Easter is the demonstration of God’s Power
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For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Title: Easter is the demonstration of God’s Power
Happy Resurrection Day…He is Risen! He is Risen, INDEED!
Surprisingly, about 80% of all Americans celebrate Easter…
granted that includes doing family dinners, Easter Egg hunts, as well as going to church on Easter Sunday…but 80% is still a large number.
And worldwide, many, many more celebrate Easter.
Easter is an event that is ROOTED IN TIME AND HISTORY.
Easter signifies the coming together of many of the Old and New Testament Prophecies…
And at this ONE point in time…Jesus, God’s Own Son came…He lived and walked among us…and He brought about the fulfillment of prophecy…
God stepped into man’s history and took the initiative to deal definitively with man’s sin problem.
Jesus CAME, NOT come to destroy, but to BRING LIFE…
Jesus came and showed His power in touching and transforming the most simple of persons,
as well as the MOST sinful of any,…
To these Jesus preached the message of HOPE…the Message of the Kingdom of God…
Jesus did not come to set up a NEW political order as many expected their Messiah to do, but He came and established the very reign of God over the powers of evil behind the order of all things.
And through many acts demonstrating the Power of God, Jesus walked this earth and revealed many signs of this Kingdom of God.
And as He did so, people all around Him were being filled with HOPE.
And then He did the biggest thing yet of His mission…this was the ultimate climax and it totally surprised them all.
Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a colt with crowds shouting Hosanna, and waving palms…and then suddenly, in the same week, His triumphant entry into Jerusalem looked like it turned to tragedy…
Jesus was betrayed by Judas;
Jesus was arrested…
Jesus suffered…
Jesus was tried by the religious leaders in a mock trial…
Jesus was handed over to Pilot…
Jesus suffered…
And then Jesus was put to death by the horrible means of execution… crucifixion.
The great Movement by Jesus looked like it had come to an end when Jesus was placed in a tomb, and the tomb was sealed…
But then, early on that third day, THE POWER OF GOD was revealed BEYOND ANYTHING people had known.
God hadn’t lost to the opposition, but in reality, God used the opposition to bring about the fulfillment of those prophecies…
And Jesus, the One Who became the ultimate sacrifice for the sin of mankind, Jesus was raised from the Dead by the ultimate power of God!
The Stone was rolled away…
The Tomb couldn’t hold Him…
Satan and the rulers of this world had lost…
So the Easter celebration can be thought of like this…
Very Simply, GOD HAS the LAST WORD…
Not Caesar’s governor…Pilot, who had the power to EXECUTE people, he did NOT get the last word…
King Herod did NOT get the last word…
The Jewish High Council did NOT get the last word…
And regardless what sinful man might try to believe,
There is No earthly government that gets the last word…
There is No Court that gets the last word…
Man does NOT get the last word…
God and God alone gets the last word…and Jesus lives, and Jesus IS coming back, at a time we do NOT know, and He will judge the quick and the dead.
So while man tried to SEAL the Tomb into which Jesus was placed with a huge stone…
God rolled that stone away, and JESUS, Whom they had crucified and Whom had been placed in that tomb…Jesus arose and Lives…
The RESURRECTION clearly demonstrates to us that there is NOTHING that is too huge for God…
That means that even if you have your own personal stones that have tried to seal off your hopes, God’s power can move every one of them.
Even if your personal stones are the stones of uncertainty…
Like for those of you searching and trying to figure out this Christian thing and Who this Jesus is that we Christians follow…God can MOVE those stones of uncertainty..
There is NOTHING more powerful…than the Love of God shown through Jesus Christ and His Power working in our lives…that’s why we come today to worship and celebrate the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ…the King of Kings.
And as we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, I would hope that AS we are reminded by Scriptures…
I would hope that you see that this is all about a personal encounter with the Living Savior, Jesus Christ.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
(ESV) 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Think about this if you will…
v. 3 says…Christ died for our sins…
Let me ask you this…who do you think in their right mind would die for YOU on a Cross?
Well, Jesus DID.
v. 4 says…that Christ was buried…
and according to Scriptures we also are told that HE was RAISED on the 3d day…
without any witnesses, just who would believe that?
But there were many historical witnesses…
the Jewish law only required 2 witnesses to attest to a fact…
and here in verse 6 the Bible says that Hundreds saw Jesus after He arose.
v. 5 says…that Christ appeared to Peter…then to the TWELVE…
v. 6 says…that Christ then appeared to more than 500, most of whom were still living when Paul wrote this…
v. 7 says…that Christ then appeared to James…
and v. 8 says…that Christ appeared to Paul himself…Even PAUL Himself saw Jesus alive.
That is the evidence of God’s Power being seen through the Resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ.
So here is the apostle Paul, who was known as SAUL while he persecuted the church, before he came to Know Jesus as his savior…
He’s writing so that he might silence lies and false teachings that were already trying to creep into the church.
So, through Paul, God is reminding us of the power of God…
as we read in v. 3
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received
Paul KNEW what he was saying was indeed the truth,
Again, he knew that it had been witnessed by MANY,
and like we read, he, Paul, himself, had personally seen the Resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ…
so Paul is adding his own personal experience.
BUT he’s reminding the church and he’s reminding YOU and Me today
That what he is speaking of is of FIRST IMPORTANCE…The Power of God demonstrated by the RESURRECTION of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
This is important stuff for the Christian, and it must not be tainted, nor should it be ignored, nor can it be changed.
Paul talks about this same POWER…the HOPE in Christ as he wrote to the church at Ephesus in, “ (ESV) 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
Maybe you’re sitting here, and thinking, OK..but what’s this Power of God thing really mean to me?
First off, the power of God through Jesus Christ is what RELEASES US:
It RELEASES us…it SETS us FREE…
There is NOTHING that we can do…
There’s NOTHING some priest can do…
There’s NOTHING any Baptist church can do…
There is NOTHING that any church or religion can do…
ONLY JESUS can set us free because HE is the ONE WHO died and rose again,
and HE is the ONE Who DEFEATED THE POWER OF SIN AND SHAME and the power of death.
Remember the guy named Barabus?
That was the guy who got released and Jesus was executed instead.
Barabas was guilty of many crimes.
And the courts had handed down their judgment…he was to be executed. He was guilty.
Well, just like Barabus, we all stand guilty before a JUST God.
But even though most of us aren’t prisoners who have been publicly condemned,
all the same we were still prisoners of our own sin and shame and under the power of Death
until Jesus set us free.
And until Jesus does that for each of you, if YOU haven’t accepted Him yet, you are still standing ON your own, and are without the Savior, Whose Righteousness is the only Righteousness that is satisfactory in God’s very Eyes.
The very POWER of God seen in the Resurrection TESTIFIES that Jesus indeed has defeated those powers forever.
This is why God says in, (ESV) 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our very separation from God as human beings goes all the way back in the Garden…
And because of or sin, we stand with a broken relationship with God, both in the depths of our souls and the actions of our hearts.
This is precisely the reason Christ came. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Redeemed to buy back through exchange,” JESUS and JESUS alone bore our cost. (NIV)
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
He has forgiven all our sins…and canceled every record of debt we had to pay.
Christ has done away with it by nailing it to the cross. (JB)
by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
And IF we ACCEPT what Jesus did for us…
IF we accept HIM as our Savior and Lord…
then the Blood of Jesus Restores our relationship with God, where God now sees us as MADE RIGHT through His Son, Jesus Christ.
And HOW MANY SINS ARE LEFT UNFORGIVEN? NONE.
And HOW MANY SECRET RECORDS AWAIT US at the judgment? NONE.
Our Sin Debt…our Wages of Sin were “Paid in full,” and the death of Jesus and His resurrection serves as a receipt.
So If you know in your heart that YOU need the Savior, Jesus Christ…
Jesus says to you and anyone…“Come to me all who are weary, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you…my yoke is easy…my burden is light.
If we will receive Him as our Savior and Lord, we can enjoy the freedom he offers.
People often ask, what does it mean to INVITE JESUS into our lives?
Simply put, Jesus Christ came to us who are living only to die, and HE showed us how to ‘die to self in order to live.’
In other words, as we die to ourselves, letting go of our claim to absolute control of our lives, only then can we receive Jesus’ life at work in us.
That is what it means to invite Christ to be our Lord and Savior.
Or as stated by C.S. Lewis
“Die before you die. There’s no chance after.” (C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces, 1956)
Have you let go of your claim in exchange for Jesus and what He did for you?