He is Risen

To sing about, to praise God for in prayer, and to now hear in a meditation, and to read about from John. It's good news for us 2,000 years later. But if we go back to when the disciples first woke up that first Sunday morning, think about how they woke up. Confused, still distraught, They had been following Jesus for years. They had left vocations, families, homes. The one that they had seen heal. The one they had heard teach God's Word with perfect and absolute authority. The one they had even seen raise someone from the dead, just days prior to his own death. They saw him betrayed by one of their own, Judas. that they saw him falsely accused, mocked, beaten, that they saw him die, the cruel death, the public shame on a cross. What they believed, what they hoped for was that this Jesus was going to come and bring restoration, and then on that Sunday morning, they're still confused about everything they had heard, Everything they had known from the Old Testament scriptures, everything they had hoped for. And they were rightfully confused. And then the news started spreading. He's not dead. He's still alive. He's risen. And then he started appearing to all the different disciples and the women and those who had been following him. And the news started spreading. And gloom turned to joy. What they've been longing for, what they've been hoping to see, was now starting to become clear. That that Savior promised, that they hoped for, He had to die. So that He could rise again and give us a victory over sin and death. The words Alan read earlier in the in a service. About Thomas. Thomas is so important because I think we can always identify with Thomas. Skeptical, reluctant. And he himself said, no, I cannot believe unless I see him. And so Jesus, remember the doors are locked, he appears. And there Thomas sees him. And Jesus offers, you can touch if that's what you need, Thomas. Immediately he recognizes this is his Lord. This is the one he had followed, the one he had hoped for, and he simply submits, you are my Lord, and you are my God. See, when those disciples saw him, everything was made clear. Jesus is the resurrection and the life, just as he had taught them. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. just as he had taught them. Jesus is the light of the world that's come to overcome the darkness and death, just as he had taught them. This morning, we're going to turn to 1 Corinthians 15. If you don't have a Bible, you can use the Pew Bible in front of you. It's found on page 961. This is called the resurrection chapter. Now, the Gospels, they all point to the actual resurrection event, but here's Paul giving a reflection for the church on what it means that Jesus has risen. Let's look to this passage. I'll read 1st verses 1 through 11. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you, as of first importance, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believe. Let's begin here at the beginning in verse one. Paul is reminding the brothers. He's writing to the church to remind them. And it's helpful here to remember we're forgetful. He has to remind us because we're so easy to forget in the busyness of life. We're so easy to forget in the temptation of sin. It's easy to forget what really matters most. And so Paul's reminding them of the gospel. We need reminders, which is why we have before us the Lord's Supper at the end of the service. That's why Jesus said do that regularly, to participate with the brothers and sisters in this reminder that his body had to be pierced, his blood be poured out for our sin. We need a savior. So he's reminding them of the gospel. And so what we're gonna see, there's a lot of gospel truths he's going to point out. You notice he says, I receive these truths, I preach these truths, we're to believe these truths. The real emphasis here is on the preaching of those gospel truths and the belief. He describes belief as you receiving them, you standing in them, you being saved by them, holding fast to them. So let's talk about what does it mean to believe? What is faith? Now, faith certainly needs to have the right object. But believing in the right truth and avoiding the lies is of utmost importance. And so we're gonna talk about the information to be believed, but let me be very clear that Christian faith is more than mere intellectual consent. It's more than merely saying, I hear this data. I'm going to agree with it. And then I'm going to go on my life and just say that that was correct and right. No, the Christian faith, it reorganizes everything. It tells us one of the most important truths we've got to remember. There is a God and I'm not Him. We forget that. That the world doesn't revolve around me as I oftentimes think it needs to. No, there's one God and He is worthy of all worship. And I'm not that God. That there's one God who is worthy of all glory and praise and honor, and I've sinned against that God. I need to recognize that my faith, my beliefs are often wrong. My emotions are often wrong. My affections are often misplaced. You see, when we believe in the Christian gospel, it reorders where I place my worship, where I prioritize my time, my energy. It's not just about me. It's about Jesus Christ, the God who has come to die for me and rise again to give me new life. Notice he speaks of standing firm and holding fast. It really reminds us of that parable of Jesus, the sower of the seeds. The gospel is a seed that goes out, and Jesus talks about different kinds of soil. One of those soils is rocky ground. There's an immediate response, but then the sun scorches it. There's not roots deep enough. It dies quickly. Or the seed thrown in the midst of the thorns and thistles and it quickly gets choked out. Paul warns of a vain faith. You believed in vain. That's a terrible warning for us. The one way you know that your faith has been true is that it perseveres. The one thing we need to recognize is have we actually repented? Have we actually sought to know who God is so that we stand firm? Not a moment of emotion saying I want to believe in Jesus, but no, I want to recognize this is God speaking. He's telling me who I actually am and who He is and how I can enjoy Him forever. This is a lifelong pursuit of God. If you know, the way to know you don't have vain faith is to know you have a persevering faith. That's why it's important that we We're fed regularly. We take His word and we read it. We come and we gather with the saints to be reminded. The second thing I wanted to see about this gospel is that it's to be believed in a way that it reorders our lives, but that this gospel is unique in that it's public. Notice in verses 3 through 11 how public this testimony is. He was raised, and he appeared, verse 5, to Cephas, to Peter, then he appeared to the five hundred, then he appeared to James, and he finally appeared to Paul. What's unique about the Christian beliefs, what's unique about what God has said, is that it's not wrapped up in some secret. Yes, there are difficult, mysterious truths. But most religions are built around some kind of secret scroll that no one has ever seen since. That only one person may have seen. No, Jesus came. The birth of Jesus was a public event. His walking and teaching was a public event. His baptism, when the Father spoke down from the cloud, this is my beloved Son, that was a public event. People heard it, people saw it. His death was a public event. He was hung high on a cross for every passerby to see the shameful death with which he was punished. Then he was buried in a public place. The Romans, they knew where it was. They put guards there. And then the stone that was put there, it was rolled away to see publicly. The tomb was empty. It was public. And then he appeared in the flesh for 40 days to his disciples, to even those who doubted. Well, what's amazing about these disciples, and I hope this encourages you, They were turned almost immediately from the most cowardly men to the most courageous witnesses. They all forsook Christ. Peter denies Christ to a little girl he's so afraid. And then next, he's filled with the Holy Spirit because he has seen Christ. He's willing to go into the Roman courts and proclaim boldly that Christ is risen. There's only one answer as to why all of these disciples, men and women, would have such a change. They all saw Christ risen. It's the only explanation as to how they would go from being so fearful to not being afraid of death. They knew death had been defeated. Another demonstrable evidence of the resurrection. All the first disciples were Jewish. The holy day for Jews is Saturday. It's built in the creation. God rested on the seventh day. That's Saturday. It's part of their Ten Commandments. Saturday is the day you recognize and you set apart for God. These Jews, they started worshiping on Sunday, the first day of the week. Their entire lives were reordered because they realized that Christ rose and that meant the beginning of a new creation. A new hope. A new life. So we see all the events, they're public. They went out and made them public. It's a public religion. Baptisms are meant to be public. A declaration, I believe that Christ died for me and rose again. The Lord's Supper is a public declaration. I am taking these symbols of Christ's body and blood. He saved me. We can actually back out farther than that. Look what Paul says in verse three and four. What Christ did, he died for our sin and he was raised from the dead, was in accordance with the scriptures. For thousands of years, God was making his plan public. He chose a nation, that had often failed to do what they were supposed to do to make his plan public. But he chose his nation and he told them what he was doing and who he was and how they could be a light to the world themselves and they failed. But we can go back and see thousands of years. That's the Old Testament. How God was making these things clear. So that when Christ came, the believers of Israel were supposed to all look and say, finally, the Messiah is here. The king we've been all looking for, the prophet who actually reveals God, the priest who finally takes away our sin. That's why it's so important for you to take and read that book. It's how God makes himself known to you. We all want some special, individual revelation for ourselves. I want that. I would love for some vision that would come down just for me, just so I could feel special about it. But that's not typically how God works. No, God's given us all this precious word so that we can know who he is. We can know who we are. And we can know how to believe in him and live in him. So the gospel's to be believed, the gospel is public, and here we get to the first gospel truth. Verse three, Paul says, I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received. This is not an individual thing for Paul, it's what all the apostles and disciples are preaching. The first gospel truth, that Christ died for our sins. Jesus died for sinners. This is where we have to start. This is the beginning of believing the good news is that we have to actually agree with something that isn't all that pleasant to think about and that is that we are sinners. We all know there's something wrong with us. We just don't want to actually think about it or talk about it or have other people talk about it. But here's the central truth. The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it's only good news for those who actually aren't good and right and have it all together. This good news is not for people who don't apologize. This good news is for people, it's not for people who don't think they've ever done anything wrong. This is for those who realize there's something wrong. I can't fix it. I need help. I feel the weight of guilt. I feel the constant temptation. I'm confused about how to actually properly order my life. Things seem out of control. This is who the gospel's for. Primarily, it's for those who recognize I've done a lot of things wrong. I've wronged others. I've stolen. I've lied. Cheated. I've been unkind. I've been rude. I've been angry. I've done things to others, especially those I love the most. I've done things that I'm embarrassed of and I need forgiveness. It's for those who recognize you've wronged yourself. You live in the inner turmoil of your own shame and guilt. Wrestling with how to respond and how to bring peace to a soul that you know is tormented with guilt and temptation. But most of all, the gospel, we need to realize, has come to us because we've wronged God. It's pretty obvious if we look around and look inside. We know there's something wrong inside with the way we process and the way we've acted. We know we've wronged others. We've been wrong, but this is the big one. We need forgiveness because of what we've done to God. Now, you might be asking, well, I've never done anything to God. I've tried my best to kind of stay away from Him and not do anything to Him. That's kind of the problem. See, God created us in a special way for a special purpose, to know Him, to love Him, to be loved by Him. And what we've done is try to live our lives without Him as much as possible, and that is sin against God. Because He created us for His own worship. We've decided to worship everything but God. You see, the way we've wronged God is, it's kind of like a child who just ignores the parent. Think about what it would look like to have a family where the parents are trying to give loving instruction to a child and they just constantly ignore them. Not even yelling back at them, just showing indifference. I don't care what you say, mom or dad. Or imagine what it would be like if you went to work. How long would you last as an employee in good standing if you ignored your supervisor? Showing indifference. Well God is kind of like a parent. He's definitely our instructor, but more than anything, He's our God. He's worthy of our worship, and what we've done is go around and we've worshiped everything but Him. We have to realize this is sin. It deserves God's just punishment. Now the reason this is so difficult is that God loved us. He designed us for His love. He designed us to enjoy Him by loving Him. And what we did was we decided, you know what God, I think we can figure it out better. We're going to figure out how to love and how to enjoy love in a way apart from You. We stopped loving God. That's the problem. And this is why the good news is such good news. God did not stop loving us. God loves us, even when we do not love Him. While we're proactively hating Him, God still commits His love to us. But we also need to be clear that God is perfectly just. Our sin must be punished. God's great love is demonstrated in light of this. You see, when we stand before God, all our sins are going to stand right there, obvious. Just picture everything you've thought and done being played up on the screen, and you're there in a trial. If before God, everything you've ever thought, or said, or did, that you're embarrassed of, and you don't want anybody else in this room to know about, it's all gonna be publicly displayed right there before you in God. What would you say? And you're speechless. Because you know you deserve the holy God's just judgment. But that's when Christ comes in, if you believed in Him. If you believed in Him, Christ comes in, He says, Father, all those sins that are evident, that we see displayed here, remember on that day when I died on the cross, I took the punishment that he or she deserves. I bore the guilt. I bore the wrath. So that this one is forgiven. These things no longer stand against them. I was crushed for their iniquity. This is how God shows us his love. When we think about the world's problems, we usually think about all those problems out there that bother us. We need to realize the biggest problem in this world is that we have fought against God and rejected Him, and the greatest news, the good news we're focused on today is that Christ came to die for us. If you're in Christ this morning, as we prepare for the Lord's Supper, be assured your forgiveness and your freedom from guilt. He paid our penalty once and for all. If you're not a Christian this morning, or if you're wrestling with, if you are a believer, if you want to believe, the first thing is to recognize, I have sinned. I have ignored God. I have rejected Him. I've decided to live life on my own, and I've made a mess of it. And then to recognize that Christ came to die to restore you, to give you forgiveness. Notice the second thing we must believe is that not only has Christ died for our sins, but He was buried. And then He was raised on the third day. It's important to go back to that call of worship we had earlier. He's risen. He's not here. He's no longer in the grave. You know, that morning those disciples, they wanted to go and they wanted to honor Jesus. The master, their rabbi. They went there that morning thinking our hopes have been crushed, but he was a good rabbi, he was a good teacher. We're going to go and honor him for all the good things he did while he was alive. Well, they walked away from that morning with something so much more than wanting to just honor him as a good teacher. No, they recognized he's risen from the dead. His life now is indestructible. He is Almighty God, the Creator of life, who's crushed death so that we can have eternal life. They just wanted to honor Him that morning and they walked away realizing He's not just worthy of honor as a good man, but He's worthy of all worship as the God Creator who has risen from the dead. Now we only get to the resurrection and celebrating this morning by actually first getting to the cross, what we just talked about. And I wanted to make it very clear, again, what we believe as Christians is so necessarily historical. There's things that have had, they have to have happened for all of this to be true. First there's Christmas. Jesus came, was born of a virgin. God himself became man. then He died on the cross, then He rose again, and then He ascended to the right hand of the Father, and He will come back. The Apostles' Creed highlights these five truths about what Christ has done. In the section, I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord. who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day, he rose again. He ascended into heaven. He is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. There's five historical actions of God here. He descended. Christmas. He became like us in every way, but yet without sin. He died on the cross. He died as a sinless man for our sin. He rose again to give us victory. He then ascended to the right hand of the Father. And the final act, the final action, He will come These are the five truths we must believe and hold dear. We must stand upon them, hold fast, receive them, and trust them. Because all five make up the one true gospel. If we're celebrating His resurrection, we have to celebrate that He died for us as sinners. And if we celebrate the resurrection, we have to celebrate that He's now at the right hand of His Father, where He's empowering that gospel right now to go forth. And He's gonna come back. He's gonna bring perfect and absolute restoration. These are the five actions of our victorious Savior. The resurrection is victory. The death looked like a defeat, didn't it? How could He die with so many hopes, with so many promises, with so many people depending upon Him, but it was necessary for our sins to be forgiven, and the resurrection shows us this great victory. What is the victory over? It's all over all of our enemies. Well, let's think about the enemies that Christ has conquered in His victory in the resurrection. First, He has victory over our own sin. Jesus taught while He was walking with His disciples that when you choose sin, you are choosing to be enslaved. You see, we get tempted by things that we know aren't good for us, and we think to ourselves, I'll just play a little bit. You know, I'm gonna keep this under control. And sin never stays there. Sin deceives us in thinking, if you just take that little taste, you'll have it under control. But no, sin is, it overpowers us. We're outmatched. Its temptation lures us, our own desires, and it entangles us, and it snares us. And what Christ did in His death and resurrection is bring victory so that we do not, we no longer have to say yes to sin. We're free from its power. Our second enemy is Satan and demons. This is a reality we need to be aware of and we'll think more about in Ephesians 6 next week. Realize that demons, they're angels. They're created by God and they are under his authority and he's more powerful than them, but as angels, they're more powerful than us. They lead us away with powerful deception. They overwhelm us with guilt, with their accusation, some true, some false. They create fear that overpowers us. Jesus Christ has conquered Satan and his power to deceive us and accuse us. Another enemy that we're all very aware of, death. We were created for life. God of the creation breathed his own life into Adam just as Jesus breathed his new life into the disciples. Death has been conquered. We just sang of this. Because Christ has risen from the dead. Our final enemy is the judgment of God itself. He has risen so that we will no longer face that judgment. He has provided a perfect victory. Now I love winning. I personally, I love victory. I love it so much, I watch sports more than I ought. This is why we watch sports. Well, those of us who watch sports. We watch because we can't play, right? I checked my eligibility. I still, I can't play in the NCAA tournament anymore. It's a shame. That's the only reason I don't play. I watch because I can't play. I watch because I can't actually win that victory myself, and so I make myself a spectator of somebody else playing a game so that I can enjoy their victory. When you say it like that, it sounds kind of silly, doesn't it? But that's what we do. I'm not in that battle, I'm not in that game, but I wanna watch it so that I can enjoy somebody else's victory and pretend it's my own. This is the victory of Jesus Christ. It is our battle. It's not something we observe, we're not spectators, it's our battle that we began with our own sin. We're not spectators, we're full participants in it. And Christ didn't come so He could just, we could watch and kind of celebrate with Him. No, He came and won the battle, not a game, a war that we were losing and could not win. He came and won the war that we were losing that was going to destroy us forever so that He could let us, He could invite us into His full celebration victory. Christ came because we couldn't fight sin. Christ came because we couldn't outwit Satan. Christ came because we were going to die forever. Christ came because we were going to be under the judgment of God. He took all those enemies. He defeated them. And now He's given us eternal life. He's given us his own righteousness. He's given us his own status as a son. He's given us his own forever life with God. Not to spectate, not to observe, not to casually think about every now and then. No, to fully participate in for the rest of our lives. This is a great victory. Let's think about what that victory means. First, we live without fear. This is a remarkable thing about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the resurrection. We no longer live within our own limitations of being enslaved to sin, afraid of death, afraid of Satan. We live with the expectations of what Christ has done. Here's the core truths you'll see throughout Scripture. If you're gonna write anything down, this is it. If I believe in Christ, if He has died for me, if He has risen again, this is the truth. God is with me. God is for me. He is working through me. There's nothing else to fear. Think about all the things we're afraid of. When the God who conquered death is with me and He's for me. He who is most able is now most loving towards you. What do we have to be afraid of? The Old Testament is full of these declarations. What can man do to me? What is it I fear if I have reverence for the God who created all things with one declaration? Who defeated death with one declaration? We no longer have to be afraid of death. God has the power to do what is good and God has made it very evident by the death of his own son and his resurrection, God intends to do good. We can trust him and live without fear. Another implication of the resurrection, we can live without foolishness. This is such good information, this is such good news. We can live without our own foolishness. We're not limited to our own thoughts, reason, affection. I'm not bound to just the way I feel anymore. No. Because He's risen, we know He's Lord and God and everything He said is true. We now have Him as our guide. We now actually have wisdom to live by rather than our own foolishness that keeps getting us into trouble. We have the privilege of no longer having to figure out, how can I be satisfied in sin? We can actually look up and say, how can I be satisfied in God? We no longer have to seek the folly of sin. We can hold fast and stand firm in Christ. Living in the resurrection means we get to live with a new power. Romans 8-11. says the power that raised Christ from the dead resides within you. The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, He resides within us. The same divine power that rose Christ from the dead, He now lives within us so that we can overcome the sin that Christ had to die for. We're not powerless. But boy, do we surrender so quickly. Learning to trust God. To not rely upon our own strength, but to look up and see He is able to deliver us. Living as believers in the resurrection, we get to live with hope. We've talked a lot about the inner turmoil of temptation and guilt and fear. If you're a believer one day, you will not have sin. To confuse you, to deter you in your worship? I think that's one of the greatest news that we're gonna see at the end of 1 Corinthians 15, that in that day when Christ comes, we'll no longer have victory over fighting sin, victory will be, sin has been crushed forever and re-removed from us. One day, the day we long for, no more confusion in this world from our sin and others. This is why at the end of the Lord's Supper, we repeat, Come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly. We should be dissatisfied with the way we have to live this world. That's why we should long to enjoy the resurrected life He's given us and long for that final engagement where He'll come back and take away the sin that so hinders us. One of the final applications that we can think of live with confidence, or with resurrection is that we can live with confidence. He did not come so that we could think, you know, you know, maybe I'll invest some of my life in this Jesus, but I think I want to keep, you know, my investment portfolio, spread of faith. I'm gonna invest a little life here, a little life there, and we'll see how it all plays out. No, it's either Jesus is God, We sinned against Him, He died to forgive us, and He rose again, and He's at the right hand of the Father and coming back, or this is all a lie. He's given us His Word so that we can see how He planned this. He's come to make it public in His appearances. He'd given us the Holy Spirit so that we can have a confidence. Christianity's not a guessing game. It's a confident approach to knowing who God is, and it's more than that, it's confidence that when I come before God in worship, He receives me, because His Son is at His right hand. Let me finish reading just one or two more sections of this 1 Corinthians 15 before we move on and conclude. Hear Paul's reasoning here. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection for the dead? That is our own resurrection. But if there is a 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're still in your sins, then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. Think about the ramifications of what Paul's saying here. The way the Christian believes in the resurrection is so central. If he is not raised, if his bones are still in the ground somewhere, we're fools today. You're wasting your time and I'm wasting my breath. But if he is raised, that tomb's empty. Think of the investment you're making with your whole life. Think about what it means to now say, I'm going to love God with all my heart. He's raised so that we can know him and love him. Paul makes it very clear, the centrality of the resurrection and the faith. He must be alive. It's central. Let's jump down to verse 50. As we conclude. As Paul concludes, I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality, When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the immoral puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. but thanks be to God who gave us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We're meditating upon a victory this morning. A victory that has been surely won in the resurrection, a victory that is now being empowered with Christ being the right hand, but a victory we're still longing for to be completed. And let's just focus on those words. When the trumpet sounds, when that burst breaks forth from heaven, Christ descends. And He takes away death forever. To never be suffered again. He takes away sin forever to never be tempted again. This is why we sing the words of it as well. Longing for that day where we're no longer fighting sin and afraid of death and fighting Satan. The Lord haste the day when my faith will be sight. The clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trumpet will sound. The Lord will descend. And this is the key phrase. Even so. That day when the glorious God is coming down from the sky. And our sin becomes so evident, but the glory of God Himself comes down. Even so, it is well with my soul, because Christ died for our sins, and He rose again to give us His own life, to make us His own. If you're not a believer this morning, I encourage you, do not let this day go past. Do not let another day go past. Do not leave this room without talking to somebody about what it means that you have guilt of sin and how Christ has died for you and He's risen again. You must believe to receive His life. If you are a believer, I encourage you to meditate upon the last verse. But thanks be to God. who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our sure victory. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you did not leave us alone in our sin. We thank you that you did not stop loving us when we stopped loving you. We thank you that you did not let us continue in our own futile fight against you. You sent your own son to be our victor, to give us a victory we could not win for ourselves. We thank you that you did not spare your own son. We thank you that you loved us even while we were sinners. We thank you that you have given us new life. Help us, Lord. Give us wisdom. Give us encouragement. Give us the stirring up we need to recognize how to have confidence and delight in the new life Christ has risen for us to enjoy. In his name we pray, amen.