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[ Silence ] [MUSIC] ♪ I hear His voice appear ♪ ♪ I just return my healing ♪

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♪ He's always near ♪ ♪ He lives, He lives ♪ ♪ I see His face today ♪ ♪ He walks in my dreams ♪

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♪ I see His face today ♪ He walks with me and talks with me, a love I'd never claim. He gives, He gives salvation to Him all. He has become my only dreams.

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[ Music ] [MUSIC] ♪ Oh, my heart grows weary ♪ ♪ I never will despair ♪

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♪ I know that He is leading ♪ ♪ To all the story plans ♪ ♪ The day of interfering ♪ ♪ So far has passed ♪

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♪ He lives, He lives ♪ ♪ My Jesus lives today ♪ ♪ He walks with me and talks to me ♪ ♪ A love I've never felt ♪

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♪ He lives, he lives ♪ ♪ Salvation to empire ♪ ♪ You ask me how I know he lives ♪ ♪ He lives ♪

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♪ He lives in the ground ♪ ♪ He lives, he lives ♪ ♪ As Jesus lives today ♪ ♪ He walks with me and talks with me ♪

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♪ Along my terrible way ♪ ♪ He lives, he lives ♪ [music] Now as we take our seats, I want us to sing that last stanza. I don't want to leave out that rejoicing. Let's take that last stanza as we take our seats.

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[ Music ] Rejoice, rejoice, O Christians, with love, your voice, and sing. Eternal hallelujah, now Jesus Christ our King, The hope of all who seek Him, the help of all who find Him,

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♪ The love that is, so love is, so good and kind ♪ ♪ We live, we live, while Jesus lives today ♪ ♪ He walks with me and talks with me ♪ ♪ While all the lives melt away ♪

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[music] Amen. Amen. [MUSIC] Here this word as recorded in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 15 verse 20.

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Now is Christ risen From the dead and become the first fruits of them that sleep Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that sleep.

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The subject of the message, the first fruits of them that sleep. This is a word which is lifted from Paul's sermonic oration on the resurrection. A word which in the long ago was addressed to the Christian community in Calrith.

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Paul in that letter deals with the problems of the church. He deals with some of the things that have been presented to him, not only what he has heard, but

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he gives them some guidelines as to how to live the Christian life the world, in a secular world. And then as he moves toward the conclusion of the letter, he sort of soars into the summits as he discusses the reality of the resurrection. For as we consider this particular letter, it is a word about the

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resurrection of the body. This is a mystery when we consider the resurrection and yet it is one of the most meaningful teachings of the Christian Church. In fact it is the cornerstone of our faith. Every Easter we deliver sermons on life after death. We consider the reality of the

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resurrection. There were those in the first century who doubted the reality of the resurrection. They said it really didn't happen. They said that the disciples came and stole the body of Jesus. They said that women made the mistake of going to the wrong tomb in search of Jesus. They said that the

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resurrection story is the result of an illusion, a false hope. When Paul preached to the Athenians at Mars Hill concerning the resurrection, they considered what he said nonsense. They made fun of him. There are those today who question the reality of the resurrection. I remember one of the distinguished pastors of this

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state in our denomination said that he died and came back to life and he had a wonderful testimony to give and there were those who said uh-huh but they really didn't believe what he said. Because you see we live in a scientific age, our thoughts are attuned to that which we can examine concretely. We trust

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that which is in the realm of sensory experience, something we can touch, something we can taste, something we can sense, something we can see, something we can feel. The resurrection is not merely a belief to be expounded on Easter Sunday. It's not an idea reserved for funeral occasions. It is an everyday

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experience. The resurrection is not only an ancient happening, it is a contemporary experience. That is what Paul is saying in the language of our text. Now is Christ risen from the dead. It is not only an event that has happened it is happening now. Notice he says now is Christ risen. He doesn't put it in the past,

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but he really puts it in the present. And oh how wonderful it is if somehow we can take the Easter story, those Easter narratives that we have in the New Testament, if we can somehow take those those Easter narratives and translate them into our everyday experience, then Easter will become real for us.

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That somehow we've got to get behind the finery of the new clothes, the new outfits we wear, the Easter eggs that we have. These are just symbols that somehow we must get behind the symbol. must go beyond the symbol and deal with the reality of the resurrection. Now is

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Christ risen from the dead. You know how the early Christians greeted one another? One would say Christ is risen and the response would be he is risen indeed. Christ is risen, he is risen indeed. Let's just do that today. Christ is risen. Once more. Christ is risen, he is risen. This is a present reality. Those who answered in the

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affirmative that he has risen indeed were giving testimony to the fact that Christ is alive in my life, that this Christ of the cross, this Christ that suffered on Calvary is living in me this crucified Lord though he is crucified time and time again even in my own life that he is risen indeed and this is the

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most wonderful thing that can happen. The end becomes a new beginning. The impossible becomes possible now. Oh we speak of the now generation. The resurrection is a now experience. It's wonderful to speak about the fact that the women saw him at the tomb. It's good to read the story of Peter and John

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racing toward the tomb. It's wonderful to read Paul's account concerning the resurrection when he talks about the 500 who saw him and when he rehearses his own personal experience concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but what really matters is that the resurrection is happening now. Easter is a spring

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festival and we celebrate today not that spring came last year but it is happening around us today right now. We see green growing grass, budding flowers, the trees putting forth new leaves, we see the sunshine and we have the showers and the flowers. All of those things tell us that spring is here now. Now is Christ

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risen. That's good news. Christ is risen from the dead. I know that I have come from death to life. That's what John says in his epistle, that we know that we've come from death to life because we love the brethren. You see, death is an enemy with whom all of us have to reckon. Death has to do with that

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meaninglessness in life. It's that which is certain and no matter how much we want to push it aside, we've all got to deal with death. We don't like to talk about it much. Even when husband and wife get on the subject of death as to when one is going, we say, "Oh no, don't talk about that." You see, it's like a

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a terrible psychological cancer. We know that we've got to deal with it. We know that every one of us here, we've all got to go. We've all got to go. We've got to deal with death. It's not some morbid something that we're trying to talk about to create sadness and all of that. It's really to deal with the reality of

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life. If you know you gotta go, then you ought to prepare for it right now. And in the midst of death that somehow there is life that Christ, that's the good news, that Christ has conquered death. All of the meaninglessness in life we can overcome it with Jesus Christ. Oh sure we have our Good Friday experiences when we

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are crucified, when we must suffer wrong even when we've done right, but we must live in the light of the Easter faith. You see, Christ enables us to overcome estrangement, enables us to overcome separation, he enables us to overcome alienation. There is certain that a fact that we deal with separation, person

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against person, children against parents, brother against brother, family against family, race against race, nation against nation, but Christ enables us to to overcome this alienation, this separation. The separation of class against class, region against region, religion against religion. Christ does

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that now and that's good news. He enables us to overcome our anxieties, our fears. In other words, we need not fear for Christ is with us. There is no need to fear the darkness. Christ is the light that shines in the darkness. There is no need to fear the demons for Christ has conquered the great dragon and all of

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his imps. Goodness triumphs over evil. Truth conquers falsehood. There is no need to fear the future. Christ is Lord of all. All of our sins are forgiven through him in Christ we receive the freedom to live our lives we can overcome the burden of guilt through him we conquer the last enemy death itself

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I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things which are of things which are to come, nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Christ is risen, the stone is rolled away, the door

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of the tomb is open, he has the key to death, he has triumphed over the grave. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is your victory? Now is Christ risen and is become the firstfruits of them that sleep." The firstfruits, oh the firstfruits. This somehow takes us to the experience in ancient times of the

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harvest festival when there was an in gathering of the grain and the first fruits of that harvest, the prized possession of the harvest was taken and dedicated to God, the firstfruits. And so Christ in the experience of the resurrection is the firstfruits. He is the prized possession of that righteousness

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which is eternal. The resurrection is the harvest of God's handiwork. It is the work of heaven. And so God raised up Jesus. He was buried without hope. They it sealed the tomb, but here we have hope against hope. For you see, Christ enables us to build a citadel of hope on the threshold of despair. So an angel comes

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from heaven and rolls the stone away, and so men may sow their bad deeds, men may somehow do their worse but that new life which is possible through Jesus Christ remains he is the first fruits of them that sleep he is the first fruits we think about death the New Testament has some three accounts of Jesus as he

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encounters death during his earthly ministry the first is Jairus daughter the ruler of the synagogue. Chazareth comes, Jesus is busy in his ministry, his daughter is critically ill, and he implores the master to come that his daughter may be healed. But he continues his ministry and finally when he arrives

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at the home of Jairus' daughter, he sees that there's a crowd gathered around there. The daughter is dead. And Jesus says, "Show me where she is," and he goes up to where the room is and he says, "Little girl, get up. Little girl, get up." She gets up. She just died. She was still there in the bed. The funeral directors hadn't come.

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Jesus was there. And so no matter whether it just happened, maybe some crisis you've just faced, but Jesus is there and you can get up. Little girl, get up. Well, death didn't give up. He encountered death again. And he encountered death, it was in the family of a widow, a poor widow woman, a widow of name.

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And her son had died. No doubt this son was her chief means of support. He died. And now they are on their way to the grave. They have had no doubt the funeral service and the pallbearers have the casket and they're on their way to the cemetery. But they meet Jesus. And as they meet Jesus, what he does is just to touch the coffin. And he says to him, "Young man, get up."

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And he gets up. But death didn't give up then. He said, "Well, he got the other one that had just died in the bed. And he got this one before

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we could get to the cemetery with him." Then there was Lazarus Jesus was in his ministry and they they said word Lord You now lovest is

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sick, but Jesus continued to carry on his work and Finally when he arrived Bethany Lazarus is dead And they take him out there

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To the cemetery. He's been in the grave now for four days That's surely has got this man It's a long, long time and he's already buried. The others were, one was in bed, the other was on the way, but this one is there in the

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grave, four days. Well you think after three days, they'd already said that after three days, well there's no chance at all. All hope is lost after three days.

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This is the fourth day. when Jesus comes, when Jesus comes and stands there at that tomb, he said, "Lazarus, come forth!" Lazarus gets up in his grave clothes and he says, "Loose him and let him go." That's the way Jesus conquers death. No matter what stage you may be in, as far as your

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life, how meaningless it may be, no matter what may happen in the course of your history that Christ is able to make you come alive. Maybe some loved one has passed on and you're wondering how you can make it without that one. Well, Christ enables you to start anew. Maybe you've had a broken life and a broken marriage

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and yet Christ can enable you to start all over again and live a life that is meaningful and with hope. Maybe your life has been broken by the cruel glitches and circumstances and Christ comes, yes right where you are, Christ comes and enables you to begin again. That's the meaning of Easter. That's the meaning of

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Easter. The first fruits of them that sleep. First fruits. I have a friend who was in college with me and quite often on Easter Sunday morning he delivered the Easter sermon. He would do it in a rather dramatic way. He would have the funeral home to bring a casket and he would get in that casket and it would be

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rolled down the aisle the pallbearers would be there he would be inside and he'd preach his sermon from that casket so he got to the point in that sermon where he said I will arise and he would arise out of that casket and many people came to hear it it'll be written up in Ebony and other papers it was a way of

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dramatizing the meaning of the resurrection but what really needs to to happen is for that ritual that we have expressed in the story of the resurrection of how Christ comes to our tomb and how he enables us to be raised up that that would somehow be expressed in our talk and in our walk so much so

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that we can say no matter what happens I know that I know someday that that I'll be taken and placed in some graveyard somewhere but I will arise. I know it because I'm experiencing it every day that that when I'm crushed when people talk about me and when I'm puked and when I'm scorned that somehow Christ

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enables me to get up that I will arise. I know that I'll arise that when I'm disappointed and when I'm discouraged that whatever may happen that I will arise I know that and that's good news You can enjoy the presence of Christ in your life.

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He'll walk with you, He'll talk with you, He'll tell you that. You'll be overwhelmed. You'll cry out to Him. You'll live a new life in Him.

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I'm sure that He's here. That's the way He is. He's here among those who have come. He has come.

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[ Music ] ♪ Go ahead ♪ ♪ Drive the nails in my hand ♪ ♪ Laugh at me ♪

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♪ Where you stand ♪ ♪ Go ahead ♪ ♪ And say it isn't me ♪ ♪ The day will come ♪

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♪ And you will see ♪ ♪ Because I'll rise ♪ ♪ I'll rise again ♪ ♪ There's no power ♪

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♪ Can tie me down ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ I'll rise ♪ ♪ I'll rise again ♪

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♪ No one else can keep me in the ground ♪ ♪ Go ahead and mark my name ♪ ♪ My love for you is still the same ♪ ♪ Go ahead and bury me ♪

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But very, very soon I will be free because I'll rise again. There's no power on earth in coming down. ♪ Fall down, fall down ♪ ♪ Again ♪

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♪ Fall down ♪ ♪ And keep me in the ground ♪ ♪ Go ahead ♪ ♪ And say I'm dead and gone ♪

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♪ But you will see ♪ ♪ That you were wrong ♪ ♪ Go ahead ♪ ♪ Try to hide the sun ♪

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♪ But all will see ♪ ♪ That I'm the one ♪ ♪ Oh, because I'll rise ♪ ♪ I'll rise, I'll rise ♪

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♪ There's no power on earth ♪ ♪ And tie me down ♪ ♪ No doubt can't keep me in the ground ♪ ♪ Go ahead ♪

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♪ Drive the nails in my hand ♪ ♪ You can laugh at me ♪ ♪ Where you stand ♪ ♪ Just go ahead ♪

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♪ You can say it isn't me ♪ ♪ But I know the day will come ♪ ♪ Oh yes, you will see ♪ ♪ Because, because, all right ♪

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♪ Oh yes, I mean it ♪ ♪ There's no power on earth can tie me down ♪ ♪ Oh, I'll rise, I'll rise, I'll rise again ♪ ♪ No death can keep me in the ground ♪

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♪ Oh, I'll rise, I'll rise again ♪ ♪ There's no power ♪ ♪ On earth can tie me down ♪ ♪ Oh, I'll rise ♪

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♪ I'll rise again ♪ ♪ I'm so glad ♪ ♪ Oh, death can't keep me in the ground ♪ ♪ Oh, death can't keep me in the ground ♪

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♪ You know what ♪ ♪ Oh, death can't keep me in the ground ♪ ♪ Oh, death ♪ (audience applauding)

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- Hey. [ Silence ]