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Welcome to the Grace Church Messages Podcast! These are the weekly Sunday messages from Grace Church in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area. Listen to biblical teaching from our weekend services to help you understand Scripture, follow Jesus in your everyday life, and grow in your faith. Perfect for the morning commute, the treadmill, or wherever life happens.
Lord no rival indeed, who could ever compare with you? Thank you. Today the Lord, we can come together and worship and you sort of align our hearts once again with the truth of who you are. Lord, thank you, Father. We pray today for those serving in our military forces around the world. We also pray, Lord, for other brothers and sisters who are serving you like Pastor Joseph last week.
What a gift to hear his testimony. And they're in places where they face persecution and insecurity. And Lord, we pray that you would be their confidence, that you would comfort those who suffer just simply because of their faith in you and Lord, that if they would find you to be the one who grants peace, that guards hearts and minds, a peace that passes understand.
And Lord, for each one here and those engaging online in various places, Lord, we pray that you would be our peace, that in the midst of whatever we face, Lord, that that we could say, But Jesus, but Jesus so Lord, encourage us in that vein, as we look into your Word, we bless you and your name. And everyone said, Hey, man, Amen, So good to worship with you.
Each of our campuses. Someone asked me this week, earlier in the week, they said, Hey, PJ, how do you deal with the disappointments in life? I didn't know if they were talking about my fantasy football team or maybe on a more serious level election results from Tuesday or strife in the Middle East or in Ukraine, or maybe for some people that I love and care about who are dealing with, you know, health issues, I wonder, how would you respond to that question?
How do you deal with the disappointments that come your way? How do you how do you process things that that cause anxiety? They just go this is part of the brokenness of of this might be really personal for you. It may not be something happen out in the world, but it could be your health or the health of someone you really love.
It could be that you didn't get the job or the promotion that you really thought. Like, Wow, I thought I had really a shot at that. Or maybe it's the absence of a relationship that you've been praying for and you just the right person doesn't seem to serve all kinds of different things that can cause us disappointment. How do you deal with the disappointments of life?
You know, the reality is that we can prepare for disappointment. At least we can't prepare for specific disappointments because we don't know what's going to come. We don't know what's in the year ahead. But there is something that we can do. And it's this you can prepare yourself. Let me say this. What you can you can build a foundation for your life that even if you don't know what's ahead, what disappointments are lurking around the corner, that that you can know that that whatever happens that you say.
But I know that I have a foundation that can't be shaken. Yeah, you can know what kind of person you're going to be. By God's grace when you arrive at the disappointment. Here's the essential point. We learn to reframe our anxieties. We reframe, in other words, our disappointments. We see them in the light of a bigger picture and a picture we're going to be reminded of our message today.
Here's one of my favorite authors. Tim Keller puts it. In fact, he said there's just not long before he died of cancer a few months ago, Tim said this. He said, if Jesus Christ was actually raised from the dead, if he really got up, walked out, was seen by hundreds of people, talk to them. If he was raised from the dead, then you know what?
Everything is going to be all right. Would you say that with me? Everything is going to be all right. Whatever you're worried about right now, whatever you're afraid of, everything is actually going to be okay. How do I deal with disappointment? I reframe it in light of the fact that Jesus Christ is alive today and nobody can defeat him.
And he's going to win the ultimate victory in the end. Let's turn to first Corinthians chapter 15, our passage for today, and see how Paul puts it and how he helps us to reframe disappointments, reframe any kind of suffering, reframe our anxieties in the light of this. Absolutely foundational history shaping event. First Corinthians 15, by the way, sermon notes available as you walked in, those of you engaging online, you can find about our homepage and again, friends at Olmsted Falls really grateful for you and and brothers at Lorain Correctional.
Just heard that this past weekend you had the Alpha Day away, many of you, and there was a great time together. And those in our online community. Really glad to have you with us today. Here's what Paul says about the gospel, the core of our faith, verse one. Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel.
I preach to you the gospel meaning good news. This is the good news I preach to you, which you have received, in which you have taken your stand. Like this is the basis for you to stand not just not too proud, not to collapse, not by this gospel. You are saved if you hold firmly to the word I preach to you.
Otherwise you are believed in vain for what I receive. I passed on to you as a first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures that He was buried, that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to surface and then to the 12. After that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep, that as they have died.
Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. And last of all, he appeared to me also as to one abnormally born friends. It's because of what Paul writes of here. The day on which the greatest event ever occurred, and the reason that the church in the first century and ever since almost every sector of the of the Christian church now worships on Sunday instead of Saturdays, because Sunday is the day we celebrate something shook the world and it's the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In the next few minutes, I want to highlight six realities. The resurrection that take it from being is not just some kind of theological. This is. This is how we deal with disappointments, with anxiety, with death, with suffering. All of the brokenness of this world are met in. And what Jesus did when that stone was rolled away. Here's number one.
Jesus resurrection is the intellectual basis for the Christian faith. Paul starts off verse one and he says, This is the gospel you receive and on which you have taken your stand. We stand on that. That's what he says. Whatever doubts or questions we may have. And it's we all have doubts. And I mean, I have questions right. It comes back to this.
Did Jesus actually come back to life if he did? It changes everything. And if he didn't, then what we're doing today is pointless. Here's the corollary of that. By the way, anyone who does not believe has to come to grips with the evidence of Jesus coming back from death. You can't you can't ignore this one. This is you can't ignore it.
Either way, whether it did or didn't happen, it changes everything. Because if a person actually comes back from death, you have to reckon with who that person is. You have to pay attention to what they say. Right? If you ask someone in the workplace who you went to their funeral, they died and next week they show back up at work.
You'd go, Wow, there's something about you, right?
The resurrection is a game changer. Listen to how Paul continues what he says about our faith. If this actually did not happen, verse 13, I'm going to read the New Living translation for this section. He says This verse 13 for If there is no resurrection and listen to the words that he uses about even our gathering today, if this didn't happen, if there's no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either.
And if Christ has not been raised, then all of our preaching is useless and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God, for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. And that can't be true if there's no resurrection of the dead. And if there's no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised.
And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is what useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost. And if our hope and Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.
He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. What's Paul's point? The resurrection of Jesus is everything. Everything. If he really came back to life, you can't ignore him. And if he didn't, if Jesus didn't come out alive from a Jerusalem cemetery, our gathering here today, those of you, this is this is a waste of our time, right?
Not only that, our faith is useless. It's it's a joke. Paul says Christianity would just be a sad hoax. So facts matter. Approaching this on an intellectual basis matters. You'll see the evidence in your notes. There have been books written on this. I've just summarized a few that have been important in the history of the church. For starters, an empty tomb.
If Jesus enemies had wanted to put a stop to this movement of Christ followers and the resurrection account, they could have just said, okay, here, here's the body, right? They never did that. Josephus and other historians, secular historians, would have written about that. Not only that, there were hundreds of eyewitnesses who saw Jesus after he came back from death.
Verse five says this He was seen by Peter and then by the world. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive. What is Paul Paul's writing like 25 years after the fact? Most of these people are still alive. And so just as Paul implies that they could have gone to the witnesses and said, hey, did you actually like did you actually see Jesus alive after his crucifixion in over 500 people would have said, Absolutely, with my own eyes.
And it was amazing. I couldn't I didn't believe it at first. And then I saw him and I touched him and I there's also the number of transformed disciples who became Christian martyrs. It's fair to ask, would they have really think of Pastor Joseph last week in a bomb is put on the bottom of his car. It explodes.
He almost loses his life. He thinks he's lost his sight. If he knew secretly in the first century, let's say, and he knew that Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, you think he'd still continue? He'd go, You know what? I'm not taking that kind of risk of my faith right? And then there's the growth of the church, the life change of countless people over 20 centuries, about one third of the world's population today who would say, I believe that Jesus Christ is the promised one, the Messiah sent from God Himself from heaven into our broken world.
Hundreds of people claim to be a messiah only one of them inspires the devotion of people all over the world. Today, it's key to examine the evidence. It's okay to say, I need to wrestle with this and check for those who follow Jesus. The resurrection is the intellectual basis. It's not just like I believe, in spite of the evidence against.
No, no, I believe because of the evidence. And friends, listen to this. If it did not happen, we're fools for believing it. And if it did happen, we're fools for ignoring it. Let me just say one more time. If it did not happen, we're fools for believing it. And if it did happen, we'd be forced to ignore it.
Yeah, If it's true, it has to become personal. You put your trust in Jesus and you invite him into your life. You say, Jesus, if you rose from the dead, you are King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And you are worthy of my life. My praise. Another reality, the resurrection. If you really came back from death, he has the ability to free you from your fear of death.
Let me drop down to verse 57. Pastor Scott had a great message a few weeks ago on this section of First Corinthians 15, and it bears repeating verse 57, Paul says, Death has been what swallowed up a light that swallowed up in victory. Where death is your victory, where death is your sting. And he goes on, Thanks be to God, He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Friends, very first Easter, Jesus conquered death No one else had over ever overcome death before some my goal. I thought Jesus raised people from death like he raised that little girl and you know, other people he did. You're right. But those people all eventually. What? They died. Jesus is the first fruits, Paul says. The first of a harvest of many, he says, who came back to life and and he never died.
He 40 days later, he ascended to heaven. And Jesus says, If you believe in me, you will never die. You go, How does that happen? I believe with others, Bible teachers, that that at the moment that your body is ready to give out, that your soul is your soul never dies. Right? To die. It is means to depart and be with Christ, which Paul says is better by far.
Yeah. And so when I invite him into my life, his eternal life becomes mine. When you invite him into your life, his eternal life becomes yours. And you don't need to fear this at home in a personal way. For Gary Habermas, when his wife Debbie, was dying of stomach cancer, Gary Habermas is a brilliant scholar, couple of earned doctorates and who just so happens to have written some books on the historic evidence of the resurrection.
But what Gary discovered is that knowing the theology isn't enough, it's his relationship with the living Christ that has carried him through. Listen to what he writes. He says, I sat on our porch. My wife was upstairs dying, except for a few weeks. She was home through it all. It was an awful thing. This was the worst thing that could possibly happen to me and our four children.
I knew if God were to come to me, I'd ask only one question. Lord, why is Debbie up there in bed? And I think God would respond by asking gently, Gary, did I raise my son from the dead? I'd say, Come on, Lord, I've written several books on that topic. Of course, he was raised from the dead. But I want to know about Debbie, Gary says.
I think he'd keep coming back to the same question. Did I raise my son from the dead? Did I raise my son from the dead until I got to his point? The resurrection says that if Jesus was raised 2000 years ago, there's an answer to Debbie's death. Today, The resurrection is the answer. Losing my wife was the most painful experience I've ever had to face.
But if the resurrection could get me through that, it can get me through anything. If there's a resurrection, there's a heaven. If Jesus was raised, Debbie was raised. And I will be someday, too. And then I'll see her again. Friends, because Jesus has secured eternal life, it can be yours as well. He frees us from the fear of death every one of us who accepts his forgiveness is leadership and says, Jesus, I want you to come into my life and I want you to be the king of my life.
And that's where it becomes personal. I always I like to give an opportunity every so often, just a clear one to say today could be your day. And at the end of the service today, I'm going to give an opportunity. If you've never personally said Jesus, I surrender my life to you. I I've wrestled with the evidence with who you are.
I want to put my trust in you. There's a prayer on the back of your nose. I'm going to lead us in. And if today is your day, I would love for that to be the case. The stakes are high. Here's how one person has put it. If you die without trust in Christ, this life will be as close to heaven as you will ever experience.
And nothing but hell awaits you. But if you die, having placed your trust in Christ, this life is as close to hell as you will ever, ever experience. And nothing but heaven awaits you. For as we have everything to look forward to as followers of Jesus ride, there's another gift of the resurrection. And it's this He completely clears your past record of sin.
Paul makes us a theme in this chapter. I want to read a couple of the verses here. Verse three. He says, For what I received, I passed on to you as a first importance that Christ died for our sins. That's what He did for you and for me. His coming back to life was also part. He didn't just die for us since he came back to life for our sins.
Look at verse 17 If you dropped out there, he says, If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. So the mission of Jesus, listen to this. The mission of Jesus wasn't complete until he came back to life. The moment the stone was rolled away, the Jesus began to breathe again was an unmistakable sign of victory that Jesus had won, that He truly was the Savior, the Messiah, and the sin had been overcome.
Total forgiveness for everyone who trusted Him. A clean record, all of your past expunged. So some of you had a past of something. And and you know the joy when the court legally expunge your record and you walk out and you go, that no longer no one's ever going to see that on my record again, It's been expunged.
And that's what Jesus does to every single one of the failures and regrets and sins in our life. Here's the way Peter put it in First Peter chapter two. Jesus personally carried our sins in his body on the cross. He did that for you. He did it for me. Which brings us to another way Jesus wants to work in our lives today, a reality made possible by the resurrection.
And it's this if you're keeping track here, this is number four. He is always with you, giving you his power for living. Paul implies this here in first Corinthians 15 that he rose again. He is not dead. You can you can know him. You can experience him in your life. This sort of boggles my mind. I mean, it's an absolute miracle.
I think that here I am, this little speck of a person and a little speck of a planet in a corner of the universe, and that God himself having come in the person of Jesus, he he says to me, Surely I will be with you. What always when you trust him, it's his promise to you. He says, I'll never leave you or forsake you.
The Bible puts it this way in Romans Chapter eight that when you put your trust in Jesus, the spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, which means you're never alone. He lives in you. His activity did not stop when he rose again and then ascended to heaven. He cares for you personally. It's amazing, isn't it, that the God of all creation, the one who calls every star by name, he's sees you personally.
That Jesus came back from death and that we can do life with him. We're never alone. And at least to another reality made possible by the resurrection of Jesus down to verse 58. Listen, listen to what Paul says here. He says this. He says to us, Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor and the Lord is not in vain.
Can I just say, first of all, Paul is not just talking to pastors and, you know, people serving and, you know, in vocational ministry, Paul is writing to folks who are involved in business and medicine. They're teaching kids are working in the marketplace. They're leading teams. They're an engineering post, they're serving in the military, whatever they're doing, who have declared their allegiance to Jesus.
And they're saying, Lord, I'm wanting to represent you wherever I go. What I do in my job, Lord, I'm doing for you, because ultimately you're my boss. And Paul says, If Jesus really rose from the dead, he's saying this. You can have a life of purpose that makes an eternal impact. Your labor, whatever job, whatever assignment you have, is not in vain.
Friends, we were made by God and for God. And until we understand that life doesn't really ultimate make sense, right? I mean, it just you're not put on this earth just to go to school, you know, get a job, make a bunch of money, spend it, retire and die. That would be sort of depressing if you all you do is you take up space, use resources, breathe the air, and then it's it's over.
The Bible says that you were put on this earth for a purpose. You have a mission. God made you for a reason. Even before you were born, God designed you. Psalm 139 says Before one of your days came to be God knew about every one of them. Your work counts. What you do tomorrow counts God. God sees it.
He's with you in that moment. And and he wants to accomplish his purpose is through you to touch the lives of the people around you, to make your community better, to serve. And all because Jesus is alive. It counts one more promise. Because of the resurrection of of Jesus, He promises to come again as the everlasting King. He couldn't come again if he's still buried in a tomb right.
Look over at verse 51 here in first Corinthians 15, Paul says this Let me reveal to you a wonderful secret breeding in the new living translation. He says, We will not all die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown, when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever.
Their souls already in heaven, but their bodies coming back to life and we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die. Our mortal bodies must be transformed into more immortal bodies. Do you see what he says there? It's going to happen. How quickly? In a moment. And the blink of an eye.
Could happen tonight. Could happen next week. Might be in a hundred years. We have no idea. But friends, Jesus keeps his promises right. He promised that he would die in our place. And he did. He promised his disciples he would come back from death. And he did. He promised that He would send us his Holy Spirit and what he did, and he promises he's going to come back again.
And will you can mark his word, He never lives right back in that Jerusalem cemetery. Death lost. The brokenness of this world will not last forever. Jesus won, and he lives forever. And if your life and my life are attached to his, we will live forever as well. So let me come back to our original question. How do you deal with disappointment?
How do you deal with the brokenness of life? How do you face anxieties about the future? You can't prepare for specific disappointments because you don't know what they're going to be, but you can prepare your heart. You can know you have a foundation. If Jesus was raised from the dead, everything is going to be all right. Amen. And friends, if we don't accept that, there's a lingering emptiness.
I enjoy listening to some James Taylor. Anybody a James Taylor fan here? Okay, Couple here. Yeah, he's from North Carolina, where my wife is from. He's won six Grammys over this career that has spanned 50 plus years. In fact, I'd like to just sing one of his songs for you today. I heard one person clapping I wanted inflict.
There was someone at Opposite Falls, too. I want to flick that kind of pain on you. But several years ago, when he won Pop album of the year, I was sort of curious to hear what he had come out with some of his new stuff. And you know what? It was sort of a downer. It's like depressing. I was like, Wow, this is not like, you know, I'll be there, Just call up my name and, you know, and all the rest.
And there was sort of this sense of hopelessness. And I was reading an interview with James Taylor in Rolling Stone magazine, and I it helped me to understand. Here's what James Taylor said. He said these songs were spirituals for agnostics. I was trying to make sense of life without God. No wonder was hopeless, because how do you make sense of life without God?
If there is no God? If you're just a random accident of nature, then life doesn't really matter. You're not really. It's it's all like you're just here for a while and then you're gone. And that's the end of the story, right? Thankfully, the Scriptures give us the fuller picture. We can reframe our disappointments and anxieties against the story of what Jesus has done in the world and that he actually came back in history.
He came back to life. And because of that, it's a game changer for you and me when we put our trust in him. Here's the question Have you done that? Is this life the closest that you'll ever get to heaven, or is that the closest that you'll ever be to hell? It all depends. If you've surrendered your life to Jesus.
I said in the a little bit ago I wanted to give an opportunity to do that. You know, many times we're going to have a bunch of baptisms next week at our campuses and often people say, you know, I was at a during a service. I it sort of clicked for me and I put my trust in Christ.
And so I'm going to lead us in a prayer that is similar to a prayer that I prayed many years ago. Many other people here pray to grace. It doesn't really matter the exact words. It's really the posture of your heart. Are you saying, Lord, I really do want to give you my life, I want you to be the king of my life?
If you're ready to do that today, I want to invite you to pray with me. In fact, I think just so we can as a family, can we even those of you engaging online faraway places, friends at Homestead Falls, ill or incorrect, can we all pray this together aloud? And. And maybe you've made this decision the past summer, making it for the first time.
Let's let them not be alone as they prayed. It's okay. Let's sit. Let's pray. Jesus is listening and let's make this prayer ready. You'll see the words on the screen. Dear God, I like a fresh start. I don't want my life to stay the same. I invite you to take leadership of my life. Thank you for loving me and forgiving me.
Thank you for sending your son Jesus to die for my sins. Help me to understand that more. Jesus. I want to open up my life to you and get to know you. Lead me in your way. From this day forward, I want to learn to trust you. Please direct and empower me by your spirit. Thank you. Amen. Jesus.
Thank you for every person who prayed that prayer today, and for the first time, they're saying that that's I open the door of my my life to Jesus. Lord, strengthen them, help them to know you better. May your word make sense to them as they open it and they get to know you better. And Jesus, would you continue to shape all of us by your Holy Spirit, living within us, to be the kind of followers that you want us to be?
Thank you, Jesus. That you came back to life in history. Thank you for the evidence that that undergirds that we trust in you today. You are living king and we all pray together in your powerful name. And everyone said, Hey, man, what a great savior we have. Creed will stand together as we say.