Necessity of the Resurrection

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I invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the 28th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.
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William Sangster, the great Methodist leader who helped guide Londoners through the horrors of World War II bombings, fell ill to a disease that progressively paralyzed his body and eventually would paralyze his vocal cords.
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On the Easter, just before he died, he managed to scribble a note to his daughter.
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And the note read this, How terrible it is to wake up on resurrection morning and have no voice to shout, He is risen.
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Far worse, however, would it be to not want to shout.
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I want you to know that it is an exciting thing that we get to do this morning.
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We get to sing songs of praise about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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We get to celebrate the very reason for our faith.
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Now, this morning's sermon is actually the finalization of a series that I've been in.
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But if you haven't been here for the series, don't worry, it can stand on its own.
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But just to give you a little bit of a history of what we've been doing for the past month or so, is we've been looking at Holy Week and we've been looking at all of the events that preceded the resurrection.
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We first looked at the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, the coronation of Jesus as the king of the Jews.
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Then we looked how on the very next day, on Monday, he went into the temple and he fashioned a whip of cords and he drove out the money changers, demonstrating that he was not only the king, but he was also the judge.
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Then we studied about how on that Thursday night, he had his last Passover with his disciples and how he changed that meal from being a remembrance of the events that happened under Moses to now a new remembrance of that which would happen through his death, burial and resurrection.
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This morning, for sunrise service, we continued and we looked at the lawless court which Christ stood before.
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Actually six courts.
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He went through six individual trials which led to the crucifixion.
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And now we get to celebrate that even though he was put to death by lawless men, it was not out of the will of God that he did so, but he did it in the very center of the will of God.
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For God had called him to that work, the work of redemption.
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And on the cross, when he said to Telestai, it is finished, it truly was finished.
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But yet, though the work of redemption was done, the justifying work of the raising from the dead had yet to happen.
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And that is what has brought us here now.
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So let us stand and hear that important story yet again with fresh ears from the 28th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.
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We'll read verses 1 through 10 together.
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Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, which would have been Sunday, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.
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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.
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His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow.
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And for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like dead men.
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But the angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
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He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.
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Come, see the place where he lay.
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Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead.
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And behold, he is going before you to Galilee.
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There you will see him.
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See, I have told you.
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So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples.
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And behold, Jesus met them and said greetings.
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And they came and took hold of his feet and worshipped him.
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Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid.
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Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee.
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And there they will see me.
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Let's pray.
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Our Father and our God, we thank you for this awesome opportunity to again hear your word.
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We pray that though this celebration is one that we have had every year and one that we commemorate every Sunday in communion, Lord, let us never become complacent in our study, but to look with fresh eyes on what your word has to teach us.
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I pray, O God, that again you would keep me from error as the teacher, as I am fully capable of preaching error.
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I pray that you would keep me in the truth.
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And I pray that you would open up the hearts of your people here.
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I pray, Lord, that believers would be edified.
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And Lord God, unbelievers would be convicted.
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And through all, you would be glorified.
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In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen.
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A few years ago, there was an archaeologist who claimed to have discovered the remains of Jesus Christ in an ossuary in Jerusalem.
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It was supposed to be the family tomb of Jesus.
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I don't know how many of you saw that.
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It was, I think, on the History Channel, Discovery Channel, or one of those channels.
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It was actually on CNN as well.
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And it seems like every year, almost without fail, during the season preceding the resurrection of Christ, the time that we celebrate Resurrection Sunday, there is a new attack on this essential belief.
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It seems to happen almost annually.
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And perhaps it has surprised you of the lengths that people will go to attack this very bedrock of the Christian faith.
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Well, beloved, I'm here to tell you this morning that it should come as no surprise at all.
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Attacks upon Christianity, and especially the resurrection of Jesus Christ, have been raging ever since it happened.
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And this attack of saying that they have found His body, which was a farce, and it was proven later to be totally untrue, is just one in a long, long line of claims used by unbelievers to try to attack the miracle of the resurrection.
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A lot of people don't realize, but if you go back to the Scriptures, you'll see that that actually was in the very beginning.
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On the very first day, on the day that Jesus raised, there were people who were trying to come up with excuses and reasons to say that He didn't really raise.
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If you have your Bible still open to Matthew 28, look at verse 11.
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We didn't get there in our reading, but I just want to show you.
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In verse 11, it says, while they were going, speaking of the women, it says, while they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city.
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Remember, these are the guards who were watching Jesus.
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And by the way, a Roman guard is not just two men.
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A Roman guard is a series of 12 men, and they work together in shifts.
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Four men at one time, standing guard, and they work on a 12-hour shift so that each one works for four hours at a time, each set of four.
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So some of this group went to the chief priests and told them all that had taken place.
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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.
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And if it comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy Him and keep you out of trouble.
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So they took the money and did as they were directed, and this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.
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You see, from the very beginning, the very day Jesus rose from the dead, there was an attempt to try to discredit those who would believe it was an actual resurrection.
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There was even money given.
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Here, I will give you this money.
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You tell them this is what happened.
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Somehow you all just fell asleep.
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And this band of men who just the night before was unwilling to stand with Christ, they were unwilling to go to the cross with Christ just a few days before, but now they're willing to come up against a guard of Roman soldiers, highly trained killers, and sneak around in your sleep and pull the tombstone away and steal His body, all to concoct this story.
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That's what we're going to start with.
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That's the story we're going to begin with.
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Well, beloved, that's not the only story that has gone down through the history of the church.
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In fact, there are many, many stories that people try to use to discredit the resurrection of Jesus.
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One of the ones I hear from atheists a lot is that, well, it was it just never happened.
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It just it never, ever took place.
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And it's all made up.
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It's just a story that never occurred.
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One of the most difficult things to do is to prove a historical event or disprove it.
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All we have is the evidence of what's been written down.
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We weren't there, so it's almost impossible to prove or disprove a historical event.
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But what we can do is we look at evidence and say, well, why do we believe something happened? One of the things that I've always said has been one of the most confirming things to my own heart was the fact that the disciples who saw Jesus after he resurrected were willing to go to their deaths for that truth.
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And one of the things people say, well, hey, man, there's a lot of people out there with religions that they're willing to die for.
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I mean, I didn't we see people fly airplanes in the buildings over their religious faith.
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Hey, people die for their beliefs all the time.
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People die for their beliefs, but nobody dies for a lie, especially if you know it's a lie.
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And if Jesus didn't raise from the dead, then every one of those apostles who died saying he did, died liars and they knew they were liars.
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Many people will die for their faith, but no one will die for a lie when they know it's a lie.
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One of the great confirmations of our faith was that so many men and women who died for their faith were ones who had seen Jesus's resurrection.
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They had seen the risen Christ.
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They had touched his nail scarred hands and his ribbons side, and they had seen him personally and were willing to die, not for something they believed in, but for something they knew was the truth.
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So those who claim that it never happened have to deny the blood of the martyrs to do so.
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There are other things that have been said, though.
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One I think I find especially fascinating is called the swoon theory.
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Some of you have been through my crucifixion class.
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I teach on the crucifixion.
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How many remember the swoon theory? What is the swoon theory? That Jesus didn't really die on the cross.
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That he simply swooned or passed out.
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And they put him in the tomb, and the cool tomb kept him healthy, and after three days he was able to work up the strength to get out of the tomb.
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What foolishness.
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What foolishness indeed.
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It really goes to the heart of the issue is, who was doing the killing that day? Roman executioners.
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If there was one thing Romans did really, really well.
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They might have not done a whole lot really well, but if there was one thing they knew how to do, it was kill a man.
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And they verified his death.
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Remember, Jesus died first.
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They had to break the legs of the other men.
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Because when you die on a cross, the way you die on a cross is a horrible death.
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You die by asphyxiation.
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Your body literally pulls down on your, your weight pulls down on your chest and collapses your lungs.
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So that every time you take a breath in and you breathe out, you can't breathe in that much again because the weight pulls it down.
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It's sort of like a boa constrictor.
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It just keeps getting tighter and tighter and tighter until you suffocate to death.
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It's a horrible, horrible way to die.
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But because the Sabbath was upon them, what they had to do was they had to break the legs of the two men that were on either side of Jesus because they kept pushing up with their legs to get a breath.
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So they broke their legs so that they could no longer push up to get a breath.
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But when they came to Jesus, they didn't need to.
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No need to break his legs.
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He was already dead.
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But just to make sure, because guess what? If you were a Roman executioner who botched an execution, guess what your punishment was? Yeah, same thing.
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You had one job to do, and if you didn't do it right, somebody else would come and do it right to you.
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So what did they do? They shoved this sword or rather the sphere into his side.
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And the Bible says that it poured out blood and water.
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Some people have wondered why blood and water.
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Well, the reason for blood and water is it can be one of two things.
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I've heard one doctor explain it like this.
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He says that after a person's been dead for a while, the blood and the plasma separates.
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And when it pours out, it can look like blood and water.
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I've heard also that the piercing of the pericardium, which is the sac that surrounds the heart, has a clear liquid like water.
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And if it's pierced, it would pour out as well.
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Either way, the truth of the matter is he was quite dead.
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Jesus had died on that cross.
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And when laid in the tomb, there was no doubt that he had died.
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And, of course, even if he wasn't dead, he was wrapped in over 100 pounds of cloth and incense, which had been poured on him.
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How did he get up and walk away? How did he move the tombstone? And how did he overcome 12 Roman soldiers? Oh, the truth of the matter is he didn't.
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The truth of the matter is he raised from the dead.
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He came through those grave clothes.
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He came through that tomb.
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By the way, the stone was not rolled away to let Jesus out.
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The stone was rolled away to let the women in to see that he was already gone.
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Remember, Jesus, after the resurrection, was not bound by time or space.
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Remember, he appeared in the room behind locked doors.
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He didn't sneak in through a window.
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After the resurrection, Jesus was in a glorified body and was able to do such things.
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Now, why do I bring all this up? I don't like focusing on the false claims, but these false claims, when you look at them for what they are, they help reconfirm for us the truth of the faith.
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And the reasonable answer is this, that Jesus Christ died in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried and he was raised in accordance with the Scriptures.
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And the Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, he was seen by over 500 of his followers after his resurrection and his ascension into heaven.
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So now, I want to ask the question, why is it even important? Why is the resurrection important? Certainly, there are many religions who have leaders who never claimed resurrection.
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Buddhism is going strong and Buddha is very dead.
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Islam, second largest religion in the world.
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Muhammad is very dead.
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Why, then, is the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ essential to the faith? Beloved, I want to show you why and I want you to go in your Bibles.
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We've read the story, we've looked at the story.
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I want us to now go to what the Apostle Paul says about this in 1 Corinthians 15.
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You go to 1 Corinthians 15.
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The Apostle Paul has already told us something about the resurrection.
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We read it this morning as our call to worship.
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Verses 1 through 8, he says something very important about the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
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He actually says that's the gospel.
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Let me show it to you.
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He says in verse 1, Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
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So what's he talking about? The gospel.
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I'm reminding you of the gospel.
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Verse 3, For I delivered to you as of first importance that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried and He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.
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That is the gospel.
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Why is it the gospel? Because without that truth of the faith, we would still be on our sins, we would still be without a Savior.
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And the Apostle Paul goes on to tell us that.
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I want you to move down now to verse 17.
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Beginning in verse 17, Rather, I'm sorry, I don't want to start in verse 17, I want to start in verse 14.
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Let's start in verse 14.
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The Apostle Paul tells us, And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.
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What does that word mean, in vain? It means useless.
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It means worthless.
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You've heard somebody say something, Oh, well, that was done in vain.
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It means it was done without purpose.
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It was done uselessly.
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It didn't serve any purpose.
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And here the Apostle Paul tells us in verse 14, If Christ is not raised, then two things are in vain.
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Number one, preaching is in vain.
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Everything that I do as a preacher of the gospel, everything that you do as individual ministers of the gospel, and by the way, you're ministers of the gospel because you minister the gospel to each other.
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You share the gospel with unbelievers.
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You share your spiritual gifts with one another.
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You minister to one another.
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We all minister the gospel.
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And in that sense, it would all be worthless.
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It would all be in vain without the resurrection.
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That's not me speaking.
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This is the Apostle Paul speaking.
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Because he goes on to say, Not only would preaching be in vain, but so would be our faith.
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And he goes on.
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Verse 15, We are even found to be 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.
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You see what's going on here? There's people in Corinth who are saying that they don't know if they believe in the resurrection.
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We don't believe in the resurrection of the dead.
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And the Apostle Paul is pointing out to them, If you don't believe in the resurrection of the dead, then you don't believe Christ was raised.
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And if you don't believe Christ was raised, then our preaching is in vain, and our faith is in vain, and we have been misrepresenting God.
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We have owed you a lot.
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Verse 16, For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised.
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And if Christ...
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Verse 17, And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sin.
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And he goes on in verse 18 to point this out.
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Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
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Beloved, I've preached a lot of funeral services.
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I have.
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I would say probably more than my share.
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And especially now, I'm doing some work with...
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Bobby works for Corey Kurland, and I've been helping them out doing more funeral services.
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And I really don't mind doing it.
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I grew up working in a funeral home, so it's kind of natural for me to deal with grieving people, and I don't mind...
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I kind of like ministering to people when they're hurting.
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I feel like I have the ability to do that.
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But let me tell you this.
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The only solace we have, the only thing that helps in grief, is if a person moves away.
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It really is.
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The first thing that I...
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When somebody comes to me in the church, and says to me, you know, my grandfather died, my uncle died, my aunt died.
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The very first, almost immediately, they'll say, but he knew Christ.
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Do you see? That's the blessing.
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Because it goes right back to this verse.
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Because the point of verse 18 is this.
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If Christ had not been raised, then we have no confidence in the resurrection, then everybody that we know who has died is still dead.
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Everybody that we know has died has perished.
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What a horrible thing.
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What a horrible reality.
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Here's the thing though.
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There are so many people who live with that as their everyday.
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They live without Christ, they live without the resurrection, they live without the truth of the gospel, and that is their everyday reality.
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That when somebody dies, they just die.
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That we're nothing but the product of millions of years of evolutionary change and growth.
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We're nothing really but grown up germs.
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And when we die, it's ashes to ashes and dust to dust.
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And that's it.
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But beloved, the believer in Christ knows different.
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The believer in Christ looks at Christ's resurrection, and says, because He was raised, and because I am in Him, I too will experience that resurrection.
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Verse 19 is so important.
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Verse 19 says this, If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
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I really don't like the way that's worded in the ESV.
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Let me give you the KSV.
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That's the Keith Standard version.
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I just don't like the wording in the ESV.
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It might be better than the ESV.
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I have a lot of fans of the ESV out there.
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It might be worded a little better.
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But let me just tell you what he's saying.
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It's very simple.
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If all we have in Christ is hope in this life, if all we have in Christ is something to sing about, and praise about, and have fun, you know, fellowshipping together in this life, and there's nothing coming, then really, we're all pitiful.
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Because we're worshiping something that's not true.
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We're believing in something that's not right.
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And we're looking forward to something that's not coming.
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That'd be pitiful, y'all.
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It really would.
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You know what? I pity, I do pity Muslims who strap bombs to themselves because they're looking forward to something that's not coming.
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I pity these people who choose to devote themselves, body, mind, and spirit to Buddhism because they're looking forward to something that's not coming.
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I pity these people who have thought that they have found salvation in another way but Christ because they're believing in a dead Savior.
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Muhammad is dead.
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Buddha is dead.
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But Jesus lives forevermore.
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It's what separates Christianity from all other things.
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You're never going to dig up His body.
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You're never going to find the missing tomb because He lives forevermore.
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If He doesn't, then everything we believe is a lie.
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But if He does, everything we believe is vindicated.
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Verse 20, But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of all who have fallen asleep.
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What does that word firstfruits mean? Well, let me finish with that because that's sort of what I wanted to build up to today.
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The Apostle Paul has told us that without the resurrection of Christ, we would have no hope in resurrection.
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That without that resurrection, we would have no reason to preach, we'd have no reason to believe, and if we continued to believe and preach without the resurrection, we'd be nothing but worth pity.
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But, in fact, Christ has been raised, and He is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
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Beloved, firstfruits is a very simple concept.
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Firstfruits is a very simple concept.
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When you see that first bloom, or that firstfruit come on the vine, it's proof that there's more to come.
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It's the life.
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It's showing you that there's life.
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When that first piece of fruit sprouts, it's proof that, hey, this plant is alive, and it's going to bear more.
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Jesus is called the firstfruits of the resurrection because when we look to His resurrection, it reminds us of a simple truth that He was the first, and we will come later.
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That He was the firstfruits of the resurrection, but He is not the only one who will be raised.
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The Bible teaches very clearly that if we are in Christ, we too will experience that same resurrection.
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Look down to verse 50.
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I know we're skipping, but skip down to verse 50.
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I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
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Behold, I tell you a mystery.
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We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
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That's an important concept that the fact when Jesus returns, and it talks about it more in 1 Thessalonians 4, that when Jesus returns, those who are dead will first be raised and those who are alive will be together caught up with Him in the clouds.
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That's the rapture.
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We understand that story.
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But that's what He's saying.
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We shall not all sleep, because eventually Jesus is going to come and there are going to be some live folks here.
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Maybe in our generation, maybe in our time, maybe today.
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We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet.
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For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
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For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
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When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass that saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.
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O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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You see, that's what we who trust in Christ have to look forward to.
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That He who lives forevermore will cause us also to live forevermore.
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So the question that should burden our hearts today, and it's easily answered, is this.
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Not why does the resurrection matter? We know why the resurrection matters.
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But the question should be, am I in He who was the first fruits of the resurrection? Am I in Christ? The truth of the matter is there's only two types of people in the world, and it's not Democrats and Republicans, and it's not Americans and everybody else, and it's not white or black or Asian or anything else.
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There's two types of people in the world.
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There are those who are in Christ and those who are not.
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So I encourage you.
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I plead with you.
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If you are not in Christ, repent and trust in Him.
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For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved than the name of Jesus Christ.
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Our Father and our God, we thank You again for the opportunity to have heard Your Word.
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I pray, oh Lord, that You will use it to move on the hearts of the people.
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That the saved will be confirmed and reminded of the truth of the resurrection.
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And Lord, that the lost would be convicted and drawn unto You.
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And that Lord, through it all, You would receive the glory and the honor.
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In Jesus' name we pray.
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Let's stand and sing together.
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If you have a need for prayer, please come.