Well, all that said, let's get into the Word of God this morning. Amen. And it is Resurrection Sunday. So we are going to be talking about the resurrection of Jesus. And Alec, you did such a good job at setting me up here. But why don't we just read so for the sake of everyone, we can see it in our Bibles, Romans chapter 10, that foundational verse that I know for me and for so many of us, this is probably how we came to know Jesus. Because it's one of those passages that lays out in black and white what it takes, what we must believe, what's the essential foundation of our faith as Christians? And so I'll just read for you what Alec was uh quoting from earlier, and it's in Romans chapter 10 and verse 9. It says, Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, that's our confession, amen. That Jesus is Lord of Lords, He is King of kings, amen. He is our Lord our God, and believe in your hearts that God raised him from the dead. And Alec, you pointed this out so well because for most of the early years of my walk with God, whenever I would hear an evangelistic message or I would preach an evangelistic message as I was just getting into the things of God and ministry as a young man, I would really, you know, turn up the volume on Jesus died for you. He went to the cross for you, he shed his blood for you. And that is important. Obviously, it's only by the blood of Jesus that we're forgiven, that we're cleansed, that our sins are washed away. But if Jesus had died on the cross and not risen from the grave, then it would have ended there. He would have been proven to be a false prophet because he himself had told his disciples three times over, and we won't go to all of those passages, but three times he says clearly, I will be handed over to sinful men and I will die, but on the third day I will rise again. So if Jesus had told his disciples that three times, I'm gonna die and rise again, but then not risen again, then we would not be talking today and pointing back 2,000 years in history and saying that death was more than the death of one more righteous man or one more false prophet, because as we said, he would have falsely stated that he was gonna rise from the dead. It would have been a forgotten footnote in history, but we're still talking about this today. We're still worshiping today. The blood of Jesus is speaking a better word today because he didn't stay in the grave. Amen. He rose again. So we really do need to keep the living Jesus, the resurrected Jesus at the center of our faith and at the center of the gospel that we preach, because it is only if Jesus is alive from the dead, it's only if he sits at the right hand of God today that this really matters. So I would encourage you, if you're tuning in today, if you're watching and you have not yet done what Paul writes right here, then you take this moment and you confess with your mouth that the one who could foretell his death and rise from the grave by the power of the Spirit, by his own power rising from the grave, that you would confess that he is Lord and believe and you will be saved. No doubts, no conditions, nothing else. And you know, of course, as it's Easter, I was going back and reading all of the accounts in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John of Jesus' death and then on to the resurrection. And I love that in those stories they didn't leave out the man on the cross next to Jesus because that man didn't deserve to be saved. He didn't do, he never had, you know, an opportunity to live a different life, to go a different way, to be a good person. He was caught red-handed in his crimes, in his sins, and he was dying justly for his crimes. And he simply turned to Jesus in faith at that moment and said, Jesus, Jesus, when you enter your kingdom, remember me. And Jesus said to him, Today you will be with me in paradise. Such a beautiful, beautiful thing that we read in the Bible, and it shows us that no one is beyond hope. No one is beyond salvation. The Bible says that while there we yet draw breath, while we yet have life, there is still hope. This is the foundation of our faith, amen. I want us to look again at uh Alec. I promise you that Alec did not have an opportunity to look at my notes this morning. But I will be turning to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and it is one of the places I love to come back to again and again and again because it puts in black and white the essentials of the faith for us, and it shows us just how important this issue is from day one. And I want to say to you that people have always struggled with this doctrine, with this teaching, with this idea that the dead would rise again. You know, we sometimes think we're modern, sophisticated people, you know, and we know something about science or medicine or whatever that they didn't, those ignorant people back then didn't know. You know, they were just more superstitious, so of course they believed in people popping out of graves. No, actually. Most people back then had a really hard time believing that something like this was possible. And when Paul is writing to the Church of Corinth, he's not just writing to people who are skeptical about the particular miracle of Jesus bodily rising from the dead. He's writing to people, Greek people, right? This is a Gentile church in a very what we would call cosmopolitan, worldly sort of place. Actually, Corinth has been compared to Las Vegas. Like it's like whatever happens in Corinth, you know, stays in Corinth. Like that's the sort of city Corinth was, okay? Very worldly, but also very prideful and very, you know, up on their own intellectual prowess. And so something that we see when we study the Greek world of that time is that not only would they struggle to believe that a man could physically, bodily rise from the grave, even if it were possible, they wouldn't want it for themselves. Because for those people at that time, they thought that no, this body, this physical world is not it's not good, it's inferior, it's it's there's something wrong about it. And when I die, I almost said hallelujah by and by, you know, kind of that, right? Like we leave this life of flesh and earth and dirt and you know, all of those sorts of things behind, and we just, you know, go away. We escape our physical prison, and now we just live a purely spiritual life. I'm grateful for a faith that's a little grittier than that. How about you? That's a little more I can lay hold of it than that. Our faith, yes, I mean, for those who die, we know that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Amen. And we don't pretend to understand what that all looks like and how that all plays out, but our faith is that the God who created us and created this earth and said that this is good, is not coming back to throw earth and to throw the idea of people living in bodies, communing with him face to face in paradise, in the garbage heap of history, and getting on with another program. God, who created this good earth and created us to be people of flesh and blood, with the Spirit of God dwelling on the inside of us, his plan is to glorify us, to resurrect us, and to glorify, to create, to recreate everything that is now under the weight and the burden of sin and death and corruption. All of creation is groaning, Paul says in Romans chapter eight, until the sons of God would be manifest. In other words, until the completion of these purposes, God has always wanted to break into history and to restore what's been broken. And he began that process by raising Jesus from the dead. The fact that Jesus rose from the dead means that we will rise as well, and that God is faithful to his promises. So if we turn, as we probably already have, to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This is what Alec was alluding to before, and he said, Now I remind you, brothers, of the gospel that I preach to you. Again, the resurrection is the gospel, not just the cross. Brothers, of the gospel that I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are saved, if, say if, you hold fast to the word that I preach to you unless you believed in vain. For me, that is one of the most sobering statements in all of Scripture, that it is possible to have believed in vain. It's possible to have grasped something, responded to something in faith, but then to let go of it and to not avail ourselves of the power of the gospel. The resurrection is the power of the gospel. Amen. And look at what Paul says here. He gives us a bit of a run-through on the resurrection, and he actually gives us some interesting details that, you know, as I did my study yesterday on Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, he he hits some of the highlights out of the gospels, but he fills in some gaps for us. It's kind of cool. He says in verse 3, for I delivered to you of first importance, say first importance. This is not a secondary thing. This is not a, well, you can believe this way or that way. First importance, front and center. Of first importance, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. That's the first half of the gospel, amen. That he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scripture. The second half of the gospel is what gives power to the first half of the gospel. The life-giving, resurrected power that raised Christ from the dead is what validates everything that went before it. You know, this is actually when you get into, and not that I encourage you to necessarily get into debates with people, go prepared if you do that, okay? And do so meekly. That's what the scripture says, right? Yes, be prepared to give a defense of the hope that is in you, but with meekness. And so, you know, I think about this because even as my daughter's growing up, I imagine she's listening right now, you know, and you start to ask those questions like, how can we really know that the Bible is true? How can we really know that our faith is the one true faith? How can we know these things? And I just simply put it to her this way: if somebody said is out there teaching, preaching, starting a movement, and they say that I'm gonna die and I am going to be raised from the dead, and it happens, then that tells you something about everything else that they were doing and saying. Because anybody can get out there and start a religion. Anyone can get out there and start a movement, any charismatic person can gather a following and say all sorts of things and spirit, sound spiritual and do things, and maybe even convince people that they're doing miracles. But it takes a whole different level of power to say, I'm gonna die, than to die in the hands of your enemies and five ways from Sunday have them entomb you, seal it up, put guards there. Like we are not allowing this to go forward. We are not gonna allow this movement to continue, and then for the with no interference of his followers, of anything else, to rise by the power of the Spirit of God. I would say we need to go back and reread everything Jesus said because now it takes on a whole new dimension of authority and power and weight because his words do not fail. Amen. Heaven and earth may pass away, he said, but my word will not pass away. I'm getting excited. We better get back to Paul here. He said, and that he appeared to Cephas, in other words, Peter, and then to the twelve. And then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time. Now that's an awesome statement. We don't get that anywhere else in the Gospels. Five hundred people, and look, he even goes on a little bit. He appeared to 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep, some have died. Paul's like, you don't take my word for this stuff. There's enough witnesses, like, not just how you and I are witnesses, because you know, we we've felt in our heart a change. Not like that, like these people actually interacted with the resurrected Jesus, touched him, ate with him, had fellowship with him in his glorified resurrected body. And Paul's like, okay, don't take my word for it, find somebody else. And think about this for a moment. Have you ever heard the statement that upon the witness of two or three, upon the, oh, how is it, the testimony of two or three witnesses, let every word be established, right? In other words, at that time, for somebody's testimony to carry legal weight, if there were two people or three people that could come together and say, this is what we saw, this is how it happened, a verdict could be pronounced. Now Paul says, I don't have two or three people, I don't just have 12 apostles, I've got 500 witnesses. In other words, think about the kind of weight that this would carry in even their legal thinking back in the first century. This is undeniable. And I know I'm not trying to do apologetics this morning, you know, how to defend the faith, but it's it's interesting when you do get into studying the resurrection, and it's one of the topics I've done some deep dives in, because it is the most important thing of our faith. And when you look at it, there were other people in Jesus' day that rose up and said, I am the Messiah. You know what happened to those guys? They got killed. And you know what happened to their movements? Their movement completely disappeared, it was extinguished. Nobody ever heard about those people again, other than some stuff we read, you know, in Roman history or Josephus and things like that. But what we see, why am I saying that to you? Because if Jesus did not raise from the dead, we wouldn't even be hearing about it today. And even secular historians who look at the the growth and expansion of Christianity through the last 12, sorry, 12, not 12, 20 centuries, 2,000 years, they they look at it, and even though they have a hard time in their skeptical brains believing that Jesus bodily rose from the grave, when they look at, well, there was this other Jewish movement and it went nowhere. And there was this other, you know, messianic following that died out and nothing came of it. So what's different about the followers of Jesus? And even secular historians have said there's something that happened there that's undeniably different than what happened in anything else. Anything else in history, period. But I told you I love history, right? I could get into it. He appeared to 500 brothers at one time, and most of them are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James. We understand this to be James, the half-brother of Jesus, right? The one who led the Jerusalem church, what we see in the book of Acts. And then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me on the road to Damascus, right? Acts chapter 9. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. That's such a beautiful statement. By the grace of God, we are what we are. Amen. Everything is by his grace. I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. There's that key word in this passage. Paul's faith wasn't in vain. The grace of God extended to him wasn't in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them. A little bit of one-untsmanship there. I guess it's okay. The disciples were kind of like that too, weren't they? On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I. Again, it's not really me, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach to you, and so you believed. And then he begins to talk for just a minute, and he begins to say, because they've obviously, this is the church. These are believers, they're gathering week by week to worship, to practice spiritual gifts that are talked about in the chapters before this. And now he's saying, What are you guys doing if Jesus didn't really rise from the dead? This doesn't make sense. This doesn't make sense. You know, you're starting to entertain these ideas. Well, maybe Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, maybe it was just his spirit, maybe it was just something the disciples uh, you know, thought or or you know, dreamed or something like that. Again, all of those theories out there crumble under the least bit of scrutiny when you really look at it. When people begin to point at our faith and oh, they made it up, it was a conspiracy. Well, then why did they all die for it? You know, we can go on and on. The proofs of the resurrection are solid ground that we stand on. And Paul, he takes a bit of a different angle, he begins to show them what it means if Jesus. Didn't rise from the dead. I mean, I hope you've never had to go down this route, but it is interesting to think for a moment, what would our faith be like if there was no resurrection of the dead? And that's what he starts with in verse 12. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection from the dead? This is circulating in the church of Corinth. But if there is no resurrection from the dead, then not even Christ has been raised from the dead. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. And we are even been found as misrepresenting God because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised. So if God doesn't raise the dead, our preaching is vain, your faith is in vain, and all the preachers from Paul's day to this who have said so are liars. Verse 16 for if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, look at this. Again, what Alec was talking about earlier, and what I started to unpack for you in Romans chapter 10. If Jesus didn't raise from the dead, what does that mean about his cross? What does that mean about his death, about his blood? And if Christ had not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Then also all who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. They're gone. Forget about them. And if in Christ we have hope only in this life, we are of all people most to be pitied. That's an important statement, isn't it? You know, I I know that we believe in a God who comes and he blesses and he heals and he's working today. Amen. And honestly, that's an outflowing of the resurrection power that we're preaching about today. But the reality is, even if we had a God who heard all of our prayers and gave us everything we needed for this life and blessed us and, you know, helped us to have good family lives and healed us when we got sick or broken. Paul is saying that if our faith is only for this life, then it is a sham. It is not worth it. We should get on living like the rest of the world lives, fit in, go about life. You know, don't push against the current, just go with the flow, forget about this Jesus. Of course, that's not what Paul is saying. Amen. He's just hypothetically saying, you guys understand the reality, the depth of what you are beginning to entertain in your thoughts, in your hearts when you doubt the resurrection. And that's, I love where he turns this around in verse 20. And I'm just opening this up for you today. You're like, wow, we're just going verse by verse. Yes, we are. That's a good way to read the Bible, by the way. I don't know how you read the Bible at home for your devotions or whatever it is that you do, but the best way to read the Bible is not two verses here, five verses there, ten verses there, and just pull whatever spiritual meaning you want out of it. Okay, that's a sermon for another day. How to study the Bible, how to really understand the word of God. But verse 20 says, but in fact, Paul doubles down here. He's not backing down. This isn't philosophy, this isn't just theology. He's talking about his eyewitness testimony and the eyewitness testimony of hundreds of people. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Amen. That's a beautiful statement that he uses there. He's the first fruits of the dead. How many of you are familiar that in with the idea that in Israel, when they would begin to harvest their crops, that the very first portion of that crop that they would harvest was set aside for God. It was special. That was the first fruits of the land. That God gets his due before I just begin to enjoy his blessings, which is why we encourage people, you know, as we tithe, you know, give them the first, give them the best, not what's left over. That's biblical. So we see this, and that was the practice of Israel in biblical times, but not just that, there was actually a specific day that they celebrated the first fruits of the harvest, and it happened within the time of Passover. And we don't have time to unpack the whole Passover celebration today, but quite simply, Jesus died as our Passover lamb. Amen. John the Baptist, right at the beginning of John's gospel, says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, right? He dies, and we see later that it's even at the time that they would be selecting the lambs for the Passover sacrifice, that Jesus was being interrogated, that Jesus is being prepared to go to the cross. He dies as our Passover lamb. Well, it's interesting that you count forward three days in the festival of unleavened bread that's connected to Passover in the middle of the week, is first fruits. So Paul's not just saying that Jesus is the first one who rose from the dead, although he is. He rose on that prophetic timeline that just as Israel slaughtered the Lamb to be delivered from Egypt out of oppression, out of slavery, we have been delivered from our sins and the oppression and slavery to sin and to the kingdom of darkness, and we've been brought into a kingdom of light, and then they celebrate firstfruits on the very day that Jesus rises from the grave. And I know last week we're kind of going backwards on the feast calendar here. We preached about Pentecost. First fruits then becomes the countdown literally to Pentecost. That's the day they begin to say, day one, day two, Pentecost is coming. So Jesus rose on the third day, as he said he would rise. But he rose on a prophetic day, the first fruits of the harvest, because he is the first fruits of the resurrection. Now you might be saying, wait a minute, other people have risen from the dead. Jesus raised other people from the dead. But you have to understand that Jesus' resurrection is unique, it's different, it's it's a whole different category of resurrection. Because when Elijah and Elisha raised those boys, and when Jesus raised the widow of Nain's son, and when he raised Jairus' daughter, and when he raised Lazarus, these people returned to their same natural life and would one day die again. But when Jesus rose from the grave, it was because death couldn't touch him, couldn't hurt him, couldn't hold him, because the wages of sin is death, the Bible says. Death is the natural outworking, it's the consequence, it's the reward for our sin. So what does death do to someone who's sinless? Nothing. He can't do anything. But Jesus offered himself to his father as a sin sacrifice for us and went into the grave. Not that the devil could mock and you know poke fun at him, but that he could knock down the gates of death and hell and take away the keys because he is Lord over the living and the dead. Amen. I love Easter. How about you? This is our faith. This is what we stand on. And then I love this. Paul begins to really then say, this is a fact, this has happened. He was the first fruits. He was raised not just to a normal, natural life. Jesus didn't just lie in the grave for three days, get up, and I'm feeling better, and walk out, and then you know, move on to India and live out his life. There's some funny ideas out there about that, actually. It's a bunch of nonsense. He was raised glorified. Jesus, though he has the scars in his hands and in his side where they pierced him with a spear, those wounds no longer hurt him. They're no longer bleeding. Jesus appears where they're locked behind closed doors, locked doors. We don't even understand what it's gonna be like, amen. You ever wondered that what Jesus is like now? What does that mean for what we're gonna be like? Because also John tells us in his first epistle that we don't know what we're gonna be like, we just know we're gonna be like him. Amen. But back to Paul, he says in verse 21, for as by a man, Adam, right, death came, and by a man has also come the resurrection of the dead. If you ever ask yourself, why didn't God just step down in a cloud of glory in a show of power, you know, just his the cherubim, the seraphim, you know, the angels and everything just touched down in Jerusalem and just do everything he had to do, because he had to do it as a man. That just as sin and death entered through man, God had to come, take on flesh, dwell amongst us. That's what he's talking about here. By a man has also come the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam, all die. Adam, Adam, Adam. Whenever over the years, Pastor Brandt or others have preached on Adam, it's like, and because of Adam we all die. It's like a knee-jerk reaction. It's like, you know, like when you hear your name in that tone of voice, your mom or dad, like in the next room, it's like, I'm in trouble. That's kind of my visceral reaction when I hear people preach about Adam. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive, by each in his own order, Christ the first fruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ. How many of us belong to Christ? Then we know that we have hope. Amen. And Paul talks about this in First Thessalonians chapter four, that when believers die, yes, there's sorrow, but it's not sorrow like those who don't have hope. That when Christ returns, we will be gathered to him, we will be glorified, we will be transformed. But each in his own order, Christ the first fruits, and that is coming, those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power, for he must reign until he has put all of his enemies under his feet. And you need to understand this, church, that Jesus is not killing time, playing cards at the right hand of the Father in heaven. He is seated at the right hand of the Father, not because he's inactive, but because he is seated on a throne. He is ruling and reigning. And one by one, we don't fully understand, we don't fully see, but one by one, the enemies of God are still falling. We still live in a world where there is sin, where there is death. We still see things happen, but it is only for a time and to a measure. And Paul makes it clear in other places that already through his death and his resurrection, Jesus has made a public spectacle of his enemies. He has already shown the enemy that he is a defeated foe, that there is no hope, there is no winning. He overcame sin, hell, death, and the grave. He must reign until he has put all of his enemies under his feet, and the last enemy to be destroyed is death. John and his vision at the end of our Bibles, the book of Revelation, he shows us this in very vivid prophetic language and imagery that death and the grave will be thrown into the lake of fire. They will be no more. So many beautiful promises, so many beautiful things that we see in this passage. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet. That's present tense, people. That's not future tense. Jesus wasn't joking when he rose from the grave and he appeared to the disciples. And we read at the end of Matthew, Matthew chapter 28, and he says, Go into all the world, preach the gospel, those who are baptized. You know, all he gives us the commission. He says, Go out into all the world, because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So now you go. We need a revival of an understanding of the authority that is in Christ and the authority that has been given to the church through his commission. Amen. There is nothing in this earth that is not subject to the rule and reign of Christ. Nothing. No power, no government, no demon, no spirit, no sickness, nothing is outside of Jesus' authority. All authority in heaven and on earth is given to Jesus. He's reigning, he's putting enemies under his feet, he will destroy death in the end. And he, God has put all things in subjection under his feet. For the sake of time, I'm just gonna skip ahead here. And because I don't want to get into the whole question of what were they baptizing for the dead and all of that stuff. Some of you are like, what? That's in our Bible. It's right here. I better stop. I'll be tempted. Paul, starting from verse 35, he begins to entertain again kind of all of these hypotheticals. What's it gonna be like? What kind of body are we gonna have when we're raised from the dead? And and he talks about you know different sorts of creatures and people and the sun, the moon, the stars, all of these things are glorious in their own way. They're all unique. We will be unique, we will be different than we currently are. Actually, when you read this passage, and it's one that I go to whenever I'm facing, you know, a beloved person who's passed away, a believer, that the language Paul uses is that this current body, it's like a seed sown in the earth. You know, and it's the same way that a seed, you know, and I've done this sometimes for the sake of illustration. If I were to place a seed in the palm of your hand, could you tell me, could you describe to me what that plant is gonna look like one day by looking at that seed? Is it gonna be a bush? Is it gonna be a tree? Is it gonna be a flower? What's the fragrance? What's the color? What's it gonna be like? We we unless you're a botanist or something and you know your seeds really well, like there's so much potential in that seed, there's life in that seed, but it's until it dies, and then it begins to take root. It dies not in the sense that it's it's not a good seed, right? It dies in the sense that it ceased to be what it was. In the same way, the life that we will one day enjoy with God in the resurrection is as comparable today to our life today as a seed is to the plant. Does that make sense? That it's not that, again, that the whole earthly life gets thrown out of the window and it never mattered and there's no connection. It's just like, and now we're gone and we do something else. It's like the the seed was still there, but it takes on a whole new form and glory and fragrance and color that we cannot even imagine. So down, we'll just jump to verse 42. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. What is sown is in dishonor, it's raised in glory. How many of you know we're destined for glory? You know, we're redeemed, we're justified, we're all of those wonderful things we read about in scripture, but the end of our faith, really, we are on a process towards being glorified and enjoying the glory of God eternally. This is what we have in wait that we can anticipate and look forward to. It's raised in glory, it's sown in weakness, it's raised in power, it's sown a natural body, it's raised a spiritual body. And that's again, it's not saying that there's no physicality, there's no nothing, you know, to touch and to feel. Jesus touched, he felt, he ate, but it's saying that there will no longer be this conflict between your spirit, the spirit of God, and your flesh and blood. That you you will live in harmony with the spirit that God has placed on the inside of you. Your body will be perfectly matched to the spirit, a spiritual body. If there's a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. As it is written, the first man Adam became a living being, and the last Adam, he's speaking about Christ, and that's where I like them using my name a little bit more. Not that I'm Jesus. That's right out of Genesis, and the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. Amen. The spirit of Christ is in you and me. We've been talking about the spirit for weeks now. Paul says in Romans that if the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, then he will quicken, he will make alive your mortal body. And I believe there's a measure of that reality that we experience now, right? That there is life on the inside of us, and God moves through us and heals through our hands and all of these sorts of things, these gifts that are at work, but ultimately it's saying that if you have the deposit of the spirit inside of you, and that's how the spirit is spoken of many times in scripture, it's a down payment, it's a deposit that we have on the inside of us. Then if the spirit, that's the same spirit that rose Jesus from the dead, what does that mean for you who have the spirit on the inside of you? That means that death doesn't have the final say over you, that sin doesn't have the final say over. You, the devil, and hell don't have the final say over you because as Christ rose, you will rise. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. Just gonna look at a couple of more passages to really drive this home. We could, I've skipped over lots and there's lots more there. But if we just go to Colossians for a moment, I love that again the apostle Paul's writing about to a different church, and he begins to make these connections about Jesus' resurrection and what that means for us as believers. Colossians chapter 2. In Colossians chapter 2 and in verse 11. By the way, this is right after where the Apostle Paul, similar to what he was dealing with back in Corinth, he says, let nobody get you off track with empty deceit and philosophy. Because again, these guys, they love to think, they love to listen to smart-sounding people. And not that that's necessarily wrong. I like to catch podcasts and you know, TED Talks and different things, and you know, whatever. Uh, you know, it's it's neat to learn things, but he's saying, don't let those smart-sounding people get you off track from the realities of the faith. Empty deceit, captive by philosophy, according to human tradition. Those are the things Paul's warning them about. And down here in verse 11, it says, In him, in Christ, you also were circumcised with a circumcision not made without hands, putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism. Amen. How many of you know that baptism is a powerful thing? And I'll just put a plug in. We always do baptisms in the summer around here. If you haven't been baptized, we're gonna teach you about baptism and why it happens. But look at this right here. It says that baptism, we are identifying with Jesus' death. But again, just as Jesus didn't stay on the cross, he didn't stay in the grave, we don't stay at that place either. In him, let me just find it here. Having been buried with Christ in baptism, in which you also were raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. You who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed rulers and authorities and powers and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. What I love about this passage and about what much uh much of what Paul writes about in his epistles, that if it's true for Jesus and you belong to Jesus, if it's true for him and his spirit dwells in you, then it's true for you too. He died for our sins. We go into the water of baptism to be cleansed and to identify in faith with Christ. It's like we're going into the grave with him, but we don't stay there, we rise with him again. The resurrection of Jesus means that we are alive in him, that that same life is flowing through our veins. Again, if you just jump to the beginning of the next chapter, chapter three, verses one to three. And if then you have been raised with Christ, he begins to say, This is great, it's exciting, good preaching. I'm alive, my sins are forgiven. Hallelujah. Amen. If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated. Look at how it's always focusing in on that seat of authority where Christ is and keeping our eyes on the reality of whom we serve. Remember, we are confessing with our mouth not just that Jesus is a savior, but that Jesus is Lord, that he rules, that he reigns, that he's the king. He has a kingdom. We seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. We set our minds on the things that are above and not on the things of the earth. For you have died and your life is hidden in Christ. He says in another place, we are seated with Christ in heavenly places. What is true for Jesus is true for you, and in a way that we don't fully comprehend or understand where Jesus sits in authority. We're already seated with him. That's Easter Sunday for you, right there. It's not just your sins are forgiven, it's that we're alive from the dead, and that it's Jesus rose and is seated at the right hand of God, ruling and reigning till all his enemies are under his feet and we're there with him. But we got to keep our eyes and our minds on the things that are above and not the things that are below. We can't be deceived by philosophy and human tradition. We need this resurrection faith. We need to live it out day to day. Set your minds on the things that are above and not the things that are of the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory. We've been justified, our sins have been forgiven. We are being sanctified all through our life. He's working on us, he's cleansing us, he's making us more like him. And the end of our faith is to be glorified, to rule and reign with Christ. I don't know about you, but that's plenty to get excited about on Easter Sunday. And I didn't even get to the resurrection narratives for you. But there's a depth of truth that we just need to unpack and understand. So as we begin to pray, I just ask the worship team to come up and we're gonna. I wish you were here. I wish I could pray for you. Well, I will pray for you, but you know what I mean. Gather together and experience this wonderful presence of God together. But I trust that you have been blessed and stirred to set our eyes and our minds on higher things because of the reality of the resurrection today. Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for this amazing faith that you have given us. It is not in vain. We are standing on solid ground. And Lord, you change not just the lives of your apostles, but you have changed human history. You have changed the trajectory of humanity, Lord God, and what you began 2,000 years ago, you continue to do today through your spirit. And as you sit are seated, Lord God, ruling and reigning, we know that you are putting enemies under your feet. And Lord God, if we are your body as you have told us we are, then we know that you are putting enemies under our feet, and that we can walk in authority, Lord God, and not in fear. We can walk, Lord God, with the life and the joy of the resurrected one living on the inside. And when adversaries and enemies come our way, Lord, that we know they will be crushed under our feet as well. Jesus, thank you for the cross, but thank you, it didn't end there. Thank you for the life-giving power of your spirit, and I ask you to minister that life by your spirit to each and every one of us today. He is risen, he is alive, sits enthroned. Just pray with me, Jesus. You are Lord. You sit enthroned, and I yield to you. Forgive me of my sins. Your blood is all it takes, and all that you could ever wash me clean. Jesus, I believe that you are alive. Come and dwell in me. In Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you. Let's worship together in closing today.