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Welcome back to Daily Drive Time Devotions, Mark chapter 16, day 4. We've been
walking through a look at the resurrection from the chair of the women who were
first there that day, from the chair of an historian, from the chair of a
skeptic. Today, from the chair of a theologian, those who would teach about the
truth of the resurrection and the grip, the difference, the change that it has
in our daily lives.

As you look at the resurrection, one thing you might think is the resurrection
is historical, so what? What does that mean? To decide what that means, we have
to move to the theologian's chair, as we heard a quote about a couple of days
ago.

Why is the resurrection so important? It's obviously important. It changed
everything.

Why is it so important? Let me give you three reasons. Number one, the
resurrection is the objective basis for our faith.

Christianity is not just all subjective, not just all in my mind. For somebody
to say the Christian faith is just subjective, it's just your own faith, you
just made it up and that's good for you, that is to ignore the truth of the
resurrection. C.

S. We previously talked about a fried egg religion or fried egg faith, the idea
that somebody would worship a fried egg on the top of their head. Why is that
faith any more real than the faith of Christianity?

Because Jesus really lived, because Jesus really died, because Jesus really was
resurrected. That's why in 1 Corinthians 15, 17, as we read about at the
beginning of this week, if there is no truth of the resurrection, we are
foolish. It is the subjective truth that God is at work in my heart and in my
life on a daily basis.

But that subjective truth is based on the objective truth that Jesus entered
history and he lived his life for us. So why is the resurrection so important?
Let me give you a second reason.

The resurrection is also the distinctive mark of our faith. We are marked by an
empty tomb, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He died on a cross, but he was
resurrected again.

And Christianity is the only major world religion which claims a resurrected
founder. The Jewish religion, Abraham died. He founded the religion, he died,
and he was buried.

The Buddhist religion, Buddha, it is written that he died with that utter
passing away in which nothing whatever remains behind. Muhammad, we know when he
died, June 8th, 632 A. D.

Pilgrims go to pay respect at his tomb. Abraham is in his grave, Buddha is in
his grave, Muhammad is in his grave, Jesus is not. It is an empty tomb.

I still remember years ago hearing a pastor give an illustration about going to
Lenin's tomb in Russia during the strongest days of the Russian Empire. And as
he looked at that tomb, it impressed him that the tomb had guards in front of
it. People were having to guard the tomb.

And he realized there used to be guards at Jesus' tomb, but they're not there
anymore because Jesus isn't there. He is not there. He is risen.

The resurrection, why is it so important? It's the objective basis for our
faith, it's the distinctive mark of our faith, and it is the resurrection is the
absolute guarantee of our faith. John 14 verse 9, Jesus talked about the
resurrection and he said, "Because I am raised, you will be raised.

" What happened with Jesus is going to happen to us. The resurrection that he
experienced, we're going to experience to new life for all of eternity. He is
the firstborn among many brethren, the Bible says.

He is showing us the way of what God's going to do in our lives. Now I don't
become Jesus, I don't become God, but I become resurrected. I get this new life,
this new body, this newness that only Jesus Christ can give.

As you and I think this week about the resurrection and what it means, I want to
take a moment right now just to read for you some of the many, many verses in
the New Testament about the life-changing, world-changing, history-changing,
eternity-changing, personal life-changing power of the resurrection. Romans 10,
9 says this, "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in
your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. " That's why
the resurrection is so important.

John 11, 25, Jesus said this, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who
believes in me shall live, even if he dies. " Acts 2, verses 23 to 24 says,
"This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and
you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because
it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. " That's why the
resurrection is so important. Death no longer has the power that it had because
of what Jesus did.

Romans 1, 4 says this, "And Jesus Christ our Lord was shown to be the Son of God
when God powerfully raised him from the dead by means of the Holy Spirit. " The
Bible says this in Romans chapter 6, verses 4 to 14. Listen to the difference
that the resurrection makes, "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.

If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also
be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was
crucified with him, so that this body of sin might be done away with, that we
should no longer be slaves to sin, because anyone who has died has been freed
from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with
him.

For we know that Christ was raised from the dead. He cannot die again. Death no
longer has mastery over him.

The death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives,
he lives to God. In the same way, count yourself dead to sin, but alive to God
in Christ Jesus.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you should obey its
evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of
wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought
from death to life, and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of
righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law,
but under grace.

That is why the resurrection is so important. That is the difference that the
resurrection makes in our daily lives, because he lives, we live. 1 Corinthians
15, 42 to 58 says this about the future.

You and I look forward to what this resurrection means not just for today, but
also for all of eternity. Listen to this. So will it be with the resurrection of
the dead.

The body that is sown is perishable. He's talking about your body here. It is
raised imperishable.

He's talking about your body here. Back to the verses. It is sown in dishonor.

It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power.

It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural
body, there's also a spiritual body.

So it is written the first Adam became a living being, and the last Adam, that's
Jesus, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural,
and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the
second man from heaven.

The first man is Adam, the second man is Jesus. Back to the verses. "As was the
earthly man, so are those who are of the earth, and as is the man from heaven,
so are those who are from heaven.

" And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear
the likeness of the man from heaven. I declare to you, I declare to you,
brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the
perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery.

We will not all sleep. We will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised
imperishable, and we will be changed.

For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with
immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the
mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true. Death
has been swallowed up in victory.

Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of
death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm, let nothing move you, always give
yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the
Lord is not in vain. Those are powerful verses about the future.

They're theological verses. You might need to go and read them again. They're
powerful verses about the future that God has for us, guaranteed by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So what does this mean for my daily life? What does this mean for what God wants
to do in me and you? Let me share with you this prayer as we close today from
Ephesians chapter 1 verses 18 to 23.

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, in order that you
may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious
inheritance in the saints, and the incomparably great power to us who believe.
That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in
Christ when he raised him from the dead, and seated him in his right hand in the
heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and
every title that can be given, not only in this present age, but also in the age
to come. And God placed all things under his feet, and appointed him to be head
over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who feels
everything in every way.

We pray this, Jesus, in your name. Amen. Thanks be to God.

Amen. Join us tomorrow. We're going to end our look at the book of Mark, Mark
chapter 16, by looking at the resurrection from your chair.