The Resurrected Life
Notes
Transcript
How to Live the Resurrected Life
How to Live the Resurrected Life
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Introduction:
What a week.
Has anyone ever said those words at the end of a long arduous week?
When you sit down in your recliner at home, you just let out a sign, and say, “Well I made it, barely. What a week.”
I am sure that no one has ever been there or in that position before.
There was one week in particular that was one of those weeks that would trump all of the “What a week” Statements that we have made, or ever will make.
It started on a Sunday, entering into Jerusalem on the back of a never ridden before colt. It started with a demonstration of Peace coming to Jerusalem. Imagine again with me , the crowds worshipping, throwing their cloaks down on the ground and the palm tree branches on the ground before this man who was riding this colt.
Murmurs in the crowds saying “He is the messiah..” “He is the King of Kings...”
Statements from those apart of this parade that Jesus had previously healed and set free. That’s the man that made me to see again!
That’s the man that made me to be free from those demons!
That’s the man that set me free from addiction!
All of these people, the crowds of people pressing in and praising and believing that this man named Jesus is the King of Kings.
He is the promised Messiah! As He enters in through the Eastern gate on the colt, and he continues to the temple. They were declaring “Hosanna! Hosanna! in the Highest!”
People all around Jesus was praising His name, then one by one they started to turn and walk away.
The ones who exclaimed “I was blind but now I see” no longer did any exclamations, they turned and walked away.
The ones who exclaimed “I was lame, but now I walk” No longer praised His name.
The ones who said “I was addicted and demonized but now I’m free.” No longer lifted their hands in worship.
They thought Jesus was coming to overthrow the government and when He didn’t even though miracles happened to them through Him. They forsook Him.
Isn’t it interesting that when we have something amazing happen in our lives we praise God for what was done, but when He doesn’t operate the way we think in the next stage of our life, we turn around and leave Him?
When things go the way we want and think they should, we worship Him and praise Him, and he is a good God.
When things don’t happen the way that we think they should or how they should, we turn around and leave Him in the dust.
What a week.
Most of the time we clump these two items together that after Christ entered Jerusalem that he immediately went and started flipping tables at the temple. Traditionally that’s not really the case.
Traditionally this is seen as something that happens on Monday.
Monday blues is the day that when something bad happens it’s going to happen. Monday for Jesus was a time of last teachings. He went to the temple, seen all the price gouging and evil and greed that was happening and flipped the tables declaring
“My house shall be called a house of prayer but you made it a den of thieves.”
Monday is traditionally the day that we believe he “cursed the Fig tree.” Jesus took this moment of cursing the fig tree as a teaching moment
Peter, calling to remembrance, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.”
Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. For truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you will receive them, and you will have them. And when you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven may also forgive you your sins.
In His last days on this earth Jesus is still teaching Kingdom Principles. He is still desiring that we know more about what God would have for us.
If you think your Mondays are bad. Jesus entered Jerusalem with praise, and in moments got left alone. Highs and Lows.
Jesus went into the temple to see that people were being used and abused.
Jesus was anointed by Mary when she broke the expensive oil and washed His feet with it. Then he turned around and had to rebuke the disciples for rebuking her, and they had been with Him longer. Highs and Lows
Isn’t it interesting that In our lives, Mondays always bring a series of Highs and Lows. One time we’re good and everything is going well, and the next we are not having a very good go of it.
Mondays Amirite.
What a Week
Tuesday starts and everything seems to be going well. Traditionally this is a day where we ponder and think and meditate on what Jesus is saying, and doing at this time. Jesus was teaching parables, teaching principles.
Investing into His Disciples
This is typically when we see the Scripture of the woman giving everything she had, while the Pharisee saying look at what I am giving.
He is teaching great things.
Traditionally when Jesus is said to have said the Woes of Israel.
Highs and Lows.
What A Week
Wednesday For us, Wednesdays are the days that we come in and get refreshed for the week. I have termed it “Growth Night” It is the night that if any questions you have that you need answered, I attempt to answer.
It’s when we come together to worship the Lord in the middle of the week, because we are being burnt out from those Mondays and Tuesdays
The Wednesday that Jesus faced is much different than that.
Traditionally it is said that this is the day that Judas Iscariot went and made a deal with the Pharisees and Saducees. This is the day that Jesus was betrayed.
Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said to them, “What will you give me if I hand Him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. From that moment he searched for an opportunity to betray Him.
Anyone ever been betrayed before?
Maybe by your best friend, or your spouse or gf or bf?
How did it feel? it hurt right? it stung a little. it felt like it was the end of the world.
Like how could they ever do anything like this to me.
This can’t be possible, after everything I’ve done and they’ve done, they are going to do this to me?
Imagine what Jesus felt. The act of betrayal wasn’t done yet, it was just setup. Yet because Jesus is God, He knew exactly what was happening and all about this conversation.
The betrayal would have hit in that moment to Jesus.
Have you ever betrayed anyone? Have you ever broken someone’s trust? Promised one thing but purposely and knowingly did the opposite?
I love you and will never forsake you, but run away at the first sight of trouble?
Judas gets a bad wrap, because we point and we blame him for the greatest betrayal of all time, and it is, yet we at times might do the some to those around us.
What a week.
Thursday is the day that all the Jews were there for. It was the reason for the Passover. We celebrated passover with a seder and traditional passover meal this past Wednesday, for those who weren’t here.
Passover is a time where the Jews would celebrate the wonderful grace of God when the Angel of Death Passed over their households only after sacrificed a pure spotless lamb and spread the blood of the lamb over the doorpost, when this was done the Angel of Death Passed over and did not kill the firstborn son.
The season and thing of Passover is a great reminder that Christ is our Passover Lamb, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
Jesus would have been participating in this wonderful tradition with His disciples, His closest friends and family. He instituded again, teaching in these moments the Lord’s Supper and the Washing of the Saint’s Feet.
Both of these acts are Sacraments that we are supposed to do one for another and “In Remembrance of Him.”
Can you imagine what this must have been like, you know you are about to die, you are about to give your life for people who do not love you in return, and all the while you think it is important to number one participate in Passover, and also, share this meal and do some more teaching.
Listen to this carefully, He washed the Saints feet at this time, including Judas Iscariot who He knew had already planned on betraying Him.
Now supper being concluded, the devil had put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He came from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside His garments, and took a towel and wrapped Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was wrapped.
Jesus, the King of Kings, was willing to kneel down before the one HE knew was going to betray Him and wash His feet. The greatest act of Humility!
It’s one thing where we can say He’s washing the feet of the ones that love Him.
He’s washing the feet of the ones that care for Him.
He is able to be Humble for the ones that are with Him.
It’s much more difficult to say it was easy to kneel down and wash the feet of the betrayer.
Let me ask you this morning, Are you willing to humble yourself before someone who has treated you badly?
Are you willing to humble yourself before someone who has betrayed you.
Are you willing to humble yourself before someone who has used and abused you.
He goes even further and ends up breaking bread with the one who is going to betray Him.
If you did a quick search of “What happened on Holy Thursday you’ll see this interesting statement made by the websites, they say “Jesus correctly predicted who was going to betray Him.” I think that’s hilarious because they’ll try to turn it in as a prediction rather than as what happened because of prophecy.
The scripture says
Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it.” When He had dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. After receiving the piece of bread, Satan entered him.
Then Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” But no one at the table knew why He said this to him. Since Judas had the moneybox, some thought that Jesus said to him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. Having received the piece of bread, he then left immediately. And it was night.
Jesus is willing to let the one who intends on betraying Him eat with Him and washed His feet.
How many of us would do that to the one who betrays us?
Jesus would do that for you and for me today. While we were still sinners...He died for us.
Later that evening, Judas comes back with the ones who are going to arrest Jesus and betrays Jesus with a Kiss. A False sense and act of love.
The One I kiss is He.
We often do this same act even today. We proclaim Jesus and we love Him, all while we are still committing sin.
What a week
Friday
We typically and traditionally call this day, “Good Friday”
I’ve often made the Joke, that there wasn’t anything good about it.
It’s a Joke of course because we as Christians know what Good came from it.
Could you imagine however, the horroffic scene that unfolds? I mean to those who were onlookers, including Jesus who was the one going through it at the moment it was anything but “good”.
It was anything but an ordinary Friday.
He was taken the whipping post early that morning, He was whipped with the cat of 9 tails 39 times, one short from 40. The whip had pieces of bone and glass and teeth in it that would stick to the flesh and rip it from your body. From the back of the shoulders all the way down to his heels one after another relentlessly being flogged.
Unchained from the post, after being whipped placing a cross on His back to have to carry through the town to the place of the Skull, the Place called Galgotha.
Being spat on, and struck, and thrown food at while being paraded through the town while carrying this heavy cross estimated at around 300 pounds on his back for approximately half a mile.
A Crown of thorns being smashed into his, his beard being plucked out. His hands and feet being nailed to the cross.
Being slammed into the hole that was made for the cross doing damage when it slammed down, no food, no water, just vinegar. IN order to take even a breath he would have to press against the nails just enough to raise his ribcage enough to inflate his lungs.
Christ when He was on the cross took our shame, and our guilt and our pain. He took our sins upon Himself, to the point that He felt as though God the Father had forsaken Him.
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
He felt the pain and shame that we feel when we see our sin for what it is, Separation from God.
Church listen, sin seperates you from God.
You cannot be in God’s presence if you are fully surrendered to sin and not fully surrender to God.
Sin means to Miss the mark. We are told that all have fallen short of the glory God, so everyone is guilty of sin there isn’t a person in this room or watching on line that has not sinned, and we must be cleansed from that sin, we must be washed a made new and the only thing that will wash us and make us clean is the blood of the Lamb.
The Bible says Jesus Christ gave up the ghost. He fulfilled his statement when he said
“I lay my life down they do not take it from me.”
They stabbed him in the side to ensure that He actually was dead, and out of His side flowed blood and water.
The moment that He gave the ghost up, the ground shook, the graves opened, dead people were walking the earth and the veil in the temple was torn.
They took him off the cross and laid Him in a borrowed tomb.
What a Week
Saturday
You know most Saturdays are quite busy for us. We have lots to do things to take care of. Saturdays for Jewish people is their Sabbath, they’re supposed to do nothing except rest and go to the temple.
They weren’t allowed to pick up food, plant food, do any thing that would resemble work. It was supposed to be a time of rest.
That would include preparing bodies, they weren’t allowed to do any preparation for Jesus’ body.
A Death of a loved one is difficult in and of itself it’s hard to process, imagine all of this that had happened the day before and all you can do today is meditate and think about all of the horrific things that they did to Jesus.
One of my favorite lines in one of our newer worship songs is
Saturday was silent
That’s how I imagine it to be. Your hope was destroyed. Everything you thought was going to happen didn’t happen.
They killed your best friend.
They Killed your leader.
They killed your Teacher.
They Killed your healer.
I can imagine that’s what the disciples and everyone around was thinking and believing at this moment.
I can almost hear the silence as they sit and ponder and wonder what is going to happen next.
He is dead
What a week
Sunday
On The Third, at break of dawn, the Son of Heaven Rose again!
We just sang about it, let me read to you what the Scriptures say
Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were greatly perplexed concerning this, suddenly two men stood by them in shining garments. As they were afraid and bowed their faces to the ground, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen! Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’ ”
He is alive!
He is no longer dead!
He has defeated death!
He has defeated Hell!
He has defeated the grave!
The Crux of all of Christianity hangs on this!
IF he did not rise from the dead we would not have anything to hang our hat on.
We would have nothing to cling to.
IF Christ did not rise from the dead we are wasting our time.
If Christ did not rise from the dead we do not have a church.
IF Christ did not rise from the dead we are just a social club.
I’ve got news for you, He is risen!
Why are you searching for the living among the dead? He is not here He is risen just like He said!
What a Week!
From the very beginning of Jesus’ “last week” it all seemed like a loss.
It seemed like everything was going to fail, nothing was going to work. It seemed like everything that Jesus has spoken and preached about had all dissappered.
A lot can happen in Seven days.
I titled this sermon “The Resurrected Life” the reason for that is because If Jesus had not risen from the dead then we have no life, but because He has we have life, and Life more abundantly.
Living the Ressurrected Life is understanding that Christ came and died on the cross for our sins to make us new. We no longer have to be the same way that we have been, and are.
He makes us a new Creature and Creation in Him!
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Ask yourself that question. Do you believe this?
I know sometimes it can feel like all we can do is say “What a week.”
Everything seems to crash down and break down around us. Our family is falling apart.
My life is falling apart.
I am in debt.
I am sick.
I am hurt emotionally.
I am hurt mentally.
I can’t make it.
Anxiety has taken over.
Depression is getting the best of me.
We are lucky at times to be able to even say “What a week.”
I want to just take a moment today and encourage someone here, that if you feel like it’s a “What a week” moment in your life, I want you to know that Sunday is coming.
He rose and defeated the grave to give us life and make those weeks bearable.
If He can rise from the dead, He can put your family back together.
If he can rise from the dead, He can make your life having meaning again.
If he can rise from the dead, He can get you out of your debt when you become obedient.
If he can rise from the dead, He can take your sickness away because he defeated sickness.
If He can rise from the dead He can take your emotional hurt and heal you from it.
IF he can rise from the dead he can take your mind and heal it from those thoughts that are pulling you apart.
IF he can rise form the dead he can squash Anxiety.
If he can rise from the dead He can take the depression away.
If he can rise from the dead, He can make you rise from that Spiritual death.
Well I got good news for you today church. There is no IF he rose from the dead, because I know my redeemer lives.
He did rise from the dead!
He is alive! He lives in me, and if you have accepted Him as savior and Lord he lives in you too!
Conclusion:
Here’s how I want to end this, If you do not know Jesus as your Savior today is the day of your salvation. You can know Him. You can know of the one who Rose from the dead! You can meet the Savior and be cleansed from all unrighteousness.
Secondly, I want to pray for anyone who has felt here recently “What a week.”
Christ turned my “What a week” upside down, because when I got to the other side of it, I can change my statement into “Look at that week” “Look what Christ did to my what a weeks.”
