This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Waterford Lakes, East Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. Join with me in prayer. Father, we give you great praise and thanksgiving for today. Just as we sing this song and sing about the joys of the resurrection of your son, Jesus Christ, and as we join with countless churches here in Central Florida and all across the nation, we are so grateful to be lifting up your name and praise and lifting up the name of Jesus who came and conquered sin on our behalf. And would we cling to that joy all day long and not just through today but throughout the rest of the year as we celebrate this significant day. And Lord, I pray that as Scott comes up and shares your word with us, Lord, that you would open up each of our hearts to receive what you have in store for us and that you would also speak through Scott, fill him with your Holy Spirit and may the words that he says may they be your words. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. So the third through fifth graders are dismissed.
Well, good morning. He's risen. That's kind of fun. You might hear that a few more times this morning. Hey, just a quick question here before we begin here. If this is your first time at Christy in church, raise your hand. First time at Christy in church. There's a few of you. How far away did you come? From where? Have on part. You guys. UCF, over here? Downtown. Downtown. All right. You get the prize then. Here's a book for you guys. Some colors. The reason for God. Man, nice drive. I recognize you guys. Did I marry y'all? Yeah. I think I did it. Yeah. I'm married to some of the rest of you out here, too. Kind of fun. Welcome, guys. Let me read our scripture text this morning from 1 Corinthians chapter 15. It's printed in your bulletin. Mother, that sermon insert. We have it in there in the bulletin each week. If you need one, our ushers need to get you one or you can grab one at the back table. But you're going to probably need it this morning. We're going to be referring to it to a lot. But the scripture text should be in there. It's also going to be on the screen behind me. Let me read this testimony from God's holy word about the resurrection. Here's God's word. It's the most important thing you're going to hear today. Verse 12. Now a Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead. Verse 12 on the screen. There they are. Now a 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. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain. And your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting 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. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hoped in this life only we are of all people most to be pitted. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all dies so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order Christ the first fruits. Then at his coming those who belong to Christ. That is his holy and inspired word. And again the most important thing you could possibly hear this morning. Last Wednesday was April Fool's Day. And it is really a kind of fun holiday if you call it a holiday. It is a fun opportunity here for us to have some fun. And nobody skipped a beat on it for the most part, right? Google Maps took advantage of it. And if you zoomed in with a Google map on any kind of location you would have the opportunity to play Pac-Man. And I purposely didn't tell my mother that because she got addicted to Pac-Man years ago on that. But the group farm was not going to be overstepped by Google Maps. They had the opportunity here and offered Gruber the revolutionary new car service from Gruber. Our ride, our cat, your treat. What could possibly go wrong? GPS, little lights, a guy to the cats, your location which is pretty interesting. But I think one of my favorite ones was the cotton ale here that actually advertised toilet paper for the left handed person. It is about time. It is fun having opportunities like that to kind of laugh, to kind of catch people in jokes. There was even some done in my own household. So no, I'm not a grandparent yet. So let me just clear that up. Thank you, Connor. You know, it's one thing to be the recipient of a practical joke. And another thing to be directly lied to for the personal gain of another. Dressically different. For example, think about the political arena. The political arena is one of these places where we become accustomed to being lied to on the scale in some way, shape, or form. In different ways. Even if we look back on some of the big things, the Republicans can look back on their richer Nixon and Watergate. Democrats can look back on their Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. But we have come to be very cynical and skeptical of integrity within the areas of politics there. Because we have learned our lesson over the years, haven't we? However, these lies had little personal impact. I mean, think about it. The personal impact that any of those kind of political things have on you personally is usually very small. We generally want to trust people. And we generally want to expect the best of people. That's why, when a successful entrepreneur, one who actually saved his money life-guarding one summer and actually installing sprinklers, saved enough money as a 22-year-old to start his own investment firm, it was something to take note of. He had become a successful investor banker in just a short matter of time. Before long, he would become the chairman of the Nasdaq stock market. He served on the boards of several prominent foundations, theater, several prominent colleges. He was renowned for his charitable work and gave away millions to the arts, to education groups, and to charities. When he offered to invest and to grow investors' money, they were more than willing to participate. In fact, over time, based on his unprecedented track record, they were compelled to invest in him. And people actually lined up to invest with his services. Even when he began to resist, they insisted that he take their money. Many interested, literally, their life savings to a man named Bernie Madoff. His Ponzi scheme is considered the largest financial fraud in U.S. history. An estimated $65 billion with a B was fraudulently swindled from investors. For many of their life savings were completely wiped out in one moment. It's not April Fools, is it? That becomes personal, at least to the people that were involved directly in this. But let me tell you, that pales in comparison to what surrounds the destruction and the ruin on an eternal level. That is at stake with the true claims that a man in Jesus Christ made 2,000 years ago. It pales in comparison. Christianity itself, in the Bible itself, in what I just read to you this morning, through the Apostle Paul, he himself shares the cryptonite, if you will, truth, that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then our faith is futile, and all who have died, are lost forever. Let me read for Christianity in 1514 that I read earlier. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. And what I'm doing now is in vain, and you being here now is in vain. Jesus' resurrection from the dead is either the biggest deceptive lie of human history or the denial of his resurrection is the biggest deceptive lie of human history. It's one or the other. So this morning we're going to look at five topics that hinge directly on the veracity of the resurrection. First, the Son of God. Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. Second, sin, third, the rescue that supposedly happened. Fourth, God's love for you, for us. And fifthly, what to do about a guy named Jesus. The history tells us, walk this earth, 2,000 years ago. Because there's a deadly lie circulating around each one of these five topics. And the importance of accurately identifying which is the lie, which is the truth, carries with it the ultimate of eternal ramifications for each of us through this morning. We'll get most of our attention to the first one as the others will flow from it here. But I want to challenge you to this this morning. I want to challenge you to examine the claims and determine for yourself which is the lie and which is true. So this is to be a proactive, interactive sermon here this morning. I want you to honestly look at these claims because you will find that one is true, the other has to be false. And if the other is true, then the other has to be false in all of these different things. So let's dive right in if you're looking on your sermon insert there. The first one is regarding Jesus' claim to be the Son of God. What is the truth of these two different claims? Which one is the lie? Jesus is not the Son of God, is either true or a lie. Jesus is the Son of God, is either true or a lie. The logical law of non-contradiction tells us that these two statements cannot both be true at the same time in the same way. So I want to bring you to a place where you're going this question must be settled and it's the most important question in life. Nobody really debates whether or not Jesus claimed to be the Son of God or not. What is debated though is the truth or not of that claim. Whether he is or whether he wasn't the Son of God is what's at stake. The greatest evidence either for him being the Son of God or against him being the Son of God can be wrapped up even the possible fall we just read says it hinges upon this resurrection. Was the tomb of Jesus really empty because he rowished from the dead or was it not empty at all or was a body stolen or some other kind of crazy story? One or the other is the case here this morning. When Jesus is the Son of God simply believe he did not rise from the dead. Those that do believe that Jesus the Son of God believe that he did rise from the dead. And that's why the Apostle Paul takes us to the kryptonite truth saying this is it. If something's going to take down Christianity it is this. And if something's going to put forward Christianity and the life of Christ above all else it is this. Because a dead Lord and Savior is not one that can be followed. But a living one is one that must be followed. Right now I'd like you to look on the back of your sermon insert that was in there on the back of that or 14 facts of evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. These are just my 14 favorite. There's many more. But I want you to have these and want you to take them home with you. For example, Mark 831 Jesus specifically tells us the disciples long in advance about his resurrection. He says that he began to teach them the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders in the chief priests and scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again. Or secondly the counter resurrection appears in every gospel account and is assumed in all the other New Testament books of the Bible. Nine different writers write about this and a test to this or third the empty tomb is not debated by the Jewish leaders of the Roman officials. I'm not sure if you thought about that. They in fact invent invent the story of the disciples stealing the body to cover it up. But they never ever denied that it was empty. Why would that be? Because they didn't have a shred of evidence to suggest that it wasn't empty or next one. How likely would the disciples have been to try to steal the body after they had betrayed him. They had abandoned him. They had denied Jesus just a couple nights before. Did these men really display the kind of attitude they would come in and say here, you know, April 1st? These guys were hiding for their life. Peter had already denied him. Peter, his right hand man, Peter the one that said, look, I'll go to death with you Jesus when all the other disciples were quiet. And you know, one was betraying him. Peter says, I'm your guy and Peter denied him three times in a single night. You think Peter had a change of heart within a couple of days and he was ready to come out and steal the body? Not likely. The tomb had a Roman seal on it which was punctual by death if anybody broke it. You might think, well, the Romans were in a big deal back then. Of course, the Romans were a big deal. The Romans had inhabited Israel. They were being oppressed Israelites by the Roman Empire. There were soldiers everywhere. There was no standing up against Rome. The whole world had came to Rome. Certainly the people living under the hand of Rome had a Roman seal placed on this tomb. They had been a Roman guard sent to protect it. We're not sure how many were in that guard, but it had been at least four. And it could have been up to 50. And we're told in the text that they sent the orders to make the tomb as secure as possible. So do you think it was more on the four side or closer to the 50 side? The way Roman guarding went on as well too, is that guards would take turns with watch. Why some took some rest? There were others that were actively standing guard, actively awake and looking. And by the way, if you ever faltered in this position as a Roman soldier, you were instantly executed. They had a pretty good reliability, a pretty good track record. We're told that there was a large stone rolled over the tomb which made it difficult for one or two people to move. We're told that women are specifically mentioned as the first to discover the tomb empty. The interesting thing about that is that nobody who was making up or creating a story would have used women as the first ones to give account. I'm sorry to say you got to go back 2,000 years ago. Women were not even allowed to testify in court. There were second-class citizens in this environment here. Nobody would have put forward and said, you know, well, you know the first ones there were a bunch of women. You're making up a story that had been the last thing you would have said. You probably wouldn't even mention women having seen it because it wouldn't stand up in court. It wouldn't matter unless it's simply true. Or the cowardly disciples are radically changed as another reason after the resurrection to preach Christ with boldness that they never had before. And by the way, they stained Jerusalem and they preach. They don't like scurry out as little rats out somewhere and start preaching when they get out of Jerusalem about Jesus' resurrection. They start preaching right there where just a day before Peter was worried about getting killed from mentioning that he had any association with Jesus. Why would change overnight? What happened? Maybe they actually saw him. Maybe they actually touched him. Thomas did. Maybe they hugged him, spoke to him. The scripture says that Jesus did interact with them. Number 10, more than 500 people were eyewitnesses to the resurrected Jesus. Not just they had heard about it, they saw Jesus for themselves, the resurrected Jesus, 500 people. Number 11, Jesus' resurrection is preached initially in Jerusalem where anyone who would have reduced the body of Jesus could have silenced the reports instantly. Anybody could have come out and said, look, don't listen to these people because look, here's the body, right here, doesn't happen. The Apostle Paul, who by the way was the lead persecutor of Christians after Jesus ascensioned back into heaven, he's persecuted anything that has to do with Jesus. He's going out, he's working, he's on a... He actually took a road trip to Damascus to make sure he could capture and imprison and hopefully even persecute and maybe even kill more Christians. Everything is going great until he meets the resurrected Jesus on the way. And Jesus' greatest earthly enemy becomes his servant. And by the way, he writes most of the rest of your New Testament. Even the Jewish historian Josephus who's writing in 93 AD, years after the death and resurrection of Christ, he gives account and he mentions Jesus by name. And he refers to his miracles and he reports that his followers have seen him alive in his resurrection. Extra Bible, not part of the Bible, just a Jewish historian. They're one of the greatest things as the message of Jesus Christ for 2000 years has spread and the church has grown exponentially as a result of the events of the resurrection. In the moment the resurrection in the scripture tells us itself, the moment the resurrection is disproved that Jesus is not alive, the whole thing falls apart like a house of cards. It's not a house of cards. If Jesus is the son of God or if he's not the son of God, hinge is directly upon when I hear Rose from the dead. Listen to what C.S. Lewis Oxford professor writes and talks about here. He's the one that's set out by the way to try to disprove Jesus Christ and he ends up becoming a Christian. Here's what he says. He says, I'm trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus. I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing that we must not say and man who is merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level with a man who says he's a poached egg or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice either this man was and is the son of God or else he's a mad man or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool. You can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at your feet and call him Lord and God but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. Here's the key point. I want you to come away with here and I want you to think about the rest of the day and maybe the rest of the week is this. It's really a question. What will fill the empty tomb? What will fill the empty tomb for you? Will it be the conviction that he is the son of God or will it be a conviction that he is something less anything else in the son of God? One of those two things must fill the empty tomb and your heart and your mind and it does by the way. But what is it? One of these statements is a lie. Sin is a trivial matter or sin is not a trivial matter. One of these is true and one of these is a lie. They cannot both be true in the same way in the same sense. If Jesus is not the son of God then sin is a trivial matter. Let's just be honest. There is no God who cares or God who cares enough to enter space and time to address the problem of sin personally. There is no ultimate authority or accountability. There is no moral absolute. There is no basis to call anything a sin and evil or even wrong. Without clear, right and wrong there is no such thing as justice. Right and wrong are up for opinions. They are up for popular vote. Fortunately the Hitler's, the Stalin's. Fortunately their viewpoints were outnumbered and overpowered by different viewpoints. We are left with a utilitarian worldview that you are welcome on this planet as long as you don't outlive your usefulness. The Bible describes this kind of Godless people as everyone doing what seems right in their own eyes. And that's the way that the world lives. Remember as a kid I'm not sure they still require it but I had to read the Lord of the Flies. And I read the Lord of the Flies growing up. Made a couple movies over it as well too. The famous novel by William Golding or this group of British boys are stranded and deserted on an island. They go on and try to govern themselves and at first things are going okay but things begin to fall apart rather quickly. Rule and order and right and wrong are quickly abandoned leading to chaos and even murderous activity. As a lead character Ralph is running for his life at the very end of the book he is literally running for his life with them. The other kids following him wanting to kill him and he comes out of the brush stumbles upon a British soldier who has come on shore who is actually there to rescue them. And what do the boys do? What do all those boys do? Once they are discovered they cry. These rough teenage boys who have made themselves kings and masters of their own domain they cry. The quote from the book says this. Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart. You know children are instinctively more secure and healthy with the presence of a loving authority in their life. I wonder if we are too. You see if Jesus is the son of God and sin is not a trivial matter and his word tells us this. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. So my question again what will fill the empty two in your heart this morning? Conviction that he is the son of God or conviction that he was something else. One of these statements is a lie which is that people can rescue themselves or people cannot rescue themselves. These cannot both be true. But one is and one is not. If Jesus is not the son of God and sin is a trivial matter. If sin is a trivial matter then people have no need of rescue by God in the first place. Rescue implies impending danger that one cannot escape on their own. Life is just one random circumstance after another. You know you play the hand you are dealt with in life and you hope for the best. Life isn't fair, it's just the way it is. It is survival of the fittest. Life is simply whatever you want to make of it. It's nothing more, it's nothing less. And don't think too deeply about it because that's an onion. You can peel away as many layers as you want but there's just nothing in the middle. But what if sin is not trivial? Then there's a huge need for rescue before a holy and a just God. Death is what God pronounced as judgment for sin. What somebody says Romans 3 for all his sin and fall short of God's glory. And then in Romans 6 for the wages of sin is death. Death and spiritual separation from God is our destiny if we're left to ourselves. Rescue must come from another. Jesus is the son of God or he is not. If Jesus is the son of God then sin is not a trivial matter. And if sin is not a trivial matter then you cannot rescue yourself. So I ask you again what will fill the empty tomb. Something is but what is it? Conviction that he is the son of God or conviction that he was something less. One of these statements is true, one of these statements is a lie. It has to be. God does not care or God does care. If God does not care then stop looking for divine intervention. And God does not care, stop wasting time praying. If God does not care, don't simply, certainly don't pick up your Bible. And God does not care, do your best to surround yourself with people who you think do care, at least some. And to conserve your purposes and meet your needs because you truly are on your own in life. And if you're lucky you'll find somebody that buys into scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Hope for it, strive for it, work for it. Good luck. But if God does care then rescue is not only possible but it's offered by a just loving God. You must and will die for your sin unless someone innocent of sin is willing to die in your place. Is that simple? You must give account to your life and pay the penalty for your sin unless somebody else will step up and pay for it for you in your place. But God chose his love for us and that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Jesus is the son of God or he is not. If Jesus is the son of God, sin is not a trivial matter. And if sin is not a trivial matter then you cannot rescue yourself. And if you cannot rescue yourself, you are dependent on the love of God to rescue you. Like what author Paul David Tripp says, as he describes this, listen to what he says. He says, you and I need to recognize that God's willingness was motivated not by what he saw in us. But by what he had inside of him. He's willing because he's a definition of mercy. He's willing because he's the source of love. He's willing because he's full of amazing grace. He's willing because he's good because he's gentle because he's patient because he's kind. So I ask you, what will fill the empty tomb in your heart here this morning? Something is, and it is the conviction that Jesus is the son of God or it is the conviction that he is something less. Before I talk about the last lie, Frida, deal with you this morning. I want to ask if friend of mine Leslie will come up and just share by her journey, her experience, her story. She's grappled with these truths in her life as well. Thank you Leslie for sharing. You know what I'm going to ask, literally, to share how old she is. So let me tell you at a stage of life where many people are traveling, are finding ways to entertain themselves. I think Leslie's just getting warmed up. And she sees God use her and step in her life because she believes that Jesus is the son of God. And she knows, she knows the tomb is empty as he rose again. So this brings us to one more lie. That you must expose for yourself here this morning. Jesus is irrelevant or Jesus is not irrelevant. One of these statements is true, one of these statements is a complete lie. If Jesus did not rise from the dead and he has no eternal relevance, let's just be honest. He has very little relevance to your life personally in any way other than any other historical figure does. But if Jesus did rise from the dead and the tomb is empty, then he is the most relevant person ever to step foot on this planet. For in a mind who's also a pastor has a brother that sadly was diagnosed with advanced four stage, fourth stage lung cancer. And it's great everywhere in his body and things. They were having to make some very quick decisions as brother was already had gone through a divorce. Life was tough for him already as it was and remember he was telling me that he called him up and he asked him really where he was in his relationship with Jesus Christ. And his brother's answer was, you know, this is really just not a good time for that question. And my friend was like, are you kidding me? This is not a good time but you have been given the news that you are likely going to die very soon. And it's not a good time. And over the days he's prayed, he's talked with his brother, he had shared Christ with him for many years. But this past Wednesday he conducted this funeral. And his hope that he's hanging on to is that somewhere on that time, somewhere in those last moments on his deathbed, that he made a decision to decide whether or not Jesus was really relevant or irrelevant in his life. And he just hit me of going, just like he hit him. Why? Well, we often think now is not a good time. If Jesus did rise from the dead and the tomb is emptied and he is the most relevant person of all time. We all make a faith this is regarding Jesus. That's part of my point this morning. He haven't picked up on that already. There's no neutral position with Jesus. He hasn't left that as an option for us. And he says clearly in John 14, Jesus himself said, I am the way. That's truth in the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. So one last time, what will fill the empty tomb? What is filling the empty tomb? It is either conviction that he is the Son of God or it is conviction that he is something less. The great pastor, Charles Spurgeon, a couple centuries ago now said this. He said, upon a life I did not live, not upon a death, I did not die. I risk my whole eternity on the resurrection. It's your life you trust, which is either in yourself or in him. It is your death that will pay for your sin or it's his death. That's one or the other. And it all hinges upon the resurrection. And it is why we get excited to celebrate that here for those of us who are in Christ. And that's why I want to give you the opportunity here now. If you haven't made that decision or it's time to make a different decision to give you the opportunity to do that right now. Because today you can experience the resurrection a whole new way. Pray with me. God, I just asked for my friends that are here this morning. God, some that have come, some that just drove by me because they saw sign. Some who just are waiting for an Easter egg hunt, some who came with a friend with a relative. Some who are just back because they haven't been in a while. They got not just in this church but in churches around the world today. God, would you reveal yourself, would you in the quiet places of our hearts? God reveal that you are alive. Will you speak to hearts? God, would you come? Would you remind them that even the words of your scripture that they've heard here this morning that those words would all of us become personal? That they would hear you and be reminded that you are saying to them, you are the way the truth is in life. God, that they would know that for the love set before you, for the opportunity, for the joy set before you have endured across so that you might have relationship with them. That they might be restored. They might be forgiven. So I got for pray for anybody. It's in a position here this morning that knows that they have not been living with a conviction that you are the Son of God. That you would transform their hearts now. That you would plant the seed of faith by your word. That you would cause it to grow and bear fruit. And they would turn their hearts to you. And God, for those that may be in wandered away, those who have struggled even like Leslie, who had decades where they kind of wandered away, would you bring them back home with the hope and the truth that you are alive, that you are coming back, that you have a life that's full and abundant for them to live and to walk in? And God, for all of us who are here, that you remind us, the living hope that we have in Christ, that we belong to you, that you promise, that just as you came and just as you went back to heaven, you were going to return. So God fill us with that hope, with that truth, with that peace here this morning. And I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.