This Jesus Raised Up

[0:00] Well, as I said on Friday evening, if you were here with us, the occasion that prompted this sermon from Peter in Acts 2 was a unique pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Jesus who remained in Jerusalem.

[0:18] This was some 50 days following the crucifixion of Jesus. It was the day of Pentecost, which was a festival, a feast for the Jews that would take place in Jerusalem, and it came exactly 50 days after Passover in Jerusalem, which was the day that Jesus was crucified.

[0:37] And just as the Lord had promised before his death, God's power was on display, and it was working through the believers who followed Jesus.

[0:49] And in response to this phenomena, this display in Jerusalem of the Holy Spirit's power on their life, the crowds who were witnessing this were trying to figure out exactly what this was all about.

[1:04] In fact, you can see it right there in verse 12. Keep your Bibles open through the duration of our time today. Verse 12, all were amazed, and they were perplexed by what they saw, and they were saying to one another, what does this mean?

[1:18] So there's one set of the crowd that's just trying to determine, okay, this is weird. Third, this is unusual. What is this all about?

[1:28] And then, you know, there's the group in every crowd of people that they don't have to ask the question of what is this all about because they know what the answer to all the questions always are, right?

[1:40] And that's who we get in verse 13. That's what they say. They say, others were mocking, and they said, these people are filled with new wine. They're just drunk. This is just a drunken display from some depressed disciples of a teacher who is now dead.

[1:54] That was the perspective of some. But the crowds were wondering, well, what is this all about? And so that prompts Peter's sermon, which begins around verse 14.

[2:07] And it becomes the very first Christian sermon ever preached about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. And beginning in these next verses, we find that Peter takes the prophet Joel from the Old Testament as his text for the day, and he declares to the people that have gathered to hear this explanation that what they witnessed was evidence that the Messiah had truly come and that the Messiah in coming had inaugurated what Joel says in verse 17 are the last days.

[2:43] Will you look at that with me? Peter says in verse 16, but this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And in the last days, that's a specific time frame foretold about in the Old Testament.

[2:57] In the last days, it shall be, God declares, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. So Peter stands before the people and he says, no, we're not drunk.

[3:08] We haven't been drinking. This is what Joel said would happen. The last days, this messianic age has been inaugurated and you are witnessing before your very eyes the pouring out of God's spirit just as Joel said it would happen.

[3:27] In these last days, it refers to this age when the Messiah of God, the Christ, the Savior, the Messiah of God, would rule over the people of God, giving them the blessings of the spirit of God.

[3:45] That's how we might summarize that term, last days. God sends the Messiah and he rules over his people and he pours out the blessings of his spirit.

[3:59] So think, you're a Jew in the first century in Jerusalem. You have been taught your whole life, the prophets of old, who said that this spirit would be poured out.

[4:13] It would be a magnificent display and it meant that Messiah had come and he was bringing with him the kingdom of God. You have awaited this as a people for hundreds of years.

[4:25] Your whole life and theology is wrapped up in this kingdom. And now you see this display and a man stands before you and he says, this is it, folks, this is it.

[4:43] The last days are here. This was no small claim of Peter. And if he was right, then the people were experiencing a life-changing, history-shaping moment.

[5:02] It would mean that the death and resurrection of Jesus are the most important events in all of human history.

[5:13] This is what Christians have proclaimed now for two millennia. That the cross of Christ is the pinnacle moment of all human existence.

[5:27] Everything in history revolves around that one day. And according to the Bible, there is only one other day left to match it. And it is when this king, this Messiah, this Jesus returns.

[5:40] He returns. And in his return, he sets all things right. He ushers in the new heaven and the new earth.

[5:51] When there will be no more sin and no more sorrow and no more death. And we will ever be with the Lord, those who know him.

[6:01] So if you're among the crowd in Jerusalem on that day, you're taken aback by Peter's words. Could this really be true? Because if it's true, it's everything.

[6:15] It's everything. And Peter's aim in his sermon that day was to prove that the promised Messiah was Jesus. And that what they were witnessing was indeed the inauguration of these last days.

[6:30] And I want you to notice, before we really get going into the part about the resurrection, I want you to notice the way that Peter closes his quotation of the prophet Joel. Look at verse 19.

[6:42] This is the end of what the prophet Joel had foretold would happen. It's still a part of Peter's quotation. He says, This is from God's perspective speaking through Joel.

[6:54] I will show wonders in the heavens. I will show signs on the earth below. Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.

[7:05] The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood. Before the day of the Lord comes. That great and magnificent day.

[7:16] And it shall come to pass. That everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now Joel's point was not to say that all of these things were going to happen at once.

[7:31] That as soon as the Spirit is poured out on His people and on all flesh, that in that same moment, then these wonders would be shown in the heavens and the signs would be shown on the earth.

[7:43] And then these miracles with nature then come to fruition. That's not what Joel is saying. He's saying that the culmination of the last days that are inaugurated by the Spirit are moving somewhere.

[7:59] They are progressing towards something that he says is the great and magnificent day of the Lord. Well, what is the great and magnificent day of the Lord? It is the day of judgment.

[8:14] It's the day of judgment. Now whether we're to take these descriptions here in these verses as literal or symbolic is unclear. But this great day of judgment is certain.

[8:26] It is coming. And Peter and Joel affirm that only those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved in that day.

[8:36] And I thought about that judgment this morning. Actually, I was looking over my notes for the day. And for some reason, my mind immediately went to my senior year in high school. We were setting up for a spring banquet at our school.

[8:50] I went to a private school. We didn't call it prom. We called it spring banquet or something like that. I can't remember what it was called. But we were preparing for that and we were helping with it. And me and one of my friends had gone to go pick up some items for this.

[9:00] In near Bristol, Tennessee is where we were. We had picked it up in my dad's truck and we were driving back. And Jared had a bit of a lead foot in those days. And a highway patrolman didn't appreciate the fact that I had a lead foot in those days.

[9:14] And I got pulled over. And as soon as he pulled me over, of course, he gave me the speech and the things that I wasn't supposed to be doing. Everything that I did wrong.

[9:25] And he wrote me a ticket. But on the ticket, he gave me a date that I had to appear in court. I was still a minor technically. At the time. Which meant there was coming a day. It was set on the calendar.

[9:38] I was going to have to tell my dad. I got pulled over in your truck. Doing 26 miles an hour over the speed limit. This highway patrolman appreciated it so much, dad.

[9:48] That you now have to take me to court so I can appear before a judge. And receive the sentencing that he feels I deserve in that moment. And this morning, my mind immediately went to that day. And the fear of that day.

[10:00] Not even of the judge. But of my dad. I got to tell dad about this. And now dad's going to have to take me. And it's going to be this whole thing. What had happened on that day is I had violated the law.

[10:11] And the one who had stopped me wrote a ticket. And a date for my judgment was put on the calendar. I had to appear before the judge.

[10:22] Not that day. But that day was set. And it was coming. This great day of the Lord that Joel speaks of. That Peter refers to in this quotation.

[10:33] This is a court date. It is a day of judgment. It may not be today. But it's on the calendar.

[10:46] It's coming. Everything in history from this moment moving forward is all moving towards the culmination of this day. When all of creation will stand before its creator, the righteous judge.

[11:02] And we will give an account for our lives on that day. Now here's the problem. Dad took me to Bristol to the courthouse. I sat before a magistrate on that day.

[11:12] They asked what I had done. And they verified that I was guilty. And they issued a sentence. Now God has created each of us for a purpose.

[11:23] That purpose is to glorify him. And he's given us a law that he has demanded as his creation that we follow. And even before he wrote that law on paper through the work of Moses and he handed it to his people, the Bible says that he had written that law on our hearts.

[11:43] Which means that when God created us, he put something in us. Something in us that recognizes this moral law that says there is a difference between what is right and a difference between what is wrong.

[11:58] And when we violate that moral code that God has written on our hearts, we know it. We can feel it. We feel the guilt of that. We feel the shame of that.

[12:10] And we may not face judgment immediately in that moment. But what the scripture says is that one day we will stand before the righteous judge. And on that great and magnificent day of judgment, the Lord himself will look at our lives.

[12:25] And he will judge us on the basis of his law. His perfect righteous law that every one of us have fallen short of. And the problem is we will all stand guilty.

[12:40] We may try to come up with a great defense. Magistrate, I was just in a big hurry. I just needed to get to the banquet. You know, maybe something was wrong with my speedometer.

[12:55] Can you get that checked out? Maybe there was an issue there. We may stand before the judge one day and we may say, Well, goodness grief, God, I went to church.

[13:07] I went and I listened to this guy ramble for an hour on Easter Sunday that one time. I mean, surely that counts for something. You know, Lord, I did some good stuff.

[13:17] You know, if I look at that guy down the road, I'm not nearly as bad as him. Surely, God, you can cut me some slack. Except that judgment is not on the basis of what everyone else has done.

[13:33] And that judgment is not on the basis of whether or not your good outweighs your bad. The judgment is on the basis of did you obey and love the God who created you?

[13:46] And the answer for every one of us is no. We have not done that. We have not served him. We have not loved him.

[13:57] We have each violated his law. And the Bible says that all of those who stand and offer these excuses before the Lord, Jesus says, I will look at them and I will say, Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, into eternal darkness.

[14:11] I never knew you. So Peter quotes Joel. He says, Folks, what you're seeing today is the initiation of these last days.

[14:22] And by the way, remember what Joel said. The last days will come to an end. There will be a last day. And it is the day of judgment. And only those, only those who have called on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved in that day of judgment, Peter says.

[14:45] And so his message then was that Jesus of Nazareth is the Lord on which we must all call for this eternal salvation.

[14:57] That's the point of Peter's sermon here. When we considered the crucifixion dynamic on Friday, today we're going to look at the resurrection. Because the resurrection proves that Jesus is the true Savior.

[15:12] And we can trust him for the forgiveness of sins. We can trust him for eternal life. And together the crucifixion and the resurrection compose what we call the gospel of Jesus.

[15:26] And it is this truth that is responsible for the very existence of Christianity. What is the reason of Christianity? Why does it exist and why do we care?

[15:38] The resurrection is why. And my prayer this morning is that by faith you will receive this gospel. Look with me at verse 24.

[15:50] God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

[16:01] So in a statement of affirmation about Jesus' resurrection, Peter said that the Christ not only didn't stay dead, he couldn't stay dead.

[16:13] Did you notice that in verse 24? It was not possible for him to be held by it. And we considered this on Friday in regards to the sinless perfection of Jesus.

[16:26] He is the perfect Lamb of God without spot, without blemish. Death is the payment for sin is what the Bible tells us. But Jesus had no sin of his own for which to pay.

[16:39] And for that reason, death could not hold him. It had no claim on him. And God raised him up, Peter says. But then he goes on in these next few verses to provide another reason for Jesus' resurrection.

[16:53] The resurrection was not only because of the perfection of Jesus, it was in fulfillment of the Old Testament. It was always God's plan for the Christ to die for sin.

[17:10] It was always God's plan for the Christ to then be raised in power over death. And like a lawyer arguing his case, in this short sermon, Peter calls two witnesses to the stand.

[17:24] Two witnesses. And before you make your judgment on the resurrection, I want you to hear their testimony. Witness number one, the witness of the scriptures.

[17:36] The witness of the scriptures. The resurrection of Jesus is deeply rooted in the Old Testament scriptures. And this was exactly the point Jesus made when he appeared to his disciples after rising from the dead.

[17:51] We read it a moment ago. Let's read it again. Luke 24, I think it's on the screen for you. Luke 24, verse 44. Jesus said to them, these are my words that I spoke while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

[18:10] Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and he said to them, thus it is written, the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.

[18:30] Now can you imagine how amazing it would be to have been in that room that night? Not only to experience in person the resurrected Christ, but to have that resurrected Christ take his Bible and begin to systematically walk through scripture by scripture and say, remember what I told you.

[18:53] This is what was supposed to happen. This is what the Bible has always said would happen. I had to suffer. I had to die. And on the third day, I would rise from the dead to provide salvation.

[19:06] So now you can take what I have done and proclaim it to the world so that they can be saved too. Can you imagine how amazing it would have been? We can only guess as to what passages Jesus might have gone through with those disciples on the road to Emmaus or with those disciples in the room on that wonderful night.

[19:27] Peter was in the room that night and there were many texts he could have referred to here, but the one he chose was Psalm 16. Psalm 16 verses eight through 11.

[19:41] And I want you to read it with me. Verse 25. Peter says, for David says concerning him, this is the witness of the scriptures. I saw the Lord always before me for he's at my right hand that I may not be shaken.

[19:55] Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope for you will not abandon my soul to Hades or the realm of the dead, the place of the death, or let your Holy One see corruption.

[20:11] You have made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence. Peter says, hear the witness of the scriptures.

[20:22] There's a lot of them. Let me just give you Psalm 16, eight through 11, Peter says, and he quotes it from memory. Now the apostles often spoke of the gospel in terms of a mystery.

[20:37] Now by mystery, they didn't mean that the gospel was a riddle that is difficult to understand and that unless you're just superior in your intellect, you won't really be able to grasp it.

[20:50] That's not what they meant by that. What they meant by the gospel being a mystery is that the purposes of God in salvation are present throughout the entire Bible, but only discernible through the lens of Jesus.

[21:08] It is only as we look at the person and the work of Jesus that we can understand this mystery that God has presented in the Old Testament scriptures. So in the Old Testament, the gospel we say is veiled.

[21:24] It's not that it isn't there, it's there. It's just veiled. But in the New Testament, the mystery of the gospel is gloriously revealed. The veil is uncovered from the Old Testament by the work and person of Jesus.

[21:38] Let me give you just an example of how the apostles use this term. In Ephesians chapter one, I think this is on the screen for you too. In Ephesians chapter one, verse seven, in him, that is Jesus, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ.

[22:10] Do you see what the apostles were doing? That's what Paul was doing there. He was saying this gospel is a mystery in terms of the Old Testament. It's there, but it's veiled. But now that Christ has come, he has opened the veil.

[22:21] He has allowed us, revealed to us the truth of the gospel that was always there for us to see. Now, Psalm 16 is an example of the mystery of the gospel veiled in the Old Testament.

[22:35] It was written by King David. But the problem is that when King David died, the meaning of that psalm became obscured. How were the people supposed to understand what David was trying to say when he wrote that, you will not abandon me to death, you will not allow my body to see corruption?

[22:56] How were they supposed to understand that when David died and his body was corrupted and decayed? At the heart of the passage is this confident assertion that God will not allow this individual to be abandoned to the realm of the dead or allow his body to experience decay.

[23:18] And apart from Jesus, the only way to interpret this passage is as a poetic promise of everlasting life. But looking at it through the lens of Jesus, we see this is not just a symbolic reference to eternal life.

[23:39] This is a prophetic psalm of the resurrection of the Christ. Which Peter goes on to say, this resurrection is what secures that everlasting life for us.

[23:54] Which brings us to his explanation of the text. Look at verse 29. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day.

[24:08] Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ.

[24:21] That he was not abandoned to Hades nor did his flesh see corruption. Perhaps Peter's in Jerusalem at this point. We know that for sure. Perhaps he motions over to the enormous graveyard on the south side of Jerusalem.

[24:39] Perhaps he motions over to where they knew that the tomb of David was. And he says that we must understand Psalm 16, not from the perspective of the King David, but from the perspective of the Christ, King Jesus.

[24:57] The corruption of David's body was verified by his grave. Therefore, he was speaking prophetically about Messiah. So Peter is declaring in this moment, not only is the resurrection of Jesus a historical event, but it is also a fulfillment of the scriptures, making known the mystery of the gospel.

[25:22] The resurrection was not the spontaneous work of God in a moment where he was just trying to take a tragic event like the crucifixion and just make the best of it.

[25:33] That's not what the resurrection is. It was the eternal plan of God revealed in his word. The Christ must die. The Christ must rise.

[25:44] And we sang about it a moment ago. Come behold the wondrous mystery, slain by death, the God of life, but no grave could e'er restrain him. Praise the Lord, he is alive.

[25:57] The witness of the scriptures. Then Peter gives the witness of the apostles. He calls his second witness to the stand.

[26:09] Verse 32, the witness of the apostles. This Jesus, God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses, he says.

[26:25] Who's the we all? All of those disciples standing there who had experienced and displayed this pouring out of the spirit of God. They were all witnesses of the resurrected Christ.

[26:39] The resurrection of Jesus was not something that Peter heard about. It was something that he had personally witnessed. In fact, hundreds of people were eyewitnesses of the resurrected Jesus.

[26:57] Consider 1 Corinthians 15. I think this is for you on the screen as well. Paul says, I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, that he appeared to Cephas, that's Peter, then to the 12, the other disciples, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are all still alive, though some have fallen asleep, or though some of them have died.

[27:36] Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me, Paul says.

[27:47] To say that the resurrection of Jesus is some kind of elaborate hoax is foolish. It's foolish. Hundreds of people could verify it by their own eyewitness, and that was Paul's point in 1 Corinthians 15.

[28:07] He encouraged the skeptics of the message of the gospel. Go find the 500 people who saw him even at one time. Interview them. Scrutinize their words.

[28:19] What you will find is that their word stands true. He knew that their statements of witness would persuade the people. Even the enemies of Jesus did not deny his resurrection.

[28:35] They just tried to cover it up. Matthew 28. While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priest all that had taken place.

[28:47] These were the guards guarding the tomb when Jesus rose. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, tell people, his disciples came by night and stole them away while they were asleep.

[29:08] And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this has been spread among the Jews to this day.

[29:20] Now think about that for a moment. This is not just a handful of followers who wanted to fool everybody and say, gotcha. Even the enemies of Jesus, they never denied his resurrection.

[29:31] They put the guards there because they knew he had predicted his own resurrection. And they were worried. And then when the guards come back and they say, we passed out and we woke up and now the tomb's empty.

[29:46] And they said, just don't tell anybody. Here's some money. Tell them the disciples stole the body. That way we can finally be done with this. They did not deny his resurrection, even his enemies.

[30:00] But what about the witness of history? It's one thing to look at the witness of the Bible. What about the witness of secular history? Even secular history acknowledges that these witnesses, Peter speaks of here, were actual historical people who genuinely believed that Jesus had risen from the dead.

[30:25] They were so convinced of the truth of the resurrection that they gave their lives preaching the gospel in hopes that more people would believe and be saved.

[30:40] Now think about that for a moment. They're so convinced by what they saw that they left everything behind. They left their businesses behind. They, in some situations, even were abandoned by their families.

[30:52] In order to go and preach this gospel of Jesus, there was nothing in it for them. He said, well, they probably just made the whole thing up. To what end?

[31:04] What benefit does that provide to these men? What benefit does it provide for them to go to their grave being tortured and in prison and murdered for a truth that they made up?

[31:16] It doesn't make sense. No, they went around the world. They preached the gospel. Every one of the apostles of Jesus died for their faith.

[31:27] And so, as that continued on through Christian history, the church, so convinced by the witness of the scripture and the witness of the apostles that they have continued to give their lives for the truth of what Jesus did and his resurrected body.

[31:43] And I realized that it's not unusual for people to die for lies. I understand that. But these men didn't give up their lives for a religious idea.

[31:57] They gave up their lives convinced of what they saw. Not what they hoped to see, but what they actually saw with their own eyes.

[32:09] And this truth was so magnificent. Nothing would stand in the way of them, sharing it with everyone who would listen. If you're invited by a friend to come to this service today, it's not because they hope that you'll give some money to the offering of our church.

[32:27] It's not so that they could get some kind of spiritual credit for bringing a friend. There's no reward. We're not offering money for everybody that brings a guest. That's not how this works. You know why they invited you to come today?

[32:40] Because they want you to know this Jesus. They've been so convinced and compelled by the truth of the gospel that they want you to experience it too. And so it has been through history.

[32:53] The church sharing the truth so that others might be saved. The eyewitness accounts of the resurrection, they give validation to the witness of the scriptures.

[33:06] They're not more important than the scriptures. They give validation to the scriptures. Without the witness of the apostles, Psalm 16 is just a matter of theological interpretation that we could debate endlessly.

[33:23] But with the eyewitness accounts, the meaning of Psalm 16 becomes indisputable. It can only be about the Christ. Which explains in part why at the end of this sermon so many people believed instead of arguing against it.

[33:43] How can you ignore the evidence? It would take far less evidence to establish something in a court today than what we have about the resurrection of Jesus.

[33:55] There is far more evidence of Jesus' resurrection. How can you deny it? He was dead. Now he's alive.

[34:05] Let me close this way. There must be many people who wonder why the resurrection of Jesus is so important to Christians.

[34:21] Why is it so important? We choose Easter as the day that we focus on it in particular above all other things because of the anniversary of it. But for a Christian, every day is a celebration of the resurrection.

[34:35] The reason we worship on Sunday is because the Lord rose on a Sunday. That's why we worship this morning every week. Everything that we do is wrapped up in the resurrection and the crucifixion.

[34:50] And there must be people wondering and perhaps even maybe someone here this morning and what you wonder is why is this so important to you? Even if it's true, what possible impact could this truth have on my life today?

[35:06] This is just an ancient story. Maybe a historical man, maybe it really happened, but why should that matter to me? And I want to explain for a moment why it matters to me and why it should matter to you.

[35:24] Remember that judgment that I spoke about before? You know what the pinnacle of that judgment is? Death. And I don't mean just physical death.

[35:37] Yes, we will all die, but the Bible speaks of a death beyond that. It's a spiritual death. It's not the extinguishing of your soul and spirit in eternity.

[35:51] That's not what it is. It's actually you will live on in eternity, but you will be separate from God and His grace and His goodness. you will experience His wrath in eternity.

[36:04] That's what the scriptures tell us. So our greatest enemy then, our greatest enemy is death. And no matter how much effort you put into living a happy and a healthy life, we'll all face the same fate.

[36:22] All of us are going to die. death. The Bible teaches that it's because of our sin and our rejection of God that death is a reality.

[36:36] He's the righteous judge and the only way to satisfy His holy wrath is to face eternal death. death. But the resurrection of Jesus proves that His crucifixion was indeed a perfect sacrifice for our sin.

[37:00] Made by God on our behalf. Think for a moment. The scriptures say that because of your sin, you deserve to die.

[37:12] not only a physical death, but in eternity, you will be away from God, separated from Him, in eternal torment.

[37:25] But God, according to His definite plan, provides a Savior, a perfect sacrifice, who on behalf of sinners, absorbs that wrath, so we don't have to face it ourselves.

[37:42] that's what Jesus did on the cross. When He rose from the dead three days later, it proved that God received that sacrifice as acceptable payment for the sins of whoever will believe.

[38:01] It means that Jesus has power over death. It means that our greatest enemy has been defeated by Christ. it means that He alone has authority to actually give you life.

[38:16] All of us are headed towards death. Jesus now has authority to reverse it and give you life. Now, the next question has to be something like this.

[38:28] If that is true, if Jesus really is as loving as we say He is, if He really does have the power to give life like we say He does, why doesn't He just give life to everybody?

[38:45] Why don't He just give it to everybody? Why not rid the world of the evil now and just give this life to everybody that's here? And what you must understand is the truth that He offers it freely to whoever will take it.

[39:03] The question this morning is not, will Jesus give eternal life? The question this morning is will you receive the life that He's offering you?

[39:16] He said Himself in John 11, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet he shall live.

[39:27] And everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you see the wonderful truth of this? We don't stand before the judge and the judge say, alright, you're going to have to spend so many years in hell and because of this amount of sin, after this many years, I'm going to let you out.

[39:47] That's not what God says. God doesn't tell us now, if you will just live your life in total abandonment and everything else, surrender over to morality, do your best, try your hardest, try to be a good person, if you do it good enough, I'll let you in.

[40:03] No, that would be a tragedy. That would be an utter tragedy if that's the way that God looked at us, but that's not what God does. God sends his son, and he takes our sin, and he puts all of it, all of our sin, he puts it on his perfect, righteous son on the cross, so that now in faith, when we stand before God, he does not say, now let me calculate what you did, and we'll just figure out how we can square this up.

[40:32] No, he looks at us, and then he looks at his son, and he says, because of what he did, we're square. Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free, for God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me, and Jesus says, I am that resurrection, I am the eternal life, if you will believe in me, you will receive this life, that's why the resurrection matters, it's not just an ancient story that even if it's true, has no bearing on your life today, no, this Christ can give you eternal life, he will wipe away your sins, he will forgive no matter how much you have rejected, and denied him, and denounced him, no matter what you have done, there is no sin too great, that he will come to you, and not forgive, no, he will forgive it all, if you will believe, he will grant you this life, and the resurrection proves that he has the power to grant you that life, consider this,

[41:46] John chapter 20, at the end of his gospel, the apostle John writes this, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that you may believe, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name, he offers that life freely, and he says, take it, take the life, the question is not can he provide it, the question is will you receive it, will you stop being so stubborn and prideful, and just receive the gift that he offers, you say, well how do I receive it, Romans 10 tells us, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart, that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved, saved from what, the eternal wrath of God, for with the heart, one believes, and is justified, with the mouth, one confesses, and is saved, for the scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame, notice what Paul says, he doesn't say, everyone who will do their best and try their hardest, will not be put to shame, that's not what he says, he doesn't say, everyone who gives money to charity and to the church and their good outweighs their bad will not be ashamed, that's not what he says, he doesn't say, everyone who goes to church on Easter

[43:40] Sunday and is a good little Christian boy and a good little Christian girl will not be ashamed, that's not what he says, he says, whoever will believe in his name will not be put to shame, for there's no distinction between Jew and Greek, the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, there's that quote from Joel again, whoever calls on the name of the Lord, do you see the picture here, what does it mean to call on the name of the Lord, it means you recognize that you are sinful, that none of your goodness and none of your morality and none of your spirituality could possibly earn you eternal life, eternal life can only come from Jesus and in recognizing your sinfulness, you call out to Jesus for his mercy, that's it, Lord save me, have mercy on me a sinner, save me,

[44:46] I trust in you, Jesus died for the sins of the world and he alone can give you life, the resurrection is why Christianity exists and the resurrection is your only hope to escape the judgment of God on that day, will you not receive him, will you not believe him, he says whoever will, I will never cast them out, I will change them, I will come into them and I will sup with them and he with me, come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest, he says, we close with 1 Corinthians 15 again, hold death, where is your victory, death, where is your sting, the sting of death is sin, the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to

[45:59] God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.