The Power Of The Lord's Resurrection
A Sermon by Elise Beatrice

Transcript


The Resurrection is the confirmation that the Lord Jesus defeated death, that He conquered the grave and did everything for us on the Cross.
I often remember and look into the eyes of His Apostles to see how they felt.
When you have the Lord, when you believe you have the Lord who will be with You forever, and you're not thinking about anything wrong coming tomorrow, you're so confident that you have the Lord, that He is that Messiah Father God sent to be with you.
Then, one minute, He is with you, and the next, He is killed on the Cross.

Those Apostles who have witnessed Christ being bruised, flogged, and humiliated on that Cross have felt tremendous pain. 
Like Father God Almighty was feeling the pain that no one else can feel. 
You see, the pain of humans is only the amount that humans can bear. But the pain that God feels is heavy, just like His righteous wrath.  

"So, seeing our Lord on the Cross like this was something horrible that could destroy any human's strength because putting ourselves in the Apostles' shoes, it did not really register with them that Christ would die and rise again on the third day, they never even give it a thought to consider what Christ Himself had said. They were just pleased to have the Lord with them. They were not thinking about the future. They believed He was the Messiah, and the Messiah came to stay forever with them. For this, His death and crucifixion on the Cross was terrible to all of them. And seeing the Lord pierced on that Cross until His last breath, they were still putting their hope in the Lord He would not let death come to Himself. None of them was thinking that He said 'He would be crucified and rise again on the third day. So, His death was a shock. 
When you're convinced that you have everything, and suddenly, that thing isn't there, what hope do you have? At that moment, they had no hope. The One who was their hope was now dead on the Cross. And to them, everything was over." 

But when the Lord, on the third day, resurrects like this, that is a great joy in the eyes of His servants. They did not expect something so surprising, so beautiful would emerge from that situation: The Resurrection of the Dead. The Lord Jesus defeated death, He has conquered the grave. The power of God Almighty opened the dawn to victory with the great Light that invaded the darkness, the Light of Joy, the Light of grace, the Light of mercy, the Light of forgiveness and victory. Yes.

“Suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, rolled away the stone, and sat on it. / His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. / The guards trembled in fear of him and became like dead men” (Matthew 28:2-4).

“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:1-5).

“And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you to Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He told you” (Mark 16:5-7).

“But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.  He is not here; He has risen, just as He said! Come, see the place where He lay” (Matthew 28:5-6). 

“Remember how He told you, while He was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise” (Luke 24:6-7).

So, it is amazing to know that while the Lord was suffering, He was fighting. While He was being pierced, humiliated, flogged and bruised, He was winning out of love for us and for His Father. This is such a great thing to remember Him by, to thank Him because of that. Because of His blood on the Cross, we are cleansed, we are redeemed, of course, when we accept that and live to obey Him. 
Because of what He did on the Cross, we no longer mourn as we used to when we did not have any hope. Even when we lose our loved ones, we're only sad if they were not in the Lord. But if they were in the Lord, the way we mourn is no longer like I used to mourn. 
I used to grieve for a loved one for months. But since I understood the meaning of the words of God, His death on the Cross and His Resurrection, if I lose my loved one now, I would know straight away, especially if they were in Christ, that they're just going to rest, they're going home to rest. Their suffering has ended, and it is joy. Even though we're going to miss them, we know they are in the best place. No more pain; they are resting in paradise, and that is beautiful. And our Lord, He came to show us, 'yes, you die, and in Me you rise.'
So this is a great thing. The Resurrection is beautiful. The Lord has given us that eternal gift of Salvation. 

“And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done” (Revelation 20:12-13).

The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is the confirmation of our eternal salvation when we are in Him, remaining in His love and living according to His ways. 
So the Lord is great! I love this moment because it is a moment of joy. My Saviour, your Saviour has RISEN! And then, you are rejoicing from the bottom of your heart; you want the whole world to hear you scream because it is a beautiful, joyful moment. 

The Resurrection is the power that Christ blessed us with. We may live on this earth and struggle, be abused and persecuted, and be oppressed continuously, but just as He rose, we will rise; just as He defeated death, He did it for us, and given that we remain in Him, we have that eternal life. 
I can just see the joy in the faces of His Apostles and everyone else who was present. And we see the only one among His apostles who was not part of this joy was Judas.

He committed the worst sin and made even the biggest mistake by not seeking to cry out to the Lord for His grace and His forgiveness and His mercy. Christ knew he would never repent. If he had gone to the Lord, He would have forgiven Him. The power of LOVE. The power of the LOVE of Christ Jesus. So, let's listen to this beautiful story of LOVE and victory of God and learn from it, knowing that no matter what we have done, depending on how hungry we are to be forgiven and how determined we are to turn from our sins, to renounce that evil completely, the Lord will always forgive us. He is the power above all powers, the Kingdom above all kingdoms, and the Lord does not welcome unrepentant sinners in His Kingdom because He's good. Sin cannot enter Heaven.

The Lord Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).

“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise Him up on the last day” (John 6:40). 

“Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romains 6:8-11). 

It's beautiful. The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the confirmation of our own resurrection. For the Resurrector will resurrect everyone who died in Him, for Him. And that is a beautiful promise, and God who promised this always keeps His promises. So, let’s just ensure it remains that way, for the Lord said, “The righteous behaviour of the righteous person will not save them if they turn to sin.” 
So, once we are righteous in God’s eyes, we should seek to remain so, and then, the Lord’s Salvation for us will remain also. 

“Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead” (Isaiah 26:19).

“For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

“And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14).


Thank You, Lord Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.

Amen.