Our Future Resurrection - 1 Corinthians 15:20-49

Several years ago, Wednesday night, we'd been to the church to have our Wednesday night activities to the church. Our kids were very little. They were in the children's ministry classes on Wednesday night. As we drove home in the minivan, I asked the kids, what did you learn tonight? It's always a good question to ask your kids when you leave church when you get home this afternoon. What did they learn in their class? What did they hear in this sermon? A great way for you to continue that conversation in your household of what they're being taught at church? And so we're driving in the minivan. I said, what did you talk about tonight? My voice said we talked about these missionaries serving in another country, and he said, in this country where they're serving, most of the people there don't believe in Jesus. They follow another religion, and they don't believe in Jesus, and these missionaries that are talking about Jesus. I said, that's great. And then Micah said, dad, so there are places in the world where most of the people don't believe in Jesus. I said, yeah, there are a lot of places in the world where Christianity is in a very, very small minority, and they don't believe in Jesus. They follow another religion. Then he asked me this question. So dad, how do we know we've picked the right one? How do we know we've picked the right one? If in that country they're worshiping some other religion, some other God, and predominantly in our country, Christianity's the majority religion? He's saying those words, but what he was asking is, how do we know that the families in our country are teaching the truth and not those families in that other country who had a conversation? But how do you know that the gospel is true? And I've told him that the primary way that we know the the gospel is true is because of the resurrection of Jesus. That Jesus said that if you wanted validation for everything he taught, proof, for everything he taught, Jesus said on 2 occasions that we know of, record in scripture, when people asked him for a sign or some proof, he said the proof would be his resurrection from the dead 3 days later. And so our faith in Christ rests on the resurrection, our faith hinges on the resurrection, everything rises and falls with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I heard a story one time of a man who had converted from Islam to Christianity. And his friend said, why did you convert from Islam to Christianity? And he said, well, it's like this. If you're walking down a road, and the path splits, and one road goes to the left, and the other goes to the right, and you don't know whether to go to the left or the right. And there are 2 people there to give you directions. One of those people is dead and the other one is alive. You're going to ask the person who's alive. And that's the power of the resurrection. We're looking to a resurrected savior and everything hinges on this. And week 2 of a three-part series on the hope of the resurrection. We're in 1st Corinthians chapter 15. If you want to begin turning there. If you want to use the Bible that's under the chair in front of you, page 961, page 961, is where you're going to find this chapter. This chapter of 1st Corinthians 15 is the most extensive treatment of the resurrection in all of the Bible. There's a lot of places in the Bible you could look to learn about the resurrection. You have the accounts of the resurrection and the gospels, you have many other verses in the Bible that talk about the importance of the resurrection, meaning of the resurrection. This is the most extensive. this chapter. It's a long chapter. It's taken us 3 weeks to go through it. In fact, we talked this week. We probably could have spent 5 or 6 weeks to really unpack all that's in this chapter. And so Rustin started us out last week and we saw in the opening verses, the 1st 19 verses, how everything hinges on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If there's no resurrection, then there's no basis for our faith. If there's no resurrection, all we do here is a waste of time. If there's no resurrection, there's no proof our sins are given, and without the resurrection, there's no hope of eternal life. of this matters. If Jesus Christ has not been raised from the dead. And so in all of these verses of chapter 15, all 58 verses of this, verse 20, where we are today, I think maybe the most important word in all of these verses, if you look at verse 20, the opening word of that verse, but, but, Christ has been raised. He says without the resurrection, there's no gospel, without the resurrection, there's no point in what we're doing, without the resurrection, there's no hope, and there's no proof, but verse 20, but Christ has been raised. And so we know there is a basis for our faith. We know there is the hope of eternal life. We know there is evidence that our sins have been dealt with on the cross. All of that because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now we get to verse 20, and it's almost like the announcer on the infomercial that lays out all of the features of the product and then says, but wait, there's more. This is the but wait, there's more part of the chapter. If it's not enough that we have our sins forgiven, and we have the hope of eternal life. We have proof of everything Jesus said. We have a meaning behind all that we do. If that isn't enough. He says in the following verses, not only has Christ been raised to life, but one day, those who follow Jesus will be raised to life. We don't just have one resurrection. We have a promise of future resurrections of those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. Today we're going to talk about our future resurrection. This isn't just about the resurrection of Jesus. This is about the promise that there are future resurrections, because Jesus has been raised from the dead. Five principles we're going to see here truths about our future resurrection. And the 1st is this. Our future resurrection is foreshadowed in the resurrection of Jesus. Our future resurrection is foreshadowed in the resurrection of Jesus. Verse 20. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the 1st fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Now, what does that mean, the 1st fruits of those who have fallen asleep? Fallen asleep is just a figure of speech for death. So he's saying, of those who have died, Jesus is the 1st fruit. Now, what's a 1st fruit? A 1st fruit is the very 1st product of a harvest. The Old Testament, 1st fruits were, when you'd harvest your crop, you'd bring the 1st of that harvest and you'd present that to the Lord. Here he's saying, the resurrection of Jesus is the beginning of the harvest. There is a continued future harvest because of what Jesus did for us. Those who have fallen asleep will also be resurrected, just as Christ was resurrected. Now look at verse 21. For as by a man came death, by a man has also come the resurrection of the dead, for as in Adam all dies, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. It's comparing Adam to Jesus. Paul, the apostle who's writing this letter, use this in Romans as well to say there was a 1st Adam, and in Jesus, there's like a 2nd Adam. He uses an analogy that through Adam came death. Adam sinned, sin into the world, because sin of the world, death into the world, then Jesus comes along, and because of Jesus' death, life enters the world, everyone dies in Adam. Everyone has the opportunity to be made alive in Christ. Adam's sin brought the certainty of death. Christ sacrifice brings the possibility of eternal life for those who follow him. Verse 23. But each in his own order. Christ the 1st fruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ. His resurrection guarantees our resurrection. the 1st fruit. Have you ever planted in the fall planted bulbs, like tulip bulbs, or daffodil bulbs, something like that? It's a very frustrating thing to do. I remember my wife saying, I want tulips. And you just don't go to, I guess you can go buy them now and stick them to the ground, see what happens. But the right way to plant tulips is you go in the fall, and you buy tulip bulbs, and you go outside to where you have nothing but dirt, and you get on your hands and knees, and you dig holes, and you plant them, and you cover it over dirt. And when you're done with all of your hard work you have dirt. And it's a very frustrating thing, because I started with dirt, and I ended with dirt, and I have nothing to show for my efforts, and then you wait, you wait all winter, and you wonder, especially the 1st time I did it. Did I do it right? Then I point them the right direction. That I plant them deep enough. Uh, the internet says you should put this kind of fertilizer. Did I get the right kind of fertilizer? Are they going to get enough moisture? And you wait all winter. And then I remember, I remember walking out of my house one day, and I saw out of the mulch a little sprout of the 1st tulip, and I got so excited because not just because of one tulip, because the 1st tulip told me I did it right, I did it right. And if there's one tulip, there's soon to be a lot of tulips. So my wife when they bloom, she'll text me a picture. We have a tulip blooming, and she doesn't get excited about one tulip. She gets excited because one tulip gives her hope that there's going to be a bunch of tulips. That's what the Bible means when it says Jesus is the 1st fruit. He's the 1st one to pop up out of the ground. It gives us hope that a bunch of others are going to pop up out of the ground. Now, here's what the Bible says. Now the Bible doesn't answer all of our questions. We study this all day long. We still don't have all of our questions answered, but let me give you a brief summary of what scripture says. The scripture teaches that when a believer dies, the believer goes to be with Jesus. We see that in scriptures like 2nd Corinthians 58, to be away from the body, it's to be at home with the Lord. Philippians 123. Paul wrote, my desire is to depart from this world and be with Christ. And so we have references in scripture that when we die. If you die today, die tomorrow, die 30 years from now, you're going to go into the presence of God. The Bible also teaches, though. There's a future day where there will be a bodily resurrection of every believer. And so you go to be with the Lord. But wait, that's not all. There's something better yet to come. You could die today. Leave this world of brokenness, be in the presence of God, and you still have not experienced everything that God has for you. Now we're talking about that next week, okay? So you got to come back next week. We'll talk about, if you just say, I can't wait. Go read 1st Thessalonians four, okay, today? And that'll fill you in a little bit. You can read the rest of the chapter we don't cover today. We're going to put those pieces together next week. So when we leave, we go to be with the Lord, but there is a future where we will be resurrected. That's what he's talking about here in 1st Corinth 15. That Easter is not just a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. It's a celebration of what that promise means for the followers of Jesus, that one day we will be part of the great harvest of resurrection, that we just saw the 1st sprout of on Easter as we celebrate it. It's foreshadowing what's to come from us. Second, Our future resurrection is the culmination of God's victory over sin. Our future resurrection is a culmination of God's victory over sin. Look at verse 24. Then comes the end. Now that word end doesn't just mean when something is over. It means when something is completed. When something's fulfilled. So one day things are going to reach their ultimate fulfillment. The future day from today. When he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power, for he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet, the last enemy to be destroyed is death. So on the cross, Jesus pays for our sins, he defeats sin, he rises from the dead. His victory is now sure over sin, over Satan, over death. The victory has been secured, but we're still waiting for the end for the very end. When everything reaches its ultimate culmination, when, because today they're still pain, they're still suffering. They're still dying. There's still tears. But it's not over yet. It's not over yet. But the victory has been secured. Now, let me give you an illustration, and I recognize that, um, that, well, before I do that, Let me just say I wonder how many of this room really see death as the enemy that needs to be defeated. I think when I was younger, I didn't think about death as the enemy I see it as today. As I get older, more people I've loved have passed away. And I've cried at funerals and cried at gravesides and I've stared the enemy of death in the face. As I get older, I come to terms more and more with my own eventual fate, and we face death. I'm 53 now, and every once in a while, someone will say, you know, you have so-and-so, he died of a heart attack. And I said, how old was he? They'll say, I don't know, he was in his 50s. Let's see, his feet hit me in his 50s. You don't die suddenly in your 50s. That can't happen to me. Well, surely he must have had some health problems. Can you tell me that he was a heavy smoker? He drank all the time and he was very overweight. No, no, he was he just got back from a run. Like, you can't tell me that. Healthy 53 year olds don't just drop dead at the end of a run. Death is an enemy. that stalks all of us. It got Chuck Norris. Like, it doesn't play around. Like death is an enemy, and we face that enemy, and we become very aware of this enemy. But here's the deal. Jesus secured victory over the enemy, 2000 years ago there was a resurrection, but we still have to run out the clock to the end, to the culmination of things. Now, let me give you an illustration and I get it. Every time I use an analogy. I understand they fall apart if you press them too hard, okay? So I'm going to do the best I can to give you an analogy for this that probably isn't ultimately sufficient, okay? But you might remember February 2020, the Chiefs Super Bowl. You remember watching that game. There was a moment in that game where there was still time on the clock, but you knew it was over. You know, remember that moment? Some of you that have really good sports memories. Here's a screenshot of it. Um, let me get this up here. Okay, so a minute, 4 seconds on the clock. We're up 31, 20, 11 points ahead, one minute on the clock, and Kendall Fuller picks off the pass. We now possess the ball, and we knew it was over. This is when my phone blew up. Everybody, the family was going crazy. I don't see the last minute and 4 seconds because I headed out the garage to find the fireworks. I have been saving every 4th of July for 50 years of my life. And I go get these and I get ready. And but it's over. Here's the deal. It was over. There is no coming back from that. Victory was secure, but there's a minute left on the clock that has to run out. You see, this is where we are right now in history. And I get, this will fall apart. Dont pers it too hard. When Jesus stepped out of the tomb, it was game over. Game over. It's secure. But there's time on the clock. There's time on the clock. And that time still has to run off the clock. And while it's around the clock, there's going to be tears, and there's going to be pain, there's going to be sorrow, there's going to be suffering. But the victory is secure. Now, there's coming a day where it's going to be over. The clock's gonna hit zero. Now, I had to go back and watch this because I was already in line at Rally House when this happened. There was a moment where the trophy got handed over. Now, if you go back to the text, verse 24, then comes the end when he, Jesus, delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and every power. There is a point in the future. The victory is secure, there's a point in the future, where the dead are raised back to life, and there is no more death any longer. And Jesus, God the Son, takes the trophy of life and hands it to God the Father and said, it is now totally over. That day's coming in the future, but there's still time to be run off the clock. But there will be a day at the very end. You go to the very end of scripture. There's coming a day. Revelation 214 where he'll wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. For the former things have passed away. Today there will be tears, there will be death, there will be mourning, there will be crying, there will be pain. But the victory has been secured. And we're just waiting for the final 2nd to tick off, when the final trophy is handed over, when everything that is rightfully, everything is put right in creation of all that God has done, the victory will be over, the resurrection of Jesus gives us that hope today. Third, our future resurrection makes every sacrifice worth it. Our future resurrection makes every sacrifice worth it. Look at verse 29. Verse 20 is a little tricky. It's the only place in the Bible that we have a reference like this, and so it leaves us kind of wondering exactly what Paul is referring to that's going on in Corinth, but he says, why do, if there's no resurrection, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people being baptized on their behalf? We don't know exactly what that means. There are a few theories. One is, I think, absolutely can't be true. Some would believe, a minority would believe that there is a vicarious baptism being done for the salvation of those who have died. Nothing in scripture supports that, that you can be baptized today to secure the salvation of someone who's already died. We all have to get right with God today why our heart is still beating. Today is the day for you to repent and turn to Jesus and put your faith in him. When you're gone, nobody on this side of eternity can do anything about that. So it's not teaching that. Some believe that they were being baptized by proxy for those who have died before they could get baptized. Someone said, I'm following Jesus. Okay, we're going to baptize you tomorrow. They die that night. They didn't get to get baptized, I'll get baptized for them. Again, we don't see that anywhere. We don't know what's going on here. I think the most likely theory is that this should be translated. The language would lie to translate this. Not baptized on behalf of the dead, but baptized in the place of the dead, that what he could be referring to. It seems the most likely of all the theories here, is that he's talking about future generations of followers when people begin to die out. So people are following Jesus, they die. The next person begins to follow Jesus and as generations die off, new generations are following Jesus. They're being baptized. Baptism was their profession of faith. So as followers of Jesus are dying, new followers of Jesus are professing faith in him in the next generation. I think what he could be saying here is what's the point of that? This thing should just die out with us if there's no resurrection. Why are we telling anybody about this? Why are we continuing this? If there's no resurrection? Then verse 30 says this. Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die every day. What do I gain if humanly speaking, I fought the beast at Ephesus? Why am I risking my life? Day after day, Paul's being hunted by his critics? He's being in prison, he's being stoned. People want to take his life, he's writing from Ephesus, where he's fighting against his enemies there, his opponents of Christianity. He says, why am I doing this? Why am I fighting this fight? If there's no future resurrection of the dead? And he said, if the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow, we die. We'd be better off just living for the pleasures of today. Just live it up. If there's no resurrection, we eat, we drink. The next day we die, that's it. It's over. Why am I risking my life? Why am I sacrificing for the Lord? If there's no resurrection of the dead? But there is a resurrection of the dead. There is an eternity. And every sacrifice we make is worth it. Every risk we take is worth it. There's not a resurrection. They did. We're wasting our time. You're wasting your time today He could be doing something else. I'll tell you, if there's not a resurrection to the dead, I'm buying season tickets, an old RV, painting it red, and coming up with some crazy costume, might be like a tailgate guy every Sunday. And in the summers, I'm going to be a boat guy every Sunday. I'm going to be, you can find me in lot A or Lake of the Ozarks because there's no point in being here preaching the gospel of Jesus that the dead are not raised. You are wasting your time. I am wasting my time if the dead are not raised, but verse 20, the dead are raised. Because Jesus Christ is raised. And every sacrifice we make for Jesus is worth it. Fourth. Our future resurrection is no match for the creative power of God. Because you might say, okay, this is nuts. The dead come back to life. Someone said one time, I just can't believe in the resurrection of Jesus because dead people don't just come back to life. I said, that's the point. You're right. Dead people don't just come back to life. That's what makes the resurrection of Jesus so powerful. And so you say, wait a minute, God's going to bring us all back to life one day. To them, that was absurd. The physical life was evil and bad, the spiritual life was good. Why would there be any kind of bridge between the two? And if I left this world, why would I want a body back? That was absurd to them. We have our own reasons that's absurd to us, but it's absurd in any generation. In any culture, the dead coming back to life. I remember that I hadn't been a Christian very long. I was in a Bible study and somebody asked the Bible study teacher about cremation. And is it okay for a Christian to be cremated. We're going to come back to life. And what they were asking is, if God's gonna bring my body back to life, doesn't need something to work with, right? You put my body in a casket and God can come back right there where it is and he can bring it back to life. And the Bible said, teacher said, what about the people who die in terrible tragedies like fires or, and then he said, this blew my mind. He said, what about a shipwreck? Where someone drowns at sea, they're eaten by sharks and fish that then travel in different directions, and one fish goes this way with some of you, and one fish goes this way, and the molecules of your body are now separated by 1000s of miles. And God's going to somehow pull all that back together. That's what the Bible says. And is that how's that possible? Well, here's what Paul is going to say. That's no match for the creator that brought all this into existence. Why is that so crazy to you? And he gives a couple of examples. Um, he gets down to verse 35. Someone will ask, how are the dead rays with what kind of body do they come? He said, let me let me just give you 2 examples from nature. he's going to say. The 1st example is in verse 36 and verse 37. And that is, if God can bring life from a dead seed, what more is he capable of? Look at verse 36, you foolish person. What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. So they say, how can something that dies come back to life? He says, if you look at nature, it has to die to come back to life. The seed has to plant, it has to die. The seeds fall into the ground, for there to be new lives to sprout from the ground. Verse 37. What you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. What's the illustration? God can take a little seed, and from it will sprout a beautiful plant. God can take a little acorn, and from it will grow a tall and mighty tree. If God can cause life to sprout from something small and insignificant and dead, what more can he do? What matches resurrection for a God who's done that? And then verse 38, he gives us a 2nd example. He talks about the variety of bodies we see in creation. But God gives gives it a body as he is chosen, to each kind of seed its own body, for not all flesh is the same. For there's one kind for humans, another for animals, another for fish. And not only are these earthly bodies, there's heavenly bodies. Look at verse 40. But they're heavenly bodies. and earthly bodies. But the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars, and even star differs from star in its glory. So he's saying, you wonder how God could cause a dead body to come back to life. He does it every day when seed fall to the ground and plants sprout from them. You wonder how God could create a body for now and a body for later? Look at the diversity of creation and see, this is no match for him. Consider the humans, the birds, the fish, the sun, the moon, the stars. There's 6400 species of mammals. On the planet. each differing from another. He talks about the birds. There are 11,000 species of birds on the planet, each differing from another and the type of its body. He mentions the fish. There are 34,000 species of fish. swimming in the lakes and the rivers and the oceans on our planet, each differing from another. And then he says, turn your eyes heavenward, and look at the stars above. When he wrote those words, they can only count about 6000 stars with the naked eye. We have the technology to know, there's more and more and more that we still haven't seen the end of it. The 400, 4000000 stars just in our galaxy, 4000000 stars. How many galaxies are there? We don't know at least a trillion. At least a trillion. How many stars is that? The ChatGPT says at least one septilian. Now, what's a septilian? That's a one followed by 24 zeros. So you could write that out today. That's the minimum number of stars we've been able to count so far. What is he saying? If God can do all this, what's another body? What's one more body? The God who brings life from dead seeds, the God who created fish and birds and suns and moons and septilian stars, What's one more type of body? Why is that so hard to believe that God could not continue his creative work beyond the time in which we live? A future resurrection of the followers of Jesus is no match for the creative power of our God. And then finally, our resurrection. will put the brokenness of this world behind us. Our resurrection puts the brokenness of this world behind us. Look at verse 42. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown perishable. Uh, excuse me, what is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. What is sown in dishonor is raised in glory, what is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It has raised a spiritual body. If there's a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. See, not only will our resurrected bodies be different, they'll be superior. What is perishable, become imperishable, what is dishonorable, will be glorified, what is weak, will be powerful, what is natural, will be spiritual. We live today in a world broken by sin, and we see its effects all around us, but one day God is going to set it right. Philippians 320. Our citizenship is in heaven, and we wait for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body. By the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Now, there's a few people in this room, very few people in this room, who will say, if I could get this body back, that would be pretty cool. Most people in this room will say, I would not like to get this body back. The older you are, the more you will appreciate uh, 1st Corinthians 15 verses 42 through 44. I remember a few years ago after running some time, my knees started to hurt. I went and bought a knee brace to help me when I run. And I took a couple of weeks off and I got ready to go run. I got 200 yards down the road and realized I'd put the knee brace on the wrong knee. I had to stop, sit on the curb, take my shoes off, switch the knee. There's a day where your knee will wear out. And your mind will wear out that you won't even remember which knee wore out. That's when you'll appreciate 1st Corinthians 15. That our perishable bodies are going to be done away with one day. And everything in this world that's dishonorable will be glorified one day, and everything is going to be set right one day, all the pain and the suffering, that's part of this world will be gone one day. My great grandfather started a rug store and it was passed down to my grandfather and then my uncle and they sold these kind of high-end rugs. things you didn't sell every day. I remember one day my grandfather saying something to someone, and a few years later, I heard my uncles repeat the same thing. Somebody said, Howard, how's everything going? and he said, nothing a good sale won't fix. Nothing a good sale won't fix. If I could sell a rug today, real estate agents ever feel that way? Nothing one house won't fix. Like, I sell a house today, everything turns around for me. You got something in your life like that? This one, this will fix it. Nothing a good vacation won't fix. Nothing a good trip to the beach won't fix. Let me tell you a believer, saying, I want to give you, there's nothing in your life right now that a good resurrection won't fix. Every problem you're facing today can be fixed by the resurrection one day. No matter how dark it gets, no matter difficult it gets, no matter what struggle you face, it's nothing that a good resurrection won't fix one day. That's the hope we have in Jesus. So now what? Let me put 2 questions before you. The 1st is, are you ready for eternity? Are you ready for returns? a lot in this chapter. There's a lot in the Bible. Let me sum it all up for you in 3 simple, short sentences. Death is inevitable. Eternity is undeniable. Jesus is the only way. Death is inevitable. Eternity is undeniable. Jesus is the only way. Are you confident that you will spin eternity with God. Have you put your faith in Jesus? He said, in verse 21, that death came by one man, and then resurrection comes by one man. Adam gave us physical life. The 2nd Adam, Jesus gives us eternal life. Everyone on this planet can trace their roots back to Adam. Everyone in heaven, can trace their roots back to Jesus. Do you have this hope? Do you have the hope of a future resurrection? I think about this every time I do a funeral. It dawns on me. I've shared this before. The moment it hits me, 1st Corinthians 15 kind of comes alive for me, is at the very end of the service. You been to a funeral before. A lot of times, um, you've probably been in this where they'll let you pass by the casket one more time. They kind of dismiss the people at the back of the room. They walk by the casket, they go on out to their cars, get ready to go to the graveside, and the family's usually sitting right here, and then the family goes up and the family says their goodbye. It's very difficult to kind of watch that happen. They finally leave. And the only people left in the room are the person in the casket, the body in the casket, the funeral director and me. I usually, I usually wait till the very end. I walk out with it. The pallbearers are waiting outside behind the coach. They take the rings off of the person, their jewelry. They fold up the cloth that drapes over and they shut the lid. And it hit me one day and it hits me every time now. I'm the last person to see that face ever. Everybody's in their cars. And I look in as they shut the lid. But if 1st Corinth 15 is true, That's not the last time. Because that body's coming back to life. And I'm going to see him again and their family is going to see him again. All those friends waiting in their car to go to the graveside are going to see him again. If they're a follower of Jesus Christ. The Bible says only one name, given to man by which we must be saved, that's the name of Jesus, have you put your faith in Jesus? Our only hope for the sin that we're guilty of is the death of Jesus on the cross to turn from our sin to Jesus to trust him. Have you done that? Today you could do that. You could put your faith in Jesus and trust in Jesus. If you've done that, here's the 2nd question I have for you. How should you live in light of eternity? What will your life look different if you really believed this? What risk would you take? What sacrifice would you make? Are you living today a comfortable? Just eat and drink for tomorrow. I die kind of life? Are you living a life that believes there are things worth sacrificing for? There are things worth taking risks for. There is an eternity that awaits us. How does that change your life today as a follower of Jesus? What would it look like for you to live more sold out for him? Believing with all of your heart, this future resurrection. Let's pray together. If you've not put your faith in Jesus, This could be your moment to do that. It's a simple prayer that you pray to God, expression of the desire of your heart, that you might say something like this. God, I know that I am a sinner. I realize that I've lived a life of rebellion. And I know my only hope is you. My only hope for forgiveness, my only hope, in this broken world. is to put my faith in you. Jesus, I'm turning right now from my sin and my brokenness to put my faith in you. Believing and trusting you died for me and rose again. Just a simple prayer. Jesus, repenting of my sin. to trust you and follow you. to make you the Lord of my life. If you've done that, maybe your prayer today is God, am I living my life? Like someone who believes in eternity. What sacrifices what I make if I really believed it, what risk would I take if I really believe it? What would my life look like? If I really believe that this life is just a vapor and there's eternity ahead. What would that look like? Take a moment, talk to God. Father, I pray for the people in this room who've never given their life to Jesus. They're still walking in a life far from you. Stuck in the life of sin and brokenness. I pray today you'd open their heart, open their eyes to see the truth of your word, that you came and died on the cross, you rose from the dead, you provide you today salvation and victory for them. Lord, would you open their heart and draw them to you today? Father, for the believers in the room, who may have just lost sight of eternity, we've gotten consumed with the here and now. Show us that what we've committed our life to is worth the risk, it's worth the sacrifice. And then for those who are hurting today, who are mourning today, who are facing face to face with the very real enemy of death, remind them that there's not a problem in their life today that a good resurrection won't fix. So we thank you for this truth. We'd be reminded of it daily. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.