And be killed, and be raised again the third day.

Mat 16:21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
Hello friends, in case your not up yet in the Tennessee area it is a beautiful sunny day. Well I have a busy day at Calvary Baptist as we are going to be running the electrical and trying to start drywalling the teen room today! Well let us continue on with our third sub point under Core Beliefs. Today I would like to talk about the Victorious Resurrection of our Savior. In today's age as in time past there are some who declare that there was no Resurrection, but to deny it means you have believed in part and so therefore cannot believe as a true Christian. To believe fully you must accept what the Bible says on all of these points to fully trust by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Without the Resurrection, then there would be no victory over death, hell and the grave. Without the resurrection there could be no further fulfillment of the points to follow that we will cover in the next few days. How can one believe that the Son of God who taketh away the sin of the world could not have died, been buried, then rise to ascend to the right hand of God. Lets look at our verse for today again; nd be killed, and be raised again the third day. Jesus, Himself told of the resurrection that must occur and yet His disciples had a hard time swallowing that too. Glory to God though as we read in our Bibles that when the third day arrived and the women went to anoint the body, there was no body found! Lets look at the proofs of the resurrection:

• An empty tomb
• An encouraging message (of the angel to the women)
• An exciting meeting (with the risen Lord and the disciples)
• An enraged enemy (the Romans and the Pharisees hated the resurrection, and tried to suppress it, however they never could refute it!)
• An explosive start (of the changing of the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday)

We also can note that many appearances of our Lord and Savior that is recorded for us as He was seen of many for forty days before His actual ascension to be seated on the right hand of God until His Visible Return. Getting back to denying the resurrection there are six things that wold be out of place your life if you did not believe this one important fact:

• All the preaching of the gospel message (birth, death, burial, resurrection, and return) now, and future would be utterly and completely useless
• All past, present, and future faith would be futile
• All preachers are therefore liars
• All living Christians have never been saved
• All Christians that have passed are in Hell
• All purpose and reason of life itself is destroyed

The true sign of Christianity is not just in the cross, but in the empty tomb as promised by our Lord and Savior. We also see that in the Resurrection there is hope as the Lord said if He is risen then He shall come again, which we will cover tomorrow. I hope this has been an encouragement to show the importance of the resurrection of Christ. There have been many a man to die, but there has been only one Savior to die and rise again to give us life forever more.