Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: How do you become a Christian? Very simply, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in your heart—and not just believe that God exists, that Jesus existed, not even that he just died on the cross for your sins—it says when you believe that God raised him from the dead, that's why the resurrection is so important. He is risen indeed. Pastor Brett Meador proclaims the good news. For you to be saved, you've got to confess and believe that God raised him from the dead. Now shall be saved. That's how you're saved.

Kurt: A baby in a manger is the image of God coming to Earth as a baby. But the cross reflects why he came, and that was to die for the salvation of man. In a message and celebration of Easter, Pastor Brett Meador examines today's word not only for the reason for Christ's death by crucifixion but the importance of the truth of his resurrection and our need to believe it.

Brett Meador: Theologians agree one of the best definitions of the gospel comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses three and four, where Paul spells it out really clearly. He says, "For I have delivered unto you, the Corinthian church, a bunch of Gentile sinners, I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures."

This is what they call the gospel in a nutshell. It's got three main components. Number one, Christ died for our sins. Once you know you're a sinner, you realize the gospel is this: Christ died for your sins. What's that mean? It means that your penalty for your sin is death. But God says, "I would that none should perish." The heart of God is not to send everybody to hell. We've sent ourselves there. God says you're all on a slippery slope to hell, but I want to pluck you off of that slippery slope and I want to save you.

But God is a perfect gentleman. He doesn't force you to believe. He doesn't force you to accept him. It's something you choose to believe and receive. So the Lord sends his only begotten Son, Jesus, who lived a perfect life without sin—the only one who ever did that—and he died for our sins in our place, substitutionally. That's the idea of the gospel message: Christ substituted himself in your place so that you wouldn't have to suffer for eternity for your sins. This is the first component of the gospel message.

The second part is that he was buried. That's part of the gospel message. He literally suffered on the cross for our sins, but he died and was buried. Then the third component of the gospel, and this is the big one, is that he rose again on the third day. The raising of the dead is the key to the story. You might even say Jesus defeated—well, the whole sentence, if you know the whole gospel—Jesus defeated Satan on the cross.

I think 1 Corinthians 15:55 spells that out for us where it says, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." That's the rest of the message. Yeah, Christ defeated Satan on the cross. Because of that victory, we have victory.

Now, this does so much for us. One of the things it does is it tells us that Jesus really is who he claimed to be. No other religious leader did that. Muhammad didn't do one thing to prove his claims of a prophet. Buddha did nothing to prove that what he said was true. It's sad because people followed these people, but there's no proof in what they say or claim. Jesus is the only one who said, "I will prove that I am the Savior of the world." He said, "Destroy this body, and in three days, I'll raise it up."

That is the thing that separates Christ from all other religions. What makes Christianity more true than all the other religions? Glad you asked. It's a resurrected Jesus Christ. If Christ is not risen, we're in big trouble. Did you know that Paul actually talked about this in such a negative way? He raised the question sort of rhetorically: if Christ did not rise from the dead, then what?

In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 12, Paul sort of rhetorically works through this. It seems kind of wordy and you might say, "What's he talking about?" But I think it's rich that he goes through the implications if Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, then what? Well, let's read. It says in verse 12, "Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith is vain."

The word "vain" is the old King James way of saying a waste of time. Our preaching is a waste of time if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, and your faith is a waste of time if Jesus didn't rise from the dead. He goes on, "Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God. We're liars then because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom if he did not raise up, then the dead don't rise. For if the dead rise not, then Christ has not raised. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain and you are yet in your sins."

Then he says, "They also which are fallen asleep, or dead, in Christ have perished." You say, "Brett, isn't that a double? Those who die have perished." No. What he's saying is those who have died are in everlasting death. That's hell. The word "perish" is taken to that next level. So if you didn't rise up after you die, then you're going to everlasting destruction is the idea. Verse 19, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we have all men are most miserable."

This is where Paul says it's not about this life; it's about the resurrection after you die to go to heaven for eternity. Then he says after asking, "What if Jesus didn't rise from the dead?" but then I love verse 20: "But now Christ is risen from the dead and he's become the firstfruit of them that died." In other words, Jesus is the first one who resurrected.

Now you say, "Wait a minute, Brett, what about Lazarus? He rose from the dead." No. Jesus raised him from the dead only to kick the bucket again. That's a different thing. He was still going to die and see death. Jesus is the first fruit of the resurrection, that is the first one who's raised up to everlasting life in that way, and that's why it says that here. Because Jesus rose from the grave, we get to rise up.

So when you ask this rhetorical question, Paul just camps out on these few points. If Christ be not raised, our preaching is in vain. If Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain or a waste of time. Thirdly, before he goes into that, he talks about how it was a proof. Resurrection is the proof of his claim. Mark 10:33, Jesus saying in a third person, "Behold, we, me and the disciples, go to Jerusalem and the Son of Man shall be delivered to the chief priest, to the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles. And they will mock him, they'll scourge him, they'll spit upon him, and they shall kill him, and then the third day, he will rise again."

Who gets this right? This is Jesus talking in the third person saying, "Guess what? We're going—yours truly—to Jerusalem where I'm going to be condemned to death, whipped, mocked, spat upon, crucified, and then on the third day, I'm going to rise from the dead." I mean, who makes that claim? Nobody has ever made that claim successfully except for Jesus. There's been a few people in history who tried. One was Harry Houdini. Did you know he made an attempt to say, "I will return"? His wife and his followers, they all lit candles on the night he was supposed to return and they waited like Linus waiting for the great pumpkin. But he never showed.

Why? Because old Harry Houdini didn't have power over life and death. Jesus is the only one who did that. He made that claim. He made that prediction. In fact, it was the religious leaders that said this to Jesus. Then answered the Jews and said unto him, there in John chapter two, "What sign showest thou us seeing that thou doest these things?" And Jesus answered and said unto them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up." Then said the Jews, "Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?"

But he, Jesus, spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them, and they believed the scripture—that's the Old Testament Hebrew Bible—and the word which Jesus said. That's when Jesus said in Mark's Gospel about how he was going to raise up from the dead three days later. So this is Jesus making a prediction.

So one of the things we know is not only what if Jesus didn't rise from the dead? Your preaching is vain, your faith is vain. But also, if Christ be not risen, you're still in your sins because he was a fake. He was a phony if he didn't rise from the dead because he claimed he would. One of the most provable facts in history is that Jesus rose from the grave. That's why the whole world was changed from that day forward. Some dude from Galilee that was a carpenter's son that made some ruckus and then died on a cross should have gone off into history as oblivion.

What was it that after Jesus died on the cross, what was it that suddenly Christianity spread like wildfire? It would only be a few decades, even the whole Roman Empire would hear the gospel. It would only be 300 years where all of the Roman Empire, Christianity was the religion of choice. How did that happen? I'll tell you how it happened. Jesus said, "I will rise from the dead." And when he did, and hundreds of people saw him after he rose from the grave, they were so convinced. Not only were they convinced that they believed, but they were unwilling to deny it even when some like James was sawed in half lengthwise.

They said, "Deny Jesus," and he said, "I will not. He is the resurrected Savior. Jesus is Lord." Virtually all the disciples minus John were killed for their faith in Christ. You think one of them is saying, "It was just a joke, he swooned," or he sort of faked it? Not one person gave in. They all believed. Why? Because Christ is risen.

So if Christ didn't rise, Paul is saying our preaching's a waste of time, your faith's a waste of time, and you're still in your sins, which means you're still headed for hell. But I love how he ends the discussion in verse 20. He says, "But Christ is risen." And because Christ is risen, we have salvation through Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. This is so important.

What does the resurrection of Christ do? It proves his divinity and all of his claims. I love how the Bible over and over tells us, "The resurrection does this and the resurrection does that and the resurrection does the other." It's so rich. That's why we Christians get giddy around the resurrection and Sunday we go, "He is risen," and then people say, "He is risen indeed." Why do they say that? Because it was the most earth-shattering, biggest event in the history of the world.

For you to say he is risen is to confess that you have faith in Christ that he is who he claimed to be. It's a big deal to say he is risen. You don't just say that if you think he was some nice religious leader, a guru, a prophet, or a nice teacher. To say he is risen is to believe that he is God who came and lived as a man, died on the cross for the sins of the world, and then rose from the grave just like he said he would. To say he is risen—well, that's why in the early church they would say he is risen and then if a person was in agreement and believed in Christ, they'd say, "He is risen indeed."

You have to understand, those words in those days could have killed you. If the right people heard you say he is risen, they could have killed you. And they did. Hundreds of thousands of people, killed them for saying those words. We're blessed because we can say that today: he is risen. You can look at each other and you can say, "I'm not going to say that," which means you're not a Christian, you don't believe that. But if you say, "He is risen indeed," that's saying I'm with you, I believe that, that Jesus is God manifested as a man who came down and died for our sins, was buried, and rose three days later.

That's the gospel as the Bible puts it out there. What do the verses say about that? It talks about the power of the resurrection, like Romans 1:3. It says, "Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power," that's the power that we started with. Remember, the gospel is the power of God to salvation. So the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. This basically speaks of the divinity of Christ finds its surest proof in his resurrection.

Not only that, Christ's sovereignty also depends on the resurrection. Romans 14:9 says, "For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living." Now you might say, "Brett, who wants to be the Lord of the dead?" Remember the dead is not really dead. Remember the Bible says when you die, you will resurrect. It'll be the first resurrection or the second resurrection, Revelation 20. What's the first resurrection? That's the resurrection unto eternal life. But there's a second resurrection the Bible talks about, a resurrection unto eternal death, which means you resurrect unto death. That's death and hell.

The reason people take that route is they're still in their sins and they haven't been forgiven because they don't take the free offering of Christ to let him take your sins and wash you clean. By the way, not only does it speak of Christ's sovereignty over the dead and the living, but the resurrection speaks of our justification. A fancy doctrinal word which means just as if you'd never sinned. Not only does he forgive you because he died, was buried, and rose again, but he washes your sins away completely.

I love the doctrine, the teaching of justification. What does it mean? A play on words a little bit, but just as if you've never sinned at all. You can be the worst person in this room, but if Christ forgives you of your sins, you'll get to heaven and the Lord will look at you and say, "Enter in, thou good and faithful servant." You'll be like, "Yeah, but what about that time I murdered someone?" No, just kidding. But when you get to that gate, no matter how bad you've been, if you've repented of your sin and confessed Christ that he died, that he rose again, he was buried, if you believe that, it says your sins will be not just forgiven but just as if you'd never sinned.

That's the doctrine of justification. So what does the Bible say? Christ, Romans 4:25, "who was delivered for our offenses—that's all of our offenses—and was raised again for our justification." That's the resurrection linked to that work of justification. And there's other scriptures that give us the glory of the resurrection. For example, our very future in heaven depends on the resurrection. 1 Peter 1:3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope." That's a King James way of saying living. It's a resurrected, not a dead hope, but a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

To, from death to, an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. Can I just remind you, heaven things only get better. In the cosmos as we know it, everything gets worse. Laws of entropy, second law of thermodynamics. Everything goes from order to disorder, from organization to chaos. That's why I don't believe in evolution. Evolution demands everything goes from chaos to perfect order. There's nothing in the universe that's modeled to that. If you don't believe me, just look in the mirror.

If you're past 18, you guys that are younger than 18, you can look in the mirror and still think disorder to order. But after 18, gravity kicks in, wrinkles start showing, gray hairs start popping out. You get these weird things. If you're a man, you get your eyebrows used to be nice; you have guitar strings popping out of your eyebrows, and it's just crazy getting old. That's just proof. But good news, when you go to heaven, instead of going from order to disorder, what happens in the heavenlies is it says we get to go to inheritance where it's incorruptible. That's actually the Greek word for that is a scientific term from the opposite of entropy.

So from an inheritance that's incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you. How's that possible? The resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's what it says. And most certainly our ultimate resurrection rests in heaven. Romans 8:11, "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."

What's the word "quicken"? Some of you guys are like, "What does personal finance software have to do with this? I don't understand." No, "quicken" is a word we don't use as much, but it means—well, it's funny. Did you know there's no English word that really suffices in the Greek word? The Greek word is *Zoopoieo*, which means—it's a verb, by the way—that means to make alive, to give life to, to impart life to.

The reason we don't have a word for that in the English is because man can't do that. We can't make life from nothing. God can. *Zoopoieo*, which means to make alive. That's this Greek word where the word "quicken" when Paul says because Christ raised from the dead, he shall also make alive you.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a guy that knew how to preach a powerful sermon from the 1800s. I quote him all the time because he's one of my favorite pastors. But on an Easter Sunday, he said this about the resurrection. For those of you who go through the Bible with us, we talked about Felix and Augustus. Felix was the guy that said, "Ah, go away, Paul. I'll hear the gospel some other time at a more convenient time." Augustus heard Paul preach the gospel and he said, "You almost persuade me to be a Christian, but that's not going to happen," and he got up and walked away.

Spurgeon refers to those two things on Resurrection Sunday. Here's what he said: "Do you know, my dear unsaved listener, what God's estimate of the gospel is? Do you not know that it's been the chief subject of his thoughts and acts from all eternity? He looks on the gospel as the greatest of all his works. You cannot imagine that he has sent this gospel into the world to be a football for you to play with, that you may give it a kick, as Felix did when he said to Paul, 'Go thy way for this time, and when I have a convenient season, I will call for you.' Acts 24:25. You surely can't believe that God sent his gospel into the world to just make a toy of it and to say, as Agrippa said to Paul, 'Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.' Acts 26:28."

"But the worst thing is when you put away all the thought of the gospel out of your soul. You can't even speak of it irreverently without committing a great sin." Spurgeon is saying the gospel is nothing to be trifled with. We talk about the gospel, the gospel, the gospel. But he's saying this is the greatest of God's work. What's the gospel? Remember that he died on the cross for your sins, was buried, and then he rose again. This is what Spurgeon is saying: that's nothing to trifle with. Can I say I hope that you haven't just kicked it around or thought, "I'll hear more about this later. I'll see Brett at Christmas because that's what we do, Christmas, Easter." But whatever you do, don't just play around with the gospel. This is the biggest decision you ever make.

So you say, "Okay, Brett, we've got what the gospel does. It's the power of God to salvation to everyone that believes. We know what it is. It's Jesus died on the cross for my sins, was buried and rose from the grave. That's the gospel. The word gospel means good news. That's the good news." But here's the clincher: you got to receive it. It's a free gift, but you got to receive it. You can't just say, "Oh, I'm glad that's an interesting thing in history." But you got to repent of your sin and acknowledge humbly, "Lord, I am a sinner. I have fallen short and I repent."

That's where you're now positioned to say, "Okay, I believe that Jesus is my Savior, and I'm going to accept that." How do you do that? Well, Romans—it's our go-to today, Romans—we'll finish with this. Here's how you're saved. And by the way, this is another one of those like the one we started with, the power of God to salvation to those that believe. John 3:16, "If you believe in me, you'll have everlasting life." Believe, believe, believe. Again, it says, "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believes to righteousness, with the mouth confession is made to salvation."

How do you become a Christian? Very simply, you got to confess with your mouth, that's the number one component, and then believe in your heart the truth of the gospel. And not just believe that God exists, that Jesus exists, not even that he just died on the cross for your sins—it doesn't say that here—it says you have to believe that he died on the cross for your sins, implied when you believe that God raised him from the dead, it says here. That's why the resurrection is so important. For you to be saved, you got to confess and believe that God raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved. That's how you're saved.

Kurt: Pastor Brett Meador wrapping up a special message for Easter from today's word, clearly defining the gospel and all that it means to eternal life. I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment to close our Easter message. But first, our teacher Brett Meador is the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church just outside of Portland, Oregon. Each day, Pastor Brett will bring you a verse-by-verse study of God's word. If you missed any portion of our time today, you can find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com.

Okay, I have Pastor Brett with me. The celebration of Easter is all about the meaning of Christ's resurrection from the dead. Brett, can you tell us what we should take away from this resurrection of Jesus?

Brett Meador: Sure, Kurt. The resurrection tells us three big things. First, Jesus is who he said he is, the Son of God, and he confirmed that. Second, death isn't the end, which I love that. And third, we have a living hope. Because he lives, we can face tomorrow as the old hymn goes. Because he lives, we know sin doesn't win, the grave doesn't win, and perhaps maybe even most importantly, it means that our story isn't over. We're not just doomed to death and destruction, but the same power that raised up Christ from the dead is available to transform my life today, not just for all eternity, which is great enough, but the resurrecting power of Christ gives me hope even for right now.

Kurt: Yeah, and that hope is something that anybody who puts their faith in Christ can have, as you just mentioned. Thank you, Pastor Brett, for that. I want to mention that if you'd like more information about Pastor Brett Meador or today's word, or maybe you're wondering how you can have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, just go to our website at todayswordradio.com and click on the link "New Believer." That's todayswordradio.com and click on the link "New Believer." Well, next time, Pastor Brett Meador will continue another verse-by-verse study in God's word. Today's word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.