SPEAKER_03: Well, you may be seated.
SPEAKER_03: Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us for Easter Sunday.
SPEAKER_03: Good morning to those of you who are watching online or from one of our other venues.
SPEAKER_03: It is a good day to be in church.
SPEAKER_03: Amen?
SPEAKER_03: All right.
SPEAKER_03: Now, if you remember, some of you know this, some of you don't.
SPEAKER_03: I'm an interactive preacher, so when I ask for feedback, I expect it.
SPEAKER_03: That was your warm-up call, okay?
SPEAKER_03: If you have a Bible or a Bible app, you can open up to Luke chapter 24.
SPEAKER_03: If you don't have that, the verses will be on the screen behind you.
SPEAKER_03: But I sincerely hope that you are all having a great morning this morning at Grace Church.
SPEAKER_03: And I have really good reasons to believe that you're having a great morning, minus probably what happened before you got here getting your kids ready and everything else.
SPEAKER_03: But we've got great things happening this morning.
SPEAKER_03: I mean, we've got donuts.
SPEAKER_03: Those are Aachenbach donuts.
SPEAKER_03: We've got golf carts picking people up this morning.
SPEAKER_03: If you have a child in kids ministry, there's a petting zoo on the other side of the building with a fluffy cow.
SPEAKER_03: And how cool is that?
SPEAKER_03: And we have excellent worship this morning.
SPEAKER_03: Wasn't that fun singing to Jesus?
SPEAKER_03: So I have total hope that if I were to ask you if you had a great morning this morning so far, you would answer me with, yes, I've had a very good morning so far here at Grace Church.
SPEAKER_03: But I want to be very clear about something.
SPEAKER_03: If my hope in your great morning was solely based on the things that we as a church have done to welcome you in and prepare a great experience for you, my hope is on very weak foundations.
SPEAKER_03: Because any one of those things could have gone wrong this morning.
SPEAKER_03: Your first donut could have been stale, ruining your whole morning.
SPEAKER_03: That golf cart could have tipped, which would have been terrible.
SPEAKER_03: Animals, believe it or not, they can act like animals, and they probably will on the other side of the building at some point in time this morning.
SPEAKER_03: With our hope is in things of this world or things that we plan, even though we do our best, sometimes those things fall short.
SPEAKER_03: So here's what hope is hope is a confident expectation based on good reason.
SPEAKER_03: So we have good reasons this morning to believe that you're gonna have a great morning, but at the end of the day, those things could go wrong and it could ruin your day.
SPEAKER_03: Right now, if you're a football fan, a lot of your hope is in the NFL draft happening this month.
SPEAKER_03: You're thinking about what's gonna happen for your players and for your coaches and how your team's gonna shape up come fall.
SPEAKER_03: And all of us know that by about mid-September, your hopes will be realized or crushed.
SPEAKER_03: All right?
SPEAKER_03: When our hope is in the things of this world, our hope is simply not on a firm foundation.
SPEAKER_03: Well, friends, when we began this service this morning, we had a video, and the video asked a really important question.
SPEAKER_03: What does Easter mean to you?
SPEAKER_03: And here's what Easter means to me.
SPEAKER_03: Easter means that we have hope.
SPEAKER_03: We have real hope.
SPEAKER_03: Not hope in the things of this world, but hope in the things that God Himself has established to be true here on earth.
SPEAKER_03: And here is the hope of every single Christian.
SPEAKER_03: It's really important that you understand and the world understands this.
SPEAKER_03: Our hope is that when we die, we will not stay dead.
SPEAKER_03: That is our hope.
SPEAKER_03: Our hope is that when we die, because Christ Himself 2,000 years ago died but resurrected from the dead, that we too who follow him on the day that Jesus returns to this earth, which he will do, on that day our bodies will rise up out of the grave just like Jesus' body did 2,000 years ago.
SPEAKER_03: And this hope is not based on wishful thinking.
SPEAKER_03: It's not based on what some book just happens to say or blind optimism.
SPEAKER_03: This hope has real historical foundations girded by the word and the power of God itself.
SPEAKER_03: Friends, our hope in the resurrection, our hope in the resurrection of the dead is not founded on what men say about Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: I think this is a really important thing to understand.
SPEAKER_03: It's not founded on what men say about Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: For 2,000 years, people have had a lot to say about Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: Many people have said things that are partially true or kind of true.
SPEAKER_03: Many people have said outright lies about the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: But the reality of humanity is that we have been discussing Jesus for 2,000 years now.
SPEAKER_03: Ever since those events that happened in Jerusalem, where he was walked in on a donkey and then crucified on a cross, buried in a tomb, and resurrected, people have not stopped talking about Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: And I want to take us in the Bible to the very first time we see people talking about Jesus post his crucifixion.
SPEAKER_03: It's in Luke chapter 24.
SPEAKER_03: It's when two disciples of Jesus are walking from Jerusalem to a town called Emmaus, and they're having a conversation about all the events that occurred in Jerusalem leading up to this time.
SPEAKER_03: So again, Jesus had walked into Israel or walked into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_03: He was being coronated as the king of Israel by the people, and then the religious leaders had handed Jesus over to the government officials of Rome.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus was crucified on a cross and then buried.
SPEAKER_03: And now these are the conversations that his followers are having afterwards.
SPEAKER_03: So Luke chapter 24, verses 13 to 21.
SPEAKER_03: Now that same day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus.
SPEAKER_03: It was about seven miles from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_03: They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.
SPEAKER_03: And as they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked alongside of them, but they were kept from recognizing him.
SPEAKER_03: He asked them, What are you discussing together as you walk along this road?
SPEAKER_03: And they stood still, their faces downcast.
SPEAKER_03: One of them, named Cleopis, asked him, Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who doesn't know the things that have happened here in these last days?
SPEAKER_03: Well, what things?
SPEAKER_03: he asked.
SPEAKER_03: About Jesus of Nazareth, they replied, He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people, and the chief priests, our rulers, handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him.
SPEAKER_03: But we had hoped that he was the one who is going to redeem Israel, and what is more, it is the third day since all of this took place.
SPEAKER_03: Now, when you look at the beginning of this chapter, it begins with these two men were walking along the road, and they were talking with each other about Jesus and the things that had happened.
SPEAKER_03: They were in conversation with one another about this person.
SPEAKER_03: And that has been happening between people forever and a day.
SPEAKER_03: People have conversations about who Jesus is, what Jesus did, if he was real, was he made up?
SPEAKER_03: Is he a spirit?
SPEAKER_03: Was it a conspiracy?
SPEAKER_03: Or was he really the Son of God, like he claimed to be?
SPEAKER_03: But the reality of a person like Jesus is that you have to do something with him.
SPEAKER_03: All of history has been deciding what to do with this person named Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: Because as Luke 24, 19 says, he was a prophet powerful in word and deed.
SPEAKER_03: That's the way these two men describe Jesus, eyewitnesses of Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: He was a prophet powerful in word and deed.
SPEAKER_03: And if you look at what they say about Jesus, that's really no different than what people have been saying about Jesus since his death, burial, and resurrection.
SPEAKER_03: That Jesus, at the very minimum, was certainly powerful in word, was he not?
SPEAKER_03: This is how most academics, most secular people, most anybody would say that Jesus was a great teacher.
SPEAKER_03: He was certainly a good moral teacher, and he was maybe even a reformer of society because, for the most part, all of the Western world, including Europe and the Middle East, have been impacted at a significant level by this man named Jesus and the things that he taught.
SPEAKER_03: And all of the academics and all of the skeptics and everybody who's involved in the historical research, trying to find the real Jesus, they all agree on a couple of significant facts.
SPEAKER_03: That Jesus really did live, he really did teach these things, he did change society in a way that has impacted billions of people.
SPEAKER_03: He was very powerful in word for certain because we know that his teachings exist still today.
SPEAKER_03: And we know that what he did was significant.
SPEAKER_03: In a meaningful way, it was at the very least historically significant in how it shaped the world around us.
SPEAKER_03: But other people say that Jesus is more than just powerful in word.
SPEAKER_03: They say he's powerful in deed, that he was a prophet that could perform miracles and do these incredible things.
SPEAKER_03: And it's not just Christians who say this.
SPEAKER_03: Most major religions agree that Jesus is a recognized prophet who's powerful in miracles and deeds.
SPEAKER_03: If you have not read the Quran, you should read it sometime.
SPEAKER_03: Islam talks about Jesus 25 times inside the Quran, calling him a prophet, calling him the Son of God, calling him born of a virgin, calling him sinless.
SPEAKER_03: Even the Quran recognizes that Jesus is a historically significant person, and they call him one of the holy people or the holy prophets of God.
SPEAKER_03: The Baha'i Faith, if you don't know that, they say that Jesus is a manifestation of God, similar to Buddha.
SPEAKER_03: Multiple sects of Hinduism, they talk about Jesus as a holy man because he could perform miracles.
SPEAKER_03: So without a doubt, humanity has been wrestling with the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: He's either somebody who's really powerful in word, or he's somebody who's really powerful in deed, or he really is both.
SPEAKER_03: He's powerful in word and deed.
SPEAKER_03: But you can't ignore the fact that he's something.
SPEAKER_03: And so you have to wrestle with the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: Just yesterday, if you watch Newsweek, Chris Cuomo did a whole one-hour news special called The Mystery of Easter.
SPEAKER_03: 2,000 years later, and public news is trying to understand why people around the world celebrate this holiday?
SPEAKER_03: What's so special about this person named Jesus?
SPEAKER_03: Now, there's a lot of things that people say about Jesus, a lot of good things they say, a lot of false things they say.
SPEAKER_03: And here's what Jesus says to what men say about him on a usual basis.
SPEAKER_03: Here's what the men said in Luke 24.
SPEAKER_03: They're talking to Jesus, they say, Jesus, we had hoped that he was the one who is going to redeem Israel.
SPEAKER_03: That's Luke 24, 23.
SPEAKER_03: We had hoped that Jesus was the one who is going to redeem Israel.
SPEAKER_03: And look how Jesus responds to these two men.
SPEAKER_03: He said to them, How foolish you are.
SPEAKER_03: Now, if you don't know the history of the nation of Israel or why these men were hoping that Jesus would redeem Israel, Israel is one of those nations that has been occupied by more foreign invaders than almost any other nation in the world.
SPEAKER_03: And so these two men were simply men of their day.
SPEAKER_03: They're men living under foreign occupation, and they were really looking forward to a political leader, a powerful leader in word, and this prophet who's also powerful indeed, who could muster up an army and overthrow the nation of Rome.
SPEAKER_03: So when they talk about Jesus redeeming Israel, they're talking about Jesus liberating Israel, the nation of Israel, from the oppression of Rome.
SPEAKER_03: I talked a lot more about that last week, and if you missed last week's message, I'd encourage you to go online and watch it.
SPEAKER_03: But generation after generation, and war after war, this land of Israel has been fought over and contested.
SPEAKER_03: And so these men had real hopes that Jesus would redeem them.
SPEAKER_03: And here's what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_03: Well, that's foolish.
SPEAKER_03: Why would you think that?
SPEAKER_03: What in the world gave you the idea that I was going to be the one that would overthrow Rome and lead you to a new establishment of the kingdom of Israel?
SPEAKER_03: Now, these guys, they had partial information.
SPEAKER_03: And they were forming their conclusions on Jesus based on the partial information that they had.
SPEAKER_03: They saw Jesus preach, they saw Jesus do miracles, they had some knowledge of the Old Testament prophecies, and so they were recognizing things that were true.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus was mighty in word, Jesus was a prophet of God.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus must be then the promised future king of Israel.
SPEAKER_03: But they were operating on partial information based on what they were seeing around them and what other people were saying.
SPEAKER_03: Now I had a real unique experience when I was in ninth grade.
SPEAKER_03: When I was in ninth grade, I took a poetry class.
SPEAKER_03: Some of you are poets, and more power to you.
SPEAKER_03: I studied poetry for one semester when I was in ninth grade.
SPEAKER_03: And I was reading this one poem, uh poet, and I really liked this very short verse poem, and I wrote a paper on it.
SPEAKER_03: I submitted the paper and I got an A.
SPEAKER_03: My teacher gave me an A, and it just waxed and waned about to me about how wonderful it was with the insights I had to this poem.
SPEAKER_03: Well, this was about the time that Google was coming about, and so I looked on the internet and I found the poet.
SPEAKER_03: So I decided that I would email him because his email was right there on his website.
SPEAKER_03: It's easy to get a hold of poets, by the way.
SPEAKER_03: It's not like and so I sent him my paper.
SPEAKER_03: I said, hey, this is the paper I wrote, and I got an A, here's what I thought.
SPEAKER_03: And about a day later, he sent me an email back, and uh here's what he wrote.
SPEAKER_03: He said, That's not what I meant at all.
SPEAKER_03: That's not what I he went on to say, I didn't even know how you got there, but I'm glad you got an A.
SPEAKER_03: In other words, he was saying, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
SPEAKER_03: That's the most foolish thing anyone's ever told me about my own poetry.
SPEAKER_03: All right, when you have a secondary source, I was very confident, by the way, that this poet meant all the things in my paper, right?
SPEAKER_03: He agreed with me that this was the deeper meaning of all of his poetry.
SPEAKER_03: And then when I actually confronted the prime source, boy, I was wrong.
SPEAKER_03: I was dead wrong.
SPEAKER_03: I was right in the sense that it was a wonderful poem about a beautiful day on a beach, but I was wrong in the sense that that's really all it was.
SPEAKER_03: A poem about a beautiful day on the beach.
SPEAKER_03: When you go to the prime source, you begin to get the real facts about what the what that person has here to do or what they meant to say.
SPEAKER_03: So when we build, if we are people in this world, if we build our understanding of Jesus solely on what other people say, then we can be very confident about what we think about Jesus, but you can be confidently wrong.
SPEAKER_03: That's a possible, it's a possibility.
SPEAKER_03: And so we have to go to the prime source and ask Jesus, what does he say actually about himself?
SPEAKER_03: And that's what we go into the scriptures for.
SPEAKER_03: Because our hope in the resurrection is not founded on what men say, our hope in the resurrection is founded on what Jesus says about himself.
SPEAKER_03: In fact, this is a fun way to say bout, what Jesus says about himself.
SPEAKER_03: Okay?
SPEAKER_03: Typo, if you didn't miss it, it's up there.
SPEAKER_03: It's what Jesus says about himself.
SPEAKER_03: Right?
SPEAKER_03: Let me tell you what Jesus says about himself.
SPEAKER_03: And I know that if you're a skeptic in the room, uh, and I understand that there's many people like that, you're thinking to yourself, Well, Pastor, we can't trust the Bible.
SPEAKER_03: The Bible's written by men.
SPEAKER_03: You just said we can't trust what men say, and I will agree with you that the Bible was written by men.
SPEAKER_03: But what I will contend with you is this the Bible is not just a book of myth and legend.
SPEAKER_03: The Bible, at its core, is really a historical book.
SPEAKER_03: It maps the entire history of the nation of Israel, it maps the history of the early church, and if anything, the scholars agree on, the Bible is without a doubt the most accurate historical text that we have in existence.
SPEAKER_03: With more copies about this book that affirm what actually happened in history.
SPEAKER_03: So it's not really about who wrote the Bible, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_03: It's about is the Bible a reliable witness to the history of what Jesus said about himself?
SPEAKER_03: That's my question.
SPEAKER_03: And when you look at the Gospels, which are the four first books of the New Testament Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, these are four letters written by four different men giving their historical eyewitness account of the things Jesus said and did.
SPEAKER_03: And again, if you're a skeptic, research it for yourself.
SPEAKER_03: Every scholar agrees that at least the Gospels are a very accurate depiction of the things Jesus really did say.
SPEAKER_03: And so we have to look at the Gospels, what Jesus said about himself, and then look at the rest of the Bible, according to how Jesus uses it, to understand whether or not Jesus is who he says he is.
SPEAKER_03: And so I believe without a doubt that the Bible is at the very minimum a reliable source that these are the very words of Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: And here's the first thing Jesus says about himself to these men on the road.
SPEAKER_03: He said to the two men, How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
SPEAKER_03: Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?
SPEAKER_03: And then beginning with Moses and all of the prophets, he explained to these two men what the scriptures said concerning himself.
SPEAKER_03: Now, these two Jewish men, the book of the Bible, the Bible that they had, was the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_03: That's the Jewish Bible.
SPEAKER_03: These are important historical documents, scriptures, poems, prophets, uh prophecies about the coming person called the Messiah.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus claims that he fulfilled all of those prophetic words and is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_03: So then Jesus looks at all the Old Testament prophecies and he explains to these two men how he fulfilled all the prophecies that were spoken about him.
SPEAKER_03: I want to show you just a brief example.
SPEAKER_03: A thousand years before Jesus ever lived, the prophet Isaiah lived.
SPEAKER_03: And he wrote the book of Isaiah, and he gives an account about what is going to happen to this future Messiah, this person that is going to come and be the king of kings in the world.
SPEAKER_03: And when you read Isaiah, it's almost like Isaiah, in a vision or a dream, was sitting at the foot of the cross watching this happen to Jesus a thousand years before it actually happened.
SPEAKER_03: Here's what Isaiah says about Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: But he was going to be pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, he was oppressed and afflicted, he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shears is silent, so is he.
SPEAKER_03: Now, if you have a Bible and you open up Luke chapter 23, the chapter right before Luke 24 that I'm preaching out of, you will see in successive order all of those things come true.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus was led away to the cross.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus was crucified with nails in his hand and a spear pushed into his side.
SPEAKER_03: He was crucified next to two criminals because his grave was with the wicked.
SPEAKER_03: But when his body was taken was taken down from the cross, his body was buried in the tomb of a rich man.
SPEAKER_03: And so here we have this prophetic account that the Messiah is going to suffer in this unique way, be killed among criminals and placed in the grave of a rich man.
SPEAKER_03: And in Luke 23, you see Jesus fulfill every one of those prophecies.
SPEAKER_03: Here's what Jesus also says about himself.
SPEAKER_03: It's Mark chapter 10, verse 31.
SPEAKER_03: He says, The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
SPEAKER_03: One of the things that Isaiah said is that this person would pay for the transgressions of people.
SPEAKER_03: His death would be a payment of some kind.
SPEAKER_03: And Jesus says here that he came to give his life as a ransom.
SPEAKER_03: Well, if you are familiar with the word ransom, you know that a ransom is simply a payment made to a party holding another person hostage.
SPEAKER_03: And whether you want to agree with me or not, every single person in this room right now is held hostage.
SPEAKER_03: You're held hostage by something far more powerful than you.
SPEAKER_03: Something that you have no way of escaping, something you cannot overcome.
SPEAKER_03: And the thing that's holding you hostage is really simple it's death.
SPEAKER_03: Death is holding you hostage.
SPEAKER_03: There's no way to escape it.
SPEAKER_03: There's nothing you can do to pay it off.
SPEAKER_03: There's no way to get away from it.
SPEAKER_03: Death is coming for us all.
SPEAKER_03: It's a reality of life, and all of us have said and told one another, you know what, guys, it's okay.
SPEAKER_03: Death is natural.
SPEAKER_03: Friends, if death was natural, you wouldn't be so afraid of it.
SPEAKER_03: If death was meant to be in this world, it'd be as common as getting married or as common as having children.
SPEAKER_03: It's one of those things like, oh yeah, it's just fine.
SPEAKER_03: But we all acknowledge and agree, death isn't fine, don't we?
SPEAKER_03: Do we agree?
SPEAKER_03: Death is not a good thing.
SPEAKER_03: We don't want to lose the people we love.
SPEAKER_03: We don't want to lose the people we know.
SPEAKER_03: We don't want to die ourselves.
SPEAKER_03: We want to stay.
SPEAKER_03: The whole medical industry is built around that, keeping you alive as long as possible.
SPEAKER_03: Death is not natural, it's holding every single one of us hostage.
SPEAKER_03: We can't escape it.
SPEAKER_03: We will die.
SPEAKER_03: But yet Jesus says that he came to give his life as a ransom.
SPEAKER_03: The prophet Isaiah says that he came to pay for the transgressions of our sins.
SPEAKER_03: You maybe heard the Bible verse that the wages of sin is death.
SPEAKER_03: Every single person in this room at one point in time has done something wrong.
SPEAKER_03: The Bible says what is wrong is called sin.
SPEAKER_03: And the end result is because there's sin in the world, and you and I will sin, we will also die.
SPEAKER_03: But even though we will die, Christ died so that even though we may die, we might also live.
SPEAKER_03: You see, Jesus died on the cross.
SPEAKER_03: It's a real historical fact.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus resurrected from the dead.
SPEAKER_03: Over 500 eyewitnesses attest to the fact that Jesus came back from the dead, that he walked on earth, that he talked with people post his crucifixion, and that there were people who watched him ascend into heaven.
SPEAKER_03: These are credible eyewitness testimonies that Jesus himself died, but that Jesus also lived.
SPEAKER_03: Now here's what the prophets also say.
SPEAKER_03: The prophets said that, again, a thousand years before Jesus died, the prophets also said that once he died, he would live.
SPEAKER_03: Listen to Psalm 16 10.
SPEAKER_03: The psalmist cries out and says, You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your holy one Decay.
SPEAKER_03: You know, in Jewish tradition, decay begins after about three days.
SPEAKER_03: And when did Jesus resurrect from the dead?
SPEAKER_03: On the third day.
SPEAKER_03: His body did not even begin to see real decay.
SPEAKER_03: Now, a holy one.
SPEAKER_03: What is a holy one?
SPEAKER_03: A holy one will not see the grave.
SPEAKER_03: A holy one is somebody who's set apart.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus was set apart by God the Father to accomplish a very specific mission, to pay the ransom for the hostage holder called death, to set us free, but also to raise again from the dead to prove that he had the power to pay the ransom in a sufficient manner.
SPEAKER_03: Here's what Jesus says about himself.
SPEAKER_03: Mark 8 31.
SPEAKER_03: The Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected, be killed, and after three days rise again.
SPEAKER_03: The prophets declared it, and Jesus said it about himself, and then eyewitnesses attest to it.
SPEAKER_03: Listen to Luke 24, verses 22 through 23.
SPEAKER_03: Or 24.
SPEAKER_03: In addition, some of the women, they amazed us this morning.
SPEAKER_03: They went to the tomb early in the morning, but they did not find Jesus' body.
SPEAKER_03: They came and told us that they had seen visions of angels who said he was alive.
SPEAKER_03: Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, and they did not see Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: If you're these two men walking on the road, you're starting to put dots together.
SPEAKER_03: You're starting to make the connections.
SPEAKER_03: I'm here with this man.
SPEAKER_03: This man is telling me about the Old Testament prophets as they spoke about the man that I knew named Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: And not only that, but Jesus said that this person must die, but also be living again.
SPEAKER_03: And so as I see these things, the dots start to connect.
SPEAKER_03: And when their hope was previously crushed, because they followed Jesus, they hoped that he was the redeemer of Israel.
SPEAKER_03: When he died, their hopes were crushed.
SPEAKER_03: Now, hope is being born again in their hearts.
SPEAKER_03: In their chests, there is hope.
SPEAKER_03: Remember what these two men said.
SPEAKER_03: Our hope was that he would be the one to redeem Israel, that he would be the king of Israel.
SPEAKER_03: But this Jesus you're talking about, this Messiah you're talking about, he's far greater than any other king we could possibly imagine.
SPEAKER_03: And so it really begs the question: if Jesus is who he says he is, if Jesus really did die and really did resurrect again as he proclaimed, as the prophets proclaim, as the eyewitnesses attest, what kind of king is this?
SPEAKER_03: He's not like a king that any of us have ever been familiar with before.
SPEAKER_03: He is a king that has power over real life and real death.
SPEAKER_03: And a king like that is not a king that will be ignored.
SPEAKER_03: He's a king that you have to do something with.
SPEAKER_03: You have to either acknowledge that he is who he says he is, or you have to write him off as a complete lunatic.
SPEAKER_03: You don't really have a decision when it comes to the person of Jesus, other than those two things.
SPEAKER_03: Now, here's what I appreciate about Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: When Jesus talks about himself, he uses the Bible.
SPEAKER_03: He uses the Old Testament prophets.
SPEAKER_03: Because the Bible is this incredible, powerful book.
SPEAKER_03: It's a historical book, but it's a book filled with real power.
SPEAKER_03: It has what's called revelation power.
SPEAKER_03: And the entire Bible, from Genesis to the very end of Revelation, reveals Jesus as one thing: the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Son of God, the one who has victory over death and improved it by resurrecting back to life.
SPEAKER_03: That's the entire story of the Bible.
SPEAKER_03: It begins there and it finishes there, and he will come back again living, and he will come back showing his proof once more.
SPEAKER_03: Now, as scripture works, here's what scripture does as you preach it and as you hear it.
SPEAKER_03: It does two things for every person.
SPEAKER_03: The first thing is it begins to birth hope in your heart.
SPEAKER_03: These two men, they say that they had a burning in their chest.
SPEAKER_03: Read the end of Luke 24.
SPEAKER_03: When Jesus was speaking and explaining the scriptures, there was a burning inside of their chest.
SPEAKER_03: And as they felt the burning in their chest, that's the Spirit of God awakening you to the truth of what Scripture says about Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: And you can choose then to believe it.
SPEAKER_03: And like these men profess, the Lord is risen indeed, as their eyes are opened and they see Jesus for who he really is, or it does something else.
SPEAKER_03: It hardens your heart.
SPEAKER_03: That's what Scripture does.
SPEAKER_03: It can make you hard towards the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: You can actually say, you know what, I don't think any of this is true.
SPEAKER_03: I don't want to believe any of this is true.
SPEAKER_03: Because if I believe that it's true, it requires something from me.
SPEAKER_03: It requires that we follow him.
SPEAKER_03: And so if there's a burning in your heart this morning that Jesus is the King of kings, that Jesus is the Lord of Lords, and there's this stirring of hope, the right decision is to yield fully into it and say, Jesus, if this is true, then I have one choice, which is to follow after you.
SPEAKER_03: But the other choice you have is to write them off entirely because you don't want to submit or believe the things he says about himself.
SPEAKER_03: Friends, the day that I heard the gospel for the first time, really the first time, and I knew it.
SPEAKER_03: I knew the facts, I knew the information, but the first time I really heard it, I yielded over fully to it.
SPEAKER_03: And I gotta tell you some facts.
SPEAKER_03: Just like I can't see the sun at night, I do have hope it will rise.
SPEAKER_03: Just like I have, just like I know that if I jump up, I'm gonna fall down because of gravity, I have hope that gravity will work.
SPEAKER_03: And the same way I have this knowledge and this hope beyond the shadow of a doubt that just like Jesus died, Jesus resurrected from the dead.
SPEAKER_03: And while I have science that can show me why the sun rises and why gravity works, pull me back down, the Bible is the science of the supernatural.
SPEAKER_03: It explains everything to you about how it's possible for a man to die and come back from the dead.
SPEAKER_03: And so I have hope from experience and I have hope from knowledge and I have hope from the very Word of God itself that these things are true.
SPEAKER_03: And I'm not the only one.
SPEAKER_03: There are dozens and hundreds of you here in this room that believe the same thing.
SPEAKER_03: And there are billions of people around the world that believe the same thing.
SPEAKER_03: And friends, I have real good news for you.
SPEAKER_03: If Jesus can also raise from the dead, which is the hardest and most difficult thing that's ever been done in history, what else can Jesus do?
SPEAKER_03: Jesus is a God of hope.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus is a God of restoration.
SPEAKER_03: When he lived on earth, there are countless accounts of him healing the sick, healing the blind, feeding the hungry, ministering to the poor.
SPEAKER_03: This man is powerful and can do more than you can ask or imagine.
SPEAKER_03: And I can tell you today that I have a testimony.
SPEAKER_03: I have a testimony of what Jesus has done in my life.
SPEAKER_03: I once was lost, but now I'm found.
SPEAKER_03: I once really believed that I could figure out my own path in life and find all the happiness I wanted on my own, and I was dead wrong.
SPEAKER_03: Because when I'm trying to find purpose within myself, I can't generate enough good reasons for purpose.
SPEAKER_03: Purpose has to come from outside of ourselves, and Christ has given us the greatest purpose of all, which is to have new life and to live for Him.
SPEAKER_03: So I'm just one witness.
SPEAKER_03: But we have a bunch more here at Grace Church, and they want to share their story with you this morning of what Jesus has done for them.
SPEAKER_00: Better than you.
SPEAKER_00: Better than you, Lord, there's nothing.
SPEAKER_00: You're the only one who cares.
SPEAKER_00: You turn things into howways.
SPEAKER_00: You turn cities into hallways.
SPEAKER_00: You're the only one who cares.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there's nothing better than you.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Better than you, Lord, there's nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing is better than you.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there's nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Better than you, there's nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Better than you, Lloyd, there's nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing is better than you.
SPEAKER_00: You turn morning to dancing.
SPEAKER_00: You give beauty for ashes.
SPEAKER_00: You turn dream into glory.
SPEAKER_00: You're the only one who cares.
SPEAKER_00: You turn bolt into army.
SPEAKER_00: You turn teams into highlights.
SPEAKER_00: You're the only one who cares.
SPEAKER_00: You turn tape into glory.
SPEAKER_00: You're the only one who can.
SPEAKER_00: You turn seats into army.
SPEAKER_00: You turn season to hide.
SPEAKER_00: You're the only one who cares.
SPEAKER_03: It reforms and renews and transforms the internal part of who we are.
SPEAKER_03: It changes our hearts, and when it changes our hearts, it changes our worlds.
SPEAKER_03: I told you earlier that Jesus has to be dealt with.
SPEAKER_03: You've got to decide what you're going to do with this person.
SPEAKER_03: When you came in this morning, there was a card on the seat in front of you.
SPEAKER_03: It's your cardboard testimony.
SPEAKER_03: Just like these men and women up here behind us have shared the life-transforming victory of Jesus that they've experienced.
SPEAKER_03: There's a card here.
SPEAKER_03: Here's what I would like you to do this morning.
SPEAKER_03: If there is a hope burning in your chest, if you want to choose to follow after Jesus, I want you to fill out this card and write on the very top box, check it off.
SPEAKER_03: It says, I want to follow Jesus for the first time.
SPEAKER_03: Here's why I'm asking you to do that.
SPEAKER_03: I want to know who you are.
SPEAKER_03: I want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_03: I want to help you understand more about this person, Jesus, and understand why this faith that's blooming in your heart is real.
SPEAKER_03: Everybody else in this room that's already a follower of Jesus, I want you to take just a moment.
SPEAKER_03: I want to identify how Christ has changed your life and just share with us.
SPEAKER_03: On that little three-letter line, maybe it was sin to freedom, maybe it was heartbreak to made new.
SPEAKER_03: But whatever your little testimony is, write it down for us.
SPEAKER_03: I'm going to ask everybody to do that for me right now.
SPEAKER_03: While you're writing, I want to share with you what Jesus says about himself.
SPEAKER_03: John 11, 25.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_03: The one who believes in me will live even though they die.
SPEAKER_03: Our hope is in the resurrection of the dead.
SPEAKER_03: Our hope is what Jesus says about himself.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus goes on to say in John chapter 3, verses 14 through 18, maybe the most famous Bible verses in all the world.
SPEAKER_03: Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
SPEAKER_03: I think you know this one.
SPEAKER_03: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall perish, but have eternal life.
SPEAKER_03: For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
SPEAKER_03: Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
SPEAKER_03: Even Jesus says you have to deal with Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: And if you believe, there's eternal life.
SPEAKER_03: If you believe there's hope.
SPEAKER_03: If you believe there's power, if you believe there's restoration.
SPEAKER_03: And this is what we believe as followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: Amen?
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Do me a favor, take your card, if it's complete, pass it to the left, all the way to the left.
SPEAKER_03: Because our cardboard testimony, friends, they're gonna come through, they're gonna collect up and down the aisles.
SPEAKER_03: Now, as they're collecting up and down the aisles the cards, we're gonna take a moment, I want to pray over you.
SPEAKER_03: So take your cards, pass them to the left.
SPEAKER_03: And collectors, whoever you are, why don't you feel free to make your way down there in just a moment?
SPEAKER_03: While they're preparing to collect and you're passing your cards over to the left, I want to encourage you with a few things.
SPEAKER_03: The first thing is this Jesus loves you.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus came to live a life, to teach a way of living that transforms hearts and transforms minds.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus came to show a way that is different than any other way.
SPEAKER_03: And Jesus came so that everybody would have hope and hope eternal.
SPEAKER_03: Friends, I believe that Jesus is who he says he is.
SPEAKER_03: I believe that Jesus can do more in your life than you can ever ask or imagine.
SPEAKER_03: I believe that Jesus heals, I believe Jesus resurrects, I believe Jesus changes, I believe Jesus renews, I believe Jesus creates hope.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: This is my Jesus, but he can be your Jesus too.
SPEAKER_03: Will you pray with me?
SPEAKER_03: Father God, thank you so much for how you've revealed yourself through the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03: How you have written a story: a story of hope, a story of redemption, a story of renewal.
SPEAKER_03: God, a story of resurrection life, a story where we get to live eternally with you.
SPEAKER_03: Father, a story in which there's no fear of death.
SPEAKER_03: There's nothing in this world that is more powerful than you.
SPEAKER_03: And so we stand confidently upon your word and confidently upon your resurrected life because it is power.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus, continue to bless our day.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.