followHIM - What does "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain" mean? • followHIM Favorites

Episode Date: August 31, 2023

Hank Smith and John Bytheway answer a question from this week's Come, Follow Me study.Please rate and review the podcast which makes it easier to find.Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/new-testament-episodes-31-40/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the followHIM team:Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignAnnabelle Sorensen: Creative Project ManagerWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-piano

Hello, my friends. Welcome to another Follow Him Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I'm here with the amazing John, by the way. Welcome, John. Thank you, Hank. John, you know how we do this. We're going to take one question from this week's Come Follow Me lesson. The lesson is on 1 Corinthians 14-16, and the question is this, John. What does the phrase, if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain, mean to you? So in other words, what's the big deal about Christ's resurrection? How would you answer that, John? Yeah, the resurrection is kind of the evidence that the atonement worked, that Jesus was able to conquer sin and death, and that all of us will now live again.

So you take away that. What have we got? That's what Paul used as evidence. God has raised him up. And that means all of this works. I mean, what would it be without that? I guess that's what that means. Now, other people had done miracles before. Other people had given this similar message to Christ before. It was this mission that no one had ever done before. The atonement, the crucifixion, the resurrection of Jesus. That's what makes him unique. The Bible dictionary says the greatest of all his miracles is his resurrection.

And if you admit that, meaning if you believe Christ was truly resurrected, he was dead, came back to life, never going to die again, can leave the planet and come and go at will. If you believe that every other miracle is absolutely possible. In fact, it's probable if this guy can do that, what else can he do? Right. Then anything we think about the Urim and Thummim or anything else is nothing compared to someone who was brutally killed the way he was and laid in a tomb for so many days and then came back. And I like what you said, Hank. It's a lot of people said wise things, but name one that came back from the dead. Name anybody who's come back from the dead. So more than just wise sayings, he conquered death and sin. And that's why without that, our faith is vain.

I remember reading the story of Jonah once and someone said, do you really think Jonah was inside of a whale? Doesn't that seem kind of far-fetched? And I said, you know, I don't know if it's a symbol or if it's literal, I don't know. But if Jesus wants to do it, he can do it. I said, do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus? And they said, well, yeah, of course I believe in the resurrection of Jesus. And I said, well, if he can do that, I think he could do anything else, including putting

Jonah in a fish, being resurrected. Apparently he knows stuff we don't know, John. Apparently he has a larger skillset than we have. And that's the understatement of all time right there. Elder Maxwell said this. He said, if Jesus is only a man, albeit a very good man, his counsel is merely that of a Meridian moralist. But it's quite another thing for him to be the creator of multiple worlds. That's the person we don't just take advice from this is a person we worship yeah we want to know what he wants us to do if he's our creator we want to know more about him and what's our ultimate destiny and all of that is contained

in the gospel so that's awesome i think the resurrection we could say is the evidence, like you started with John, that he is God, that he came from God and that he is God. We hope you'll join us on our full podcast. It's called Follow Him. We're with Dr. Dan Peterson this week, and we think you'll love what he has to say. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts and then come back here next week and we'll do another follow him favorites.