From the Pulpit...

In this message Pastor Matt Postiff continues his study on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We focus on four main topics in the message proclaiming that Christ indeed was raised from the dead by God. A. The real point of this is that no one is permitted to say they believe the Christian faith and at the same time deny resurrection from the dead. B. Let us suppose for a moment that our Romans 10:9 belief is invalid, that God did not raise Christ from the dead. We would not be real Christians. Our sins would be still on us. We know that horrifying thought. Even worse, if there were no resurrection, it would be only a small step to belief that there is no God. And if there is no God, then there is no way we would ever have come to the realization of our bad our sinfulness is because there would be no God to work that repentant knowledge within us. In the no-resurrection, no-God scenario, we would not have even a clue about how bad we are. As it is, we still do not know the depth of it, but we do know there is a depth! And thank God for that. C. But I want to ask a more practical question: How would your day-to-day life look different if you believed there is no resurrection? Would there be a practical difference compared to how you live now? Do you live in practice the same way as you would live if there were no resurrection? Putting it another way, does the resurrection of Christ have an impact on how you live Monday through Saturday? In what way can people tell you believe the resurrection of Christ? How does it change your conduct or outlook on…everything? Do you handle COVID in a specific Christian way, or do you handle it in practice and thought just like everyone else in the world? Do you handle trials differently than the world? Do you approach your work with a different perspective? Do you approach living for the Lord with a resurrection mindset, that, as we will learn at the end of the chapter, guarantees that our work for Christ will be useful? D. Verse 20 brings us back to reality. Christ is in fact risen from the dead. He is alive. The assumption of no resurrection is in fact false. Christians are not the most pitiable; there is hope beyond life; those who died before in Christ are not lost; Christians are not still in our sins; our faith is worthwhile; Paul is not a liar; and his preaching is full of spiritual value.