised the synagogue
ruler's little daughter, she died again.
Everybody in the flesh is was born.
Is is who's born and dies and is resurrected, still dies, but not
Jesus. That resurrection is different.
That's a different, totally different resurrection.
On the one hand, we already we all know what physical life is,
but when our bodies died, they won't remain dead.
There's coming a resurrection that's different.
Our bodies will die, but we will rise to a new life that is never
going to stop. The resurrection of Jesus is
different, never to die again. That's the greatest promise, the
greatest hope, the greatest blessing that we can look
forward to and also the greatest fear because those who are not
ready for Jesus, who've not put their trust in faith in what
will they do? That's the bridge, that's the
pivot, that's the that's the pin on which it all hangs.
He did that for our sake. He had a very specific purpose
and that's what the effects of it is.
He changed everything. He the world uses death as a
tool. You don't like somebody, kill
them. That's what governments do,
right? They don't like that country.
Let's just kill those kill our enemies.
Let's kill those who don't like us.
Death is a tool to to to separate, to to isolate, to to
get rid of a problem, destroy human life.
That's what evil people do. And they killed Jesus.
Get rid of him. But they didn't count on who he
was. They didn't understand who he
was and what he would do. They couldn't permanently kill
him. He was holy.
He was God in the flesh. And he rose again, and he rose
to reign. His reign will be an absolute,
total, complete reign for all eternity.
And when he returns, those in the graves will rise.
Jesus will reign, he's Paul says after that.
Then comes the end, verse 24, when he delivers the Kingdom to
God the Father after destroying, listen, every rule and every
authority and power, for he must reign until he has put all his
enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed
is death. You see, folks, there's so much
here which you don't have time to unpack, but this is true.
The resurrection of Jesus is about the resurrection.
It's about new life, but it's greater.
It's about rule. It's about ruling.
There's a purpose and meaning behind it.
And that brings us to the second point.
Jesus resurrection reign means the end of all earthly human
rule. This scares some people so badly
because they want to rule. They want to be in control.
No, Jesus will rule. When Jesus sent the Spirit of
Pentecost and the Spirit and dwelt the disciples, they got
it. Then they understood.
Then it clicked. Jesus had risen from the dead,
not just to give us a nice, convenient, happy life on earth.
Oh, that may happen or may not happen.
We don't know that it may. We don't know.
Some people live very wealthy, comfortable, convenient lives.
Others just struggle and struggle.
That was not the purpose of the resurrection.
To fix that. The purpose of the resurrection
was to bring them into relationship with God.
Easy life for hard life doesn't matter.
Jesus will reign over all creation.
Every ruler, every power, every government, he will destroy
every form of it. But of course, our world power
study don't believe this, at least not in their time, so to
speak. It may happen that something
will go wrong. Their country will not be any
more. But hey, in our time, we're
going to fight. We're going to make sure that
we're in control. Harry tried it.
Then following the destruction of all earthly rule, Jesus will
then hand the Kingdom to his Father.
And Paul is teaching is that all begins with God, it all exists
with God and everything and everyone again will be in
submission and surrender to God. This is a real reality that many
people do not like to think about.
Many people would have no problem with Jesus, Jesus
rescuing them from pain, you know, from hell and a lot of
other things in this world. But just the idea I'm going to
have to submit, surrender. No, the question is not if.
The question is, when we don't get to decide that, the only
thing you and I, we can decide is this, how will we respond to
the call? We can decide to surrender.
We can decide to submit voluntarily and allow Him to
cleanse us, to purify us and sanctify us and make us His
children. We can do that.
He gives us opportunity. He draws us, and we can do that.
Or we can say, no, I'm going to rule myself.
I'm my own person. The question is on which side of
this will we end up? God wants us with him.
The world wants us with evil. The world's always had problems
with God. The world will have problems
with God to the very end of time.
Read Revelation. You see it started that way.
Adam and Eve were perfect, decided to disobey God and got
removed from the guard and got kicked out.
Cain killed his brother. Abel introduced murder into the
world. God destroyed the first world
through a flood because of all the sin.
God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their life of debauchery.
God destroyed Pharaoh because of his sin.
God destroyed the nations of Canaan because of their
continually idolatrous life. It went on and on through
scripture continues to this day, but it will end.
The world always wants to make God into someone, something that
fits their own desires, someone that can tame and and makes
submissive to them. And Jesus not open to that, He
will destroy it. Jesus now reigns in the hearts
of his people, his children, the church.
One day he'll reign over everything.
These are often spoken parables to people trying to convey these
realities, these truths of what was coming.
And they know most of the time didn't get it.
And there's one. And then Matthew 21, verse 33 to
41, I want to read that. And I want us to think, do we
get it? He says this here, another
parable. There was a master of a house
who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a wine
press in it and built a tower, and at least the tenants and
went to another country. When the season of fruit drew
near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit.
And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed
another and stoned another. And Guinea sent other servants
more than the first, and they did the same to them.
Finally he sent the son to them, saying, they will respect my
son. But when the tenants saw the
son, they said to themselves, this is the heir, come, let's
kill him and have his inheritance.
And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed
him. When the when therefore the
owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those
tenants? They said to him, the audience,
he will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the
vineyard to other tenants who will put give him the fruits in
their seasons. We read of Jesus as a meek and
mild gentle savor. And he is that he truly is.
But he's also a conquering king. He's also a judge, He's a ruler,
and that aspect is just as important and vital to remember
and hold an intention with the other part, back to First
Corinthians chapter 1528, Paul says when all things are
subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected
to the Father, to him who put all things in subjection to him,
that God may be All in all. And so that's the last point.
The resurrection means complete unity and perfection restored.
That's another effect of the resurrection.
We live in a very incomplete and a very fragmented world.
We all know that. But as long as you and I, as we
look to this world for meaning and purpose and fulfillment and
direction, we are going to fail. It is only when we put our hope
and our trust in the finished work of Jesus and surrender
ourselves to Him that what He has promised will come.
Then we can live in the joy of His resurrection.
Christ's resurrection is our point of reference and how we
function in in this world, how we relate to each other.
Whatever we do in our day-to-day lives, how we live and interact
with people will reveal what our reference points is.
So do you and I, do we live in that light and that mind frame,
frame frame setup? Do we live in that?
Are we living in joy or are we living in a way?
No, The world is still what we make our decisions by.
The world is still what we go by when we plan ahead.
If we're not living in joy, then we're not living up to the
potential of what belongs to us in Christ.
Because of Christ's resurrection, what it means for
us, we have peace and in peace look forward to spending
eternity with Christ. And this current life leads up
to it. The current temporary trials and
struggles we face, they're small compared to what God has
prepared for us. The Bible talks about fearing
God and it's true Proverbs many passages, but not as in being
terrified him as a hard ruler in the sense that he's out to get
us. He's a holy God, a just got a
God, but also love and truth and grace.
These two things are both true. We must remember to choose to
love Jesus puts us in a relationship with God.
When he offers us salvation, we receive it and we love and live
with Him. To reject Him puts us under His
judgement. Our lives are so much more than
the gist, the here and now. We live our physical lives
knowing we will one day die and we'll be buried.
But it's not the end. It's a transition from one life
to the next. Paul goes on in, in his his
attempts to try to, to bring this to, to, to, to a close or
to, to give emphasis to this. He says verse 29.
Otherwise, why do people, what do people mean by being baptized
on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at
all, why are people baptized on their behalf?
This is one of those verses where you just don't know what
exactly Paul is getting at. Again, I want to refer to
commentator David Guzik on this passage.
He says the plain meaning of the original language is the same,
that some people are being baptized on behalf of those
who've died. Paul's point is, if there if
there's no resurrection, why is this happening?
Why are they doing it? And he goes on to explain this a
bit and I'll use a few make a few comments on what he says
about this, but doesn't mean that I understand it nor that
he's right either. He says there's about 30
different applications or interpretations that are given
to this passage. Some say it's it's it has to do
with that was a common practice. Baptisms happened everywhere.
Baptism was common and it wasn't just Christians who believed in
the afterlife. And Paul does not say why do
they, why do we baptize? He says why do they or why do
people? That's the phrase he uses.
So, but Paul closed that portion with remind that our life is
based on the resurrection and the resurrection is not an an
isolated idea. And So what does Paul exactly
mean with this verse? I do believe the Corinthians
knew we probably don't. At least I would use that as my
own stand. I don't claim to explain it, but
what I do tell people is don't create a theology out of out of
a verse or short passage. That's unclear.
And so that's where I'll leave it at that.
Paul points his own hardships and and this conference, he says
in verse 30, why are we in danger every hour?
He believed this, he lived this, he pursued this to his own
physical detriment. And in the end, as, as far as we
know, Paul was killed for his faith.
He says in verse 31, I protest, brothers, by my pride in you,
which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day.
What do I gain if humanly speaking, fought with beasts of
Ephesus, if the dead are not raised, let's eat and drink and
for tomorrow we die. If this is not real, he goes
back to what we hear earlier in the 15th chapter.
If this is not real, then there's no meaning, no purpose,
no destiny, nothing. But he's not doubting that.
He's not questioning that. But for those who do, he says,
what's the logic? What's the rationale?
And if this life is the only life we have, if this life is
all there is, then there's no answer to the deepest emotional
desires and longings of the spirit.
And there are literally people who literally say they believe
that there's nothing beyond this.
Some writers have put it this way, and I agree with them.
For instance, one writer put it this way, he says just as water
is there to quench physical thirst as food is there to
quench physical hunger, as rest is there to to satisfy physical
for, to for physical fatigue, as there's love to satisfy
emotional desire. There's an answer to the
spiritual longing in our souls to the counterpart that meets
its needs. That's not just an idea that
happened when Jesus rose from the dead.
It's important that we keep this in in context that we focus on
this, not allow us to be influenced and drawn away.
He says in verse 33, do not be deceived.
Bad company ruins good morals. Where do you get your
information from? What's your point of reference?
Don't look to the wrong, the wrong direction.
The direction we go in life is where life will take us.
What we become is evident by what we follow the church in
Corinth had heard a lot from Paul in this letter by now, but
here he's telling keep focused on God and also fix it on the
world. Paul called him to live for
Christ not to become people that look very much like the world.
He challenges them Verse 34 wake up from your drunken stupor as
is right and do not go on sinning for some of no knowledge
of God and would be one thing if you ended it here, but it
doesn't. He says I say this to your
shame. Does our life look like a
resurrected life? Has the resurrection impacted
me? Has it impacted me?
Has it made a difference? A person who does not know God,
does not believe in God, does not live for God versus a person
who says, oh, I live for Jesus. I became baptized.
I'm a member of the church. I go to church, I teach Sunday
school. I serve in this committee and
that committee. How different are those lives?
Does one live a resurrected life and one not?
A lot of people call themselves Christians, but they're not
real. It's anybody in especially North
America, anybody can say I'm a born again believer who's to
prove otherwise. But in persecuted countries
where you're told you'll be killed for your faith, that's a
totally different story. Just heard a little story this
last week of a woman. She shared how she stood before
the judge before in a court and there was the prosecutor and
there was people there in the court and they said to her, if
you tell us that you're a Christian, you'll be raped and
imprisoned and killed. If you tell us you're a Muslim,
you'll go free out those doors. But we want your testimony.
What do you, what do you have to say for yourself?
She shared her story. She believed in Christ, the
resurrected Christ. She staked everything on him.
When she was done sharing her story, the same man who said
that to her begged her for a Bible.
She was willing to risk it all because she believed.
The question is, how much do we believe?
Is it real to us? Are we serious about this?
The victory of Jesus over death is a victory over everything our
own lives to. He died to pay for this.
He rose. It no longer has power and we
can face anything and everything this world may throw at us as we
walk in faithfulness and obedience.
We have a path to God, to eternity with him.
Let's pray. Lord, we know you died on a
cross. You suffered and died so we
could be freed from sin and the freedom that you brought, you
brought when you rose from the grave.
Today, Lord, we know the story. Even though it's an old story,
it's new. We know it is just as powerful
today. That was the one that happened
and it's ongoing today. We ask Lord that the gospel
would not be in vain for us, something that we hear but makes
no difference. No, instead we pray that the
gospel will be for us a living word, changing our hearts and
minds, turning our hearts to You.
May we be faithful, Lord, as we seek to worship You, live our
lives as a light and a witness to Your resurrection.