Mark 16:1-8 Dead Me Walking: Why Both the Cross and Resurrection Matter for Your Daily Life

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Mark 16.
And I thought I'd share this asnot really an intro to the
study, but just to me.
I've been teaching for over 30years.
I've realized that this morningI did the math and yet, even

(00:33):
amongst friends which is that,that's you guys even amongst
friends, I still get nervous.
And how do I know that?
Because I have some of thecraziest dreams between Saturday
and Sunday.
Sometimes I have dreams ofguitars that won't stay in tune
and notes that magicallydisappear, and I'm sure there's
been a couple of them where Iforgot to wear pants.
But last night I was looking.

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I had a dream, I was lookingfor scripture.
I got up here and I turned towhere I think it is in the Bible
and it does not exist.
It's not there.
My scripture is gone.
It's like not in the Bible.
And I started freaking out, youknow, and like I would if that
happened right now.

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I'd be like give me a secondhere.
I got to get some glasses orsomething because it's not in
here.
You know, and it always causesme, those things always cause me
to wake up and get right tostudying, to wake up and realize
that this, no matter how longI've been doing this, there's
just, it's a spiritual thing.

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It's not something I can do inmy own power.
It's not.
Even listening to God's word isnot something we can do in
ourselves.
Listening to God's word is notsomething we can do in ourselves
.
And so, with that, let's prayagain as we jump into Mark 16,
if you would, god, we do realizethat your word is a spiritual

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thing.
God, you inspired those of oldto write the things down that
you wanted to be here in thisbook.
But, god, even more than that,you want to work in our hearts.
Nobody can work in the humanheart.
We can't even change our ownhearts so many times.
And yet, god, you want to dosomething.

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Even this morning, as we openup Mark 16, you want to do
something in our hearts, specialwork for each one of us.
So, god, I pray that yourspirit would be in this time.
God, you would help us to havesoft hearts, to hear what you
want us to hear, change what youwant us to change, or just rest
in what you want us to rest in.
God, I pray that this would bea spiritual time as we get into

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your word.
Thank you so much for beingwith us.
Thank you for being faithfuland good.
In Jesus' name.
We pray amen.
All right, there we go, mark16,.
We're toward the end of thebook.
I don't know if you realize thatthis is the final chapter of
Mark and we've already hit thecross and the resurrection is

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right in front of us Now.
Every gospel account obviouslyincludes the resurrection.
Without the resurrection thereis no gospel story, there is no
good news.
And so, as we jump into that,realize how important this
passage is and this fact is.
But let's read verses onethrough eight.

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Now, when the Sabbath waspassed, mary Magdalene, mary,
the mother of James, and Salomebrought spices that they may
come and anoint him.
That's Jesus, his body.
Very early in the morning on thefirst day of the week, they
came to the tomb when the sunhad risen and they said among

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themselves who rolled away thestone from the door of the tomb
for us?
And they looked up and they sawthat the stone had been rolled
away, for it was very large.
Then, entering the tomb, theysaw a young man clothed in a
long white robe that would be anangel, sitting on the right

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side, and they were alarmed.
But he, the angel, said to themin true angel fashion do not be
alarmed.
You see Jesus of Nazareth whowas crucified.
He is risen.
He is not here.
See the place where they havelaid him, but go tell his
disciples and Peter that he isgoing before you into Galilee.

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There you will see him, as hesaid to you.
So they went out quickly andfled from the tomb, for they
trembled and were amazed andthey said nothing to anyone for
they were afraid.
So it is the day after theSabbath.
The Sabbath had ended.
Sabbath is Saturday andtechnically it ended the night

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before.
We've seen in the Jewishreckoning of things, as the sun
is going down, the next day isstarting, but here the Sabbath
is ended.
Saturday has passed and thesewomen were waiting to go to the
tomb to continue to kind ofprepare Jesus' body for burial.

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They brought spices andointments, and it was really
just in honor of him to keep theprocess of death from
progressing as quickly, and sothat was their intention.
Now Jesus had been in the gravethree days.
Friday, around 3 pm, you'llremember, he breathed his last
and they hurried to get him inthe tomb before sunset and the

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sabbath.
So he was in the tomb All day.
Saturday, the Sabbath, he wasin the tomb.
Now, it's early Sunday morningand this qualifies as three days
.
So three days, and here threewomen traveled to the tomb to
anoint Jesus.
It's the same three women thatwere listed earlier in chapter
15, verse 40, mary MagdaleneMary we read here, the mother of

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James and Solomon and they cometo anoint Jesus.
We see that Now, as they come inverse three notice, they're
struck with something theyhaven't thought about and I
think this is important.
They're struck with this ideaoh, the tomb.
There's this gigantic stone infront of the tomb.

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How are we going to move thatstone?
Now, tombs were, in this case,joseph's tomb was carved out of
the rock.
Joseph owned the tomb, jesuswas in the tomb.
It was carved out of a rock andthis giant stone, probably
weighing about two tons, thisround stone, was rolled in front

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of the door as a way to keepthings all tight and everything.
And they realized this and theybegan to stress right, it's a
good, you know, it's a good idea.
Here they have, how are wegoing to get this?
And they start brainstormingright, I'm sure, maybe we can
get a crowbar Anyone got acrowbar, mary, you got your

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crowbar, you know.
And they start thinking how inthe world might have to get one
of the disciples to come.
How are we going to get intothe tomb Now?
Stop there for a second.
Get into the tomb Now.
Stop there for a second.
Practical application.
There's a lot of things in ourlife that we worry about that
really doesn't do us any good.

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In fact, as we see here, thingswe worry about that never
become a problem.
They were worried about thestone.
The stone had been rolled away,probably being rolled away at
that very moment.
Well, studies, really quickstudies here have shown the
average person spends about oneand a half to two hours a day

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worrying about things.
Men a little bit less women alittle bit more on average,
little bit less women a littlebit more on average.
But we have a lot of differentthings that we worry about and
over seven in 70 years of life,that can amount to check this
out.
Four and a half to five yearsof worry, right, and we stress

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about things like finances,family issues, politics, weather
.
We stress about a lot ofdifferent things and it affects
our health.
Studies have said that.
Check this out.
I got a lot of informationtoday this morning.
10 to 15 major health issuesare related to stress or worry

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so it's a vicious cycle areworried, so it's a vicious cycle
, and we're reminded here.
There's a lot of things weworry about that never are
really a problem in the end.
Anyways, they spend timethinking about how are we going
to figure this out, and thenthey get there and it's already
figured out for them.
I want to read just a few versesfrom the Bible and just kind of

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let it be kind of some warmwater over you, right To wash
over you as I read it.
Listen to these.
I won't give the references,I'll just read them.
Have I not commanded you?
Be strong and of good courage.
Do not be afraid nor bedismayed, for the Lord, your God
, is with you wherever you go.
The Lord is my light and mysalvation.

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Whom shall I fear?
That's why I tell you don'tworry about your everyday life,
whether you have enough food ordrink or enough clothes to wear.
Isn't life more than food andyour body more than clothing?
Look at the birds.
They don't plant or harvest orstore food in barns, but your

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heavenly father feeds them.
Aren't you far more valuablethan they are?
What shall we say then to thesethings?
If God is for us.
Who can be against us?
He who did not spare his ownson but delivered him up for us
all.
How shall he not, with him also, freely give us all things,

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cast all your cares on him, forhe cares for you.
So the bible is clear all theway from the beginning to the
end.
There's no point in worrying.
God doesn't want us to stresshe, he wants us to rest.
It's kind of cool If yourearrange those letters, you can
make those two words out thesame letters, right, he wants us

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to rest in him.
That's one of those things oflife, I think.
God just teaching us.
Trust me, I know what I'm doing.
And here they're worried andthey're concerned.
But look at verse four.
But when they looked up, Ithink that's just great
application.
What do we need to do in worry?

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Look up, we look down, we lookaround, we look at all these
different places, but a lot oftimes we forget to look up that
God loves us and he wants totake care of us no matter what
we go through in life.
He'll be there.
They looked up verse 4, and theysaw the stone had been rolled
away.
It was very large and you knowthe story there in verse 5, as

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they look up, they see um, anangel.
Here he's referred to as ayoung man and they're alarmed,
right.
And we look through this, whatwe read, and they're
experiencing all sorts of crazyemotions.
Right, they're alarmed, they'reamazed, they're afraid.
In verse 8, they're trembling,right.

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So all these different emotionsare coming on these ladies.
But the angel gives the angelgreeting.
Do not be alarmed.
Yeah, right, you're an angel.
We weren't expecting to see youthere, don't be afraid.
That's what angels always sayNice, try.
But here he is.

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The stone is rolled away and hehas this good news You're
looking for Jesus who wascrucified.
He is risen.
He's not here.
See the place where they laidhim, there in verse 6.
Now, some would point out andit's worth looking at as we kind
of pass by here that whileMatthew and Mark say there was

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one angel, john and Lukementioned two angels.
So some would say this is acontradiction.
Where there are two angels orone, the Bible can't get it
straight.
And this is an easy one to fix,right, because if there's two
angels, then there's also oneangel, right?
Both are true, right?

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Maybe this one was the one withthe message to say to the
ladies.
Maybe the other one just kindof sat there, maybe he rolled
the stone away, I don't know.
But the focus in Mark's gospelis on this one angel and it
gives him that good news Now.
Now, this is one of the mostimportant Bible truths in all

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the Bible.
Jesus is not dead, he's alive.
Now we talk about the cross alot right, in fact a little
secret, here, even if it's notthere.
I tried to go to the cross once, a study, because the cross is
where everything comes downright.

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Jesus takes our sin uponhimself.
Without the cross there wouldbe no forgiveness, there would
be no hope for us.
If Jesus didn't die, we'd bestuck trying to earn our way to
salvation in heaven, and itcan't be done because we all sin

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and fall short of the glory ofGod.
Romans 3, 23.
So we'd be doomed without thecross.
If Jesus hadn't come and diedon the cross, we'd be doomed.
He took our sin, all of ourfailures, upon himself, all of
our actions and our thoughts.

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Jesus paid the price 2Corinthians 5.21,.
He became sin for us there onthat cross, and it's beautiful.
Without the cross we'd bedoomed, but without the
resurrection we'd be equallylost.
Now think about this.

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We'd be equally lost.
Paul makes this clear in 1Corinthians 5, 16.
It's going to always turn there.
1 Corinthians 5, 16.
He says this for if the dead donot rise, then Christ is not
risen, and if Christ is notrisen, our faith is futile and

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you are still in your sins.
So if Jesus didn't rise fromthe dead, we would still be lost
in our sins.
The resurrection is necessaryfor salvation and check it out.
Both the cross and theresurrection are essential for
the Christian life, for the realChristian life.

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What do I mean?
Come back Galatians 2.20,.
Paul says I have been crucifiedwith Christ.
So what happens at the cross?
We've talked about it, but thatold person that we used to be,
the old person lost in sin, theway that we acted, the way that

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we thought, the way that weacted, the way that we thought
it was crucified with Jesus onthe cross.
Now the old me is dead.
If I'm a believer, I've come tothe cross.
I said you died for me.
That's essentially me there,the old person that I was dying
on the cross.
Here's the problem that I findI'm always bringing back that

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dead me right, as a Christian,we struggle with the cross.
Here's the problem that I findI'm always bringing back that
dead me.
Right, and as a Christian, westruggle with the flesh, we
struggle with the things that weused to do and the ways and the
attitudes that we used to have.
It's just part of being human,right.
But there is a point wheresometimes we need to look at our
life and what our life is allabout and ask ourselves have we

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really been crucified with himon the cross?
Because it's so easy just tolike come forward and say a
prayer.
It's so easy to just say, well,I'm a Christian.
But then we look at our lifeand it's no different, right, I
believe in God.
James says even the demonsbelieve in God and they tremble.
So it's not just about sayingsomething or believing something

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, it's a changed life, it's apackage deal.
So if we look at our life, wego.
I'm really no different than Iwas before I came to Christ.
That's a hard part about growingup in the church.
For me it was a hard part.
That's a hard part aboutgrowing up in the church.
For me, it was a hard partBecause what does my old life
look like?
Right, I'm a good guy, I go tochurch and I do churchy things

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and everything, but to realizethat there's this line in the
sand where we say I don't wantto be that person anymore.
We come to the cross, we seeJesus dying and we realize I'm
essentially up there with him,who I was, the attitudes that I
have, I don't want to be thatanymore.
That's repentance.
It's this idea of going theopposite direction and it's

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important.
Now we'll struggle with that.
Again, like I said, don't thinkyou're going to be perfect once
you do that.
You're going to struggle withit, but you won't like it right
and you won't live that way.
You can't live that way becauseit's not who you are.
So the cross is important tothe Christian life, that we
relate to Jesus in his death.

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I've been crucified with Christ.
But here's the other amazingpart we're also relating to
Jesus in his resurrection, andthat's the new life that God has
for us.
Let's turn to Romans 6.
We go here often, I know, butit's so just straightforward and
perfect, I think.

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Romans 6, 1.
Romans 6, 1.
And in Romans 6, paul's goingto use the idea of baptism to
show what the Christian life islike.
Notice verse 1.

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What shall we say then?
Shall we continue to sin?
That grace may abound?
Certainly not.
How shall we who've died to sinlive any longer in it?
Now stop there for a second.
I love baptisms right Now.

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Baptism doesn't save you, butit's a good show of what's going
on in your heart.
Now check it out.
I love to be a part of that.
It's such an honor to be a partof it where someone comes down
and God's done a work in theirheart and I'll always flash back
to my times at camp, where I'llget down there's some little
junior hire or something youknow.

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Get down and I'll say why doyou want to be baptized?
Because God's just so good.
That's neat, and I wouldexplain.
We're going to go under thewater.
Under the water is a picture ofJesus' death and you were
crucified with him.
So we're going to go under thewater and you're going to say I
don't want to be who I used tobe.

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I want to be different.
I don't want to live like Iused to live, just ruled by sin.
I want to be different.
You go under the water, butdon't worry, I'll bring you up
out of the water.
Right, I would never leave youdown there long.
It'll be easy Now you come outof the water and notice what
happens here.

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Look at verse four.
Therefore, we were buried withhim through baptism, into death.
That, just as Christ was raisedfrom the dead by the glory of
the Father, even so we shouldwalk in newness of life.
So it's the whole package deal,right, crucified with Christ,

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but raised to a new life.
And God says here, it is abrand new existence.
Who?
I was dead and gone, but a newcreation in Christ.
That's amazing Good news, isn'tit?
For those of us that have madeplenty of mistakes in our life
and continue to make plenty ofmistakes sometimes, you know, we

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look back and we go.
I'm not that person anymore,all the guilt that goes with it.
I don't have to carry All thefrustration it's.
You know, I run to Jesus inthis and he says here's a new
life, a brand new existence.
We're a new creation in Christ,and that's the truth of the
resurrection.

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We're meant to live like him,to walk like him, even look like
him in some ways.
Right, that's why they werecalled Christians.
Little Christ, you're just alittle carbon copy of that
teacher.
Jesus, you're a Christian.
And the Christians would sayall right, it's working.

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You know what I mean, andthat's what we are newness of
life with him.
If both hadn't happened thedeath and the resurrection we'd
be lost and incomplete.
Now Consider this theresurrection is a well-proven
fact, more evidence than a lotof historical facts.

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Right, the empty tomb proves it.
Now, if you remember, we talkedabout the hard-hearted religious
leaders.
They got afraid around Saturday, there on the Sabbath, and they
said Pilate, you've got to giveus a guard there on the Sabbath
.
And they said Pilate, you'vegot to give us a guard, you've
got to seal up that tomb, giveus a guard and make sure that

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his disciples don't come andsteal the body.
Because you'll remember, theysaid that deceiver said before
he went to the cross that hewould die and he would rise
again in three days.
Crazy that they understood thatright.
And so they say Pilate, give usa guard.
And so a guard was set.

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Now Jesus rose.
The guards passed out.
It's no fault of their own,it's kind of rough when you see
a couple angels there.
But Jesus then rose again, cameout of the tomb.
The tomb was empty.

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Now they still put that sameargument out there.
The religious leader said we'lljust tell him that his
disciples stole the body, whichis a crazy thought.
Right, because they had posteda Roman guard in front of the
tomb.
Here's the disciples the nightbefore.
You know they're in the garden,you know they couldn't even use

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a sword successfully, you know,no less.
You know, fight off a Romanguard.
But his disciples would neverhave been able to do that.
No guard would let them do thatbecause it would have meant
their death.
So the disciples coming andstealing the body, that wouldn't
have made sense.
Some say and we won't get intoall the ideas but some say Jesus

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just sort of passed out, henever really died, just sort of
passed out.
He never really died.
And in the cool of the tomb,you know, he revived, pushed the
stone aside after being beat upand crucified and spear stuck
in his side, pushed the stoneaside, fought off the Roman
guard, stumbled into thewilderness and died.

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That's actually a theory that'sput out there it's known as the
swoon theory Doesn't make sense.
No Roman guard would allow that.
No crucified Jesus would beable to fight off that Roman
guard.
And yet these ideas are put outthere and yet the tomb is empty.
Well, maybe they came to thewrong tomb and that's really why

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Mark lets us know that they sawwhere the tomb was there at the
end of 15, that they saw wherethe tomb was.
It was Joseph's tomb and thereligious leaders had put a seal
on it.
It would be so easy to pointout well, here's the right tomb.
Let me show you.
Jesus is here.
He's still dead, and yet thetomb is empty.

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And that is the most wonderfultruth of all, because it means
that Jesus really did rise fromthe dead.
Paul says this about that proofin 1 Corinthians 15, 3 through 6
.
I delivered to you first of allthat which I received, that

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Christ died for our sins,according to scriptures, that he
was buried and he rose again onthe third day.
This is 1 Corinthians 15, verse4, right now.
And he was seen by Cephas,that's Peter, then by the twelve
After that he was seen by over500 brethren at once.

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So Paul here says not only wasthe tomb empty, but people saw
him.
Right, those women saw him.
Peter and John you know Peterthere saw him.
And then Jesus just appeared tothem over the next like 40 days
, appeared to them at randomtimes.
Right, there's the two walkingon the road to Emmaus.

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There's the disciples who arefreaked out and sitting in the
room and Jesus appears in themidst of them and says don't be
afraid, it's me.
And then he appears a littlelater to Thomas, who wasn't
there, but he appears to him,and Paul here says that over 500
people at once saw Jesus alive.
Quite an amazing proof herethat could have been debated.

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And yet check this out.
All of the disciples, minusJohn, who made it through a lot
of persecution, but all of thedisciples died martyrs.
They died for this one factthat Jesus wasn't dead.
He was alive.
Why would they do that?
Because they actually believedit, they knew it was true, they

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couldn't deny it.
And that's great news for us,because the resurrection tells
us we can get new life in Christ.
We don't have to live the waywe lived in the past.
We don't have to be under sin.
We're a new creation.
The old has passed away.
All things become new.

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But here's the thing.
All of that is true, but wehave to come to the cross.
We can't just say it, we can'tjust think nice thoughts.
We have to come to the cross.

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It's just us and God, andunderstand.
I don't want to be who I usedto be.
I don't want to live like Iused to live.
The keys to my life they'reyours.
You come to the cross and yougo.
I died, I got no rights, and inthat, our sin is taken care of,
our flesh is being dealt withevery day, and then we're
offered this new life, man.
That's good New life, freshlife in Christ, not who we used

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to be, but who God wants us tobe.
And that's the Christian life.
But you have to take itpersonally.
I think it starts in your heart.
You believe in your heart, youconfess with your mouth.
There's a change of life on theoutside, but it's a free gift
that God gives and offers eachone of us a package deal new

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life in Christ.
So, god, I know I could talkabout this all day long, and yet
that's not the point.
The point is that we understandthat we're lost without you,
god.
The point is that we don't wantto live the way we used to live

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.
We don't want to live forourselves, but we want to live
for you, god, to really receivewhat you've done for us and to
really realize that you're ourSavior.
But you also want to be ourLord, and that is so important.
God, I just ask that each oneof us would know that in our

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hearts what that means and thatwe've done it, god, in that that
we would also rest in thisnewness of life, god, that where
we were selfish, maybe before,you want to help us to sacrifice
the same way you did.

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You want us to love others whenwe used to take advantage of
others.
God, I just pray that you wouldhelp this work to happen in
each one of our hearts, that wewould know you in a personal way
.
In Jesus' name, we pray.