ROSE AGAIN

NO ESCAPE, LONGING FOR RESURRECTION

[1]WELCOME: Good morning everyone! Thanks so much for joining us as we worship Jesus together. If you’re new with us, or just tuning in, my name is Nic Cook and I’m one of the pastors here at Cornerstone Church in Auburn, IL. SERIES: And over the last few weeks we’ve been going through a teaching series called THE CREED: WHAT WE BELIEVE. The creed probably came about around 150-180 years after the earthly life of Jesus. It is a series of short statements that help Christians memorize and know what is true about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Church, the End of Time, and our purpose in life as followers of Jesus. Today we get to the part of [2]The creed states that ON THE THIRD DAY JESUS ROSE FROM THE GRAVE. And we’re so used to hearing that Jesus rose from the dead, that it doesn’t always make us stand in awe and wonder. We’re like yea, yea, I know. In order for us to really recapture the wonder and power of the resurrection, we need to be reminded why it’s so important. And one of the reasons it stands as [3]THE PIVITOL MOMENT IN HUMAN HISTORY IS THAT UP UNTIL THAT POINT THERE WAS…

· NO ESCAPING DEATH: How many of you like scary movies? Go ahead and raise your hand if you’re in a house church, or comment in the chat section. Yes, I love scary movies! Well I don’t watch as many today, but there was a phase where I loved them. [4]And there was a series of movies called Final Destination. I only watched the first couple and they were pretty gruesome. But the premise of the movie was that a group of teenagers were supposed to die in a plane crash and one of them has a vision of it happening beforehand so he makes sure that his friends never get on the plane. The idea is that they cheated death, so death begins to hunt them down. And one by one they all end up dying. [5]The movie plays on two major human themes. One is our deep desire to avoid death at any cost, and the second is that death is inevitable. It comes for us all and can’t be avoided. THERE IS NO ESCAPING DEATH! And everything inside us hates to admit it. [6]We even use different language to talk about dying. We call it passing away, the great sleep, they’re departed, lost their battle. I think comedian Woody Allen said what most of us feel when he said “I’m not afraid of death, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” The fear of death and the fact that we can’t escape it is one of the main reasons that…

o [7]ALL OF HUMANITY LONGS FOR RESURRECTION. This is one of the reasons that if the resurrection of Jesus is true, we should stand in awe and wonder first, and then turn in celebration and live differently. So I’m going to pray, then we’re going to say the creed together and we’ll jump into what God’s word has to say about the resurrection.

Almighty God and Heavenly Daddy, We know that you are with us. By the power of your Holy Spirit, help us to see Jesus. Help us to know that he is alive. That he is still working. Bring about resurrection today. Make the dead live. Make the living, come alive. In Jesus name we pray, Amen. Let’s say this together out loud. [READ CREED] [8-15]

(TEACH) HE IS RISEN, HE IS WHO HE CLAIMED TO BE!

WHAT IF IT’S NOT TRUE? Before we can talk about how the resurrection changes everything in our lives, we should ask the question…What if it’s not true? What if it was a hoax? What if the disciples stole the body and pretended, he rose? What if Jesus only passed out on the cross and never really died? What if they disciples were hallucinating and only saw what they wanted to see? What if the disicples meant Jesus was alive in a metaphorical sense, like being alive in their memory? All of these things have been said about the resurrection. Why? Because we’ve never seen anyone personally rise from the dead. We all know death happens to us all, but we’ve never seen anyone dead jump out of a casket at a funeral. Ancient people weren’t stupid. They felt the same way most people today do, you can’t be MOSTLY DEAD to quote the Princess Bride. MOSTLY DEAD IS ALL DEAD. And a follower of Jesus responded to this disbelief in the resurrection by saying [16-24][1 Cor. 15:3-19] If the resurrection of Jesus never happened then Christians are idiots that should be pitied for basing their life on fairy tales. The best they can hope for is that this fairy tale gives them comfort in this life and then they’ll die just like everyone else. They believe in someone who died and they’ll stay dead just like him. [25]Everything in Christianity rises and falls on whether or not the resurrection happened and if it is true. And I don’t have time to go through all the arguments as to why hallucination, fainting, or metaphorical resurrections simply aren’t convincing. If you’re wanting more information email me at nic@auburncornerstone.org and I can get you some information that answers some of these claims. But I would like to give you a quote from one of the smartest Christian scholars about the truth of the resurrection. [26-28]NT Wright who wrote this giant book on the evidence of the resurrection says “The lines of historical enquiry point relentlessly inward to the first day of the week after Jesus’ crucifixion. Once you allow that something remarkable happened to his body that morning, all the other data fall into place with astonishing ease. Once you insist that nothing so outlandish happened, you are driven to ever more complex and fantastic hypotheses to explain [away] the data. For the historian…the answer should be clear.” He’s basically saying, that if you look at history and the immediate explosive growth of Christianity the most likely reason is that people actually saw him alive again. They believed it because they saw it. As a historian, if you’re trying to disprove the resurrection, you’re going to have to come up with theories that are harder to justify than the actual resurrection. But if the resurrection is true then…[29]

· JESUS IS GOD, OUR SAVIOR, AND OUR KING: You’ve heard me say it before. If you claim to be God, claim to be able to forgive sins, and claim that people should give their lives to you and worship and serve you alone, and then you die and stay dead, then you were a liar and a lunatic. But if you claim all those things and you tell people you’re going to rise from the dead and it actually happens, then you are who you claim to be. The resurrection means that Jesus really was God. It means that he really can forgive our sins. It means that he alone deserves our worship and can demand us to live the way he tells us to. The resurrection is the bold claim that There is no other name under heaven whereby we can be saved. But it also means…[30]

o EVIL, HATE, SIN, AND DEATH HAVE BEEN BEATEN: The resurrection of Jesus means that evil will not win no matter how cruel and powerful it seems. It means that hate could not keep love from winning. It means that sin has been dealt with. And it means that death isn’t final any longer. The devil, sin, and death had done their best and they had lost. This world has been overcome by Jesus. And he has promised us “take heart! I have overcome the world.” [Jn. 16:33] We have watched things in our world with a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness. And the empty tomb cries out to us, I have overcome the world. Love has overcome hate. Good has overcome evil. Life has overcome death. DEATH HAS BEEN ESCAPED BY OUR SAVIOR AND LORD JESUS CHRIST! AND YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS FOR FOLLOWERS OF JESUS?...

(APP) WE WILL RISE, WE ARE RISEN (You)

· [31]WE WILL RISE ONE DAY: There are two ways to understand how the resurrection affects those who have given their lives to Jesus. The first is probably the most common. We believe that there will be a day when Jesus comes back that those who have died will be given new bodies. [32-38] [1 Cor. 15:50-55] Just like Jesus came back not as a ghost, or as a spirit, but with a physical body, we too will have new bodies. Immortal bodies that will never die, never age, never get sick, and never get tired. I’m personally hoping for a full head of hair and the flat stomach of my 20’s. This is more than just a dream or a fairy tale. The early disciples touched Jesus hands and side. They ate with him. They walked and talked with him. And that changed the way they looked at death. They weren’t afraid of it. In fact, all of them ended up suffering because they refused to say that Jesus was not God. They could echo what Paul said when he wrote [39-40][Phil. 1:21-24] He’s saying you know, I can’t choose. Stay here on earth and help you grow, or die now and go be with Jesus. Death was simply the next step in being close to Jesus and that’s what they wanted more than anything. Those of us in Christ have nothing to fear when death comes. Jesus escaped and so shall we. But the second truth that is just as powerful to me is this. Yes we will rise one day at the end of time, but we are a…[41]

o WE ARE RISEN RIGHT NOW! There is a song by the band Switchfoot that says “and I wonder why would I wait till I die to come alive? I’m ready now, I’m not waiting for the afterlife. You and I begin forever now!” I think that they are summarizing the truth in [Rom 6] that says when we were buried in baptism, we experienced a spiritual death, the old us was drowned and never came out of the grave. And when we came out of the waters we were resurrected into new creations. Our new unending forever second life started then. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is now alive in us. [42][Rom. 8:11] says… the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead has taken dead people and made them come alive and helps them to start living in the Kingdom of God right now! We don’t have to die to start really living! We are risen people! We are resurrected people. And because of the Spirit within us, we can start to…[43]

o SHOW PEOPLE NOW WHAT LIFE LOOKS LIKE IN ETERNITY: The Spirit helps us show what a loving community looks like in the middle of a hate filled world. The Spirit helps us show what forgiveness looks like in a world filled will revenge and anger. The Spirit helps us show what laying down our rights and serving looks like in a world that is selfish and seeking power. [44]

JESUS RISING FROM THE GRAVE ON THE THIRD DAY MEANS… Jesus is God, he is the only hope for a broken world, and that he really truly is king. Jesus rising from the grave on the third day means that we have hope to escape death and that one day we will finally experience the fullness of life in a new body and in his presence. But until that day comes, we are not waiting to come alive. We are new creations now and part of showing this dark and broken world what eternity will look like in our lives, our families, our churches, and our communities through the power of the holy Spirit.

CHRIST HAS DIED, CHRIST IS RISEN, AND AS WE’LL TALK ABOUT LATER, CHRIST WILL COME AGAIN! THAT IS THE MESSAGE WE HOLD HIGH IN A WORLD THAT NEEDS HOPE RIGHT NOW!

LET’S PRAY! Jesus, in you we find our hope. In you we find salvation. Jesus in you we find the power to really truly live. We love you! We long to be with you. Thank you for your death on the cross. And we praise for for being the only powerful God who overcame sin, satan, and death. It’s in your name we pray. Amen.

(APP) COMMUNION

We’re going to transition into our time of communion together. And at Cornerstone we try to emphasize that there are at least 3 things that we are experiencing when we take communion. It’s far more than just eating bread and drinking from a cup. That in reality we are REMEMBERING, RECOMMITTING, AND REJOICING. We’re REMEMBERING that our world needed saving and that we are deserved to die because of our sin. But god sent his son Jesus to Save us. we Remember that by dying on the cross, Jesus took our place and our punishment and makes it possible to be in a relationship with God and for our sins to be forgiven. But we are also RECOMMITTING to living as God’s people. This is a covenant meal. A covenant is where two groups make promises to each other and agree to what their relationship will look like. God makes promises to us and we make promises back to him. God promises to love, care, protect, and bless us, and we promise to worship him and make him know to the world. To love, forgive, and serve others like he has done for us. Then finally we are to REJOICE. Communion is not a funeral service for a dead Savior, but a picture of the meal we will eat together in heaven with our resurrected King and God. So today remember Jesus is our Savior our King and Lord. Recommit to living in a way that proves to the world the Jesus is alive. And Rejoice because he is risen! He is risen indeed!

Take the bread: the body of Christ broken for you

Take the cup: the blood of Christ poured out for you.

Thank you Jesus for Saving us. May the way we live bring you glory till you return again. Amen. Let’s continue to worship by singing together…