Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Pastor Ed says you have a testimony of the risen Lord, so be quick to share it.

Pastor Ed Taylor: It would take over a month if I gave every believer in the room here 15 minutes to share your testimony of the risen Lord in your life: where you met Him, who brought the gospel to you, what life was changed, who you used to be, who you are now, what habit you left, how you left alcohol, how you are no longer homeless, how you found yourself going back to school. Why? Only because the risen Lord entered into your life.

And you heard His voice through a man. You heard His voice through the Bible. You heard His voice on some evangelist on television or the radio. You heard His voice, and you only hear voices of those who are alive. You have a testimony of the risen Lord.

Larry: Well, we live in a world full of bad news. You turn on the nightly news and are reminded of that every day. Could you use some good news today? Well, we've got plenty of good in store for you on Abounding Grace, and that is: your sins can be forgiven. Jesus lived, died, was buried, and then rose again from the grave. Now, that is good news. And front and center here on our program, here's Pastor Ed Taylor in First Corinthians, chapter 15.

Pastor Ed Taylor: If you have your Bibles, open them to First Corinthians, chapter 15. If you need help, I'm sure a neighbor can help you. You can look it up on your phone if you have a Bible app. First Corinthians, chapter 15. I've entitled this Bible study, "It Matters." And what I mean by that is the resurrection matters. The power of the resurrected Christ matters in your life. It is the hinge, you could say, of all of our lives: how we respond to the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus.

Let me just say at the outset, it is a privilege for me to share with you that Jesus is the only way to a right relationship with God. Jesus alone can change your life. Jesus alone can forgive you of your sin. Jesus, the Savior of the world, is alive. We have testimony in the Bible where they went to the tomb and the tomb was empty.

I have the privilege as well of taking people on tours to Israel. We will go all throughout the land of Israel in almost two weeks full of tours. Our final stop, the way it all ends, is we come to the place where strong evidence leans toward this being the tomb where Jesus was laid. Now, we don't know exactly, but I do know this: any tomb that claims to have had Jesus in it, wherever we are, wherever we visit in Israel, I'll tell you this right now. I know this for sure: the tomb is empty. Jesus Christ rose again from the dead.

The evidence in the Scripture is very clear that Jesus lived, died, and rose again. I want you to notice with me in verse one of chapter 15, Paul the apostle, a man of God, a man like you and me that responded to the gospel, and his life was forever changed. He's writing to a group of people just like you and me in the city of Corinth. That's why the book you're reading is called First Corinthians. It's the first letter recorded for us to this group known as believers in the city of Corinth.

"Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word that I preached to you, unless you believed in vain." Paul is writing to a group of people he is familiar with, reminding them of the gospel. I want you to mark that word: gospel. It means "good news." The word does.

He says, "I want you guys to remember when I came to your town and I preached to you the good news, the gospel." Notice it says they received it in verse one. That's what you do with the gospel. You receive it. You take in its truths. They responded to it. Their receiving wasn't just listening; it was responding. Notice now as he's writing this letter, he says that they're standing in it. They're standing in the gospel.

The gospel came to your town. I want you to think about this for a second. The city of Corinth is known throughout history as a very big city filled with debauchery and sin. A lot of sexual sin, a lot of idolatry, a lot of false worship there. They woke up one morning doing their own thing like they did every other day, but that day was different because Paul the apostle showed up in town.

He showed up with a message, a message that he preached. He ended up staying there 18 months, a year and a half. He preached the message. It was received and responded to, and men and women were saved. The whole city changed. Completely changed. Why? Because of the gospel.

So you say, "Pastor, what is the gospel then? If it's such a powerful message, what is it?" If you're asking that question, I'm glad you did. Notice with me verse three, the definition of the gospel. He says, "I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures."

We just read that in Psalm 22. According to the Scriptures, according to the predictions and the prophecy. Psalm 22 is just one of them. Christ died according to the Scriptures for our sins. He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. That's the gospel.

The gospel is that God in human flesh, Jesus Christ, came and dwelt among us. The reward for all of His good deeds and His love and His care and the miracles and the healings and His teachings, He was rewarded, as we learned on Friday, with a torturous beating known as a Roman scourging. From the Roman scourging that He took the full weight of it all, they placed Him on a Roman cross, a tool of torturous death and murder that the Persians invented but the Romans perfected.

Jesus died according to the Scriptures. Why? For our sins. If you put together verse three with verse two, that Jesus, His death, His burial, and His resurrection saved us from our sins. That is the good news today. The good news is that your sins can be forgiven. That Jesus lived and He died, and He was buried, and He rose again from the dead.

But here's the rub. There's a few words in here that challenge you. They might even seem offensive to you. They might even hurt you or harm you or turn you away from the rest of our time. Please don't turn on. Give me the time, and then you can decide.

When we hear words like "saved," you're like, "I don't need to be saved from anything. What are you talking about? I'm doing just fine. I don't need to be saved." And then we talk about "sin." You're like, "Sin? I don't know what you're talking about, preacher, but that's not a problem for me."

It's actually a big problem for you and for me. When we talk about sin, as unpopular as it may be, I want you to consider it's the one thing that we all share. Of all the backgrounds in this room, all the skin colors, all the languages, all the upbringings, male, female, child, adult, all of the differences in this room—and there are many and the diversity is beautiful, God made it that way—but in all the differences, there is one thing for sure every single one of us share, and that is: we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There isn't an innocent one among us. Not one.

Now, I do want to acknowledge that it is possible that in your life you've sinned less than me, and I would say great. I'm glad. You have saved yourself a lot of pain. So you may have been more moral than me before I got saved, or you may have a less of a life of sin than I do, and that's great. There are some differences. But what is the same is that we have all sinned, which poses a significant problem.

If we have all sinned, then what do we do with that? How do we respond? Sin is a Bible word describing an unrighteous, unholy act toward a righteous God. We may use the word mistake. If I say something to you and I hurt your feelings or I do something, I've made a mistake. I need to apologize. I've hurt you. I've done something bad to you. I've made a mistake.

But sin is much greater than just a simple mistake, even hurt feelings. When we sin, we've separated ourselves from God. We weren't made to live in sin. We were made to live in relationship with God, our Creator. And so it's important that we recognize that not only both do we have sin, but we also need to be saved from sin.

I believe this is acknowledged throughout the world because there's a lot of religions out there. Jesus declares to be the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him. John 14:6. But there's a lot of religions and a lot of -isms out there that have replaced the truth of Jesus Christ. I think of Buddhism and Confucianism and every other -ism you can think of. I think of the world religions that exist today.

We're literally in a minefield of false teachings and feel-good theologies and even substitute saviors. When you look at religions, especially the three big world religions, when you think of the religions that have caught the response of the world, they all share some common threads. But they too also have one common thread exclusively, and that is: all of their founders are dead. Still. Even as I speak.

Only with Christianity is it demonstrated that Jesus is not dead, the tomb is empty, and He fulfilled everything He predicted. The resurrection is proof. You think of the impact that Jesus has made on history. Every culture from the beginning of time has been impacted by either the anticipation of the coming Messiah or the fact that He did come and we look back on it.

We think of Jesus fulfilling every messianic prophecy to date in the Old Testament. And we look today at His resurrection over and over and over again. Jesus claimed that He would rise again before He ever died. He would be talking to those that were closest to Him, and He would tell them on more than one occasion, "They're going to kill Me. I'm going to die."

But in the same breath, He would say, "I'm going to die, but I will rise again." Well, you know how it is when you receive bad news. You get stuck. I hear bad news and I don't really hear anything else because I'm still processing the bad news that you shared. And I see that in the life of the disciples. They heard what He said, but they stopped at the bad news.

We know that to be true because after Jesus died and buried, they all went back to life and they thought they lost everything. "Oh, I wasted my life. I'm going to go back fishing. I'm going to go back and live my own life," not remembering Jesus said that He would rise again.

It's different today as not only do you have false religions and -isms, but there's just a lot of criticism toward the Bible today. You might be one of them. You're a skeptic, you're a critic. You just, "Yeah, I don't believe that stuff. That might be good for you. It's not good for me. I'm not that bad. I don't need God," and on and on the list goes.

You may even speak to someone that says, "Oh, you don't believe the Bible, do you?" to which you say, "Of course I do. There's so much evidence that this book is valid and represents the true words of God spoken through the prophets thousands of years ago." "Yes, I believe in it." "Well, you don't believe that story about Jonah, do you?"

Actually, I do believe it. "Well, you know they've proven that to be wrong. I see it on Google and AI now. They tell me it is not true, it's not possible." Of course it's not possible in the human realm. It was a miracle. Miracles supersede what is possible. God is able to do the impossible because with God all things are possible.

Not only that, as you go to Snopes and to Google and you're trying to use human wisdom to debunk the Bible, I've got something even greater that you have to come to terms with: I believe in the true story of Jonah because Jesus believed in the true story of Jonah. And He taught it as such.

He shared—and I'm paraphrasing here—that as Jonah was in three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth. Basically saying that Jesus would die. It's a prophecy, Jonah, and it's amazing that the world would want to undermine Jonah because it's a prediction and prophecy of the life, death, burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And Jesus believed it and taught it as such and used it as a prediction of His own resurrection. You see, it's important in times like this—and I'm so grateful you would hear me out—it's important in times like this for you to reflect on the truth. Because it blows my mind that so many in this world can have all the right facts but come to the wrong conclusion.

Like you could even say today that you believe in the Bible and you believe, but I don't want to follow Him. I don't want God in my life. And that's the wrong conclusion. Jesus did live and die, and He rose again. Over the years, even though there's so overwhelming evidence of Jesus rising from the dead, it still is dismissed.

I want you to notice in verse five now. Paul anticipates this in the first century. Jesus is risen from the dead. We've established that. It's the hinge of all humanity. It was predicted in the Old Testament, fulfilled by Jesus. Now, notice what he says in verse five: and that He was seen after the resurrection.

Jesus was seen by Cephas. Now, that is another name for Peter, one of His key followers. Peter. Then by the twelve, which is a general reference to His closest followers. He was seen. Eyewitness. A proof of the resurrection, one of many, is the eyewitness account of Peter and the eyewitness account of the twelve.

To which even some will say, "Well, you know they were his friends and it was all just a hoax, so you would expect them to be witnesses as well." No, that's not the case. However, you need to read on. Notice: "After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep."

So as he's writing, he says, "Look, it's not just Peter and it's not just the twelve. There was a time—and this is recorded, I'm sure there were more—but there was a time when over five hundred people saw the resurrected Christ at the same time in the same place." That's significant. That is significant evidence. Eyewitness evidence is always the strongest. And multiple people giving the same testimony? Very strong evidence.

I want you to consider for a moment, five hundred people. So the room here is filled with about 1,300 people right now. So almost three times that amount. But let's just say we split the room down the middle and we ask for your eyewitness testimony of me talking today.

And so we're going around the room and we're going to hear about the same thing throughout the room. There will be a few variables because you guys are getting an angle that you guys are getting that you're not getting. You're getting a different angle. You were looking down at your Bible at that time. You were looking up at the lights. You were wondering what am I doing? Just kidding.

But we all have different perspectives. And so, "He's wearing a blue suit. He's got a black Bible and he's got black shoes, and you know, I see stripes. I don't see stripes." And you would hear all kinds of testimony, but you'd hear the same thing over and over again. Might be a little variation only because you see things. You won't hear massive contradictions.

I mean, if you do, then they really didn't see. So for example: blue suit, blue suit, blue suit, blue suit, blue suit, red suit? I'd be very concerned for you. I would give you a doctor's appointment or a card because that's way out there. We wouldn't hear that: blue, blue, blue, red. We wouldn't hear that.

So here we have five hundred witnesses of the resurrection. Five hundred. That's a lot of people, five hundred. I did the math. I was thinking about it. If we gave five hundred people the opportunity to give their testimony for 15 minutes, that's it. Like in our water baptisms when we have them, we line people on the wall up on this side and we line people on the wall up on this side.

So we have 250 people that way, 250 people that way, and they come up to the stairs and they walk up and they stand here for 15 minutes. "I saw Him. He talked to me. You wouldn't believe His eyes. His robe was flowing." "Okay, your 15 minutes is over. Go sit down. You come up."

15 minutes. "You won't believe it. I wasn't even expecting it. When I turned around, He was right there." Another 15 minutes, 15 minutes over and over. If we gave five hundred people 15 minutes, it would take 15 and a half eight-hour days with no break. So like going to work eight hours from morning to night for 15 and a half days, testimony after testimony after testimony after testimony. "I saw Him. I was there. He spoke to me. I was there."

Convincing evidence. You go, "Well, not so much, Pastor, not so much. I mean, it's written in the Bible and not really convincing to me." But you have to put yourself in the shoes, first, of those that received the letter, the Corinthians. So as they're reading this, they're like, "Okay."

They're being affirmed on the resurrection. Their faith is being affirmed. Paul is calling them back to a deeper—especially later on, there were people that were saying the resurrection didn't happen. Like he's saying, "No, no, no, this is the truth."

And then he writes, and you may have never seen this before, noticed it before, but the first time I saw it, I highlighted it because it was shocking to me. He says not only are there five hundred witnesses, but he says, "To whom the greater part remain to the present." Do you know what he means?

He says this: there are five hundred witnesses, and most of them are still alive right now. If you doubt it, go ask them. They're still alive. We're not making this up. I mean, you can accuse a few people of a hoax, but these are five hundred independent people in a place, one place at one time, and most of them are still alive as I'm writing this.

If you're still a skeptic, go ask them. Talk to them. Find a few of them. Jesus rose from the dead. He doesn't stop there. Notice verse seven: "After that He was seen by James," which was his half-brother, Jesus's half-brother, "then by all the apostles."

And then I love verse eight because verse eight brings this whole true story into the 21st century. I love it. So he says, "Then last of all He was seen by me also as one born out of due time." At the time of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Paul hated Him. Wanted nothing to do with Jesus.

He took it upon himself later on to be a one-man show to destroy Christians and Christianity. That was his life and his testimony. So to see the risen Christ, the evidence would point that it wasn't at the time of the five hundred. It was later, born out of due time.

And so you Bible students, you probably know exactly where I'm going. But for those of you that don't know the Bible, there was a time later on in Paul's life where he was on a road headed with a group of people to Damascus to destroy Christians. That's his view of Jesus. He was coming against these Christians.

He's on the road to Damascus, and a bright light stops him. And he hears a voice from heaven that happened to be the voice of Jesus Christ. And it was in that moment that Paul was born again. And in some spiritual, miraculous, mysterious way, he has a vision of Jesus, receives the gospel from Him, and is born again. He has seen the risen Lord not only on the road to Damascus, but every single day of his life.

Which would lead us to here. It would take over a month if I gave every believer in the room here 15 minutes to share your testimony of the risen Lord in your life: where you met Him, who brought the gospel to you, what life was changed, who you used to be, who you are now, what habit you left, how you left alcohol, how you are no longer homeless, how you found yourself going back to school. Why? Only because the risen Lord entered into your life.

And you heard His voice through a man. You heard His voice through the Bible. You heard His voice on some evangelist on television or the radio. You heard His voice, and you only hear voices of those who are alive. You have a testimony of the risen Lord. And that's what Paul says to us here.

Larry: You're listening to Abounding Grace and a special Easter message from Pastor Ed Taylor titled, "It Matters." Of course, we're referring to the resurrection. Are you interested in hearing this message again? It's easy to do. Just visit aboundinggraceradio.com, oneplace.com, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Our pick of the month here in April is Real Worship by Warren Wiersbe. In it, he defines the essence of worship and discusses the key issue surrounding this sometimes controversial topic within the church. We'll send you Real Worship when you give a gift of $25 or more to Abounding Grace. Call toll-free 877-30-GRACE. Again, we're at 877-30-GRACE. Resources like this are also easy to order through our online store at calvaryco.store.

Pastor Ed, a lot going on this weekend at Calvary Church. Would you give our listeners a brief rundown?

Pastor Ed Taylor: Well, Larry, it is a big weekend. I love the Easter weekend or what we call Resurrection Weekend here at Calvary. And everything starts today here, Mountain Standard Time, with a Good Friday service at noon.

And then we added a service for the weekend, so we will have five services available for you to worship: Saturday night at 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM, and then we're going to have our regular service times for the three services on Sunday at 8:00 AM, 9:45, and 11:45.

So we want you to invite everyone and bring someone. We'll be celebrating with upbeat music and a celebratory "Jesus is Alive" service, and I'll be sharing from the Word a very evangelistic message centered around the resurrection. It's going to be great.

We want to see, whether you join us here or you're at your own local fellowship family, let's be in prayer for the lost. Let's reach out to them, invite them to church. I'm telling you, around Christmas and Easter, people are way more open to attend church. So jump in and invite someone and watch God use you in amazing ways. We're praying for you as you pray for us.

Larry: You can watch our Easter services online at calvaryco.church. So wherever you may be this Easter, we hope and pray that you'll remember the good news: that Jesus is alive and in Christ, your sins are forgiven. Thanks again for listening to Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church, Colorado, here in Aurora.