Jesus is Risen: Come & See Him!

Well, it is such a blessing to, to see you here today and for us to be able to gather together and worship the Lord. Let's express our appreciation to the worship team and the choir for leading us today. I got to sit on the front row about 4 ft in front of the choir, so I got maximum benefit. Now I know what it's like to be in spitting range.

Oh. No, just a great worship and the songs, that we've sung just have taken us to the cross and to the tomb in celebration of just the marvelous realities that are ours to enjoy, as believers, in Christ. Well, for a time of study in the word this morning, let me have you turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter, 28. Matthew chapter, 28 for our time of study in the word this morning.

And by the way, if you did not bring a Bible with you, this morning, there is a, a green insert in your bulletin and that has the text that we're going to be looking at. today, we won't be looking at all of Matthew 28, but we'll be looking at, a sizable portion of it. And the title of the message this morning is Jesus is risen, come and see him. Jesus is risen, come.

And see him. I've got an amazing wife, you must know, and one of the, the characteristics of my wife that I admire is her ability to see things. and if I, 9 times out of 10, if I don't know where my car keys are, I can just ask her, where are my car keys, and she knows where they are because she has seen them when she walked through the room. Her antennas picked up their location and I may have walked through the room, several times, and I, I would not have noticed them, but she does.

She notices everything and my respect for her ability to see things skyrocketed yesterday afternoon. her, her name is Donna, and, my 18 year old daughter, Brooke went on an errand. And yesterday afternoon they were returning from that errand and they entered into the residential area where our house is and, and my wife noticed a piece of paper. On the road and so she ended up running over it, but when she ran over it, she said to Brooke, she said, Brooke, I think I just ran over some money.

Why don't you get out and, and, and check it out. So Brooke got out, well, the van stopped and then Brooke got out and And went over to where the piece of paper was. I'm not making this up, guys. Lo and behold, it was a $100 bill.

And so Brooke picks it up and she's really excited. She gets back in the van and holds it up and says, Mom, this is a $100 bill. And Donna said, Give it to me. And And so Brooke, without thinking, instantly obeyed her mother and gave it to her, but as soon as she did so, she was seized with regret for having done so and immediately laid claim to the money.

And told Donna, no, no, that's my money because I retrieved it. I went and got it. And Donna said, No, that's my money because I saw it first and hence a conflict ensued between the two of them. I'm taking a nap at this time.

They go the rest of the way home. I hear the garage door open. And I, I awakened from that and then immediately the door to the front house opens and Donna and Brooke are running into the house and making a loud racket. Brooke is chasing Donna through the house.

Donna's laughing. Brooke is complaining that money is mine. And, and so I get up to find out what's going on. They tell me what had happened and Brooke was like, Dad, you got to help me out here.

I got the money. That, that should be mine or at least a part of it. And Donna wasn't budging and so. I just got up from the nap and now it was my it was my responsibility to settle this conflict.

Before I could even settle the conflict though, I said, was there any other money in the area? And as soon as I said that, Donna took off running out of the house. Down the street, Brooke went after her. Benjamin and I got on our bikes so as to get there ahead of them.

And so looking foolish, we all are running down and riding down the block in the area where the money was, and we scoured the area. We couldn't find anything, so we sheepishly went back. Home and when we got home. Brooke represented the case to me and, and I, as the leader of the household needed to settle this matter and so I pondered it briefly and I said, here's the way this needs to play out.

Donna, you get $40. Brooke, you get 40. And I get 2 for my wise and judicious counsel. Anyway, my wife still has the 100.

be praying for our family as we work through this. yesterday I got up and I was frustrated because I had no introduction for this message today, and then this happens, and by the way, every detail I just told you is true, and there's even more that I'm not sharing, but, God is good to give me an introduction for the message, today. But here's, here's the point in all the madness that I, that I want to, bring to your attention. My, my wife was richly rewarded yesterday because she was alert and because she saw.

Something of great value. What she saw was something that no doubt many others had driven right by and did not see, but she saw, and because she saw, she reaped a reward. And my burden as I stand before you this morning is that you too would see something today, even in this service, something of far greater value than a $100 bill. My burden is that you would see today the resurrected Lord, and I want you to know that he wants to be seen by you.

And there is nothing greater for you to behold. This is actually the burden of Matthew and Matthew chapter, 28. Let me just show you this, If you go through Matthew's account, like, in many of your translations, you see the word behold or low, but that's actually a translation of the Greek word that is a command to see or to look. And whenever you see that expression in the Greek text, you can translate it look with an exclamation point.

And so look at this. I don't know if there's any other chapter in the Bible, where we have the command to look in this way occurring more, more frequently. In verse 2, we have the command to look, the beginning of verse 7, look, the end of verse 7, look, verse 9, look, verse 11, look, verse 20, look, Matthew, and the characters that we encounter in the story in Matthew 28 are very burdened that we look at something. They want us to see something.

And ultimately, what they want us to see is Jesus. As you go through the narrative in verse 5, the angel says to the women, I know you are looking for Jesus. Then he says in verse 6, come see the place where he was lying. And then the angel tells the women to go report Christ's resurrection to the disciples, and for them to go to Galilee, and the angel says, there you, will see him.

And verse 10, Jesus is speaking to the women, and he tells them to tell the disciples to go to Galilee, and he says, there they will see me. And by the end of the chapter, everyone has gone to Galilee, and it says, and they saw him. There's a real emphasis in the story upon what we do with our eyes. And the burden of Matthew is that we see something.

That we see something of enormous value and ultimately that yes we see the empty tomb. The angel even commands the women to see the empty tomb, to see where he was lying, but ultimately the burden is that we see above all Jesus. In his resurrected state. And so we're going to heed Matthew's counsel today and we're going to look, we're going to take 7 looks at the resurrected Jesus as we go through.

A good portion of this chapter. We're going to go through the narrative here. We're just going to enjoy the story, but as we do so, we're going to take 7 looks at Jesus. and the first one, just so, I'll take a little bit of time to develop because we got to get to that point in the narrative where Jesus makes his appearance.

But then the rest of the, the looks that will make it Jesus will happen much more, rapidly. But let's begin, in verse one, and we're going to take our first look at Jesus in the, this narrative. And what we're going to do is we're going to see him receiving. The very first appearance of Jesus after his resurrection that we behold in this passage is we see Him receiving, actually encouraging and then receiving worship from those who loved him.

Let's begin in verse one. Matthew says now after the Sabbath, keep in mind Jesus was crucified, very likely on Friday, and he was buried before sundown on Friday. On Saturday, some Roman guards were put in position around the entrance of the tomb and a seal was put upon, the entrance to the tomb, the stone that was over the entrance, and then the sun comes up on Sunday morning. And that is based on the lunar calendar this exact Sunday of the year.

That's why we call this Easter, and we celebrate the resurrection. And so look at what it says verse 1. Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. We know from the other accounts, the gospel accounts, that they were bringing spices with them.

They were hoping to find some way to get into the tomb to further anoint the body of Jesus, to prepare his body for its permanent resting place in this tomb. They were not expecting the resurrection. And now we're going to go with the literal translation here, verse 2, and look, a severe earthquake had occurred. By the way, the word that is translated earthquake is seismos, from which we get seismographs.

So And it's not just any seismos, but a mega seismos had occurred. So a great shaking of the ground in the area around the tomb occurs. What caused that? Look what he says.

For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon that stone. And his appearance was like lightning and his clothing as white as snow, and the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. by the way, in verse 4, the guard shook. That word shook is seismos again.

So we had a seismos happening on the ground, and now that the angel has appeared and done his, what he came to do, now the Roman soldiers are quaking in their boots. So they, these guys have seen everything, no doubt, in their service as Roman soldiers, but they've never seen anything like this. They fall to the ground, probably we're still conscious. But unable to move their limbs, they're in a state of shock, lying on the ground as if they were dead men.

I find it intriguing that the angel, when he comes down and the earthquake occurs, he, the idea is that the angel didn't just nicely roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb. But that he, he knocked the stone down and then sat on top of the stone. All right. He violently removed the stone with obviously very little effort and then he sat on the stone.

The question is why did the angels sit on the stone? Well, the idea is, I believe that the angel sat on the stone to keep it there. He was saying to the Roman soldiers, if any of you are thinking about putting the stone back, you're not touching the stone. It's going to stay right here.

The angel's job was to remove the stone and then to keep the stone away from the entrance to prevent the Roman guards from putting the stone back in its place, which almost certainly they would have fought to do, but they're terrified by this angel. They're shaking. They're quaking, and they fall to the ground like dead men. Well, the women don't see this actually happening.

But they arrive on the scene right after this happens. Maybe some of the Roman soldiers are still lying on the ground. Maybe some of them have regained their bearings. We know from later in the chapter that the Roman soldiers took off and went back into the city, but at some point right after this occurred, the women walk onto this scene.

And they see the angel and instantly they are terrified. Look at this. The angel says in verse 5 to the women, do not be afraid. Literally stop being afraid.

So he notices that they're terrified of this angel. One of the things you notice in the, in the Bible is that whenever angels make an appearance, whoever they're appearing to always assumes they're toast. whenever the angel appears, and angels always when they appear, have to say, stop being afraid. Don't be afraid of me.

And once again, when the women see the angel, they're not thinking, oh this is the angel, he's going to tell us of the resurrection of Jesus, and this will be a nice little story in Matthew 28 1 day. They're not thinking that. They're coming to the tomb and there's this dazzling angel who looks like lightning, obviously extremely powerful, and the women assume they're going to die. But the angel said, Stop being afraid, for I know, in other words, I know that your intentions are good.

I know that you're looking for Jesus, who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen just as he said. Ladies, do you remember how when he was alive he kept telling you he would die and then be raised from the dead on the 3rd day? Well, just like he told you what happened, it has happened.

He is not here. He has risen. According to his own word, and then the angel says, come see the place where he was lying. So they would have looked into the tomb, they would have noticed the linen wrappings lying there, but Jesus would not have been inside the linen wrappings, so they would know that he was indeed raised from the dead.

The angel then says, go quickly. And tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and look, he is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him. Look, I have told you.

The angel says, ladies, don't hang around here. You've seen what you need to see. Go quickly. Tell his disciples that he's risen from the dead and tell them to start heading toward Galilee so that they can see him there.

So how do the women respond? We learn in the next verse, verse 8, it says, and they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, so they're still afraid. They're still terrified in a sense, they don't know what to make of all of this. And if Christ is raised, then what, what is this appearance that he's talking about in Galilee going to be like?

Is he angry? Is, is Christ raised back to life and he's coming back in, in judgment and, and what does this mean for everybody? And So they left the tomb quickly with fear, but it's mixed with mega joy. They're extremely excited that the one they love, their very best friend, is risen from the dead, that death has been defeated, and it says they ran to report it to his disciples.

They didn't walk. They didn't stop and do some errands on their way. They ran as quickly as they could. To give the word to his disciples.

Why would they run? They would run because they know that Jesus' disciples were grieving. Christ had died just a couple of days earlier, and they're just reeling with grief. They're devastated.

Not only that, but think about it, the disciples, they're not just grieving the loss of their best friend. And their teacher, the disciples are also reeling from the guilt of what they themselves did the night that Jesus was arrested. All of them had abandoned Jesus, right? In his moment of need, they fled.

Peter was one of the ones who stuck it out longer than anyone else, but When Peter was asked by people, were you a disciple of Jesus? Peter 3 times denied even knowing Jesus, and on the 3rd time, he even uttered an oath. Peter said, May God strike me dead. May He damn me to hell forever if I'm lying when I say I don't even know that man.

We know from the gospel accounts, Jesus turned and looked at Peter right at that point, and Peter covered his face and went out and wept bitterly. So imagine you're reeling from the loss of someone you love, this horrifying death, and at the same time, that you abandoned this person. All of them had told Jesus, we're going to go with you to death. We're going to follow you everywhere.

And then all of them betrayed him in that sense. So they're, they're sorrowful, they're grieving with guilt, and the women are like, if he's raised from the dead, we've got some really good news for these guys. This is going to make their day. And so they're running to give this news to the disciples.

But as they're on their way, look at verse 9, and look, Jesus met them, saying, rejoice. Now some of your translations. Say and Jesus met them and greeted them. That's an unfortunate translation.

Literally in the Greek text, it says Jesus met them, saying, rejoice. He utters a command to them. To rejoice, which means to celebrate. So he makes his appearance, they look at him, they're like, Oh my goodness, it's him.

And the first words out of Jesus' mouth on the day of his resurrection is the command to them to rejoice and to celebrate. It's no wonder he did this when you read Matthew 1:18. Verse 24, and in the context, it's talking about the resurrection of the Messiah. And in that context, speaking of that future day when the Messiah would be raised, the psalmist says, this is the day which the Lord has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it. So we're not surprised that on this day that Jesus encounters these women. And delivers that same command to rejoice. He says, I want you to celebrate this day has come.

My crowning day has come. Let us rejoice and be glad in this. And look what the women do. It says, and they came up and took hold of his feet.

And worshiped Him. They bow low before Jesus. They grab his feet, and they worshiped. And he receives their worship.

He doesn't rebuke them and say, you should only worship God. No, he receives their worship. This is an evidence of the deity of Jesus Christ, that he is indeed God. Earlier in Matthew, he said, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only you shall worship.

And now Jesus himself is receiving worship. Clearly receiving this because he knows he is God. In fact, as these women are lying low before him and grabbing his feet just by the posture that they assume. when one worships Jesus, what he is saying, and what these women are saying is, you are greater than we are.

You are God, and we are not, do unto us as you please, and we are utterly at your service, to worship Jesus as these women are doing is an act of full surrender. They're assuming a surrender posture before Him. And that's what it means to worship Jesus, to bow low before him. And say, you are greater than I am, you are God, and I'm not.

Do unto me as you please, do with me as you please. And I am at your service. God is looking for these people to worship Him and Jesus on his resurrection day. as we take our first look at Him, we see him standing and the women at his feet, worshiping Him.

There's a 2nd look that we can take at Jesus. And as we take this 2nd look at him, we see him commanding his worshippers to be afraid no longer. We see him commanding his worshippers to be afraid no longer. Jesus notices something as these women are bowing low before him.

He notices that they're shaking. That they're terrified. And that they're probably afraid of him. It says in verse 10, that Jesus said to them, Literally stop being afraid.

He's like, ladies, you, you have nothing to fear from me. To those who bow low before Jesus and worship Him, he says, Don't be afraid of me. Don't be afraid of me. You say, does Jesus speak that way to everybody?

No. Only to those who worship Him. To those who refuse to bow before Him and worship Him, he says, be very afraid. In fact, in Psalm 2, verse 12, the psalmist says, do homage to the Son, lest he become angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath may soon be kindled, and how blessed are all who take refuge in Him.

Jesus says, Listen, as the resurrected Lord, worship me as God. Put yourself at my disposal, worship me. And if you worship me, my message to you is you have nothing to fear from me. But to those who refuse to bow and humble worship of Jesus, Surrendering to him, Jesus says, you have good reason to be very afraid.

His wrath will soon be kindled, and it will be kindled against all those who refuse to bow in worship to Him. Let's take a 3rd look at Jesus as the narrative unfolds, and as we take our 3rd look, we see him acting with grace towards those, the very people who had failed Him. Jesus speaking to the women, says to them, Go and take word to my brothers. to leave for Galilee, and there they will see me.

I love the gracious touch. Here, Jesus says to the women, he doesn't say to them, go and take words to those guys that abandoned me. Go and take word to my betrayers. Go take word to those people that have failed me.

No, he's not angry. He says, go and take word to my brothers to leave for Galilee, and there they will see me. I want to appear to them. I want them to see me.

I want to see them. I want us to be together. Go take word to my brothers. And you can imagine that when the disciples did receive word from the women that he was raised, a part of them, were leaping for joy, and yet at the same time, they were like, whoa, is this really a good thing?

Do I really want to see him? Do I want him to see me? And is he going to be angry? I think about the ways that I failed him and especially Peter of all people would be grieving over this and not so sure he wanted Jesus to actually see him.

But I'm sure the disciples would have said to the women, What did Jesus say? Tell us exactly what he said. And they would have said, well, he said, go and take word to my brothers. They would have been like, he called us brothers.

He called us family. And what comfort that would have brought them, and how that would have readied them to see this gracious Lord. You see, those that put their trust in Jesus, here's the thrilling thing, we do not have to be perfect. And sinless before Jesus decides to be our best friend, our loving Savior and Lord.

Those of us here at Cornerstone, we fail the Lord in many ways every single day. And yet Jesus loves us because we are worshippers of Him. We don't stand before Him in our own righteousness and And it's that love that we receive from Him every day that day by day transforms us into something more and more beautiful. And it is this love that Jesus shows to the disciples right on the other side of their failure that God uses to revolutionize their lives and make them champions, willing to take a public stand for Jesus.

He is a gracious savior. And Lord, to all those who bow and worship to Him. Let's take a 4th look at Jesus as the story unfolds. And as we take this 4th look, we see him drawing nearer to those who worship Him.

We see him drawing nearer to those who worship Him. Look at verse 16. ultimately, as the story unfolds, the disciples make their way to Galilee to see Jesus on the day in which Jesus would have designated and on the very mountain that Jesus would have told them to meet him at, and this was a very special appearance of Jesus, and many writers suggest that while he made other appearances, there was something about this one where he would appear on a mountain. And reveal his glory to the disciples as they gathered there.

So he would have removed the veil like he did on the Mount of Transfiguration, and they would have seen him, and the glory, coming forth from him in a special way. And so look what happens in verse 16, the 11 disciples proceeded to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had designated, and when they saw Him, they worshiped Him. And the literal idea is they bowed. To the ground and worshiping him.

Again, we see the same attitude that we saw on the part of the women. So they see Jesus and it was from a distance, and many of them recognized him as being Jesus. And so they bow and worship to Jesus. But look what it says, some of those who worshiped were doubtful.

I love the realistic touch here. There were some who while they worshiped, were like, is that really him? I'm not sure. And man, is this whole resurrection thing really true?

And what do I make of all of this? And so some were bowing in worship with complete faith. In all of these things, but there were some bowing in worship who just were of two minds about this, and they just were casting back and forth in their minds and not sure what to make of all of this. And I love the realistic touch here.

Jesus accepts worship. From those who have no doubts within them and have only faith, and he also accepts worship from those who believe in Him, but they also have inside of them doubts. It's like the man who said to Jesus, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief in Jesus is gracious. To those who come to him with that attitude.

And so they saw him, they worshiped him. Some were doubtful. Look what happens, verse 18, and Jesus drew near, literally, and he spoke to them. So he sees them worshiping, he knows that some were doubtful.

They're not sure if it's really him or not. So Jesus in, in total grace, draws nearer to them. We know from God's word that God says to all people, you draw near to me, and I will draw near to you. And that's what Jesus is doing in grace.

We see him approaching and getting close to and drawing nearer to those who are bowing and worshiping Him. Let's take a 5th look at Jesus. And as we take this 5th look, we see him assuring his worshippers of his absolute authority. We see him assuring his worshippers of his absolute authority.

To those now keep in mind this is a worship service. Jesus isn't just teaching and he meets up with his disciples and speaks what we often call the great commission. The great commission that we find at the end of Matthew 28 was spoken by Jesus to people who were bowing in worship of Him. This is what Jesus says to His worshippers, OK, and as they're having this worship service and bowing at his feet and worshiping Him to His worshippers, Jesus assures them of something that would be very precious to them.

And he says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. And what a comfort this would bring to them. Jesus is saying, guys, I want you to know that by virtue of what I have done and obeying my Father and being crucified for the sins of those who would believe in me and, and being raised from the dead on the 3rd day, By virtue of these things, all authority in earth and in heaven has been handed to me. I got the keys to everything.

Everything in the entire universe, physical and spiritual, meaning I am the highest authority I can do as I please. And as I love you, as I seek to be your Lord and your Savior, no one can keep me from carrying out fully my loving intentions towards you and carrying out my saving will in your life. I have the keys. I have the keys to anything that you need.

my family knows that I love them. My wife, my children know that I love them, but they know that I'm not omnipresent. They know that I'm not omnipotent. They know that I don't have all power.

There might be some things I might want to do for them, but I just don't have the power to do that. They understand that. Jesus says to us who worship him, I love you. I want to be your Lord and Savior.

And I got the keys to everything to make it happen. I am the highest authority in the universe. And so, It'll never happen that Jesus comes to you and says, Man, I want to save you. I want to deliver you from such and such in your life, but I want you to know my heart.

I really want to do this, but I tried to get it done and I made some appeals, but it got overruled. So sorry, but just know that I love you. That'll never happen. Jesus will never get overruled.

He will save whoever he wants to save. He gets to save. Whoever he wants to forgive their sins and deliver from sin, he gets to do that. He's got the keys to everything.

And those of us who bow and worship to this resurrected Lord are comforted by the knowledge that there is no higher authority in all of heaven and earth, and that Jesus who loves us enough that he was willing to lay down his life and die for us, this Jesus is in the highest position of authority and power in the universe. We take a 6th look at Jesus, and as we take this 6th look, we see Him telling his worshippers to spread the word about Him. He's like, you guys are gathered here worshiping me, and this is really great.

But listen, I got something I want to call you to do, and that is to spread the word about me.

He says, go therefore and make disciples of all of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them, those disciples that you make to observe all that I commanded you. Jesus is saying, I want to be obeyed. My resurrection is not just something to look at and say, wow, that's a neat historical event. No, my resurrection says something about me.

And what it says about me is that I am the sovereign Lord of the universe. And I want to save people. I want followers of me in every single nation. And I want to be obeyed.

I have the right to be obeyed. But there's a gracious touch here. He says to his disciples, you're going to need to teach people. To obey, to observe what I've commanded you, you're going to have to help them.

To know how to obey me. In all things. This is why we at Cornerstone are, we're passionate about getting the word out about Jesus because our resurrected Lord, as we worship Him, He gives us this commission and tells us to go, to go and spread the word about Him. There's a final look that we'll take at Jesus.

As we take this final look in verse 2, as the narrative comes to a close, we see Jesus promising to be with his worshippers forever. He promises to be with his worshippers forever. He says at the very end of Matthew, and look, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Jesus is saying, listen, I, I'm with you right now, that.

I'm standing right in front of you, but I want you to know that That I am with you always to the end of the age, and that's speaking of the present age, and you say, well, then, will he be with us at the end of this age? Well, the disciples already understood that at the end of the age they equated the end of the age with the coming of Jesus. So Jesus would come and they knew they would be with him at the End of the age that was without question. Jesus is saying, I'm going to be with you.

I'm going to be with my people even to the end of this present age, after which point I come, and we are together forever. So he's basically promising those who worship Him, I am with you at all times and will be with you. Forever Jesus says, behold, he says, look, in other words, he's clearly excited about this, about being able to be with us, and he believes we should be excited about the fact that he is with us. You realize that.

Jesus died to be with us at all times. If you came to Jesus on the cross and said, what are you doing? Jesus would say, I am dying to be with you. I am dying to be with you.

I, I am dying to be with you when you go to work, when you're in your home, When you're walking through your neighborhoods, I, I am dying to be with you when you're in your car on the freeway commuting back and forth. I am dying to be with you during the difficulties and the trials and the losses and the pains that you encounter. In this world. I'm, I, I am dying to be with you during the good times of happiness and celebration, the ups and the downs.

I want to be with you, and I will be with you all the way to the end of the age, after which point I will come and take you to be with me so that you will be with me in heaven forever. Jesus obviously wants to be with us. And we can take great comfort and encouragement in His presence with us. To those who are worshiping Him, Jesus gives us the promise of His loving, empowering presence in every moment.

And in every situation, whatever hardship you're going through in your life right now, you're not experiencing that alone. Jesus is going through that experience with you and whatever ministry that you engage in to other people, you do that with Jesus working with you and being present with you. What I want to do this morning is I want to call all of us to be worshippers of Jesus. Maybe you came into this room and you're not a worshiper of Jesus.

I just want to let something that Jesus is very passionate about. He says in John 4:23, an hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for such people, the Father seeks to be his worshippers. Don't just say, well, yeah, the resurrection, I believe it happened, or, it happened in history, but I don't know what all it means. Jesus would say what it should mean to you.

is that you should become a worshiper of me. God is even looking through this room right now. Looking for worshippers of His Son Jesus Christ. And my question to you is, will you become a worshiper?

Of Jesus If you will, To you, you will hear Jesus say, Rejoice. Don't be afraid of me. He will say, you're family. Your family.

He would say to you, I've got full power to save you and love you. He would say to you, I want you to commit your life to spreading the word about me. And he would say to you that I will see to it that I am with you always. Always.

But remember, in worshiping Jesus, you don't just say, yeah, I respect you, no. At the very least, in your heart, you bow before Him and say, you are God and I am not. And I surrender before you. I surrender to your power, to your love.

And I put myself completely at your disposal. I want to ask you to bow your heads this morning. I hope that through the songs that we have sung today and the things you've heard in this message that you understand and appreciate the fact that, That Christ died and he was raised for you. To be your Lord, to be your savior.

And the only proper response to him that would please him. is for you to do as the women did, to do as the disciples did, bow before Him. In worship. Surrender to this love.

Of this one who died and was raised from the dead for you. You have comment cards in your bulletin. We would encourage you to fill out those comment cards and, Seriously, if the Lord has touched your heart in any way through this message and you want to know about how you can Experience salvation through Jesus, who died and was raised on your behalf, then just put that on the comment card. We would love to give you a call.

Come up to us afterwards and talk to us. I'll be available. We'll have some people outside that would be happy. To speak with you about these things.

Jesus would say, worship me, and if you do, don't be afraid. Know that I love you and will be with you always. But to those who refuse to bow and worship to this sovereign Lord. They have only wrath from him, and we don't want that for any who are in this room.

I just want to give an opportunity, To you, if there's anyone here and God's touched your heart and you just say, I do feel God's spirit working in my heart and I, This is the day where I need to become a worshiper of Jesus. And experience salvation through him. If, if God's working in your heart in that way, and you just want us to pray for you. Could you just let us know that by raising your hand?

Just no pressure. If you want to lift up your hand, and let us know that, then, We'll remember you in prayer. We're going to be taking up our offering here in just a moment and, We'll ask the Lord's blessing on our offering together. Also, Lord, we thank you for, Leaving heaven's glories and coming into this broken and fallen world so that We might have a savior.

You would only take these steps, Lord, because we are utterly helpless and unable to save ourselves. If we could have saved ourselves by our own good works, you would not have come. You would not have died. What a waste that would have been.

You came because we were helpless. Remind us afresh of our helplessness. And of your love, your power and your willingness to save helpless sinners. And teach us, Lord, To be worshippers.

Of you Even now, as we sing in just a moment, we give our offerings to you. And we give these offerings as an act of worship to You, Lord Jesus. We give ourselves to you in worship. In the name of Jesus Christ.

And all God's people said,