Okay, here we are.
This is actually the hallmark of the Christian calendar is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Amen?
This is the day that, you know, a lot of people, and we don't diminish the cross, but this
was the day that meant more to the early church than any other day.
The fact that Christ is alive because only a living savior can help you.
I often say when I go to other places, other nations, great difference between, people
want to know the great difference between Christianity and Hinduism and Hinduism and
Muhammadism and other, I say the great difference between Christianity and all the others is
that Muhammad, all the Hindu gods are still in the grave, but Jesus is alive.
Amen?
Amen.
Open your Bibles today to 1 Corinthians 15.
And you know, I'm going to change a tradition we have in this church.
I've been saying we should stand and read because we really do want to honor the Word
of God.
But this week, you all got to be correctable and teachable.
I actually read when Jesus taught, He let the people sit down.
So you can stay sit down, but do honor and revere the Word of God.
Revere the Word of God.
1 Corinthians 15 verse 12.
Now, if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you
say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.
And if Christ is not written, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
Yes.
And we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that He raised up
Christ whom He did not raise up if in fact the dead did not rise.
But if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.
And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile.
You are still in your sins.
Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we of all men are most pitiable.
But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have
fallen asleep.
Amen, the Word of God.
Father God, we want this word today.
It is Your Word and You have promised us Lord that when it goes forth in the power of Your
Spirit, it accomplishes things.
It accomplishes the things that You sent it for.
So Father God, I'm asking today in the name of Jesus that You will accomplish great things
in the lives of everybody that is here today.
That resurrection power will enter into situations that appear hopeless because Lord You are
alive and I pray it in Jesus' name.
Isn't it amazing?
If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile.
You are still in your sins.
And we, He says, of all men are the most pitiable.
You know I think there are people today.
There are what we call progressive Christians who don't believe in the miracles.
They don't believe in the virgin birth.
They don't believe in Jesus did miracles.
They kind of believe Jesus just came to show us the way of love or something.
They're most pitiable.
That is a pitiable gospel.
It is the worst way to live because if Christ is not risen, everything we believe is futile.
Everything we do is futile.
All of Christianity hangs on this one thing we celebrate today.
And you know that when I think about Easter Sunday, I always think what Easter Sunday
is about, it's about new life.
And the best illustration is spring.
I once lived in America where, in Memphis, Tennessee, and I had a real winter there where
everything dies.
All the trees, they just die off in winter.
And when spring comes, it's so wonderful because you see things that have died start to experience
new life.
And that really is the heart of what today is about, is that Christ died.
He actually died on the cross.
They watched him.
He didn't swoon.
He was pierced for our sins, but he was pierced and he died.
He was taken away and he was put in a tomb dead.
And then he rose again.
He rose again to new life.
And you know, for centuries, prophets had promised this.
They had promised that there would be a Messiah who would come.
He would come from heaven into our world and he would live and he would suffer and he would
die and he would rise again.
And for many generations, people would wonder, am I going to see this in my lifetime?
Is this going to happen?
Well, we don't stand on the side of wondering.
We are people who know and know that that has happened.
Christ did come from heaven.
He did live for us.
He did suffer.
He did die.
He did rise again.
And what we do as Christians, we don't wonder.
We don't wait.
We actually are able to declare Christ's final words, it is finished.
What it means, Christ's final words means God's great plan of salvation.
He only had one was accomplished all through the life and the death and the resurrection
of Jesus Christ and his great plan of salvation with the resurrection of Christ is finished.
There is nothing to add.
That's what we declare.
And all that is required for you and I now is to enter into its benefits.
Its benefits.
And when I speak about the death of Christ, it's really important to understand that the
raising of Christ, Christ rose again.
And we shouldn't have to say this but today we do that it is a historical fact.
It is a reality.
He was dead.
Laid in a tomb for three days, a borrowed tomb.
And then he rose again.
500 people experienced and witnessed the resurrection of Christ knowing that he had died.
And why I say it's important is because we are living in a generation, particularly if
you're under 50, where people are constantly, we know they're constantly saying, well that's
your truth, this is my truth.
Or that's your reality, I have a different reality.
And all that is nonsense.
There is one truth.
And facts matter.
Facts matter.
And the resurrection of Jesus is a historical fact.
And because of that we know, because of the resurrection, Christ is the Messiah, that
Christ did come for us.
He did die on the cross for your sin.
He did rise again.
You are forgiven because of that.
And he is alive and he is coming again.
And why you need to acknowledge it, that is a fact.
You will only stand on a fact, you will not stand on a feeling.
But God wants you to stand on the fact that Christ died for your sin.
You are forgiven.
He is alive and he is coming again.
And he wants you to stand on that and live for him.
He wants you to stand on, that's why Paul says, the end of this chapter, thanks be to
God who gives us the victory through Christ, knowing this that your labor is not in vain.
So he wants that to be the foundation of your fact, of your faith.
And that you can stand on it and just go all out for it.
All out for Christ because everything he says, everything he said, including the fact that
he would rise again, everything he said has happened.
Everything he said has happened.
We are joyful today because the Bible says that not only has Christ risen from the dead,
but he has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
The first fruits means that when there is, in the agricultural world, when there is a
harvest, before the main harvest comes in, just at the start of the harvest season, there
are first, the first plums or the first little bit of wheat.
But it signifies there is a great harvest behind the first fruits.
And because Christ has risen from the dead, if you are in Christ, you too will rise from
the dead.
So for you, death has got no sting.
And that should really affect the way your life, because psychologists will tell you,
behind every anxiety, behind every neurosis, behind every fear is the fear of death.
But you and I ought to know that we have already become eternal.
There is nothing to fear because the great final thing that we have to overcome, death,
has been overcome for us.
We have a life in the Holy Spirit living in me that cannot die.
And when my bodily existence ends, this power that raised Christ from the dead will raise
me again.
I am already eternal.
Blessed are Christ.
I have already received eternal life.
Already.
And you know, I was thinking the other day, I was thinking of this when I was in, thinking
of Easter, when I was in Pakistan, I was thinking, Jesus is the resurrection, but we shouldn't
be surprised because everything about him and everything about his ministry and his
life when he was here, everything about him had the mark of resurrection about him.
You know, from when he goes to minister to Jairus, his sick daughter, and she dies, but
he raises her.
You know, blind eyes, they're like dead eyes and he opens them.
Deaf ears, they're like dead and he opens them.
You know, he comes to the widow of Nain and she had sons died and he raises her.
Or the demonic who's entombed, he's living in the tomb, so he's in darkness, it's like
it's over for him and Christ comes and frees him and releases him into new.
So everything about Jesus, not just when he rose from, everything about that he did had
the touch of resurrection about him.
Everything.
And I saw something, I think I preached it last Easter, but it still thrills me, and
it's in number 17.
And it's something that is wonderful to see.
It's a time where the children of Israel are arguing over who really can represent God.
And they're thinking there is just as special as Moses' Aaron.
And God chooses a certain thing to show them that Aaron is his man.
And I'll read it, it says, number 17 verse 2, God says, speak to the children, Moses,
of Israel and get them, from them, a rod from each father's house.
All their leaders according to their father's house.
Twelve rods write each man's name on his rod.
And you shall write Aaron's name on the rod of Levi, for there shall be one rod for the
head of each father's house.
Then you shall place them into the tabernacle of meeting before the testimony where I meet
with you.
And it shall be that the rod of the man whom I choose will blossom.
Then I'll rid myself of the complainants which there may seek at you.
Verse 8, now it come to pass on the next day that Moses went into the tabernacle of wilderness
and behold the rod of Aaron, the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds, produced
blossoms and yielded ripe almonds.
Then Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord to all the children of Israel.
They looked and each man took his rod.
And the Lord said to Moses, bring Aaron's rod back to the testimony to be kept as a
sign against the rebels that you have put their complainants away from me.
What's the point?
The point is, first of all, God's man was the man who'd experienced resurrection.
So today, if people want to know who amongst all the people that claim to be God's representative,
Buddha, Muhammad, whatever else there is, God has, he is unchanging.
The way he decides and chooses and identifies his man is through resurrection.
But also, in this passage here, is that this is the time people all had their opinions
but God said, I'll have the final say.
And the final say is resurrection.
So sin, we're told that sin kills, lust kills, pornography kills, everything kills.
But God's last word when you're in that place, His last word, God's final word is resurrection.
That means there is hope, there is life, there is new life to be had when you're living in
a place of defeat.
God says the final word from Him is that you won't stay there.
The final word from God is resurrection.
And you know, we want to know when we speak about the life and the death of Jesus Christ
on Good Friday.
So here is, there is Jesus.
On Good Friday, He suffers and He dies on a cross.
He is pierced for our sins and He is put in a grave.
He is nailed to the cross and He dies.
And then after He dies, He is carried away and put in a tomb, a borrowed tomb.
And then He spends time in that tomb in a place of great darkness.
Place of great darkness.
What is the bridge?
Where is the bridge from what Christ experienced to your experience and to how you live?
The experience is this.
Is that if you follow Jesus, you are not going to have a problem-free life.
There are times where you will be nailed.
You know, life will nail you.
And it will seem unjust.
You could be nailed by accusation, you could be nailed by losing your job wrongly, you
could be nailed by being accused of something, you could be nailed by a sickness.
And Christ was carried away to a place that was foreign.
Your life could be carried.
You could be just taken away, not your fault.
You could just be taken into a situation.
You think, how did I get here?
How did I end up here?
The third thing about Christ's death was there was a tomb.
And tombs are places of darkness.
Tombs are places where this tomb was sealed and it was dark and it didn't appear as though
you could get out of that place.
You can enter into places where you could be entombed by addiction, you could be entombed
by a bad marriage, you could be entombed by sadness, by what's happening in your family.
The problem is, even some Christians, they get nailed or entombed and they stay nailed.
They stay entombed.
And they say, this is just the way it is.
And this is, these are the cards, life has dealt me.
And then we come up with reasons, even theologies, about why it's got to be this way, why I've
got to stay in this dark place.
But some people get nailed and experience resurrection.
Some people get carried away and experience resurrection.
Some people get put in dark places and experience resurrection.
And that's what we're meant to be.
You know, a lot of people, they speak and they speak and they want to speak all about
the cross, which is great because we know without the cross we cannot be forgiven.
But you know, Ephesians 2 says this.
It says, even when we were dead in trespasses, made alive together by Christ and who raised
us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ, in the ages
come that He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness towards us in
Christ.
What are you saying?
Ephesians 2 says, and He made alive those who were dead in trespasses.
The point I'm trying to make is that a lot of people, they are able and wish to identify
themselves with the cross and say, yes, I'm a sinner and this is where I live and I need
the forgiveness and I understand what Christ has done for me at the cross.
And they want to live in it.
But Paul says, but I've been made alive.
I am in Christ.
I am already seated in heavenly places.
In other words, I am living resurrection life.
Resurrection life.
Hallelujah.
Thank you over there.
Bede.
It's good to have you here.
And see, Paul knew this.
He said, yes, the cross is about suffering.
But he said to know Christ, and he says, my only desire is that I know Christ and I know
Him by the fellowship of His sufferings and the power of the resurrection.
Other way around.
He says, I want to know Christ by the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of
His sufferings.
So, yes, you are meant to suffer.
Yes, you'll be nailed.
Yes, you'll be carried away.
Yes, but it's never meant to end there.
There are so many times in Paul's life when he was stoned and they thought he was dead,
but it didn't end there because he lived the resurrection.
He lived resurrection life.
And when you live resurrection life, you may say it's over.
They may say it's over, but the truth is it's never over till God says it's over.
So many times Paul was stoned.
He was shipwrecked.
Just so many times.
But he says, we not only have the fellowship of the sufferings, but we live in the power
of resurrection.
And so you will suffer as a Christian.
You will suffer.
You will get nailed.
You will be carried into places where you don't want to be.
The evil one will make sure of that.
He will.
You may have a, you know, you may be suffering with a child right now.
You know what's going on.
You may be suffering in your marriage.
Maybe your cross or you may be suffering through your health, through your disease, all sorts
of things.
But God wants you to know because of the resurrection.
It's never the end.
If you turn to John chapter 11, this is a really significant point I want us to see.
This is a time when Jesus is teaching here.
Jesus wants us to understand.
He wants us to understand not only that he rose from the dead as a historical fact, and
it is a historical fact, but he wants us to understand the implications and the application
for our life today.
And in this time we know, this is the story about Lazarus, most of it know very, very
well and Jesus deliberately didn't come to heal Lazarus when they told people that Lazarus
was sick.
He left it for four days.
And the reason he left it for four days was because people in those days believed that
people could rise again after three days, but after four days it was over.
It was hopeless.
So he left it four days because he is going to demonstrate that he is the resurrection.
Not that he will be raised, but he is the resurrection.
And so he comes after four days.
He leaves it and when he comes to the tomb it says, as soon as Martha heard that Jesus
was coming, verse 20, she met with him, but Mary was sitting in the house.
Martha said to Jesus, Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died, but even
now I know that whatever you ask of God will give you.
Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again.
Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection.
Don't you love that?
All the I am statements.
I am the truth.
I am the light.
I am the light of the world.
He said, I am the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live, and whoever lives and believes
in me shall never die.
Do you believe this?
So here is a situation.
It's hopeless.
And Jesus comes and he says to, in this hopeless situation, he says to Mary, first of all,
I am the resurrection and the life.
And it's like what he's saying about that is saying he is the source of resurrection
power.
You know, I've said this many times, there's many great rivers, but there's only one, a
great river has many streams but only one source.
There's many religions in the world, but there's only one source of resurrection.
That's Jesus Christ.
He says, I am the resurrection and the life.
And then he says, do you believe it?
He who believes in me.
And then he says, do you believe this?
The most important thing in your life, you may think other things are important, but
the most important thing about you is what you believe about Jesus Christ.
And you must understand that he not only is the Messiah and the Savior who came and died
for your sin is coming again, but he is the source of resurrection life.
And when you're being nailed, you need to know how to access the source of his power.
And I want to make a point here that this is really important and I want to speak a
little bit about the religious spirit because Mary, she's sort of contemporaneous of a lot
of religious people today.
Jesus comes to her and he says to you, to her, Jesus says, your brother will rise again.
Because he's speaking about a present tense problem.
And she answers and says, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last
day.
So she has resurrection faith for the future that when she dies, that she will be raised
again and live with Christ forever.
But she has no present day resurrection faith for her present day problem.
And we know that because you see in verse 39 when Jesus goes to raise Lazarus, he said,
Lord don't go there because there's a stench.
She doesn't really believe that he can do something for her present day problem.
She has got faith that when she dies, she's going to rise again.
But here, when life has nailed her, taken her brother away and stuck him in a dark tomb,
there is no faith in resurrection power coming into her situation.
And that's why Jesus says twice, do you believe?
And when she says, don't bother yourself about the stench, he says, didn't I say to you,
if you believed, you would see the glory of God.
And see what releases the power of the resurrection.
So it's not just a historical fact for you and it's not just a future promise for you,
but you live in the present power of resurrection life today is that when God nails you, you
know how to change your butt.
When she came, when Jesus came to Mary, Mary said, he's dead, but even now I know.
This is what someone who, this is someone, the language of someone, you know if you believe,
you know what sort of faith you have by what comes out of your mouth.
Out of the heart, the mouth speaks.
And what religious people say, they say, I know we have all these promises, I know we
have this book, but we have to be real, but we have to be reasonable.
And they want a reasonable faith and God will never honor it.
But the doctor said, I know what the Bible says, but the psychologist said, this is an
unprecedented problem.
I know what the Bible says that he is the Lord who heals this, but the doctor said,
or I know that the Bible says salvation is me and my husband, but you don't know how
far my child's gone.
There is someone of faith who has been nailed, says, I know it looks dead, I know it looks
hopeless to the world, I know what the circumstance look like, but God, but God.
And as soon as you say, but God, you get connected to the power of God.
Because I tell you what the power of God, what faith really looks like.
And you've got to know how to connect to the power, you've got to know how to connect to
resurrection power.
Like you may need Wi-Fi, but it's no good if you're not connected.
It's like, have you ever been in an electrical storm?
There's an electrical storm the other night.
I've said this many times.
The power is in the cloud.
But we need to get the power to affect the earth, our present day problem.
And the only way you can get the power of the storm to the earth is that you need a
conductor.
You need a metal rod, and faith is heaven's conductor.
When God sees someone say, I know the circumstances, but God, the power of God is released from
heaven to earth.
But when you stand there and say, I know all this, but I'm a realist, the power stays up
there and you stay nailed.
You stay carried away.
You stay in the tomb because faith is the victory.
So God wants you to not only know and celebrate that death has been defeated on your behalf.
He wants you to know that, and he wants you to celebrate that.
And he wants you to celebrate that Christ did it for you.
And he also wants you to live in resurrection power today.
He wants you to be someone who no matter what life throws at you, you are always hopeful.
You are never down and out.
You will be down.
We all get down.
But the difference between someone who lives in resurrection power because they believe
they are down but never out.
You know it's an old saying, but it's so true.
The greatest sermon ever preached by a guy called, Easter sermon, a guy called Billy
Friday.
Was it Billy Friday?
He's a famous American evangelist.
Sunday.
I need a rest.
I really need a holiday.
Billy Sunday, great American evangelist.
And he preached this message, but it was so wonderful.
Yeah, it was cold.
What was it called, Bede?
Billy Sunday.
Oh, no, Billy Sunday.
He said, it may be Friday, but Sunday's coming.
And that's what someone of faith knows, is that we do not live in denial.
We do not deny we have Fridays.
We are called to carry a cross.
We will be nailed by life.
We will be taken away in places sometimes.
We will end up in dark places from time to time.
But for someone who believes and says, yes, this is what's happening, but God.
I don't know how, but God.
His power is going to come into my problem and somehow he's going to turn it and he's
going to work it and he's going to turn it around for my good.
I don't know how it's going to happen, but I know he loves me so much.
And he is Lord of all.
And if he defeated the grave, he will defeat my problem.
It may be Friday, but Sunday is coming.
It's the confession and that's the declaration of someone who not only lives across, but
lives seated in heavenly places in the power of the resurrection today.
In the power of the resurrection today.
You know, the most dangerous thing to a believer, I believe, the most dangerous thing to a Christian
and I know many people believe it, is the quest and the demand for a reasonable faith.
This is what's killing the church today.
We are people of the enlightenment who actually say unless something is reasonable, let's
say something is reasonable, we can't have it.
Dead men don't rise.
The resurrection is completely irrational.
It's completely unreasonable.
And so is God.
God is not irrational, but he is supra-rational.
There is irrational, there is rational, and there is supra-rational.
He made your mind.
How dare you say to him, you explain yourself to me before I believe you.
He can do what he pleases and he does.
Maybe some people here today, you are nailed by life.
You are in a dark place and the Holy Spirit says to tell you today, but God.
God says it's not over till he says it's over.
And his power, the Bible says the power of the resurrection, Ephesians 1.19 says is available
who to all who believe.
It's belief that releases the power.
So if you're in that place today, it's your Friday.
It's your Friday.
The story of Easter is it's not the end.
If you believe, Sunday is coming.
The power of God is going to come into your problem.
The power of God is going to come to your situation.
I'm not going to tell you what he's going to do, but he will turn it and work it for
your good if you believe.
The worst thing you can do, some people sit here and they go like, but you don't know
what happened to me.
You don't know what happened when I believe God.
You do not make a theology out of your experience.
You make a theology from the word of God.
And the word of God says, Friday is a real, but Sundays are promised.
Amen?
Let's bow our heads.
I want to pray for us.
Father God, I want to thank you that it is finished.
It is finished.
Your great plan of salvation has been accomplished through one man or one man alone, and that
is your son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We give you praise and we give you thanks that we're not waiting, that he has come,
that he has given, that he has laid down his life, that he has willingly been nailed,
buried in that tomb, but we rejoice.
That is not the end.
That he rose victorious.
That he defeated every plan of Satan.
He depleted every demon.
He defeated every sin.
He defeated every sickness.
He defeated all anxiety.
Father God, you raised him up in complete victory.
And we thank you that we are not a defeated people, that death has been won for us.
And the power of the resurrection is for us.
It is for us to experience.
Father God, I lift up every person that may feel nailed and I declare hope into them today.
I speak hope into hopeless situations.
I speak hope into hopeless families.
I speak hope into hopeless marriages.
I speak hope into Lord, hospital wards, Father, where people are ill, family is ill, that
Father God, you are able to do anything, that you who raised your son back to life can raise
those marriages back to life.
Father, you can raise that career back to life.
You can raise that child back to life because you are the resurrection and the life.
And we believe you today.
We say no matter what it is, but God and my God is for me.
And all the people said, Amen, Amen, Amen.