WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.799 You're a great voice this evening. Stand up here and hear that. It's striking as people lift 00:00:07.799 --> 00:00:14.240 ! their voices to praise God in that way. But what if it's all completely pointless? 00:00:16.240 --> 00:00:20.000 ! What if we've gathered together this morning, we've bothered to come back this evening, 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:29.120 and it's all actually just hot air. And not just today, but what about tomorrow as well? 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:38.240 What about if your work actually will account for nothing in the end? Your family life, 00:00:38.799 --> 00:00:45.840 it's pointless. Your life. What if the world is just a cosmic accident, 00:00:46.799 --> 00:00:51.760 and we're all actually just playing pretend? Some people play pretend in one context, 00:00:52.159 --> 00:00:57.920 some of us play pretend in another context, but the bottom line is that it's all meaningless, 00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:04.560 really. Think about what it is that drives you in life. What gets you out of bed in the morning? 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:09.280 You think, I want to achieve things in life. I want to be a success. I want to get stuff done, 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:15.400 and I want to have stuff to show for it in the end. Ambition is what drives you. You want to get out 00:01:15.400 --> 00:01:22.439 there and get after it. You think, well, I get out of bed in the morning because I've got responsibilities. 00:01:22.439 --> 00:01:30.420 I've got overheads. I've got bills to pay. I've got to keep the family afloat. There are expectations to be met, 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:37.420 the expectations of my bosses and my family and my friends and those that I'm responsible for. 00:01:38.039 --> 00:01:43.599 You do what you do out of a sense of duty. Or maybe somebody asks you that question, 00:01:43.759 --> 00:01:48.159 what motivates you? You say, I actually don't know what motivates me. I'm just going along with everyone 00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:54.780 else. It's really important to me that I don't stand out, that I'm not seen as weird or different. 00:01:54.879 --> 00:02:00.899 I just do what everyone else does. The thing that motivates you is that you want to belong. 00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:07.739 You want to be part of a group. You want to be accepted. We're motivated in all kinds of ways, 00:02:07.799 --> 00:02:12.300 all of us, but the reason that you're ambitious or you're dutiful or you want to belong is because 00:02:12.300 --> 00:02:19.180 you think that that ambition or that duty or that belonging will deliver the good life. 00:02:19.980 --> 00:02:24.960 That's really what's underneath it all. Ambition is about success, and you think the good life is 00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:31.580 about being an impressive person. Duty is about reputation and being seen as a good person. 00:02:32.860 --> 00:02:37.720 Following the crowd is about being accepted, the sort of person that people want to have 00:02:37.719 --> 00:02:48.379 on their team. But what if none of it matters? None of it. See, plenty of people, many of whom 00:02:48.379 --> 00:02:52.099 you'll rub shoulders with tomorrow or some of whom you'll rub shoulders with tomorrow, 00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:56.659 they've started down one or more of these paths, and then they've asked themselves the question, 00:02:57.240 --> 00:03:05.280 why am I doing it? What is the point? Why in the end, when all's said and done, 00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:11.900 does it matter how I live my life? And of course, punk bands and indie singers have made this the 00:03:11.900 --> 00:03:19.300 theme of their songs for years. Angry, nihilistic rage. Maybe the earliest voice was Johnny Cash, 00:03:19.659 --> 00:03:25.479 the great Johnny Cash. In the same year that Max Bygraves was singing about pink toothbrushes 00:03:25.479 --> 00:03:35.259 and blue toothbrushes, Johnny Cash grabbed his gun. I shot a man in Reno. Why? Just a one. 00:03:35.259 --> 00:03:44.120 watch him die. Because what does it matter? In this hard and painful and meaningless world, 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:52.060 what does it matter if you shoot someone just to watch them die? And who can disagree? 00:03:53.019 --> 00:03:58.539 If we're prepared to lift our heads and be honest and face facts about the world that we live in, 00:03:58.539 --> 00:04:07.939 we're surrounded by pain, and in the end, it all, all of it ends in death. Maybe you'd prefer to play 00:04:07.939 --> 00:04:13.840 pretend, but that is the cold, hard truth. Even if your life is broadly good, whatever that means, 00:04:14.439 --> 00:04:20.699 death casts its shadow. Many of us know the pain of losing loved ones, and we know that that shadow 00:04:20.699 --> 00:04:28.399 is hanging over us. We know that it's coming for us. So, are the nihilists on to something after all? 00:04:28.740 --> 00:04:33.959 If death is the end, why not shoot someone just to watch them die? Because it doesn't matter. 00:04:34.899 --> 00:04:40.360 It doesn't matter in the end. You live, you die. Who cares? 00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:48.879 If we're going to be honest about reality, that's the bottom line. And that is why what the Apostle 00:04:48.879 --> 00:04:57.400 Paul says this evening in 1 Corinthians 15 is such a relief. He turns our eyes at the end, 00:04:57.840 --> 00:05:03.500 or nearing the end of this book, 1 Corinthians, he turns our eyes to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 00:05:03.500 --> 00:05:08.980 and he makes us look at it, and look at it, and look at it again, not just that it happened, 00:05:09.879 --> 00:05:16.519 but also what it means for us, and what it means for the whole world. And he shows us how this event 00:05:16.519 --> 00:05:26.360 in history, all those years ago, completely reframes our ambition, imbues our duty with lasting meaning, 00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:36.060 and cements over our nihilism with hope. Some of you will have heard of Simon Sinek. 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:42.639 He had a TED Talk that went viral a few years ago. He's a business coach online. He pops up everywhere. 00:05:43.180 --> 00:05:49.439 He made a ton of money off the back of a TED Talk called Start With Why. And in his work, he realized 00:05:49.439 --> 00:05:53.819 as he was going around these businesses that people would often talk about what they do, 00:05:53.819 --> 00:05:59.019 and they talk about how they do it. But he thought that they should start further back by asking the 00:05:59.019 --> 00:06:06.519 question of why they exist as a company. And of course, this was eye-opening for so many people. 00:06:06.600 --> 00:06:14.319 That's why his book is sold so hugely. Ask yourself why you do what you do, why you exist, why everything 00:06:14.319 --> 00:06:20.579 that you're about is the thing that you do. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the Christian's 00:06:20.579 --> 00:06:26.219 why for everything. Boys and girls, why do you learn language? Because of the resurrection of 00:06:26.219 --> 00:06:32.439 Jesus Christ and some other things as well. But in the end, it's about the resurrection. 00:06:33.339 --> 00:06:39.019 Really? Really? Is that right? See, I think lots of us believe that Jesus rose from the dead, 00:06:39.039 --> 00:06:43.000 and we know it's important historically, and it makes his earthly ministry credible, 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:49.600 but we can't really say why it matters now. And that's exactly where these Corinthians have gone 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:53.980 wrong. Look at verse 12. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some 00:06:53.980 --> 00:07:01.899 of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? That's their problem. There's no sense in which 00:07:01.899 --> 00:07:08.100 they're looking forward to a resurrection. They believe, of course, you see, we've seen this, 00:07:08.199 --> 00:07:12.220 that spiritually, they're already there. They've arrived. Look at their gifts. Look at the 00:07:12.220 --> 00:07:17.540 experiences that they can point to. They have arrived. And this mistake explains why they've 00:07:17.540 --> 00:07:24.200 fallen into the errors that Paul has written about in the letter to date. So, they have a low view of 00:07:24.200 --> 00:07:28.560 the body. They're about the spiritual, and they think they're there now. The body isn't spiritual, 00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:33.100 so some see their bodies as irrelevant. The only thing that matters is the spirit, the soul. 00:07:33.740 --> 00:07:38.320 So, what you do with your body, whoever you sleep with, chapters 5 and 6, doesn't matter because it's 00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:44.060 not spiritual. For others, their view was that truly spiritual people shouldn't be hampered by 00:07:44.060 --> 00:07:50.519 physical matters. So, they chose asceticism. We saw that in chapter 7. People were embracing celibacy 00:07:50.519 --> 00:07:56.860 as true spirituality. Because there was no anticipation about the future, a future bodily 00:07:56.860 --> 00:08:01.519 resurrection, they were focused on the present. And that explains their insistence on their rights and 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:06.399 their gifts being recognized and them being at the center of everything. Chapter 6, chapters 9 to 11. 00:08:06.399 --> 00:08:11.319 And as those who were on the highest plane of spirituality or so they thought, they should 00:08:11.319 --> 00:08:18.019 have their gifts recognized. Chapters 12 to 14. They should get special treatment. Paul, you'd know if 00:08:18.019 --> 00:08:23.879 you've been laboring all the way through this big long series we've had in 1 Corinthians, Paul has 00:08:23.879 --> 00:08:30.620 exposed all sorts of sinful behavior. And now he draws it all back to this one theological mistake. 00:08:30.620 --> 00:08:37.659 And the point is this. If you fail to grasp the fundamental theological significance of the 00:08:37.659 --> 00:08:44.840 resurrection, you can veer off course really badly. And the Corinthians show us that you can do this 00:08:44.840 --> 00:08:50.919 while all the while thinking you're actually really spiritually mature. They thought they were flying 00:08:50.919 --> 00:08:56.120 spiritually. And Paul has gone, problem here, problem here, problem here, problem here, and I'm going to tie 00:08:56.120 --> 00:09:00.220 it all back to this one theological issue, and that is you're wrong about the resurrection. 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:09.620 Believing the gospel of the Lord Jesus is not a one-time thing. We must hold fast to that gospel 00:09:09.620 --> 00:09:16.679 all the days of our lives. Look at verse 2. Paul is really clear. It is possible to have believed in vain. 00:09:18.360 --> 00:09:22.000 And by this I take Paul to mean that saying you're a Christian is different from actually being 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:28.139 a Christian. Saying you have faith in God is very different from having that faith shape everything 00:09:28.139 --> 00:09:36.220 about your life and persevering in it until the very end of your life. The Corinthians received the gospel 00:09:36.220 --> 00:09:41.139 when Paul brought it and the church was planted. And his point here isn't that they need to hear 00:09:41.139 --> 00:09:46.399 something that they didn't already know, but that they have forgotten the foundational truth of the 00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:51.980 resurrection. And chapter 15 is Paul saying, look at it, look at it. No, keep looking at it. 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:59.200 And trace out the implications and understand this. And the thing is this. He says the resurrection of 00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:07.700 Jesus is absolutely central, first of all, to the gospel. It is central, point number one, to the gospel. 00:10:08.620 --> 00:10:13.740 The message upon which the whole Christian faith rests, this matter of first importance, Paul says, 00:10:13.820 --> 00:10:20.279 verse 3, necessarily involves the resurrection. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also 00:10:20.279 --> 00:10:26.120 received. That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:33.379 raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. When the Messiah, the Christ, comes, he will 00:10:33.379 --> 00:10:39.000 suffer at the hands of a corrupt religious regime. He will be crucified under the judgment of God for the 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:44.079 sin of the world. He'll be buried in a tomb, and three days later he will walk from that tomb alive. 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:50.379 This is the message that Paul preached when he came to Corinth. And it is the message that the 00:10:50.379 --> 00:10:55.680 Corinthians received and believed. And it is the same message that faithful preachers declare today 00:10:55.680 --> 00:11:01.100 and will continue to proclaim until the end of history. And it is the message that unfaithful 00:11:01.100 --> 00:11:04.860 preachers will edit or avoid in order to please their hearers. 00:11:04.860 --> 00:11:13.759 But can you see, this is the good news at the beating heart of the Christian faith. It is why we get up in the 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:20.899 morning and why this life has meaning. If there's no resurrection, death wins, and everything is actually 00:11:20.899 --> 00:11:31.200 pointless. There is no good news for anyone. But if Christ has been raised, then we can be raised too. If he gets 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:41.480 through death, he can get us through death too. But this can't just be wishful thinking or true in a 00:11:41.480 --> 00:11:48.680 person's heart. It has to be true, true. And because dead people don't rise, Paul is at pains to assert 00:11:48.680 --> 00:11:54.520 the fact that it really happened. You see, there's six different sources. He lists six sources that saw 00:11:54.519 --> 00:12:01.460 Christ in the flesh after he'd been raised from the dead. Verse 5, Peter. Verse 5, the twelve disciples. 00:12:02.259 --> 00:12:07.360 Verse 6, five hundred people, some of whom, he says while he's writing, are still around if you want to 00:12:07.360 --> 00:12:12.480 go down the street and ask them. Knock on number 42's door and ask them. They were there as part of the 00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:19.100 crowd of five hundred. And then verse 7, there's James. Then verse 7, all the apostles. And then verse 8, 00:12:19.100 --> 00:12:25.600 Paul himself. If you don't ask them, you don't ask some of the five hundred, ask me. I'm telling you, 00:12:25.840 --> 00:12:35.240 I saw him. Without the resurrection, there is no good news. Do you understand that? Without the 00:12:35.240 --> 00:12:43.460 resurrection of Jesus, if he is in the grave, this life that we live is Macbeth's poor player. 00:12:43.460 --> 00:12:51.100 That struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. This life is a tale told by 00:12:51.100 --> 00:12:58.080 an idiot full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. But all these people saw him. 00:13:00.259 --> 00:13:06.759 They saw him raised. They saw him eating, talking. He wasn't a hologram. There was no AI involved. 00:13:06.759 --> 00:13:13.299 There is a gospel. There is a message about Jesus Christ that you can trust, and you can trust your 00:13:13.299 --> 00:13:21.319 life to, and the resurrection is central to that message. But it's also central, I want us to see, 00:13:22.340 --> 00:13:27.259 it's also central to how that message is worked out. So secondly, we see the resurrection is also 00:13:27.259 --> 00:13:32.819 central to the church. Point number two, to the church. Paul explains this by highlighting the 00:13:32.820 --> 00:13:39.520 negative verse 13. If there's no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 00:13:40.260 --> 00:13:43.820 Well, the Corinthians say there is no general resurrection of believers at the end of history, 00:13:43.879 --> 00:13:48.280 and Paul seems to be pushing their logic to its end. And he's saying if there's no resurrection 00:13:48.280 --> 00:13:53.500 of the dead at the end of history, then there's no resurrection of the dead in Jesus in the middle 00:13:53.500 --> 00:14:02.080 of history. What that means is, if Jesus was not raised, the elements of what make the church the 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:10.620 church are all in vain. Look at verse 14. He says, preaching is pointless. If Christ has not been 00:14:10.620 --> 00:14:17.879 raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. The word for vain here is empty. 00:14:18.800 --> 00:14:24.420 If there's no resurrection, then Paul's preaching was empty. There was nothing in it. It was a complete 00:14:24.420 --> 00:14:28.740 waste of everyone's time, and it's the same today. If Jesus' bones are rotting in the ground somewhere, 00:14:28.740 --> 00:14:34.100 what I am doing now is about the most pointless thing in the world. It's empty. It's nothing. There's 00:14:34.100 --> 00:14:43.180 nothing in this. And if you believe it, just is empty. Preaching is pointless. Secondly, verse 15, 00:14:43.259 --> 00:14:49.240 the New Testament is false. There's no resurrection. Christ has not been raised, verse 14. We are even 00:14:49.240 --> 00:14:55.259 found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, 00:14:55.259 --> 00:15:02.220 if it is true that the dead are not raised. If there's no resurrection, then Paul and all the 00:15:02.220 --> 00:15:09.779 apostles that we hear have told us a big old lie. Our New Testament is made up of their writing. 00:15:10.620 --> 00:15:16.019 The church is founded on their teaching. So, if Jesus wasn't raised, it's all a big hoax. 00:15:16.019 --> 00:15:24.240 When I say to you, turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians, it is no more significant than if 00:15:24.240 --> 00:15:30.720 I said to you, turn to page 7 of your favorite book. Without the resurrection, the New Testament 00:15:30.720 --> 00:15:39.799 is false. The apostles have misled us. And thirdly, our doctrine is useless. Verse 16, 00:15:39.799 --> 00:15:45.559 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you're still in your sins. Then those also who 00:15:45.559 --> 00:15:54.099 have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. So, if there's no resurrection, we are still in our sins, 00:15:54.579 --> 00:15:59.759 which means there's no forgiveness. If Jesus is still in the grave, those who have gone ahead of us, 00:16:00.159 --> 00:16:06.179 I'm sorry to tell you, they are lost. There is no salvation. The doctrines of forgiveness 00:16:06.179 --> 00:16:11.699 and salvation are right at the heart of the church's teaching. If there's no resurrection, 00:16:11.879 --> 00:16:21.899 those doctrines are useless. We have simply nothing to hold on to ourselves or to offer a sin-sick 00:16:21.899 --> 00:16:29.459 world. So, can you see how central to the church the resurrection of Jesus is? Without it, the church 00:16:29.459 --> 00:16:35.359 is teaching. Her scriptures, her theology are all empty. And that is why to believe otherwise is vanity. 00:16:35.360 --> 00:16:44.220 It's futile. It's empty. Can you see this? It's so important that we grasp this. If there is no 00:16:44.220 --> 00:16:51.139 resurrection, it's no exaggeration to say that the church is a joke, and all our faith and all our 00:16:51.139 --> 00:16:58.399 devotion and all our service is laughable. We are, verse 19, look at verse 19 and allow that to sober us 00:16:58.399 --> 00:17:06.059 here. We are to be pitied of all people, of all the poor souls that you come across, those wretched souls 00:17:06.059 --> 00:17:11.319 that you see around you in London, the beggar outside the tube, the people with psychological or 00:17:11.319 --> 00:17:16.740 physical challenges, and you see them and your heart goes out to them. The pity is drawn from you when you 00:17:16.740 --> 00:17:23.059 see them. You are more to be pitied than them because you have fallen for a big old ruse. 00:17:23.059 --> 00:17:30.779 Can you see? Don't fall for the idea that if Christianity isn't true, it's kind of basically 00:17:30.779 --> 00:17:36.819 okay because it gives you good things like morality and values and peace of mind and a, I don't know, 00:17:36.859 --> 00:17:40.919 social group in the church that you can go and hang out with and drink tea, and it's all very good 00:17:40.919 --> 00:17:47.579 socially and everything else. Nonsense! I'm grateful, I have to say, for the high-profile people that are 00:17:47.579 --> 00:17:52.220 talking more about the Christian faith and particularly people that are talking about the goodness of things 00:17:52.220 --> 00:17:58.299 like cultural Christianity. Of course, we want to recover Christian culture. We want to recover the fruit 00:17:58.299 --> 00:18:04.100 of the Christian faith in our society for the good of everyone. But it's only good because it is founded on 00:18:04.100 --> 00:18:12.380 truth. It's only good because it's founded on something substantial that we can build our lives on, and the 00:18:12.380 --> 00:18:19.960 central truth at the heart of it all is the resurrection of Jesus. If the resurrection of Jesus didn't happen, 00:18:19.960 --> 00:18:27.440 you have spent your life for a lie. You've made a foolish investment. You are a fool, and so am I. 00:18:28.779 --> 00:18:33.200 Two things. The Corinthians believed this when they started out, but they'd forgotten it. 00:18:33.860 --> 00:18:40.779 That's why he's writing to them in this way. Have you forgotten this? Inasmuch as you see worship as a 00:18:40.779 --> 00:18:47.779 drudge, inasmuch as you're just going through the motions in the Christian life? One of the implications 00:18:47.779 --> 00:18:54.059 of our confessing of Christ each Lord's Day when we say that on the third day He rose again 00:18:54.059 --> 00:19:03.899 is that what we do here when we gather in this way is profoundly important because the opposite 00:19:03.900 --> 00:19:12.220 of what Paul is saying here is true. Preaching is substantial. Christ speaks to us in this context 00:19:12.220 --> 00:19:18.120 because the New Testament is His true and living Word. The Holy Spirit inspired and preserved this 00:19:18.120 --> 00:19:22.860 document. Remember, we saw last week for our upbuilding and our encouragement and our consolation, 00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:28.700 and when it offers us forgiveness for our sins, we can trust it. When it holds out to us salvation 00:19:28.700 --> 00:19:34.519 and a glorious future on the new earth, we have a hope that endures anything. That is what's contained 00:19:34.519 --> 00:19:46.960 in the church's worship. Can I also say, if you're not a Christian, can you see—if you're looking into 00:19:46.960 --> 00:19:54.840 this, we're delighted you're here—but can you see how this raises the stakes on the decision that the 00:19:54.839 --> 00:20:02.899 Christians that you know have made to follow Jesus? Your friend or family member who is a Christian 00:20:02.899 --> 00:20:11.139 knows that if the tomb isn't empty, they've wasted their lives. They know that, but still they're 00:20:11.139 --> 00:20:19.539 prepared to follow Him. They're convinced of its truth. Given how high the Apostle Paul pushes the stakes 00:20:19.539 --> 00:20:26.720 here, I wonder, would you ask them why they're prepared to do that? And would you think carefully 00:20:26.720 --> 00:20:32.399 about the answer that they give? There are more reasons to believe the empty tomb than any of the 00:20:32.399 --> 00:20:39.299 alternatives. Maybe you've been conditioned to think that, well, dead people don't rise, therefore this 00:20:39.299 --> 00:20:45.099 can't be true. Well, would you have another look? Maybe look again at the evidence for yourself. 00:20:45.099 --> 00:20:50.959 Right, the resurrection is central to the gospel. It's central to the church's ministry. 00:20:52.099 --> 00:20:57.679 And then Paul presses this out further. Third thing we need to see is it is central. 00:20:58.699 --> 00:21:04.179 The resurrection is central to the Christian life. So, Paul has laid out the negative implications of 00:21:04.179 --> 00:21:12.159 there not being a resurrection, and then verse 20, can you feel the stunning relief? But in fact, 00:21:12.160 --> 00:21:18.519 Christ has been raised from the dead. The firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, 00:21:18.620 --> 00:21:25.200 for as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, 00:21:25.779 --> 00:21:35.440 so also in Christ shall all be made alive. I'm preaching away next week, but Lord willing, 00:21:35.500 --> 00:21:40.000 the week after that, I'm going to come back to this section again, 20 to 34 in more detail. 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:46.559 But for now, I want us to see how the Christian life is lived in light of the resurrection of Jesus. 00:21:50.460 --> 00:21:55.440 Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 00:21:55.519 --> 00:21:59.920 The principle of the firstfruits comes from the Old Testament. The first portion of produce was given 00:21:59.920 --> 00:22:08.080 to the Lord, Leviticus 23 verse 10, as a sign that the whole belonged to Him, and that there was the 00:22:08.080 --> 00:22:14.220 rest of the harvest to come. Gave the firstfruits to the Lord as a way of marking out that He was the 00:22:14.220 --> 00:22:21.440 one that had provided all of it, but the firstfruits presupposed that the rest would follow. And this is 00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:28.220 what it's like with Jesus. And Paul makes the point with reference to the two great covenant heads of 00:22:28.220 --> 00:22:35.580 history. Everyone is born in Adam as their covenant representative head. We are born in Adam, all of us, 00:22:35.640 --> 00:22:42.820 every single one of us, and that is why we all die. But those who have faith in Christ, those who are in 00:22:42.819 --> 00:22:50.980 Christ, have Christ as their covenant head, there is life. Just as Adam draws everyone into the grave, 00:22:51.460 --> 00:22:57.139 so Christ makes alive all who put their faith in Him. And he does this through his resurrection. 00:22:57.139 --> 00:23:06.319 Verse 21, Paul says this, it's as if Christ has come, the second person of the Trinity has taken on a 00:23:06.319 --> 00:23:12.799 human nature in order to come down here, in order to go into the grave, in order to get those who are 00:23:12.799 --> 00:23:23.539 there and bring them out. Christ goes to get us. And it's as He rises again, He draws out all who are 00:23:23.539 --> 00:23:30.879 His. That is the promise of future glory. And what I want us to see is that this resurrection life 00:23:30.879 --> 00:23:38.440 is the reason why we do everything that we do. So, why do we baptize people? Verse 29. 00:23:38.440 --> 00:23:45.340 29. I take it to mean, why mark people with the sign of belonging to Jesus if they're going to the 00:23:45.340 --> 00:23:49.799 grave for eternity? That's what he's talking about there, about baptism for the dead. I think he's 00:23:49.799 --> 00:23:54.940 saying, why would we mark people as belonging to God if they're just going to go to the grave forever? 00:23:56.080 --> 00:24:00.100 The resurrection is why we identify with the Lord Jesus in our baptism. 00:24:00.099 --> 00:24:05.119 It is the reason why Paul would choose to suffer for the gospel, 30 to 32. 00:24:06.599 --> 00:24:11.859 It's why Paul would forego the pleasures of life in the here and now, 32 and 33. 00:24:14.599 --> 00:24:22.740 The Christian life is a life that is patterned after the example of Jesus. The Christian life is a life 00:24:22.740 --> 00:24:31.140 of self-giving. It is a life of personal relinquishment. You remember what Jesus so clearly stated when He 00:24:31.140 --> 00:24:37.680 defined what it means to be a follower of His. If anyone would come after me, let him take up his cross 00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:45.160 and follow me. If anyone would come after me, let him lay down his life, his desires, his ambitions, 00:24:45.160 --> 00:24:55.440 his goals for life, and take up my way, my ordering of things. Follow my path, the Lord Jesus says. And 00:24:55.440 --> 00:25:00.620 the path that Christ took was the path of self-relinquishment all the way to the cross. That is 00:25:00.620 --> 00:25:07.080 the path that He calls us to. Now, why on earth would anyone do that if it wasn't the path to glory? 00:25:07.079 --> 00:25:18.579 Why would you do that if there wasn't resurrection? There is no reason. And Paul has made that clear, 00:25:19.259 --> 00:25:25.759 reason after reason after reason. He says the only alternative, the only way to live your life if 00:25:25.759 --> 00:25:33.740 there is no resurrection, verse 32, eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Fill your boots for tomorrow, 00:25:33.740 --> 00:25:41.259 or next week, or 30 years later, it's all over. Paul says no resurrection, nihilism is all that's left. 00:25:41.500 --> 00:25:51.000 Party on the lip of the abyss. But in fact, Christ has been raised. He's been raised from the dead, 00:25:51.059 --> 00:26:00.099 so you can deny yourself. You can take up the cross of Christ and follow Him. You can suffer for the sake 00:26:00.099 --> 00:26:07.279 of truth. You can forego pleasures in the here and now. You can endure in a difficult situation out of 00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:16.039 obedience. You can forego promotion. You can forego recognition. You can forego praise, all of those 00:26:16.039 --> 00:26:23.019 things, for the sake of Christ. You can deny yourself the pleasures of sin in order to honor Christ. 00:26:23.719 --> 00:26:29.219 In a culture that makes a virtue out of sinning, that is a really hard thing to do, but you can do it. 00:26:29.220 --> 00:26:41.539 Why? Because the tomb is empty. Because Christ is real. Because He has given you His Spirit who lives 00:26:41.539 --> 00:26:49.700 in you, and He is keeping you for glory. Suffering and self-denial for the sake of Christ, the Christian 00:26:49.700 --> 00:26:57.920 life that Jesus calls us to, we can live it. It only makes sense if Christ has been raised, but we can live 00:26:57.920 --> 00:27:04.920 it because He has been raised, and that changes everything. May God help us. Let's pray.