Join us, as we dive into 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul's epistle to the Corinthians dispels doubts and affirms the resurrection as the linchpin of our faith. It's a passage that not only validates eternal life for the faithful, but also serves as a resounding trumpet call – it helps us see how the resurrection is the defining moment for all believers. He is alive! Death has been defeated!
Join us, as we dive into 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul's epistle to the Corinthians dispels doubts and affirms the resurrection as the linchpin of our faith. It's a passage that not only validates eternal life for the faithful, but also serves as a resounding trumpet call – it helps us see how the resurrection is the defining moment for all believers. He is alive! Death has been defeated!
Today being in 1 Corinthians, in our normal sermon series. There's a great resurrection text in 1 Corinthians, so we're just going to stick with that book. We're just going to jump ahead about eight chapters to 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. And if you've been here at all and you've heard any of our sermons in this series, you know that the church in Corinth had a lot of problems and Paul was writing a letter to this church to try to correct some of those issues. And one of the issues that we haven't talked about yet was that the Corinthian believers apparently didn't believe in what's called the general resurrection. And the general resurrection is that at the end, when Jesus returns, we believe that everyone will rise from the dead and that everybody who has followed Christ will rise to eternity, to new life in Christ, but that those who did not follow Christ will rise to judgment and will spend eternity in hell. And that's the general resurrection. And Paul is saying no, that's really going to happen. And we know it's going to happen because Jesus has risen from the dead. And he's talking about Jesus's resurrection as if it is a given, as if it is something that is not to be refuted. And to us that may sound odd, because we have this Western culture, this Enlightenment culture, where we kind of question anything that you can't touch or taste or smell or whatever. But Paul's saying though the resurrection is a fact, and so we're going to talk about that today and why that's so important.
Speaker 1:I believe this passage in 1 Corinthians is an absolute diamond mine, I mean, it is the most important thing you will ever hear, not because I'm saying it, but because the Bible is saying it, because God is saying it through His Word. This is the most important news you will ever hear. There's a guy, named JB Phillips, in fact, who said this is the most important passage in the whole Bible. Said this is the most important passage in the whole Bible. I can't wait to show you why. All right, so 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 through 6, the first thing we're going to see is that this gives us a crystal clear definition of what it means to be a Christian. We get a crystal clear definition of what it means to be a Christian.
Speaker 1:Verses 1 through 6 say now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand and by which you Verses 1-6 say If an alien came to earth and knew nothing about our religions and about church or God or Jesus or any of that, and they read these three verses. He'd have a pretty good idea of what Christianity was after just reading these three verses, because this is a statement of faith. It's actually an ancient creed, so when Jesus first rose from the dead, christians started to recite and memorize this creed, and so what that means is this is actually one of the earliest resurrection accounts that we have, maybe the earliest. This took place earlier than any of the four gospel resurrection accounts. And Paul, when he became a Christian, he would have heard this statement of faith and he would have memorized it and then so probably as he writes this down in 1 Corinthians, 21 years later after the resurrection, it's something that he's just got ingrained in him as a statement of faith, and what it does is, again, it lays out the essentials of the Christian faith. What does it mean to be a Christian? What are the essential truths that we need to know?
Speaker 1:It's saying that a Christian is one who believes the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, and one essential that's included in the gospel is that Jesus died for our sins. Jesus died for our sins, his death on the cross was a punishment for sin. Not for his sin, because he had none, but for our sin. Punishment for sin, not for his sin, because he had none, but for our sin. He took our place on the cross. I deserve to be on a cross, I deserve to be executed for my sin, and so did all of you, and instead Jesus was executed for our sin. In exchange, we get his righteousness and we get new life. That's what Jesus has done for us. And Paul says this is all according to the scriptures, this was all. The whole Old Testament just is building up to this and prophesying about this. So, like Isaiah 53, 5 says but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are. So you could say that a Christian is one who has faith that instead of Jesus, or instead of me being pierced for my transgressions, jesus was. Instead of you being crushed for your iniquities, jesus was. Instead of me and you being wounded and chastised for our sin, jesus was you. See, it's about an exchange. It's not about here's what I'm doing for God and God's accepting me. No, it's about here's what God has done for us. Jesus took our place.
Speaker 1:There's an old movie. Some of you may be like that movie's not that old, but some of you have never seen this movie. It's called Armageddon. It came out back in 1998, a long time ago and if you know Ben Affleck, he's in that movie Young Ben Affleck. There's Arwen from Lord of the Rings as his girlfriend, and the problem in this movie is it's a disaster movie, because there's this huge meteor that's just coming for Earth and it's going to destroy everything. And you know what do you do when that happens? Well, you know who you call. You call Bruce Willis. Bruce Willis is Harry Stamper, he's a deep core driller. So they send him and his team, including Ben Affleck, on a space shuttle up to this meteor. And look, I'm going to tell you in 1998, we all were like, yes, that's exactly what we would do. That's exactly what we would do. We would call Bruce Willis Made total sense. So, and here's one thing, I'm sorry, this is what I do on Easter I ruin the ends of movies. So two years ago I ruined Harry Potter for everybody. Now I will ruin Armageddon for you, but you should still watch it and you'll sing Aerosmith songs for the rest of the week.
Speaker 1:So the plan is they've got to drill down about 800 feet into this meteor and they've got to drop a nuclear warhead down into the middle of it and then blow it up and they're going to remote detonate it after they've left the meteor right. But then, of course, you know what's going to happen the detonator doesn't work. But then, of course, you know what's going to happen. The detonator doesn't work. Somebody forgot the batteries, and so somebody has to go down there with the nuke and detonate it by hand, thus ending their life. So they draw straws and who gets the short straw? It's Ben Affleck, aj, and he's like all right, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it. Goes down, but of course Bruce Willis, he goes down with him. He's like I'm going to go see you off. And they get down to the bottom where the nuke is, and Bruce Willis grabs the detonator, pushes AJ into the elevator and closes the door. He's like I'm taking this on me and he saves the door. He's like I'm taking this on me and he saves the world.
Speaker 1:I know this is a silly movie, but I want you to see that detonator. That's your sin, that nuclear warhead that's about to explode. That is the wrath of God which we deserve for our sin. And I cannot believe I'm about to say this and I cannot believe I'm about to say this. But Bruce Willis is Jesus. It's true. It's true we laugh, but seriously, that's the gospel. That's what Jesus has done. He's taken our place. He said I'm going to take the wrath of God for your sin on me and you are going to get life, new life and freedom. And if you want to know what a Christian is, it's someone who believes that Jesus has done that for you.
Speaker 1:But I've heard all kinds of other reasons why people think they're Christian. I mean, I've had people say I'm a Christian because I'm American. I've had my roommate in college tell me that he thought he was a Christian because his uncle was a priest. And I thought he was joking, but he was serious. He's like I'm good, my uncle's a priest. Okay, not sure how that works.
Speaker 1:A lot of people that I talk to say you know, I ask them what's your story of salvation? How did you become a Christian? They're not talking about Jesus and what Jesus has done for them. They're talking about church. They're talking about how they've gone to church and what they've done and how they like going to church and it's like listen, you can go to church every day for the rest of your life and not be a Christian. It's possible.
Speaker 1:Going to church doesn't make you a Christian. I've heard people talk about how they're a Christian because they're good and they're nice and they're moral. I've heard people even say things like well, I'm mostly good and I don't do a lot of bad things. I haven't killed a president or anything. I've done anything really bad, so I'm a Christian. Listen, all of these things which I have heard with my own ears.
Speaker 1:People say they don't make you a Christian. If you are here today and you think you're a Christian because of any of those reasons, I want you to know that you have believed a lie. If you've heard that in a church, don't go back to that church. It's a lie, that's a myth, because the only way any of us is ever going to be a Christian is if our sin is transferred on to Jesus and His righteousness is transferred to us as a gift of grace from God. That's it. It's something we believe by faith and that we trust that Jesus has done for us. That's the first essential of the Christian faith. The second essential is the resurrection, that Jesus has risen from the dead. And this resurrection is so essential partly because it's proof that God's plan of redemption worked, that it's actually real.
Speaker 1:Matt Smethurst, who's a pastor, says if on Good Friday, redemption's check was signed on Easter Sunday, the check cleared. Jesus had to both die for our sin and to defeat our sin. If he just died for our sin and that's it, then there's nothing that's really happened. There's no benefit to us. Our sin had to actually be defeated and in order for our sin to be defeated, a resurrection was required to show that he was actually victorious over sin. This is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, 7, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. In other words, your sins have not been put away. If Christ has not been raised, if he's not alive, if Jesus hasn't risen from the grave, we should just leave right now. We should just go home, we should sell our church, we should stop pretending, because it's all fake. That's what he's saying. If there's no resurrection, this is not real and it's not worth it.
Speaker 1:Our whole faith hinges on the resurrection being true. All of our hopes are tied to this one man, the God-man Jesus Christ. All of them they're tied to him, and they're tied to him being alive, and that's partly because it is not God's design originally for us to live in a world that is plagued by sin and by death and by disease, and by people being oppressed and hard and natural disasters. None of that is supposed. That's not the plan, that's not how it was supposed to go. But because of sin, that is how it became, and Jesus' resurrection shows us that there is going to be a time again when we will be with God, face to face with new life, with perfect life, with perfect bodies, no longer susceptible to sin and decay and death and disease, no longer feeling pain.
Speaker 1:That day is coming because Jesus has risen from the grave and he's proof that it's coming. We know this again because the Bible calls him the first fruits of our resurrection. In other words, he's the first of many who will rise from the grave. He received a glorified, perfect body when he rose from the grave, and that means that so will we who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ. We will have what he has, and then, finally, this means that our worst enemies, they're defeated.
Speaker 1:In Jacob's prayer, I loved how he called Satan a seductive serpent. Satan's defeated yes, he's still alive right now and he still can tempt us and bother us, but he's defeated. His end is written down in the Bible at the end of Revelation. You can read about it as if it's already happened. And same thing for sin, same thing for death. Their end is written down. We know how the story ends as we sang earlier.
Speaker 1:So this is the utmost confidence and assurance. This is true. Hope in Jesus is the most sure thing there is, and that's the good news of the gospel. There's no Christianity without it. Without these essentials Jesus died for our sins, jesus rose from the grave there's no Christianity.
Speaker 1:And I would add maybe a third essential to that, according to the scriptures and I'm saying that because, listen, if you are the type of person that you believe, I'm a Christian because I do good things. I'm a Christian because when I get to the end and I go before Jesus and he asks me why should I let you into heaven, I'm going to say, well, I did a lot more good than bad. If that's what you think, I just want to ask where did you hear that Because it's a myth. It's a myth. It's not what the Bible says. If we're going to base our faith, if we're going to have a Christian faith, we ought to look to the Word of God to see what the Scriptures say is true. And the Scriptures are saying no, your salvation is not something you can earn. It is a gift of grace from God that we receive by faith. Look to the Scriptures. That's the third essential.
Speaker 1:Now, this is a huge claim. We're staking our lives on a miracle. We're placing all of our hopes in a man who is supposedly risen from the dead and now is in heaven. Is that safe? Is that wise to believe something like that? Well, yes, 1 Corinthians 15 gives us historical and scientific evidence that the resurrection is true. It gives us historical and scientific evidence that the resurrection is true.
Speaker 1:Again, we'll read some of these same verses, from verse 3 to 8. It says Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. So he's saying the resurrection is history. It's not a myth, it's not a fairy tale, he says.
Speaker 1:After Jesus arose, he appeared to a whole bunch of people. He appeared to Cephas is Peter, by the way and to the 12 disciples and to James and to Paul We'll talk about those guys later in our last point but he appeared to 500 witnesses in verse 6. That's what verse 6 is saying 500 witnesses at one time. Like he showed up at an outdoor concert or something and all these people saw him. And you can. You know, if you're one or two or three people, you can make up a lie and you can, like, get all your points correct and you could stick to that story for a long time, but you can't do that if you're 500 people. This can't be some mass hallucination that all 500 people saw the same thing. No, this is an eyewitness account. 500 people can verify it.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, if you look at other religions take Islam, for example, islam started when Muhammad supposedly went into a cave, heard or saw visions from an angel that he says appeared to him and came out and he had the beginning of the Quran. And there was no one to verify that. There was no one in that cave with him to verify that what he got was actually from some angel. For all we know it was from Satan. So what I'm saying is that people are basing Islam off of that. We're basing Christianity off of something that was verifiable by over 500 people. Which one is safer? Which one makes more sense? People think Christianity is like all hokey and you know, only faith-based. You can't use your brain if you're a Christian. But no, look, it makes logical sense to be a believer in Christ.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, paul was saying too look, when I'm writing this letter in 54 AD, 21 years after the resurrection, most of these eyewitnesses are still alive. He's like Corinthians look, I'll tell you their names, I'll give you their addresses. You can go talk to them. Don't take my word for it. Go talk to them. This is a historically verifiable fact. It's not a legend, it's not a myth, it's not a fairy tale. It's also science.
Speaker 1:Verse 4, paul is very careful to say that Jesus was buried. That's important because there are theories that Jesus never actually died, like the swoon theory that Jesus was not killed on the cross. He just felt unconscious and was put in a tomb, mistaking him for dead, and then rose again three days later. Okay, so let's look into that. John 19 40 says so. They took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now, the burial custom of the Jews was to cover the body with myrrh and aloe to embalm it and to cover the smell, and then they would wrap the body head to toe in a cloth, and most likely it was women who would do this. And these women were were. It was drilled into them that they must be absolutely sure the body was a dead body before they started this process, because if he didn't, the process would kill him, right. So they buried Jesus this way he was covered in all this stuff, meaning that they knew he was dead.
Speaker 1:And then let's think about this If he wasn't dead, how did the stone get rolled away from the mouth of his tomb? How did he walk around? The text in Luke 24 says that when he left the empty tomb, he walked to Emmaus, which was seven miles away. He had a nail driven through both his ankles and a spear thrust into his side, and you're going to tell me he walked seven miles. I can't walk seven miles when I'm healthy, like you. Just had to pick me up with a car or something I'm just a dog called Uber, but he could not walk. He couldn't even stand, let alone walk seven miles. And so, by the way, the other thing I'll say is you know, the Romans were really good at killing people. They kind of had made it into a science and they knew when a person was dead and they would never have pulled him off the cross if he wasn't dead.
Speaker 1:The science points to Jesus being dead and buried, and then, if that's the case, the only logical explanation for all these appearances to all these people is that he actually rose from the dead, that the resurrection is true, and you can believe it. You can believe this evidence safely, with intellectual honesty. I would invite you. Actually we have, if you're interested in more of that type of stuff. There's a book in the back of the Connections desk called the Case for Easter, by Lee Strobel. Take a copy home. It's free courtesy of the church. Love for you to check that out and read it Now. Maybe you can accept that this is true. Maybe you believe this is a fact, but you don't believe that it's true for you. You don't believe that the resurrection has any real bearing on your life. Well, listen, this text shows us that because Jesus rose from the dead, he has power to save any kind of person, even the biggest sinner. Because Jesus rose from the dead, he has power to save any kind of person, even the biggest sinner.
Speaker 1:So we'll go back to these three eyewitnesses that Paul mentions by name. We've got Cephas. Who's Peter? We've got James and we've got Paul himself. Why does he take the time to mention these three people? Why these three of all the others he could have mentioned? Well, I think he was trying to draw attention to the kind of people they were to show us, the kind of people that Jesus loves to save.
Speaker 1:So Peter was impulsive and prideful. Peter was the kind of guy that acts before he thinks, speaks before he thinks. Right, I don't know if anybody in here knows anybody like that, but he was also the first disciple to openly confess that Jesus was the Christ, that Jesus was the Messiah. He said you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. He's the first person to say that. So he was a believer.
Speaker 1:I mean, long before the resurrection, peter was a believer. He was following Jesus. He didn't understand what was going on, he totally misunderstood Jesus's plan. And then, of course, you know when Jesus is betrayed, peter was like oh no, jesus, I would never deny you, I will die before I let anything happen to you. And then what does he do? He's like, denies him three times and Jesus called it. He was like you're going to deny me, what are you talking about? So what kind of person is this? Well, maybe this is a person who's a Christian but who still struggles with sin. Hello, that's all of us, that's every Christian. We all still struggle with sin. And then, after Jesus rose from the dead, peter was one of the key apostles in the book of Acts and he ended up being crucified upside down. I mean, that's a horrible thing to have happen to you.
Speaker 1:And the point I'm trying to make is that being a Christian does not mean that all our problems go away. It does not mean that now we get happy, healthy, wealthy lives. In fact, it could quite reasonably be the opposite, because Jesus promises that we will be hated and suffer. Peter was hated and Peter did suffer, and yet he had a resurrection hope. And that's for a Christian just trying to make it through every day. The resurrection is hope every single day, for us, every single day. It's not just for one time when you put your faith in Christ. It is hope for you today and tomorrow and for the next however many years you're alive, because it reminds us every single day, no matter what you're going through, whether you're facing death or the loss of a job or a failed relationship or whatever you might be facing, there is a resurrection hope that awaits us. That is unshakable and unwavering, because it depends not on me but on the risen Savior. It depends not on me but on the risen Savior.
Speaker 1:What about James? You know James was Jesus' brother and it says in John 7, 5 that not even Jesus' brothers believed in him. That's harsh, but go with me here. I think I can understand, because it must have been hard to be the brother of the only perfect human. You know, it's like you're a kid and you do something wrong and of course you blame it on your brother, right? We can't blame anything on Jesus. Like mom, jesus made me do it. And Mary would be like really, come on, son of God. No, he didn't make you do anything. Jesus over here would be like James, I'm praying for you. No, just, that's got to be so hard. You know. Like makes sense that he would resent Jesus.
Speaker 1:And so who is this person like? Well, by the way, before I say that, james is the guy that wrote the book of James in the Bible. So at some point he became a Christian. At some point he believed in his brother and Jesus changed him. Maybe it was when Jesus appeared to him after the resurrection. He was like wow, you really are the Son of God. And in that book, in the book of James, one of the main things he says is you say, you're a Christian, you can talk the talk. That's great. Let me see evidence of that. Let your life and your works be proof that you have faith. It's not that your life and works get you faith, it's that they're proof that your faith is real. So he had faith. But what kind of a person is this like? Well, maybe this is the kind of person that you are so close to Jesus's things and to Jesus's people that you miss Jesus and you're inoculated to the gospel.
Speaker 1:I know this kind of person because this kind of person is me for the most part. I'm not saying I'm not a Christian, I am a Christian. But I have struggled with this kind of. You know, being a kid who I became a Christian when I was six and I was raised going to church all the time. I ended up being a pastor. You know, I know how to look Christian. I know how to say Christian things and speak Christianese. I know how to make you think oh, that guy sure knows his Bible and sure knows his theology. What a great guy. I know how to do that, okay, and I don't ever want to do that and be fake.
Speaker 1:But sometimes what I end up doing is I end up trusting in my own ability to appear Christian, because I can be also scared to death that you might find out that I'm a sinner too, and I end up trusting in my own righteousness, my own ability to do everything right. But there are times when the Holy Spirit kind of shakes me out of that and makes me understand no, you can't do it. You can't measure up on your own. You need Jesus' righteousness, not your own. And I remember, yeah, my salvation. It doesn't depend on what I'm doing right now. It depends on what Jesus has already done for me 2,000 years ago, when he died on the cross and rose from the grave, and that's the most assuring thing that I could ever hear and believe. So that's James, and there's power to save a person like that. If you're like me, sometimes we really need Jesus to open our eyes to that power.
Speaker 1:Finally, the last person we'll talk about is Paul himself. Jesus appeared to him while he was on the road to Damascus, while he was still called Saul, blinded him and instantly changed his heart. He became a Christian. What was he before that? He was Saul, the self-righteous Jewish terrorist. He was hunting Christians to either imprison them or execute them, and he was proud of it. He loved his job. If there was a modern-day example of this kind of guy, it was like an Osama bin Laden type of guy. This guy that we would think like, that guy deserves to be in the lowest level of hell, you know, and Paul knew that about himself. This is why he says in 1 Corinthians 15, 9, for I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.
Speaker 1:If we're honest, we think people like that are beyond saving. If you think you're like that, if you think I've done so many horrible things, I'm beyond saving, what you need to hear is this Without the resurrection, we were all beyond saving. With the resurrection, god can save any of us. Jesus defeated death. It is not too hard of a thing for him to save you, no matter how many bad things you've done. And all of us are in the same boat, right Like just because somebody looks like they're a better person or they know more about the Bible, that does not mean that somehow they're more fit to be saved than you are.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter if you're Osama bin Laden or Mother Teresa or anything in between. We all have the same need because we're all spiritually dead apart from Christ. That's what Ephesians 2.1 says. It says you are dead in your trespasses and sins. It's not like we're just kind of like neutral or sort of bad and we need Jesus to get us over the hump. No, we are spiritually dead apart from Christ, and there is nothing a dead person can do for himself or herself. So we need a Savior to breathe life into us, and that's what Jesus has done.
Speaker 1:Ephesians 2, 4, and 5 say but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. So if you think that you are too far gone and that you've done so many horrible things that God could never save you, think again. God's grace is greater than all our sins. Or, on the other hand, if you think that you don't need help and you don't need saving and you're fine and you have made a good life for yourself, think again, because without the grace of Jesus Christ you will not experience salvation. Jesus is able to save, he is powerful to save. He has overcome death, he's overcome sin, he's overcome Satan. It's just a matter of time before he returns and we're dwelling with him for eternity. It's all because of the resurrection, and that's the good news of the gospel.
Speaker 1:If you experience that for yourself, if you have experienced that for yourself, you can understand what Paul says in verses 10 and 11. He says but by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me, whether, then, it was I or they. So we preach, and so you believed. So we preach and so you believed. How did Paul go from a self-righteous Jewish terrorist to the greatest missionary who ever lived, someone who went from persecuting Christians to being persecuted for Christ? It's the grace of God, it's the only explanation. How did any of us who are Christian go from where we were to where we are now? It's the grace of God, it's the only explanation and the grace of us who are Christian go from where we were to where we are now. It's the grace of God, it's the only explanation and the grace of God.
Speaker 1:If you're not a believer in Christ, I want you to understand. The grace of God is real and he wants to extend the gift of salvation to you today, and I hope and I pray with all my heart that you don't leave here thinking I'm going to go to heaven because I've been good. I hope and pray that you leave here today understanding the only hope I have is in the grace of Jesus Christ, and if you've never placed your salvation to Him before. Maybe you thought you were a Christian, but today you've realized you weren't. I'm going to pray a prayer and I want you to just pray it along with me, silently, if you feel like you're being led to make Jesus your Savior and to trust Him. These are not magic words, but they're words that I think, if you pray them and you say them to Jesus Christ, he will change your life. So let's pray together as we close, change your life. So let's pray together as we close.
Speaker 1:Lord Jesus, I come before you and I recognize that I am a sinner, that I've sinned in so many ways, and my sin is offensive to you and it separates me from you.
Speaker 1:I can't have a relationship with you because of my sin, and I pray that you will forgive me. I repent of my sin. I want to turn away from it and to follow you. Help me to do that. Help me to believe that you did die for my sin and that you did rise from the grave and that because of you, I can have new life. I pray that you would change my heart. Help me to have faith, to believe in you, to obey you and to live a life that is pleasing to you. I pray, lord Jesus, for anyone who has prayed that Lord, that you would just confirm your presence with them by the power of your Holy Spirit and that we as a church may even be able to help them understand what it means to follow Christ. Lord, we love you, we thank you that the resurrection is such good news for us, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.