The Resurrected King

The Resurrected King

John 19:35 – 20:17 

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest event in all human history. God’s entire plan of the ages rests on that one historic event. But what you also need to know is that God’s entire plan for your life rests on that historic event as well.

The personal significance and meaning of the resurrection is found in one of the simplest verses in all the Bible, “God loved the world so much, God loved you so much, that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

In other words, the reason God sent His Son is because He loves you and doesn’t want you to perish, He wants you to have everlasting life. Someone might say, “Why would God love me? He’s holy and righteous and surely he knows about all the messes and mistakes I’ve made, why would he want anything to do with me?” Because you’re made in the image of God and He loves you.

We are currently studying through the book of Genesis and there we read that we are made in the image of God.I remember when we had our first child.I was holding her in my arms, absolutely amazed because I realized that she was made in my image.My love for her was not dependent on what she did, it was based on the fact that I was her father and she was my daughter, made in my image.

It’s God’s nature to love and He sent His Son so the world would know how much He loves. He sent His Son to seek and to save that which was lost. In other words, He’s pursuing you. That’s love. He’s knocking on the door of your heart, He’s calling out your name, and He wants you to open the door of your heart so you can have a relationship to God as your Father.

You may be a sinner; but He just so happens to be a forgiver; He’s a redeemer. He gives righteousness to sinners as a gift, you don’t even have to earn it. Eternal life is a gift, you just have to receive it.

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.… Do you believe this?”

Someone might say, “How can you say this? Surely you know that everyone dies.” Of course I know everyone dies, I know that very well. When our daughter was killed it was the most difficult thing we’ve ever endured, but it was her body that died. Her soul lives, she was given eternal life because she asked Jesus into her heart as Lord and Savior.

Everyone will die a physical death, the statistics on death are pretty impressive; something like one out of every one people die physically. The older you get the more you understand that. When you’re young that’s harder to grasp. When you’re young it seems like you live forever, but the truth is you’re growing until about 25 years old, and then it’s all downhill from there.

God sent His Son so we would have hope beyond the grave. Death is not the end.Do you think that when you breathe your last you simply cease to exist?No, your body dies, but God made your soul to be eternal. The question is what happens after your last breath on this earth. God sent His Son so you would have hope beyond this life.

Do you have hope? What do you put your hope in?

The resurrection is about having life instead of death. The resurrection is about having hope from God instead of despair. He ignites our soul and fills our lives with meaning and purpose and transforms us by His presence in our lives.

The resurrection of Jesus takes place on the first day of the week at the dawning of a new day. This becomes a picture that when you receive Jesus into your life it’s the dawning of a new day, it’s just the beginning of experiencing life and life to the full. Some people in this room are just one sunrise away from God turning your life around.

I. Be Reconciled to God

• God is seeking relationship with you. He is the One who is pursuing; He is the one who is knocking on the door of your heart.
• When you open the door of your heart and receive Him into your life, it’s the beginning of a spiritual journey. It’s the beginning of a lifetime of transformation.
• Every one of us was born into a messed-up world and it’s seriously messing up lives, but the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is transforming messed-up lives.       

Romans 8:11, If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

• In other words, don’t just celebrate the resurrection…         

A. Experience the resurrection

• The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not just something to celebrate, it is something to experience.The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is transforming people today.
• He brings life out of death; He brings victory out of defeat; He brings beauty out of ashes.

Psalm 34:18, The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

• God never intended for you to just celebrate the resurrection. Don’t get me wrong, it’s the greatest event in all human history and it should be celebrated, but God wants more than that, He wants you to experience the resurrection and have life.
• It’s God’s power that takes dead things and gives them life. He saves those who are crushed in spirit.

How many of you would say, “God has changed my life, once I was blind, but now I see”?

• Jesus is our example. God sent His Son in human flesh to experience our humanity, to show us the way to victory and to take our failures upon Himself.

1 Peter 2:21, For to this you have been called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps.

Isaiah 53:4-5, Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried… He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.

B. He bore our pain

• Jesus came in the fullness of our humanity and He experienced the pain of living in a broken world. 
• There’s a lot of pain in this life. Some of you are in tremendous physical pain; Jesus understands, He suffered unimaginable physical pain.
• Others experience tremendous emotional pain. Some are feeling rejected, unwanted, and alone. Jesus knew emotional pain as well.

Isaiah 53:3, He was despised and forsaken of man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; like one from whom men hide their face…

• Still others are experiencing relationship pain. Jesus knew that pain as well. He was betrayed by one of His own disciples; Peter denied that he even knew Him, when push came to shove and Jesus was arrested, all His disciples abandoned Him.
• Jesus’ his own family caused Him pain. They weren’t in the crowds following Jesus, shouting, “That’s our brother!” They didn’t get it at all. In other words, He had difficult family, too.

Illus – How many have difficult family? Don’t raise your hand! If you don’t know who that difficult, crazy person is in your family… it’s probably you.

• The point is that he takes broken things and brings healing. Where there is death, He brings life; where there is hurt, He brings healing.

Illus – Shortly after our daughter was killed, I was meeting with my friend Tom and he mentioned the man who killed our daughter by name. I responded, “I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t use his name…” But God healed, and later, at the trial, I spoke to him personally, by name.

• He brings beauty out of ashes.
• He can reveal His purpose in the painful things you experience.

Illus – When I’m going through something painful, it encourages my soul to know that somehow, someway, God can use it in my life. When our daughter was killed it shook us to the very core of our being; and yet we know that God can bring purpose to our pain. I hold onto everything of beauty that God brings out of the ashes of our pain. And this I know; God transforms pain into purpose.

My friend who is now a retired judge also suffered when his daughter was murdered. The two of us are working together to put a Bible college in a state penitentiary in Salem to raise up spiritual leaders within the prisons to truly transform lives. Who knows, maybe one day one of those spiritual leaders in state prison will lead the man who murdered our daughter to faith in Jesus Christ. I tell you, my God is a forgiver, my God redeems, my God saves that which was lost.

Romans 8:28, God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

C. He carries our sorrows

• After the crucifixion, the disciples were greatly troubled. The One who healed the sick, the blind and the lame, the One who raised Lazarus from the dead, the one who spoke and the wind and the waves obeyed His voice had been crucified.
• Jesus told them several times that He would be arrested, handed over to His enemies, be crucified, but then raised again on the third day, but it was difficult to believe. They were confused; they were troubled.

Luke 24:17, 21, They stood still, looking sad… “We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.” 

• When you’re confused, the one great question that keeps coming to your mind is “why?” You want answers. “Why am I going through this?”
• The disciples were troubled, why did this have to happen this way? Peter even got to the point where he quit the ministry and went back to fishing. One of them now has the word doubt connected to his name – doubting Thomas.
• King David’s worship leader wrote a Psalm that captured the words of a troubled heart when he saw the prosperity of the wicked…

Psalm 73:13, 16-17, Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure… When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight… until I came into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end.

• When he drew near to God, then he understood.

Illus – When our daughter died, it was a dark time, it was midnight for my soul. I didn’t have answers, but I did have hope. Rather than getting angry with God, I had to get closer to God. Worship meant so much to me. I just needed God and I needed His healing touch on my soul. “There is no confusion His presence cannot calm.”

II. The Resurrected King is Resurrecting Me

• “I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus said, “he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
• You experience the resurrection when you make it personal. He Himself carries our pain and our sorrows and His blood is the payment that satisfies the debt of our sin.
• Joseph and Nicodemus were Jewish leaders who believed in Jesus secretly. They stood by silently and watched this story unfold. But there came a point when they could stand by no more. They had to get personally involved.
• When they took the body of Jesus from the cross and washed Him to prepare for burial, His blood would have been all over them. 

• You must be personally involved as well. Don’t be a silent observer.

A. You must become part of the story

• Jesus died during the Passover. The Passover comes from when Israel was in Egypt and had to apply the blood of the Lamb on the doorposts and lentil of the house so that death would “pass-over” that home.
• It’s a picture of the blood of Christ applied to us. In other words, His death must be applied to us.

Romans 3:10, 23, As it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one;”… for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Romans 6:23, For the wages of sin is death…

• If the wages of sin is death, then we’re in big trouble, because we’re all sinners and therefore all deserve death.
• But when the blood of Jesus is applied, His death is applied to our lives and the wages of sin are paid for in full.
• And if His death is applied to us, then his resurrection life is also applied to us.

Romans 6:4 -5, As Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.

Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

B. Find your life in Him

• Some of you are one sunrise away from having your life turned around. He is the resurrected King who is resurrecting you.
• “I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus said, “he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
• He knocks on the door of your heart and calls out your name because God loves you and wants you to have a relationship with Him as your Father.
• He is the resurrected King that will resurrect your life. He takes the soul that is dead, discouraged, downhearted and defeated and brings newness of life.
• If you were to die tonight would you be ready to meet God? You can have the assurance that you are right with God when you receive Him as Lord and Savior and ask Him to forgive your sin.