Religion to Relationship
Notes
Transcript
Empty Grave (Song) - Ushers pass out stones
The Ushers gave you that rock. HOLD IT. HOLD IT ALL SERVICE and do not put it down. This is so important today!
We all carry these weights!
We all carry these weights!
still got that stone?
This stuff that keeps us heavy. It is weighing on your heart. It is holding you back.
You say to yourself:
“it’s just a little thing. It is annoying but it is not slowing me down. “
Empty Tomb is an INVITATION!
Empty Tomb is an INVITATION!
The angel told the women, “Don’t be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. For he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.
do not fear
i know who you seek
he rose just as he said
COME and see!!
Don’t take my word for it
Come and SEE the place where he lay!
Squeeze that stone
Crucified on a Friday
Crucified on a Friday
Jesus was Crucified, nailed to THAT HORRIBLE CROSS, the CROSS that we now cling to! As Paul says:
For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.
Yes Jesus was Crucified, and I could preach about that DAY AFTER DAY, Hour after Hour, and you have heard that YEAR after Year, and it is true!
But sometimes we act like the story ends there!
Let me tell you: Jesus is not on that CROSS!
That CROSS represents Jesus paying the price for your sins!
THE SINS you STILL struggle with.
That GUILT that you carry, over the things you can’t seem to get past.
JESUS PAID THE PRICE FOR THAT!
AND SO MUCH MORE!
Everyone holding their ROCK? Squeeze that ROCK!
Jesus was Crucified on Friday; nailed to that cross. BUT the STORY ISN’t OVER YET!
Placed in the tomb, but the TOMB IS EMPTY!
Placed in the tomb, but the TOMB IS EMPTY!
Let me tell you more of the story this RESURRECTION SUNDAY!
Jesus was crucified between 2 criminals, shouted on by the same people who shouted HOSANNA a week ago!
Yet he himself bore our sicknesses,
and he carried our pains;
but we in turn regarded him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced because of our rebellion,
crushed because of our iniquities;
punishment for our peace was on him,
and we are healed by his wounds.
We all went astray like sheep;
we all have turned to our own way;
and the Lord has punished him
for the iniquity of us all.
He was taken away because of oppression and judgment,
and who considered his fate?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
he was struck because of my people’s rebellion.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
but he was with a rich man at his death,
because he had done no violence
and had not spoken deceitfully.
He was crucified “assigned a grave with the wicked” - the cross!
And he was laid in the tomb of a rich man!
When it was evening, a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph came, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. He approached Pilate and asked for Jesus’s body. Then Pilate ordered that it be released. So Joseph took the body, wrapped it in clean, fine linen, and placed it in his new tomb, which he had cut into the rock. He left after rolling a great stone against the entrance of the tomb.
PROPHECY FULFILLED!
Isaiah was written around 700BC!
700 YEARS LATER, JESUS FULFILLED the prophecy! DEAD!
BUT THE STORY DOESN’T END THERE!
Early in the Morning on Sunday - RESURRECTION DAY, Mary and some others went to the tomb. BUT THE STONE WAS ROLLED AWAY!
On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark. She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.
The BIBLE SAYS that sitting in the Tomb was an ANGEL!
The angel told the women, “Don’t be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. For he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.
COME AND SEE!
THOSE WORDS! COME AND SEE!
EVERYONE SQUEEZE THAT STONE!
That SQUEEZE is for DOUBT! That Squeeze is for QUESTIONS!
That SQUEEZE is for WHNY NOT!
WHY NOT believe, if Jesus can fulfill prophecy while He is dead!
Why NOT believe, if Jesus meets the prophecy written over 700 years before He was even born!
BECAUSE if you will just BELIEVE that, then you have to believe that you have sin in your life, and that JESUS OVERCOMES THE PUNISHMENT FOR SIN!
MAYBE You are struggling, fighting, holding on to all this stuff!
MAYBE YOU are asleep at the wheel, coasting! WAKE UP!
LISTEN!
Jesus is INVITING YOU!
COME and Receive REST!
COME and Receive REST!
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
COME TO ME! - COME TO JESUS!
Don’t come to CHURCH!
Listen, Church is the people! You come here and put your faith in people, you will be let down! People will fail you!
Yes we need to be part of church - church - the word is ECCLESIA - an assembly of people
we have this building where we GATHER, we call this A ‘church’, but the BIBLE SAYS church is the ecclesia, the assembly of the people!
WE ARE NOT TO PUT OUR FAITH IN THAT!
Don’t Come to RELIGION!
Religion, at it’s very best, is still MAN MADE!
It is doing things out of DUTY.
It is systematic set of beliefs designed to appease God!
Guess what - Jesus didn’t say come to RELIGION!
He did not say - COME DO ALL THIS STUFF and WORK!
COME TO JESUS!
Jesus said COME TO ME -
AND
I WILL GIVE YOU REST!
YOU WILL FIND REST IN YOUR SOUL!
The INNER, MOST DEEPEST part of you! The part that has longing, that has the place you can’t seem to fill, the empty part that is crying out and exhausted!
Jesus knows!
Jesus cried out, “The one who believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me. And the one who sees me sees him who sent me. I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me would not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and doesn’t keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and doesn’t receive my sayings has this as his judge: The word I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own, but the Father himself who sent me has given me a command to say everything I have said. I know that his command is eternal life. So the things that I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me.”
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
COME TO ME!
Come lay down your Burden!
Come lay down your Burden!
Invite Band back on stage
WE HAVE THIS Empty tomb. And all service you have been holding that rock.
Prayer - pray that people will put their burden on that rock,
allow for a moment of self-reflective prayer like communion!
Invite people to come toss their burdens in the tomb!
SONG - King of Kings
We lay down our burdens, we receive rest, so we can GO LIVE!
GO LIVE in your RELATIONSHIP with Christ!
GO LIVE in your RELATIONSHIP with Christ!
Closing Song - Resurrection Power
(Closing Prayer)
