Beacon Easter Sunday Service: April 20, 2025

Welcome to the beach and faith Sunday. What a celebration. What an amazing opportunity to be gathered together as the people of God to celebrate his victory over sin and death.

He is risen indeed. As we just begin this worship service, let's just prepare our hearts with just a time of prayer. And let's just come before him with hearts of gladness, joy, and just thanks for what he has done and what he has accomplished on that cross in his life and in his death and in his resurrection, which we celebrate today. Let us pray together.

Just so thankful, so joyful, so glad because of all that you have accomplished. Lord, you are risen.

And Lord, you uh brought us near to you. What a great truth that we can proclaim today. And God, I pray that as we praise you, as we fellowship together, as we hear your word, uh, that we would just be able to give you all the glory and honor. Because Lord, we know that we are just so undeserving of it, Lord God. We're so undeserving of your favor, and yet you uh show us daily your your grace and goodness. And so, Lord, may we just give that all back unto you, and would you receive all the glory, especially, Lord, as we celebrate your resurrection today. We thank you so much, we love you, Lord, and it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's all rise this morning. I'm gonna read a passage from Colossians three, one to four, just to set our hearts uh upon him, and it reads like this.

It says, Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth, for you died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is manifested, then you also will be manifested with him in glory. Amen. What a great truth that we are hid with Christ. We have life in him. Let us sing to our Lord.

How can it be the one who died has born our sins with us to conquer? Sing Hallelujah. Joy awaits for joy awaits as dawning light when Christy alive be sands there, friends and Christ. Christ He is raised.

Join the chorusing with the redeem. Christ is risen. We're down in darkness, where it's out and darkness once had been song him and their heark bad. But blessed are those who have not seen Let Seek Halling down by fear once bound by fear, now in vain, they preach the truth and vow and pouring out their lives, they will life, life ever since Christ is risen. Christ is risen, He is risen in Oh sing Hallelujah, join the chorus with the redeem.

The power that raised him from the grave, our words in us to powerful amen. Freeze our hearts to live his grace.

Now in heaven, amen, he's alive.

Once was lost, but now is blind, but now I see hallelujah.

God who died came back to life, and everything is changed, hallelujah, Christ is risen from the grave, hallelujah, Christ is risen from the grave oh death. Where is your steam? Oh, where is your power? The mighty King of Kings has delivered and redeemed. Eternal life is ours. Oh, oh praise his name for Hallelujah. Christ is risen from the grave. Hallelujah. Christ is risen from the grave.

So throughout eternity. So we the same. Hallelujah. Christ is risen from the grave.

On that day.

I see your skies, your open arms, the beauty of your face. Tears of joy, I'll lift my voice.

Christ is risen from the grave. Oh death, where is your sin? Oh fear, where is your power? The mighty King of Kings has besong you.

Eternal life is used. Oh praise name for Christ is risen from the grave. Hallelujah. Christ is risen from the grave. All throughout eternity. Some will be the same. Hallelujah. Christ is risen from the grave. Yeah. Jesus is alive. Oh, and so throughout eternity. So will be the same. Hallelujah. Christ is risen from the grave.

On that day, on that day you call me in to heaven, sweet embrace. I'll see your scars, your open arms, the beauty of your face. Tears of joy, I'll lift my voice in everlasting praise. Hallelujah. Christ is risen from the grave. Amen. He's risen. This morning we will confess our faith using the Heidelberg Catechism. This question and answer will confess how Christ's resurrection benefits us. And here's the question. How does Christ's resurrection benefit us? And together.

So that he might make a share in the righteousness he won for us by his death. Second, by his power, we too are already now resurrected to a new life. Third, Christ's resurrection is a guarantee of our glorious resurrection. Amen. What a great truth that we have just confessed together. Through Christ's resurrection, we have a new life and we can live within gospel on which I forgot it is my story, my father's son has rescued.

Oh what a gospel peace, my highest joy and my now and forever He is my light. I stand in the gospel of Jesus. There's one gospel, there is one gospel to which I claim all else I counts as lost, for there were justice and mercy on the cross. No more I boast in what I can bring. No more I carry a name sin has gone from death to life.

I stand in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Amen. For death I keep my sin. Now on my Savior I think my life is hidden so he has honest who will rise.

We do not walk alone. We have his spirit as we pass on to be saved. Yes, and when in glory still I will sing of this old story that rescue, thanks to my Savior.

And when in glory still I will say of this soul story that rescue, thanks to my Savior, the king of life. I stand in the gospel. Jesus Christ. I stand in the gospel. Jesus Christ. Good morning, everyone.

For today's confession of sin, uh we acknowledge that we turn our back to the Lord and those we are called to love when we sin, when our hearts fall short and we lose sight of our glorious Savior. But it's only through God's mercy and forgiveness that we are able to delight and walk with him again. So let us confess together. Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed. We have fallen short by what we have done and left undone. Our love has grown cold towards you and also our neighbors. We are truly sorry and humbly return to you for the glory of your great name. Have mercy upon us.

Amen. Please be seated. Let us now take in a personal private confession of sin to our Lord. Blessed are the pure in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Brothers and sisters, the pardon of Christ is a grace greater than all our sin.

Lord, this past Friday, we celebrated how an unmatchable act of love and obedience could be good.

Because of that, our sins are forgiven. We were redeemed by your blood, so that God, the Father, could see us as pure. And yet again, you do something amazing. The third day you rose again from the dead, you conquered death. And in that, in that action, in that act, we are able to be with you in heaven. So many things that we do not deserve, but so many things that we were given. Lord, we ask and we pray, Father, um, for those things as well to be true to those friends and family members and coworkers that we know that do not know you. We pray for their souls to be resurrected as well. We pray, Father, for your goodwill to be upon them and for them to understand that Jesus Christ is indeed our Lord and Savior.

He is the one true King. He was right here. He is the prophecy and Messiah, Lord, and we truly just honor and praise you and glorify you today.

Children, you're not dismissed. You're gonna be staying here with us for a special event. We have two baptisms. So please stay where you are. I'm gonna go over the announcements that we have, uh, and then we're gonna have a quick time of greeting and welcoming, and then we're gonna go and proceed into the baptisms. So, first announcement is that next Saturday, uh, we've uh we're gonna have a church spring cleaning at 9 a.m. So that's April 26th, Saturday at 9 a.m. Please come, uh, bring your cleaning supplies, some gloves, anything that you could use to clean our sanctuary, and then also we're gonna be trying to clean up all of our storage space so that it's nice and organized for us uh moving forward for uh children's ministry and um other church things.

Uh our members' meeting is gonna be next Sunday, April 27th. So please stick around after service. I'm sure it'll be a quick meeting, uh, and we'll we'll figure out lunch after that. Uh Beacon on Ice. If you are or your family and your kids would like to join us for um ice skating May 4th at Pickwick Ice Rink in Burbank. Uh it's gonna be from 345 to 515. Um we do have waivers to sign for uh parents with children. Uh but if you are interested in joining us, even if you're visiting today, uh please let uh my wife Tiffany, can you raise your hand? Please let her know and she can kind of account for you. Uh membership class starts uh second membership class of the year is gonna be starting May 18th.

If you are interested in becoming a member of our church, please uh let Pastor Peter know. And we have signed up for uh a softball tournament. First time ever. So uh it's gonna be at Whittier Nero's recreation area uh May 24th. It's gonna be an all-day event. It's uh for the Berean Church uh uh missions fund. And so if you are interested in joining us, we kind of started last week with uh impromptu practice, but if you have experience or just want to join and fellowship with us, please let me know. I happily will take you and and we can play uh and fellowship together. Beacon Summer Retreat at Oakland Conference Center, August 22nd to 24th. That's a Friday to Sunday. The theme is building a healthy church.

Uh it's gonna be $100 for adult and $50 for children over three. And offering options are a Zoe, Venmo, Cash and Czech, and we have an offering basket near the entrance. Uh if you're visiting today, please do not feel obligated to give. But if you're a member, we ask that you give as the Lord has blessed you in your life. With that, let's all rise. Say he is risen to one another, and in response, we say he is risen indeed. Magnificent so day. Still the greatest wall.

Is the lamb of God on cow. Behold the son of God, who takes away our sin. Behold his person.

Behold the subgrace.

Alright, if you guys can uh slowly find your way back to your seats, and you can go ahead and uh get yourself seated. Amen. He's risen indeed. Um we actually have a very special uh um Sunday celebration today. We're having um two of our sisters uh just getting baptized. And what baptism is an individual's public profession and confession to uh her allegiance and union with Christ and a marking herself off of this world, uniting with the church and disconnecting um from the sins of the world. And so it's a public profession. Uh it's one of the two ordinances. And what we're gonna have is we're gonna have the two sisters come up uh just one at a time, share their testimony, and after they share, um we're gonna just baptize uh both of them individually, not at the same time, and their husbands are gonna come up and also just aid in the process.

And so um we're gonna have uh our sister Tiffany Lee come up and share first, followed by Sarah uh Huang, and you guys can just come up one after another. So let's all welcome up Tiffany as she shares her testimony. Good mor. Um Good morning, beacon family and friends. It is an honor to be standing here. Okay, so I wrote this. It is an honor to be standing here next to a sister. She's standing, who is who has been such a huge part of my spiritual development, and a pastor who we've been praying for and has already been such a huge blessing to our congregation. My name is Tiffany Lee. I was baptized as an infant Methodist, confirmed Presbyterian, and I am about to be dunked as a Baptist.

But I remember enjoying church as a child because at the time, 90s church was really enjoyable. There were hundreds of college students there to make our VBS's really bright and colorful, and a ton of other kids and virtually no supervision. And because of that and my general immaturity, I don't think I thought much of God or what we were being taught. But despite that, I think I still had a lot of people praying for me and giving me good theology to scaffold my faith that would come later. And so um I had an um after a bad breakup, I talked with a pastor at church and told them I didn't think I was saved because people would say, you know, I'm praying for you, and they would send me scriptures, but I didn't find any comfort in um anything that people were offering me on a spiritual level, and I felt really hypocritical being a church.

Um singing and worshiping when I felt nothing at all. And so I told my pastor I didn't think I was one of the elect, I wasn't chosen, and so he told me that my only option left was to just cry out to God and to beg his forgive and to ask his forgiveness. And so that night I remember really loudly and tearfully screaming to God in my room, and to this day, I don't know if my parents heard anything, my parents are in the back, but it was something like 1 a.m. and I was yelling really loudly. Um I'm sure it started out in fear, and then it became loneliness, and then it was hope hopelessness. But after I was done, I remember an hour of peace and quiet, and then realizing it might have been my first time that um I was praying sincerely to God, and I was acknowledging that I didn't think I was worth anything, and yet I just wanted God to be my God.

What everybody had been teaching me that it would be true for me too, and that he would answer this prayer to please give me Jesus and to change me because I didn't like who I was and I knew I wasn't worth anything, but um yeah, but I don't think it was a full moment of repentance in that instance, but I remember being resolved to living differently. And so I also knew that at that time I didn't know the Bible for myself, so my prayer after that night was for God to show me who he was, not solely on what other people told me, but from what he was revealing to me about himself. So a few months later, I was learning about um Tulip, um T-U-L-I-P, the acronym that outlines Calvinist theology, and that is when I feel like the gospel really clicked into place for me.

I understood and felt totally depraved, and that it was only Jesus that would help me persevere. And it may have been gradual, but I came to know Jesus, came to know and accept Jesus after seeing how true he was and persistent in his love for us. Um so he colors how I see the world now and how I see myself now. So I'm gonna take a left turn for a moment, but please bear with me. So I love movies, and um in Star Wars uh episode seven, there's a scene where the main characters they're running for a spaceship to escape, but then that one blows up, and then they turn right, and it's the Millennium Falcon. And so in the theaters, when they showed that, there was like this huge it everybody went nuts.

It was some people were crying, and some people were um really, you know, they were they were just really emotional. And so it had been 32 years since the last Star Wars movie had come out, and so for the audience, they experienced all the adventure and all the history in seeing that iconic sound symbol of the franchise again, and it elicited an emotional reaction. So I had this same moment when I was reading um the book of John. I had finished John and decided to read it again just to dive deeper into it. And so um, during the second reading of John, I got to John chapter 1, verse 42, which is Jesus saying, You are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which is translator Peter.

So suddenly I was whipped back to the moment where Peter says he would lay down his life for Jesus, where Peter denies knowing Jesus, and when Jesus is restoring him. So when Jesus is oops.

But he makes a way for me to be with him. So I feel like Jesus already had such deep understanding of Peter and who he was and what evil he would eventually do, and yet Jesus and Jesus had tenderness and love for him. That is the tenderness and love and comfort I have in Jesus now. So I hope I look different before. I'm not perfect. I'm still caught between the anxiety and calm from week to week, but my prayer is that as I age, I will be closer to God and closer to true peace and excited anticipation for seeing Jesus, the real source of life and transformation. But today I can say before my church family and friends that I am risen because Christ has risen from the grave. Thank you. So to start off, um, it's really long.

I timed myself, it's almost seven minutes. Um I really struggled with writing this testimony because I felt like for a really long time, like, oh, it's such a boring testimony. I grew up in a Christian home and came to the realization of Christ, but that in and of itself is amazing. So I pray that you are encouraged no matter where you are in your walk of life and how you came to Christ. So gosh, I started. I had the privilege to grow up in a Christian home and was always surrounded by godly role models who lovingly, faithfully, and diligently shared the love of Christ with me from a very early age. Although I grew up in a positive and loving environment, I did not fully understand the state of my depravity, nor my need for the gracious salvation that was offered to me.

I figure that having been a good girl for nearly all my life, I thought that was enough to earn my salvation. My diary entries written from my elementary and junior high school days are clear evidence that I viewed God as a distant deity. My understanding was that good things happened when God was pleased with me, and bad things happened as a punishment. If I prayed hard enough, then I could ask God to change his plans so that it would make my life easier or more pleasant. And I thought that being blessed by God was only when good things happened. I knew Bible verses and diligently memorized them as a Sunday school student to collect stickers, but I missed the point of them, and my understanding of these verses were unfortunately out of context.

I thought that I was a Christian because of my outwardly behavior and my superficial limited knowledge of his word, and I was incredibly deceived. In high school, our school held multiple campus praise and prayer nights, and I remember one particular guest speaker for this night, my senior year, who spoke on the gospel, and something he said that night weighed so heavily on my heart, and it gained momentum to push me to correcting my understanding of the gospel. The pastor talked about sin and the effects of sin. He also talked about sin in relation to offending a holy almighty God and the consequences of offending a holy God with sin. And that phrase stuck with me that night was the weight of God's wrath for sin of the whole world was on Jesus.

And that's when I realized it wasn't about being a morally good girl, that even one sin was enough evidence of my inherent sinfulness, and how I had been living as a stenchy, dirty, wretched, and offensive rat before a holy God. How did I even dare? This was a background understanding that I needed to realize my depravity, which would push me to understand and appreciate God's gracious and merciful extension of reconciliation through his gift of salvation. So I grew up in a Presbyterian church, so though I was baptized as an infant, I knew that I wasn't actually saved because my salvation was not dependent on my parents' decision. Salvation is not something that I can inherit from my parents nor my grandparents.

Responding to God's calling to follow him was a decision that I needed to make. And after many conversations with my youth pastor, and through the completion of my confirmation class, I was confirmed in my faith in April of 2004. Crazy, 21 years ago. I'm not sure I can say that there is an exact date and time when I converted, but I do know that there are significant seasons in which God gave me gradual clarification and understanding of who he is. And as time passed, um, the Lord graciously started to peel off layers of my false understanding of who he was. In college, I joined a campus ministry where I got to learn to study God's word in depth, and I it is so incredibly humbling that as I continue to learn, the more I realize how undeserving I am of his mercy and grace.

That's where you play in Beacon Family as a committed church member and in the personal study of scripture as well as spiritual disciplines. I cannot grow on my own, and I need you to correct me when I'm wrong and to encourage me to persevere until I get to be with my Lord and Savior forever. So I know that my perspective on life has changed greatly from my days as a youth, and I no longer see the challenging seasons of my life as a punishment from the Lord, but opportunities of personal spiritual growth for me, as well as opportunities for the Lord to use my life as a testimony.

And to be able to raise and nurture them in hopes that the Lord will incline their hearts towards him. I also hope to bear witness particularly to my students, that as they learn academic subjects, that their eyes and hearts will be opened to our great God, and ultimately I hope that I can bear witness to the souls to the many souls that the Lord sent into my life. I'm so excited that you are here today to witness the outer representation of my internal baptism with Christ. Romans 6 1 through 4 says, What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase by no means? We are those who have died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

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.

Um Tiffany, can you uh come on up? And uh you can just kind of come in through however you want to come in. And then we're gonna ask Phil to come and uh just stand alongside me. Just go ahead and go in. And then sit with your feet this way, and then you were gonna fling you backward, right? I hope it's nice and it's nice and warm.

All right. So take my left hand and like a little bro handshake, and then I'm gonna ask you a couple questions, and you're just gonna respond, I do or yes. Okay, so Tiffany, do you understand that when you go into the water, you're uniting with Christ in his death, and when you come out, you're uniting with him in his resurrection into newness of life? I do, I am. I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and Holy Spirit. Plug your nose.

Alright, let's give her a warm round of applause. Come on out. I feel like can you hand her a towel? All right, and Sarah, we're gonna ask you to come on up and Howard as well. It's warm.

Maybe you can go out that way.

What a joy it is just to share in this. Sarah, if you can kind of scooch up toward the front. You could take a, there's a floating stool in here if you're wondering how they're sitting. All right, Sarah, take my left hand. Sarah, do you understand that when you go into the water, you're uniting with Christ in his death, and when you come out of the water, you're uniting with him in his resurrection. Sarah, I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Plug your nose.

Father, we're so thankful to hear how you have always been working. And we're so thankful, God, for the many, many people that have invested into the lives of these two beloved sisters. And we pray that as they walk in newness of life, as they continue to carry on, living by faith, I pray that you would use them, work in and through them. Really to continue just to build your church. So we thank you, Lord, for their lives for their testimony. And Father, we open up this service, and we ask that you would speak in such a way that it would be abundantly clear to every single one of us that you are why we are here.

So we give this time into your hands. We entrust it into your care. Bless us in order that we might bless this dark world with the message of the gospel. And pray this in Jesus' name. If you guys can stand with me again, we're gonna read. And then children, you guys can follow teacher Rebecca today, or teacher Stephen to the back. And we're gonna read Romans chapter six, verses three to four. And I'm gonna read it for you. Um can someone turn the air back on? All right, let me uh pray, or let me read. Romans chapter six, verses three to four. Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too might in newness of life.

Like go ahead and be seated. In 1716, an English playwright by the name of Christopher Bullock wrote a script for a comedy play. Uh it was called The Cobbler of Preston. And in it, a character named Toby Guzzle was scripted to say the following. You lie, you are not sure, for I say, woman, tis impossible to be sure of anything but death and taxes. And this line about the certainty of death and taxes was later made famous by Benjamin Franklin when he included it in a letter in 1789 to Jean-Baptiste LeRoi about the beauty of the American Constitution. So both of these men were saying that death and taxes are universal. Death happens to everyone. Taxes happened to everyone. The former death was mentioned as an incontrovertible certainty.

It was spoken of as a fact. No one would ever spend much time arguing against this. It has always been a clearly understood certainty. It was and will always be a universal fact. The certainty of people being taxed was written more in tongue-in-cheek, lamentation. Both Christopher Bullock and Benjamin Franklin were being truthfully sarcastic. So this was actually meant to be funny and humorous and sarcastic. And it was written as like a playful complaint. So it's been famously said that in this world nothing is certain except death and taxes. I'm sure you've heard this before. Similarly, there are two certainties that are mentioned in the scriptures. Hebrews 9 27 reads, and inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment.

So the first certainty that the Bible also mentions is death. And in the Bible, death is likewise spoken of as incontrovertible fact. It is observable truth. Fallen man has been appointed to die because God is a keeper of his word. And he was absolutely serious when he said to Adam in Genesis 2.17 that eating of the forbidden fruit would surely result in death. The second biblical certainty, however, is not tongue-in-cheek.

Judgment also is mentioned as a fact, though many people in our day will reject it through varying degrees of wishful thinking. It's almost as if they push back hard enough. Judgment will no longer cease to be inevitable fact. And it's understandable because judgment is not a comfortable thing to think about. So more often than not, we choose not to.

God's promises have always come to pass.

So death and judgment.

First, there are some things that we can tangibly wrap our minds a life in eternity, devoid of all the consequences of the fall and the curse of sin. Revelation 21, 4, he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And there will be no longer any death. There will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain. The first things passed away. That's pretty cool. There's no grieving.

There will be no goodbyes. There will be no frustration. There will be no disagreement. There will be no misunderstanding. There will be no regret. There will be no embarrassment. There will be no shame, no pain. There will be no fatigue. There will be no despair.

Because we will be living in a perpetual and eternal sinless exaltation. No more mourning or crying or pain in any way, shape, or form. Now that in and of itself is pretty cool. But not only will there be no trace of any of these consequences of sin, there will neither be any sin or any sinner in God's kingdom, as it says in Revelation 21, 27, nothing defiled. And no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into it. But only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. And then you're going to be wondering, how did I make it in here? You won't be a sinner. In God's kingdom, there will be no sin. There will be no sinner. So imagine an eternity with no pride, no greed, no anger, no lust, no deceit, no addiction, no selfishness.

There will be no sin. There will be no sinner, not a single one. And everyone who has accepted the invitation to the marriage feast of the Lamb of God will be there in the presence of the Lamb of God and will have no sin. Imagine this. Imagine an eternity like this for a moment.

Because I don't know what it feels like to be completely sin or corruption free. So no matter what I am imagining, I know that it exponentially pales in comparison to the real thing that awaits. And what actually awaits us is nothing like you could imagine, or that you may have just imagined. No human being has ever come close to imagining it correctly. And an eternity spent in the presence of Jesus will literally be beyond our wildest dreams. First Corinthians 2 9, it says, but just as it is written, things which I has not seen, things which ear has not heard, and which has never entered the heart or the mind or the imagination of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him. So what God the righteous judge has prepared for the saints of God is far more beautiful and a wondrous thing that no human eye could have ever thought of or have seen.

What awaits us is far more glorious, a sound than any human ear has ever heard. What awaits us is beyond the greatest creative good, the most imaginative genius could ever conjure up in his mind. And that's the reality that awaits every saint. Every saint. So here're more like that redeemed thief on the cross who did nothing for Jesus that we learned about on Friday, or you've lived your life like Elijah or the Apostle Paul, every single saint on all sides of the saintly spectrum will hear, well done, my good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master. Resurrection Sunday is absolutely significant to believers because at the resurrection, death was defeated.

Amen. The wrath of the righteous judge was satisfied on Friday with the payment of his son on the cross. The judgment, the verdict that was to be given was made permanent, irreversible, and absolute. You cannot undo your salvation. Because if you could, you would. The resurrection, then made all things new and every believing soul free. And now all those who have been made new and have been made free, have become free, not just of the consequences and the effects of sin, but free from stain and blemish and from all of sin itself. So the old has gone and the new has come. Happy Easter. He is risen, he is risen indeed.

We have been saved from wrath through the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and that's what it says 1 Thessalonians 1 10. And we have been called and we have been qualified not only to enter into the kingdom of God, but to share in his glory.

And so Easter is a celebration of these things. Easter is a celebration of our victory over death. We have victory in Christ the victor.

And this is what we celebrate on this morning. So as the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15, 54 to 57. But when this corruptible puts on the incorruptible, and this mortal puts on immortality, then will come about the word that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. So in this passage, we have just read the summary of our reason for celebration on this glorious morning. He is risen. What do you say? Praise God. And I want to take some time to reflect together what Christ has saved the believer from what Christ has saved the believers for.

Okay? And my hope is that we all leave here today with our hearts full of awe, with gratitude, and with worship that truly is given in spirit and in truth. So what has he saved us from? What has he saved us for? What's been put to death? What has been made alive at the resurrection? So we're gonna briefly walk through that together. And when I say brief, it could be an hour. I'm just kidding. Like probably 40 minutes, 30 minutes. So here we go. First, we once were the walking dead, and we also were dead men walking. Walking dead often said it's like zombies. Dead men walking is usually said of people who are led to their execution. And we were both the walking dead and dead men walking. Every single one of us.

It does not matter what kind of religion, family, race, class, or historical context we were born into, even if you come from a Christian home, doesn't matter. We had all inherited Adam's sin nature, and we had all come into this world as sinners. We did not become sinners because we've sinned. We did not become sinners because we sinned, but we sinned because we were sinners. We were born into this world as sinners. It was in our DNA to rebel against God. And we were hardwired from birth to be hostile towards God. We were hardwired to sin. We could not sin. You guys following me? Okay. Romans 3 23 reads, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

You're included in this all. And the judgment or the wages of sin has always been death. A death both spiritual and physical. A death first spiritual, and then a death subsequently physical. Remember, we don't become sinners because we sin and then receive a punishment for our sins. No, every single one of us comes into the world spiritually dead. And it's therefore we physically die. So both a spiritual and a physical death are the wages of the sins that all mankind has inherited, as it says there in the road in the beginning of Romans 6 23. So we once were dead men walking. We once literally were the walking dead.

And that's how the apostle Paul describes the condition of every man, both Jew and Gentile, Korean, white, black, Hispanic, every person, apart from the intervention of the grace of God. Ephesians 2 1 to 3. This was your testimony if you put your faith in Christ. You were past tense, dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you past tense, formally walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we the Jews all also formally conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the non-Jews, as the rest.

So we were once children of wrath. Harsh word. So in other words, literally, we were children for those whom wrath has been appointed. Some translations actually translate it, objects of wrath, because children is also harsh. You were birthed for the purpose of receiving wrath. That's harsh. So they translated objects, targets of wrath. See the apostle Paul writes that we were targets of God's hatred. God's hatred towards sin is a perfect, absolute hatred. It is a righteous and indignant and justifiable hatred. So God hates sin. God hates the sinner. God's hatred toward the sinner is also a perfect and an absolute hatred.

God's hatred toward the sinner is righteous and indignant and unbridled in rage and wrath. God hates the sinner. And now some of you in your hearts, you're like, wait a minute, that's not what I've heard. Because you might have heard this phrase. God hates the sin, but what? God loves the sinner. That is not a biblically accurate statement. It's actually very misleading. The Bible teaches us clearly, super clearly, that God hates the sinner. The one he loves is the saint. He loves the saint, but absolutely hates the sinner. So notice in the following verses, God's hatred toward the sinner, the person, and not just toward the sin, his actions, okay?

Psalm 5, 5 to 6, the boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all workers of iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood. Yahweh abhors the person, the sinner of bloodshed and deceit. Psalm 11, 5. Yahweh tests the righteous person, but the wicked person, and then the one who is a sinner who loves violence, his soul hates. God hates the sinner. You cannot prove me incorrect on that passage or that understanding, unless you're not going to read your Bible. And what has God prepared for the sinner? It would be a resurrection. Unbelievers also are resurrected from the dead. It would be a resurrection at the great white throne judgment into an eternal conscious punishment in the lake of fire.

And this is often called the second death. The second death is actually one where the sinner is eternally conscious, fully alive, to perfectly understand how much God hates sin. The second death is one in which the sinner eternally will learn about his justice and his wrath.

Because that doesn't seem consistent with the God of love. There will be no annihilation. These objects of wrath will be fully and perfectly conscious to see, to hear, and to feel how much holy, holy, holy God hates sin. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has ever conceived all that the Lord has prepared for those he hates.

Satan will be thrown into it, the beast, the antichrist, the false prophet will be thrown into it, and there will be torment forever. Read with me, Revelation 20, 10 to 11. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also. There they will be tormented night and day, day and night, forever and ever. And then I saw, so Satan precedes this judgment. Then I saw a great white throne, and him who sits upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no one was found for them. And verses 12 to 14 talk about who's being judged. So oftentimes we think we deceived into thinking that ignorance is bliss.

If we really understood how much hatred God has towards sin, we would tremble before the holiness of God. If we really understood how horrible a place hell is, we would do everything we possibly can to avoid it.

And this would be urgent if we understood how horrible the place is. And then we would understand that the physical suffering and the physical death that we go through here on earth are just extremely minor inconveniences compared to the experiencing of the wrath of God. Eighty, 90 years, okay. Okay, some people might now live to a hundred. On the timeline of eternity, it's not even a blip. Verse 15. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, thrown into the lake of fire. So this is the end every sinner was destined for. But if you've been raised with Christ and have been united to Christ in his resurrection through faith, guess what? You are no longer identified as a sinner.

Amen. You who once were a child prepared for wrath, have been saved, have been raised, and seated as a co-heir with Christ. What? I'm going to introduce you to the most significant, most powerful conjunction in all of the Bible. So here's the most important, most awe-inspiring but that you will ever come across in all the scriptures. Ephesians 2 4 reads, but God.

Saints. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us saints, not sinners, alive together with Christ. By grace, you, plural saints, have been saved. And he raised us saints up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So God the just, God the judge, who is holy, holy, holy, who hates all sin with a perfect hatred, is also rich in mercy. He is utterly generous and lavish in his mercy.

First John 4 8, God is love. If you guys have ever heard sung that song before the throne of God above, before the throne of God above. You guys heard that song before.

So pay attention. God hates sin with a perfect hatred. God hates the sinner with perfect hatred. But the text also says, at the same time, God is rich in mercy. God is great in love. In fact, God is love. And this God, who is love, loves his elect, so he qualifies his elect out of his great compassion. Our God who hates sin with a perfect hatred, dies in the place in the stead of the hostile sinner, in order to qualify him to be worthy of his love. God who perfectly hates sin. God who perfectly hates the sinner, God who cannot but hate the sinner, or it would violate his character, has himself laid down his life to demonstrate his love for that sinner.

Trust me, you don't understand it. I don't understand it. I believe it. That makes no sense.

But God demonstrates his own love toward us, the saints. And that while we were past tense, sinners, Christ died for us. This verse should make your head spin. We should not think, this is one of the first verses you memorize as a VBS kid, right? There's a song, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this. That way we were sinners. Christ died for us. Romans. I learned that as a song. It is not simple. It is impossible to understand in the flesh. We should not think that we could ever fully understand this. This is a mystery of mysteries. But we can't help but believe this because there is salvation and no other means by but simply to believe, to receive by what? By works or by faith?

Receive by faith. This is truth. I believe it. And then to be declared righteous by faith. That's the Christian message. The phrase that is often thrown around, God hates the sin, but loves the sinner, can be misleading. It needs to be better understood as this.

So he lays down his life for the sinner whom he hates, so that he can love him as a saint. That us again is not the sinner. That us there are sinners whose sins have been paid for on the cross. And magically, supernaturally, sinner to saint. So at the cross, the justice and the holiness of God intersected with the compassion and the love of God. And Jesus, the Lamb of God, was slain and took away the sins of the world.

God the Father looked upon God the Son with perfect hatred and disgust. The Father turned his face away from the Son, in whom he had always been previously well pleased. The Son turned into a mosquito worm maggot larvae in his eyes, according to the Old Testament.

Psalm 22. Why? So that he could look on you and he could look on me with the same delight he looked at eternally on that Son. The Father turned his face away from the Son, in whom he had been well pleased, so that he could look on you and me with the delight he had forever enjoyed in looking at the Son. And this is called, I'm gonna give you a fancy word, double imputation. Repeat after me, double imputation. God credits or imputes Christ's perfect righteousness to you and me. Not fair. God, the righteous judge credits or imputes all of our sins onto Christ, his sacrificial lamb. Not fair. And this is called double imputation.

That's why we should never actually ask for justice. We could never demand justice, because if we ever demanded justice, we're all literally damned. This is sometimes called the glorious exchange. Totally unfair. In theology textbooks, this is the means of what we call, here's another fancy word, justification. Repeat after me, justification. And through it and as a result of it, we have been reconciled to God, for whom we have been created. And because of this absurd and shocking and unmerited exchange, we get to hear, well done. Good and faithful and beloved servant in whom I am well pleased. Enter into the joy of your master. 2 Corinthians 5, 20 to 21 reads, so then we are ambassadors for Christ, as God is pleading through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Don't miss this, is our message to the world. God made him who knew no sin to be sinned through interputation on our behalf, so that we through his imputed righteousness might become the righteousness of God in him.

Okay, we who've been redeemed, when God looks at us, he delights in us, he delights in you more than you delight in your child on the best day.

You are his beloved daughter in whom he is well pleased, he approves of you as if you had walked your whole life like Jesus, as if you had talked your whole life like Jesus, as if you had shared intimate fellowship with him like Jesus. So here's an important question. Then what is the physical and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead on the third day have to do with this glorious exchange? Shouldn't it be just done at the cross? Could we have been justified before God had Christ not been raised? So Friday it should have ended. No. The resurrection of Jesus is absolutely, it's the most important thing. Because a dead Savior cannot save. Amen. A dead Savior cannot save. That's why whoever follows the teachings of Mohammed or Siddhartha Gatama, the Buddha, they're dead still.

The resurrection of Jesus was historical fact. If Christ, 1 Corinthians 15, 17, has not been raised, your faith is worthless because you're trusting in a dead Savior, and you are still in your sins. Because he failed to prove himself to be worthy as God. Romans 4 25, he who was delivered over on account of our transgressions, and was raised on account of our justification. So hallelujah, we serve an undead savior. We serve a risen Savior. Hallelujah, Christ is risen from the dead. So Jesus' resurrection from the dead proved that one, he had the power over death and thus showed himself to be God. Romans 8 11. Christ's resurrection fulfilled prophecy, 1 Corinthians 15, 4. And it confirmed that God's word will always come to pass, Matthew 27, 63, 28, verse 6.

And it ensured that we too could be raised to the newness of life. 1 Corinthians 15, 20 to 21. But here's one condition. For you and I to be raised to newness of life. It's if and only if we've been first united with him in his death. If you have not died to sin, and you have not been united with Christ in his death, and the evidence of that is repentance. Not the precursor to that, but the evidence of that is repentance. You remain dead in your sins, and you will be resurrected even after you physically die to face judgment. Matthew 28, verse 6. He's not here. He's not here.

For he has risen, and the operator of words are what? Just as he said. Come. See the place where he's lying. He was lying. I guarantee you, no soldiers came and took it. No followers came and took him. No army came and took him. He's not here. This past week we observed the Passion Week. This week we were all reminded of the certainty of death. Right. I mean, we celebrated daily dying. But it's funny. This week, especially on Tuesday of this week, many in the country were also reminded of the certainty of taxes. What's today? April 20th. What was Tuesday? April 15th, tax day. And it was taxes were due on April 15th. Tax day is an interesting day. Some people freak out as it approaches.

But for April 15th, tax day for me was of no consequence. I had actually totally forgotten about it until I noticed someone at the Starbucks next to me that morning scrambling through his tax documents, and I said, Oh yeah. Today.

And I filed my taxes February 13th. I got my tax return deposited into my bank on February 26th.

I mean, forget the fact that we pay a lot of taxes, all that stuff. Okay, just defile the illustration. Tax day was not something that I dreaded. The deadline wasn't something that kept me awake at night on April 10th. That gave me sweats at April 11th. That made have me making phone calls April 12th. That freaked me out April 13th. That shook me April 14th. And then caused me despair on April 15th. Because my taxes were done. And I'm sure if my paperwork wasn't in order, or I owed an unpayable amount every day leading up to the tax day would have been more and more horrible, more and more stressful and anxiety-ridden and daunting. But like I said, tax day for me was of very little consequence.

Judgment is coming. Yes. Only those who are still living in unrepentant sins, only those who think they need somehow to pay off their own sins. Only those who don't believe that the cross of Christ was enough to pay for the sins. Only those who have not put their faith on a risen Savior, who only see him as a good teacher, a propagator of good morals, only those fear judgment.

I read Romans 6, 3 to 4 at the beginning, here verses 5 through 11. If we have become united with him in the likeness of a death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died has been justified from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death no longer is master over him. For the death, he died. He died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. So even so, saint of God, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Amen. So to close, let me revisit a few of the lyrics we sang together earlier this morning. The prodigal is welcomed home. The sinner now, a saint. For the God who died came back to life, and everything is changed. Hallelujah. Christ is risen from the dead. Hallelujah. Christ is risen from the grave. Oh death, where is your sting? O fear, where is your power? For the mighty King of Kings has disarmed you, delivered and redeemed. Eternal life resounds. Oh praise his name forever. Hallelujah. Christ is risen from the grave.

Hallelujah. Christ is risen from the grave. And all throughout eternity, our song will be the same. Hallelujah. Christ is risen from the grave. Judgment is coming. I can't wait. Let's pray. Lord, we know that perfect love drives out fear. So help us to live in light of the understanding that we're surrounded by people who fear the judgment. Empower enable equip us to preach the good news. That not only are you a God of holiness, a God of justice, but you're also a God whose love and is rich in mercy.

And as we age in the faith, help us to steward our time better. And help us to have the same compassion with those who are lost around us. And we pray all of these things in the mighty name of our risen Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's all rise and respond and worship together. What an amazing truth that we are reminded of. We worship a living Savior. Christ is risen, and He has our living hope. May we just sing out that truth to Him today in song.

How great the chasm that may be to us. How high the mountain I could not climb in desperation.

And through the darkness, your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul.

The end is written. Jesus Christ, my living.

Such boundless grace.

And there might spoken, I am forgiven. The king of things calls me so Savior's forever. Jesus Christ, my name.

Praise the one who sent me free.

Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every change. Yes, salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my name.

That sealed the promise. Your buried body became bring out of the sight of glory. Declared the grave, no claim capable that so the problem be can bring out of the sight of glory.

Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the eternal love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit just be with each and every saint as we live in the light of the truth of the resurrection now until eternity. Amen.