What If It's Not True?

Well, if you're a sports fan, this is a great time of year. If you love basketball, it's the final four. Tomorrow night, the NCAA Championship game. If you like baseball, your team just got started and you have high hopes for a new season. If you like golf, this is the week of the Masters and it doesn't get any better than that if you're a golf fan. If you like football, well, at least it's spring practice and you're thinking high hopes for your team. And that's only five months till the season starts. It's a great time to be a sports fan. If you are a Christian and you take the gospel seriously, this is the greatest time of year. Easter is the greatest time of year. We celebrate the death of Christ on good Friday. Then we come together and anticipation of celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday morning. That's the greatest celebration of all for Christians to know that Jesus is alive. But if you look around you, the world is peddling a different message. In fact, it almost seems that Satan ramps up his opportunity to give a counter message to the miraculous supernatural resurrection of Christ in all of these programs on the history channel and even NBC's airing of the blasphemous Jesus Christ superstar, which paint Judas Iscariot as the real hero of the story, airing that tonight on NBC. But in magazines, it seems as though the message is pounded at us at this time of year that Jesus is not really who he claimed to be. And the gospel and the death of Christ and the resurrection is not really like the Bible says. Because I've cut out articles from major news magazines at this time of year, they come out every Easter week. And I've picked out a few of them. Time magazine's article, The Gospel Truth with a big question mark at the end of truth. US News and World Report, several articles in search of Jesus, who was Jesus, Jesus Christ, plain and simple, news week also comes out with the same kinds of articles. I want to quote just a few from these secular news articles. One of them refers to the Jesus seminar, Time magazine does the Jesus seminar, which was a group of so-called Biblical scholars so-called that tried to find really the bare history of the historical Jesus. And this is what they said. The seminar found all the nativity descriptions to be inauthentic except for the name of Jesus Mother Mary. The only thing authentic about the nativity stories in the gospels regarding Easter and the resurrection, all descriptions of Jesus' trial were deemed inauthentic, along with his Palm Sunday statement that he is the Messiah. An issue of Newsweek had an article rethinking the resurrection. McQuote from that article, various Biblical scholars argue that the gospel stories of the empty tomb and Jesus' post-resurrection appearances are fictions devised long after his death to justify his claims of deity. Quoting Carl Ludumon, a visiting professor at Vanderbilt University who says, the resurrection is an empty formula that must be rejected by anyone holding a scientific worldview. In his book, what really happened to Jesus, Ludumon argues that Jesus' body rotted away in the tomb. I quote, the risen Christ that appeared to the Apostle Peter was a subjective vision produced by Peter's overwhelming grief and guilt for having denied Jesus. As for the Apostle Paul, who previously persecuted Christians, his vision of the risen Christ was the resolution of an unconscious Christ complex. And what the New Testament describes as Jesus' appearance to more than 500 followers was, in his words, mass ecstasy. John Dominic Cross and a Biblical scholar at DePaul University in Chicago says, the tomb of Jesus was indeed empty. The reason was his body had already been devoured by wild dogs. That's the kind of trite that often fills the new stands in the history channel programs about Christ. Interesting enough, though, that they accept the part of the record that describes Peter's denial of Jesus. The existence of Paul and him seeing a vision on the road to Damascus. The actual fact that Jesus' body was placed in a tomb. So this is not really scientific history at all. What it is is a selective choosing of what you want to believe and what you don't want to believe. And what people don't want to believe is anything that's miraculous or supernatural, which is the resurrection. Jesus' resurrection is critical to us. The scholars deny the resurrection and the deity of Christ and everything miraculous so that they can talk about Jesus as a social reformer only. You know what's even more alarming? The poll by research done by the Barnard Research Group tells us that 30% of people who claim to be Christians deny the literal bodily resurrection of Christ. 30% of people who claim to be Christians, now that's shocking. So I think in the light of all this flood of satanic delusion, really, we need to come back to this question. Just how important is the resurrection? What if it's not true? Can you really be a follower of Christ and not believe in a bodily resurrection? The answer to that is the resurrection is critical to our faith and no, you cannot be a Christian without it, without believing the resurrection of Christ. Paul says it this way in Romans chapter 10 and verse 9. If you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. There it is, the death and resurrection of Christ, essential for salvation. Paul, as he's describing to the Corinthians, the gospel that he had preached to them, that they had believed, and that they now stand firm in. He says this about that gospel. He defines it in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 3 and 4. He says, for what I received, I passed on to you as a first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. For instance, the gospel is not complete unless it includes the resurrection. It is critical to our faith, it is critical to our belief, it is critical to our salvation. I want to invite your attention to that chapter, the great resurrection chapter 1 Corinthians 15. For a few verses later, Paul asks the question that we're asking today, what if it's not true? Just what if? What if the resurrection isn't true? Paul addresses that issue in verses 12 through 20 of the resurrection chapter 1 Corinthians chapter 15. You see, the Corinthians church was steeped in a culture that was ruled in the first century by the philosophy of Plato, the Greek philosopher Plato, who among many other things taught that all matter, everything physical, bodily, was inherently evil. And so why would Christians want a resurrection body, the body is evil? It's not just about the physical or of matter is evil. So Paul shows the logical conclusion of denying a resurrection body for believers. The main point of 1 Corinthians 15 is not to deal with the resurrection of Christ, it's to deal with the resurrection of believers. But he shows that the logical conclusion of denying that there's a resurrection body for us is that you also discount the resurrection of Christ. And how he takes it on, head on in verse 12. But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. In other words, if you accept this teaching that there is no resurrection body waiting for believers, then logically you are also saying there's no resurrection of Christ. He didn't have a resurrection body either. And if that's the case, then we are in deep weeds. We are in big trouble if there's no resurrection of Christ. And that's what Paul goes on to show in on through verse 20. And that is the problems we face if there's no resurrection of Christ. Paul shows what it means if the resurrection is not true. He comes to five conclusions. If the resurrection isn't true, then this is true. This is true. This is true. This is true. Five conclusions if the resurrection of Christ is not true. Conclusion number one is this. If Christ is not a risen Savior, then Christianity is useless. Christianity is useless. You see it there in verse 14. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless. And so is your faith. Christianity is useless. The word useless here means empty, futile, worthless, without purpose. Eusteless? Christianity is useless if Christ has not been resurrected. Notice that first, he says in verse 14, our preaching is useless. You know, if there's no resurrection, preaching is a waste of time. Preaching gospel is a waste of time. There's nothing to talk about if there is no resurrected Christ. What are we going to preach about? Going to read some current book and give you a book review on Sunday morning? Are we just going to talk about social reform? I believe that the power of the gospel ought to infuse God's people with the desire to change their community and their area, but it's the light of the gospel that penetrates the darkness. If all we're talking about is how to be good people so that we can be good in our community. That's worthless. It's worthless, Paul says. What are we going to do? Just tell people to be good? Well, we know from experience we can't do that. Not to the level that it takes to get into heaven. And so preaching is useless if the resurrection is not true, but Paul also says in verse 14, our faith is useless. So is your faith, he says. If there's no resurrection, there's nothing left to believe. Jesus is a liar and the Bible is a joke if there's no resurrection. Paul says, your faith is useless. It's no good, it's worthless. So if that's true, I mean there's no resurrection, let's just all go home. Let's lay off the staff, shut the doors, take all of our libraries and just burn the books. There's nothing left to do. What are we supposed to trust in if there's no resurrection? A man who is dead, a savior whose body was eaten by dogs. Are you kidding me? Are we supposed to believe in a Bible that's untrue? Come on, if there's no resurrection, there's nothing left. The resurrection is the core of the gospel. As we'll see later, it signifies that what Jesus did on the cross was satisfactory to God. And so without the resurrection, everything else crumbles. Our preaching is worthless, useless, and our faith is useless. James Donald is a lead pastor at Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Metos, Chicago, right outside of Chicago, Rolling Metos, Illinois. A few years ago, he wrote about in his book, he coached his son's little league baseball team, helped coach the little league baseball team. He went to baseball practice one day and he writes in the book, he said, I started hitting fly balls to the kids. When I go into a context like that where I really don't know anybody, I lowball the fact that I'm a preacher because it freaks people out. So I didn't say anything. All of a sudden, this dad I've never seen before yells across the field, that's got to be pretty tiring work for a preacher. He said a couple of other things during the practice and asked me some questions about our fellowship. At the end of the practice, we were running laps around the field and again, he yells across, that's a lot of hard work for a guy who only works one day a week. I didn't say anything about his comments, but I talked to him a little bit. When I got in the car, I said, Luke, what's up with the dad who knows I'm a preacher? Luke said, Daddy, when you weren't at practice on Wednesday, ask me where you were. And I said, you were at a board meeting at the church. He asked what church it was. And I said, harvest Bible chapel. Luke said, the guy made some kind of snide comment about all you're trying to grow that great big church out there. Luke said, Dad, what's up with that? I said, the guy goes to a liberal church, it's 30 years old, they barely have 100 people. That would be too bad around here, but in suburban Chicago, that's kind of pitiful. Luke asked, what's a liberal church? I said, that's a church where they don't believe the Bible, they don't believe in the deity of Christ, they don't believe in the Virgin birth, they don't believe in the substitutionary atonement of Christ, and they very definitely don't believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And little Luke responded with an incredulous look on his face, what kind of church is that? And he got it right. What kind of church is that? It doesn't believe in the core principles of the Bible, the core truths of our faith, including the resurrection. You know, if there is no resurrection, then we ought to pack it all up and go home. Christianity is useless. Paul says, absolutely empty and worthless. That's his first conclusion. Conclusion number two is if there is no resurrection of Christ, then preachers are liars. Preachers are liars. Look at what he says in verse 15. He says more than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Jesus from the dead, but he did not raise him if, in fact, the dead are not raised. In other words, if there is no such thing as a resurrection body, then Christ is not raised, and all of us who have been preaching that are a bunch of liars. When you think about that, when you think of the scope of that, let's play that out for a little bit here. If there is no resurrection, then Old Testament preachers are liars. You say, why didn't Old Testament preachers preach about the resurrection? They did. Job did. In Job 1925, look at what Job said. I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end, he will stand on the earth. Job believed in the resurrection. David believed in the resurrection when he was talking about the Messiah in Psalm 16 and verse 10, he says, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. Speaking of the Messiah, he will not be abandoned to the realm of the dead, and his body will not see decay. David also said in Psalm 110, verse 1, the Lord, Jehovah God says to my Lord, again, the Messiah, the prophecy about the coming Messiah, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Consistently, the New Testament quotes and refers to that verse as an evidence of the ascension of Christ after his resurrection to be seated at the right hand of the Father. David believed in the resurrection and preached it. Isaiah preached the resurrection. Look at Isaiah 53. Speaking again of the Messiah, he says, yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. That's us. That's the children of God. He will see his offspring and prolong his days. See that comes after being suffering and making his life an offering for sin. He will prolong his days. That can only refer to the resurrection and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. Isaiah believed in the resurrection. All those Old Testament preachers are liars if Jesus did not come forth out of the grave. You know what? All the apostles lied, too. The whole book of Acts is a farce. If there's no resurrection of Christ, all the apostles lied to us. When you start reading through the book of Acts and you will see almost every chapter, every time the apostles open their mouth, the resurrection comes out. They constantly are preaching the resurrection. Acts chapter 2, 1st sermon in the church on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2, 24. I read it earlier, but God, Peter says, God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. Later in that same sermon, Peter would say in verse 32, God has raised this Jesus to life. And we are all witnesses of it, exalted to the right hand of God. He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and is poured out what you now see and hear. And in verse 36, same sermon. He says, therefore, that all is will be assured of this. God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah. He gets to chapter 3, he's preaching again to the group of elders that have arrested him for preaching in the temple. This is what he says in Acts 3. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. You can't even get hardly into chapter 4, and you hear it again, chapter 4, verse 10. Then know this, you and all the people of Israel, is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed in the latter part of that chapter, verse 33. With great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and God's grace was so powerfully working them all. Chapter 5, the very next chapter, Peter and the other apostles replied, we must obey God rather than human beings. The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead, whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. So constantly and consistently in the book of Acts, the resurrection is preached. I mean, we could go on, chapter 7, it's Stephen talking about the resurrection. Chapter 10, it's Peter again. Chapter 13, all the way through chapter 28, it's Paul. Every time he preaches the resurrection of Christ, the apostles lied to us if Jesus was not resurrected. They so boldly stood for the resurrection of Christ, they were willing to be persecuted, they were willing to die because they believed that truth so deeply, but they're liars if Jesus was not resurrected. And guess what? Not only the Old Testament preachers, not only the apostles lied to us if there's no resurrection, but if there's no resurrection of Christ, Jesus lied. Jesus lied to us because he foretold his own resurrection in John chapter 2, he would say this, the Jews then responded to him, what sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this? Jesus answered them, destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days. They replied, he's taken 46 years to build this temple and you're going to raise it in three days, but the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said, then they believed the scripture in the words that Jesus had spoken. Jesus talked about his own resurrection. So if he did not come forth from the tomb, Jesus is a liar. He is not a good man. He is not someone even worthy of emulating as a role model. He's a liar if there's no resurrection. That's what Paul say. But expand it on out, Old Testament preachers, apostles, Jesus himself, but all preachers ever since have lied to us, at least all preachers who preach the Bible, who preach the gospel have lied to us. One of my professors at Trinity, Evangelical Divinity School was a man by the name of David Larson. Dr. Larson penned a two-volume work called The Company of the Preachers. He taught preaching at Ted's and he did a great masterful work on the history of preaching all through the centuries. Started with New Testament and worked all the way up to the present. 100 pages. There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of preachers featured. Their stories are told. Their history is given. The core of their message is given. All of them are liars. All of them, if Jesus did not come forth from the tomb. Do you see the gravity of what Paul's saying? If there is no resurrection, Christianity is useless and preachers are just a bunch of liars. That's conclusion number two. Conclusion number three, if there is no resurrection, what if it's not true? Well, if there isn't any resurrection, then forgiveness is impossible. Your forgiveness is impossible. It's impossible for you to be forgiven of your sins. Thus it is impossible for you to be saved. Thus it is impossible for you to ever get to heaven. If there's no resurrection. You see what he says in verse 16. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. You're not forgiven. And there's no way to get forgiveness if there is no resurrection. I want us to see how important this is. I want us to see what part the resurrection played in our forgiveness and in our salvation. It's most clearly stated in a parallel verse in Romans 4, verse 25. It will be on the screen for you. He speaking of Christ was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Now the key word in that verse is a little three letter preposition that appears twice the word four. In the original language, that word four, that preposition four really carries the idea of because of which it can also do in English, but it's clear here it means because of or on account of. So let's read the verse that way. He was delivered over to death because of our sins on account of our sins and was raised to life because of our justification or on account of our justification. Now here's Paul's point. Did you know that all that was needed for your salvation, for justification was accomplished by Christ's death on the cross? When Jesus shed his blood and died on the cross, that was the work that secured our salvation. The resurrection was the proof that God approved of that work. You see the preposition because of means that what follows the death was the reason for the death. The sins come first, the death comes because of that. The justification comes first, the resurrection comes because of that. Here's the point. Jesus' death is what saves us from our sins. The resurrection is so key in such an important part of the gospel because it is showing us that God approves of the work that Jesus did on the cross. Romans 5 and 6 tells us that it is the shed blood of Jesus that justifies us. Paul says you see it just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. In verse 8 he goes on and says this, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us since we have now been justified by his blood. How much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? How are we justified? How are we saved through the blood of Christ, through the death of Christ on the cross? When Jesus died, what did He say right toward the end of His death? It is finished. That was literally a word that was used in accounting procedures of the day. That Palestine means it is paid in full. Nothing else is needed. What I have done here today on the cross, Jesus is saying, has paid for your sins in full. But the resurrection shows that God was satisfied with that payment, that it was the appropriate payment, that it did pay for our sins, that it did satisfy the holy demands of a righteous God. That was beautifully symbolized in something that happened once a year in the tabernacle and the temple in the Old Testament. Once a year the high priest would take the blood of some innocent animals that had been sacrificed for guilty sinners and he would take that blood through the holy place, the first room of the temple and back behind the veil, the curtain, into the holy of holies. Only one time a year could that one man, the high priest, go into the holy of holies. It was a sacred ceremony. And he was there to take that blood of innocent substitutes for guilty sinners to take that blood of those animals and sprinkle it on the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant, thus symbolizing the blood of an innocent substitute pays for the sins of guilty sinners. But you know what was happening the whole time he was back there? The people of Israel are out into courtyard waiting for him to come back out. Because if anything happens wrong back in that room, if he does not follow the law of Moses and does not offer the sacrifice exactly as it's supposed to be and God is not satisfied with what he has offered, the high priest can be struck dead on the spot. And so the people of Israel waiting out in the courtyard waiting to see, you know, on pins and needles on their tip those, waiting to see, is he going to come back out? Is he going to come back out and there's high suspense in those moments and eventually they see him come back out? And there's a sigh of relief and rejoicing that the sacrifice that has been made is satisfactory to God. Because the high priest has shown up again. That's exactly what Jesus did. He went into that holy sanctuary, the holy presence of God and laid down his own blood on the cross to pay for our sins. And we are justified. We are saved by that sacrifice. But Jesus, or the Father looked down upon that sacrifice and said, that is satisfactory. It was done exactly as it was supposed to be done. It satisfies my wrath against sin. And I accept that payment. Jesus says, paid in full. And with the resurrection, God the Father says, I accept that payment. Jesus was crucified shed His blood because of our sins. He was raised because justification was satisfied in His death. It was taken care of. But if there's no resurrection, what does that say? It says that God was not satisfied with the payment. It says that our justification was not completed on the cross. That's exactly what Paul's saying. You're still in your sins. You can't be forgiven if there's no resurrection. That's how critical the resurrection is to our faith and to the gospel. That's Paul's third conclusion. He draws a fourth conclusion. What if it's not true? If Christ has not been raised from the dead, His fourth conclusion is this, then everyone is lost. See it in verse 18. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. He's arguing if there's no resurrection. If Christ has not been raised, then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. We need to understand Paul's terms here when he says those who have fallen asleep. That's a beautiful way that Paul describes the death of a believer, someone who has placed his or her hope in the death of Christ for salvation, trusted Christ as their Savior. And they die. Paul speaks of them as falling asleep. You know why he uses that beautiful term for the death of a believer? Because going to sleep is only temporary, isn't it? When you go to sleep at night, what do you expect? Expect to wake up the next morning, right? It's only temporary. You're going to get up. When you go to sleep in church, like some of you are really in danger of right now, you expect that something's going to happen to wake you up. Maybe the song, the invitation's up. You're going to wake, it's only temporary. Sleep is only temporary. And so Paul uses that expression of the death of a believer because it shows the hope of the resurrection. The body just goes to sleep for a little while. It's going to come out of that grave. I love that term. It's one that I love to focus on at grave sites because it shows the hope of the resurrection that our loved one has not left us forever. They've just gone to sleep for a while. They're going to wake up. They're going to wake up again. I love that term. So he says, okay, those who fall in a sleep in Christ, those who have died as believers, if there's no resurrection, they are lost. Now television has not done us a service here because when you mentioned the word lost, you know what most of you are thinking? A plane wreck that left people stranded on an island, right? Oh, that was too long ago, I guess. That's not what Paul means by lost. The word he uses for lost here literally means to perish, to suffer in hell forever, to suffer in hell forever. Under God's wrath and condemnation, that's what it means to be lost, to be under the wrath and condemnation of God because your sins have not been forgiven. You see how this flows? If forgiveness is impossible, if you're still in your sins, then you're doomed to an eternity in hell under the condemnation and wrath of God. One is lost if there's no resurrection. Do you understand what that means? If there's no resurrection, everyone is in hell or going to be in hell. Mary, the mother of Jesus is in hell if there's no resurrection. Peter, Paul, the other apostles are in hell if there's no resurrection. Martin Luther is in hell if there's no resurrection. John Calvin, John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, DL Moody, C.S. Lewis, everyone else, including your relatives who have placed their hope in faith and Christ for eternal life. If there's no resurrection, they're in hell today. You see how critical the resurrection is? It is absolutely essential to our faith. If there's no resurrection, that's what Paul is saying. Everyone is lost. And then to an eternity separated from God. That's his fourth conclusion. Conclusion number five is if there is no resurrection, then Christians are pathetic. Let's literally what he says. Christians are pathetic. Verse 19, if only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitted. We are a sorry lot. We are a pathetic group of people if there is no resurrection. If all we have is a religion that has no eternal reality, then we are to be pitted more than anyone else. He says, why put your faith in Christ? If it's not true, then every choice to live righteously is wasted. Every deed of kindness done in the name of Christ is empty and futile. Every sacrifice you've ever made for Christ is worthless. Every time you've ever been ridiculed for your faith, every worship song you've ever sung, every child you've ever taught about the hope in Christ, everything you've ever done for eternity, every missionary who left family and everything that was familiar to them to tell people across the world who did not know this message, what it meant to have hope in Christ, all of that is wasted, it's worthless, it counts for nothing. And if we go to all of that expense and effort and focus to give our lives to this, and it's not true, we're pathetic. We're a pathetic group of people. Stephen Hawking, well known physicist, one of the most brilliant physicists of all time died just a little over two weeks ago, March 14th. His international bestseller, a brief history of time sold over 10 million copies and instantly made him as recognizable as Albert Einstein. But he was confined to a wheelchair for 50 years since he was age 21 because of Lou Garry's disease. Hawking was undoubtedly a genius, but he saw no need for God. With no apparent antagonism toward the faith, he said this in one of his books, there is no God, I am an atheist. We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. He went on to say, I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers. That is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark. So that's how you viewed Christians. They're people who are afraid of the dark. So they have to come up with a fairy tale to make them feel better about the future. You know what? If there is no resurrection, he is dead right. If there is no resurrection, he's right. We just believe in fairy tales. Try to help us think there's something out there in the future. If there's no resurrection. We are pathetic. Would you look at verse 20? I love how Paul starts the verse, verse 20. But I love this but you see everything he has said in verses 12 through 19 is just a huge what if what if what if it's not true. It's like a bad dream. You ever had a bad dream? Of course you have. I had one the other night. I had all kinds of people from our family, even those who are now gone in the dream. And everybody was messed up and doing weird stuff. And it was just one of those frightening dreams you wake up from and say, couldn't be true. Thank you Lord. It was a dream. We've all had bad dreams. What Paul has painted for us here in verses 12 through 19 is a horrible dream. What if it's not true that Christ has been raised from the dead? Then this is what we're looking at. Christianity is useless. Preachers are liars. Forgiveness is impossible. Everyone is lost and Christians are pathetic. But, but verse 20. Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Triumphantly after giving us this horrible nightmare of a scenario, Paul says, but with confidence, Christ is risen. He has been raised from the dead. What a glorious proclamation that the Word of God declares over and over and over again. Friend, there's no other way to explain even the historical incidents that the so-called liberal scholars admit probably happened. There's no other way to explain the rolling away of the stone. There's no other way to explain the failure of the guards to protect the tomb. And why they were bribed by the religious leaders to stay quiet after they told the religious leaders exactly what happened with the appearance of the angel. But they were bribed to stay quiet. No other way to explain that. There's no other way to explain the change in the apostles after the resurrection. There's no other way to explain their willingness to die for their faith. There's no other way to explain why the enemies of Christ were unable to produce any evidence that there was no resurrection. They never produced a body, never produced one shred of evidence for their claims that he was still dead. There's no other way to explain how our lives have been radically transformed. There's no other way to explain how God transforms lives when His Word gets into hearts and minds of people. There's no other way to explain who answers prayer. Rather than a resurrected living Savior. He is risen and because of that, the exact opposite of Paul's five conclusions is true. Christianity is not useless. It is the only way to heaven. Preachers when they preach the true gospel are not liars. They're proclaiming the truth. Forgiveness is possible. It is possible for people to be saved, not lost. The Christians, rather than being pathetic, are those who have the only hope to offer the world that's what's true. I started the message with some quotes from some magazines, news magazines. I want to end with a quote from another secular magazine that actually got it right. Sports Illustrated. I don't subscribe to Sports Illustrated, but I read this article about an article in Sports Illustrated a number of years ago. It was in 2001. If you're a real baseball fan, you recall the World Series of 2001. It goes down in history as one of the all-time best. The Arizona Diamond Back, the Upstart Diamond Back, who have only been in existence for three years, are playing the world renowned New York Yankees who have won the last three World Series. And so everybody expects the Yankees to win. And it was a classic duel. Seven games. Two of them went into extra innings. Three of them featured amazing comebacks, where a team that looked like they were going to lose came back in one, including game seven, where the Diamond Back came back from a deficit. And in the bottom of the night, with two outs, a player hits a bloop single, ends the game and the World Series, and the Diamond Back's win. It was an amazing series. So sports illustrated because it featured so many comebacks, wrote an article on the greatest comebacks of history. Only two of them or three of them had to do with sports. For instance, number seven on the list of greatest comebacks in history was Harry Truman's defeat of John Dewey in 1948. Number six was the comeback of humanity in the 14th century after the black plague swept through Europe, killing one third of the population. Number three was Michael Jordan for his comeback to basketball after a little stint in baseball there in the early 90s. But right there on the pages of sports illustrated, number one, number one comeback of all time. Jesus Christ, 33 AD, defies critics and stuns the Romans with his resurrection. The greatest comeback of all time. They got it right. They got it right. Jesus' resurrection is true. And because it's true, we have hope and we have hoped to offer this dark world. Thank God he is risen. Let's pray together.