Good
Morning everyone, and welcome to church today. My Name is Pastor Nick and I am
the Lead pastor here on the Ridge, and I'm very glad that you are here with us
today.
Today is, in my humble opinion, the
greatest day in History, not just the history of the Christian Church, but all
of history.
It’s the greatest
day in history, because the tomb, the spot where Jesus' body had been put when
some men took Him down from the cross, is empty.
Just
to bring you all up to speed, we are in part 4 of our current sermon series
called Jesus
paid it all. The key verse for this series is Isaiah 53:5:
He-
that’s Jesus—“he
was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the
punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are
healed.” (Is. 53:5, NIV)
Isaiah
reminds us that Jesus was crucified; He was killed for our sins, for the sins
of the world.
He
paid the price that sin demanded; Jesus hung on the cross and died.
Jesus was taken down from the cross and
placed in a new tomb that Joseph of Arimathea had purchased, and a stone was
placed in front of the tomb and then everyone went home to watch the day’s
events on CNN.
The
next day was the Jewish Sabbath, so nothing was going to happen, but on the
third day; which was also the first day of a new week, some lady followers of
Jesus got up real early and went out to the tomb to anoint His body…. Only
there was a problem.
Jesus
body wasn’t there. This terrified these ladies. And rightfully so; if you were
prepared to anoint a body and all of a sudden that body wasn’t there, you’d be
terrified as well!
At
just the right time, an angel of the Lord appeared to them and said: "Don't be
alarmed….You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified.
He
has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.” (Mark 16:6, NIV)
Friends
this is good news! Jesus Christ has risen from the dead!
Because this is
true, I would like to suggest to you the bottom line of my sermon, you
(hopefully) saw it in the opening video, if you have a pen you might want to
write this down: “The Resurrection Changes Everything”
This
is a thought that Paul picks up in his first letter to the Corinthian church.
The
Corinthian’s were new believers and they had many questions about the faith,
and one of those questions was about the resurrection: Was it true? If so, were
they to believe it?
In
this letter, Paul laid out the case of a resurrected Christ, which is incredible
considering who Paul was before he came to faith in Jesus.
Before
he came to faith in Jesus, Paul was known as Saul and he was the chief killer
of Christians.
If you were an
early follower of Jesus, and Saul found your Facebook page, you could almost bet
that the next day he would be at your doorstep ready to, at the very least put
you in prison, or at most, kill you just for being a follower of Jesus.
We’re
told in Acts chapter 8 that Saul gave oversight, and approval to, the stoning
of Steven.
Saul
did whatever he could do to stop the work of Jesus, until one day the work of
Jesus stopped Saul.
The
account is recorded for us in Acts chapter 9…
Saul was on his way to Jerusalem to
carry out his work against the followers of Jesus, when he was knocked off his
high horse on the Damascus road.
A
bright light blinded Saul, and has he was lying on the ground he heard a Voice
say to him: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" (Acts 6:4, NIV)
Saul
responded by asking: "Who are you, Lord?" (Acts
9:5a, NIV)
The
answer came: "I
am Jesus, whom you are persecuting" (Acts
9:5b, NIV)
Saul
had an encounter with the Risen Lord Jesus Christ and it changed
everything.
He was no longer a hater of the church;
he did all he could to see to it that the church grew; and Saul, AKA Paul, took
the message of the Resurrected Christ to parts of the world that had never
heard the Gospel.
One
encounter changed a murderer into a preacher. How is this possible? Simple. The
Resurrection Changes Everything.
Or how about
Peter? Most of us are mildly aware of Peter.
He’s the one who
asked Jesus to walk on water, and he actually took two or three steps on the
water, but once he looked down and saw the wind and the waves, he got scared,
and sank like a stone.
On
the night Jesus was arrested, Peter took out his sword and sliced off the ear
of the high priest’s servant; only to have Jesus put it back on, and tell Peter
to put away the sword.
Or
the Peter who swore to Jesus that he would never deny Him, when in fact he did
deny Jesus, not once, not twice, but three times, each denial more serious than
the one before it.
After
Jesus’ resurrection, Peter was a changed man!
Jesus
sought Peter out, and restored him, and Peter went on to preach the Gospel and
saw literally thousands of people come to faith in Christ on a daily basis.
What
happened? Why the change? Before the death of Jesus, Peter was a fly by the
seat of your pants kind of guy, but after the Resurrection of Jesus, he
fearlessly preached Jesus.
Why the
difference? Because The Resurrection Changes Everything!
ILLUSTRATION- Or how about a kid from a
small part of the city we’ll call William.
William never
really liked being in front of crowds speaking, and would often do whatever he
could do to get out of public speaking, volunteering to go first on the occasions
that he had to give a speech in school…
While
attending university later in life, William was engaged to his sweetheart, but
was messing around with three other women at the same time, and it wasn’t until
William hit rock bottom that he had an encounter with Jesus Christ.
How
can I sit before you today and proclaim the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ? Because The resurrection changes everything.
I
may not have it all figured out as of yet church, and I probably never will,
but I have bet the farm on the One who said He was going to die and rise again
and actually pulled it off!
Jesus said His
Resurrection would change everything, and He was 100% right.
This is the
truth that Paul explained to the Corinthian Church: The Resurrection changes everything.
Let’s look at
the first 9 verses of 1 Corinthians 15. I’m reading from the NLT, first
edition, if it sounds different than what you might have in your Bible, if so
you can follow along on the screen.
“Now let me remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the
Good News I preached to you before.
You welcomed it
then and still do now, for your faith is built on this wonderful message.
2 And it is this
Good News that saves you if you firmly believe it—unless, of course, you
believed something that was never true in the first place.
3 I passed on to
you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me—that Christ
died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said.
4 He was buried,
and he was raised from the dead on the third day, as the Scriptures said.
5 He was seen by
Peter and then by the twelve apostles.
6 After that, he
was seen by more than five hundred of his followers at one time, most of whom
are still alive, though some have died by now.
7 Then he was seen
by James and later by all the apostles. 8 Last of all, I saw him, too, long
after the others, as though I had been born at the wrong time.
9 For I am the
least of all the apostles, and I am not worthy to be called an apostle after
the way I persecuted the church of God.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-9,
NLT1)
Very carefully,
Paul lays out the facts about Jesus:
·
He died for our sins, just as the Scriptures had
said;
·
He was placed in the ground, just as the
Scriptures had said;
·
He was raised from the dead on the 3rd
day, just as the Scriptures had said.
As proof of His
resurrection, Paul tells us that Jesus had been seen by more than 500 people, and
Paul included himself in this grouping of people.
It would be
possible for 1 or 2 people to say that the resurrection didn't happen, but to have over 500 people say the
resurrection did happen, that's something else, considering I can't even get my
family to agree with what we should have for supper!
Then Paul lays
out a series of arguments that must be made either for or against the
resurrection.
If, he says,
there is no resurrection, then:
1)
There is no Resurrected Christ (13&16)
2)
Our preaching that Christ has been raised from
the dead is empty and meaningless (14a);
3)
(If there is no resurrection then) Your trust in
Christ is also useless. (14b)
4)
Paul’s own testimony about Christ’s resurrection
would have been a lie, because it claimed that God did something He didn’t do.
(15);
5)
(If there is no resurrection then) Faith in
Christ is also useless (17);
6)
Believers are still under sin’s curse and are
not justified (17b);
7)
There is
no hope for those who died believing in Jesus if there is no resurrection (18);
8)
(if there is no resurrection then) All who died
in Christ are lost (18)
9)
“If we have hope in Christ only for this life, we are the most
miserable people in the world.” (1
Cor. 15:19, NLT1)
If there is no resurrection,
we all are wasting our time, we might as well as close down the church and
never open again, because we’re lying to everyone, and to make matters worse,
we just stole your money to promote one great big lie.
But
Paul states very plainly in verse 20 of 1 Corinthians 15: “But the fact is that Christ has been raised
from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be
raised to life again.” (NLT1)
Because
Christ has been raised from the dead first, all who die believing in Him will
live even though they die.
Jesus
Himself said so: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even
though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you
believe this?” (John 11:25-26, NIV)
Do
you believe this? Do you believe that Jesus Christ paid the penalty that sin
demanded? That by His death on the cross your sins are paid in full?
Once again, our
key verse says it all: “he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our
iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his
wounds we are healed.” (Is. 53:5,
NIV)
Jesus
was crushed so you could be whole, He was placed in the grave for three days,
then rose again and now sits at the right hand of God and He is inviting you to
turn from your life of sin and shame and guilt and hopelessness and experience
the power of the Resurrection, because the Resurrection changes everything!
In
order for this to happen, we must take Paul at his word. In 1 Corinthians 15:2,
he writes: “And
it is this Good News that saves you if you firmly believe it…”
(NLT1)
The
only way to experience the power of the Resurrection; the only way to have your
sins forgiven, and your conscience cleansed is to place your trust in Jesus
Christ.
As
Paul wrote to the believers in Rome: “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.
10 For it is with
your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that
you confess and are saved.” (Romans
10:9-10, NIV)
To receive Jesus and all that He
has done for you, you must Admit, Believe and Confess:
·
Admit that you have done wrong; admit that your
sins are the reason Jesus went to the cross;
·
Believe that His death was and is and always
will be final payment for your sins;
·
Confess your willingness and allegiance to
following Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life.
You should know friend,
that we as a church have been praying for this moment; we have been praying that
people would come to faith in Jesus today—because we know that The
Resurrection changes everything- including your life.
If you have
never asked Jesus to forgive you of your sin and invited Him into your life;
Or if you have
done so but have wandered away from following Jesus, today is your opportunity
to meet Jesus face to face.
Hear me on this
one: It doesn’t matter what you have done—or what you haven’t done --with your
life, God can and wants to give you a fresh start today, because The
Resurrection changes everything.
If you’ve blown
your relationship with God into another stratosphere; you can come back to Him
today, because The
Resurrection changes everything.
If you’ve never
given your life to Jesus you can do so today, because The Resurrection changes everything.
If you Admit,
Believe and confess, you can be made new because of the death and resurrection
of Jesus.
Paul wrote in 2
Corinthians that: “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has
gone, the new has come!” (5:17,
NIV)
Can I let you in
on a little secret? These words “if anyone” are extremely complex, and have an
interesting meaning: they mean: IF ANYONE!
·
If you are a murder, and you confess Christ, you
can be made new;
·
If you are an adulterer, and you confess Christ,
you can be made new;
·
If you are into porn, and you confess Christ,
you can be made new;
·
If you are an alcoholic and you confess Christ,
you can be made new;
·
If you are a liar, a speeder, or a drug addict
and you confess Christ, YOU CAN BE MADE NEW.
Paul knew these
words to be true; he was a stone cold killer but was made new because The
Resurrection changes everything.
So I wonder
today who among us needs a fresh start. Who needs to experience new life
today—maybe for the first time, or maybe for the millionth time?
If you would
like to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, as the band makes their way back
on stage, I’m going to ask you to respond publically.
By doing so, you
are saying “preacher
I want a new life in Jesus Christ”
Because the
resurrection changes everything, you can have abundant life now and
in the life to come, but it only happens as we place our trust and confidence
in the Resurrected Jesus, so if you would like to begin a new life with Jesus
today, I invite you right now to lift up your hand, and pray this prayer with
me:
Lord Jesus, you
paid the penalty that sin demanded, I am a sinner and I ask you to forgive me
of my sin and come into my life and help me to live for you.
If you prayed
that prayer, you are being made new because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Don’t keep this
news to yourself. You need to tell me and Pastor Mike and everyone else in the
world; because The
Resurrection changes everything.
I also want you
to be aware, that our baptismal tank is full and should you wish to take a step
of obedience and get baptized, we can do that a little bit later this morning,
all you have to do is come talk to me or Pastor Mike and we’ll help you take
another step in your new life with Jesus.
I believe with
all my heart that the resurrection changes everything and everyone… the question is will you allow
Jesus to make this change in you?
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