FEAR: an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is DANGEROUS and likely to cause PAIN.

Question: How should we approach death?

It is possible to be ANGRY at death and ANCHORED by the resurrection at the same time.

The facts of the resurrection have to be CLEAR in your head before they can be a COMFORT to your heart.

1 Corinthians 15:3-8 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas,[b] and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one born at the wrong time.

Question: What are the facts?

1. Jesus DIED.
2. The tomb was EMPTY.
3. He was seen ALIVE.
4. Lives CHANGED.

People will die for their religious beliefs if they sincerely believe they are true, but people won’t die for their religious beliefs if they know their beliefs are false. -Lee Strobel

I say unequivocally that the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt. -Sir Lionel Luckhoo

If you were on a jury and heard enough evidence to convince you of someone’s guilt, it wouldn’t make sense to stop short of the final step of convicting him. And for people to accept the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus and to not take the final step of testing it experientially would be to miss where the evidence is ultimately pointing. It’s only rational and logical to follow it into the experiential realm. -J.P. Moreland

So What: Because he went first I know that death is something everyone has to FACE, but I don’t have to FEAR.

1 Corinthians 15:14-20 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again.

1 Corinthians 15:54-55 When this happens—when our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die—then at last the Scriptures will come true: 55“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

John 1:12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

Now what: BELIEVE+RECEIVE=BECOME