Don't Reject the Resurrection - 1 Corinthians 15:1-19

Church, by show of hands. How many of you are a fan of a buffet? How many of you are not a fan of a buffet? Okay, you're the people that are wrong, just so you know, I love a buffet. The other week, I got to go to Swaggets, which, if you don't know a swag, it's Indian buffet. It's the best food in the city. And you want to go to the buffet because you can get all of the options. You can get the masala chicken, you can get the tika. It's amazing. You pour it all on your plate. If I want to travel a little, I'll go down to Senzetti's. That an Italian buffet. You can get all the Italian you want, everything you could want. You put it on your plate. No one's made that I'm aware of in Kansas City. If you know of the place, let me know that is a buffet that serves Italian, Indian, American, if they put it all together, then we just show up, and you take whatever you want, put it on your plate, and go sit down, and enjoy, doesn't matter, if it doesn't match, doesn't matter, if it doesn't match the theme, you just love. I love a buffet. I can take whatever I want. It doesn't matter. When it comes to beliefs, though. I think we also, at times, like a buffet. Which is, I can scoop whatever beliefs I want onto my plate, and I'm not really concerned if they don't match. If they don't make sense together. I've just scooped it onto my plate and I'm enjoying it and I'm not thinking about it. We're not the 1st time in history, that the belief buffet has existed, where people have put contrary beliefs, contradictory beliefs onto their plate. They scooped it, and dropped it on, and that's how they're living their life. In fact, we're going to see today that in 1st Corinthians chapter 15, the Corinthian church, some in the Corinthian church had been sampling from the belief buffet. They had scooped onto their plate a belief in Jesus. And they had also scooped onto their plate a belief that resurrection doesn't happen. That dead people stay dead. They don't come back from the dead. And Paul's going to challenge them and say these 2 beliefs can't go together. Now, in the Corinthian context, culturally, the Corinthian believers came out of a culture in which physical resurrection, a dead person coming back in a physical body would have been kind of foolish. In fact, Paul had encountered this himself when he was in Athens. He was explaining to the people in Athens of philosophers and others that they had a statue to an unknown God. He said, let me tell you about that, God. And so he begins to explain who this God is. And they're listening, they're intrigued. They like to hear new things. They like to sample from the belief buffet. And he was telling them, explaining to them how Jesus came, and then he died on a cross, and he came back from the dead. And then it said, many who were listening mocked him. They just said, that's ridiculous. Dead people stay dead. In fact, in their belief, they had to stay dead because the physical body was a bad thing. It was evil and the goal was to get away from the body, not to get another one. And so they mocked him in his belief. So it's not shocking that the Corinthians summon the church, had picked up Jesus and said, I'm going to follow you. And they had also had this belief on their plate called the dead aren't raised. And they hadn't thought about them in connection. And so Paul, and 1st Corinthians 15, which is where we're going to be today, if you have your Bibles, you can turn there. We have 3 more weeks in 1st Corinthians, all of them in 1st Corinthians 15. The whole chapter deals with the resurrection of Christ. Both. It's reality, which we'll talk about today and also its results, what it does. We'll talk about over the next 2 weeks as we move towards Easter. Paul, though, is going to unpack for the Corinthians this very simple message, and it's the main idea of my sermon. If we reject the resurrection, we lose its results. If we reject the resurrection, we lose its results. We're going to look at verses one to 19, but look with me 1st at verses one to 4, and we're going to see the resurrection is good news. Paul starts this way. He says, now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved. If you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as a 1st importance, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the 3rd day in accordance with the scriptures. So Paul begins this section of his letter dealing with this belief in the resurrection. He says, look, I want to remind you of something. So he's writing to a church and he says, this isn't new teaching. And for many of you in here. If not all of you, definitely most, what I'm going to say today isn't new. It's not that you've never heard this before, but Paul says, I want to remind you of this truth. I want to remind you of something that's very important. And he says, I want to remind you of the gospel I preach to use. That word, gospel just means good news. It's a Greek word that just says, it's a good message. And Paul said, I brought you this good news. We all love to receive good news, right? If someone says, hey, I got something to tell you. I got good news and bad news. What do you want first? It's like, just give me the good news and don't worry about the bad news. We won't do that. Paul just came and said, I have good news for you. And he said, I want to remind you of this good news, which you received. Paul saying they had believed this. At the beginning of this letter, he called the Corinthian saints. Those who had been set apart by God because of their belief in Christ. He said, you're saints. They were wrestling with all sorts of issues in their life. But he says, you have received this good news. He says, in which you stand. It's where they were. He wasn't saying they weren't believers, but they had a belief that if they held onto it was going to undermine everything they said they had received. He said, you stand in this belief and by which you are being saved. Now, Paul's not saying that their belief itself is what saves them. It's Christ who saves them. They believe in him to access that salvation. We believe in Christ, to access it, but it's not right. Well, you're saying because you believe. Your belief is somehow salvific for you. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that. what we believe in that matters. But I believe Christ. And he says, you've received this. You're standing in this. You're being saved by this, but he says, if you hold fast to the word I preach to you. If you hold onto this truth that I gave you, unless you believed in vain. And this idea of in vain is going to show up throughout chapter 15 here. And the idea is not that, like, you didn't believe hard enough, and so it didn't work for you. You just didn't have enough faith, it's the thing you believed in was empty, wasn't true. Wasn't what you thought it was. So what he's telling them is, you accepted my good news. You're standing in it. It's what's saving you. But if it's not true, then all of your beliefs in it are in vain. So he's writing to people who said they were a follower of Christ, but he's saying your belief about the resurrection, of people in general not happening is going to undermine, what I've said to you about Jesus, that you can't keep both of these beliefs on your plate. You can't scoop. I don't think people come back from the dead onto your plate, and then scoop, but I trust Jesus to save me. It says these 2 beliefs won't fit together. He said, this is what I delivered as of 1st importance. Paul saying, this is the most important thing. The foremost thing that I delivered. And that you received was this, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. You can go read a passage later this afternoon, like Isaiah 53. This message about a servant who God has sent, who's going to suffer, and by his wounds. Isaiah says we're going to be healed. He has been pierced for our iniquities. His suffering brings us salvation, but he's going to die. By the end of Isaiah 53, this person who has died, doesn't appear to be dead anymore. You can go to Psalm 22. If you've been in church a while. If you've been around Easter a few times, you're going to know the opening of Psalm 22. Most of us remember Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. Psalm 22, though, is quoted more often in the New Testament. It's one of the most quoted Old Testament passages. starts this way. My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me? So the words Jesus mouthed on the cross, as he's dying. The opening line of Psalm 22, and he's wanting his listeners not just to hear that line, but the entire psalm, which describes a man who is suffering and they're dividing his garments among them, them mocking him. But by the end of the psalm, this one who has been ridiculed and mocked and is suffering is redeemed. He wants them to think of that. Paul says, he died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. that the Old Testament had predicted this. And it wasn't just for his sins, because he didn't have any, it was for our sins, for my sins, for your sins, for the sins of the world that Jesus died. For God so loved the world, John says, that he gave his only son. That whoever believes in him wouldn't perish, but have everlasting life. And he says that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. That he was buried. Paul wants to make a point here so that no one's confused, that Jesus didn't kind of die for a little bit. It wasn't that he was being crucified. They thought he died. His heart had stopped. They took him down, they hit him with the shock paddles. He came back alive, and they said, whew, I'm back from the dead. It wasn't a near death experience. He died. They put him in the ground for 3 days. Guaranteed that he was dead. And he was buried, that he was raised on the 3rd day in accordance with the scriptures. So this idea of being raised. We just read in Psalm 16, verse 10. David writing under the inspiration of the Spirit, who said, you won't leave my soul in Sheol in the grave. You won't allow your holy one to seek corruption to see decay. Peter, in his 1st sermon on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, when he's explaining Jesus' death and resurrection, says, that Psalm, Psalm 16, David wasn't writing about himself, because David died. He said, we can go find his body right now. We can go find that David, King David, decayed in the grave. So he was writing about Jesus, who did not decay, who died, was put in the grave, but did not stay there. Jesus himself, when they asked him for a sign, he said, I'm not going to give you a sign. I've given you a bunch of signs, by the way. I've raised the dead. I healed the sick. Said, but if you want to sign, here's a sign. I'll give you the sign of Jonah, who was a prophet of God in the Old Testament, who was disobeying God, and he was in the belly of a fish for 3 days. He said, I'll give you that sign. It says, the son of man, Jesus will be in the earth for 3 days. Then you'll know that I am who I say I am. Paul said, this is in accordance with the scriptures. Paul realizes this, that his belief in the resurrection doesn't start kind of with Jesus. The story didn't start there. It started in the Old Testament. So about this much of the Bible, is pointing towards Jesus, anticipating what he's going to do, telling how God's working to bring that about. This is the story that we get to Jesus. So Paul knew this story really well. And so when he meets Jesus and realizes who he is, He's not going, I've never heard of this. I don't, we didn't see this coming. We don't know anything about you, God. It's not like a brand new movie that you go to for the 1st time, and this is, you know, it's like the Marvel universe, and we're way down at Infinity Wars, if you know what I'm saying. If not, it's like 18 movies in, and there's the end. That's the gospel. There has been this long story that God was working on, and Paul says, in accordance with the scriptures. The resurrection is good news. He doesn't leave it there, though, in verses 5 through 11. He's going to show his evidence for the resurrection. We have Paul's evidence for the resurrection, not just the scripture. He says, yeah, we can look at scripture and see that it's pointing towards this, but look what he says. After he had been buried and raised from the dead physically. He says that he appeared to Cephas. That's Peter, who was one of Jesus' disciples, his closest disciple. Then to the 12, these were the closest group of disciples that Jesus had. Then he appeared, underline every time the word appears, shows up in your Bible, by the way. You'll see that Paul's recounting this theme. He said, he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time. So 500 believers see Jesus after his death. in his resurrected physical body. He appeared at 501 time, most of whom are still alive. Here's what Paul's saying. He's saying don't just trust me. You can go find them. You can send people, and we can connect you with who they are, and they'll tell you what they saw. that they had seen Jesus alive after his death. Though some have fallen asleep. He said, of this 500, some have passed away. Then he appeared to James. This was his half brother. Then to all the apostles, last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Paul was heading to the city of Damascus to persecute Christians. Paul was not a follower of Christ. In fact, he considered Christ a blasphemer, and those who followed him to be blasphemers, and they were worthy of death. Paul had participated in the death of Christians. And he was heading to Damascus to grab more of them. to stop this movement from spreading. And on the way to Damascus, Jesus appears to him and meets him. He says, I am who I say I am, Paul. I've been raised from the dead. And Paul changed us from being a persecutor of Christ to someone who praises Christ, to someone who follows him. And he said he appeared to me as one untimely born. He appeared also. And he says, from the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. If you're like me, I read when Paul says these things. And if I don't pay attention to his story, you almost go, come on, Paul. You're like a really good guy. You're great. You don't know what being bad is. You don't know what it's like to have done horrible things in life. I mean, you wrote a large part of the New Testament. I've seen you, how much you love God, how much you love Jesus. I see that. And we just think Paul is just this wonderful guy. Paul killed Christians. That's his past. So when Paul says, I'm the chief of sinners, or he says, I'm unworthy to be an apostle. He's not exaggerating. Now, none of us are worthy of God. none of us are good. We go, oh, I've earned God's love. I'm so good. He has to pick me on his team. I'm so worthy. No one's worthy, but Paul is saying, look, those scales of unworthy, and he said, I'm way low on that scale. I killed followers of Christ. And when Jesus came to Paul, he asked him, why are you persecuting me? Because the persecutor's church, Paul says, Jesus says to Paul, is to persecute him. And so Paul says, I don't know why you've picked me. I don't know why you've chosen me. I'm definitely unworthy. Paul means it. This is a bad guy. He was a bad guy. Christians were cowering in Damascus. worried about his arrival, and God chooses him. Paul says I was untimely born. Look at verse 10, though. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. What a great line. Because Paul says, I'm unworthy. I killed Christians. God has no business. Coming to me, allowing me to accept his son, to showing himself to me. He says, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. Paul says, I'm saved, I'm redeemed. And look what he says. And his grace toward me was not in vain. I was like, God came to me and saved me, had no business doing it. I'm unworthy. I had nothing that God owed me, but he saved me. Like he can save you. Like many of you, he has saved, and you may think, gosh, I'm so, my past is so riddled with sin and suffering that I've caused. But in Christ you can say, I am what I am. And it's not because you did anything amazing. It's because Jesus did something amazing. And Paul believes this because he came back from the dead. He saw him. And he says, God's grace toward me, this forgiveness that he gave me wasn't in vain. It wasn't empty, it wasn't useless. Paul said, on the contrary, I worked harder than any of them. There 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. Paul says, God came and saved me. And I owe this amazing debt to him, and I've been serving him not to win his favor. He had already chosen me. He says, I am what I am. I'm already his child. I'm already saved. I put my trust in Christ, and Christ allowed me to do that, even though I'm so unworthy. Paul gives all this evidence for the resurrection. So whether it's eye preaching or them preaching, we preached in you Corinthians believed. And then he gets into this issue. about some of them on their belief buffet rejecting the resurrection. And he's going to give us the consequences, if we reject the physical resurrection of just people in general, it means you have to reject the resurrection of Christ. And if you reject his resurrection, here's what happens. It says, now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, that's what Paul had told them, that's what they had believed. How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? So there was some in the church saying, your resurrection doesn't happen. On their plate, they had, we've accepted Jesus. And the other side, they said, we don't think resurrection happens. That was the culture, by the way. That's what they breathe, that's the air they breathed. But if you're like me, we probably have some beliefs in our life that are just contradictory, and we don't know it yet because no one's kind of just directly told us or shown us. You know, you believe this and you believe this. These 2 don't fit together. I didn't even, I've never thought of that. Paul's doing this with the Corinthians. He says, Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. That's just logical, right? If dead people don't come back, then Jesus didn't come back. If that happened, here are the results. One, he says our preaching is empty. And if Christ verse 14 has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain. Apology says, everything we've been telling you, all that we've taught you is empty. It's meaningless. It's useless. It's just a fairy tale. It's a fiction. It's not real. And so it's an empty thing. And then he says, in our faith. Their faith is in vain. Look at verse 14 still. And your faith is in vain. What I told you is useless, is empty, and what you believe is useless and empty. Now we can have some beliefs that we may be wrong on, and it's not that big a deal. So let's have a quick quiz. The United States is a big country, and we have all these different states in the United States. Two of the biggest are Texas and Alaska. If you think Texas is the biggest state, raise your hand. Got one back there. If you think Alaska is the biggest state, raise your hand. If you have no clue which one's the biggest state, raise your hand. Some of that. So here's a map of the ones. Alaska, like twice the size of Texas. But we can find people somewhere in here. No offense. You were wrong. Your belief, but, you know, who cares? Unless you say, I'm going to walk across the largest state in the United States, and you just went to Texas and thought you accomplished something, you got halfway across the largest state, it doesn't matter. Your belief's wrong. So what? There's a whole host of beliefs that we have like that, that if they're wrong, there's really no consequence. So you have faith in the size of Texas. I lived in Texas for a while. They think they're the biggest state. that it doesn't matter. But now imagine this scenario. You are sitting at home, you're very comfortable with the savings you've accumulated in your bank account. You just, you know, you have no worries. Pay the bills. You know, you got a lot of money. And you go to the store, you think, I got money. I'm gonna buy this amazing thing that I want. And you take out your debit card. And you say, I'm going to buy the thing I want you. Bring it up to the counter, 1000s of dollars worth of a thing. You put your card in and it comes back in sufficient funds. And then you look on your bank app and go, I'm broke. I don't have any money in my account. You had a deep belief that everything was great, right? And you live that way. You weren't stressed out. And then reality hit, and you went, I'm broke. I can't buy the thing I want. I can't even pay my bills anymore. I'm in deep trouble. That belief, being wrong, has huge effects. Paul says our faith in Christ is like that. If he didn't come back from the dead, your faith is in vain. And now look what happens if that's not true, that Jesus came back. We are even found to be misrepresenting God. That's we're giving a false testimony about God. We're lying about God, because we testified about God, that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised, for if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. Here's what Paul says. If Jesus doesn't come back, if the dead don't come back, Jesus didn't come back. I told you he came back. And if he didn't, then I'm lying to you about God. Now Paul, unlike us. Most Christians today, I think, if we said, well, if Jesus didn't come back, like, if this whole story in the Bible's not true, then what is true? I think a lot of Christians would go atheism. Like there is no God. Like if this isn't true, there just is no God. And the atheist got it right. That's not Paul's option. Paul's saying, if Jesus didn't come back from the dead, then the God who I served my whole life until the Damascus road didn't raise him from the dead, and now I'm out lying about that God, the God of the Old Testament. And Paul says, God doesn't like it when people lie about him. when they bear false witness about him. Paul staked not just his earthly life, but his eternal life on the resurrection. He said, if Jesus isn't raised, because the dead aren't going to be raised, then I've been lying about God. And then he says to the Corinthians, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, it's worthless, and you are still in your sins. If you reject the physical resurrection of Christ, then your sins are not dealt with. You may feel like they are, you may feel good and go, hey, I've been forgiven. I've rejected the physical resurrection, but I've been forgiven. Paul's saying, no, you haven't, because Jesus' physical resurrection is the evidence, the proof that God accepts his sacrifice on our behalf. He died for our sins, and he was raised. If he's not raised, then he just died for his own sins, not for mine or yours, but for his, because he's a sinner. Paul doesn't leave us room, and Jesus definitely doesn't leave us room to think Jesus is a great teacher. This is what our culture would say about Jesus, which is, I don't think he's God. I don't think he came back from the dead, but what a great teacher. What a great guy he was. The Bible leaves no room for that. Jesus is either a con man. Because he lied to all these people and knew what he was doing. He's insane. He went around telling everyone, I'm God, I'm going to forgive sins. And he didn't know it. He just was insane. And he says some good things too. Like, hey, you should love each other. You should care for each other. I'm God. I can forgive your sins. You need to forsake everything and follow me if you want to be right. He said those things too. If he's not God, he's a liar or he's insane. And we shouldn't follow him. We shouldn't lift him up as a great teacher. We shouldn't think, what a great guy. We should say he was patently wrong in most of what he said. And in some places, he agreed with what people think is the right thing to believe. But it can't be a great teacher, having proclaim to be God. But if he is raised from the dead than he is who he says he is. Paul says, if he's not raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Verse 18. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. Some of the Corinthian church had died already. They had funerals. And in that funeral, They had probably, like Paul wrote, said, we don't grieve like those who have no hope. But there's hope that for those who are in Christ, there's life, because he has life, because he's been raised. Paul's saying, guys, if the dead aren't raised, Jesus wasn't raised, if Jesus wasn't raised, everyone we know that's passed away, who are followers of Christ are just gone. They perished. They're not coming back either. And then verse 19, if in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. That's what he says about Christians. He's saying to us here at Northland Church, if Jesus didn't physically come back from the dead, we are most to be pitied. Now when we hear that, What we could think is that, wow, we gave up all sorts of partying and sinning we could have been doing and just really enjoying life. We could have been out sleeping around and drinking all the time and partying, but we accepted Christ because we thought he came back from the dead. And so we are not doing any of that. And our life's kind of miserable. And we're kind of... sad sacks. And so what do we do? But we're going to get something in the next life, but if that's not true, we should pity us. That's not Paul's statement. Paul says repeatedly, he finds deep joy in following Christ. He has an exciting life. Paul said, I found immense satisfaction in following Jesus. When he says to be pitied. Paul did, get beat up a lot for following Jesus, if he's not really, Jesus said, don't go get beat up. That's not worth it. But Paul wasn't saying, you know, sin is actually better than not sinning. Paul knew enough to go, yeah, God said, this is all wrong. Paul's a Pharisee. Paul was not out parting before he met Jesus. He was strictly following the law. Paul recognizes this, that all the things sinfulness thinks is great. People who do it long enough realize, this is horrible. that sin seems good for a little bit, and then it traps you and then you realize life is miserable. Life is horrible. That following God brings great joy, brings great fulfillment. When he says we're the most to be pitied, he's saying, one, I've lied about God. Two, there's no hope for me in the next life. I've chosen the wrong answer. I put the wrong thing on my belief plate. I pulled from the wrong dish, but he's saying Jesus has been resurrected over the next 2 Sundays, we're going to celebrate how he's been resurrected. Paul's just saying not to reject that. He says, if we reject the resurrection, we lose its results. 2000 years ago, that was true. That's true today. So what can we do here at Northland Church? First, receive the good news? If you're hearing you haven't put your faith in Christ. I want to encourage you Jesus loves you. God loves you. He's not against you. He's for you. The Bible says that God loved the world so much he sent his son. that whoever believes in him shouldn't perish. We deserve to be cut off from God because we cut ourselves off from God, I cut myself off from God because of my sin, none of us are worthy. But Christ is worthy. And when we put our trust in him, he says, you're mine now, and because he's worthy, he makes us worthy. His grace towards you won't be in vain if you're not a follower now. If you have questions, grab that connect card, right? I want to talk some more. When I finish with my message, there'll be someone in the corner over here, you can come pray with and talk about, what does it mean to follow Christ, receive the good news? of who Christ is? Our world is obsessed with humanity has been obsessed with eternity from its creation. The Bible says that God has put eternity in our hearts. We recognize this. We live in a very atheistic age where we don't think there is a life beyond this life. There's just this universe. We're materialists, most of our culture. And there are extremely wealthy people who understand that they don't want death to happen. that death's the enemy. And so they want to not die. And so they come up with all sorts of ways. And it sounds like science fiction except 1000000s and 1000000s of dollars are being spent on things like cryogenic freezing. There's 100s of people right now. that have had themselves frozen like Han Solo and carbonite, waiting for them to fix the thing that was wrong with them, and then they're going to be unfrozen, and they think they'll be able to fix me. Those guys like Peter Thiel may not know him, but you'll know Elon Musk, a trillionaire, who is saying, how can we upload the human mind to a machine so we can then download it to a new body as these bodies wear out? Absolutely trying to find immortality in this life only. They never will because we're made of a spirit also, and you can't quantify a spirit in a hard drive. You can't capture that part of who we are. The Bible's clear where a body, yes, in a brain, in a mind, and we're a spirit. You can't capture that part. Jesus is the one that captures that part. Except him. Make him your savior, say, yes, I trust you, Jesus. I imagine most of you here have already done that. And so I leave you with this admonition, hold fast to the resurrection. The physical resurrection of Christ is a non-negotiable of the Christian faith. If you say, I don't believe in that anymore, you have rejected the Christian faith. Plain and simple is what Paul's saying. That if resurrection doesn't happen, Jesus is dead and everything we're saying about Jesus isn't true. that it's futile, it's empty. Hold fast. But that means like you have to hold fast. If you're like me. And I imagine you are. Maybe one morning you woke up or it's a rainy afternoon or it's late at night or, You're sipping your coffee, and you really pause and think, what is it I believe, and you go, I believe 2000 years ago, God became human, lived on this earth, never sinned, He died on a cross, and then he came back from the dead, and you hear yourself say it out loud, and you go, that's crazy. That's really hard to believe. You know what? The disciples thought the same thing. They were like, this is hard to believe. Thomas said, I'm not going to believe this until I can put my hand inside the wounds. And he got to, and Jesus said to Thomas, Thomas. You're blessed that you get to see me. Even more blessed are those who are going to believe who never get to see me. If you have questions about the resurrection as a believer, don't go well. I said, push them down. I don't want to think about that. I don't want have a question. No, address those. Paul's confident in what happened with Jesus. Paul's confident in scripture. I'm confident that the scriptures can answer our questions. And so don't just kind of go, I have questions, but I don't want to address them. I worried. You say, no, help me answer these questions. Help me find a basis for this belief. So I've put together a very short resource for you. We'll put this QR code on the screen. You can get your phone out, scan that QR code. If you don't have a phone, write it on the connect card. Hey, can you get me that? It's about 6 or 7 books that go from easy introductory. Let me get out of your way to advanced. What that means is, you know, 100 pages, not too hard to read, to about a 1000 pages, um, very detailed of sources you can get. And you can just read those, download those sources, find those books, read them. If you have questions and you're like, I don't want to read at all. I don't like reading. Right on your connect card. Hey, I got questions. I'll reach out to you this week. Hopefully we'll have so many of you having questions that we'll get all the pastors involved. We'll get everyone reaching out saying, here's some answers to questions you have. We would love to help you with that. Don't run from questions of your faith, but hold fast. Part of holding fast is that you're saying, I need an answer. I want an answer to the questions that I have in my life. What you believe matters. Deeply. And if you have questions in your mind, you've been at the belief buffet, and you've scooped some things, and you're like, these don't match. These don't work. We really want to help you at Northland. Unpack those. and see how the resurrection of Christ is real. But if you reject the resurrection, you do lose all of its results. Will you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for today, for the chance to gather here and open your word. I thank you for Paul. And that you, by your grace, called him. And he wrote these words to encourage us to strengthen us and following you. Father, I thank you for your son's death and resurrection that saves us, Father. I thank you, that you call us to yourselves through your spirit. Open our eyes to see you. Open our ears to hear from you and strengthen our belief in your sons, death for our sins, and his resurrection from the grave for our salvation. Help us to hold fast. It's in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.