Easter Sunday

[0:00] For those of you who are new, my name is Sean. I'm one of the pastors of Trinity Cambridge Church. It's my joy to preach God's word to you this morning. We are in Matthew chapter 28 today for Easter Sunday.

[0:13] So please turn with me in your Bibles. Matthew is the first book in the New Testament. If you see Mark, you've gone a little too far. Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's word.

[0:30] Heavenly Father, we gather as we always do on Sunday morning because your son Jesus Christ was raised on Sunday morning.

[0:48] We are alive today because he was raised. And Lord, we don't want to take his death and his resurrection on our behalf for granted.

[1:02] So we pray that you would renew our understanding, our appreciation for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

[1:14] Fill us with awe before him with great joy as remember what he has accomplished for us.

[1:27] Glorify the name of your son and be pleased in our worship this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Matthew chapter 28, verses 1 to 15.

[1:41] Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

[1:54] And behold, there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow.

[2:09] And for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the woman, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.

[2:25] He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead.

[2:41] And behold, he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him. See, I have told you. So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples.

[2:57] And behold, Jesus met them and said, Greetings. And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid.

[3:12] Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me. While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place.

[3:25] 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 him away while we were asleep.

[3:41] 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.

[3:52] And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. This is God's holy and authoritative word. Often when I tell my non-Christian friends, unbelieving friends, about Jesus, they raise philosophical or scientific objections that they think I need to be able to explain in order to reconcile my Christian worldview with them.

[4:21] How do you explain the problem of evil and suffering in the world? Can you square the account of creation in Genesis with our modern scientific understanding? Very smart Christians over the last 2,000 years have provided many compelling and satisfactory answers to all of these questions and more.

[4:42] And sometimes I will engage with their questions at that level, but I usually try to bring the conversation back to Jesus. To Jesus' life, his death, and resurrection.

[4:55] Because Christianity is not a system of belief that someone arrived at after extensive philosophical inquiry. Rather, it's the natural outgrowth of an earth-shaking historical event.

[5:09] In other words, the central tenet of Christianity, the death and resurrection of Jesus, is itself an inconvenient historical reality that we must reckon with in order to make sense of our world.

[5:25] In other words, your worldview needs to be updated to make an account for the death and resurrection of Jesus. When a scientist discovers data that contradict his hypothesis, he can't ignore the data.

[5:43] That's not a luxury that he has. He needs to modify his hypothesis. Similarly, if your worldview does not allow for a resurrection, that's no reason simply to discount it and say that it could have never happened.

[5:56] You need to change your worldview. Because there is compelling historical evidence that Jesus really died and that he was really raised from the dead. The biographies of Jesus that we Christians call the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all contain accounts of the resurrection of Jesus.

[6:16] And these writings have far superior documentation historically than any other contemporary classical work. And the oldest Gospel manuscript we have dates to 2nd century AD and the sheer number of textual attestations that we have in their antiquity ensure that what we have here in our Bibles and in the Gospels is what the original authors wrote.

[6:40] And the fact that they were written so early means that the authors could not have easily fabricated things. Especially not something as fundamental as the resurrection. There were contemporary witnesses around who could easily challenge fabricated elements in the accounts.

[6:57] Just to give you an example, I'm sure you have had awkward conversations with married couples where the husband tells you a story and the wife promptly corrects him saying, no, no, no, that's not what actually happened.

[7:09] This is how it really went down. No, that's not where that happened. It happened here. That's not when that happened. No, it happened then. Because the wife was there with the husband and if it's like me and my wife, Hannah, then she's usually right.

[7:29] She can correct me because she was there. The same is true for the Gospel accounts. They were written and circulated so early on and so close to the time of the actual events that there were plenty of people around to challenge falsehoods.

[7:46] Hey, that didn't actually happen. That's not what Mary told me. She was there. Some of the minor discrepancies that you find in the Gospel accounts are accounted for by the fact that they're telling the story from different angles and different perspectives and they choose each author to note or emphasize different details of the story for the sake of theological emphases.

[8:18] And those actually corroborate the historical authenticity of the event because they show that there were multiple strands of oral tradition that had been preserved, handed down from the same historical event.

[8:32] And today, we're looking specifically at Matthew's account of Jesus' resurrection here in chapter 28. And Matthew draws a contrast between the true witnesses of the resurrection in the first 10 verses and the false witnesses of the resurrection in verses 11 to 15.

[8:47] And through this, teaches us to believe in the resurrection and to bear witness to the bodily resurrection of Jesus. He says in verse 1, Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

[9:04] All four gospel accounts of Jesus' resurrection record that Jesus rose from the dead around the dawn of the first day of the week. The first day of the week conveys a note of hope and renewal.

[9:20] There's a reason why, if you remember from a few months ago, gyms are always crowded in January because people make New Year's resolutions.

[9:31] People want to create a new self. There's a sense of hope. We can be different. We can be healthier. Similarly, the phrase first day of the week conveys the newness of hope that Jesus' resurrection brings.

[9:47] Jesus is making all things new. This is also why Christians throughout the last two millennia have gathered for worship on Sunday. Remember that the earliest Christians were mostly Jews and that Jews had been faithfully observing the Sabbath and worshiping in the synagogues on Saturday for thousands of years.

[10:09] Something significant must have happened to make them change such a deeply historical, scriptural, and universally observed practice. This transfer of the Lord's Day from Saturday to Sunday only makes sense in light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

[10:26] Because the Lord Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week, they saw it as only fitting to make that day the focal point of their weekly rhythm and worship.

[10:38] This is why Christian sects that insist that corporate worship should take place on Saturdays rather than on Sundays are misguided, however well-meaning they might be. The resurrection also reportedly happened toward the dawn of the first day of the week.

[10:53] Matthew, like other gospel writers, employed a light-darkness motif throughout his gospel. Most prominently at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, it says in Matthew 4, 13-16, that he lived in Capernaum by the sea in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.

[11:13] And this is the prophecy. The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light.

[11:26] And for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned. This has been the nature of Jesus' ministry from the very beginning.

[11:37] He is the light of the world and wherever he goes, the light of salvation dawns over those who dwell in the shadow of death. Matthew also noted in 27-45 that Jesus, just before breathing his last breath on the cross, he said, there was darkness over the face of the land.

[11:57] So darkness precedes Jesus' death and here dawn precedes Jesus' resurrection. The term Easter comes from the Proto-Germanic word that means dawn.

[12:10] Just as the sun rises from the east to bring the light of day, Jesus' resurrection brings the light of life. And that gives us so much hope.

[12:21] some of you probably feel overwhelmed by the darkness of this world. There's so much war, so much death, so much hatred and division.

[12:33] Some of you probably feel overwhelmed by the darkness within you, by your evil desires, your own selfishness, your own envy, hatred, cynicism, indifference, laziness, addictions.

[12:49] But however dark the world might be, however hopeless your life might seem, however dead you might feel spiritually, Jesus' resurrection teaches us that there is still hope for us.

[13:09] The light of Christ can still dawn on your life. Matthew also notes that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

[13:20] Matthew has been very careful to note the presence of woman at all the critical junctures of Jesus' death and resurrection. At his crucifixion, he said in Matthew 27, 55 to 56, there were also many women there looking on from a distance who had followed Jesus from Galilee ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

[13:44] Likewise, at Jesus' burial, he said in Matthew 27, 61, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there sitting opposite the tomb. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, are consistently noted as eyewitnesses.

[14:01] These same women saw Jesus die on the cross. These same women saw exactly where Jesus was buried. And these same women were the ones who, after all of his disciples had deserted him, visited the tomb and saw that it was empty.

[14:17] Matthew is telling us that Jesus' resurrection is not a big misunderstanding. These women are eyewitnesses who knew where Jesus' tomb was. And the presence of these women in these accounts significantly bolsters the credibility of the resurrection accounts in the Gospels.

[14:34] If the resurrection accounts were made up stories by Jesus' disciples and they really wanted to sell it, if they really wanted people back then to believe it, then they would not have chosen women to be the first witnesses of Jesus' resurrection.

[14:49] Because in their culture, women were ineligible to serve as legal witnesses in the Jewish court. To illustrate the first century Jewish historian Josephus wrote in his book Against Apion, but let not the testimony of women be admitted on account of the levity and boldness of their sex since it is probable that they may not speak truth either out of hope of gain or fear of punishment.

[15:14] Similarly, the Talmud, which is the compilation of Jewish rabbinical commentary on Old Testament scriptures, stipulates that women may not be a valid witness in Jewish legal proceedings. In fact, the fact that the first witnesses were women was the very thing that the second century Greek philosopher Kelsus, who was anti-Christian, mocked us about.

[15:38] So it would have been a point of embarrassment in the ancient world that the first witnesses of Christ's resurrection were women. But none of the gospel writers try to hide or minimize this fact because they believe that their testimony is reliable and because they're not making this up, but that's what actually happened.

[16:03] There are many other such details in the gospels. For example, how the disciples could not heal a demon-possessed man, how they bickered about who's the greatest when Jesus was getting ready to die on the cross, Peter's thrice denial of Jesus, how the disciples deserted Jesus, the fact that it says in Matthew 28, 17 later on that some did not believe but doubted even after Jesus' resurrection.

[16:29] These are embarrassing details that could have been easily omitted. but their inclusion demonstrates that Jesus' early followers desire to preserve what really happened.

[16:46] And verses 2 to 3 continue, and behold, there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow.

[17:00] Much like when Jesus died on the cross in 2751, there was an earthquake and the earthquake was followed by many of the followers of God who had died being raised from the dead.

[17:12] But he specifically noted there that they only came out of their tombs after Jesus' resurrection. So that was a preview of what's happening now. And here, there's another earthquake and this earthquake precedes the resurrection of Jesus.

[17:26] It's like the earth is giving up its dead or at least precedes the announcement of the resurrection of Jesus. And it's not the earth alone that is shaken. It says in verse 4, after seeing the angel of the Lord rolling back the stone and sitting on it for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like dead men.

[17:45] The word trembled is the same word that's used to describe the earlier earthquake in chapter 27. The guards are shaken like the earth. And ironically, the dead man that they were supposed to be guarding is very much alive and these live soldiers become like dead men.

[18:07] And amazingly, the angel of the Lord, I love this, completely ignores the guards. It's like they're not even there. These guards were, by cultural standards, the more important and powerful people on the scene.

[18:23] the angel completely ignores them. He gives his entire attention to the powerless woman who are visiting the tomb, which shows once again that God's ways are not the same as ours.

[18:39] While the guards posted at the tomb should be afraid of the angel, the angel reassures the woman visiting the tomb not to be afraid in verses 5 to 7. Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.

[18:54] He is not here, for he has risen as he said. Come see the place where he lay, then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee, there you will see him.

[19:11] See, I have told you. Note here that the angel did not roll away the stone to let Jesus out of the tomb. He doesn't need his help. He rolls it away to let the woman go into the tomb to see that Jesus has already risen and left the tomb and that he is not there.

[19:34] Jesus' resurrected body has been so transformed that he can appear suddenly through locked doors as it says in John 20, but nonetheless, he had hands and feet that people can touch.

[19:46] The resurrected body is not beset with the same physical limitations that our bodies have. So it appears that Jesus simply walked right out of the tomb, even though the stone wasn't rolled away at that point.

[19:59] The stone was rolled away not for Jesus' benefit, but for our benefit to show that the tomb is empty. This shows God's kind dealing with us.

[20:10] God didn't owe us any proof, yet he accommodates our weaknesses, our doubts, and he invites the woman to come and see. And the angel notes that Jesus has been raised just as he said.

[20:25] Repeatedly throughout the Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Matthew, sorry, rather, Jesus has prophesied that he will be killed but then be raised again to life on the third day.

[20:36] This was a known fact that Jesus predicted this. And so in 27, 63, 64, the Pharisees proposed to the Roman governor, Pilate, Sir, we remember how that imposter said while he was still alive, after three days I will rise.

[20:51] Therefore, order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest the disciples go and steal him away and tell the people he has risen from the dead, and the last fraud will be worse than the first.

[21:03] So Pilate ordered the Jewish chief priests and leaders to use their own guard of soldiers to secure the tomb. This was exactly why the tomb was guarded. And yet the resurrection happened anyway because Jesus is no imposter and his resurrection is no fraud.

[21:21] And the angel commands the woman to go quickly and tell Jesus' disciples that he has risen from the dead and promises that Jesus is going before them to Galilee and that they'll see him there. And the two Marys do exactly what the angel has commanded in verse 8.

[21:35] So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. As they are journeying their hearts well up with fear on the one hand and great joy on the other.

[21:51] Fear because they are about to meet someone who has just defeated death which no other human being has ever done. they had never even heard of someone who had been raised from the dead.

[22:06] So surely he possesses great authority and power and ought to be revered and feared. But they also feel great joy because that person with great authority and power is not anyone but their beloved Lord Jesus.

[22:24] The one who walked with them. The one who taught them. The one who loved them for the last several years. So they're filled with anticipation as they begin this journey to Galilee and I love what happens next.

[22:38] As soon as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary set out to Galilee in obedience it says in verses 9 to 10 and behold Jesus met them and said greetings and they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him.

[22:57] Then Jesus said to them do not be afraid go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me. Remember what the angel has told the woman.

[23:09] The angel told the woman hey go to Galilee and there Jesus will meet you and that will happen. They will meet Jesus again in Galilee but Jesus intercepts them on the way and greets them as if he couldn't wait long enough.

[23:30] Like a man who wants to surprise the woman he loves with an unexpected proposal or a father who wants to surprise his daughters by coming home early from his trip Jesus meets them and greets them before Galilee and behold Jesus met them and said greetings that's the first thing he said hey I'm here full of love and compassion our savior and this is significant the woman took hold of his feet and worshipped him their taking hold of Jesus' feet shows two things first it shows us that despite having walked through a closed tomb

[24:30] Jesus has a real physical body second it shows us that the way we ought to approach and honor Jesus is in humility and in submission taking hold of someone's feet is a recognized act of paying homage and supplication in Mark 5 22-23 when Jairus is imploring Jesus earnestly because his daughter is dying he falls at Jesus' feet it says and in Luke 17 15-16 a Samaritan leper whom Jesus healed it says he fell on his face at Jesus' feet giving him thanks it's a posture of deep humility that expresses one's abject need and indebtedness to somebody it's what you do when you know that you have no recourse but to plead the mercy of somebody else who has the power to save you when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary encounter the reason Jesus they know that he is their healer that he is their king that they've been waiting for that he is their savior that he is their lord so they put their faces to the ground and cling to Jesus' feet friends this is how we all must come before

[25:59] Christ the king we must not approach Jesus with our chins up and our heads held high and our shoulders level with his saying hey look look at all these good things that I've done look look at all my qualifications look at my potential all the wonderful things that I can do for you no we must come to Jesus recognizing our abject poverty and our total depravity and cling to his feet nothing in my hand I bring simply to the cross I cling naked I come to thee for dress helpless look to thee for grace but there's more the women don't stop at humbling themselves before Jesus they also worship him this is shocking because it's exactly what the devil had tempted Jesus to do in Matthew chapter 4 verses 9 to 10 he said to

[27:05] Jesus all these wealth of the kingdoms of this world I will give you if you will fall down and worship me but Jesus rebuked him be gone Satan for it is written you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve we should worship God alone but Satan being the prideful and presumptuous devil he is demanded worship from Jesus and Jesus rightly rebuked him and if anyone tries to worship man rather than the one true God we must stop them so in Acts 10 24 to 26 when Cornelius falls at the feet of Peter and worships him Peter lifts him up saying stand up I too am a man even angels refuse to be worshiped in Revelation 22 8 to 9 when John falls at worship in worship at the feet of the angel this is what the angel says to him you must not do that

[28:06] I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets and with those who keep the words of this book worship God even an angel like we saw earlier in this chapter whose appearance according to verse 3 was like lightning imagine seeing someone clothed like lightning white as snow that being does not deserve to be worshipped but Jesus the one who was crucified the one who is risen deserves to be worshipped that's the woman's natural and immediate response upon encountering the risen Lord and a little later in verse 17 Jesus appears to his 11 disciples and their response is the same when they saw the resurrected Jesus it says they worshipped him and this is not idolatrous because he is the son of God the second person of the trinity the risen

[29:09] Lord Emmanuel which means God with us and this glorious God who so humbled himself in taking on human flesh and submit subjecting himself to death even death on the cross graciously calls us his brothers did you see that verse 10 he says do not be afraid go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me Jesus taught in Matthew 12 50 that those who do the will of his father in heaven is his brother and sister and mother but look who he's saying this to it's these disciples the very disciples who deserted him when Jesus needed their help and their encouragement the most in the moment of his greatest weakness and need they were nowhere to be seen and Jesus graciously calls them my brothers me

[30:27] Jesus his brother there's so much forgiveness and affection wrapped up in that term and all those who are adopted by God the father through their faith in Jesus become his brothers and sisters within the family of God and witnesses of his resurrection so Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were true witnesses of the resurrection but in verses 11 to 15 we see that they have some competition they're also false witnesses of the resurrection verse 11 sets up the contrast while they were going behold some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priest all that had taken place there are two groups of people at the same time hurrying away from the tomb the empty tomb and the word tell in verses 8 10 and 11 all translate the same Greek word to announce which means to announce a message and they're all relaying a message they want to relay that Jesus has risen from the dead but the second group is bribed into becoming false witnesses and therefore conveyors of a starkly different news it says in verses 12 to 15 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 him away while we were asleep 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 story has been spread among the

[31:59] Jews to this day there's a deliberate contrast that Matthew is setting up between verses 1 to 10 and 11 to 15 in 1 to 10 the true witnesses received their instruction from heaven from the angel the Lord who has descended from heaven but here the false witnesses received their instructions from the chief priests in the city and these chief priests considered Jesus an imposter and a fraud but they revealed themselves to be here imposters and fraud they do not truly represent God and verse 15 is ironic the word directed is literally taught it's the word for teach and the word story is literally word they are literally teachers of the word false teachers of the word throughout the gospel of Matthew Jesus is portrayed as the faithful teacher of the word and in the parable of the sower in Matthew 13 he spoke of proclaiming the word of the kingdom sowing the seeds of the kingdom is proclaiming the word of the kingdom and these chief priests are also proclaiming a word but it's a false word and today also there are many who are false teachers of the word people who undermine the life death and resurrection of Jesus people who deny it explain it away admitting of course that

[33:30] Jesus was raised from the dead and then left the tomb on their watch would have been a death knell to their careers as Jewish leaders because they were the ones who orchestrated and redrove his death so they tried to salvage the situation by bribing the soldiers to lie that Jesus' disciples came by night and stole them away just like they use money to pay Judas to betray Jesus they think like many people in our world that they could solve all their problems with money and look at what Matthew concedes in verse 15 and this story has been spread among the Jews to this day the gospel of Matthew is an apologetic meaning it's a systematic defense of the claim that Jesus is the Messiah who was crucified but now risen from the dead to save his people from sin Matthew was written for that purpose to defend that claim especially for the Jewish people they were their primary target audience that's why the gospel of Matthew so often features the characteristic fulfillment formula which quotes an

[34:39] Old Testament prophecy and shows how Jesus fulfilled it Matthew's trying to show his fellow Jews Jesus really was the Messiah he really is risen from the dead and so for their sake he includes this note of verse 15 that they might know that this story that has been circulating among them that has had some currency among them is false that Jesus disciples did not steal Jesus body from the grave at night there's several important implications of this lie that we should point out first even this lie confirms that the empty tomb was an unquestionable reality if Jesus tomb had not been empty the Jewish leaders and the Roman rulers could have very easily opened it up for some tours to nip Christianity right in the bud because Christianity unlike other religions is based on a verifiable historical claim but they didn't do that instead the alternative narrative that they were circulating at the time was that

[35:52] Jesus disciples stole Jesus body while it was being guarded by the soldiers because it was empty second this story is so ridiculous that Matthew doesn't even refute it if the soldiers really were asleep like they claimed to be while the disciples came to roll away a large stone and carry Jesus' body away then they would have never known that the body was stolen by the disciples because they never saw it they were asleep at best it would be a guess they could not know that Jesus' disciples stole the body they couldn't even know that his body was stolen at all third this lie confirms that we already know from other ancient sources what we already know from other ancient sources that grave robberies were common that's what made this story plausible but this actually corroborates the reality of

[36:56] Jesus' post resurrection appearances if the empty tomb were the only evidence of Jesus' resurrection and Jesus had never appeared to people in his flesh the disciples would have been hard pressed to convince people in this day and age that Jesus had risen from the dead because grave robberies were so common even the disciples would not have been convinced that Jesus was risen from the dead until Jesus' bodily appearance the empty tomb is more a puzzle than a proof to Jesus' followers this is why in John 21 to 2 when Mary Magdalene first visits notices the empty tomb before her second visit when the angel explains to her her response is not a triumphant Christ is risen but instead she says this they've taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they've laid him but Jesus' disciples were fully convinced and they died proclaiming that

[37:57] Jesus really has been raised from the dead because they had really seen him with their eyes and the fact that the church of Christ has faithfully proclaimed the risen Christ for the last 2,000 years and the fact that we now proclaim him today on Easter Sunday proof that no one has been able to bury the truth of Jesus' resurrection billions and billions of Christians have believed this unbelievable claim that Jesus physically rose from the dead and we bear witness today that he is alive and that he is with us here's why this is so important it goes to the crux of our faith 1 Corinthians 15 17 Paul says and if Christ has not been raised your faith is futile and you are still in your sins then those who have fallen asleep in

[39:00] Christ have perished if Christ has not been raised then his atoning death for our sin was ineffective and we are still in our sins sometimes we can think that Christ death alone is sufficient for our forgiveness and redemption but this is not true if Christ had not been raised it would mean that Jesus was swallowed up by death if Christ had not been raised it would mean that he was overwhelmed by the curse of sin he could not bear the weight if Christ had not been raised it would mean that Jesus was overcome by still remain in their sins and stand condemned under God's judgment and that is why Paul says apart from the resurrection of Christ our faith is futile and we are still in our sins everywhere we go in our lives we smell death we ourselves smell of death there are people in our lives that die our loved ones die and we never see them again we ourselves are dying there is sickness there is suffering and there is sin so deeply entrenched so pervasive in our world and all of that we have no hope for it if

[40:25] Christ had not been raised but because Jesus has paid the penalty for sin on the cross and because he is risen we are now justified counted righteous before Christ and because he is risen we can now be sanctified made holy become more and more like Jesus and it's also because of his resurrection that we will be glorified our bodies will be raised and perfected like Christ's resurrection body and we will share in his reign forever and dwell with God our father forever that's what we proclaim on resurrection Sunday and so though fools we might seem to the watching world let us not shrink from declaring this wonderful truth Christ is risen he is risen amen let's pray

[41:33] Lord we thank you for not leaving us to our own devices but sending your son Jesus to save us we thank you for his death the death that we should have died but he died in our place we thank you for his resurrection we now have assurance of our victory we now have a foretaste of our glory we praise you oh Lord risen Jesus we love you we fall at your feet we worship you amen men amen you please you you you you you you