 Anyway, let's open our Bibles together to Mark's gospel. We're gonna look at chapter 16 verses one through eight as we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mark chapter 16 verses one through eight. What I'll do, what I normally do in any Bible study here for those who are visitors today is I like to lay a foundation so that you can get a picture of what is taking place. I like to develop that. It usually takes several minutes to lay the foundation. Then we move into the passage and we look at it verse by verse. So today we'll be looking at Mark 16, one through eight. I'll begin reading at verse one, read to verse eight. I'll give that introduction and then move into our study. Mark chapter 16, beginning at verse one, reading to verse eight. Mark writes, now when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, bought spices that they might come and anoint him. Very early in the morning on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen and they sat among themselves who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us. But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away for it was very large. In entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white, a long white robe sitting on the right side. They were alarmed. But he said to them, do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth who has crucified. He has risen. He's not here. See the place where they laid him. But go tell his disciples and Peter that he's going before you into Galilee. There you will see him as he said to you. So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. So we're gathering today to celebrate, to celebrate the cornerstone of our faith. We're here to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, why is this so important to us as Christians? Well, somebody said Easter is important because Christianity revolves around the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Jesus did not die for our sins or if Jesus did not rise again after three days, then the entire hope of Christianity is based upon nothing but a lie. Christianity would be meaningless because our sins would not be forgiven. And that's what the apostle Paul said in his writings in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 14 and 15. Paul said, if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God. For we have testified about God that he raised Jesus Christ from the dead. And so we celebrate, we celebrate because it fulfills God's promise that he would rescue us, that he would rescue us from himself, that he would rescue us from his judgment. Now, when you look in your Bible, you'll see that God had a plan of redemption all the way from the beginning, all the way back to the book of Genesis that already began in the Garden of Eden. It was in this paradise that Adam had taken of the forbidden fruit and it's in that paradise that death had entered into the world. Paul writes in Romans 5-12 that sin entered the world through one man and death through sin. And in this way, death came to all people because all sin, because in Adam, all sin, Adam is called the federal head of humanity, representing all of us. We have received of his nature, which has fallen. So Adam sinned, his nature was fatally corrupted and then he passed that nature on to us. That's why the writer of Ecclesiastes in chapter seven, verse 20 would say, indeed there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins. In Romans 3-23, Paul said it like this. He said, I'll have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So sin entered the world, but though it had, God determined to rescue us from its consequences. In Genesis chapter three, verse 15, God promised that he would send Messiah. The Messiah would crush the head of the serpent, though the serpent would bruise the heel of Messiah. And that happened at the cross when Jesus died. And that happened when he was later resurrected. When you read your Bible, you'll see in the Old Testament there are many prophecies that concern the Messiah's death and resurrection. Daniel chapter nine, for example, verse 26 reveals to us that Messiah would be killed, but not for himself. Psalm 41, verse nine tells us that Messiah would be betrayed by a close friend. Zechariah 11, verse two informs us that he would be sold for 30 pieces of silver. Zechariah 13, verse seven predicts that Messiah will be abandoned and forsaken by his disciples. Isaiah 50, verse six tells us that he is going to be scourged and mocked. It reads, I gave my back to the smiders and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting. Isaiah 53, 7 prophesied he would be sacrificed as a lamb who was led to the slaughter. As harsh as all of these prophecies seem to be, we are not left without hope. Messiah would suffer many things, but Messiah would ultimately triumph. Though he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, he would not remain in the tomb. We read, you will not abandon my soul to shield or let your holy ones see corruption. So Jesus made it clear he would die, but would be raised from the dead. Jesus, when he began his ministry as recorded in John 219 said, destroy this temple in three days, I will raise it up. When he was teaching his apostles, he made it clear that he would die, but he also made it clear he'd be resurrected. In Mark 8, 31, it says he began to teach that the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, be killed that after three days rise again. So Easter fulfills these prophecies that were given concerning Messiah. In Isaiah 53 verses three through six, it reads he is despised, rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised, we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs, carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. Nechastisement for our peace was upon him, by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they took of that forbidden fruit and God had said in the day that they ate of it, they would surely die and they did spiritually and by their disobedience, sin entered the world and with sin came physical death. Because of wages of sin is death, Jesus took upon himself flesh and he died for us. He took the penalty of sin that we should have paid ourselves, he took that penalty upon himself. Like you said in Matthew 20 verse 28, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. So in order to point towards the work of Messiah, God established festivals for the nation of Israel. One of those festivals we know is Passover. It's a time to remember Israel's deliverance from Egypt and at that time sacrificial lambs would be slain intending to point to the work of Messiah. In 1 Peter 1 18 and 19, the apostle said, you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. And it was at this festival that Jesus voluntarily gave up his life for us on that cross. Now as mentioned from the beginning of his ministry to its completion, Jesus had said he would die. He clearly told his men that he would die, but he also told them that he would be resurrected. In Matthew 20 verses 17 through 19, it reads as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. He took the 12 disciples aside and said to them, we're going to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified on the third day he will be raised to life. Well at this point, his men knew that Jesus had been betrayed. They knew that he had gone to the cross and they were fully aware that he had died. They knew he had been crucified. They knew he is dead and they knew he had been buried. All of that had occurred on the previous Friday, but now it's Sunday morning, very early. It's been three days, but it might as well have been three years. And it was hard. It was hard for them to believe that it all had come down to this. Just a week before Jesus had ridden on a full of a donkey into Jerusalem, he had been surrounded by a multitude of people. They were all shouting. They were all welcoming him. In Mark 11, nine and 10, it says those who went before and those who followed cried out. Saying, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, blessed is the kingdom of our Father David that comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. And as he had entered in the scripture tells us many had spread their clothes and palm branches on the road before him. And the atmosphere was electric. It was charged with jubilation and excitement. And this was the beginning of a very momentous week in the life of Jesus and his men. On Monday, he went to Jerusalem. He cursed a barren fig tree. He cleansed the temple on Tuesday on the Mount of Olives. He taught him on the end times. He spoke of his second coming. He spoke of final judgment on Wednesday. He rested on Thursday. He celebrated Passover. He washed the feet of his disciples, including the feet of Judas, the one who betrayed him. And it was then that he instituted communion using bread and wine as symbols of the life he was yielding up on our behalf. And he commanded all his followers to remember him. When supper had ended, he went to a garden. And it was there that Judas, one of his trusted apostles, betrayed him. When that happened, his disciples forsook him and fled. And as you read your scriptures, he was led away and he was tried. At that trial, Jesus was sentenced to death and was crucified on Friday. Now at this point, I wanna consider what Jesus' disciples have been through. They had to have gone through incredible trauma. They've lost their hero, Jesus Christ. This miracle-working man had been taken and he'd been killed. They had seen it when Jesus walked on water. They were there when he miraculously fed thousands. They were there when he commanded storms to be still. They saw him make blind men see. The crippled men walked. He cleansed lepers. He raised the dead. He was undefeated in debates with religious experts. He would silence them. He was love. He was loving human flesh. He was a welcoming and transforming man who would transform the outcasts and he welcomed the sinners to come to him to be forgiven and cleansed. He was invincible. Yet he'd been taken. He'd been tortured. He'd been crucified and he died. And his followers were confused. They had forsaken him. They were in fear and they were hiding. This had all happened on Friday. It's fresh in their minds, but now it's early, Sunday morning. And that's where we pick up our story. It says in verse one of chapter 16, when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, bought spices that they might come and anoint him. So these women have come to the tomb and notice it says that they're bringing spices to anoint his body. When Jesus died on Friday, the burial for him was done quickly. They've come to finish the burial of Jesus, believing that he deserves more honor. You see two of his disciples, a man named Joseph and another by the name of Nicodemus had secured his body for burial. And these women had followed the men in order to know where Jesus was being buried. In Luke 23, verses 55 and 56, it says the women who had come with him from Galilee followed after and they observed the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. They rested on the Sabbath, according to the commandment. Well, Joseph and Nicodemus had hastily prepared Jesus's body for burial. The Jews didn't embalm dead bodies. They anointed them. And these women came to finish the procedure by anointing the body of Christ. That was to offset the smell of decay. It was an act of love and an act of honor for Jesus. And that's what Mark is meaning when he says that they might come and anoint him. Now that provides for us proof, by the way of his death in the burial. It proves to us that it was in a hopes. He did not fake his own death in order to deceive people into believing that he had risen. He didn't faint. He did not pretend to be dead and then roll away the stone. He was dead. Jesus died at three in the afternoon and bodies were not to remain on a cross on the Sabbath. So a special request is made for Jesus's body to be removed so that might be buried. In Mark 1543, it says Joseph took courage and went into the governor and asked for the body. By requesting his body, he was revealing that he was a believer something he had not yet done. So Joseph and another man by the name of Nicodemus had taken his body and had given him a king's burial. It may be that they didn't give him the honor he deserved while alive and therefore they wanted to give him honor in his death. Well, it's now very early in the morning. Notice verse two, very early in the morning on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. The women arrived early Sunday morning at dawn. It's still dark. This is really a demonstration that they hadn't listened closely to him though, as he taught, because Jesus had prepared his disciples for this day. He knew that they would be overwhelmed with what they were about to go through. In Matthew 17, 22 and 23, it says, while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men and they will kill him. And on the third day, he will be raised up. And when he said that, Matthew goes on to say they were exceedingly sorrowful. You see, before he had been taken, Jesus had once again attempted to prepare them. In John 16, 20, he said, most assuredly I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy. So he taught them. He taught them he would die and he taught them he would be resurrected. He wanted them to know and to believe that death did not have the final victory. But that message was too deep for them to understand. You see, in all human experience, death is absolutely final. We all know that. You go to a funeral and you know it's final. There are times that you might wish that it weren't. And sometimes you might even be there and mourning at a funeral service and saying, oh, I wish you would just come back, be alive. I still remember my grandmother. My grandmother is from Mexico. And when she was a little girl, she went to the funeral of one of her relatives. And they were there inside this small church. And you know, people are mourning and crying saying, oh, I wish you were still here with us. I wish you were still with us. Oh, that you would come alive and they didn't embalm this person who was in the casket and rigor mortis set in and the body sat up and everybody ran out of that chapel. So you can say that all day long. I wish you weren't dead, but what would you do? See, we all know that death is inevitable, that it comes upon all of us. We know that. And so what happens is we need to just understand it. Like Job 14, one and two says, man who was born of woman is a few days in full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and fades away. He flees like a shadow and does not continue. You see, there are very few things that speak with the authority and finality of a funeral. And the funeral is intended really to cause us to consider how brief life is and to realize that death is inevitable for all of us. Ecclesiastes seven two says it like this, better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will take it to heart. So when you go to a funeral, it causes you a sobriety that a party never will give you. When you go to a funeral and you see what takes place and you experience a grief in the morning and the sorrow, it awakens you to the brevity of your own life. When you're young and you begin to think, oh, I'm gonna live forever. As you grow older, you realize you won't. I still remember a funeral that I performed here in this church many, many years ago, a funeral that I was asked to perform. And it was a young girl. She was in high school, she was 17. And she had gotten in an argument with her boyfriend and he had taken off and he was driving down Riverside Drive going east. And she was angry and she was gonna catch up with him. And so she began to pass cars to try and catch him on Riverside Drive when she passed a car and went headlong into a van of a young mother with her two children. And this young woman, as well as the occupants in the other van were killed. And they asked me to perform the funeral. And I did it in the chapel right over there. And as I was sharing, there were all these young people. And they were just kind of laughing. They were giggling amongst themselves. I'll never forget that. And I had a funeral prepared, a script that I read. And when I was watching the way these high school age children were acting, I just closed my notes and I spoke to them from the heart. And I shared with them. You may be young right now, but you're not young forever. You may think that your life is gonna go on for a long time, but you have no promise or guarantee. When I was 17, 18, 19, I buried several friends. I went to funerals for friends, people who shouldn't have died. People who got killed, Reika Saleh, who got shot in the head and killed by a guy named Pete. I saw actually by a guy named Mark, a Mike. I saw a guy, Freddie Reyes, who died of an overdose of reds. I went to funerals for my friend, David Smith, who got loaded as riding his motorcycle and was so drunk high that he hit the back of a pickup truck in his face, went straight into the corrugated bumper and he died instantly. And I started seeing friends who were dying. I went into Rose Hills. I used to deliver flowers for funerals. I was 17, 18 years old and I went in and I had read the card because I would place the wreath on the casket. I read the card and it said a particular name and I said, no, that can't be him. I was partying with him three days ago, but what had happened, it was him. I still remember putting the funeral wreath on a casket, looking into the face of a friend of mine that I'd been partying with just a few days before. And that's when I began to wake up and I began to realize life is brief. You have no guarantee. You may think you're gonna live forever, but you're not. And I remember speaking to these young people and I began to share those things with them and close the funeral service. And years later, I gave this story as I just did and I got a lady approached me afterwards and she said, you don't know the end of that story. I said, no, that's how I saw it end. She said, what happened is this, my brother was the one who was being chased by the young woman. He was at the funeral service that you gave and he gave his heart to Jesus Christ that day when you spoke and shared the brevity of life because you don't know how long you're gonna live. You don't know how many days you have. We can assume that we have many, but I tell you as you grow older, you begin to realize that the road ahead is much briefer than the road behind. And you realize that you're moving in a direction and ultimately, as I'll do, we will stand before our holy God given account of our lives. And that's why Jesus Christ came so that he would take the punishment we deserve upon himself, that he might forgive us of our sins which has caused a separation between us and our God so that he might forgive us and give to us something we don't deserve, his grace and his love and his mercy and the promise of life. And that's why Jesus came. That's why we celebrate the resurrection because he lives, we shall live with him. And that's the key, isn't it? That's what it is. That's what the Lord would have us to know. Sometimes believers may forget that we've been taught about this resurrection, but viewing the body of a loved one has an impact that's immeasurable. And the grief that you experience can be sobering. When you stand and you look in the face of your mother, you look in the face of your father, when you look in the face of a friend, time seems to stop for just a moment. It stops. I cannot tell you how many times I've, after doing a funeral or seeing my mom or my dad or a loved one, seeing them off to heaven, how I've driven home on that freeway. And it seems to me as if I'm the only car on the road. I'm so locked into my memories and my thoughts. Some of you know what I mean by that. You're locked in. There's nothing around you. It's just you in that moment. Funerals are sobering. Funerals are sobering. It's better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting because you get an idea of how short your life really is. Jesus had prepared them, but this was still beyond belief. Their actions as understandable to go into anoint this, his body, they're understandable because they loved him, but it's also an evidence of their doubt because Jesus had said he would be raised. They were taught that death didn't have the final victory. They should have been rejoicing at its defeat. In John 14, 28, Jesus said it like this. He said, you have heard me say to you, I am going away and coming back to you. If you loved me, you'd rejoice. Because I said, I'm going to the father for my father's greater than I. Well, they're at the tomb. They have a question and they need the question answered. Verse three, who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us? The stone they're speaking of is in the shape of a wheel. It's on an incline. It would roll into a groove that was cut out of rock and it would seal that tomb. It weighed 3,000, 4,000 pounds or so. It was impossible for these women to roll that very heavy stone back up the incline. So their unbelief had provoked them to create an imaginary need that was impossible to meet. As this is taking place, verse four, when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away. It was very large. And so as they're looking up, they see that it's gone. Their concern has been answered. They didn't need anyone to roll away the stone. Matthew 28, two says an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it. And that was done. That was done to allow the women entrance into the tomb, not to let Jesus out. In verse five, entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side and they were alarmed. But he said to them, do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth who has crucified. He's risen. He's not here. See the place where they laid him. So they entered in and there's an angel. This angel is the one that Matthew mentioned. And in the Bible, they often appear in human form and they're startled as any of us would be. So he speaks and he says, don't be alarmed. Fear not, in other words, calm down. And then he says in verse six, he's risen. He's not here. See the place where they laid him. You've come to the right tomb, but Jesus is no longer here. This is visible proof. The place that he had been laid to rest is now empty. What are they to do? Verse seven, go tell his disciples, notice and Peter that he's going before you into Galilee. There you will see him as he said to you. Tell his disciples and Peter, even though they had fled that night in the garden, these disciples had forsaken him and fled. He's bringing a word of encouragement to him. And there's something else I want to note with you. Tell his disciples and Peter. Now, earlier in his ministry, Jesus had given a parable, a parable of the lost sheep. Shepard had left other sheep. He went looking for a lost one. And like that lost sheep, Jesus was welcoming his disciples home. He still does, by the way. But Peter especially needed comfort because Peter is the one who said, I will never deny you. He boasted about that. Though all work to deny you, I never will. Jesus, I love you. I am the one you refer to as the rock. Remember, I'm the rock. I'm rocky and you know that. And though these other people may claim to love you, I want you to know that my love for you is greater than these men. I'm the one that you gave revelation knowledge. Remember when we were in Caesarea Philippi and you had asked that question, who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? Do you remember how the names came out? John, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. Remember that? Do you remember how I said to you, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And do you remember how you said, bless that I use Simon by Jonah. Flesh and blood does not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven, you remember that? I'm the one who receives revelation. I am the one who is the leader. I'm the one who walked on water. None of these guys did. There I was taking a walk towards you and they're all sitting there saying, go for it, Peter. But here I am walking while they're sitting in a boat. I am that guy. I want you to know I love you more than anybody else. I want you to know they love you. You know, I'll give them credit, little credit. I'm your man and I would die for you. How many of us have ever said to the Lord, oh God, I will, I will, when in fact we get weak and we blow it and we blow it so poorly, so badly, you think there's no place of forgiveness. Have you ever been there? I have. Have you ever been so guilty in your heart because you aren't what you're supposed to be? People respect you but they don't know what's going on inside of you. I have. Have you ever felt like you failed God so much that there's no hope for you? I have. Did you want to know something about our God? There's always hope with him. He is quick to forgive us of our sins. And I've learned that too. Failed miserably. Go and tell Peter. Tell the disciples and Peter because Peter denied Jesus three times. Three times he denied Jesus. When he had denied him the third time, Luke tells us that Jesus was being led past the apostle Peter and that Jesus had looked at Peter and Peter had locked eyes with Jesus and when that happened you can imagine the blood rushing from his head to his feet. You can imagine how he awakened to what he had just done. He had denied the Lord and failed miserably and Luke tells us that he went out and he wept bitterly. He was a broken-hearted man. I wonder how many broken-hearted people we have in here. How many are watching right now online? How many broken-hearted, broken, broken people? How did I get here? How did I get here? Started out well. Every Bible study there was at church I went to. All the events I served. How did I end up here? I'll never forget a young woman approaching me just after a church service many years ago. And she walked up to me. She said, pastor, I need prayer. She said, on my way here today I stopped to see an old boyfriend of mine. On my way to church, I ended up in bed with him. God help me a sin. I wonder how many people here can understand that kind of thing. It's Good Friday. You go to a service, then you end up at a bar later that night. It's Saturday between Good Friday and Sunday. You end up doing something you never thought you could do. Getting angry at somebody, doing a violent act, doing something immoral. Doing a drug. There's a lot of people like that. It's not right to do any of those things. I certainly wouldn't be preaching permission. Jesus never permitted it. But when broken and repentant, he forgave. I didn't come to call the well. I came to call the sick. I didn't call the righteous but sinners to repentance. That's the grace of our God. That's the grace of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He loves us. And he did that. For the apostle Peter, you have failed miserably. My love and my grace is sufficient for your recovery. And so what happens, verse eight, they went out quickly and fled from the tomb for they trembled and were amazed and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. They went out quickly. They said nothing. They're afraid at first to speak so they're not daring to say anything. But ultimately they finally did go. They went and told the apostles. And by their writings, the apostles have told us. What have they told us? Let me share with you a couple of things. What do they share with us? What do these men share with us that's important for us to know? Well, one, obviously, sin is terrible. Sin is terrible. Why? Because it separates us from God. Not only that, it results in eternal condemnation and sin affects every element of us. It corrupts us in our internal being. It corrupts us from the inside out. Like the Bible says in Romans 3, 10, there's none righteous, no, not one. It's terrible because sin is part of who we are. It's our nature without Christ. And it affects us. They also told us that it's because of our sin nature that we fail to be what we want to be. We want to be better. Oh, God, help me. I wish I want to, but I can't. The will is with me, the ability to perform that which I desire is not. I want to be better than I am. And I keep failing before I got saved. That was one of my last kinds of prayers that I actually hadn't prayed for years, but just before I got saved, I still remember I would say something like this to God. I was 20 years old and I would say to God, help me. I'm messed up, I'm messed up, Jesus. I didn't know what the words, God, help me. I am sick. There's something wrong with me. My dad sent me to a psychologist to try and help me get well. I was an alcoholic at the age of 1920. I was confirmed as an alcoholic. I didn't drink to drink. I drank to get drunk. And I wasn't a one beer or two beer or three beer. I was a six-pack. I was in a glass of wine. I was a half gallon. That's what I was. And the drugs were the same weight. I got arrested three different times for drug-related offenses. And I finally, I still remember just before I, I almost died of an alcohol drug overdose. I was laying in the back seat of my, actually, and I had put a mattress in the back of my station wagon. I drank almost a half gallon of wine and dropped five breads. And anybody who understands what second all is, and you can have what is called barbiturate poisoning. A guy I knew named Freddie Reyes had died that way. Jimmy Hendricks and Janice Joplin, many people had died of those kinds of things. And I was familiar with them. I'd gone to the funeral of Freddie Reyes who had died in that way. And I'm laying there and I'm about 19 years old. And I'm paralyzed because it paralyzes you. You can't move your face. I couldn't move it to the left or the right. I was just looking up and I started to want to vomit. And I knew I was going to drown in my own vomit. I knew that. And that's the first time I prayed in a long time. And I said, God, help me. I'm too young to die. So I've been there. I know what that's like. I know what that's like. And I know the grace of God and how deep God's grace goes. You can go simply deep, but his grace goes deeper still and he will lift you out of that. If you ask him, he will forgive you. That's why Christ died on the cross because sin is horrible and it ends up with judgment. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And then there's a point, it's a point in and to mend to die once and after this judgment, we stand before God. And we're judged. The God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He demonstrated his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He didn't die for perfect people. He died for sinners. That's why we love him. He took upon himself the sin of the world, including ours in 1 Peter 3 18. Christ suffered when he died for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners that he might bring us safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the spirit. They told us that our salvation is resting on the fact of his resurrection. Because if Jesus were not resurrected, we would still be dead in our sins. In 1 Corinthians 15 17, Paul said, if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins, but because he lives, we live in him. We live because he's alive. In 1 Peter 1 3, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And when we came to Jesus, our sins were completely forgiven. We received a brand new life. Since sin separates us from God, we repent. We don't regret. We repent. Now there's regret. Of course I can have an emotional sense. I've done wrong. I've hurt somebody. But repentance is a change of mind which leads to a change of behavior. It's not just feeling bad. Judas felt bad. He went and tried to return the money that he had gotten, 30 pieces of silver. He tried to return it. They said, what is that to us? You see to it. He threw the money at their feet. He went out and promptly hanged himself. He had regret, but he didn't repent. The apostle Peter repented. That's why he was restored. Judas never did. He simply was sorry. It's not enough to feel sorrow. That's part of it. But God is calling us to change. That comes through repentance. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And when you come to faith in Christ, if any man being Christ is a new creation, all things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. All things are become new. I'm married to a woman who would not have dated me if she had met me as an unbeliever because my life was such a bad life. I was the guy she was warned about by her father and mother. Stay away from that guy. That was me. When I gave my heart to Christ, I became the kind of man that would be worthy of the kind of love she has for me. Because God changes you. That's what happens. Jesus Christ conquered the grave. And because he did, we're overcomers now. We have hope for the future. We have the power of God's spirit within us. We're transformed daily. We experience love. We have peace in a hostile world. We're blessed by God. And we have the promise of heaven awaiting us. One of these days, and it won't be long, we're gonna see him face to face. And we're gonna be able to worship him. Now we love him, having not seen him. Then we shall see him face to face. And when we see him, all we're gonna be able to do is raise our hands and say, oh God, you're too much. Thank you for what you did. Thank you for forgiving me of my sins. Thank you for the life you gave me. Jesus, thank you for what you've done. That's what we'll do. And it all hinges on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Revelation 22.17, the spirit and the bride say, come and let the one who hears, say, come. Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. I got saved, little doper, little drunk, little liar and little thief that I was. My dad, my mom, watched me as a father and mother would watch a son. And then I had the opportunity because of a changed life and a real belief that they were gonna go to hell. I actually told them that. I said, daddy, you're a good man. You're the best man I'll ever know. But daddy, I said, daddy, you're a good man. Daddy, you'll be the best man in hell if you don't give your heart to Christ. I said, daddy, I love you. And I don't wanna go to heaven without you. Bow your head. You're gonna receive Christ right now. And my dad did and my mom did. And they came to faith in Jesus Christ. And that's why when I did both of their memorial services I sorrowed. I lost my dad in a way. Mama's gone. I sorrowed, but not as the sorrow of the world. The sorrow of the world has no hope. I sorrowed because I grieved because I lost the ones I loved so deeply, but I didn't sorrow in a way that hopeless. I sorrowed with the knowledge that one day I will see them again face to face because they're in heaven. And I sorrowed with hope. There are some in this room. There's some watching. There's some outside. You were raised in a Christian home. You served the Lord sometimes. And you're backslidden. You've walked away. You need to come home. There are some who have never given their hearts to Christ in this room, watching online right now. You need to come to faith in Him today. Today, while it is called today, you need to come to faith in Him. You need to say, God, forgive me a sinner. I have sinned against you and thought and things I've said, the things that I've done. God, be merciful to me, have a sinner. I can't take it anymore. I was sharing and I'll close with this last Friday about the thief on the cross and the thing that touched me and it touched me deeply. And I don't even know why, perhaps. I was just in the season of life that that meant something more to me because I've known this story for 50 over 50 years. As a Christian. But when he's looking at the thief on the cross is looking at Jesus and he says, remember me. Lord, remember me. It hit me in the core of my being because I was the one who nobody remembered. I was the one that felt like the invisible man. I was the one at a party and I felt that I was alone. I was always alone. I was always alone. For years. And then one day the Lord said, though others may not know your name, I call my sheep by name and I know you. And I got to realize that it doesn't matter if anybody knows my name. It matters because he does. And when that thief said, Lord, remember me. You understand people like me, Jesus. I don't have anybody here watching me die. I'm alone. I lived a life that deserves the death. I'm suffering. But as a dying man, I'm speaking to a dying savior. Remember me? And what did Jesus say? Today, you shall be with me in paradise. I will remember you. I remember you. He didn't do a single good deed, did he? Didn't get water baptized, did he? Never went to a church service, did he? He simply looked at Jesus and said, I've done wrong and I'm worthy of this death. You have done nothing wrong. Remember me? And Jesus said, I remember you. And he remembers you too, because you gave your heart to Christ. Doesn't matter if nobody knows you, he does. And that's where it all begins and that's where it all ends. And if you haven't given your heart to Jesus Christ, today's your day. This service is designed with you in mind. We are believers. We celebrate the resurrection. You have yet to give your heart to Christ. It's your opportunity to do so right now. Father, I ask that you would work with me.