Jesus Wins - So We Win!

What a blessing it is to celebrate the risen Christ, isn't it? Just to know that we have a Savior in heaven, one who is not dead, but who is alive. A couple of wins in Icego, I mentioned a new book that has been written by Rod Bell called Love Winds. Rod Bell is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and he's one of the leaders of what's called the emergent church movement. I think a misguided movement that is seeking to appeal to the postmodern generation by basically becoming postmodern. And basically what they're writing and teaching and saying is that you really cannot be sure of absolute truth. You really cannot be just raise the questions and let people think. It doesn't really matter if you get the answers. And there's real no absolute truth. Well, Rod Bell, who considers himself an evangelical pastor, just came out with this book called Love Winds. And basically the thrust of the book is there is no hell. Everybody's going to be in heaven. A God of love could not send people to hell. And so everybody eventually, everything will be brought into place where everyone will be in heaven, regardless of what religion you come from or if you have no religion at all, everyone will be in heaven. There is no hell. What a sad, sad departure from the faith of the Bible. The fact that he's been featured prominently in US News and World Report, CNN, New York Times, and just this past week made the cover of Time magazine indicates that that's a message in the world, but really like to hear. They were joist in the fact that there's no heaven. If there's no heaven, why didn't Christ even have to die? There's no such thing as salvation. There's no need for salvation. If everybody's going to be in heaven anyway, why would Christ die? Why would there be a resurrection? Why is there need for that? If everybody's going to be in heaven anyway? What a sad, sad departure from the faith. Well, I've been thinking a lot about that book and what I've been reading about it in recent weeks. And so I just decided that today we would declare an absolute truth. A truth that is absolutely fundamentally declared in Scripture and that is Christ wins. Christ is raised from the dead. He wins. But I'd like to go a bit further than that this morning because the resurrection is not just about Christ winning over death and hell and the grave. But the resurrection has tremendous impact on those of us who know Jesus is Savior and potentially impact on everyone, all of us who might come to know him as Savior. And that impact means that because Jesus wins, we also win. We win too. And so this morning I'd like for us to focus upon the implications of the resurrection, the benefits of the resurrection, if you will, for those of us who claim Jesus as our Savior. Jesus wins and so we win too. What does that mean? Well, in describing the resurrection throughout the New Testament, and we're going to look at four different places where Paul describes the resurrection and its benefits to people, to those of us who know Christ. Jesus resurrection, Paul says, gives assurance of four great eternal truths for us. Jesus resurrection gives us the assurance of, first of all, acceptance. Because Jesus is alive today, we can have the assurance that we are accepted by God. Would you open your Bible, please, to Romans chapter four. We've been going through Romans on Sunday mornings and we're going to go back just a little bit and review Romans chapter four. Where Paul says that justification is by faith. In other words, we are declared righteous by God in the courtroom of heaven, a legal standing of righteousness. And that declaration is made when we place our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior, when we trust Him as our Savior, we are declared righteous. And he uses a couple of Old Testament examples, David is one, Abraham is the major one in Romans chapter four. He talks about Genesis 15 where Abraham it declares, believed God and God counted that to him for righteousness. Now look at verse 23 where we pick up the train of thought. Romans four, verse 23, the words, it was credited to him, were written not for him alone, but also for us to whom God will credit righteousness for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Now verse 25, he was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Now that verse teaches us that because Jesus was raised from the dead, we can have the confidence and assurance that we are accepted by God, that we truly are saved, that our sins are forgiven and that we are accepted by God. And there's a key word that really highlights this truth for us, a key word in this verse and it's at first glance it's not the word you might think of. It occurs twice in the verse it's the little preposition four. Look at the verse again Paul says he was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. That word four actually could I believe even better be translated and rendered in our English versions. He was delivered over to death because of or on account of our sins and was raised to life because of or on account of our justification. Now we use the word four in the same way so it's not really too much of a stretch to see that but the particular form Paul uses here, preposition with a particular form of the noun actually should be translated because of or on account of. But we use the word the same way, we say you know that person is going to prison for murder. And we don't mean that he's going to prison in order to commit murder, he's not going for that reason that he's going to commit murder. We mean that he's going to prison because of murder or on account of the fact that he committed murder. And that's the way Paul's using the word four here. Now here's the point Jesus Christ died because of our sin or on account of our sin and he was raised because our justification was already complete at his death. Now let's unpack that a little bit, let's separate that out a little bit. Let's look first of all the role of his death. According to this verse, the role of his death was because of our sin. He was delivered over death because of our sin. Jesus died because you sinned and because I sinned. It was because of our sin. It was on account of our sin that he suffered and died on the cross. It was to pay for our sin. And the Bible makes this clear time and time again that Christ was a substitute for our sin. First Peter 2.24. You have it on the screen. First Peter 2.24 says this, who himself bear our sins in his own body on the tree. It's not there on the screen. It's supposed to be and that's my fault. Who is on self bear in our in his body on the cross on the tree, our sins that we might be righteousness in him by whose stripes you were healed. He himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. Jesus died for our sins. Jesus died in our place. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5.21, who made him, God made him Christ, Hoununo sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God, righteousness of God in him. You see, he Hoununo sin took our sin. He died because of our sin. That's the role of his death. Everything that was needed to pay for your sin was accomplished when Jesus died. Down in Romans 5, for instance, looked at verse 6, Paul says, you see at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Verse 8. But God demonstrates His own love for us and this while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Verse 9, since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more show would be saved from God's wrath through Him. Paul makes it clear that it was Jesus' death and Jesus' death alone was sufficient to pay for our sins. We are justified by His blood. When Jesus died on the cross, He said there on the cross, it is finished. The word literally means it is paid in full. There's nothing else that needs to happen. It is paid in full by His death. Jesus' death and His death alone paid for our sins. By saying that, do I minimize the resurrection? Do I devalue the resurrection? Not at all. Resurrection has another purpose. Jesus died for our sins. The resurrection is because of our justification already being completed at the cross. So let's take a look at the role of His resurrection. When Paul says at the end of verse 25, he was raised to life because of or on account of our resurrection, he's actually highlighting the importance of the resurrection but maybe in a little different way than we think typically. The resurrection was important as evidence that the Father was satisfied with the full payment for our sin that was done on the cross. When Jesus said it is finished, it is fully paid, paid in full. The Father looked at that sacrifice and said, yes, I am satisfied with that sacrifice for sin and satisfied only with that sacrifice for sin and the way it was demonstrated was in the resurrection of Christ. He was put to death because of our sin, he was raised to life because our justification was completed and satisfactory to God by His death on the cross. There's a beautiful picture of this in the Old Testament work of the priest. In the Old Testament, the High Priest, once a year, would go into the Holy of Holies, which was the innermost room in the Tabernacle where only one time a year, this one man, representing the Nation of Israel, would take the blood of innocent lamb and sprinkle it on the mercy seat, which contained the law, which judge God's people. The blood covering the mercy seat was to symbolize the fact that the blood of an innocent sacrifice would stand between a holy God and the sinfulness of man represented by the broken law. And every time the priest would go into that Holy of Holies, or even when he would go into the room outside of that, the holy place where no other person could go except a priest he would offer an incense on the altar of incense in that room. And either way, whenever he went back into those sacred places, the people of Israel would wait outside for him to come out. It was not completely unheard of for someone to go back into that holy place and not offer the right sacrifice or to do something that was displeasing to God and God immediately strike them dead. It happened to Aaron's two sons, the very beginning of the work of the Tabernacle. So the people were waiting for the priest to appear and the fact that he would come out and appear to them would be evidence of the fact that God was pleased with the sacrifice that was offered. That's exactly what the resurrection proves. Jesus appearing again, coming again out of that tomb, indicates that God was satisfied with his death. And the payment that was made was truly a satisfactory payment in the eyes of God for your sin. Salvation, justification was completed at the cross. The resurrection is God's good housekeeping seal of approval on what Jesus did on the cross. I am satisfied with what Jesus did. I accept that as the payment for your sin. Now here's what that means to you and me. And here's why this is such a wonderful truth. The question in salvation is not, is God pleased with me? The question is, is God pleased with Christ's death? You see there are an awful lot of people asking the wrong question today. And they're saying, is God pleased with me? Have I done enough? Am I a good enough person? Have my good deeds outweighed my bad deeds? I better join the church, better get baptized, better mark up as good stuff, much good stuff as I can, because in their minds the question is, is God pleased with me? Will I get into his heaven because of being a good person? That's the wrong question, because you can't ever get into heaven by your own good deeds. The Bible makes it clear. Salvation is not by works, so that nobody can go around boasting in heaven how they got there. The question is this, is God satisfied with the sacrifice Christ made on the cross? And that question is forever answered yes by the resurrection. The resurrection gives us the confidence, the assurance that we are accepted by God, that our justification was completed at the cross, and we are totally accepted by God. For given cleanse of our sin, we are in his family, we have a home in heaven that is declared at the resurrection. Thank God for the empty tomb. Not just because of what it says about Jesus, but the acceptance, the assurance it gives us of our acceptance with God. So the question has been forever settled. Is God satisfied with what Jesus did on the cross? Is that sufficient payment for my sin? You never have to worry about that, my friend, because the resurrection proves it. The resurrection proves it. So the resurrection gives us the assurance of acceptance. Secondly, the resurrection gives us the assurance, Paul declares, of representation. We have representation before God because of the resurrection. Flip over a few pages to Romans chapter 8 where Paul is talking about the wonderful plan of salvation, which God has devised that starts back an eternity past. It reaches into eternity future, and he's just described that great plan of salvation in verses 28 to 30. And now in verse 31, he says, what did shall we say in response to this? Then he begins these wonderful declarations of confidence, of assurance. He says, if God is for us, who can be against us? In other words, we can have assurance of his protection that no one can stand against us. If God has already declared himself for us, no one can stand against us. Assurance of his protection, verse 32, is assurance of his provision. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? God can meet all of your needs. God can take care of you. He can provide for you because he's already provided the greatest thing for you. He didn't spare his own son. He gave him so confidence in his provision. And then verse 33, confidence in his payment. Verse 33 says, who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Now remember what justification is. Justification is God doing a legal record book change in heaven, where he takes the sin off of the page in your record book and the legal books of heaven, and he places Christ's righteousness there and he makes a legal declaration that you are now righteous. He sees you in his son, Jesus. And Paul's question in verse 33 is, can anyone walk into heaven and put anything back on that debit page, on that legal record of your account in heaven? Can anyone do that? And the question is absurd because God, the only one on the universe would have the power to change that book. God has already declared your righteous. It's God who justifies. And then he comes to this great question in verse 34. Another evidence of the assurance and confidence we can have in our salvation. He says, who is he that condemns? Or is can anybody now condemn you in the courtroom of heaven and lay anything to your charge that will stick and that will make you to be condemned? Now that you've trusted Christ, can anyone do that? And here's the answer. Well, Christ Jesus, who died, more than that who was raised to life is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Now, the only person who has the right to condemn you is interceding for you. He's representing you before the throne of God. And it's because he has been raised, Paul says, not only did he die, but he says more than that, he raised again. He was raised again to life and he's right now in heaven at the right hand of God representing us. Now, Paul in his writings and also John in his writings will help us to see two different ways in which Jesus represents us today in heaven. He represents us first of all as an intercessor. And that's what this verse is talking about. He represents us as intercessor. Now, intercessor means that you plead on someone else's behalf. You argue their case. You ask for them. You plead for them. Jesus is praying for you and for me, if you know him as your Savior, he's praying for you today, interceding for you. And you know what? That praying, that intercession started before he even died. The night before he died, on his way to the Garden of Gethsemane with 11 of his disciples, he prayed a prayer. It's recorded for us in John 17. And as a part of that prayer in verse 9, he said, I pray for them thinking of the 11 disciples who were with him. Judas is already gone. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, not on this occasion, not in this prayer. I'm not praying for the world at large, but for those you've given me. I'm praying for these my followers, my disciples. And then notice what he says in verse 20, he says, my prayer is not for them alone, not for this group of 11 alone. I pray also for those who would believe in me through their message. And you know what? That includes you and it includes me, if we've trusted Jesus as our Savior, because we have taken the message of the apostles that they recorded in God's Word, New Testament, and we've trusted Christ as our Savior based on what they have recorded for us here. And so we're part of what Jesus, we're part of the group Jesus was praying for in John chapter 17, his prayer for you started hundreds of years before you were ever born. He was already praying for you. And if his earthly prayers for his disciples or any indication of the way he's praying now, Jesus intercession has to do with our weakness, our helplessness, our immaturity, our failures. That's what he's praying about. I think a good example of that is with Peter in Luke chapter 22. This is also the night before Jesus dies. Jesus says to Peter, after Peter has made this bold declaration that if any, if all the other disciples would deny him, he would never deny him. Jesus knew that Peter would deny him three times that night. So Jesus says, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. Now wheat is sifted shaken so that the real kernel of wheat is separated from the chaff. It's a violent shaking process. Satan has desired to shake you up. Jesus is saying, but notice his next words, but I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you've turned back, strengthen your brothers. If that's any indication of the way Jesus prays for us, and I believe it is, and believe it's an example of his intercession, then he prays for us in our weakness, in our failings, our human limitations, our sinfulness. Jesus knows how weak we are. Jesus knows how we claim to be his follower, and we claim that we'd go to death for him, and we can't even stand up for him the next day. He knows how weak we are. And he's praying for us. I don't know about you, but that touches my heart to know that my Savior, the one who gave his life for me, is praying for me in my times of weakness and helplessness. And the amazing thing is he never stops. He never stops. He's always praying for us. Hebrews chapter 7 verse 25, therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him. Why? Because he always lives to intercede for them. Only God could do this. Only God the sun could accomplish this. And that is continual praying for all of us and still managing the rest of the universe. But he's praying for you, and he's praying for me. He's always living to intercede for us. So he is representing us before God by interceding for us, by praying for us. But he also represents us in another way. He represents us as advocate. Not only as intercessor, but as advocate. Now advocate is a good legal word, which means defense lawyer. Someone who is your advocate in a courtroom setting is your defense lawyer. He's the one who pleads your case. Comes to your defense. John describes this in his little epistle first John in chapter 2 verses 1 and 2. He says, my dear children, I write this to you. He's just written chapter 1 about when we send me to confess our sin and make it right with God be cleansed. He says, my dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. Not giving you an escape and excuse to sin. You're not supposed to sin. But he says, if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous one. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. We have an advocate. When we sin, we have an advocate. Now if Jesus' intercession has to do with our human weakness and frailty and failure, Jesus' advocacy has to do with our sin, pleading our case when we sin. You see, when a believer sins, when a Christian sins, one who knows Jesus is savior, you don't lose your salvation. It doesn't require Christ to die again, to receive Christ again as your savior. The Bible teaches it when you get saved. You get eternal life. How long is eternal? It's eternal, right? I mean, God said it's eternal. That means it never ends. So that can never end. That can never change. You're saved forever. As John said, that's not an excuse to sin. What happens when a believer does sin? There are consequences. We lose our peace, our joy, we lose fellowship with our heavenly Father and all that needs to be restored by admitting our sin, coming clean with God, owning up to it, saying the same thing he says about it, agreeing with him about our sin. That's what confession is. Confession is not sitting in a booth and telling all your sins to someone else. Confession is agreeing with God about what you've done and saying to him, I agree with you what you've said in your word. I have sinned. I've done wrong. I said, I thought I had an attitude. I did something that was wrong. When we confess, God cleanses us. Now, that's typically all we think of when we think of what happens when we sin. We're thinking of it from an earthly perspective. What happens with me here? Have you ever thought about what happens in heaven when you sin? Have you ever thought about that? What may be done in secret here is an open scandal in heaven. The reason you need a defense lawyer is because there's also a prosecuting attorney. There's someone who's accusing you of sin. The Bible identifies who he is. Satan, John says, the man who wrote first John in Revelation 12, Satan is called the accuser of the brethren. To use the King James word, the accuser of all those who are children of God. An example of it is Job, as he actually went into the presence of God and accused Job of serving God because of all the things God did for him and gave him. Instead, if you take those things away, Job won't serve you anymore. He accused. Satan is an accuser. Now, I don't know how this happens. I know that Satan is limited. He's not omnipresent like God is. So I don't know that he accuses every believer of every sin all the time. I don't know that that happens. But there are occasions, I believe, the Bible indicates where Satan has entrants into the very presence of God and accuses us of sin. And again, I don't know what it looks like. I'm just trying to imagine using the courtroom terminology that John uses advocate defense lawyer. I'm just imagining that Satan makes his case. Sue, Sally, Bill, Tom has sinned down there. You see it, God, you know it. You can't overlook that. They've sinned. And I know, I know you're a holy God. That sin must be punished. You've got to punish them for their sin. I know you can't approve of sin. You've got to punish them. And in some way, similar to that, Satan accuses us and probably calls for the judge of the universe to declare against us. And then from the other side of the courtroom rises our defense attorney. And again, I don't know what it looks like. I don't know exactly how it happens. Maybe he walks up to the judgment bar of God, the throne of God and says to him, Father, you and I both know that sin's already been punished. That sin's already been paid for. And listen, even now, my child, your child is confessing that sin to you and restoring that broken fellowship. But Satan is wrong. The sin does not need to be punished. Now, it's already been punished. Father, you remember, you know, I took their punishment. And he comes to your defense. He is our advocate. I am so thankful that there is one in heaven who prays for me every day, but who also comes to my defense when I sinned. Now, that's no excuse to sin because quite frankly, I don't like the thoughts of open scandal in heaven because of me. And I think if we realized more what sin did in heaven, we'd be a little more cautious about the things we say and the way we live and what we think down here. Thank God, though, that we have a defense attorney, an advocate, one who represents us. And he's there because of the resurrection. The resurrection means we have acceptance. It means we have representation, but quickly, it also means we have power. We have power. We have the power to do whatever God wants us to do. Ephesians chapter one is our next stop along Paul's signposts of the resurrection and describing for us what it means to us Ephesians chapter one. Where Paul describes the amazing power of God displayed in the resurrection. We're going to begin in verse 18. Paul says, I pray also that the eyes of your heart, what an interesting expression, the eyes of your heart, talking about your understanding, your perception spiritually, not physical eyes, but how you perceive things from your heart, your spiritual perception, maybe enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. Verse 19, and this is something else he wants us to perceive spiritually and his incomparably great power for us who believe. Now notice this next expression. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. Verse 19 speaks of the description of this power. Notice Paul uses four different words to describe this power. I mean this is such awesome power that he uses practically every Greek word and thankfully it's translated by different English words in our vocabulary to describe this power. The end of verse 19 he says that power is like the working different word of his mighty third word strength, fourth word, four different words, piling word upon word to help us understand this is awesome power. This is great power, incredible power. That's its description. Notice its demonstration in verse 20, this power which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead. This power was demonstrated at the tomb, at the resurrection. The greatest demonstration of God's power and all of human history is the resurrection. The greatest demonstration of his love, the cross, the greatest demonstration of his power, the resurrection. There is no greater demonstration of power in all the universe. He says it was demonstrated there. Notice the extent of this power, how far it extends. He exerted this power in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms far above all rule and authority, power and dominion and every title that can be given not only in the present age but also in the one to come. All of those titles there rule authority, power and dominion are probably angels. Jesus has been given power, authority over all of the angels. This power that raised him from the dead gives him now power over all the angels. Secondly, it gives him power over all the universe. Verse 22, God placed all things under his feet. So he's not only over the angels, he's over the universe but notice it goes on and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. He's over the church too. So he's over all the angels, he's over all the universe, he's over the church. This position of power and authority is because of the greatness of the power that was exhibited in his resurrection and raised him up to that position of authority. That's the extent of his power. But you know what Paul's real purpose is in this prayer because he said I want you to understand this and grasp this spiritually. The purpose of this power in verse 19 is all of this power is for you and his incomparably great power for us who believed and then he describes how that power is revealed in the resurrection. So here's the point. The same power that was exhibited in the resurrection is available for us for whatever needs we have. We devalue too much the power of God available to us to meet whatever challenges we may face in life. You're struggling with sin, the sin that as the writer Hebrew said so easily entangles you, you keep getting tangled up in it over and over and over again. Did you know that there is power available to break that, to break that bondage? The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is for us. It's available to us. You struggle with doubt. His power is able to dispel doubt. You struggle with fear, his power is able to calm your fears. You struggle with difficulties and trials that you're going through right now. His power is able to see you through those and help you to persevere under them and make it through better on the other side. You struggle to witness to people. Have you ever realized that Jesus quite clearly said you should receive power? After the Holy Spirit's coming upon you and you shall be my witnesses, the power to witness is available to us. If we will ask him to help us with that, you struggle with a character weakness. Did you know that God's power is able to strengthen your life in that area? Do you struggle with depression? I realize there are medical reasons sometimes for depression. Certainly those need to be explored. That God's power is available to help you deal with whatever in life is causing you to be depressed. Here it is. His power is available. I was reading a few weeks ago actually in Psalm 37 and a verse that I had committed to memory years and years ago was reading in a different translation, the new living translation. It kind of jumped out at me fresh and I knew Psalm 37 and verse 5 commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust also in him and he will help you. That's the way the new living translation says it. That just hit me like a ton of bricks that morning and I ever since that I've been praying that verse every day commit everything you do to the Lord. What is it you've got that you're facing today? Everything you do commit it to the Lord. Trust in him. That means trust that he is there to help you and strengthen you and the Bible says and he will help you. Now if this kind of power Paul has described is the kind of help that's available that's pretty good help. I mean that's exactly the kind of help I need is the kind of power that raised Jesus from the dead and that power is available for us. Paul says I want you Ephesians I want you Johnson Chapel Princetonian Blue Fidio Unions or whatever we are. I want you folks to understand and grasp in your spiritual heart what it means to trust me for that kind of power. I want you to understand that kind of power. I want you to live in that kind of power. So there's no reason for us Christians to walk around defeated. There's power available through the resurrection of Christ to help us meet whatever we're facing but then finally Jesus resurrection gives us the assurance of resurrection. Not only acceptance representation power but resurrection. It's in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Again Paul is writing about the resurrection and what it means to us and to troubled Thessalonians who were confused about what would happen to their loved ones who had already died if Jesus were to come back. Paul hadn't quite gotten that far in his systematic theology with him. So he writes this letter to describe to them. Here's what it is. Here's what's going to happen if Jesus were to come back and I've taught you that Jesus could come back at any time and you'll go home to be with him and they were concerned about their loved ones who had died. So basically what Paul is saying is Jesus resurrection gives us the assurance of the resurrection of our loved ones. It's in verse 13. Brothers we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep. That's the temporary laying aside of the body laying to rest of the body of a believer who's died. They're sleeping physically or to grieve like the rest of men who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so okay here's here's the we win part and so we believe that Jesus or that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him so we can have the confidence of the resurrection of our loved ones. Those who have died in Christ will be raised again. But we can also have the confidence of the resurrection of our own bodies. Our own bodies will be raised from the grave someday. If we should die before Jesus comes back, our own bodies will be resurrected someday because Jesus was raised. We also will be raised. The Bible says that over and over again. Look at these verses. John chapter 11 verses 25 and 26. Jesus said to her to Mary as she came out to the tomb where her brother Lazarus said died. Jesus is there. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even though they die and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. In other words you really don't die. You just go into my presence. Death is just the doorway into God's presence. Do you believe this? Jesus asks. Jesus also said in John 14 and verse 19 before long the world will not see me anymore. But you will see me speaking to those 11 disciples because I live, you also will live because of Jesus' resurrection. We will be resurrected. Paul said in Romans 8.11 and if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his spirit who lives in you. Jesus was raised so we will be raised. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. Whereas in Adam all die so in Christ all will be made alive but each in turn Christ the first fruits. Then when he comes those who belong to him because Christ is resurrected, we will be resurrected. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself because Jesus was raised. We will be raised. Time and time again Paul says the resurrection of Jesus guarantees gives us the assurance of our resurrection. And you know what? The older I get, the more I wake up every morning saying thank God for the resurrection. One of these days I'm not going to have to put on these glasses. I'll have all my eyesight. One of these days I have all my hair, have all my mind. One of these days I'll have everything I was intended to have physically because I'll be in a glorified body. Be like Christ. Thank God for a resurrected body. The resurrection it is more than just a doctrine of truth to believe. It is more than just a vital doctrine to believe. It is also a blessed truth in which to rest our confidence. Because Jesus was raised from the dead we are accepted by God because Jesus was raised from the dead we have representation before God. Because Jesus was raised from the dead we have the power to live and to do whatever God requires of us and because Jesus was raised from the dead we also will be raised from the dead. Thank God for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Father we are grateful today that our Savior lives. We are thankful for the fact that we will also live with Him someday. Father thank you that even now He is praying for us representing us before you. We know that your payment on the cross is sufficient for our sins and we have the power that we need to live and meet the challenges of this life. Thank you. Thank you Father. For all that is ours because of the resurrection because Jesus wins we also win. Thank you for that in Jesus name. Amen.