April 19, 2020 · Acts 23:6–11

Rest in Resurrection

Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead." When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

“The hope for a cure is a powerful thing. It can keep us going. "Okay, let's keep going, and hopefully we'll have a vaccine." It can help give us some respite in the midst of our anxiety about an unknown virus. And this is why I believe, as a Christian, the doctrine of the resurrection is so important: that we live in light of the doctrine of the resurrection, because the doctrine of the resurrection gives us hope. The doctrine of resurrection is saying that Jesus Christ's life and death is the vaccine to death. It is the cure to our fear of death. This is the reality. If we hope in the resurrection of Christ, we can finally get some rest. Now, it isn't COVID-19 on its own — it's very scary. There's many viruses that we don't have much fear of. But why it's scary is because of the threat of death. This is the real fear that's set in the hearts of humanity. Death is the real fear. Death is the real enemy. Death is the thing to which we're always wondering, is there a cure? And the resurrection of Christ offers us this hope that there's a final cure. We might not see it all happen right here and now, but there is an eternal vaccine against death. And this is the living Christ living within us, when we put our faith in him and trust in him: that he lived righteously, he died on the cross, and he rose again to resurrection life, and he will come back and return, and all those who sleep in Christ will live eternally. This is a hope. And we need to live every second of our lives remembering this hope. This wasn't just a last-week hope.”