Christ's Resurrection: Why It Matters for Eternity

[Music] well look at you here risking life and limb to be at church i am so proud of you that was an awesome thing here for us to remember a man that lived in israel 2 000 years ago and if you think about it i mean he never traversed more south in egypt he he didn't travel further north in syria contained within just a few decades in israel just within a few hundred miles and yet his impact has been global his fame has traveled around the world it's sustained 2 000 years later that's a big deal a big deal it's a big deal it's why people like me continually publicize him we advertise him we talk about him we promote him we celebrate him that that is what has been happening and and it is something that has sustained this movement at least humanly speaking because we keep promoting a man from israel 2000 years ago that is more than a man matter of fact that's the assertion of the christian church that he's far more than just a man from israel who went around teaching and doing good things 2000 years ago as a matter of fact the more you understand the nature of the assertion of the christian church for the last 2000 years the more you look at this thing that we're celebrating this morning the resurrection of christ and and think well of course i mean the more you understand who he is the more uh you know obvious this thing becomes i mean think through some of the things that jesus said even when it was heating up and they started to threaten him uh he said things like this he said well um yeah destroy my body and in three days i'll i'll raise it up i mean that's quite a response to feeling threatened right i mean it's one thing to say i know karate or you know i'm i'm packing heat you don't want to mess with me but he says no you kill me and um i'll raise my body up in three days i mean that's just a major assertion and unfortunately we don't view him i think the way that we ought to and i've got you know my you know my career to blame because i think a lot of modern preachers just unfortunately have continued to look at christ within the context of that three decades and 3 000 years or 2000 years ago in those 300 miles and they say well here is the jesus that we're presenting to people this itinerant rabbi and he did good things and he rose from the dead and isn't that amazing that he was dead and i was alive and i'm thinking well wait a minute if you really think about the nature of who christ is right the more normal this is he's not just some some helpful compassionate you know kind cool guy that we should all kind of rally around he's he's something far more than that and the more we rightly understand the nature of christ then then i think the more we're able to sit across the table so to speak with him and engage in what he's calling all people to engage in and that is a relational contract i mean he is he's i mean the bible calls it a covenant but this covenant relationship we're supposed to have i can't really know what kind of relationship i'm supposed to have with this person i won't know the terms of the contract if i don't know who i'm dealing with i've got to know something about this person that god has asked me to give not only my attention to but my life to who is he who really is he and then why does it make such natural sense to say well of course if he died he's going to rise as a matter of fact the resurrection itself i think you need to think more of a personal restoration of this person we call jesus christ then it is a physical resurrection is it a physical resurrection absolutely it is a physical resurrection from the dead but it's a personal restoration and by that i mean christ was not returning to who he was before he died follow me now you're not returning to who he was before he died he's returning to who he was before he was born there's a difference there right who were you before you were born no one right i mean you are contained in time in space and god puts you in this place on planet earth and and that's where everything started for you that's not where everything started for christ i mean the constant refrain in what not only what jesus did but what he taught about himself kept reminding us that he pre-existed matter of fact this time on earth we call it the incarnation where he took on human flesh and dwelt among us before that though there was this entire reality matter of fact he's being attacked by the religious leaders of the first century and they start talking about abraham he says you know before abraham was born i am you start thinking well we need to correct him a little on the grammar that's not how you should say that but he's making a very clear point that back in exodus when moses is having this conversation with god at the burning bush bush god says i am that he presents himself the way i am matter of fact the word yahweh the proper name of god is a form of that of that verb to be i am and he's saying i am and that's how they worship him in heaven i i was i i am and and i am to come i mean that's the idea who was who is and who is to come and here is this one that we gather to celebrate and in particular on this day the resurrection of that one and you need to think about the fact that this was the end of his earthly ministry we call it which should presuppose in our mind that he existed before this and he existed before this in a very different way as philippians 2 says he existed in the form of god now he didn't regard equality with god a thing to be hung on to to be grasped but he emptied himself and he was found here on earth in the appearance as a man so when we think about the resurrection as we ought to on a day like this you want to think about the fact that it is a restoration of who he is it is a personal restoration to who he was before and when you're gonna enter into a contract and you're gonna have a whole different experience thinking through this relationship with someone that i'm saying you need to have a relationship with because he's not the one that you picture sitting at the at the last supper table he's not the one hanging on the cross he's not the one that you might picture teaching the crowds by the sea of galilee matter of fact when one who knew him really well and had plenty of meals with him had an encounter with him after the resurrection on the island of patmos john the beloved disciple he was floored literally he dropped down on the ground as though dead when he saw the resurrected christ now that is a picture that i think we need to get clearly in our minds so that we can understand this whole thing regarding his earthly ministry why he came and then the resurrection that simply restored him to who he was before if we can understand that i think we can rightly relate to him and it starts with that and i want to give you a passage of scripture that comes on the heels of the text we studied last week it's found in john chapter 12 that if we could understand these few sentences in the red letters of the gospel of john and say i know what jesus is saying here then i think we've got it we can figure this out we can say okay i get who you are i understand who i am and then i understand what the transaction is that you're calling for every person on the planet to make so turn in your bibles find this passage if you would john chapter 12. i'd just like to look at verses 23 24 25 and 26 that'll only take me four hours to preach through those four passages the person that brought you warned you right how long this takes the ham will wait i'm kidding will not be that long matter of fact this will be the shortest sermon of the year potentially until i think of other things off script to say four verses if you look at the context if you found a worksheet perhaps you grab one of those coming in or you download the digital one you'll see i've got a little context there because on the heels of what we studied last week the triumphal entry we've now got people coming to jerusalem from all over the world the hellenized world a lot of greek people that had an interest in judaism and they're coming to jerusalem and they find philip who is a jewish apostle and yet he has a greek name that he goes by so the greeks find him and they say we want to see jesus he's he's making talk about advertising and publicity he's already doing a lot of that for himself and everyone's wanting to come and see him matter of fact the verse that we ended on last week you can see just above this in verse 19 it's as the whole world was going after him at least that's how the pharisees saw it because they thought we need to do away with this guy and put him in the basement and they're like we can't all of our work to put him down isn't working everyone's going after him and they want to know who is this guy who are you the one who's raising people from the dead who are you well here's his response to all this attention and he gets right to the heart of the matter look at verse 23 in john chapter 12 i mean i can't really get past this first verse without saying there's so much here for us to understand regarding who he is jesus answered them verse 23 and said this the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified you have any friends that speak about themselves in the third person that's kind of annoying you would think right well or who who do you think you are right talking about yourself in the third person uh he talks about himself in the third person very very specific reason he calls himself the son of man because that's supposed to trigger in the mind of all these faithful jewish adherents including even the proselytes that are coming from other nations to say well listen you've been studying the old testament right you understand the prophecies of the old testament at least you're familiar with phrases like the son of man in the old testament prophets including a very important one that he's going to pull together in the end of this little paragraph about the fact that all people in the world are supposed to serve the son of man that's what daniel chapter 7 says because all authority is given to this one called the son of man standing before the ancient of days and the scene in heaven where god the father gives all authority to the son all dominion is given to him he's supposed to then run a kingdom in which all people all nations all tribes all peoples are supposed to submit to him and follow him and we're gonna have a copacetic kingdom and it'll all be great but it starts with recognizing that the son of man is the one in charge and it says here in this passage the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified now put a pin in this for a second because you think okay what does that mean does it mean that he's going to glorify god in his death well that is true matter of fact he starts talking about that in verse 27 there's going to be a glorification of the father because the son does what he's called to do more on that in a minute but we need to think about the fact that this little detour into earth is simply a uh out of step reality if you will for christ christ is not like this he's not like someone walking around on the planet having to find a place to sleep having to go to a well and have water for refreshment and and eating meals every day that's not who the son of man is the son of man it transcends all of that as a matter of fact let's go forward a couple chapters to chapter 17. scroll all the way down to john chapter 17 where jesus is praying to the father and he puts it super clearly here in this passage in john chapter 17 as he prays to the father he says this i mean let's just get the whole context but i'm really zeroing in on verse five but in verse one it says jesus had spoken these words he lifted up his eyes to heaven he said father the hour has come glorify your son not that i'm gonna glorify you in this act which of course he is but you're gonna glorify me now glorify your son that the son may glorify you so we're talking about something that's going to happen here in the future since you have given him speaking of daniel 7 authority over all flesh which is the problem in the world most people don't see that christ is their authority but that is the contract he wants to make but you got to rightly understand who he is right he's given him all authority over all flesh to give eternal life for those that recognize that authority right to all whom you have given him there are people in the earth that are distinct they're called out that's what the word by the way church means ecclesia called out this called out group within the world and those are going to be the people the father gives to the son and the son is going to be the leader of those people the king of those people and those people now are going to be able to relate to the father and have the honor of the father and the gifts of the father and the eternal life that the father wants to give those people but all those people need to be under the sun they need to submit to the lordship of the son they need to see his authority he says and this is eternal life verse three that they may know you right i'm the conduit i'm the way the truth of life no one's gonna come to the father except through you the only true god and jesus christ whom you've sent because you can't know god without knowing christ i know that's very popular thing to think that every religion is basically the same we're all trying to find this infinite spirit in the sky get through muhammad buddha hinduism whatever the bible's very clear only one way because there's only one christ there's only one to whom all authority is supposed to be and and that is bound up in the person of the son i've glorified you on earth he says having accomplished the work that you gave me to do this is the end of his earthly ministry now note this super carefully and now father glorify me in your own presence right he's going to leave the earth going to go up and be enthroned at the right hand of the father with the glory think about that word the greatness the acclaim the power the majesty that i had with you before the world existed i said what were you doing before you were born what were you doing before the world existed nothing because you didn't exist the son of man to whom all authority has been given and everyone should serve that son right that son has existed before the world existed and he was glorified in this greatness and unfortunately we keep picturing him as this traveling itinerant rabbi in in israel can we sure we can should we oh only if we understand the rest of the picture it'd be like you constantly thinking of some great super strong very successful nfl football player but the only thing you keep thinking about is him at his seventh year old birthday party at the park where he had cake frosting all over his face oh look at he's so cute i love him he's my favorite football player okay but that's not who he is like now that's not that's not the guy the guy that you love this football player and that you admire and you respect he's this massive football player and all you can think of is him at the park with with frosting on his face now did that happen yes was that a good thing sure ask his mom that's why we took pictures of it it's a good thing but it's not it's not who he is it's the inverse of someone getting to know you only by looking through your wedding photo album let's reverse this maybe they even actually got got a link to the video and they watched the video of you at your wedding and they've analyzed every frame of it they are students of you they've looked at your picture they've drawn pictures of your pictures i mean they are so into you and i say hey you want to meet that person and then i take them to your house wake you up at six in the morning to answer the door and say here she is and he's gonna go whoa and then not who i thought it was if i take someone to meet you after all day working in the garden and sweating and dirt all over you and and i said here's the guy that you've been studying in the tux see it's it's inverted because this is the glory and the greatness of christ for eternity on both ends and then he comes to earth for just a few decades and all we can see now is him in that humble state all we can see is him in that actually humiliated state because that's what the bible says in philippians 2 he humbled himself and he got to the place of a kind of humility and shame of being crucified on a cross naked stripped beaten swollen face there's your majestic son of god that we read about during our worship in revelation chapter five i'm not how heaven recognizes him now that's not how you're going to recognize him and that's not how he was recognized a billion years ago he was worshipped as a person of the triune godhead for all of eternity and now after his earthly ministry was over he said now return to me the glory i had with you before the foundation of the world that's who i really am now did he have little reminders of who he was during his earthly ministry sure they were called the miracles he's like when anyone can suspend natural law that's kind of a big deal and you must be more than just a man and then there was one little scene one little scene where he said let me show you the photo album and he pulled back his humble humanity it's called the mount of transfiguration and just for a little while here he is showing up with elijah and moses and it's like and the apostles said man the clothes were whiter than any longer could launder them and there was some kind of majestic expression of the greatness and glory of christ and peter james and john fell down and they're like wow and it was like okay let's get back to work see the exception is his earthly ministry the norm is this eternal glory and you've got to know that and part of his plan was to lay that aside temporarily and then get back to the prestige of majesty and glory and just need to understand that number one if you're taking notes understand christ's prestigious plan and it was always for him to be adored by angels and served by people and the center of the universe he's not your helper he's not your butler he's not your life coach he is the center of everything and all authority all dominion look it up for yourself in daniel chapter 7 is given to the son of man that everyone should serve him he should be the center of your life he should be the center of history he should be the center of everything because he is the sinner and one day god's going to wrap up this little period of rebellion on the timeline between genesis 3 and revelation 19 and he's going to deal with all that and then we're going to get back to the way things ought to be that's the good news of the gospel every word how can god be so good and powerful and all-knowing if all this evil garbage in the world exists it won't for long no one's going to be saying that a million years from now they're all going to be like wow i can't believe that god put up with that rebellious earth for as long as it did and you're going to be looking as it says in revelation chapter 5 at the lamb that everyone is bowing down before strange statements about the seven spirits of god probably these angels from revelation chapter 8 where they go out into the earth and and all this picture of that 24 elders bowing down and everyone's saying here's where all the praise and glory and power and dominion go and everyone's going to recognize that colossians 1 says that he is the image of the invisible god when you think about jesus christ and going to celebrate his resurrection how do you think about him think about the resurrection as a restoration to who he is and then you think duh of course i can't believe see that christmas is not really hailed as a more significant holiday than easter because i can't imagine that he would come to earth and be found in the appearance of that that's the amazing thing that he would be so like humbled by becoming a human being now when you're saying okay it's over now he's going to go back now you say oh finally many angels are like finally his prestigious plan is to be the center of everything and that is what he is going to be as a matter of fact it says in philippians 2 after talking about his humbled state that then he will be enthroned again and every knee will bow heaven earth under the earth and every tongue will confess that jesus christ is lord he's the king he's the boss he's in charge to the glory of god the father and it will glorify the father the son of man is going to be glorified which is looking forward to his resurrection he glorified god and all that he did but he himself would be glorified when he was resurrected and ascended to the father back to our passage john chapter 12 look at the next verse it speaks in verse 24 about his purpose what did he come to do hours come for the son of man to be glorified truly truly i say to you look at verse 24 john 12 unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains alone but if it dies it bears much fruit a simple agrarian illustration of a seed you got one you put it in the ground it's done it's over you can't do anything with that anymore and then all sudden it germinates grows up and you got this giant plant this tree that's how jesus talked about the church i talked about the kingdom of god being like from a mustard seed it's tiny and then all of a sudden it grows and it's gigantic and all the birds nest in it and it's a huge thing that picture of the growth of the church of people bowing down and worshipping christ and recognizing that he's the boss the lord all of that right it starts with this this seed and the picture here is that i'm going to die which is the whole point of me coming is so that i can die and from that then multiply this crop of human beings and that's the point he dies so that he can have more than just himself be the son of god and the glorified one because that's the whole promise that you have been talking you've heard about your whole life and that is that hey you become a christian you become a child of god and you get to go to heaven and have all this stuff if you know the biblical terminology you go from being justified to glorified and so i want to be glorified i want a resurrected body i want to be there i don't want to be punished for my sin and so all of that is the promise of this contract but it wouldn't have happened unless he came and did what he did why the detour to be so humiliated here on earth well because i had to die the contract is i had to deal with the sins of the people and in that sense and this is an important word we read it up on the screen here from revelation chapter five he had two ransom people for god that's the only way he can create a kingdom with these priests to god that directly relate to god is if he buys them purchases them number two if you're taking notes jot that down you need to realize that christ died to purchase us that's what he came to do about my parking space and backing in and all that last week let's just say as i pulled out of my parking space i uh clipped a prius on the way out after i parked so straight into my parking space and i got out to look at it and there was the taillight on the ground and i was like oh man i gotta be really careful so i backed up then i ran into this corolla that was on the other side of me and i said look at how i bashed that and the hood crinkled i was like oh that's terrible so i was looking back at that as i was pulling out and then i scraped this this this tesla the door just completely crumpled and then some rich guy was here for some i don't know counseling appointment and uh he had his ferrari parked right by the driveway and then i ran into that that was horrible and so i hit those four cars in the parking lot but you'll be happy to know that as i finally got onto the street on columbia here and i felt like oh i i said to myself man i'm really sorry and i drove to del taco when i had lunch i left some damage in the parking lot but i'm sorry how are you feeling about that well you know if it were my lamborghini or my ferrari i would feel bad about it i'll bet you'd feel bad about it if you're a prius not that any of you would drive a prius but let's just this is an illustration now the damage i caused to cars in the parking lot as i pulled out you know that being sorry about it doesn't change anything i mean you might say well that's a nice thing that you feel bad about it it's not like i'm going good i'm glad i did that but if you said wait wait wait you run down columbia you say wait pastor mike stop dude look at the damage you did you need to deal with that and if i say to you you know what i know guys that have run into a lot more cars than that and i am sorry can i get you anything at del taco you're going to go well no no your attitude is not right about this you need to fix your attitude because you know those things are going to cost to repair them so you need to come back in here and deal with that i mean let me go in the office here figure out whose cars these are and you need to pay for that now if i said sorry spent all my money on my car i don't have any money but i am sorry and i know people that have done a lot more damage than i have doesn't fix anything see the problem is the word ransom purchase is that there is a price that needs to be paid why did jesus come because he had to pay the price for your moral damage and i know you can say like everyone says well i know people that have run into a lot more moral obstacles than i have okay there's a pharisee once that went up to worship on the temple mount and he saw someone there that was like the king of the demolition derby he bashed into so many things morally he was a tax collector and he had the gall to go up to worship at the same time the pharisee did and the pharisee looked at him and said i am so glad i'm not like him there's a real sinner right there and it says all that this tax collector could do was beat his chest he wouldn't even look up to the sky to pray and he said lord have mercy on me a sinner this is the first time that jesus employed the word justified paid for right it's been settled he said guess which one of these two went home justified i mean it's the one that has to recognize the problem and say i need to pay for this and i can't pay for this i need someone else to pay for this contrition see when you think other people are worse sinners than you guess what you're right but it does not matter it is no excuse for you not paying for these things you think well i can't i can't pay for them right how can i pay for all these things really morally i'm gonna go back all the way to my childhood and start somehow making reparations and repairs and payments and some kind of appendance for all the things i've done i can't do that no you're right you can't there are certain sins there's no amount of money there's no amount of good deeds that will ever correct any of that you're gonna have to have someone else pay for it and that's the whole point christ didn't come for the weekend to die he came for an entire lifetime so that he could store up all of this human morality do everything right and then to die on a cross to be treated as though he were the one that bashed into all those cars when the father took out the payment on his son which is a very unpopular doctrine these days sorry someone has to pay and i know what people are saying as they look from across the street well you know what if you were really nice guy you wouldn't need payment for any of that i've said it many times but if i were running to be a judge here in orange county and my slogan was vote for me and everyone goes free i would get a lot of votes from the jail but i wouldn't get a lot of votes from the people in this society because they know that's not justice if you're going to be a good judge you have to be a just judge you can't let everybody go well let's let everybody go who's bashed into more cars than four no how about under three no you're gonna have to realize that every sin it requires a payment and that's why the first starting point with understanding the greatness of the son of man is critical because if you really think about it as psalms says how can another man redeem another man right how can a person die in redemption for someone else how can that be i mean there's no price that you can even put on that if christ died for one person you might say well i guess if he's a really righteous man you could exchange one righteous life for an unrighteous life but how is it that christ can save me and you and not only that how about people from every tongue tribe and nation well the bible says because much like me coming to the impound lot to get your car out for parking violations if i say i want to trade this car for that car well it better be a car that's of greater worth than that car and you got your prius there in the impound lot and i pull up in a prius i might be able to get one prius out for one prius but if i roll up in my lamborghini my blue porsche carrera my red ferrari i bet i could get out a few priuses right because the infinite worth of christ on a cross is able to say i paid for your sins i paid for his sins i paid for her sins we've got to understand who christ is if you understand the greatness of christ the prestige of christ and that he only came to lay that aside for a while simply so he could purchase people and then go back to that prestigious place well then you'd get it you'd start to say i understand it now he came to die in my place it means you need to recognize that you needed the payment and too many people in this day are not even interested in seeing themselves as sinners because they're constantly comparing themselves to worst sinners i get it you're not the worst sinner i understand that but you've got a problem and it needs to be paid for and christ came to do that verse 25 now says here's the transaction are you with me john chapter 12 verse 25 okay what do i got to do walk an aisle raise a hand can i do it when everyone's heads bowed and eyes are closed is there a form to fill out can i recite a prayer do i have to go to a camp do i have to shave my head what do i need to do how do i do this verse 25 and 26 whoever loves his life loses it whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life huh what let's just think through that verse before we get to verse 23 whoever loves his life loses whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life hate my life this is a great easter sermon pastor mike i i have to hate my life what is the nonsense here when you were a little kid i bet at some point you said to your parents you hate me you hate me you were a little brat right you said that at the point you hate me and you know when you said that you said that when you didn't get what you want out of your parents right if if at 4 30 you wanted a plate of chocolate chip cookies and you went for the cookies in the cookie jar and you laid them out for yourself and your mom walks in and she goes no no you can't have those can't have those put them back and if she made a big deal of this and she spanked you for it and put those cookies right back said you do not define me on this you you might get just insanely angry and you might think you hate me not getting what we want is akin to that if i say look at verse 26 now i'm going to now be the servant of the son of man which is the whole contract in in daniel 7 right the people are supposed to serve him and then he represents them before the ancient days the father if anyone serves me well then you got to follow me do what i say and where i am there my servant will be also i'm about to go be glorified you can be glorified too and you can be in this place where you're not paid for your sins and guess what it'll be really good the father will honor him i mean you get all the blessings of god the the one who's being served will become the servant and serve us there's the biblical parable that jesus told at one point the one with all the wealth all the power all the beauty all the authority will take up it says the clothing of a servant and will start to serve his servants that sounds good but i gotta hate myself i can't love my life in this world if i say i'm going to follow christ and i know he doesn't want me to have cookies before dinner so i'm going to choose now to shift the battle from an external authority to saying i internally buy this i'm in it and now i am going to do what the master says then all of a sudden the battle shifts to the inside now it's like you could say i guess if someone were watching the internal battle what do you hate yourself just have a cookie well that's what you're doing you're getting in the way between you and what you want and it looks like you don't even like yourself and to be in a place where you give up what you want so that you can follow the instructions of someone else that looks like self-loathing and self-hatred because most people are going around saying well you should do whatever you want christianity says i got to do what christ wants and we're all conditioned that way when you were a little kid adults got down on one knee and said oh johnny what do you want to be when you grow up right where do you want to go to college what do you want to major in christianity says wait a minute that's really not the right question i mean really we're so conditioned to say i'm going to live my life and do what i want christianity says i mean if you want to start saying this to your kids hey what do you think christ wants you to be when you grow up i mean that's really the concern is what do i decipher god would want me to be hey what college do you think god would want you to go to hey what major do you think christ would want you to study see that's a deference to saying well oh you what you want well it really didn't matter what matters is you're learning what christ wants because he really knows better and if it's no cookies before dinner well then i guess we don't have cookies before dinner is that going to be hard it's an internal struggle and it is hard the flesh battles against the spirit we understand that but we're committed to it because anyone's going to serve this person be honored by the father and be where the son is in a state of glorification we're gonna have to follow him and that looks like taking your life and laying it here and saying okay what really matters is what god wants for my life and a lot of you say well can i just believe that he existed isn't that what the bible says believe in christ if you think believe in christ means you assent to the truth of the fact that he historically existed you've missed the whole point when he calls you to trust him and follow him and that's why he says things like this you haven't seen it probably on any gospel track hey you want to be a christian hate your life but that's what it says hate your life you got to really trust that this is a good bargain a good deal and again it goes back to the first point which is the real challenge do i view christ as a high enough person authority someone who is the greatest because if i do then all of a sudden this becomes a good exchange my life for his life if i said to you you worked across the street at neogenomics for instance the building across the street and we're out here at a taco truck in the parking lot we start to talk to each other and i say hey i want you to come work over here across the street work for us and i imagine right if you went to school for that job at neogenomics and you know you you had all these references and you worked for it you tried you were in competition to get the job you got the job and it would be you know really hard for me to all of a sudden in a conversation over tacos to say hey come come work across the street at some point it would get around to i'm sure how much does it pay right and if i said well don't worry about it matter of fact i'm just going to give you a company credit card put everything on the credit card because everything in the corporate account is yours come and just leave that go just give notice and walk away from that job as a matter of fact jesus even tells a story in luke 14 about people just want to spend time cleaning out their desk for a couple of weeks stop follow me if you're gonna follow me leave that alone and come and follow me you gotta trust that i got a lot in this corporate account and if you're just saying well i really want the credit card to have my name on it right the point is you have to now come across the street work for me and if you work over here in this business all of a sudden now the wealth of this business becomes yours but you're going to have to tell your parents that that thing that you went to college for you're not even doing that anymore that the place that you worked so hard and celebrated on linkedin that you got that job guess what now you're going to have to tell everybody now now i'm working across the street where on a church i mean it's going to be embarrassing trust me going to be embarrassing you're going to have to go through this whole rigmarole in your mind of well now it's about something else someone else it's about exchanging what's in my wallet for what's in his wallet you better be convinced this is a good thing as a matter of fact jesus says you got to count the cost luke 14 says think about it count the cost don't jump into this without considering and calculating the cost and as i say number three on the outline you need to give up this life to gain the next if you're going to be in the next life with the honor of god and the presence of christ you better count the cost and that's the spirit has gone out of the world to help you figure out you ready to do this what what do you have left i don't know what do the actuarial table say i don't know i mean you don't know how much time you have but how much what i'm saying to you is christ is now confronting you again this morning on easter everything left in your life can you say i'm now going to exchange it for eternity i will take christ but i got to give up this life and there's no halfway here no halfway that means you look at everything you have the day you become a christian you say if christ asks for it it's his if he wants me to change my job i change my job wants me to move to idaho i move to idaho he wants me to somehow change something about anything how i dress where i go on vacation what i do with my money i'm there to say christ is lord and i've exchanged my life and some people might say what do you hate yourself as a matter of fact there are days you might say do i hate myself but that exchange is what it takes and he says count the cost and here's the problem if i'm preaching to a bunch of people in a war-torn country with no money and a bunch of refugees and we're all sick anyway and i got up and said hey exchange this life for the next one i'd probably get a lot of people to make an easy choice okay they'd still battle with the moral issue over you really think i'm wrong before god they'd struggle with sin and guilt and all that but if i said now christ needs to be in charge hate your life they go well i already hate my life so that's easy problem preaching in orange county as you all sit there in an air-conditioned room with a padded chair and nice clothes on with decent cars in the parking lot is that you have to say the same thing they would have to say it's just that you probably love your life a lot more than they do and that's hard and in matthew 19 jesus showed this in a very vivid example to the apostles when he brought this rich young ruler rich and young ruler looked good had money had authority had prestige and jesus is great you want to follow me leave it all behind now that's the contract in our hearts that has to happen i'll prove it to you if you want to write it down you can look it up later luke 14 33 jesus you have to no matter what goes on in the outside of your life give up everything so giving up everything he says now i'm going to call you on that i want you to sell everything you have follow me and come join this band of disciples i know they gave up their fishing nets you give up your lawyer attorney office and you come and follow me and he went away sad it says because he had much wealth and jesus turned to the disciples and he said how hard it is for a rich man to be to enter the kingdom of god how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of god as i preach to a bunch of people that are rich i'm telling you this i have the hardest job this morning preaching to a upper middle class well-to-do comfortable society where all of you feel pretty secure you don't sleep with a shotgun across your lap you're not on life support you're here with enough money to make it through the week you have clothes in the closet way more than you wear you got enough food in your gut to fuel you for a long time that's who i preach to and i'm saying this you got to be willing to give up your life which means that christ has to take charge of it and you're saying in a contract as you sit across the table from the son of man who is possessing all glory and is in charge of all things he's saying great let's exchange my life for yours you better be ready to say that he is worth exchanging my life for there's another man that was amassing wealth in the bible jesus told a parable about him and he put all of this stuff up and said i'm going to work really hard when i'm young so i can have everything to rely on everything in the silos to rely on when i'm old and we don't see this very often but you see jesus saying that god says about him pretty disparaging phrase he says you fool of course it's because again god in that parable is going to call him right then on his life for this very night your soul is required of you just as you were saying i got it figured out you do have no guarantee for tomorrow and everything you have that came to you through a hard-fought battle it can leave in a second you know that and all it takes is running into one moral car in the parking lot to drain everything you have whether your health or your your money or your relationships can all be gone tomorrow including your life and jesus said as he says in luke 14 you better be ready to hate your mother your father your sister your brothers and yes even your own life hate what are you talking about that's what i just want to talk about that no longer does this become the priority no longer is this the controlling factor of what's important for me what's important for me is not my life as a matter of fact the book of revelation talks about his father's saying they didn't love their life even unto death it's like if it cost me everything if christ wanted you to go be a missionary in another country and became clear through the study of scripture and the circumstances of life and the council of godly people would you be able to say yeah because all of it was laid on the altar the day i became a christian sitting there in 2021 at an easter service i said god you are god your son is the king he has authority has authority over me and i'm going to follow you whoever loves his life will lose it because that's where a lot of people are well i love my life too much i love being in charge too much i love my sin too much well it doesn't look good for you but if you're willing to hate your life in this world because trust me you'll be loving it in the next well then you'll keep it for eternal life if anyone serves me you're in that category of the servant of christ well then follow me and guess what where i am there my servant will be also well he's going to a state of glorification and the bible says first corinthians 15 we will also be glorified romans chapter 8 same thing we'll be glorified and if anyone serves me man good days are coming the father will honor him it's gonna be a lot better than you think to have the father honor you and i know you play this game in your mind i played it everyone has played it thinking wow can't be that severe i mean god must be okay with me even though i'm not all in you know it's fine i mean my mom still kind of likes me i'm sure god likes me it's okay going to die and he's not going to say get away he's a loving god he's a forgiving god i didn't do what he said and i heard it clearly in his word i just i just think he's going to be okay with me anyway you want to gamble with your life on that that's what you think but here's what jesus said well i don't even know if that's what jesus said well then let's talk about that i mean we can deal with that you don't think this is an accurate record of what jesus actually said we need to figure out if it is if it is then here is the truth and you need to respond to it are you ready to take your life and exchange it for his then you get eternity you get the honor of the father yeah what would your excuse be of your excuses right now maybe well this doesn't sound i i heard this wasn't a loving church and i i can see it it's not loving where's the love where's the love here's the love that he would even do it how many internet stories you read about people seeing people being beaten up or whatever and they walk right by no one wants to get involved you stop for a half gallon of milk on the way home some convenience store you see someone go in there and hold people up it goes wrong and they take a knife to a lady's throat and they're holding them hostage what are you gonna do i know you say well the right thing because you're made of the image of god you say well i should do something to help but then you're going to think what i might get cut i don't know i might get hurt i don't want to get involved i need to help that lady but who knows that what what personal cost will that be well that's not very good stewardship for me to get involved i know how it works and so it is you can find videos i saw one just yesterday morning on a news story about people watching some woman get beat up in the street and everyone's standing there going oh okay walking by going oh that really stinks to be her when we are getting beat up because of our own sin and we will be for eternity while we were still sinners romans 5 christ died for us the amazing price paid for you when he could have stayed in the comforts of heaven and yet he said i'm going to come and live the life they should have lived and then i'm going to die a death they should die and be punished by the father i'll be treated like the sinner that they are so that they could not have to incur the judgment for their sins that's love and then that when you trust him you become in the status of a child of god now you're not eternal you didn't exist for eternity but here you are now becoming children of god right first john three right what love the father has lavished bestowed upon us that we should be called children of god we get to be that even though you ran into so many moral cars and a lot i mean we don't even know them all you know the secrets of your own heart and you can have all that forgiven but you do have to exchange your life for his i thought it was about believing it is that's what belief is belief is trust the word in the scripture is to trust him i'm trusting that if i entrust my life to him then i get his righteousness and therefore i'm acceptable to the father and i'm telling you today today's the day you're feeling the conviction days day today's the day to make that right i read a story this week about a man in china south china near hong kong and there's this river there famous river and they people would get their kayaks and kayak on it and it's little canoes this family of three was on a canoe it tipped over and they were clearly struggling they didn't know how to swim and a guy was there walking his two dogs on the banks of the river and he went in just they just instinctively went after this family didn't take his clothes off didn't strip down to the sheriff that just ran in to the water and worked to save these three people other people saw the commotion they they kind of followed in after but he was the one who actually got them up from that mess was able to start pulling them back to shore other people took over and got the family in but he was the one who led to the center of that of that river and brought them back well in all the commotion of getting this family including this kid up onto the shore the banks of this this grass laden bank of the river they look back and realize that he had struggled the guy who went out to save them in the middle of all this particularly getting tangled up somehow with the other people that were out there and he goes under and he drowned they pulled his limp body up onto the banks of the river and he had right poetically given his life to save those three people and the only reason i'm reading a translated story from south china was not because some guy saved three people in a river and gave his life i suppose if it happened in south county we might read of that in the paper but the reason it was in the paper is because the family that was saved walked right past this guy when all the commotion about him dead on the side they walked toward their car to the parking lot got in and drove away and as they were starting to drive away and get in their car people said don't you even care this guy just gave his life for you and the translation in the article that i read said they said he is none of our business as they got in the car and drove away i can only tell you that because you don't want to make the transaction here with god it wasn't just some guy walking his dogs that was willing to die for your life this is the majestic son of god that we read about during worship who's being hailed by angels right now in heaven who was willing to take on human flesh live among us and suffer and die a pummeled face by roman fists thorns on his head nails through his hands and feet to be hung and strung up naked on a roman execution rack so that you wouldn't have to not have the honor of the father that you would not you would be freed from the condemnation of your sins and some of you are saying none of my business i just came because my wife made me come on easter what are you doing now if it's all baloney great i get it because the greater the claim right the more serious the claim all right the more polarized the options you'll get two options here if what i'm saying is true you can dismiss it as those guys are crazy they've made a god out of this this teacher from the old testament or the new testament times or you're going to have to say well i guess i've got no choice i give my life to this person there's no in between if i said jesus was a good teacher like a lot of people do and i blame my generation of preachers for making him into this very cool you know helper of life but if he's really the son of god and he really laid aside his glory to save you well then you really only have two choices you can call us crazy you can call him crazy you can say this is all a myth but you got to completely reject it stop sending your kids to sunday school because this is a crazy thing that we're teaching but it's the truth i'm convinced of that so are millions of other people it's why we're still celebrating promoting advertising and publicizing this man 2000 years later and his return to his glory the resurrection is thing we celebrate today but it's a reminder to us of how valuable this life is that was given in exchange for yours now you can't be halfway about this i would encourage you this easter morning to put your trust in him let me pray for you right now god there are people here that have heard this message countless times i would pray for them right now that they would not gamble with their lives for whatever we've got left to look in our wallet so to speak of our riches our plans our dreams our comforts our convenience the years we have left and to say now i want to hang on to that okay let us remember the words today that if we love our lives we'll lose it help us instead to be willing to say even if it looks like i hate it i'm going to give my life up i'm going to give it away to the son of man and therefore i will gain eternity i'll be where christ is and i will receive the honor of my creator which is an unthinkable humbling act of grace so i pray for real repentance and faith in the hearts of people here today to repent to turn from their life of running from this truth that they would put their whole confidence and hope in the lord of lords god let us submit humbly to this christ he gave his life for us and eternity hangs in the balance the hinge of eternity is it comes down to who this person is and the contract of what real faith and real repentance looks like so i pray there might be some here today that in their fight they stopped struggling against the gospel they stopped being like saul of tarsus who was kicking against the goads let the family of god grow i know that's why you came jesus to die to yield a huge crop so that there'll be lots of sons of god lots of daughters of god and so god we ask that the family might grow here today do that work among us god and if we are christians let us recognize that as christ gave his life for us we owe him everything as the old hymn said love so amazing so divine demands our life our soul and our all so let us step it up this week to live for you in jesus name amen [Music]

Channel: Mike Fabarez

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Id: jc_lD0maVgo

Length: 53min 5sec (3185 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 06 2021