First Corinthians chapter 15. We serve a living savior. Isn't that so much better than all those other religions whose whose teachers, whose prophets, whose leaders are dead and buried. But our savior, he rose again and he ever liveth to make intercession for us. Romans ten nine says this, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

A lot of times when we we think about the gospel, we talk about the gospel and the good news of Jesus Christ, we talk more about his death than we speak of his of his resurrection. And his death was vital. His death was necessary. His sacrifice on the cross was necessary for him to pay the penalty in our place. For him to purchase for us on that cross and with the shedding of his blood, eternal life for those who were undeserving, you and me.

But just as vital is his what? Is his resurrection. Because a dead savior can't save anyone, but a living savior on the other hand can. And so we're gonna talk about the importance of the resurrection and what our living savior is doing for us today. Look if you would in first Corinthians 15, Paul writes moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you which also you have received and wherein you stand.

By which also you're saved if you keep in memory what I preached unto you unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received. How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. That he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. That is the gospel.

His death, burial, and resurrection that makes our salvation and one day resurrection possible through faith in him. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you again for this day. We thank you Lord for the good news of the gospel. We thank you for your word that tells us of it this morning.

We pray if there be one here that is yet to make the decision to repent and trust Christ as savior, the one who died and shed his blood on the cross for them, the one who is risen again from the grave, the one who is preparing a place for them and interceding in behalf of all who come to him by faith today. Lord, I pray that they would be saved. And we pray, Lord, that you might be magnified in our service today. And we pray that you might be magnified in our lives as we leave this place this day. May Jesus Christ, our living savior, be seen in us.

In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen. So why is the resurrection so important? Well, if you happen to have read the devotion I sent out on Wednesday, I gave five reasons there that the resurrection is so important. I'll read through them this morning quickly.

Number one, it is the ultimate and final proof that Jesus is more than a man. But indeed, he is the foretold Messiah of Israel. He is the son of the living God. He is the king of kings and the Lord of lords. He is the creator of all.

His resurrection proves that point. No one else has ever come back of their own accord from the grave. Only who? Only Jesus. Number two, it is proof that his sacrifice was accepted by the father as payment in full for all those who will receive him by faith as Lord.

How do we know that Christ's sacrifice was accepted by the father when he cried on the cross, it is finished? Because he rose again from the what? The dead. And we know thereby his sacrifice was accepted. Number three, yet in many other miracles that Jesus did proved that he came from heaven.

As John the Baptist declared in John three, with a message we direly need to hear, a message from God himself. How do we know that the message that Jesus had to give was the right one? People may ask you that question. There's many religions. How do you know that that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life?

Because he rose again from the what? He rose again from the dead. He walked on this earth forty days after his resurrection. He was seen as Paul goes on in first Corinthians 15 by over 500 people at one time and all the apostles on several occasions. And he ascended back up into heaven where he saves lost souls today and if you know him, you know that.

And you've seen that again and again and again. We serve a living savior. It proved that he who came back from the dead is able also to raise from the dead all who place their faith and trust in his power and grace. Only he has that power to give eternal life to us. When this body dies and goes in the grave someday, I don't.

I don't. To be absent from the body is to be what? Present from the Lord. And one day, I get a new body like unto thy saviors. Praise the Lord.

It's a better one. It's an incorruptible one. It's an eternal one because of him. Because of him. Number five, and lastly, it also proved that sin and death and hell are defeated foes.

For they could not claim and they could not hold to the one hold on to the one who overcame them all. And in Christ, we will also. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold all things come new.

Thanks to Lord Jesus Christ who gives us the victory, who conquered the grave and sin and hell for us. But I would like to take a few more minutes this morning to consider what our living savior is doing right now. As we are sitting here in this service today, what is Jesus doing in heaven? What has our living savior done for us? What is he doing for us today?

What is he going to do for us in the future? We serve a living savior. A living savior who is active today. You may not see him though we see his power all around us. He is doing something.

What is he doing? Well, John 14 tells us this, Jesus said this. He said to his disciples, he said, let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also. What is Jesus doing? What did he tell his disciples?

He said, I I'm going back to heaven. And they went, don't do that. They wanted Jesus to what? To stay with them. He said, no.

I go back to prepare a place for who? For you who believe in me. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you.

So what is Jesus doing? He is preparing a place for who? For us. For all those who will come to Christ in faith. For all those who will come to Christ for forgiveness and salvation from sin.

Jesus is preparing a place for you. And if he's preparing a place for you, obviously he's gonna do what? He's gonna come back to take you home to be with him. So what is he doing? He's preparing your future home.

He's using a metaphor from Jewish culture back in the day. The betrothed or engaged, little more than engagement, but the betrothed husband would go away, would prepare a home for his wife and then when it all was prepared, he would come back to where the wife lived with the family, her family and they would begin the wedding festival ceremony and then he would take his wife and he would take her to her new what? Her new home where they would finish the wedding ceremony because it went on for several days. This is the picture of Christ in the church. The bridegroom and the church, the bride.

He went to prepare a place for us so that one day he'll return to take us home to be with him. That's what Jesus, our living savior is doing for us today. But that's not the only thing that Jesus, our living savior, did. He also has sent us his holy spirit to baptize us into the body of Christ, to unite us together as one in Jesus, to enable us to fulfill the mission of being witnesses for Christ until the time he returns. Jesus told his disciples that it was expedient for them that he go back to heaven.

Why? Because when he went back to heaven, he was gonna send the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who would just not just be with them but actually what? In them. As great as it was for the disciples to have Jesus with them, he said it's gonna be even better once I go back because I'll send the Holy Spirit.

He won't just be with you, he'll actually be what? In you. And then in Acts one it says this, and being assembled together with them, that is Jesus with the disciples, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the father which saith he, you have heard of me for John truly baptized with water but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. But ye shall receive power. After that the Holy Ghost has come upon you.

Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Our living savior went back to heaven. Do we know that he's up there at the right hand of the father? Because he kept his promise and he sent who? The Holy Spirit to place us into, baptize us into the body of Christ, to unite us as one in Christ, to empower us in his servants, to guide us, enlighten us in his will and in his word.

How blessed are we to have a living savior who has given us such a wonderful gift in the Holy Spirit. It is not only this communion in the spirit that we share with Christ, but also with one another that we celebrate this morning at the end of the service when we partake of the elements of communion or the Lord's Supper. We are celebrating the communion we have in Christ with our Lord and with one another as we remember his shed blood on the cross for our sins. His body that hung there on that cross for us. The sacrifice that he made so that we might be saved.

Not by partaking of these elements, but by putting our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Number three this morning. Our living savior is back in heaven preparing a place for us. He has sent his holy spirit to help guide us and empower us. But also he is interceding on our behalf at the right hand of the father this very day.

Hebrews seven twenty five was in the bulletin. I read it a few minutes ago. Let me read it again. Wherefore, he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. The priesthood in the Old Testament, they were kind of the intercessors between Israel and God.

They're the ones that went into the tabernacle and they're the ones who did the sacrifices. They're the ones who put altar on the altar of incense that represented the prayers of the people. They were the go between, the intercessors. But ever so often, the high priest had to be replaced. Why?

Because he died. But Jesus is better. He's a better high priest because he ever what? He ever liveth to make intercession for us. He does not die.

And as he is ever living, we have an ever living confidence and hope and security of our standing before God because our savior lives and he stands there in your behalf and he stands there in mine to intercede for us, our living advocate. Romans eight thirty four says, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand who also maketh intercession for us. Here here is the the bit of an irony in scripture. Who is the judge of the living and the dead?

Jesus Christ is the judge. But the judge is my advocate. The judge is my savior. The judge is my friend. And the judge has declared me guiltless because he took my place on Calvary.

Who can condemn me if the judge has already declared me guiltless because of what he did that I might live. What confidence we can have of heaven because Jesus is already there representing all of us. What does it mean that he intercedes? Divided into three points here. Number one, what does it mean?

It means that he intervenes on behalf of all those who repent and turn to him in faith for salvation from sin and hell. He is there at the right hand of the father with the nail scars in his hands and the blood of his sacrifice to say, their debt has been paid in full. Now receive them into our family. Acts four twelve, it says, neither is there salvation in any other in any other for there is none name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Or John one twelve, but as many as received him, to them gave you power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name.

Number two, it means this, that he intercedes for us with the father every time we sin and Satan says, look, you're not worthy. And Jesus responds, but I am. And I have bought them. I have bought them from you, redeemed their souls, justified them, having forgiven them all their what? All their sins.

I had a teacher define all this way. All means all and that's all, all can mean. All means what? All. Not some.

All. When Jesus died on the cross, he died for all our sins. When we receive his offer of eternal life and forgiveness, he forgives all our sins. Past, present, and future. They were nailed to his cross and I am forgiven yesterday, today, and forever by Jesus Christ who sits there at the right hand of God and every time Satan says, look, he did it again.

Jesus says, yes, but I already paid for that. You have no claim on him. You have no claim on her. They belong to me. Romans three twenty four through 26 says, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God has set forth to be a propitiation, a sacrifice through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God, to declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just the justifier of him which believeth in who?

Jesus. You are justified. What does that mean? That means you have been declared guiltless. Guiltless before God in heaven who have put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

Not by works of righteousness which you have done, but according to his what? Mercy. He has saved you. Romans four seven and eight, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

So we see here you start reading that verses, blessed are those who iniquities are forgiven. That has kind of a flavor of past tense, does it not? Sins are forgiven. Whose sins are covered in the blood of Jesus Christ. But then that next verse says this, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

What does that mean? That means that we who are in Christ are blessed because when we sin, it's already under the blood of who? Jesus Christ. It is not put on our account because he already paid for it. And it just won't stick.

It just won't stick. Have an illustration I've done particularly with the youth on a few occasions. You get a bowl of water and you put a little bit of iodine in it. Well, the iodine turns the water a brownish red color. It represents sin.

And you take a little bit of chlorine and you pour it in the water, you know what happens to that reddish brown color? It disappears just like that. And the water looks just as clear as before you ever put the iodine in. That represents our iniquities that have been what? Forgiven under the blood of Christ.

But you know something? If you take more iodine and you take it and you squirt it in that water after you've already put the chlorine in, guess what happens when that iodine hits the water? It disappears. It disappears. And that's what happens if you know Christ as savior.

Our sins are forgiven and God will not impute iniquity to us because he already paid the price on the cross of Calvary. And then lastly, what does it mean that he intercedes for us? It means that there is that he is there before the throne when we offer our prayers up to God to plead on our behalf and behalf of those who also for whom we pray. He is there at the right hand of the father and because he is, we are told we can come to the father in confidence in the name of Jesus Christ the son when we have prayer requests, when we have needs. He will hear us for the sake of Jesus who died for us and who is sitting there interceding in our behalf.

Thus, it says in Hebrews four, seeing then that we have a high great high priest that has passed from the heavens, Jesus the son of God, let us hold fast our profession for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us there come for come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Why? Because he is one of us.

One of us is seated at the right hand of the father in heaven. One of us is there who knows what we're going through, who understands, who represents us. And because he is there when we make our prayers, we can have confidence that he hears us and that God will answer those prayers for the sake of his son Jesus Christ who is one of us. Isn't that awesome? We serve a living savior who is one of us, who would be seated at the right hand of the father, who is there to plead for us, to pray for us.

We can have this confidence when we pray. He is there to answer and plead in our behalf not only because he is the risen son of God seated in the place of power at the right hand of the father who has the father's ear, but also because he is one of us. But then again, he is only there to plead in behalf of those who will receive him and his offer of salvation. He is only there to advocate for the repentant. He is only there preparing a place for those who will come to him in humble faith and receive him as Lord and Savior.

I'd to finish this morning by asking a question, is he there for you? Is he there for you? Is he your advocate? Does he represent you? Well, if you've trusted in Christ as savior, he does.

If you haven't yet, he can. But only if you will receive him by faith as Lord. Only if you will trust in him as your savior from sin. Is he your advocate? That's only a choice that you can make.

He's there for you. He's pleading for you. But you must choose. Will you choose him today? Will you choose him today?

We're gonna sing a hymn of invitation in just a moment, just as I am out of our hymn book. And I ask you this question. If you're here today and you're not sure, I don't have to sing that song. I'll meet you right down here. You don't have to sing that song.

You can meet me up here. You can pray and ask Jesus to be your savior. But please, don't walk away without Jesus today. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for your word.

Thank you that you hear and answer our prayers today. Thank you that you're with us. Lord, thank you for the salvation that we have in Christ alone. We pray, dear heavenly father, that you would work in hearts and lives today. We pray, Lord, that if there be one here that's not saved, someone that's not sure, that they would not leave this place in such a condition today.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.