Resurrection Sunday Part 2

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist

D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's Word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message.

Verse 17. So when Jesus came, he found that he, Lazarus, had already been in the tomb for days.

Now, Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away, and many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother.

Then Mary, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him.

But Mary was sitting in the house. Of course, there's this thing with Mary and Martha, and Martha was always busy and up having to do things, and Mary kind of just wanted to stay put, and there's one time she listened to Jesus.

She sat at his feet while Martha was off working in the kitchen, but this is the difference between the two sisters.

But verse 21, now Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.

And Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. And Martha said to him,

I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Now, let's go to 1

Corinthians 15 for a moment. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, this is where our scripture reading was from.

This is perhaps the most important chapter in all of the Bible on the subject of resurrection.

And it deals not only with the resurrection of Jesus, but the resurrection of believers as well.

So the first point was what? Everyone who dies will be raised from the dead, right?

Quoted the verse from Daniel, and Martha, as a faithful Jewish woman, she would have known that statement from Daniel.

So Martha understands something about the resurrection that yes,

Lazarus will be raised someday, you know, maybe thousands of years in the future.

So point number one, everyone who dies will be raised from the dead. Point number two is that not everyone is going to die.

Okay, everybody who dies will be raised, but not everybody is going to die.

This is something Martha did not understand because God had not yet revealed it to her.

God revealed this, we believe, first to the apostle Paul. That's why

Paul calls this idea a mystery. Look at 1 Corinthians 15, starting in verse 51.

Paul says, behold, I tell you what? A mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

There's, I heard one church, there's a wise guy who made a sign up and hung that above the door of the nursery.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Okay, I'm glad you got that.

But you remember, sleep is a reference to what? Death, right?

So what's he saying? We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed.

1 Thessalonians 4 is a parallel passage to 1 Corinthians 15 and Paul and 1

Thessalonians 4 talks about those who are alive and remain until the coming of the

Lord. He says, they or we will be caught up. Look at verse 52.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality.

So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.

Can you say that this morning with confidence that death has been swallowed up in victory?

He says, oh death, where is your sting? Oh Hades or hell, where is your victory?

It's a defeated foe. So how can we get victory over death?

By being in covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Go back to verse 20 for a moment. Because in a sense you are either in covenant with Christ or you are still in covenant, so to speak, with Adam.

Adam. It says, but now Christ is risen, has become the first fruits for those who have fallen asleep.

In other words, of all who have died, Jesus is the first to have been resurrected.

It continues in verse 21, for since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

Every man, every man and woman is a descendant of Adam. You know, there's some people who would say, well,

I'm a Christian, but I don't believe in that Adam and Eve, Garden of Eden stuff. If you don't believe that, it's like a table and you just chop the legs out from under the table.

The whole thing's gonna collapse. Okay, there's some people they don't believe the first few chapters of the

Bible. They don't believe in the book of Revelation. You wonder if they believe anything in between. Adam was a real man.

Amen? Bible says Adam, God created Adam in his own image. So we are all descendants of Adam.

Adam was the representative of the human race. And when Adam sinned, the race fell.

And every descendant of Adam, which is everybody, inherited that sinful nature.

That's why the scripture says, for all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God. We don't sin because, or we are not sinners because we sin.

We sin because it's in our nature. And the wages of sin is death.

So all men are born in Adam. And because of that, like Adam, all will die.

But for those who are born again, for those who have been born from above, we are not in Adam.

We are in who? We are in Christ. And because Christ lives, the promise for believers, for those who are in covenant with Christ, baptized into Christ, we shall live also.

The Apostle Paul says in verse 56, look at it, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 56, the sting of death is sin.

And the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our

Lord Jesus Christ. Paul mentions the law here. And Paul knew something about the law.

We think of the law as the Ten Commandments. How many of you know the Ten Commandments? I know you know of the

Ten Commandments, but how many of you know and can recite the Ten Commandments? Normally don't give homework from the pulpit on Sunday morning, but that's your homework.

If you don't know the Ten Commandments, memorize them. It's something we should know.

But Paul knew the commandments of God because before he came to faith in Jesus, what was he? He was a

Pharisee. And it's something you know about the Pharisees is that they were Jewish legalists and most of them hated

Jesus. And did Paul hate Jesus and the cause of Jesus? Yeah, he did.

And he persecuted the church of God until one day God struck him down on the road to Damascus and he changed his life forever.

He blinded him. He struck him down. Sometimes we're just going through life, maybe before you were converted.

You're just going through life and things are the way they are. And then one day God intervenes.

So Paul knew the law. Paul was a very religious man. And here's the thing about being religious.

Being religious doesn't necessarily do you any good. All of Paul's religion he later called it, he considered it dung.

It was garbage. It didn't do him any good because on the final day when he stood before God, he would have been guilty because he did not trust in the

Lord. His religion did him no good. He spent his life trying to obey the law and the

Ten Commandments. And if there's one thing we know about the law and the commandments, if you're honest, you know you have broken the law.

But what's the gospel of Jesus Christ? That yes, while you're guilty, you can bring all that guilt, all that shame, and you can lay it at the foot of the cross.

Jesus died to pay for all of that sin once and for all.

So now it's just about living a life of faith, which Paul did until the day of his death.

And when Paul died, he went to heaven, absent from the body, present with the Lord. This is the greatest deal that you're ever going to be offered.

God takes all your sin, and he gives you all his righteousness. He takes death, and he turns it into everlasting life.

All right, verse 58, therefore, based on all of that, and based on the fact that the dead are going to be raised, that death is a defeated foe,

Paul says, therefore, my beloved brethren, be what? Steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the

Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the

Lord. Amen. Let's go back to John chapter 11, and we'll start to bring this to a close.

Lazarus. Lazarus was raised from the dead physically through God's power, through the

Lord Jesus Christ. Lost sinners who are dead spiritually can only be raised the same way, through the

Lord Jesus Christ. So just in way of review, point number one, everyone who dies will be raised from the dead.

Point number two, not everybody is going to die. I want to be part of that generation that never sees death.

That's not up to us, but we can pray for it. I hope you're praying for it. This is often referred to as the rapture.

A lot of churches these days don't believe in the rapture. Well, it says that the saints will be caught up.

That's what the word rapture means, caught up. If you haven't noticed, the world is coming unglued.

It's coming unglued. The Bible gives this assurance. Jesus himself gave this assurance.

I will come back and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

Where is Jesus? He's in heaven. He promised his followers he will come back and receive his people, be caught up where?

To heaven. Look at chapter 11, verse 21.

Now Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

But even now I know whatever you ask of God, God will give you.

And Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. She doesn't take a whole lot of comfort at seeing this.

She doesn't really know what he's about to do. Yeah, he's gonna be raised someday way, way off yonder.

And don't think of the coming of the Lord as someday, thousand years from now.

The coming, that's the way a lot of people think of it. Yeah, Jesus is gonna come back someday, and you don't really ever expect to see it.

This is kind of her attitude about the resurrection. Oh, I know, he'll rise someday.

He's gonna be raised that day. Martha said to him, verse 24,

I know that he will rise in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.

Do you believe this? And that's my question for you this morning and all listening. Do you believe this?

And that's point number three. You must believe. In order to be forgiven by God, to receive everlasting life, and to be taken when

Jesus comes back and catches his people up in the air, you must believe. And she said to him, yes,

Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, who has come into the world.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I just ask that you would move in each heart this morning.

I think we all know that you exist, that you're the creator, that you created man in your own image.

The Lord help us to know and understand that every word in the scripture is true.

Every promise is true. Every promise is going to be fulfilled.

We thank you for this day where we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It is because of that that we can live with true hope, knowing that when we breathe our last breath, if that does happen to us, we will simply pass from death unto life and life everlasting.

We thank you so much for that. We praise the name of God for that. It's in Jesus name. Amen. Thanks for listening.

I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Coronet Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website morriscoronetchurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.