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00:00 1 Corinthians 15 verse 35-49 the resurrection body but someone
00:07 will ask how are the dead raised with what kind of body will they come how
00:13 foolish what your soul does not come to life unless it dies when you sow you do
00:19 not plant the body that will be but just a seed perhaps of wheat or of something
00:25 else but God gives it a body as he has determined and to each kind of indeed he
00:30 gives his own body not all flesh is the same people
00:36 have one kind of Flesh animals have another Birds another and fish
00:41 another there are also heavily bodies and there are Earthly bodies but the
00:46 Splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind and the Splendor of the Earthly bodies is another the sun has one kind
00:54 of Splendor the Moon another and the Stars another and star differs from star
00:59 in splendor so will it be with the resurrection of the Dead the body that is sown is
01:07 perishable it is raised imperishable it is sown in dishonor it is raised in glory it is sown in
01:14 weakness it is raised in power it is s a natural body it is raised a spiritual
01:21 body if there's a natural body there is also a spiritual body so it is written
01:28 the first man Adam became a living being the last Adam a lifegiving spirit the
01:35 spiritual did not come first but the natural and after that the spiritual the first man was of the Dust
01:42 of the Earth the second man is of Heaven as was the Earthly man so are
01:49 those who are of the earth and as is The Heavenly Man so also are those who are
01:55 of heaven and just as we have borne the image of the Earthly man
02:01 so shall we bear the image of The Heavenly Man this is the word of
02:07 God good morning First Baptist Church welcome back to our Easter Service let
02:14 me take this opportunity to wish everybody a blessed Easter friends from
02:19 overseas who join us on this website new friends who have just found us on the website welcome to First Baptist Church
02:26 uh I hope all of you have been well under the MCO just to remind you every
02:31 week on Wednesday we have gamma which is discipleship group we're doing uh
02:36 studies on the sermon of the mount please join us uh on the website by clicking on the gamma photo right at the
02:41 bottom of this website for others of you please join our Zoom meetings on live groups which are happen at the various
02:49 days according to uh their own schedule and also there's a prayer meeting every
02:54 night at 9:00 well I believe this Easter is historical because For the First Time
03:01 almost three quarters of the world is actually celebrating Easter by being
03:06 physically apart I believe this is probably never happened before and it's
03:11 true we are all mostly all over the world under lockdown because of the dangers of the
03:17 covid-19 virus keeping many people in a sense under a sense of fear and anxiety
03:23 and I think there's no better time for us to be than than to be reminded during
03:28 this Easter of a living hope that we as Believers actually have I came across um
03:36 Harvard Health Science publication um giving advice on how to deal with anxiety and this constant feeling of
03:42 being besieged during this covid-19 uh crisis a couple of things to mention one
03:48 was uh you have to keep things in perspective don't always watch TV and every bit of news that comes out is
03:53 actually about pandemic don't don't focus on it the other one is to engage in activities that will give you some sort of sense of mastery control for
04:01 example you could uh do a cooking spell with your spouse and take your time with
04:06 it do gardening projects or go online and with friends whatever it is we need
04:11 to according to the he Health publication uh get engaged in activities
04:16 that give us a sense of control because what happens under the danger of covid-19 we lose a sense of control and
04:23 that brings a great sense of anxiety the other scientific techniques
04:29 include avoid ruminating over regrets that holiday I should have taken in Spain and
04:35 now it's too late covid-19 is there or the holiday I should have spent with my children go online and and use it to
04:43 connect with other people and share your feelings there are many scientific medical techniques where we could use to
04:49 defray our fears and anxiety in the
04:55 2017 terrorist attacks on Manchester at the Ariana Grande concert dozens were
05:01 injured and 22 young people were killed the response was an outpouring of sympathy and flowers and Arana Grande
05:09 came back to sing she sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow a lovely song about
05:15 wishing upon the star and waking up in the clouds are far behind it soothes your feelings but wishing for the star
05:21 is hardly a tangible hope we can place our future on is it then there realist like Steve jobes
05:29 who no one wants to die even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there and yet death is the
05:35 destination we all share no one has ever escaped it and that is as it should be
05:42 because death is the very likely single best invention of life it's life's change agent it clears out the old to
05:49 make way for the new right now the new is you but someday not too long from now you will gradually become the old and be
05:55 cleared away sorry to be so dramatic but it is quite true your time is limited so don't waste it living someone else's
06:02 life you see Steve was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer rare but curable kind
06:08 of cancer when it was diagnosed but he ignored it right out remember he
06:14 believed in clearing out the old to make way for the new isn't that what he said later on when he actually wanted medical
06:21 treatment it was too late his autobiographer Walter isacson wrote I think he felt if you ignore something
06:27 you don't want to exist you can have magical thinking at work for him in the past but he will come to regret it it
06:33 was too late brothers and sisters we can't just change our minds or focus on something
06:42 beyond the rainbow we actually need a Living Hope in 1 Peter chapter
06:48 1:3 Peter writes blessed be the God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who in
06:54 his great Mercy gave us a Living Hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
07:01 dead a Living Hope is something you could base your life on Focus your
07:07 thoughts on on your energies and in the end it will result in life eternal life
07:13 you see what does the world offer the world offers upbeat sentimental songs
07:18 that make you feel good or tired old Greek philosophies that tell you that if
07:24 you can't change your situation like covid-19 you can't change anything but just have to change your perspective
07:29 that will make you feel better or Steve Jobs close your mind and hope it'll go away no Peter is talking about a living
07:38 hope that is the Crux of Easter and we're going to explore that
07:44 today to explore the Living Hope which Peter talks about we're going to look at
07:49 the 15th chapter of the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians looking at verse 35 um Paul poses two questions which is
07:57 detractors who don't believe in Resurrection ask him how at the de rais and number two with what kind of bodies
08:02 do they come so they're basically three sections in the passage we'll be dealing
08:08 with one is verses 35- 41 which actually what Paul does is
08:13 that he looks at analogies in Creation in nature to explain how Resurrection is
08:19 feasible and from chapter 15 verse 42 to 44 he will talk about what kind of body
08:26 we are could we expect when we get resurrected and versus uh the 45 to 49 he talks about both the
08:34 Earthly man which is Adam and then The Heavenly Man which is Christ and Christ is the Prototype of the of what we will
08:41 be one day when we are resurrected so that's the scheme of today's sermon
08:47 firstly how are the dead raised you know my my wife and I were talking to some
08:53 old friends looking at some old photos friends from school high school and
09:00 looking through the years it's amazing the all the ladies have become assos and
09:06 all the men have become like aaks browned tummies loss of hair and the
09:11 ravages of time have really taken the toll on us and when we look at
09:16 ourselves it is a very relevant question how can this person all weather beaten
09:23 loss of hair big tummy how can that person actually be resurrected we don't
09:29 have a Paradigm into which we can put the data and extrapolate how to get from
09:34 point A to point B so Paul uses um creation to give us
09:42 analogies so this is how everyone ages there's a continuity even though a person ages you can still recognize the
09:49 basic features in the person so the research that we have today is into
09:55 longevity takes us from our current life to to a longer life good news for you if
10:03 you're a worm because scientists have been able to extend the lifespan of a worm up to about six times the normal
10:09 lifespan but there is a price to pay there must be a metabolic hormone to be inhibited and their reproductive systems
10:15 are to be removed good news if you are a fruit fly by activating a gene that kills off
10:22 unhealthy cells they have manage to extend the month-long lifespan of a fruit fly by 50 to 60%
10:30 what about humans the alcohol life extension Foundation located in Scottsdale
10:37 Arizona performs cryonics the freezing of human corpses and brains in liquid
10:42 nitrogen after legal death with hopes of resurrecting and restoring them to full health in the event of some new
10:49 technology which can be developed in the future as of the 31st August 2019 alcohol had about
10:56 1,731 members including 172 who have died Di and whose corpses have been
11:01 subject to cryic processes 96 bodies have had their head
11:09 preserved in more primitive societies like the toraja people in the Solari
11:14 islands of Indonesia the people extend the life of their loved ones by preserving them and keeping them with
11:20 them in the house for months and for some people even over years and years before putting them in a coffin even
11:27 those who are put in coffins are brought out after several years to be dusted down and have their photos taken with
11:33 new relatives as if they were living breathing member of the family these people are actually supposed to be
11:42 Christian so the idea of a resurrection body is very difficult for most of us to
11:48 comprehend we don't have any categories to imagine what Resurrection would be like for years and years popular
11:54 Christian culture has actually insisted that when we die our soul goes up to heaven and we spend eternity in heaven
12:01 floating around the clouds playing violins in some Heavenly Choir there was a BBC survey in
12:09 2010 which actually showed that the majority of Christians and active Christians that me that means those who
12:15 attending weekly church services believed in the afterlife however when the question is asked if they actually believe the bodily Resurrection as
12:22 described in the Bible there was about 32% drop in belief among active Christians and a 41% drop among all
12:29 confessing Christians all in there was a solid 25% of all Christians who do not
12:35 believe in the bodily Resurrection as documented in the
12:43 Bible then there are the scientists like Steven Hawkins who writes I regard the brain as a computer which will stop
12:49 working when its components fail there is no heaven or afterlife or broken down computers that's a fairy story for
12:56 people afraid of the dark well if mod people have the same problem with
13:02 Resurrection so did the people who asked Paul these two questions how how can
13:08 Resurrection occur and with what kind of body do they come in and basically for
13:13 the first section verse 35 onwards Paul gives you three examples from creation
13:21 to break through our closed minded thinking firstly the analogy of the seed
13:26 is a particularly appropriate analogy because ancient Society were mainly aan ones which depended on a large part on
13:33 farming so they were very familiar with seeds you foolish person you what you swow does not come to life unless it
13:39 dies and what you seow is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel perhaps
13:44 of weed or some other grain Paul uses the analogy of the seed to show that even in nature there are two principles
13:51 of Life continuity and discontinuity a tiny chair seed looks microscopic in my
13:58 hands but can you guess why a fully grown Char seed would look like the fully grown plant is thousands of times
14:04 the size and complexity of the Tiny Seed and and look at all the nutrients it packs there's discontinuity in the sense
14:10 that of the initial appearance in contrast to the final plant there would be no way we would be able to guess its
14:16 final appearance yes there is continuity because the seed becomes the plant once
14:22 it's planted in the ground every seed has the DNA and the life that eventually becomes the plant it has the same life
14:29 not a different life in a second analogy Paul invites us to look at our own world in creation verse 38 but God gives it a
14:36 body as he has chosen to each kind of seed its own body for not all flesh are the same but there's one kind for humans
14:43 another for Animals another for birds and another fish each type of life on Earth has a different kind of body which
14:49 is perfectly adapted to its own environment and is different from other types or forms of life whether it be
14:56 graceful jellyfish or the awkward penguins in the the third example Paul invites us to look up in the sky there
15:02 are Heavenly verse 40 there heavenly bodies and Earthly bodies but the glory of the heaven is one of one kind and the
15:08 glory of the earth is another there is one glory of the sun another glory of
15:13 the Moon another glory of the stars for the Stars differ from star in glory each
15:18 of these celestial bodies we can see through the wonders of the Hubble telescope are thousands of times or
15:24 millions of times larger than our own planet and wondrously infinitely more gloriously made than anything we could
15:30 ever imagine in our entire lifetime the sure Brilliance and complexity of color and breathtaking beauty of these
15:37 galaxies goes beyond Any Human
15:43 Experience so let's summarize these three examples from creation the first
15:48 example of the seed Paul is talking about radical transformation God has
15:54 decided as Creator what each seed when it's planted will be come in this
16:00 radical transformation into a plant whether it's banana plant or a red cedar
16:06 or or or a custard apple plant he decides and the seed under goes radical
16:12 transformation you you can't imagine what the seed looks like compared to what the plant is like in the end the
16:18 second example from nature is goddess creator has introduced this idea in
16:24 creation of differentiation different flesh animals and
16:30 humans adapted to its own environment on land fish in the Aquatic environment
16:36 birds in the air and then this third example celestial bodies up the Sun and
16:41 the Moon up in the sky and and the stars brilliantly and bright so how would we
16:47 expect our resurrected bodies to be a recycled second class body no our bodies
16:54 will be as fit as celestial bodies in all glory
16:60 look at what Daniel writes in Daniel 12:2 and many of those who sleep in the dust of the Earth shall awake some to
17:07 everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt and those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of
17:13 the sky above and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever Paul is saying that in the light of
17:20 what you see in creation from The Humble human body to the brilliant stars in the universe you must be a fool to doubt
17:26 that he can raise up our lowly bodies to to a resurrection to a body as glorious
17:32 as Stars the problem with the many people who doubt which Paul is dealing
17:38 with is that they always start off with the wrong premise the premise is that
17:44 there is no God if you start off your journey and the wrong starting point you will always end up with the wrong
17:51 conclusions that's why Paul actually calls them you fool why does he call them fool because in Psalm 14 verse1 it
17:58 says the fool says in his heart there is no God so if your starting point is that
18:04 there is no God then it's unlikely for you to be able to take Paul's
18:09 reasoning so these people who doubt and say there's no God believe that the world Works according to a set of
18:15 natural immutable laws now Miracles are not natural they're not reproducible
18:23 scientific techniques cannot prove Miracles because they don't follow these natural laws now let me give you an
18:31 example suppose I have a drawer on day one I come and put a th000 ring and day two I put 2,000 day three I put one more
18:38 thousand and the day four when I come and open the drawer I should expect what 4,000 right but if I find out there's
18:45 only 1,000 left or there's 10,000 instead of 4,000 what am I to
18:52 conclude is it that the laws of arithmetic have been broken no I think
18:57 it's more reasonable to con ude that a thief has come in and taken the extra 3,000 away or a benefactor come and gave
19:04 me the extra 6,000 right you see the fact if you actually
19:09 are a skeptic you will believe that because the laws cannot be broken so therefore there is no possibility of a
19:16 thief and there's no possibility of a benefactor but in fact the presence of
19:21 these immutable laws actually indicate something abnormal has happened there is a presence of a thief or benefactor and
19:29 that is applied analogy to God anything outside the natural laws must imply
19:36 there is an abnormal Source there is a God now let's look at the next uh
19:42 question which Paul is now answering what will the resurrection body look
19:48 like so it is with the resurrection of the Dead what is sown is perishable what
19:53 is raised is imperishable it is sown in dishonor it is raised in glory is sown
19:58 in weakness it is raised in power it is sewn in a natural body it is raised a
20:05 spiritual body if there's a natural body there's also a spiritual body the words sown and raised are repeated four times
20:11 in pairs so Paul is going to use the SE analogy again to explain what the resurrection body will look like it will
20:19 be completely different uh Paul is comparing contrasting two kinds of human
20:24 bodies the ones that lives in this world and those that will live in the next
20:29 world like the seed there is continuity and discontinuity the word sewn is there
20:35 to illustrate continuity it'll still be us not a clone of us if we all start off
20:41 with our current bodies perishable lowly pathetic weak and animated by the soul but the resurrected version of ourselves
20:48 will be imperishable bulletproof as it were wondrously gloriously powerful animated by the spirit of God like one
20:55 of those bunnies and the Duracell battery ad which goes on for forever and ever which means when we take a look at
21:01 ourselves we are near shadow of what is to come like a caterpillar before a butterfly a tadpole before radical
21:08 transformation one of the most important Clues as to our resurrected state is the resurrected Jesus in Philippians Paul
21:15 writes but our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our
21:22 bodies to be like his glorious Body by the power that enabled him even to subject all things to himself so our
21:29 bodies will be like the body of Jesus as glorious as his is that's the prototype
21:36 for us the resurrection body has continuity
21:42 and discontinuity look at the post Resurrection Jesus there he's both
21:48 recognizable and not recognizable by his disciples typical this Luke chap 24 as
21:55 the two disciples were suddenly met by Jesus they walked with him for Miles
22:00 barely standing 2 m away and they couldn't recognize him that's discontinuity they couldn't recognize
22:07 the post-resurrection body of Jesus until he had a meal when he broke bread
22:13 and suddenly there's continuity they recognized him and then they looked back
22:19 and and said to each other well didn't our hearts burn when he actually explained scripture to them and then
22:26 what about Peter he in the same chapter in Luke 24 Jesus had a meal and he ate
22:31 fish pangang favorite fish with Apostle Peter was a fisherman which means
22:37 there's continuity in the New World in a post-resurrection world you could enjoy
22:42 Ian panga you could have bakut we could actually enjoy and Savor the food that we've always
22:48 had and then there's this continuity because when the disciples were in a
22:54 lock room Jesus suddenly appeared with them in John
23:00 and how could he go through a lock room must it must be a post-resurrection body with different physical properties and
23:06 yet continue with because when Thomas doubted Jesus Jesus invited him to put his finger into his wounds in his side
23:13 and his hands and these were the same wounds he sustained during Resurrection so this is the wonderment of the body
23:20 there are some things which are going to be the same and there something things you could be wondrously
23:27 different so what is sown is perishable what is raised is
23:33 imperishable a new body is a necessity to experience the world to come Escape
23:40 into a uh disembodied state is not an option Paul says in verse 50 I tell you
23:47 this brothers that flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God the the
23:53 perishable shall not inherit the imperishable so therefore we need new bodies to experience exp erience the
23:59 glory of the world to come in fact when Moses asked to experience the glory of
24:05 God to see the glory of God God said you cannot see my face and live and all he had to be satisfied with was the
24:10 trailing edge of God's glory in Revelations the last chapter tells us in
24:16 the new heavens and new earth there will be no sun we will be there basking in
24:23 the glory of the unshielded glory of God and in order to do that we actually have
24:29 to have a new body it's as if we were going to experience a roller coaster remember when we were kids and you have
24:36 to have a certain height in order to qualify to experience all that and it's the same with us the perishable cannot
24:44 inherit the imperishable we need new bodies and God will give us a wondrously
24:52 gloriously imperishable new body where we were once ugly dishonorable and weak
24:59 we shall be full of beauty glory and power we shall run and not grow weary as
25:07 Isaiah 40 says in Revelations 21 it says there shall be no more sadness No More Tears no more regret no more pain and no
25:15 more death I reckon we could eat and not grow fat drink and not get drunk we
25:21 could stay slim and don't have to exercise and the ladies will grow more beautiful every single
25:26 day let's look at verse 44 it is swn a natural body it is raised a spiritual
25:32 body if there is a natural body there's also a spiritual body we can get the wrong impression that Paul is really
25:39 talking about a a physical a real car or metal versus a spiritual car or Ghost
25:45 Car you now Paul is not talking about the material versus the immaterial but he actually talking about what animates
25:52 the new body it's like comparing a petrol powered car and an electric
25:57 powered car a Nissan TX versus a Tesla electric car the Greek word
26:03 Suki translated As Natural should actually be translated meaning Soul Paul
26:10 is trying to contrast a body animated by our soul with that animated by the Holy
26:18 Spirit thus it is written the first man Adam became a living being the last Adam
26:24 became a lifegiving spirit verse 46 but it is not the spiritual that is first
26:30 but the natural and then the spiritual the first man was from the earth a man of dust the second man is from Heaven as
26:38 was the man of dust so also are those who are of the dust and as is the man of
26:43 heaven so also are those who are of Heaven just as we have born the image of the man of dust we shall also bear the
26:50 image of the man of Heaven Paul is taking his analogy by argument further
26:56 by stating that there is in God's created World a pattern of Correspondence just as there is a seed
27:03 there is a corresponding plant just as their territorial bodies like animals of
27:08 a certain Beauty And Glory there's also the corresponding celestial bodies up in the skies the Sun the moon the stars so
27:16 there are patterns in nature for example there's always male and there must be a female black then there must be white
27:23 North Pole and South Pole where there's light there's always Darkness as well the Chinese believe it as Ying there
27:29 must be a Yang so he he BR he then brings this argument close to home and says just as there's a body animated by
27:36 the soul there's a body animated by God's spirit in verses 45 to 49 he
27:42 applies this par pattern of Correspondence to us and Jesus where the opposite presumes its counterpart where
27:49 there is the first Adam or man there must be a last Adam upgraded 2.0 of you
27:54 like where there is a first man which is a being with life in him the last Adam
28:00 has intrinsic property of being able to give life to others where the first man originated from the dust of the Earth
28:06 the last man Jesus originated from Heaven All Mankind will take the shape of their Federal head Adam swn with a
28:14 body made of dust and it goes back to that dust then Christians will take the shape
28:20 of Christ in their Heavenly existence who will Who is actually from heaven and has a spiritual body the last Adam then
28:27 sets the pattern for all who will be resurrected and given a spiritual body for their new Celestial hittite this
28:34 argument from observable patterns in created order is used even today here we
28:40 have two world leaders who are slow to respond to the covid-19 crisis in fact Boris jelson wanted it to just spread
28:48 naturally and have the English naturally acquire her immunity then Imperial College London came up with a
28:54 mathematical model of what will happen if he did that and predicted thousands of death if you went
28:60 ahead with his plan and the British prime minister immediately backtracked locked down his country now on what
29:07 basis did the scientists produce these graphs they did this by looking at the patterns of people who were infected in
29:13 Wuhan China and this pattern of infection gave them the clues as to the pattern of behavior of this new Corona
29:20 virus so they're looking for patterns and based on these patterns he was able
29:25 to make prediction and save lives so just as we have borne the image of
29:31 the man of dust we shall also bear the image of the man from Heaven this is a
29:37 future event so the resurrection body is entirely possible simply because we have
29:43 a God who created both the seed and the wonders of the huge galaxies in the
29:49 universe he makes it possible we will undergo radical transformation like the
29:54 seed and our Resurrection body will be animated by the spirit of God that is
29:60 what we call a living hope that is a future that we have to understand
30:05 explore and take hold of to radically change our lives and change our
30:11 perspective even during times of Crisis like this in 1879 the famous American
30:18 inventor Thomas Edison invited people especially investors from all over the nation to come to his laboratory at Meno
30:25 Park he would show them a vision of tomorrow he did this by demonstrating his invention of the incandescent light
30:32 bulb the product of testing of 6,000 different elements and finally discovering it was the lowly carbon
30:38 filament which would take the immense heat of the current and give out light and not incinerate the the temperature
30:44 was 2,700 de centigrade and his filament could burn for 1,000 hours more than
30:50 anyone else could with this one filament he could see tomorrow where whole cities
30:56 would light up the whole world would light up with this one filament you could see the Brave New World in the
31:01 Horizon so in 1880 Edison took his own money invested it in his vision of
31:06 future the Edison Light company which would later become General Electric one
31:12 of the largest companies in the world so this is what Easter is
31:18 about to be able to see tomorrow to look at in the future in the person of our
31:24 Lord Jesus Christ because he's the only one who has broken the strength angle hole of death over all of us he's the
31:32 only one who's broken out of the Grave with an imperishable glorious powerful body that
31:39 could last for all eternity and shine as brightly as the sun this
31:45 morning we see in Jesus our future and when we see our future we cannot go back
31:51 into the past because look at Thomas Edison you don't see him go back and start a Candle factory
31:59 no once you discovered the incandesent bulb working on the carbon filament that
32:04 could withstand up to 2,700 de Centigrade of heat he never looked back
32:11 he invested his whole life forward into the future and that's what Easter is
32:16 about brothers and sisters this Easter we need to grasp and lay hold of the
32:22 future of Jesus how do we do this let's look at Paul again writing from prison
32:28 in Philippians 3:10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings becoming like
32:35 him in his death that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection
32:40 from the dead Paul is saying tomorrow is here
32:46 today it is possible to experience his resurrection life because it says that I might know him and the power of his
32:53 resurrection he wants to experience the power of Resurrection now not tomorrow he's asking for the power of the spirit
32:59 The Same Spirit that animates a future Resurrection body The Same Spirit which resides in all of us right this
33:07 minute how do we do this Paul mentions two ways first knowing Jesus becoming
33:13 like him when when that happens we experience a resurrection power to leave behind the old way of life the Ambi old
33:19 Ambitions the old sin that shackles Us by considering what was precious to us in the past as rubbish and what rubbish
33:25 to us in the past as precious the power to fre is from consumerism and materialism the power to go without
33:31 things that many people feel they must have in this life the power to overcome
33:37 fear the second way to experience power is by pouring out our lives in the service of others polites that I may
33:44 share his sufferings becoming like him in his death Jesus suffered not just for the sake of suffering but in service to
33:50 us for by his stripes we were healed and now we're tasked to leave the past behind and with his resurrection power
33:57 animating our thoughts and invigorating our energies we are to pour out our lives for other
34:03 people some of us are living like the Taja people of
34:09 soli there are believers in Jesus like you and me but they keep living in the
34:16 past they bring back their dead relatives and Bal them and keep them
34:21 with them for months and years and often them they'll take them out and dust them over and take a selfie with them kind like go to the Past many of us
34:28 we're like that we say we believe in Jesus believe in the power of the Resurrection but we still keep our old
34:35 skeletons with us we keep circling back to wallow in our own anxieties and
34:41 fears we find comfort in sentimental songs relaxation techniques we live as
34:47 if this is the only pathetic life that we actually have we cannot see tomorrow
34:54 nor can we take hold of tomorrow you know this is Easter in Luke
35:01 20:36 Jesus reminds us we are the sons of God we are the sons of Resurrection
35:10 though we are the sons of Easter we need to understand this truth take hold of
35:17 this truth and make it real to empower Our Lives let me end this Easter by the
35:26 example of Martin Luther when he faced a Bubonic plague in his own
35:32 City I shall ask God mercifully to protect us then I shall fumigate help
35:39 purify the air administer medicine and take it I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order
35:46 not to be contaminated and thus per chance inflict and pollute others and so
35:51 cause their death as a result of my negligence if God should wish to take me
35:59 he will surely find me and I've done what he has expected of me and so I'm not responsible for either my own death
36:06 or the death of others if my neighbor needs me however I shall not avoid place
36:11 or person but will go freely as stated above so the great reformer Martin
36:17 Luther will live as a responsible citizen he will fumigate he will
36:23 practice so social distancing not as a sign that is lacking of Faith or
36:29 cowering in fear but as evidence of love for his fellow man but his ultimate dependence is upon
36:36 God and if God should want to take him he will surely know where to find him
36:42 but the real difference for Martin Luther is these words at the end when he says if my neighbor needs me I shall not
36:49 avoid neither Place nor person I shall surely and freely go today in our
36:56 community there many who have lost J their jobs living hand to mouth or
37:01 lonely and trouble and this Easter what is actually
37:06 required is not just waiting 18 months for a vaccine to come that's a
37:12 short-term solution the solution this Easter is that this that the sons of
37:18 Resurrection that's us should start living as what we
37:24 are so let's pray father God we thank you for this wonderful gift that
37:31 you have given us you've given us a future that there is a world Beyond this
37:38 there's a life beyond this which is Rich and glorious and filled with the beauty
37:46 of your presence and father Lord we ask that this Easter that we as your church and
37:53 we as your people we as sons of Resurrection be truly able to
37:59 appropriate this truth into our lives learn to live in the power of the Holy Spirit to learn to live in the comfort
38:07 and strength and rely on the power of your love we ask oh Lord this Easter
38:13 that your presence be real in the midst of trouble your presence be sweet in the
38:19 midst of fear we ask a Lord that if our neighbor should need us we shall not
38:28 avoid place or person we shall surely go even on the internet through a telephone
38:34 call through giving that we will not let our neighbor down and that we will start
38:39 living as the sons of Easter we ask this in the name of Jesus
38:54 amen God sent his
39:01 son they called him
39:08 Jesus and he came to
39:14 [Music] love heal and
39:21 [Music] forgive he bled and died
39:28 [Music] to buy my
39:36 Parton an empty grave is there to prove
39:45 My Savior
39:50 Lives and because he lives
39:57 [Music] I can face
40:04 tomorrow and because he
40:12 lives all fear is
40:19 gone and because I
40:26 know he holds the
40:33 future and life is worth the
40:39 living just because he
40:47 live and how sweet to
40:54 hold a newborn born
41:01 baby and feels the
41:08 pride and joy it
41:13 [Music] brings and but greater
41:22 still the come a
41:31 this child can face
41:36 un days because he
41:44 lives Because He
41:51 Lives I Can Face Tomorrow
41:58 and be because heal
42:05 is all fear is
42:12 gone be because I
42:19 know he holds the
42:26 future and and life is worth the
42:32 living just because
42:40 he and then one
42:47 day I'll cross that
42:54 R and I'll fight like
43:01 F no war with
43:08 pain and then next
43:15 death giv way to
43:22 Victory I'll see the light of
43:28 glory and how know he
43:37 Liv Because He
43:43 Lives yes I can face
43:50 tomorrow and because heess
43:59 all fear is
44:04 gone and because I
44:12 know he holds the
44:19 future and life is worth the
44:25 living just because he
44:33 Liv and life is worth the
44:39 living just because he
44:47 live and life is worth the
44:53 living just because [Laughter]
45:04 he I'm going to take the benediction from the same chapter verse 58 this what
45:10 Paul writes therefore my beloved Brothers
45:16 sons of Resurrection be
45:21 steadfast immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that in the
45:28 Lord your labor is not in vain let's go
45:34 to love and serve the Lord amen
