1 00:00:04,719 --> 00:00:10,179 Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a 2 00:00:10,179 --> 00:00:14,599 moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And 3 00:00:14,599 --> 00:00:22,260 today, is the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead essential or non-essential? 4 00:00:22,940 --> 00:00:30,160 Oh, I ask this question because the governor's shutdown order overlaps with the celebration of 5 00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:37,780 the highest, greatest Christian festival, excuse me, and that's Resurrection Sunday. By the order 6 00:00:37,780 --> 00:00:44,399 of the governor, our Easter morning worship services are considered non-essential. I am sure there's no 7 00:00:44,399 --> 00:00:49,820 ill intent upon the governor's part. I'm sure he has the best interests of the citizens of the state 8 00:00:49,820 --> 00:00:55,359 of Idaho at heart, and we do face a critical medical crisis in our country, and he's acting 9 00:00:55,359 --> 00:01:03,359 in good conscience to try and flatten the curve, as it is called, of the coronavirus infections in 10 00:01:03,359 --> 00:01:09,359 our state. It is my sincere prayer that we can flatten that curve without flattening the country 11 00:01:09,359 --> 00:01:15,920 in the process. And it is also my hope that, in the end, when this is all over, our government does 12 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:22,000 not stand triumphantly over the corpse of a country and declare, we've killed the patient, but we've 13 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:28,719 cured the disease. But today, my concern is more with the central tenet of the Christian faith, 14 00:01:28,780 --> 00:01:34,879 and that's the resurrection. If we were to reduce the Christian faith to three words, if I were forced 15 00:01:34,879 --> 00:01:41,340 to do so, it would be those three words we proclaim at the conclusion of the celebration of the Lord's 16 00:01:41,340 --> 00:01:49,000 Supper. He is risen. All other Christian doctrine is dependent upon and subordinate to this one. We are 17 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:56,019 lost, miserable sinners without a destined for no mere mortal death and terror as the coronavirus is, 18 00:01:56,120 --> 00:02:03,019 but rather a death that is eternal, a death beyond the grave, which the Bible ominously calls 19 00:02:03,019 --> 00:02:09,699 the second death. In contrast, the resurrection assures us of a life beyond the grave, one of 20 00:02:09,699 --> 00:02:16,080 immeasurably greater importance, which extends into eternity and filled with a life and blessings 21 00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:23,139 of being with our Creator who loves us, where, as Revelation tells us, behold, the dwelling place 22 00:02:23,139 --> 00:02:28,740 of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be 23 00:02:28,740 --> 00:02:35,060 with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. 24 00:02:35,539 --> 00:02:42,219 Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." 25 00:02:42,219 --> 00:02:48,900 Unquote. Oh, the resurrection is essential. Why? Two reasons. Number one, the resurrection was 26 00:02:48,900 --> 00:02:56,139 essential to Jesus' mission. The resurrection was essential to Jesus' mission. Jesus' very name 27 00:02:56,139 --> 00:03:03,360 means deliverer, savior, Joshua, for he shall save his people from their sins, as the angel announced to 28 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:11,000 Joseph. And in order to do this, as the Gospel of Mark tells us, he began to teach them that the Son of 29 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:16,919 Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be 30 00:03:16,919 --> 00:03:24,819 killed. And after three days, rise again. God sovereignly ordained that this would be his modus 31 00:03:24,819 --> 00:03:32,759 operandi for redeeming the world. And we have it here in encapsulated form. Jesus would live a fully 32 00:03:32,759 --> 00:03:38,580 human life as the suffering servant, be crucified for our sins, and then be raised from the dead. 33 00:03:38,919 --> 00:03:43,879 The apostle also summarized the gospel succinctly in an early Christian creed. He said, 34 00:03:43,979 --> 00:03:50,740 For I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in 35 00:03:50,740 --> 00:03:56,300 accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance 36 00:03:56,300 --> 00:04:02,039 with the scriptures. Our Lord's life, death, burial, and resurrection were essential to his saving 37 00:04:02,039 --> 00:04:08,659 ministry. This is why Easter is essential. Secondly, the resurrection is essential to our salvation. 38 00:04:09,300 --> 00:04:15,259 As crucial and important as Jesus of Nazareth's life, death, and burial are to our redemption, 39 00:04:15,460 --> 00:04:21,199 the crowning capstone of it is the resurrection. Without it, there's no hope for those of us who 40 00:04:21,199 --> 00:04:27,839 call ourselves Christians. This is why Easter is so important in the church calendar. Paul elegantly 41 00:04:27,839 --> 00:04:32,459 reasons it this way. He says, if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ 42 00:04:32,459 --> 00:04:37,319 has been raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has 43 00:04:37,319 --> 00:04:44,259 not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. If in Christ we have hope in this 44 00:04:44,259 --> 00:04:51,579 life only, all of you who are terrified indeed by the coronavirus, you should be terrified rather of 45 00:04:51,579 --> 00:04:57,439 the life to come, the afterlife. Because if in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people 46 00:04:57,439 --> 00:05:04,519 most to be pitied. But that is not the case for those of us who by faith know of his resurrection. 47 00:05:05,079 --> 00:05:10,139 Paul also says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God 48 00:05:10,139 --> 00:05:15,819 raised him from the dead, you will be saved. This is the great convocation of the church on 49 00:05:15,819 --> 00:05:21,980 Resurrection Sunday, where we affirm publicly, we witness confessing with our mouths for all the 50 00:05:21,980 --> 00:05:28,199 world to see that we believe this truth. We are required to do this before the world. After all, 51 00:05:28,279 --> 00:05:34,860 when we own this by faith and testify to it, the promise of Romans 8, 11 is ours. Paul says, 52 00:05:34,939 --> 00:05:40,639 but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from 53 00:05:40,639 --> 00:05:50,339 the dead will also give to your mortal bodies life through his spirit dwells in you. So unlike the 54 00:05:50,339 --> 00:05:56,620 governor of Idaho, who tells us by his edict that the resurrection is not essential, the governor of 55 00:05:56,620 --> 00:06:03,339 the universe says that it is. The resurrection and Resurrection Sunday are essential to the faith and 56 00:06:03,339 --> 00:06:09,500 practice of Christianity. And if I hear this excuse once more, I swear I will be tempted to send such a 57 00:06:09,500 --> 00:06:17,240 to his temporary abode of sleep to the resurrection. And that excuse is, oh, but pastor, no one is telling 58 00:06:17,240 --> 00:06:25,399 you to deny the resurrection. To which I must reply, not yet, but you will. Is there any living, 59 00:06:25,660 --> 00:06:33,120 conscious, thinking soul out there that believes for a one second that your benign, benevolent government, 60 00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:50,560 that government who only wants to serve you? We only want to serve you. Rare, medium, and well done. 61 00:06:50,959 --> 00:06:57,819 Does anyone believe that this government will not do this again? With greater, more expansive demands 62 00:06:57,819 --> 00:07:04,100 upon your faith and practice, not to mention your civil liberties. Precisely because we have rolled 63 00:07:04,100 --> 00:07:10,480 over and peed ourselves like frightened puppies this time, crying, save us, oh, good God, government. 64 00:07:10,980 --> 00:07:17,040 If so, if you believe this, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I want to sell you. I'll cast you as 65 00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:22,860 the upcoming role of the naive, charmingly victimized Pollyanna. I'll send you out to the big game 66 00:07:22,860 --> 00:07:29,740 expedition for the elusive fable Jackalope. That is the level of naivete which we have if we think 67 00:07:29,740 --> 00:07:38,199 that this is just a one-off event. Additionally, and this is crucial, such Christians make an artificial 68 00:07:38,199 --> 00:07:45,660 disjunction between the resurrection and its witness. Resurrection Sunday, Easter. There is an unbreakable 69 00:07:45,660 --> 00:07:52,680 bond between the truth and the fact of the resurrection and its chief collective witness, which is Easter. 70 00:07:52,860 --> 00:07:59,459 The conditions are clear. Belief and witness to that belief are inextricable. Paul puts it this way. 71 00:07:59,579 --> 00:08:05,040 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from 72 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:12,540 the dead, you will be saved. The early church father, St. Chrysostom, preached this yearly on Easter to his 73 00:08:12,540 --> 00:08:19,439 vast assembled flock. He said, let all pious men and all lovers of God rejoice in the splendor of this 74 00:08:19,439 --> 00:08:25,339 feast. Let the wise servants blissfully enter into the joy of their Lord. That's how he began 75 00:08:25,339 --> 00:08:32,480 his Easter sermon every year. And Charles Wesley's hymn captures the communal nature of Easter morning. 76 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:39,840 He sings, Christ the Lord is risen today. Sons of men and angels say, raise your joys and triumphs high. 77 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:46,940 Sing ye heavens and earth reply. Now we have been seeing the oscillating voices of heaven and earth 78 00:08:46,940 --> 00:08:53,240 in rapturous worship in our study of revelation and how closely those voices are bound together 79 00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:59,759 one with another. Nowhere is this mystical communion between heaven and earth more palpable than on 80 00:08:59,759 --> 00:09:06,720 Resurrection Sunday. The resurrection is the most essential fact in the universe and nowhere is it 81 00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:15,080 witnessed to more essentially than on Easter. Easter. Resurrection Sunday is the linchpin of witness to the 82 00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:22,799 resurrection. The earthly fathers and all subsequently have recognized this. Oh, but pastor, I'm not 83 00:09:22,799 --> 00:09:28,740 compromising my witness to the resurrection at all. I testify personally to it all the time, of course. 84 00:09:29,419 --> 00:09:37,620 Squishy evangelicals excuse their absence from worship with that kind of excuse. Though it's all well and 85 00:09:37,620 --> 00:09:43,960 good, but it's only half of the equation. You are also part of the great cloud of witnesses that comes 86 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:50,860 together as the one body of Christ on Easter to witness to the glorious resurrection. Squelch Easter, 87 00:09:51,379 --> 00:09:58,559 squelch the resurrection. Choke off the loud, eloquent testimony of Resurrection Sunday, and you will choke 88 00:09:58,559 --> 00:10:06,159 off the witness of the church to the resurrection. You'll choke it to a hoarse gasp for the rest of the 89 00:10:06,159 --> 00:10:13,440 year. Oh, pastor, also consider your flock. Not only do you choke the witness to a lost and dying world, 90 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:20,720 you choke it to new life in Christ, but you also choke your own people by your silence, by your own 91 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:27,679 diminishment of the witness to Christ's resurrection, and blithely going along to get along with a government 92 00:10:27,679 --> 00:10:35,000 that brushes aside the church and its witness to the resurrection as non-essential. Really, really. 93 00:10:35,279 --> 00:10:43,179 Pastor, if you're silent and compliant here, then you agree by silent consent. Another objection that I hear, 94 00:10:43,179 --> 00:10:49,580 which is a kind of corollary to the one above, goes something like this. If they ever tell me what to 95 00:10:49,580 --> 00:10:57,440 preach, then I'll stand with you. Then I'll take a stand. To which I say, no, you won't. In the first 96 00:10:57,440 --> 00:11:03,419 place, shutting you down on Easter is shutting you up. Instead of particular nuances of doctrine, 97 00:11:03,679 --> 00:11:07,500 they nevertheless do something far more egregious than telling you what to preach. 98 00:11:07,500 --> 00:11:15,039 They compel you not to preach. Altogether, they compel your silence. Be quiet. Well, pastor, you know, 99 00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:20,659 it's just for now. It's just for this Easter. And well, you know, maybe an indeterminate number of 100 00:11:20,659 --> 00:11:25,620 Sundays. We're not quite sure. How is that going for you? How many Sundays has it been since you 101 00:11:25,620 --> 00:11:31,379 worshiped as a gathered people of God? How many Sundays will it be before you gather again as the 102 00:11:31,379 --> 00:11:38,320 people of God? Have you not now done this so long that it's becoming the new normal? It will become 103 00:11:38,320 --> 00:11:47,519 the new normal. It's not so bad. We can adjust. We can do this. No. Virtual worship is virtual nonsense 104 00:11:47,519 --> 00:11:54,460 in the long run. And mostly what I get from people when I ask these questions is kind of blank stares. 105 00:11:54,460 --> 00:12:01,320 How long will it be? Well, I don't know. Whenever they let us. Whenever they turn the spigot back on, 106 00:12:01,379 --> 00:12:07,159 right? Someone asked Thomas Jefferson, how much tyranny will a government impose? To which he replied, 107 00:12:07,299 --> 00:12:15,539 as much as the people will permit. Oh, your compliance in not meeting will go on just as long 108 00:12:15,539 --> 00:12:22,559 as you permit. This is a test. It's an exercise. Like the culture of the TSA at our airports, 109 00:12:22,559 --> 00:12:30,240 you are being conditioned for control. You are being trained for tyranny. Someday in an indeterminate 110 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:37,340 future, this ban will be lifted. But the training will have been accomplished. Excuse me. Dr. Fauci, 111 00:12:37,419 --> 00:12:44,100 head of the CDC, has already hinted that we may well be in for a kind of rolling lockdown, 112 00:12:44,340 --> 00:12:48,580 depending upon the recurrence of outbreaks or the appearance of new pandemics. 113 00:12:48,580 --> 00:12:56,000 And you will not see the last of Dr. Fauci and his entourage in official-looking white lab coats 114 00:12:56,000 --> 00:13:05,139 when this phase of medical tyranny passes. They'll be back. And you're drawing a hypothetical line 115 00:13:05,139 --> 00:13:10,620 like, well, well, well, if they try and tell me what to preach, then I'll stand with you. That may 116 00:13:10,620 --> 00:13:18,220 make of you a legend in your own mind, and it may assuage your nagging conscience. But it is an empty 117 00:13:18,220 --> 00:13:24,220 ego massage that only makes the road harder for the rest of us down the line. If you will not stand 118 00:13:24,220 --> 00:13:29,919 when it is relatively easy to defeat this encroachment of our liberty, what makes you think 119 00:13:29,919 --> 00:13:35,659 you will stand when the stakes are much higher and the cost to you much greater? If you back down now, 120 00:13:35,659 --> 00:13:41,940 you'll back down then too, probably even more readily. So at least have no illusions about this, 121 00:13:42,059 --> 00:13:47,919 dear listener. If a lawn chair folds under a little pressure, it will certainly fold under greater 122 00:13:47,919 --> 00:13:57,200 pressure. And for me, perhaps the most convincing and poignant argument to hunker down and maybe do so 123 00:13:57,200 --> 00:14:04,860 indefinitely is that made by the thousands of healthcare workers who are risking their health 124 00:14:04,860 --> 00:14:11,840 and their well-being. They are the thin white line, if I may borrow an analogy. Yes, our healthcare 125 00:14:11,840 --> 00:14:18,279 workers are indeed the thin white line who helps stay the flood of pestilence from overwhelming the 126 00:14:18,279 --> 00:14:25,659 rest of us. Just like the thin blue line, our police officers stay the flood of an otherwise pestilence 127 00:14:25,659 --> 00:14:33,659 of crime. We all owe them a debt of gratitude, and we owe that thin white line our sustained cooperation. 128 00:14:33,659 --> 00:14:40,000 And several from this community have appealed to me personally to lessen their burden and risk by 129 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:47,120 suspending our worship for the foreseeable future. Do not risk overburdening staff or hospital beds or 130 00:14:47,120 --> 00:14:53,360 ventilators and even cryptically the morgues. Oh, as is going on in Italy, the morgues are being 131 00:14:53,360 --> 00:15:00,840 overwhelmed with the dead. Now this argument indeed gives me much pause. And the military analogy I think 132 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:07,779 is very apt here. We are in a kind of war where there is a dire threat, and only a few of us are 133 00:15:07,779 --> 00:15:14,740 trained and capable of effectively fighting that threat. The rest of us back them up as we would our 134 00:15:14,740 --> 00:15:20,899 soldiers, and we make sacrifices and we marshal all the resources we can to support them. For example, 135 00:15:21,059 --> 00:15:27,620 one of our elders in the construction trade recently donated his whole supply of masks to a local 136 00:15:27,620 --> 00:15:35,179 clinic that was experiencing a shortage. For every GI Joe in World War II, there was a corresponding 137 00:15:35,179 --> 00:15:43,299 Rosie the Riveter at home to back him up. So there is a real correspondence in this analogy, this military 138 00:15:43,299 --> 00:15:50,740 analogy. But there is also a real correspondence in our respective duties. I do not want to sound harsh 139 00:15:50,740 --> 00:15:57,220 or cold or mechanical when I say this. So please, please, please understand it in the spirit in which 140 00:15:57,220 --> 00:16:04,279 it is given. But it must be said, do your duty and I will do mine. You signed up for this, healthcare 141 00:16:04,279 --> 00:16:11,159 worker, when you entered this field. No soldier, when the shooting starts, says, I didn't sign up for this. 142 00:16:11,159 --> 00:16:16,419 Oh, yes, you did. As Julius Caesar told every one of his legionnaires, 143 00:16:17,039 --> 00:16:27,539 estne officium tuum, which is Latin for do your duty. Estne officium tuum, do your duty. And Caesar 144 00:16:27,539 --> 00:16:34,860 inspired their loyalty too by leading out front his troops where the battle was the thickest. So before 145 00:16:34,860 --> 00:16:41,059 you seek to track me down, oh healthcare worker, before you seek to track me down and knock my block off, 146 00:16:41,159 --> 00:16:47,000 for saying this infuriating thing. And I could see how that could be taken that way. Oh dear, 147 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:54,779 one, please know that we all know that 99 and 99.9%, excuse me, of American healthcare professionals 148 00:16:54,779 --> 00:17:01,360 are doing precisely this. They are doing their duty and most of us and most of them above and beyond 149 00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:07,980 their duty. We owe you a debt of gratitude both now and when this is all over. And I dare say there will 150 00:17:07,980 --> 00:17:15,200 be many stories of courage and sacrifice in this area, some heroes, even as there are with our 151 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:21,579 soldiers in battle. But again, no soldier on the front lines ever expects those back home to surrender 152 00:17:21,579 --> 00:17:28,380 their constitutional liberties for the exigencies of war in America. That is precisely what the soldier 153 00:17:28,380 --> 00:17:34,940 was fighting to defend. Oh, and dear healthcare worker, dear nurse, dear doctor, please remember you 154 00:17:34,940 --> 00:17:41,920 are too, in a manner of speaking, fighting to defend indeed our constitutional liberties. Let us exercise 155 00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:50,920 them. Because we in the church also have our duty. We have our duty. In weeks to come, we have a duty 156 00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:59,160 to point all mankind to the essential transcendent truth of the whole universe, and that is the resurrection 157 00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:06,140 of Jesus Christ, which makes life beyond the grave possible. This is why we must all work together 158 00:18:06,140 --> 00:18:15,059 as well in order to preserve our liberties. Sometimes the point is made to me that we must be considerate 159 00:18:15,059 --> 00:18:23,099 of others who we may infect. We must be considerate of those then who are weak. We must virtually shut 160 00:18:23,099 --> 00:18:31,319 down the country in order to, we must virtually flatten the curve in order to flatten the country 161 00:18:31,319 --> 00:18:38,400 in order to flatten the curve, excuse me. While indeed, this is a noble effort, we must also remember 162 00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:46,099 that there is a kind of social contract we have, one with indeed a shared amount of risk. If we were 163 00:18:46,099 --> 00:18:54,240 to try and eliminate all risk and say that the rule above all other rules is to keep from hurting 164 00:18:54,240 --> 00:19:00,819 or harming or infecting one another, and to do so, we must sequester ourselves away. That would indeed 165 00:19:00,819 --> 00:19:10,759 give us little more than a monastery, a worldwide isolated monastery. But no, instead, there is indeed 166 00:19:10,759 --> 00:19:16,640 that sense of shared risk that we all have with one another, and it is part of the social contract. 167 00:19:16,759 --> 00:19:22,099 So we must keep this in mind too, in the larger culture. And remember that we in the church have 168 00:19:22,099 --> 00:19:29,440 our duty also, not only the healthcare worker, but also those of us in the church. We have our duty also. 169 00:19:29,839 --> 00:19:36,000 We have a duty in weeks to come to point all of mankind to that essential transcendent truth of the 170 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:42,759 whole universe, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which makes life beyond the grave possible, dear 171 00:19:42,759 --> 00:19:48,319 listener. There is a world beyond this one that is eternal and everlasting. We point to that one. 172 00:19:48,420 --> 00:19:55,319 We are prevented from declaring this, and as I have just shown you, that is precisely what is at stake. 173 00:19:55,460 --> 00:20:02,140 Well then, as the apostle says, if in Christ we have hope in this life only, that is redemption and 174 00:20:02,140 --> 00:20:08,500 salvation from the coronavirus and other kinds of things. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, 175 00:20:09,059 --> 00:20:16,259 we are, of all people, most to be pitied. If we are prevented, if we are prevented from doing our 176 00:20:16,259 --> 00:20:24,140 duty, if we are prevented by edict of the governor of the state rather than the edict of the governor of 177 00:20:24,140 --> 00:20:29,279 the universe, if we are prevented from declaring the hope of eternal life, then the saving of mortal 178 00:20:29,279 --> 00:20:34,779 lives in this pandemic, as valuable as that may be. And I'm not diminishing that in the least. 179 00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:43,859 Well, still, the saving of mortal lives here only delays eternal death to another day. It will come to 180 00:20:43,859 --> 00:20:50,720 all of us. None of us get out of here alive, do we? So, despite all of our best and sometimes heroic 181 00:20:50,720 --> 00:20:57,240 efforts, and I don't want to diminish those again, despite all of these efforts, some of us will still 182 00:20:57,240 --> 00:21:05,180 die in this pandemic regardless. And we, in the life of the church, we have a duty to declare 183 00:21:05,180 --> 00:21:12,220 that hope of life beyond their swiftly approaching grave. Despite being blithely brushed aside as 184 00:21:12,220 --> 00:21:18,539 non-essential, we have the most essential mission of all, and that is to hold out the hope of life 185 00:21:18,539 --> 00:21:24,920 beyond the grave. Oh, and that grave, dear listener, isn't it for so many of us? That grave draws closer. 186 00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:33,180 It almost seems palpable now in this day, threat of death by coronavirus all around us, but we have 187 00:21:33,180 --> 00:21:39,279 hope that we offer beyond the grave. A life that has been pioneered by the one who has gone ahead of 188 00:21:39,279 --> 00:21:46,160 us, our Lord Jesus Christ. As the Apostle John calls him in the book of Revelation, the firstborn 189 00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:53,359 from the dead, birthed from the dead, raised from the dead. But he is not the lastborn from the dead 190 00:21:53,359 --> 00:22:00,740 either, because the promises to us, those of us who are his, those of us who believe in him, who indeed 191 00:22:00,740 --> 00:22:06,680 believe that God raised him from the dead, we are also second and third and fourth and fifth. 192 00:22:08,359 --> 00:22:13,799 Innumerable numbers are born from the dead as well, because we have followed in the footsteps 193 00:22:13,799 --> 00:22:22,000 of the firstborn from the dead. And this reality as well dispels fear and panic in the heart of the one 194 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:30,380 who so believes. One who believes thusly and knows this to his toenails, indeed has a spiritual poise 195 00:22:30,380 --> 00:22:36,460 that you will not see in the world. And if you see a Christian panicked, if you see a Christian in mortal 196 00:22:36,460 --> 00:22:43,240 fear, you need to reassure him of this truth. And indeed, if he does not come around, then there is 197 00:22:43,240 --> 00:22:51,299 something wrong with his faith and his belief, because a spiritual poise should enfold and overwhelm 198 00:22:51,299 --> 00:22:58,700 the one who knows that his eternal life is safe and secure and enfolded in his Savior, the Lord Jesus 199 00:22:58,700 --> 00:23:08,160 Christ. So, dear healthcare worker, dear governor, if you would like some assistance in calming the hearts 200 00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:17,259 and spirits of Americans, let us do our thing. Let us do our duty. Oh, Americans, will not fear and 201 00:23:17,259 --> 00:23:25,720 panic and act hysterically if indeed we are allowed to do our duty. Fear makes you do stupid stuff, 202 00:23:25,859 --> 00:23:34,440 doesn't it? Like hoard toilet paper. Oh, Americans, do not fear and panic and act hysterically when you 203 00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:41,880 indeed know your destiny, regardless of our earthly circumstances. Dear governor, we can give the 204 00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:50,019 people a hope and a faith based in reality, and that is the reality of the resurrection, if you will let 205 00:23:50,019 --> 00:23:58,140 us proclaim it, but we cannot do it in its full power without the day given us, and that is Resurrection 206 00:23:58,140 --> 00:24:07,299 Sunday. On that day, we are able to promise that on a soon coming day, as the apostle Paul promises, 207 00:24:07,839 --> 00:24:14,160 the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this 208 00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:21,859 perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the 209 00:24:21,859 --> 00:24:28,519 perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the 210 00:24:28,519 --> 00:24:35,220 saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, 211 00:24:35,559 --> 00:24:42,420 where is your sting? Join us. Come and join us, those of you who have yet to believe in this certain reality 212 00:24:42,420 --> 00:24:50,900 that is promised by the living God, a transcendent reality, a reality that is essential to the universe, 213 00:24:50,900 --> 00:24:57,940 though it may be non-essential to the reigning government at this stage. Death is swallowed up 214 00:24:57,940 --> 00:25:04,339 in victory in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ah, death has a sting. We see it all around us, 215 00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:10,740 don't we? Especially those who are gripped by fear, who are gripped by hysteria. That is part of the sting 216 00:25:10,740 --> 00:25:18,579 of death. But in Christ, knowing in his resurrection, and knowing that because he is raised from the dead, 217 00:25:18,579 --> 00:25:26,960 we will be too. Death loses its sting. Death loses its victory. Christ has triumphed over death and the 218 00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:32,819 grave by his resurrection. Come and join us, those of you who have yet to believe. Come and join us, 219 00:25:33,279 --> 00:25:39,240 those of you who have yet to know this truth to your bones. Come and join us, those of you who want 220 00:25:39,240 --> 00:25:47,359 life. Life eternal life in our creator who loves us and has indeed chosen in his son, Lord Jesus Christ, 221 00:25:47,500 --> 00:25:53,200 to give us that life, give us that life eternally. And that's a life that we can know now, such that we 222 00:25:53,200 --> 00:26:02,500 have a spiritual poise, a calmness, a centeredness, a certain knowledge that we will indeed be raised 223 00:26:02,500 --> 00:26:08,859 again from the dead. When eventually, and all of us will reach the lip of the grave, and all of us will 224 00:26:08,859 --> 00:26:16,619 eventually indeed die, we will die knowing that one day we will rise again. This life can be yours 225 00:26:16,619 --> 00:26:24,880 for faith in the risen one, our Lord Jesus Christ. We declare this coming Resurrection Sunday, nothing 226 00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:31,740 can stop it. He is risen. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. 227 00:26:31,740 --> 00:26:38,500 We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. 228 00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:49,279 Call us for more information at area code 208-523-0196. Area code 208-523-0196.