Resurrection Life (2)

Today we celebrate and experience the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The resurrection is witnessed and documented.

Proof of the resurrection of Christ

The Witnesses: Women, Apostles, 500 disciples, Stephen, Skeptics, James, Paul

Secular historians, Tacitus and Josephus

Case for Christ...

Why did Jesus die on the cross and raise from the dead?

You may have heard that Jesus came to take on the punishment from God for you.

You may have heard that Jesus was a sacrifice to appease God’s wrath like Zus or King Kong.

You may have heard that Jesus came to protect you from His mean Dad, so He covers you and keeps you safe from God.

You may have heard that Jesus came to make the wrong, right.

Jesus did not have to but He did chose to die for us so we could see and have access to something more powerful than death.

When Jesus showed up on the scene in the flesh He was sent to a world and culture that was not working. It was a culture of right and wrong and that culture always leads to death.

Jesus came to bring a new way, an original design way to earth and mankind.

John says that God is Love.

Jesus is what Love looks like.

Jesus got on the cross to show what Love would do.

Jesus got on that cross to show that Love fights for life and always beats death.

Jesus had the power to protect Himself and His friends, but He used that power to live in and as Love.

Jesus showed that Love His Father will fight with giving love for your life. Why did Jesus die on the cross and raise from the dead?

To show who Love is.

Acts 2:24 NASB95

24 “But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.

It is impossible for death to beat life.

The fear that death wins was beaten on Resurrection Sunday.

A seed must die, so it can become a tree that then bears fruit.

The Cross was an instrument of death.

Jesus made what was an instrument of death into a symbol of hope for all mankind.

He wants to do the same thing now with the part of your life that feels like and instrument of death.

Jesus will get on or in the part of your story and transform it from a place of death and turn it into a place of Life.

If Jesus cant take the worst torture device in the world and make it into a device of hope and love, then He can take that worst area of your life and turn it into a symbol of hope and love.

Why did Jesus die on the cross and raise from the dead?

To show who Love is.

To prove Life beats death.

What does the power of Jesus love do in our lives?

Nicodemus:

Nicodemus is a high priest a Pharisee who is a great teacher of the day when Jesus walked the earth.

Nicodemus set up a meeting with Jesus at night in secret for fear of being seen with Him.

He was open minded enough that Jesus may be the son of God and wanted to find out for himself who He was and why He was here.

In John 3 we see this entire conversation of Jesus trying to explain to Nicodemus why He is here.

This video is part of that conversation.

Play video Nicodemus and Jesus

This conversation planted a seed in Nicodemus’s heart.

The places that were dead were coming to the surface.

He had filled these places with title and accomplishment.

Even the stability of money and provision from his position filled those dead places.

Show Video The Chosen Nicodemus cant go with Jesus

We try to fill the dead places in our hearts with outside things.

If we feel rejected then we fill our lives with money or things that others might like to get accepted.

If we feel not enough, we fill our lives with badges and accomplishments that tell the world we are enough.

If we feel we dont matter, we fill our lives with ways to survive with out needing to matter. We numb our lives with substances or maybe adrenaline...

The point is we all have places i n our hearts that are not fully alive.

Jesus came as Love’s son to bring life to dying people.

This includes those who have already accepted Him but have places in their hearts that need to come alive.

What happened to Nicodemus after he did not follow Jesus?

Jesus had just been crucified, and the next day was passover so the jews cant work on that day.

They need to get Jesus body safe before the day is done or His body will just be out in the open.

John 19:38–42 NASB95

38 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away His body. 39 Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. 40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. 41 Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Joseph is more afraid of the Jewish Pharisees than Roman leaders.

Nicodemus risked His life to help take care of the body of Jesus.

I imagine Nicodemus anointing the broken body of Jesus and how painful that must have been.

He had to be feeling guilty for not following Jesus.

What does the power of Jesus love do in our lives?

It makes dead places come to life in our hearts and lives.

After you have an encounter with Jesus it starts the process of the old you dying and the born agian you being birthed.

When the Love of Jesus gets into your heart the places that have died begin to come to life.

Some people experience an immediate change yet others it takes time.

Many of us are like Nicodemus where we dont give our full yes right away but a seed was planted.

Today is a good day to let Jesus in deeper and let that same power of resurrection transform dead places of our heart to life.

Have you been trying to fill the dead places in your heart with outside things?

Do you want to stop numbing the pain in your heart with addictions?

The answer is to invited Jesus into your heart agian or for the first time.

Activation:

Stand and put your hand on your heart.

Invited Jesus to bring those dead or dying places in your heart to life.

Communion

Other Resources:

Romans 6:5–8 NASB95

5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

1 Corinthians 15:51–53 NASB95

51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.