Luke: 00:08

Heavenly father, we are beyond thankful this morning. We are filled with the hope of spring and the reminder that that brings of new life, Lord. That reminder that you bring death to life. Lord, I pray that this morning through the proclamation of your word, you would make it alive to our hearts through the holy spirit. That you would enliven us.

Luke: 00:40

That you would awaken us to the truth. That we would respond in faith. Lord, I pray that as Pastor Cameron seeks to open your word that you would be working through him, And Lord, I pray that that effect would bring up a well of praise. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Luke: 01:10

Amen.

Cameron: 01:12

Good morning, conduit. How are you this morning? Good morning. Good. Happy Easter.

Cameron: 01:16

My name is Cameron. I'm one of the pastors here. And, as pastor Luke always or has already said, we welcome you home, and I hope that you have an experience with the Lord this morning, and every time you come here to this building and with these people. So we we ended we we have a good Friday service here at the church as well. And, because we feel like it's it's, I don't know if the word is important.

Cameron: 01:46

Obviously, it's important. But we feel like it's a necessary first step in being able to celebrate Easter. Because if on Good Friday, where we celebrate what Jesus has done on the cross and all that that earned for us, That that Friday in the death of Jesus, like the all of creation, all of the earth, kind of collectively takes a big breath and then holds it in. And then on Sunday morning, when we when we show up, right, when you because I know everyone woke up with the sun this morning. Right?

Cameron: 02:26

Right? Everyone everyone woke up just like Mary, the Marys did on that Sunday morning to go to the tomb to anoint the dead body or what they thought would be the dead body of Jesus. Right? Then on Easter Sunday, we wake up with the sun and the same type of celebration, getting ready to let out that big breath that we started to hold in on Good Friday, right? Like, finally, the period of death has been done away with.

Cameron: 02:51

So we hold a Good Friday service here because we think it's an important part of the celebration of Easter Sunday morning. But we ended, we ended Good Friday, with this cross down here and a black cloth on it rather than a white one decorated with flowers. We ended Good Friday with the idea that that even with all that Jesus endured in the lead up to and the act of crucifixion, Things like being, being overwhelmed to the point of grief and anguish, he said in the garden. Being mocked and, shamed and scorned by the crowd, by the high priests, by the religious elite, being abandoned by all of those who were closest to him in his greatest moment of need. All of these things that led up to the death of Jesus, the actual act of crucifixion, we often approach that moment in a moment like that, you know, with with in a very somber spirit.

Cameron: 03:53

Right. With a very somber posture. And sometimes, we even approach that moment, being mournful. We're we're mournful of the death of Jesus and we, we respond or we reflect sometimes, rightfully so and appropriately so, with Thanksgiving. Thank you, Jesus, for what you have done.

Cameron: 04:15

But what is interesting about the gospels, what is interesting about the Ministry of Jesus, all that Jesus said about his crucifixion, all that Jesus said about his suffering, all that Jesus said to his disciples in the midst of his ministry, not once did he say, I hope when I die you all mourn for me. I hope when I die that you all consider with a lot of thankfulness the cost of my death. As if somehow, he was doing what he was doing in order to receive, right, our mournful posture or even our thanks. See, Jesus did not require on that good Friday. Jesus did not require that we even be thankful or that we mourn.

Cameron: 05:08

Although, all of those things are kind of a natural reaction to what he has done. The most appropriate response to the act of the cross and to what Jesus did on that Friday is belief. Jesus has called us to believe. Now, this theme carries with us into Easter Sunday morning. The morning where all Christians, where Christians all across the world, celebrate and remember the morning that Mary Magdalene and others came to the tomb to anoint Jesus's body only to find that the tomb was empty.

Cameron: 05:55

There was nothing there to anoint. There was nothing there to do. There was no one and nothing there to mourn even. We don't typically mourn people that are living. As the story goes in some way, shape, or form across the Gospels, Jesus' resurrection was announced, to the women either by Jesus himself or the angels who were waiting, were waiting there for them to come.

Cameron: 06:27

The women showed up there to anoint Jesus' body. It wasn't there. And so some of the gospels, I think John's gospel, it's Jesus himself who approaches Mary, kind of disguised, so to speak, as a gardener. In other gospels, they record that angels were there waiting to announce to the women, hey, why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, he is risen.

Cameron: 06:49

And then, they told the women now go and tell all the others what you have seen and what I have said. They had a job, go Tell the other disciples. The other disciples, all of the men, the women were brave enough to go to the tomb that morning. All of the men were hiding in various places for fear that they would suffer the same faith that Jesus did on the cross. They were not there to see the empty tomb for themselves.

Cameron: 07:27

Now, so as Mary, as Mary burst into the proverbial room to tell all the other disciples what she had seen and what she had experienced, To to proclaim the news that the tomb of Jesus was empty, what do you think the response that the women encountered was? Now, now, understand that what they were coming that what they were coming to tell the disciples is not that they had some, like, spiritual out of body ecstatic vision of an apparition that kind of looked like Jesus. And so they thought, well, hey. Maybe Jesus is actually alive because we saw, like, a ghost like figure and the tomb the stone was rolled away, and we're not really sure. Maybe we just had bad seafood last night or maybe it was really him.

Cameron: 08:17

I'm not really sure. You see, it wasn't that kind of message at all. The message that they came to say is no. We have seen the risen lord. The tomb is empty.

Cameron: 08:30

We're not confused about what we saw. We're not confused about what about what happened. We saw the real physical flesh and blood living, breathing Jesus. Something completely incomprehensible and out of this world. And what do you think the response of the disciples in that moment was to this fantastic news?

Cameron: 08:54

It was unbelief. It was not celebration. It was a, okay. Sure you did. Sure you saw him.

Cameron: 09:11

Sure the tomb was empty. Sure the Roman soldiers were not there. Sure the stone was rolled away. Sure the grave clothes were folded up. Sure he wasn't there.

Cameron: 09:21

Gotcha. In Mark's gospel, Mark records it as, saying this in Mark chapter 16 verses 11 through 13. He says that when they heard that Jesus was alive and that she, Mary Magdalene, had seen him, they did not believe it. Afterward, Jesus appeared in a different form to 2 of them while they were walking in the country. These returned and reported it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.

Cameron: 09:57

This wasn't the only gospel writer who recorded such a sentiment. Right? The gospel of Luke records essentially the same thing. All of the gospels essentially record the same initial response of the disciples. Not one of celebration, not one of joy, not one of belief, but one of disbelief.

Cameron: 10:13

This can't possibly have happened. In Luke's gospel, Luke 24, verse 11, he says, but they did not believe the women Listen, men don't ever use this argument. Because their words seemed to them like nonsense. They did not believe the women because their words seemed to be to them like nonsense. Now, I want to, in my most, like, prideful and spiritual moments, be like, those disciples.

Cameron: 10:51

What's the matter with them? Shouldn't they have known? Shouldn't shouldn't they have known? But if we're speaking honestly, at least I won't speak for you, but I'll speak for myself. If I'm speaking honestly, I probably would have been in a similar frame of mind.

Cameron: 11:12

In like 20 years of pastoral ministry, I don't know how many funerals I have done. I have never seen someone come back from the dead. Never. It's not something that happens. It's not something that is normal.

Cameron: 11:29

If someone burst through these doors this morning exclaiming that their loved one, that they had that had truly really died suddenly had come back to life, that the casket was empty, that the grave was exploded open, we might look at them a little sideways. So why would we expect something different from the disciples in this moment? See, what the reality is is there's a little bit of a different circumstance that has happened here with Jesus, Jesus' tomb being empty and maybe our loved ones' tomb being empty. It's this. Is this this is exactly what Jesus said would happen.

Cameron: 12:19

Now think of it. Jesus had spent 3 years or so with these disciples. 3 years with them, them following him around, not just like showing up to his house for an hour and a half on a Sunday morning to listen to his teaching and then going then going home and living their life as normal. Well, to be a disciple was to be an apprentice of life, which means you followed that person in all of their life. You were connected to them at the hip.

Cameron: 12:46

The only time that Jesus got isolation from his disciples was when he asked for it so he could go to pray. We see this in the gospel all of the time. And so we we know that the disciples and probably a larger crowd than we are even aware of was with Jesus in the most intimate, moments for a long period of time. And what did they witness in those 3 years of ministry? Now, if we take the gospels seriously and we read them seriously, we will see that they experienced the most miraculous things that any of us could ever possibly imagine to experience in life.

Cameron: 13:26

They saw Jesus raise the dead. They saw Jesus heal people who were terminally ill. They saw people take water or they saw Jesus take water and turn it into wine. They saw Jesus make the blind person see, the deaf person hear, the mute person talk. They saw Jesus do that.

Cameron: 13:50

Take take the loaves and the fish and multiply them to feed a crowd beyond imagination with so much that there was stuff left over. They were intimate. They were the intimate audience of everything that Jesus had done. Everything. They saw it all.

Cameron: 14:12

They saw the way in which he taught. They saw the authority that he had from the Lord. They saw that he had the power to forgive sins. They saw everything. How could they possibly have missed or forgotten who this was that had raised from the dead.

Cameron: 14:36

If that's, if that's not even enough, Jesus told them, look, this is what's going to happen. This is what's going to happen. Luke chapter 18 verses 31 through 33 is one example of this. Jesus took the 12 aside and told them, we're we're going to Jerusalem and everything that is written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles.

Cameron: 15:08

They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him. And on the 3rd day he will rise again. Right? And so there's this sense of, like, what were the disciples doing hiding away in a room in Galilee, a separate town, far away from the tomb, when when they had already witnessed all of the miraculous things that Jesus did, He had told them, hey. Look.

Cameron: 15:39

I'm gonna this is gonna happen. This is gonna happen. This is gonna happen. This is gonna happen. All of those things had now happened, and now the only thing left on the proverbial list was for him to rise from the dead on the 3rd day.

Cameron: 15:52

At, like, day 2.75, I'd have been like this. Right? On the grave waiting. Right? Everything everything else he said has come true.

Cameron: 16:02

We know and have seen the authority by which he he his his life operates. He's healing the sick. He's bringing people back from dead. He's multiplying food. He's making the lame walk.

Cameron: 16:15

Like, of course, this is going to happen. And so while while disbelief may have been kind of the reflex reaction to the news that the tomb was empty. We do see a shift, kind of, in belief as other disciples show up to see with their own eyes that Jesus' body was not there. They initially reacted with disbelief, even with the account of the women and even with what Jesus had already said in his ministry, what would happen. Hey, this is going to happen.

Cameron: 17:02

John chapter 20, verse 8, he says that finally the other disciple who had reached the tomb first, right, they had heard the news from Mary, they had raced out of the door to the tomb, they had run all the way there to see from themselves. Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went inside. He saw, listen, he saw and he believed. This was a moment where unbelief was exchanged for belief. Where doubt was, was exchanged for confidence.

Cameron: 17:40

Where, where what was seemed to be nonsensical coming from the mouth of someone else, when we saw it with our own eyes, when we experienced it with our own senses, we, our unbelief now turned to confidence and belief. This may be one of the questions that we can ask ourselves this morning is, what, what will you need to see in order to believe? What is it that you will need to see in order for any amount of unbelief or disbelief or doubt to transform into belief. Or maybe maybe the question is asked better by Jesus himself. Because he asks a similar type of question to Mary and Martha in the Gospels, in the Gospel of John.

Cameron: 18:46

Jesus had gone to Martha as her brother Lazarus had died and she was weeping and mourning for that loss. And he says to her in John chapter 11 verse 25 and 26, he says, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?

Cameron: 19:23

Do you believe this? I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he may die. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?

Cameron: 19:44

What will it take for you? What will you need to see in order to believe this? Listen, I'm here to tell you this morning that belief in the resurrection is not inconsequential to our lives. Believe in the resurrection is not inconsequential to our faith. Belief in the resurrection is not inconsequential to anything.

Cameron: 20:11

Belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ matters. Not just in some way that it exists on a theological statement of a of a organized religion somewhere, but belief in the resurrection of Jesus matters to you. It matters to me. It matters to us. The apostle Paul went on this what I can only describe as a, we'll say it was a passionate exhortation about the reality of the resurrection to one of the churches that he planted.

Cameron: 20:48

Okay. The Apostle Paul was in an early church, in the early church, he was a church planter. He would go into a city, he would he would preach the gospel, people would come to believe in Jesus Christ, He would set up leaders in that area, then he and then they would lead a new community of Jesus followers. Right? And then he would go to another city, and he would do the same there.

Cameron: 21:08

And then another city, another city, another city, traveling all over the ancient Near East proclaiming to the Gentiles that the Messiah has come in Jesus Christ. And as he was setting up these churches, he would establish them with good belief and good doctrine. Hey guys, I'm here to tell you that Jesus Christ has been has been, resurrected from the grave and that the same resurrection that Jesus experienced, you can experience by faith in him. And then as he would leave those churches and go to other areas, they were left essentially on their own to worship Jesus, to follow Jesus, to work in the way of Jesus. And from time to time, they would get a little off course.

Cameron: 21:51

Right? These churches would get a little off course. They would get a little sideways as as guess what? As human beings do. As anything that is led by a human being often does.

Cameron: 22:03

Right? It can get a little off course. And so Paul would write letters to them, sometimes encouraging them in their faith. And these are some of the letters that we have, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, letters to the Thessalonians, letters to Timothy where he was a church leader. Right?

Cameron: 22:17

Encouraging them, to, hey, stay firm in the faith. Hey, change this thing. Hey, you need some correction over here. But no one got it as bad as the Corinthians. Okay?

Cameron: 22:29

Yeah. No one no one got no one got, like, no one got no one got it as bad as the Corinthians. Alright? Because there was some times where where they were just like, whoop, way, like way off into right field, way off into left field and were in need of some correction. Now Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians in chapter 15, this is one of those moments where they needed a little bit of correction Because the thing that they had gotten off course on was holding firmly to the belief and necessity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Cameron: 23:12

For whatever reason and in whatever ways, they had let the centrality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, no longer be the central point of why they were a worshiping community to begin with. Other things had become more important. Other things had become more central. And so he opens, the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians by saying this, hey. I want to remind you of the gospel that I have preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.

Cameron: 23:46

By this gospel, you were saved. If you hold firmly to the word that I have preached to you, Otherwise, you have believed in vain. It's 1st Corinthians 15, 1 and 2. So he says, listen, hold firmly to the word that I have preached to you. If you don't, you have believed in vain.

Cameron: 24:14

And then all of the rest of the 15th chapter is like, hey, listen, resurrection, resurrection, resurrection, resurrection, Get it in your head, get it in your heart, get it written all over your life. Because the moment that you get sideways on belief in the resurrection, everything else in your faith falls apart. And listen, church, I want you to hear me very clearly when we say, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most central aspect to our Christian faith. There is nothing more primary. There is nothing higher.

Cameron: 24:48

There is nothing that sits in the center of the target more clearly than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, we do not have a faith. All of our faith is useless outside of the fact that Jesus has resurrected from the grave. And this is exactly what Paul goes on to say in 1st Corinthians 15. In 1st Corinthians 15, he says that the resurrection is central to all of our Christian faith.

Cameron: 25:20

For instance, if you read verse 14, it says, he says this, if Christ has not been raised, meaning if Jesus was never raised from the dead, if there was never any resurrection from the grave, if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless, and guess what? And so is your faith. Now, now listen, understand the gravity of that. Is that if Christ has not been raised, if we don't have at the centrality of the faith, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then every other bit of things in your life that you associate with your Christian faith are useless. Forget about it.

Cameron: 26:04

It doesn't matter. None of it matters. Any bit of like moral or ethical transformation that you've experienced because you come to church or you hang out with other Christians or you read your bible or you pray more. Any positive change that you've seen in your life. The minute that you separate it from the resurrection, guess what?

Cameron: 26:30

Makes note, it's useless, Paul says. It is useless. It far the resurrection far surpasses and supersedes any moral or ethical benefit to the Christian faith that we receive. Because the reality is this, is that Jesus did not come to make bad people good. Jesus came to make dead people alive.

Cameron: 26:55

And so without the resurrection, all he's doing is making bad people good. No, that's not the reason that Jesus came. Jesus came to make people who were dead in their sins and without a way to God to build a bridge to bring them back to life and be in relationship with the one that created them. And it is his resurrection that was the central act of human history that paves the way for our own resurrection. This is point number 2.

Cameron: 27:30

It's that the resurrection of Jesus makes our resurrection possible. You see, there there have been periods of time in the Christian church or in Christian history where the main message that has been preached about salvation is that the end goal of salvation is that you will receive Jesus by faith so that you can go to heaven and live with him forever in a spiritual disembodied existence, where we walk among the clouds with the angels. But the actual witness of the scripture is is so much different than that. The actual witness of the scripture is not that we is that we end up in heaven and stay there in eternity in some kind of spiritual Casper the friendly ghost type of state. But that no.

Cameron: 28:27

Because of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, the flesh and blood resurrection of Jesus Christ, the put your fingers in the nail hole so that you can see, touch me and know that my body is alive when it was once dead without all of that precedes our own bodily resurrection to new life. That the scripture declares over and over and over and over again that resurrection is not and salvation is not just a spiritual experience, but that but that God through the power of the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will give life to our mortal bodies as well. This is listen. This is perhaps the greatest of all miracles that we celebrate on Easter. It really is.

Cameron: 29:22

Right? Not not even necessarily that Jesus came back from the dead because he said he would. It's not even a miracle. It's just a fact. But the even greater miracle in all of this is that the same miracle that Jesus experienced, he offers to us.

Cameron: 29:42

The same empty tomb that Jesus experienced, he offers to us. The same resurrection that Jesus experienced back to life in the body, not in just some spiritual existence, but back to life in the body is offered to us. Paul says it in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verse 20. He uses these words. He said, but Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.

Cameron: 30:08

The first fruits of all those who have fallen asleep. The term fallen asleep was a way that they talked about in the ancient Neary someone dying. They'd fallen asleep. Right? Permanent sleep, bye, dead.

Cameron: 30:25

But that the resurrection of Jesus Christ has indeed been raised from the dead and that his resurrection is now the first fruit or the deposit guaranteeing what is to come after it, which is our resurrection from the dead. This isn't the only time that Paul says this in 1st Corinthians 15, he also says it in Romans chapter 6. When talking about our unity with Jesus through our baptism and faith, he says these words about resurrection. He says, we were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

Cameron: 31:26

Our unity with Jesus in his resurrection is the same type of resurrection. It's not some spiritual language for our eternality in heaven. It is the actual uniting of the experience of resurrection that we will have the same way that Jesus had it. Where his dead body, his embodied bodied. Right?

Cameron: 31:52

His touch and feel and eat and smell type of body comes back from the dead, glorified by the father and and and living an embodied existence. And and without the resurrection of Jesus in that way, Paul says that we have no hope for resurrection because if Christ was not raised, why would we be raised? If there is no resurrection from the dead, then our hope is lost as well. Number 3, the resurrection of Jesus offers hope for the future. The resurrection of Jesus offers hope.

Cameron: 32:43

It offers hope primarily, primarily it offers the most ultimate of all hopes. It provides the ultimate hope over the most final thing ever. What is the most final thing ever? You're gonna pay your taxes, right? And what else?

Cameron: 33:04

Right? What else? Come on, death, right? What is the most final thing? The most final thing is death that no one escapes.

Cameron: 33:19

Can find a workaround, that that no one can run away from. It is the most final of all final things. It is coming in the future for every one of us. But the resurrection of Jesus offers hope for the future. The ultimate hope is that the most final thing ever, which is death, has been destroyed and can no longer claim victory or dominance over those who are in Christ Jesus.

Cameron: 33:53

The most final thing ever, the most secure thing ever, the most the most the most universal thing ever, death has been destroyed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That which no one can escape, now all of those who are united by faith that the Jesus Christ have victory over the one thing that sin has caused, death. Paul says this in chapter, or in verse 55, Where, oh death, is your victory? Where, oh death, is your sting? Death has been swallowed up.

Cameron: 34:38

That the resurrection secures and offers hope for the future. But listen, not just in the most ultimate way, not just in the way that that is like, oh, yes, we have hope for the, like, our our future future over death. But but the resurrection, the reality of the resurrection also gives us hope for the not just for the future, for the now. For the right now. Because we understand that if the most final of all final things is no longer final, then the most temporary of temporary sufferings is no longer final either.

Cameron: 35:19

Right? Then every bit of suffering that we might experience now, every bit of pain that we might experience now, every bit of turmoil and trial that we might experience now is only and always will be temporary because of the resurrection. Because everything has been destroyed when Jesus swallowed up death. Peter, in his epistle, wrote about this. He said in 1st Peter chapter 1 verses 3 through 7, he said praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Cameron: 36:04

In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through what? The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade away, kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. Listen, then he says this, in this you greatly rejoice, Even though now, for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. It is the resurrection of Jesus Christ that roots us in the hope that even our temporary suffering no longer has power over us. I don't think this is on the screen, but Paul says the same thing in 2 Corinthians 4.

Cameron: 37:14

Starting in verse 14, he says, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. And all of this is for your benefit. So that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. But listen to this, therefore Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly, we are being renewed day by day.

Cameron: 37:55

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. And so, we will fix our eyes not on what is seen, for what is seen is temporary, but on what is unseen. Because what is unseen is eternal. The resurrection of Jesus offers hope for the future. So let me ask you one more time.

Cameron: 38:27

I am the resurrection and I am the life, Jesus said. Those who believe in me will never die. And those who I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. The question that we must answer this morning is this, do you believe this?

Cameron: 38:54

Do you believe this? You see, maybe the belief that is required for you right now is just a plain and simple belief in Jesus himself. You may have been fighting disbelief or unbelief for all of you. You might be proverbially walking in the spirit of the disciples when Mary came into the room for the first time and said, Jesus has risen from the dead. Sounds like not all this Jesus stuff sounds like nonsense to me.

Cameron: 39:29

I don't believe it. All this Jesus stuff, nonsense. I'm smarter than that. I got more life experience than that. I got more wisdom than that.

Cameron: 39:44

And so, maybe the belief that is required for you this morning to answer that question is just a plain and simple belief in the life and ministry of Jesus, and what he came to do and who he came to be and who he desires to be for you and in you. Maybe you have belief in Jesus. Maybe you've had belief in Jesus for a long, long time, but your level of belief still kind of has Jesus lying relatively lifeless in someone else's grave. Jesus certainly is not alive in your life. Jesus is certainly certainly not the central figure of belief of your life.

Cameron: 40:24

Jesus is certainly not your lord. You know him and you've heard about him and yet you believe generally in his existence. But but for all intents and purposes, his influence in your life is dead. He's in the grave still. Not resurrected, not glorified, not the Lord overall, not calling you to a place of lordship and belief, just simply a, inspiring moral and ethical religious figure.

Cameron: 40:58

The the confidence and the hope that I have this morning is this, is that what I know is that I I cannot make you believe. Your loved ones can't make you believe. Those closest to you can't make you believe. No one can make you believe, and I am so glad for that. I'm so glad to, like, just come to that realization because I can't make you believe, nor is it my job to make you believe.

Cameron: 41:34

You might think, well, aren't you? You're a pastor, right? Isn't your job to, like, force belief into my life? And my somewhat rhetorical question to you would be, like, yeah, how has that worked so far? Because I am almost certain that I am not the that I would not be the first person to try and force belief into your life.

Cameron: 41:53

And guess what forced belief does? Nothing. It bears no fruit. And the fruit that it does bear often is resent, resentment and bitterness. It's not my job to make you believe.

Cameron: 42:11

It's not my calling to make you believe. I can't make you believe. But what I do believe is that the Holy Spirit of God, the same spirit who brought the dead body of Jesus back to life in a stunningly victorious fashion, is working even now in this moment to seed belief in you, where you once, where once there was only been the fallow ground of doubt and disbelief. I believe that with all of my heart. And I believe it because I have seen it with my own eyes.

Cameron: 42:58

That that Jesus helps us even in our moments or seasons of our whole lives of unbelief. To seed belief, to bring it to germination so that it produces fruit in life. Probably one of the most honest portions of the gospels is from Mark chapter 9. Mark chapter 9, his father comes and his child is has been experiencing, this oppression by an evil spirit. And they've tried everything that they could.

Cameron: 43:51

And he comes to, and he comes to Jesus. They brought him when the spirit saw Jesus, he immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground, rolled around foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the boy's father, how long has he been like this? Well, from childhood, he answered, he's often thrown him into the fire or the water to kill him.

Cameron: 44:11

But if if you can do anything, if if you if you can do anything, would you just take pity on him? Jesus' response, if you can? He asked. Everything is possible for him who believes. Immediately, the boy's father exclaimed this, probably one of the most honest verses in all of the Bible, one on which, like, I have had to hang on to in moments in my life.

Cameron: 44:44

The father in that moment explains, I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief. I do believe, but man, I got a lot of unbelief still. Help me overcome it. The work of Jesus on the cross, the power of God to raise him from the dead is something that we're called to believe that we might live.

Cameron: 45:20

Maybe it's the last maybe it's the first time, maybe it's the 50th time that you have needed to respond in a posture of belief. We want to offer that to you again this morning one more time. To come to a place of saying, yes, I do believe. I believe in what Jesus has done on the cross. I believe in what God has done in resurrecting him from the grave.

Cameron: 45:49

I believe that the resurrection is central to my life. I believe that it is the hope for future. I believe that it is the power of god to free me from both the penalty and the power of sin. I believe in the resurrection and I am here to say this morning that I believe even in the midst of saying, Lord, I need help with my own belief. If this morning you want to declare that yes, Lord, I believe.

Cameron: 46:18

We're gonna make that invitation to you To come forward as we're singing here over these next few minutes, these, last few worship songs and declare, Heavenly father, I believe in Jesus. I believe in his work on the cross. I believe in the in in the reality of the resurrection. I I believe in all that the resurrection, why the resurrection matters. I believe it and I am coming forward to say I am among those who believe.

Cameron: 46:54

I am among those who believe. On the back, in that little back table right there that's got that silver bucket on it where the offerings go, there's little cards. They look like this. They say, it's very simply, I believe. And on Good Friday, we, we took these and we wrote our names on them.

Cameron: 47:18

Right? I believe. I wrote my name Cameron, I laid at the foot of the cross. But this morning, I want you to do something different. That if you if you, this morning, proclaiming belief belief in the resurrection and why it matters for you, why it matters for us, why it matters for all.

Cameron: 47:37

I'm going to take one of these cards with you. Stick it in your pocket this week, stick it in your wallet, tape it on the back of your phone, stick it on your steering wheel, put it on your mirror in your bathroom, put it above your sink, wherever it is that you are going to see it this week and beyond. I believe. I believe in the resurrection. I believe in who Jesus is.

Cameron: 47:58

I believe in what he came to do. Let it be the way that you preach the message of belief to yourself all this week. So So I wanna invite the worship team back, back up this morning to lead us in worship. And listen, while they're doing that, I'm gonna invite, I'm gonna invite you to to declare and proclaim belief. Whether that would be belief for the first time or new found belief in the power of the resurrection for Jesus.

Cameron: 48:45

To come forward as we're singing. To to kneel at the altar with me, we'll pray pastor Luke or myself or other members of the leadership team will certainly pray for you, pray with you. But to pray a very simple, very easy prayer. Heavenly father, I believe in Jesus. I believe that his death on the cross forgives me of my sins.

Cameron: 49:17

I believe that his resurrection from the grave sets me free from the power of death and guarantees my resurrection as well. Help me with my unbelief as I express belief in you. If you need help praying that prayer this morning, we'd love to pray that with you. Just come up if you'd like if you would like one of us to pray with you, come to this side over here. That's what we'll know.

Cameron: 49:50

If this side gets full, I guess come over here, we'll find you. Someone will pray with you. Right? But we want you to know that this is a place and this is a moment where we believe the Holy Spirit is seeding belief in the soil of our hearts. So let us respond to what the Holy Spirit is doing by saying, yes, Lord.

Cameron: 50:10

I believe. I need help with my unbelief though. Heavenly father, what a miracle. What a miracle that Jesus has been resurrected from the dead. Lord, we are grappling here this morning with the miracle that not only has Jesus been resurrected from the grave, but when we express belief in him, Lord, that that we can experience the same resurrection as well.

Cameron: 50:44

We thank you Lord for this gift. But Lord, we know we we know that you do not want our thanks. Lord, you desire the belief of our heart. And so Lord, where we have where we have been in utter disbelief father, Would you sow belief into our life? That we might know and that we might believe and that we might live.

Cameron: 51:14

In Jesus' name, amen. Believe the good news. Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross and placed in a tomb, and 3 days later the tomb was empty. He has risen from the grave, and he offers to you the gift of life through your own resurrection by faith in him. Go and believe the good news.

Cameron: 51:37

Thank you. Be blessed. Kind of what you are loved. See you next week.