The Meaning of Christ’s Resurrection

Well, what I wanna do with the time that we have this morning is I want to talk to you on the subject of the meaning of the resurrection and we'll be lingering on this topic with the time that we have this morning. 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross, and we know from what the Bible teaches that he was shedding His blood and being crucified for our sins. But on the 3rd day after he was crucified, Jesus was resurrected physically and bodily from, the grave. That was a significant event in human history.

In fact, I hope you'll understand by the time we're done with the message this morning that the resurrection of Jesus physically, bodily from the grave 2000 years ago is the most significant thing that's ever happened. To you. It's the most important event in your life, and it has staggering implications. his resurrection from the grave changes absolutely everything about human history and about your life.

when you think about it, Jesus made some staggering claims about himself, did he not? He said things about himself like, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one gets to the Father except through me. Jesus said.

He said things like, I am the bread, which is come down out of heaven, the bread of life. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever and never die. He said things like, I am the resurrection and the life. No other human being in the history of the world has made the unceasing claims that Jesus made about Himself, and we're really left ultimately with two choices regarding this Jesus.

Jesus was either who he said he was or he was severely delusional in some way. His claims are just to Too amazing to be understood in any other way other than in those two extremes. Mick Jagger. Of the Rolling Stones, a guy I'm not accustomed to quoting from in my messages, says this about Jesus.

He said, if Jesus had been indicted in a modern court, he would have been examined by doctors, found to be obsessed by a delusion, declared incompetent and incapable of pleading his case, and sent to an asylum. Now, we would, why don't we help our brother here. OK. Now while we would disagree with Mick Jagger and his assessment of Jesus, to his credit, Mick Jagger gets it.

He understands the nature of the claims that Jesus was making about himself. They are amazing claims. This morning though, what we're going to do is not so much focus on what Jesus said about himself, but on what the resurrection of Jesus says about him. Because Jesus, he, he makes an interesting statement in John chapter 5 that is worth our looking at just briefly.

He said these words, If I alone testify about myself, my testimony is not true. What he's saying is, if all these things that I say about me, if I'm the only one who says these things about me, then don't believe a word of what I say. That's amazing. Then he goes on to say John the Baptist gave testimony about me, but he would say, don't even necessarily believe him by himself.

And then he goes on to say there's someone even greater that gives testimony about me, and that is my Father in heaven. He says the Father has testified about me, and his testimony about me is consistent with the statements that I am making about myself. And if you look in the context of John chapter 5, you see that the way that the Heavenly Father was giving testimony about Jesus was through the miracles that he was empowering Jesus to perform and raising the dead and giving sight to the blind and Making the lame able to walk again and the deaf able to hear.

It's through these miracles Jesus says that His Heavenly Father was speaking to the world and giving consistent testimony, testifying about Jesus, the same things that Jesus was testify.

I about Himself and guys, of all of the miracles, of all of the works that God in heaven performed in and through Jesus, there is no greater work, there is no greater miracle than the physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And it turns out that in raising Jesus from the dead on the 3rd day after Christ's crucifixion, God was declaring some things. He was making some statements about Jesus. And what I want us to do this morning is I want us to look at 5 things that Christ's resurrection tells you about him.

5 things that God the Father is telling us about Jesus in raising Jesus from the dead, and we'll spend a little bit of time on each one of these things. And I want, I just ask you that to just open your heart this morning. you may not be a Christian, But just open your heart and just let God speak to your heart about Jesus. God is trying to say something to all of us through his resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

What are those things? Well, the first thing that we can observe that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead tells us about Jesus is that it tells us that Jesus is the ultimate truth teller. He is the ultimate truth teller. He's the ultimate speaker of truth, because it turns out when you read the gospel accounts, you find out that Jesus didn't just get crucified.

And didn't just get raised from the dead on the 3rd day. You find out that Jesus predicted that he would get crucified. He predicted that he would be raised from the dead on the other side of his crucifixion, and he predicted the exact day of His resurrection from the dead. just a couple of these passages we know, like in John 2 at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry that Jesus predicted that he would be killed and raised 3 days later, just weeks prior to his crucifixion as he's heading toward Jerusalem.

Look at some things that he does. It says in Matthew 16:21. From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must be killed and be raised up on the 3rd day. He's like, Guys, we're going to be heading toward Jerusalem soon, and when we're there, I'm going to be killed.

And on the other side of my death, I'm going to be raised from the dead, and it's going to happen exactly 3 days after my death. A little bit later in Matthew 17:23, Jesus says, the Son of Man is going. He's going to be delivered into the hands of men. We're heading to Jerusalem.

We're going, we're traveling, and what's going to happen is that I'm going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. Jesus says, and he will be raised on the 3rd day. There's other passages in the Gospel accounts. The point is that Jesus repeatedly predicted he would be killed.

That he would come back to life physically, bodily from the dead, and he even announces the exact day in which his hearers could expect that resurrection to occur. And sure enough, after Jesus was crucified on this particular Sunday of the year. The women came to the tomb of Jesus and they found that it was empty of the one for whom they sought. There was an angel at the tomb who said these words to the women.

The angel said, he is not here, for he has risen just as he said. I love the fact that the angel inserted that last clause there in that statement. He is risen from the dead, just like he said he would rise from the dead on the 3rd day. Now guys, I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud in front of you this morning, but my theory is that if somebody speaks a prediction wherein they say, I'm going to get killed, and I'm going to rise from the dead, and I'm going to rise from the dead on exactly the 3rd day after I am killed, and all of those predictions come true.

my theory is that we probably ought to pay attention to everything else he says, what? He's probably a speaker of truth in every area, and our interest ought to be what else does Jesus say? It's not just a lucky guess. sometimes people, in our culture today may make a lucky prediction.

Like the New Orleans Saints would win the Super Bowl, they make a prediction and some people are right. Half the people are right, half are wrong, and we don't attach supernatural knowledge to someone who may get that prediction right. But guys, think about it. This is no lucky guess.

I'm going to get crucified. I'm going to be killed. I'm going to rise from the dead bodily from the grave, and it'll happen 3 days after I'm killed. And that comes to pass.

Jesus is the ultimate. Truth teller, and we need to pay attention, therefore to everything he says. I love what Timothy Keller says in his book, The Reason for God. He says, if Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said.

If he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching, but whether or not he rose from the dead. He goes on to say, the resurrection of Jesus changes everything. So you should be asking what else does Jesus say?

What does he say about me? It turns out Jesus says things about you and about me. What does he say about me? What does he say about God?

What does he say about how to have a relationship with God? What does he say about my sin? What does he say about salvation? What does he say about death and about life on the other side of death?

What does Jesus say about all of these things? He's the ultimate truth teller, as demonstrated by his rising from the dead on the 3rd day exactly as he predicted. And we all should be extremely interested in everything Jesus says, by virtue of his resurrection from the dead. There's a second thing that The resurrection of Christ tells us about Jesus, and that is that Jesus has the right to intrude into our lives and direct our religion.

I want to show you even from the Bible, how the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead demonstrates that Jesus has the right to come crashing into your life. And to rearrange the furniture of your life in any way he sees fit and to direct your life to be the Lord of your life and to direct your religion. This is actually taught in the Bible. There's an amazing story that is told in John chapter 2 where we learned that Jesus had come into the city of Jerusalem and he came into the temple and he began to look around and see what was happening in the temple.

And it says in John 2:14 that Jesus found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves and the money changers seated at their table. Basically what would happen in this day is that there would be Jews who would travel from the world over hundreds of miles away many times and they would bring with them their foreign currencies, and they needed money exchanged to be able to make purchases while in Jerusalem, especially to purchase animals for sacrifice. They would also rather than bringing an animal with them from hundreds of miles away for a sacrifice, they would just travel on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem and then they would buy their animal for sacrifice once they get there.

Well, let's make it convenient, the religious leaders thought, and let's allow this commerce to happen inside the temple, alright.

and we will allow space for them inside the temple complex for money changers and also for those that want to buy and to sell animals for sacrifice. The religious authorities had deemed this to be acceptable, and they carved out space for this to happen in the temple. Well, they didn't mind it. They had approved it, but it turns out Jesus didn't like it.

And so look at what happens next. How does Jesus respond? Verse 15. And so he, Jesus, made a scourge that's a whip of cords, and he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen, and he poured out the coins of the money changers.

And overturned their tables. And to those who were selling the doves, he said, take these things away. Stop making my father's house a place of business. Jesus looks around, he doesn't like it.

No one else seems to mind it. So he makes a whip and he goes. After these people and he drives them out of the temple and he takes the tables of the money changers and he turns them over and takes the bags of coins and everything and he pours them all out on the ground and says, Get out of here. I don't want this happening in my father's house.

This is an amazing display of audacity and authority and as we read that story our thought is what in the world gives Jesus the right to come into the temple. And to crash what's going on, to intrude in this way and to dictate what takes place in the temple. What gives them the right to direct their religious practices in this way. Well, that's exactly what many who observed this were asking.

And so look what happens next in verse 18, and the Jews said to Jesus, what sign do you show us as your authority for doing these things? They're like, what right do you have to go acting this way? What sign do you show us that will let us know of your authority to come in and be chasing people out of the temple and dictating what goes on here and what doesn't? And look at his answer verse 19.

And Jesus answered them, Here's the sign. Destroy this temple, and in 3 days I will raise it up. That's the sign of my authority to do what I am doing right now. Now, it turns out no one had a clue what he was talking about.

In that moment, they thought he was talking about a literal temple and so forth, but John the Apostle tells us in verse 22, Jesus was speaking of the temple of his body. John also tells us that when Jesus was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this. Here's what I want us to learn from this. In the mind, in the psychology of Jesus.

The fact that he was bodily raised from the dead, in his thinking, that gives him the right to be the Lord of your life. That gives him the right to come into your life and to dictate what should be believed and what should not be believed, what should be practiced and what should not be practiced. His resurrection from the dead is his certificate that demonstrates his right to come crashing into your life and to direct your religion. It demonstrates his authority.

in our culture today, it's interesting, religion is in vogue. 90% of Americans would categorize themselves as religious. a lot of people are fed up with, rationalism, and they're now into the religious and even the spiritual. Just about anyone you talk to will say, I'm a spiritual person.

and they've got things that they believe and even spiritual practices that nurture their spirit or their soul. But what people are finding is that though just about everyone claims to be spiritual, no one believes the same thing. People are making up their spirituality as they go. USA Today recently reported the results of a survey that was conducted where they were examining the spirituality.

Of Americans and they found out that pretty much most people would say, yes, I'm spiritual, but then their beliefs were all over the place. In fact, one writer commenting on this survey, who was quoting, quoted in this USA Today article said Americans believe in everything. It's like a spiritual salad bar. People's attitude is just, they're, they're spirit To person, it's like, they'll they'll say, well I like this practice and I'll incorporate this into my life and I like this belief.

I think I'll embrace this and oh I don't like that belief, so I'll reject that and, and we live in a culture where everyone is devising and creating their own truth as they go. In fact, a couple of years ago on Yahoo Answers. Just, just a suggestion here. If you're looking for answers as to the meaning of life, don't go to Yahoo Answers.

Go to the Bible, but someone went to Yahoo Answers and asked the question, who is God? And there were many who were happy to provide direction for him. Here's two of the replies, God is whoever you believe him to be. You dictate who God is.

Who do you believe Him to be? Whatever you want to believe Him to be, that's who God is. Another person said God is whoever you believe he or she is. It's what you believe in your heart.

It's all in the eye of the beholder. That's who God is. You define God is basically what they're saying. And so we live in a culture of people who claim to be spiritual, but they're defining their own meaning.

Defining their own truth, making it up as they go. The group Mud Honey, in one of their songs, their lyrics are Living the way you like, you make your own truth. Living the way you like, you make your own truth. And that's the mantra that people live by.

And as a consequence of this, almost everyone claims to be spiritual. In a recent interview, Hugh Hefner, said, I think I am a spiritual person. So everyone's spiritual nowadays. But here's the problem.

Amongst all of this spirituality, it is a spirituality divorced from authority. The message people are conveying to God is, God, I want to be spiritual. I just don't want you to be in charge of my spirituality. People want to be spiritual.

They want to be religious, but in a way that is divorced from any notion of authority. It is a Lordless spirituality. That people seem most comfortable with. They're religious, but guess who directs their religion?

They direct their own religion. They define their own meaning and their own belief and their own truth. Jesus says, I was bodily raised from the dead, and that entitles me to crash that party. To come into your life, to ransack your life and your religion, and to direct what you are to believe and what you are to practice.

You may be here today and Don't claim to be a, a Christian in any way, shape or form, but maybe you think of yourself as a spiritual person. And to you, I would just ask the question. Who is your religious authority? Who, who makes up the truth that you believe in?

Who defines meaning for you? Jesus said, I was bodily raised from the dead, and that is my certificate that demonstrates my right to come into your life and be the one who defines meaning for you, who dictates and directs your religion. Christ's resurrection speaks this to us. We observe this to be true by virtue of his death.

There's a 3rd thing that Christ's resurrection means, a 3rd thing that it tells us, and that is it tells us that Jesus Himself is stronger than our worst enemy, death. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead tells us that Jesus is stronger than our worst enemy, which is death. Death is an enemy, right? Are we agreed on that?

There are some who Who speak of making peace with death, but death is not something that we make peace with. The Bible presents death as an enemy. It is a vicious enemy that is doomed to be destroyed, not something that we make peace with. You guys hear something?

That's not me. Think about death for a moment. Death destroys everything, does it not? just looking with our physical eyes, we see that death ultimately reigns.

There is life, but in the end, death always comes out as the victor. Death takes away our loved ones. Death takes away our grandparents from us. It takes away our parents from us.

Death takes away our spouses from us. In some cases, death takes away our children from us. And we also observe that death takes Life away from us, we ourselves. One poet has said death comes with a crawl or it comes with a pounce.

Sometimes death is slow and sometimes death is spry, but either way, death always wins in the end. even as I'm 45 years old, and I, I've said this from this pulpit before. But death is at work in me and it's winning. I often say to people that, that I'm not waiting for death to pay me a visit in some future distant day.

Death already is paying me a visit every single day and it's killing me one cell at a time. as evidence of that, I'm wearing reading glasses. I have to to be able to read anymore, and even these are very close to not even being strong enough for me to be able to read. why?

Because I'm dying. Death is crawling in me, and it is killing my eyeballs. My corneas are not as flexible as they used to be. So I'm not able to focus and I'm not able to read as I was able to 10 years ago.

Every morning I get up and I see evidence that death was there during the night and plucking hair follicles from the top of my, my head, and I don't mean to sound morbid, but honestly, Every single morning I look in the mirror and my thought is I'm dying. I'm dying little by little, not waiting for death to show up. It's showing up. It is crawling and slowly, methodically, cell by cell, doing its dastardly work.

Death is powerful. And in all seriousness, guys, death not only destroys those we love and ultimately consumes us, but it destroys all meaning as well. Leo Tolstoy, the Russian writer who passed away in 1910, was really troubled by this power of death to consume and destroy all meaning. Listen to what he said in his work entitled A Confession.

He says, my question, that which at the age of 50 brought me to the verge of suicide, was the simplest of questions, lying in the soul of every man. Here's the question, Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy? Man, what a question that is. Is there anything in my life?

Is there any meaning in my life? That death will not utterly destroy. That is the burning question. And what the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb provides.

Powerful answer to that question. It turns out Jesus is stronger than death, and the resurrection demonstrates that. Listen to what the apostle Peter says in the Bible, Acts chapter 2 verse 24. He says, But God raised Jesus up again from the dead, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Jesus to be held in its power.

Jesus basically said, Go ahead, punch me and slap me and spit upon me. Take a crown of thorns and beat it without mercy into my brow, strip the clothes from my back, tie me around a great stone, and lash me again and again and again with a whip, and then lay me up on a cross and nail me through my hands and through my feet. Kill me, you. Can overkill me.

And when Jesus died and was laid in that tomb, he was swallowed by the jaws of death. But on the 3rd day, he came forth from the jaws of death and resurrection power, never to die again. That is the power of Jesus. He's stronger than death.

what, whenever My wife and I used to play certain board games and we would keep track of our win-loss record, and one year we played 100 of such games. She ended up beating me 51 to 49. And we would keep track each night, and I love with my favorite teams and things like that of keeping track of the wins and the losses. And so I did that regarding death as well this week and this is what it would look like death if it has its own record written on a wall somewhere.

I don't know how many human beings have lived in the history of the world, let's say 20 billion. Death would observe that I have 20 billion victories, and there's one defeat. One defeat. And that defeat is Jesus.

In his resurrection from the tomb, and I don't know, guys, my thought is if I'm looking for someone to hook up with in life here and in the next world, I want to hook up with that person, what? Death has defeated everyone and everything else except this one person right here, and that's Jesus. He's the one I want a relationship with. It's his team that I want to be on because what, in being raised from the dead bodily, Jesus was telling us something about our future, those of us that place our faith in Him and believe in Him for salvation.

In 1 Corinthians 15. The apostle Paul says Christ has been raised the first fruits of those who are asleep. Speaking of the sleep of death, Jesus is merely the first of many to be physically, bodily raised from the dead and resurrection power. His disciples and all of us on the other side of his resurrection, Jesus would say, come and look at me and touch me and feel me and thrust your hand into my side.

Look carefully at me, because when you look at me, you're looking at your future. The day is going to come that if you trust in me, I am the resurrection and the life. I'm not the means to the resurrection and the life. I am the resurrection and the life.

And you, if you follow me and believe in me and put your trust in me, you too will be bodily raised, never to die. Again, Jesus is stronger than death. There is meaning. There is life on the other side, even physical life in heaven.

We will have bodies that look much better than the bodies we have now. We will walk and we will dance and we will sing and we will hug. We will embrace. We will feel physical sensations in glorified bodies because Jesus was raised from the dead.

Demonstrating he's more powerful than our worst enemy. Death. There's a 4th thing that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead tells us. And that is it tells us that Jesus and His love are stronger than our sins.

It tells us that Jesus and His love are stronger than our sins. Guys, let's face it, we all have sinned. We many times try not to think about the sins that we have committed throughout our life. We try to minimize those sins.

We come up with different words for the sins, we make excuses, we rationalize our sins. We try to, just simply not to think about our sins. But we've all sinned. And we've sinned against God in every sin that we have committed.

I really want to challenge everyone in this room. With this, that in the eyes of God, I want you to know something that's very attractive to God when he sees it in a human being. God loves a human being who makes a big deal out of their sins. and out of their failings.

A broken spirit, a repentant and a contrite heart. God loves to see that in a person. He doesn't like it when we make a big deal out of other people's sins and feel superior to other people, but when we make a big deal out of our own sins, God rejoices when he sees that in us. And what, if you want to have a right view of your sins, come to the cross, come to the foot of the cross, and what you will observe, as you see Christ hanging upon that cross, look what Peter says in 1 Peter 2:24, Jesus himself bore our sins in his body on the cross.

All of the sins that you have committed. We placed on him and he bore those sins in his physical body, while on the cross. And what did our sins do to him when our sins were placed upon Him? Look at what Isaiah the prophet says in Isaiah 53:5, literally in the Hebrew text it says, but he was pierced through from our transgressions.

He was crushed from our iniquities. As your sins and my sins were placed upon Jesus, and he bore those sins in his body. Literally, our sins pierced him, and our sins crushed him and killed him on the cross. Making all of us violators of the sixth commandment, thou shalt not kill.

The sixth of the 10 commandments is thou shalt not kill. We go to the foot of the cross, and we learn in the Bible, that because of our sins, We have murdered Jesus. And then suddenly we turn away from the cross and we see our sins in a way we've never seen them before and we realize that our sin is murder. It is the murder of God.

I can no longer call this a mistake or a failing and brush my sins off saying, well, no one's perfect. Oh, Jesus bore my sins on his body, and my sins pierced and crushed and killed him. So sin is a very big deal. The Bible does not mince words about sin.

Sin is way worse than you have imagined. But what? Our sins were so bad that they crushed and pierced and killed Jesus. He was buried in a tomb.

And on the 3rd day, he shows up again, fully alive. It turns out there's something more powerful than our sins. And it's Jesus. He took the worst that we could give to him.

He took all of our sins and suffered death. And on the 3rd day, he came back to life again, saying, I'm here, and I'm ready to love you, and to give you forgiveness for all of your sins. See, not only did Jesus die from our sins, But in dying, the Bible tells us he died for our sins. He was dying as a sacrifice, taking upon himself the judgment that we deserve for our sins, so that he might now give us atonement and salvation.

Look at what Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 28:31 and 32, This is like hours before his arrest. And Jesus says to His disciples, you're all going to fall away because of me this night. I want you to think about it. You're all gonna fail me tonight.

You're all gonna sin against me tonight, and you're going to flee away from me. You're going to take offense at me. Peter, you're going to deny me 3 times. And sure enough, Peter did.

All the disciples fled. Peter stuck around the longest, and ultimately Peter swore an oath that he never knew Jesus. And in swearing an oath, he may have swore that oath upon himself, saying, May I be damned if I'm lying when I say I don't know Him. But there are some people who believe when he swore the oath, it was an oath against Jesus.

Pardon this, but this could be what Peter said, Damn him, I don't know him. All of the disciples sinned against Jesus that night. They fled from him. Peter outright, viciously denied Jesus and Jesus knew it was all going to happen.

And look what he says before it happens, you're all going to fall away because of me this night. But after I've been raised, I will lead you as a shepherd to Galilee. He's planning on loving them on the other side of his death and his crucifixion. What an amazing savior we have.

You're going to sin against me tonight. And I'm gonna die, but after I've been raised, I'll be there for you. I'm gonna be your shepherd. I'm gonna love you and certainly after he was raised, he loved all over those disciples.

And that love for them that survived the cross radically changed every one of them. the resurrection, the bodily resurrection of Jesus is a miracle. It's an astounding miracle. And it's utterly amazing.

But I think maybe that an even greater miracle is that his love for me survived the cross. And as he came forth from the tomb, he came forth ready to love with his resurrection power. We can be amazed that Jesus ultimately survived the cross through His resurrection. We should also be amazed that his love for us survived the cross.

Jesus very personally knows what it feels to have your sins piercing him and crushing him. He had every right. To be raised and say, I am done with every one of you. I have felt in my person.

The weight of all of your sin. But instead, he comes back from the dead and says, I'm gonna love you and I have forgiveness, and I have grace if you will come to me and let me save you. And that leads to the final, the 5th and the final thing that we can observe. In the death or in the resurrection of Jesus.

And that is that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, that historical event tells us that Jesus has absolute authority. He has all the authority he needs to be your Savior and to be mine, and being raised from the dead, Jesus shows that resurrection as a certificate saying, I am entitled by God the Father to be your Savior. You go to the tomb and find that it's empty, and what you observe. Is that you have a savior if you want one.

You have salvation If you want it. The title, the words the Son of God in ancient times, especially amongst the Jews, was a messianic title, and that word Messiah simply means Anointed One. They were all waiting for the Anointed One, the one chosen, anointed by God to bring salvation and deliverance, and, and the question was who is the Anointed One? And what God the Father says.

As to how you can tell who the anointed chosen savior is, God would say, look for the one I raised from the dead. That's the one who is the anointed one. And in Romans 1:4, the apostle Paul says that Jesus was declared the Son of God with power by his resurrection, or by the resurrection from the dead and raising him from the dead, God was saying, Jesus has authority. He's the anointed one, the one I have chosen to be your Savior.

See, all of us want to get to God, right? That's, that's the heartbeat of many human beings who think about salvation. I want to get to God. Well, God is the one who chooses the means through which we're going to get to him.

And we need salvation as a result of our sin. And so God is the one who has to choose the savior through whom we can come to Him. And the one he has chosen is indicated by the one that he raises from the dead, and that's Jesus. In Acts 17 Paul is speaking on Mars Hill to a bunch of worshippers of various gods, and he says God has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead.

He's talking about Jesus. You'll know the one God has appointed because he's the one that God has raised from the dead. Jesus on the other side of his resurrection says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Basically, what happened at his resurrection is God handed him the keys of the universe and said, Jesus, you now have all power, all authority in heaven and on earth.

You can absolutely do what you please. And now that Jesus has that authority, what he wants to do with it? He wants to save. He wants to save.

God the Father wants that also. In Acts 5. It says God raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death. He is the one whom God has exalted to his right hand as a prince and as a savior to grant repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God, and from that position of authority and might, Jesus wants to grant repentance. He wants to instill in people a sorrow over their sin, a desire to turn away from their own ways. Jesus wants from that position to grant forgiveness for all the sins that people have committed throughout their lifetime. Jesus is Lord, and with that lordship that was given to him on resurrection day, he wants to use that lordship to be your savior, and he can save you forever because he will never die.

In Hebrews 7:25, the Bible says that Jesus is able to save those, saved to the utmost those who come to God through him because he always lives. Those whom he saves will live as long as Jesus lives. And just in closing, you may say, well, what do, what do I need to do to receive this salvation? From, from Jesus.

Yes, I see he's entitled to be my savior. He's entitled to be my Lord. What do, what do I need to do to get this salvation from him? Well, let me just read one verse to you that provides direction.

There are many, but we're just going to read this. The Bible says if you confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord. And remember, he's Lord because he was raised. And saying Jesus, your Lord, what you're saying is Jesus, you're the absolute Lord of the universe.

And you have absolute power. And so you're the only one who has the absolute power to be able to save me. You're the only one who has the Lordship necessary to grant salvation. And so I acknowledge you as the sovereign and eternal Lord of the universe, who through your lordship has power to save.

And I believe in my heart that God has raised you from the dead. I believe that you're the chosen one, by God the Father to be my savior. You're the anointed one. To be my Lord and to be my savior.

The Bible says, even where you're seated right now, that if you will look to Jesus as your saving Lord, And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved, even right now. Let me ask you to bow your heads. We're going to take up an offering in just a moment. I want to encourage you to give as the Lord leads you to give.

There's comment cards that are in your bulletins, and feel free to fill those out, prayer requests, praise items, and put those in the offering bags as they come by this morning. But listen, if you're here today and you've never, You've never understood maybe just what needs to happen for you to get your sins all forgiven. I hope that the message has been clear to you. And I want you to know you're in the right place this morning.

There is a God in heaven who was thinking about you specifically, before the world was even created and he devised this amazing plan. God wants to save you through his chosen one, Jesus. And all you need to do is see your own bankruptcy and say, God, I'm not going to try to save myself anymore. I don't have the righteousness necessary to save myself.

But Jesus, he's, he's the one you've chosen to be my savior, so I'm going to go with the one you chose. I won't be my own savior. I will let no one else or nothing else be my savior, except the one you chose to be my savior, Jesus Christ. He will be.

My saving Lord, the one you raised from the dead. If you have any questions about this, I think you can pray right now where you're seated and receive this salvation, but if you want to talk further, come to me after the service. There's going to be a resource table outside right when you leave the auditorium and there'll be people there, and we would love to talk with you and explain to you further how you can get all of your sins forgiven through Jesus. Let's pray together Lord God, what an amazing God you are.

What a privilege it is to be able to have a relationship with you through Jesus. Thank you for your absolute infinite ingenuity in devising so wonderful a plan of salvation to do what we absolutely could not do. And you did it all through the person and through the work of your son on the cross and in raising Him from the dead. We thank you, Lord, we praise you.

I pray that you would do a work in all of our hearts. Draw us to you, our saving Lord. As we meditate on these things today. We thank you for the opportunity to give of our offerings to you, Lord, receive our offerings and do much with them for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, and all God's people said, Amen.