[00:00:00] You're listening to Theology and Apologetics with Thomas Fretwell, bringing theology to life.
[00:00:31] As a community of believers, we greet each other this way. We want to foster as a community, we glory in the resurrection and we glory in the cross as we spoke of on Good Friday.
[00:00:43] We've been following the events of the last week of the life of Jesus leading up to this day.
[00:00:47] What I want to do with you this morning is make sure we connect those events of Good Friday to the events of Resurrection Sunday.
[00:00:54] And I always stand here, I find it quite profound that we are all here today joining together with a chorus of people stretching back to millennia who have been proclaiming that Jesus Christ is risen.
[00:01:07] And this is really the hope that undergirds our Christian life as we just sung in that song, their life is worth living because he lives.
[00:01:14] And this is the thing. As we live in a fallen world, as we rub up against the brokenness of this world, as we confront our own sin, we build scars, we have baggage in this life, we have all these different things that we feel and that really only in the light of the resurrection I believe can we actually get through.
[00:01:32] Because only with that triumph that Jesus did, when he rose three days later defeating death, all those things that he paid for on the cross are life is really worth living with Jesus.
[00:01:42] And that is for what 2000 years the church has been proclaiming in times of Good and times when things are bad so we can do that too.
[00:01:51] And let's take a look at the world today. I mean, I've spoken with many of you, the world is a crazy confusing place right now, the world very much seems bereft of hope.
[00:02:00] In fact, I would say we live in an age that is saturated by feelings of hopelessness all around us. If you just Google this issue today it's actually they call it the epidemic of hopelessness psychology today coin that term the epidemic of hopelessness.
[00:02:15] And there are hundreds of surveys where multiple different organizations and well over 75% of every survey people admit to an array of issues stemming from feelings of hopelessness mental health issues most focused on the state of the world for their reasons for this.
[00:02:32] People mentioning the constant news cycle ever changing pretty depressing news cycle that we see constant threat of war, constant injustices atrocities viruses lockdowns corrupt leadership scandals and the normalization of violence and crime.
[00:02:48] These are all from these surveys that people did. All of these societal factors though they're external to us in some ways but they have a real impact on us internally.
[00:02:58] And people were saying that these things internally confuse people. It means they feel powerless to change it. They don't know really how to live amongst it and because of this the world feels isolated and divided and we internalize things and view it through our own lens.
[00:03:14] There's an absence of meaning, there's an existential crisis. People asking what is the point? How do we live through this sort of thing?
[00:03:21] And all these factors are very real and many of you probably resonate with many of those things I've just read. Christians are not immune from feeling these things.
[00:03:29] And as I study many of the connections between these things, there is something wrong.
[00:03:34] And I read many of the articles from secular sites trying to address this problem. Everyone that meets this problem, Christian non-Christian, the problem is there.
[00:03:42] Let me read you just one paragraph from Psychology Today's article. It says, it is rare that a young person I work with expresses real hope about what lies ahead. It is rare.
[00:03:54] I view making sense of what we see and responding effectively to be one of the most important mental health challenges of our time.
[00:04:01] I'm not in fact sure whether hope is even warranted. Our times confront us with an array of truly existential challenges, climate change, nuclear proliferation, the specter of pandemics, digital technologies that run amuck.
[00:04:14] But a phenomenon that most people fail to adequately recognize today is also playing a role in our negativity.
[00:04:21] Over the last 30 fears we have witnessed regression with regard to the maturity of understanding and decision making needed for the times ahead.
[00:04:30] Not just in the US but around the globe. And because we tend not to be very good at bringing big picture perspective to our observations only recently as this backsliding beginning to be acknowledged.
[00:04:43] Now let me translate this for you what they're actually saying there. They're saying that the generation of the R.D. no longer has a big narrative to understand the world through.
[00:04:53] So they mean big picture perspective, no idea because you have no bigger picture, no grand unifying story that holds the whole of reality together.
[00:05:01] There is no meaning and purpose thus for individuals if you have no larger picture. And thus the world is regressing.
[00:05:07] Without that big picture all you are left with is to try and craft your own individual narrative to make sense of the world.
[00:05:14] And when you do that you'll use all the different tools available to you, your emotions, your pain, your confusion, the deception of the enemy, the flesh, the devil, all these things rather than the truth of God's word.
[00:05:26] And then what are you left with? A million different narratives that all conflict with each other.
[00:05:32] And therefore you have no unifying principles, no unifying meaning in life and thus you see a fractured and divided society.
[00:05:39] This is the very antithesis to what God called the church to be yet how often do we see this?
[00:05:45] You see the body of Christ is founded upon the message of Christ which is the grandest and most unifying story in the entire world.
[00:05:52] And as we look around at our culture today the world view of Christianity has been our unifying story.
[00:05:58] It is the scaffold upon which many of our virtues, our rights and everything that we hold dear in many ways was built even if people don't actually acknowledge it or recognize it.
[00:06:07] And as these things decrease in our world you will see more division and you will see less compassion.
[00:06:13] But the message of Christianity does provide meaning and purpose, and specifically why it has such long vet longevity not only because it's actually factually true but it gives us meaning and purpose in the midst of great suffering.
[00:06:27] Many of you find this when you go through times of trial.
[00:06:30] It is simply thought that song says it all we cling to the cross. We cling to the risen savior. Sometimes it is him and him alone that gets us through these things.
[00:06:39] Ultimately it is him who is the foundation for a future hope without him as we see I believe in our world today hope is declining there really is an epidemic of hopelessness.
[00:06:51] The gospel Easter resurrection Sunday says otherwise. You see without that narrative though the concept of hope is really rather dismal at best.
[00:07:02] There's not really any foundation for the word hope. Let me just to read to you another thing some of these studies this is from Wired magazine, you know Wired magazine.
[00:07:11] Not a Christian publication in any sense they had an article recently called on hope in a hopeless time and it's a rather bleak kind of article, a kind of depression recovery style thing that are quite popular these days.
[00:07:23] But this was pretty much the most positive part of it.
[00:07:28] The author says what hope means and what recovery means is getting up every day in the full knowledge that nothing means anything and we're all going to die pointlessly and too soon at that and getting on with it anyway.
[00:07:40] It means not listening to the semi rational sliver of your brain that believes staying in bed drinking liquid ice cream is a better option and eventually maybe soon probably not things change.
[00:07:51] Eventually, probably not today you may feel better or different that's what hope is that's it that's all it is it's necessary and anyone can do it you're welcome.
[00:08:01] Now I actually gruse me to read an article like that in some ways part of what is being described there we would actually define as perseverance rather than hope but this is very much.
[00:08:12] As best as a secular definition of hope can be when you remove Christ when you remove that unifying picture I understand why you resort to having that to being with this world there is nothing for you to cling on to there is nothing for you to look forward to this is not the message of Christian hope.
[00:08:28] This is not what we have meant when we use the word hope for 2000 years the Apostle Peter and one Peter one verses three to five describes us to us the Christian message of hope contrast it now please.
[00:08:40] He says blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and underfiled and will not be a part of the world.
[00:08:57] He has been sent to the world and will not fail away reserved for you in heaven who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time notice all the elements there a real hope a living hope one that prepares you not only for the future that is yours and secured by that hope it covers all of reality.
[00:09:17] It was accomplished for us in the past it is living for us now in the present and yet it is also the guarantee that we have hope in the future of where we will end up.
[00:09:26] That is what the Christian message of hope is we are born again to a living hope because we have a living savior and he is the one that provides that hope for the world and this is real hope this is not something that we may be kind of wish for we kind of look out on society hope maybe things get better or hope maybe things go back to what we are what they were what we knew that is not it.
[00:09:46] Hope is the risen Lord and it is something that you can guarantee secures your future if you are a believer in the risen Lord this is what we mean by hope the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 15 he wrote this he said they shall come the root of Jesse and he will arise to rule over the Gentiles and in him the Gentiles hope.
[00:10:07] Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
[00:10:17] The root of Jesse that is another name for Jesus Christ he is the descendant of Jesse he is a Jewish Messiah he is the one the Gentiles should hope in.
[00:10:27] God here is literally described as the God of hope it is actually a title for his name and no wonder we see a society in a generation that rejects that God having an epidemic of hopelessness those two things are very much linked regardless of whether anyone wants to make that connection.
[00:10:45] It always reminds me of the story of Billy Graham and Conrad Adonio I know I have read this to you before but it is one of those stories that I love to read it always fills me with hope.
[00:10:53] He was the first Chancellor Conrad Adonio if you know him he was the first Chancellor of German Republic after the war era he was the man who was charged with the responsibility of trying to rebuild Germany.
[00:11:03] He had a private audience with Billy Graham at this time and Billy Graham recounts it and he says I was invited to have coffee with one morning with Conrad Adonio before he retired as the Chancellor of Germany.
[00:11:15] When I walked in I expected to meet a tall stiff formal man who might even be embarrassed if I brought up the subject of religion after the greeting the Chancellor suddenly turned to me and said Mr Graham what is the most important thing in the world.
[00:11:29] Before I could answer he answered his own question he said the resurrection of Jesus Christ if Jesus Christ is alive then there is hope for the world if Jesus Christ is in the grave then I don't see the slightest glimmer of hope on the horizon.
[00:11:43] I think that is very true for us today if Jesus Christ is risen there is hope in all things if he remained in the grave there is hope for nothing.
[00:11:54] All of this our faith everything we do in this life every trial we go through every struggle that we have every joy that we have must be viewed in light of the resurrection of Christ.
[00:12:04] This is why we gather on this day to celebrate this is why we gather every Sunday on resurrection day every Sunday is resurrection day in some ways but let's briefly remember what happened leading up to this day.
[00:12:16] We've read through this in the Passion Week remember Jesus was betrayed by the one who was closest to him he was deserted by his disciples you read of him agonizing in prayer to the point of sweating drops of blood in Gethsemane.
[00:12:31] This was an emotional agony that he had here a spiritual agony not a physical agony that came later and then remember the scene Judas one of his closest companions comes to him betrays him with a kiss on the cheek he is then arrested taken to a number of false trials beaten mocked ashamed humiliated tried as a criminal by a Roman government.
[00:12:53] He went through physical and mental anguish he was scourged and then he was made to carry the cross to the place of his own death.
[00:13:00] He was then nailed to the cross and at that moment as you read the crucifixion accounts the lights of the world went dim and he was separated from his father for those moments as the sins of the entire world were placed on him your sin my sin everyone sin in his body he bore our sins on the cross.
[00:13:18] And then eventually he cried out it is finished and he breathed his last that is our savior.
[00:13:25] It's the most important event in the entire history of the world the theologian Alexander McLaren said the cross is the center of the world's history the incarnation of Christ and the crucifixion of our Lord are the pivot around which all events of the ages revolve the testimony of Christ was the spirit of prophecy and the growing power of Jesus is the spirit of history.
[00:13:45] When you look at history one of the ways to ascertain the truth of historical events one way historians do this is they look at what they call the aftermath you look at the aftermath i.e. the impact that this event had a world changing event should have impacts it leaves its fingerprints in the world for a modern day example for many of us who if you lived through 9 11 that would be a modern day world changing event yet if I speak to Jake my son someone who was born long time after these things if you asked them what happened on 9 11 they probably wouldn't know.
[00:14:15] They could find out and how would they find out they would go back into history they would find evidence of the true and tired still standing what they look like you could read newspaper reports you can actually go and visit ground zero and see the memorials he could listen to me tell him on oral testimony of someone who remembers where they were when that happened.
[00:14:37] You can read first hand reports and then you would soon discover the global impact that it had how it changed the world it really brought us into what was called the war of terror years wars in Afghanistan and Iraq followed it changed away security airport travel was done all of these things came from that event.
[00:14:54] It's the same really for many historical events it is just the same with the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus.
[00:15:00] All of those categories can really be applied I witnessed testimony historical records geography first hand knowledge customs archaeology etc but it is the aftermath effects that I find so fascinating if you actually really go back and think about it by the first century Rome had conquered vast regions of the world.
[00:15:17] All the way to Portugal on the west to Iran on the east up into the Great Britain in the north and down to Egypt and Libya in the south they had 60 to 70 million people living under their rule and through that empire they worshiped a vast array of gods conquered peoples were allowed to keep their deities as long as they were absorbed into the Roman pantheon so the Romans ruled supreme Egyptian gods Greek gods Roman gods they were all acknowledged and worshipped every major city would have a lot of.
[00:15:47] Haberate temples dedicated to these gods they functioned like civic buildings town halls we would call them today every city.
[00:15:53] Dedications on plaque to these gods for every major event and holiday were dedicated to these gods Zeus Jupiter Venus Apollo Dionysus Osiris Mithras on and on it would go.
[00:16:04] Yet from within that same world within one century huge swaths of the population had abandoned the gods that they had worshiped for centuries and centuries for another god.
[00:16:15] A Jewish rabbi named Jesus a poor carpenter from Nazareth a man who only spent three and a half years teaching in public ministry one who came and subverted every expectation that the ancient world had of what a god should be or what a god should do.
[00:16:32] There was absolutely no reason that they all should have turned and worshiped this one and cast off the gods that they had been worshipping for so long.
[00:16:41] Many other messianic pretenders came at this time a rose 14 of them in fact none of them lasted most people don't even know their names today but this man Jesus of Nazareth he completely changed the course of history he introduced a new calendar forever transform the virtues and ethical systems we have in this world and he is still worship today all across the globe in every culture every people group you will find people testifying that this Jesus is still alive.
[00:17:10] You could say his words have been the most influential the most read repeated and preached words in the entire world today without a close second we can walk out the street there.
[00:17:20] And you can't walk up the road and you won't find a temple to Jupiter you won't find a church worshipping Zeus if I could put it like that those gods are long gone remained really remembered only in legend and on the history books yet we can walk out and find many people today worshipping the risen savior.
[00:17:38] Many more worshipping this penniless preacher from Nazareth there was no reason that this should have been the case this is the aftermath of something very significant what was different about this one person this one god that arose in the midst of all these others.
[00:17:54] What was it that caused Jesus Christianity to thrive and spread across the world surviving through every generation in every area of history until today when all the other gods of antiquity have passed.
[00:18:06] Now it wasn't actually his claim to be god Caesar was claiming to be god at the same time Caesar even called himself the son of God Romans were forced to worship him it wasn't that he died on across necessarily many people died on across in this empire it was proved his claims to be God in the flesh were proved by one event and one event alone and that is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
[00:18:31] In the Romans one verse four it says Jesus who was declared the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead according to the spirit of holiness Jesus Christ our Lord Jesus was designated or proved we could say to be the son of God by his own resurrection from the dead you see the resurrection confirmed everything he said did and taught as true including who he was his divine nature in the fact that he died for our sins no one else did that no one even came close.
[00:19:00] Do you ever meet someone pretending to be a Christian they don't believe in the resurrection of Christ you know they're speaking faltered it is the resurrection for me that explains that historical aftermath that whole event where the world was changed completely within a century and historically we know from the Bible and other historical sources we know Jesus was publicly crucified and buried in Jerusalem historians have described that as one of the best attested facts of ancient history.
[00:19:27] We also know from the beginning of the church recorded in the book of Acts that the resurrection was at the very heart of their preaching from day one you see it would have been almost impossible for a faith based on the resurrection to take route in a city where that very same person was publicly crucified and buried.
[00:19:45] It would have been so easy to disprove that and both the Roman and the Jewish people wanted to disprove that at that time all they would have had to do is produce a body from the tomb.
[00:19:55] Yet we see them trying to make excuses for why there was no body in addition you can see the impact that it had on his followers you remember following the crucifixion the apostles hopes of a messianic savior have been dashed for a little bit they're scared they're huddled together in the upper room yet when they meet the risen Lord when he appears to them and then later when he gives them his spirit they are empowered and they traveled the entire globe proclaiming the resurrection.
[00:20:23] To the point they were so convinced it happened that many of them would die well all of them in fact would die proclaiming that the risen Lord lives you see the resurrection completes the victory that he won on the cross on the cross he died for our sins with the resurrection he conquered death and that is really the reason we stand here today and I would say that is why we have this aftermath that is why the world is so radically shaped with the values and virtues and the history of this world.
[00:20:53] This man from Nazareth is a historian contemporary historian called Tom Holland some of you may be familiar with him he's very popular at the moment he's a Roman historian technically he's not a believer not yet he seems to be edging that way the more he writes history.
[00:21:11] He wrote a book called Dominion recently called the Making of the Western World and it's all about how the whole world is in the Western world anyway is shaped on the values and on the world view of Christianity but when he begun to write it he wasn't quite as convinced of that as he was.
[00:21:28] In 2016 he was making a documentary about ISIS you remember that time when ISIS just stormed across Iraq and the Middle East and did those atrocities that they did.
[00:21:36] Tom was in the town of Sinjar very shortly after it had been liberated from ISIS and this was the town in northern Iraq and this is where many of the Yazidis and all of the things that happened there but one thing that Tom recounts is that this was a town where people were actually crucified.
[00:21:52] ISIS crucified people here and he said this had a profound impact on him and he described this in a talk that he gave to open doors.
[00:21:59] He describes first the barbarism that accompanied the ISIS takeover of this region men butchered women and girls on and on an actual crucifixions took place very much like Hamas.
[00:22:11] Tom then goes on to describe the impact that this had on him he says my background is in classical antiquity especially Rome and it is possible to spend your whole life studying the Romans and never breathe in the dust of a town where people have actually been crucified.
[00:22:27] But when I did I felt ashamed that the lack of historical empathy I had shown and also the lack of curiosity in not wondering what it was that changed since the time of the seasors and the time of which I was now standing here.
[00:22:43] Standing in Sinjar the sense of existential abyss I was feeling was not just a sense of dread and terror that I was so close to people who had done this it was deeper than that.
[00:22:52] It was the real it was realizing the reality of a world in which the cross served as a symbol of the powerful to torture and torment and kill the powerless.
[00:23:03] When instinctively as someone who had grown up in a fundamental Christian society the cross served as the exact opposite the cross served as the reassurance that actually it is the powerless who try and over the powerful.
[00:23:15] We have to stand in the sandals of the Romans to understand just how unfathomably weird it is that today the cross of all things should be perhaps the most instantly recognizable cultural symbol that any human culture has ever developed and that it symbolizes not power but the opposite that the victim will try and it symbolizes compassion.
[00:23:36] And we have to feel how weird that is in the way that sent pool did saying to the Gentile somebody who was God suffered crucifixion its utter madness.
[00:23:46] This is what was weird this is why it was a stumbling block to the world and he goes on it's a very interesting talk you should listen to it but you see the point he's getting at when we actually understand how the Romans and also people like ISIS used the cross as a demonstration of power as the most shameful way to humiliate someone.
[00:24:03] That's what it was for. It was like a public billboard don't mess with us that's what the Romans used it for that's what ISIS used it for but yet he's saying I'm a Roman historian that's what it was like in the Roman age I'm standing here two thousand years later in a culture where men and women wear it around their necks but we have it on top of our buildings and on our stage next to us what happened to do that that transformation is utterly unfathomable and weird and this is why it is such a stumbling block.
[00:24:33] I've got the full answer I believe but I would go further than Tom Holland say it wasn't just the crucifixion on its own. The reason why the cross has that reputation is because of what happened three days later too you combine the cross and the resurrection and that gives us the aftermath that he is referring to there this radical change that's still after two thousand years testifies that it is the most important event in all of history so let's read about it please turn with me to Luke chapter 24.
[00:25:00] It says but on the first day of the week at early dawn they came to the tomb and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb but when they entered they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
[00:25:10] So here is Sunday morning we have this wonderful group of faithful women again coming to the tomb bringing spices to finish the anointing of the body expressing their compassion, love and loss of their savior.
[00:25:21] They're still reeling from everything that has gone on the night before yet they're still there.
[00:25:26] Imagine what they felt as they came and they saw that stone rolled away what their hearts were starting to believe maybe all the thoughts going through their mind as they appeared into that tomb expecting maybe to see the mangled body of Jesus but they did not it was empty.
[00:25:40] It goes on in verse four while they were perplexed about this behold two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground the men said to them why do you seek the living one among the dead?
[00:25:54] He is not here he has risen.
[00:25:58] And these are first six really should be probably in the most loved verse in all of our hearts and minds if we are believers he is not here he has risen.
[00:26:08] If you know the Lord that verse should fill you with fear it should fill your heart with wonder and joy at the same time.
[00:26:13] Imagine what these faithful women were feeling right now two angels appear to them mighty terrifying angels they bow their faces to the ground the angels speak why do you seek the living one among the dead?
[00:26:24] What a question that is and I would say that is a very cultural question today too.
[00:26:29] You see one of the things about Christianity our faith is history but it is not just history it is relevant now it will be relevant in the future because God is living.
[00:26:38] It says there he is the living one Matthew 22 32 God said Jesus said I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob he is not the God of the dead but of the living God is a living God we must not seek to try and find solace in religion in idols in traditions that hold no life images whatever it may be people try and find solace they try and find meaning in philosophies the loftiest ideals of laws morality's governments fill us up.
[00:27:07] No parties governments philosophical systems whatever it may be none of these things no powers no thrones no power in the occult no deeds of darkness no armies nothing will find comparable to the living God none of these things only in the living God do you find these things one Timothy four ten for it is for this we labor and strive because we have fixed our hope on the living God
[00:27:32] and that's what we were talking about at the beginning fixed our hope on the living God who is the savior of all men especially of believers we only find this in Jesus he declared I am the resurrection and the life and he who believes in me will live even if he dies hope beyond the grave you see the power of the resurrection is displayed through the new birth where he is being worshipped in spirit and truth where we see corruptible has put on in corruptile where we see death
[00:28:01] defeated once and for all and this all stems back to the empty tomb and these wonderful women here were the first ones to acknowledge and recognize this Christ is risen
[00:28:11] Amen the angels now told them he is not here but he is risen and what a wonderful statement this is it is everything to us all of our hopes our dreams our pains our frustrations
[00:28:25] our guilt our shame I've seen everything that was hung on that cross is wrapped up and put away with done away with forever under the blood of Christ because he rose from the grave this day we put this message of resurrection with the message of the cross
[00:28:40] and we have the whole history of the world put together remember those words that he cried out before he breathed this laugh he said it is finished my work is complete the mission for which I have been sent is done in the beginning of the gospels it says when the fullness of time came God sent his son
[00:28:56] and then for 33 years he lived and those last few years that he died and taught and then he was on the cross and when he had finished when his final bit of life left him his work was complete the sins of the world were born on his body the veil of the flesh was broken
[00:29:12] and the way to God was once again opened and he could say it is finished but now here a few days later we have this statement he is not here he is risen death is defeated all of his enemies have been conquered the power of Satan has been once and for all forever destroyed
[00:29:30] Amen he goes on remember how he spoke to you while he was instilling gallery saying that the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again
[00:29:41] and they remembered his words and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the 11 and to all the rest they remembered his words
[00:29:52] and I like this because how many times in this life from sure you can all share an experience where something has got on top of you something has got in your way something has tripped you up whatever it may be
[00:30:05] it might be something you've caused it might be a pain that has been inflicted on you it might be a loss in a family member that something you just can't control
[00:30:12] and for those brief moments when you're in that moment of pain or whatever it may be your emotions get the better of you how easy it is to forget his words isn't it
[00:30:22] sometimes it's those very times that we actually forget what we know is already true the lessons of Christ his word and I believe that is what happened here to the disciples
[00:30:31] they were thrown it wasn't expected to go like this they didn't expect Christ to be crucified like that and they were thrown but then at this moment in this tomb when they said the angels spoke
[00:30:42] and they suddenly remembered the words that Jesus has said to them this is why having the word of God in us is so important he remembered the words of God
[00:30:50] and at that moment they understood more about the resurrection and their hope was reborn at this moment and hope is not something that just we just have hope is actually something that affects us
[00:31:03] it makes us do things in relation to hope the hope of the resurrection energizes us to service in the Lord
[00:31:09] 2 Corinthians 3 12 therefore having such a hope we use great boldness in our speech and what's the first thing you see these women do when they experience this they run don't they and tell the other disciples boldness in speech
[00:31:23] this is elsewhere called the hope of glory the hope of salvation we know because of this hope that we don't grieve like the rest of the world that has no hope
[00:31:32] we have the eternal life we have the blessed hope of the resurrection it is at the forefront of our faith it is the power that works within us it is also the same thing that has revolutionized the world
[00:31:42] it is the same thing that turned a symbol of torture to a symbol of humility and compassion it is this crucified risen and glorified savior one day who will return to rule and reign from this earth
[00:31:54] he declared in revelation that I was dead and behold I am alive forever more and I have the keys of death and Hades and we proclaim that to be true and that is what we gather for on this day
[00:32:06] Christ is risen
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[00:32:28] for more resources please go to theology and apologetics.com thanks for listening
