Full Service | Resurrection Sunday April 4, 2021

good morning athy creek hey happy resurrection sunday to y'all yeah yeah yeah yeah let's all stand together man we're glad you're here welcome welcome and let's start with a little song are you guys ready to praise the lord on resurrection sunday yeah let's belt it out here we go praise the lord together singing hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah right down the middle here ready praise the lord together singing praise the lord together hallelujah all right let's do four okay this group right here your group one group two three and then you guys are going to bring it home here we go praise the lord together singing praise the lord together singing praise the lord together praise the lord together praise the lord together praise the lord to get praise the lord praise the lord together nice we have a chance this morning [Applause] to sing and praise the lord that's living and powerful and true what a great thing when you and i know we go to church every sunday and it's something that we kind of you know forget but the fact that god comes and says i dwell in the place of praise that's what the bible says that he loves to just dwell in fact he even is enthroned on the praises of his people the bible says so we have a chance just to belt it out sing out with our voices and give glory on a resurrection sunday if there was ever a time for us to uh just felt it out man this is the morning amen amen lord bless this time we pray that you just sing through your church lord i pray that your name would be exalted and lifted up lord i pray that you would be the one to receive all glory and all honor in jesus name amen amen let's worship the lord together [Music] the passion of our savior the mercy of our god [Music] is are gone the innocent just guilty while the guilty one walks free [Music] together our chains are gone [Music] [Music] i give my whole life to honor this love by the lamb who was lame [Music] [Music] he is [Music] [Music] him forever [Music] [Music] forever [Music] [Music] is for me [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and without you and i fall apart [Music] you you're [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is nor i am [Applause] [Music] so teach my soul to [Music] when i cannot fall on you [Music] [Music] oh [Music] my [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh god how i need [Music] god sent his son and they called him jesus and he came to love [Music] and he [Music] and an empty grain is there to prove that my savior because he lives because he is gone [Applause] [Music] because and life is worth the living just [Music] because how sweet enjoy but greatest this is [Music] [Applause] because it is because i know [Music] is [Music] is [Music] no and then [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] is [Music] hallelujah [Music] hallelujah [Music] hallelujah before the lord god almighty reigns [Music] hallelujah holy are you [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] in the darkness we were waiting without hope without light till from heaven you came running there was mercy in your [Music] to a eyes came the word from the throne [Music] is [Music] praise forever to the king [Music] [Music] knowing this was our salvation [Music] praise jesus father [Music] praise forever [Music] till that stone was moved for [Music] for the souls of all who [Music] christ was born [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is is [Music] hey [Music] [Music] is [Music] amen amen amen lord you are worthy to receive all glory and honor and praise or just those things we sing about lord we we're reminded of those truths but those songs as beautiful and amazing as they are they fall short lord your glory is beyond the words we can muster up and the goodness and the glory of the resurrection as we celebrate it on this resurrection sunday lord we're humbled that we get to be in your presence but we're really glad that you forgive our sins and you give us the hope of heaven and the gift of salvation and lord i pray that you'd bless this time not just as we worship in song may the the time in your word also be just an act of worship as we consider the truth behind what we sing so be glorified be honored as we worship your name bless this time we pray in jesus name amen amen and once you have a seat get comfy welcome we're glad you're here thanks worship team nice job you guys that's great good good lead lead right there um hey listen a couple things don't forget for the brothers this saturday we've got iron works april 10th 8 am we're going to be gathering here and uh getting in the word just for the guys ladies there's a bunch of other bible studies going on too for you it's just the men we do this once a month ironworks saturday but check the website if you're looking for studies or events or youth activities or what's going on a lot of good stuff going on here at 80 so you can check that stuff one of our you know main things that we do is go verse by verse chapter by chapter book by book through the bible and uh we love that and even on a sunday morning normally i would uh take a little passage from our upcoming wednesday night studying we're in the book of ezekiel if you want to join us wednesday night uh right there at seven o'clock either here or online you can join us live and we're gonna be tackling chapter three four and maybe five we'll see how far we get in ezekiel but normally i'd take a text from ezekiel but as it is resurrection sunday i thought it'd be good for us to um you know do a little consideration of the resurrection so let's get to it i want you to grab your bibles and let's get to it in fact why don't you turn to first corinthians chapter 15. this year has been a interesting year from last easter to this easter last year at this time everybody was locked down airtight um but what's happened in the meantime well this past year i'm i'm a little shocked at how fearful and how the narrative has been so much of death um you know we talk about death now um what's interesting is if if you are a historian and you study some of the you know pandemics or the plagues of ancient times or even modern days um they were legitimately pandemics and people were dying and it was horrible there are some of the you know like the plagues in europe where um if six in ten people died like can you imagine if this group uh you know sixty percent of us died because of the pandemic that's what a lot of pandemics were like but you know what i i have to say all the fear and all the death talk and stuff this past year if you're an oregonian guess what you have a 99.97 percent chance of survival of this one did you hear that that's a real number all you got to do is look at the death rate and look at the population of oregon and do the math 99.97 chance of survival but but if you study historically some of the pandemics of the past i'm not sure they were even as fearful as we are about the kovid 19 situation now i've got a theory i want to float with you here in a second and and you're saying brad it's resurrection son you shouldn't be talking about the covid and you're making me nervous i i came to church thinking i'm going to die anyway i guess because i'm going to church today that's what the news that's what wolf blitzer told me on cnn i'm going to die today because i'm going to church and a massive death is going to happen well as it turns out good news for you just to put you at ease we've been meeting for nine months here uh and as it turns out we 8th grade i i know a lot of people just because i'm a pastor of a fairly large church i don't know one person who's died from coronavirus not one i'm not saying it hasn't happened i'm just saying i don't know anybody definitely no one from our church we've done tons of funerals this year but none of them were chronovirus so we've done poor people that have died of cancer and heart attacks and other things but not one coronavirus death you'd think in a horrible pandemic that's equal to the spanish flu or the black death of the plague you think that eighth and greek especially and we're in a super spreader event here that we have done one funeral in the past year not one i don't know one person who's died i know several quite a few people who've had the coronavirus and got sick but they healed up nicely we had two people that i know personally that are friends of mine that really got really really sick hanging by a threat i got to admit that uh two people but i've had like 10 friends of mine that have been hanging by a thread from cancer uh like it's really an amazing thing so so what's going on well the thing is there's a narrative and a world view that i think is shifting and i've talked about it i've touched on this in previous teachings um we used to be the land of the free the home of the brave and and fear was never an american ideal fear was never something we celebrated you know we have nothing to fear but fear itself that was the old mantra but today fear is the new virtue of america you're not virtuous unless you're totally terrified out of your mind like you're supposed to be afraid and man you watch the news fear you know some of you this is funny to me uh if you've watched if you're a news junkie uh one of the news junkie places a lot of people went in the past you know well it's from the model lewinsky situation when drudge report became the news online the biggest website in you know uh news history and it was one that many of you followed but i bet you a lot of you have bailed off of the drudge report why because all they do is talk about how you're going to die 25 ways from covid and it's not that you're going to die you're going to die with no toenails if you get the chronovirus you will lose your toenails and your teeth and your hair so you'll be bald toothless and no toenails and you'll also be dead like really dead and they they harp on how many ways you're gonna die and oh no the new strain that's coming from brazil or from england and and it's just this constant ah we're all gonna die but as it turns out some of us don't really have that world view what do you mean brett it's not about your world view well it has to do with fear and death a lot of us don't really uh fear death like like like the atheist the atheist or the agnostic if if this is the only thing we have is this life and when you kick the bucket man it's just over uh you end up you know six feet under pushing up daisies and that's the end you you go off into oblivion once you die well that's the godless secular worldview and no wonder they're trying to save every little minute of their life as miserable as you might be isn't it interesting you know that there's there's kind of a world view and you you'll you see the massive division in our nation about this world view you know there's a lot of elderly people old grandma and grandpa they're saying bring the grandkids over we don't care we'd rather die than not see grand grandkids for a year and a half because of the coronavirus you know stop bubble wrapping me and put iv in me and put me in a closet so that i can be perfectly safe some of us actually want to live some life rather than be bubble wrapped that's the problem today some of us death is not the worst thing that can happen to you some of us have a little different world view about death um before we get into you know first corinthians chapter 15 let me share with you a little verse from acts chapter 20. and this is kind of funny because paul the apostle he was not afraid of death um he was headed off to jerusalem but a bunch of people said paul if you go to jerusalem they'll bind you up in chains and they'll put you in prison they'll probably kill you they said they hated paul why because paul was a pharisee before a persecutor of christians but then suddenly he became a christian and started preaching the gospel so this made you know a lot of people really mad they wanted him dead but paul says i'm going to jerusalem they said don't go but listen to his response here in acts 20 22 he says and now behold i go bound in the spirit to jerusalem not knowing the things that shall befall me there say that the holy ghost witnesses in every city saying that bonds and afflictions abide in other words everybody's saying you're going to be bound up and you're going to be afflicted but none of these things move me neither count i my life dear unto myself so that i might finish my course with joy and the ministry which i have received of the lord jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of god what's paul saying he says i don't none of this moves me everybody's freaking out because i might get bound up or thrown in prison or even killed he says that doesn't move me whatever i don't count my life dear to myself that's what he says well then what's the wrong with paul um paul should you get a helmet before you go to jerusalem maybe buckle up and and and get some bubble wrap and and man you got to be careful you could end up in trouble paul says yeah whatever i'm i'm gonna go and do what the lord's called me to do that he says that i might finish my course with joy i'd rather die happy doing what god's called me to do than to live my life in a bubble wrap is kind of what he's saying um i'll never forget you know when i went to my doctor one day for a checkup and he said now let's talk about this motor cross that you do i saw on your instagram you and your son jumping at the motocross track you need to stop that that's a very dangerous sport that's what he told me so i got a new doctor like like that's ridiculous that's the dumbest thing i've ever heard like if you speak blasphemy against the bible right next to that is saying something bad about motocross like to me so so uh some of us just have a little different world view and we don't want to live in bubble wrap and be kind of crazy stay safe safe and and what what's actually happened is i think that the secular world view of your every minute of your life is so precious because when you die it's over there's no nothing after that that's why everybody's so depressed and miserable because they don't have the hope of resurrection the hope of when you die the best day in your life as a christian is the day you die precious in the sight of the lord is the death of his saints that's what the lord says why because that's when we get to be with him forever life on earth the bible says life is but a vapor but eternal life that's eternal forever and it's going to be glorious it's something for you and me we can really look forward to now i'm not saying bring on the covet i'm not saying that um i'm just saying there there's there's a threshold that we christians have that's very different from the secularist who says your life is so precious i'm not going to say that i'm not going to believe that i believe my life i don't count it dear to myself i i stand with paul who says you know what i'd rather do what god's called me to do and be led by the holy spirit and uh and then live some life and do what god's called us to do and praise the lord now now depending on your worldview and i know even in this room everybody's got different opinions everybody that's the biggest thing i've noticed about this everybody's got really different opinions the fact that you're here tells me something about the way you you view uh this whole coven thing a little bit but but the the truth is even in this room there's probably mixed feelings about you know why haven't we seen a death one death in ac creek uh why haven't i seen that well either a it's a miracle of god so if that's true let's just rejoice man god's protected our congregation praise the lord for that or it might just be that they're feeding us some misinformation too uh that's it's not really what they're saying it is and uh some of us are a little suspicious of that too maybe it's a combination of both but be that as it may um i wouldn't trade trade the last nine months for anything we've seen so many lives changed people saved and have accepted the lord in the last nine months as we've opened church and we've seen people who are miserable and alone hiding away in their houses and then they come into church with weeping and tears saying i can't believe how much i've missed fellowship and worship and prayer and getting in the word as a church family that's why the bible says whatever you do don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together is the custom of some people the the narrative on the street is uh we're the new normal you won't be in church anymore it'll all be online and there's some pastors and churches that are saying it's all about being online now what's great is the greek we were online for 13 years we we've been doing the live stream for it wasn't a big shift for us so it worked out nicely a lot of you for a long time said man we'll see how this thing shakes out we'll watch church from home and and that's great and we're really glad you did that but at the same time i hope none of you even those of you that are online say well it's the new normal that we'll never go back to church i i think that this is a testimony that people understand you got to go to church last service we did that 6 a.m service it was as full as this service we had as many you guys saw the traffic jam was the nightmare between last service and this service sorry about that um i even ended early uh and it still was a traffic jam uh so so and then yesterday the four o'clock service was as full as this service four o'clock in the afternoon on easter sunday eve like what church does that such a weirdo athy creekers man we just love being in church i love it i count me in with you that comes to church and says you know what we're not gonna forsake the assembling of the church that's what we do but all that to say um man i don't count my life dear to myself and there's and this world view is it comes from not just stupidity see the world was saying well you guys are just a bunch of weirdos and a bunch of idiots that don't care about your lives that's kind of not the there's actually some heft behind the world view that we hold and let me show you what that heft is and that's where we get to our text it's first corinthians chapter 15 and we're gonna start there in verse 12. first corinthians 15 12. now paul the apostle here is uh dealing with the church at corinth which was very hellenistic what's hellenism it was the greek culture of philosophy thought architecture and wealth that all kind of flooded down into corinth when you go to ancient ruins of corinth today i've been there just a couple summers ago i was standing in corinth and i saw all the ruins of the beauty of some of these cities of the corinthian people but because of their wealth and their prosperity they started living more for this life and not living for the next life paul was dealing with a problem here in 1st corinthians 15 of a world view that's not that unlike what you and i are dealing with people that are living for this life and to be safe and comfortable and wealthy and and live for this life and they weren't thinking about the next life not only that there was a whole group of religious people who were preaching that there was no resurrection from the dead um remember the pharisees well there was a group called the sadducees and they were the ones who don't believe in resurrection once you die it's just you go off into oblivion and what have you that's why they were called sad you see because because they didn't believe in life after death and and by the way the misery and the sadness that we've seen this past year and a half because of death and coven and all that that same misery i think was upon the sadducees because they didn't have a bigger picture a bigger view of eternity so paul he's going to deal with that right here first corinthians 15 12. he says now if christ be preached that he rose from the dead how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead but if there be no resurrection of the dead then christ has not risen and if christ be not risen then our preaching vain and your faith is also vain vanity or vein just means empty that's worthless it's a waste of time verse 15. yea and we are found false witnesses of god because we have testified of god that he raised up christ whom he ra whom he raised not up if so be that the dead rise not he's saying we'd be liars we've been saying all this time that christ rose from the grave and if jesus didn't raise them call us liars that's what he's saying verse 16 if the dead rise not then is not christ raised and if christ be not raised your faith is vain and another problem here you are yet in your sins mark that will if christ be raised not then you are yet in your sins then verse 18 they also which are fallen asleep in christ are perished if in this life only we have hope in christ we are of all men most miserable what's he saying if this life is all we got the the christian is the most miserable of all because we're putting our faith in something that doesn't doesn't have substance it's vanity if christ didn't raise from the grave then we have hope for no reason and we're the most miserable of all men but verse 20 now is christ risen from the dead he's saying if christ didn't raise and it's a waste of time it's vanity we should stop preaching preaching and your faith is a waste of time but then he says but but now christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept for since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead for as in adam all die even so in christ shall all be made alive what's he saying adam sinned in the garden and because of that death eternal death in hell because of man's sin but adam dropped the atom bomb there in the garden of eden when he ate of the fruit but jesus was the the second adam the bible calls him another name where christ adam brought sin into this world jesus brought redemption and salvation that's what he's saying here why because he's the first fruit of the resurrection verse 21 for since by man came death by man came the resurrection of the dead verse 23 but every man in his own order christ the firstfruits after word they that are christ that is coming now jump forward a little bit to verse 42. so is the resurrection of the dead it is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption another your body is corruptable if you don't believe me just look in the mirror as the ages go by you're going whoa i'm not the same person i was 20 years ago gravity takes effect your body starts to corrupt itself is the idea there but it says even though your body is corruptable it'll become incorruption what's that does that sound pretty good and everybody getting their botox and their lifts and their surgeries and all that stuff forget that um death is the best thing that will happen for your skin tone and and uh your botox situation why because guess what you'll be given a new resurrected renewed body uh check this out fast forward to verse 53. it says in verse 53 of the same chapter for this corruptible body is the idea must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality so when this corruptible body is the idea shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory o death where is thy sting o grave where is thy victory the sting of death is sin and the death of sin is the law the strength of sin is the law but thanks be to god which gives us victory through our lord jesus christ therefore what do we do about this therefore my beloved brethren be steadfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the lord powerful chapter here about the resurrection resurrection of the body and because jesus rose from the grave he's the first fruit of the resurrection you and i get to be the second fruits and the third fruits and whoever else now there's an interesting thing here by the way that i want you to notice here in our text it said that jesus rose from the grave and all men will rise up at some point but all men even even the sinner well as it turns out everybody raises from the dead uh now are you brett are you one of those people that believe everybody goes to heaven no i don't believe that remember the book love wins that came out a couple decades ago wrong you know nobody's going not everybody gets to go to heaven that's what rob bell said in his book and everybody jumped on it like no that's so great we love it even though it's doctrinally wacko what is true however is the bible speaks of two resurrections remember the book of revelation it says there's a resurrection unto eternal life and there's a resurrection unto eternal death the big question is which one are you going to be a part of because i would recommend the first one um the resurrection into life we'll get into that in a second in fact let's kind of break some of this stuff down what is paul teaching us here in 1st corinthians 15 first of all he he says if christ be not risen in other words if jesus never really rose from the grave then he says our preaching is vain and our faith is vain um might as well not preach anymore and forget your faith and just become an atheist now some of you might say but brett um i don't know that's kind of a two-either-or kind of thing nope he's saying that the whole truth of christianity balances on that important fulcrum of the resurrection of jesus christ without the resurrection christianity is just like all other religions there's no substantiation there's no confirmation there's no legitimacy you know muhammad made his claims but he never really did all of those things he said he would do you know buddha you want to follow him he left his family basically alone and went off to find his you know whatever uh state of nirvana and third eye of understanding uh and and all that stuff they never really did anything to help anybody but if christ be not risen then our preacher's in vain and our faith is in vain listen to what jesus was talking about when he said in john chapter 10 he says i jesus claimed this i have the power to lay down my life is the idea and i have the power to take it up again he was talking about his death and his resurrection he says i have power over life and death that's the claim jesus made by the way harry houdini made that claim did you know that he said when i die i will come back and i think he said in i forget the time frame that he said but uh it didn't happen if you were holding your breath uh wondering when harry houdini is going to resurrect jesus alone has power over life and death and he made that claim in fact he he made it clear to his followers and his disciples and everybody around listen to this in john chapter 2 jesus said in verse 18 then answered the jews and said unto jesus what signs show us thou unto us seeing that thou doest these things and jesus answered and said to them destroy this temple and in three days i will raise it up then said the jews 40 and 6 years was this temple in building and wilt thou rear it up in three days but he jesus spake of the temple of his body when therefore he was risen from the dead his disciples remembered that he had said unto them and they believed the scripture and the word which jesus had said now by the way this is one of the key components of why the resurrection of jesus is one of the most provable facts in all of history you know your cardigan wearing pipe puffing college professors well the historical jesus never really existed and it's just a figment of the imagination of religionists and they'll make these claims but that's not really honest nor is it having integrity um everybody knows that jesus existed and there's all kinds of evidence of that one of the things that's more important is that not only was jesus dying on a cross in jerusalem but the fact that he rose from the grave is more evidenced than any other historical fact it's funny how historians are so quick to give legitimacy to history so-called by you know homer or some of these other you know historians ancient historians but when it comes to the bible they're so critical but as it turns out there were 500 eyewitness accounts of jesus being seen after he was crucified on the cross 500 eyes saw a resurrected jesus well brett how do we know they weren't playing a game and just coming up with a new religion saying yeah jesus rose from the grave and we'll make a new religion out of it well here's how we know because in the first century the romans and the jews honestly they were very much bent on crushing christianity and they would do stuff they would say okay you need to say caesar is lord and if you don't say caesar is lord we're going to kill you and they would say nope jesus is lord well then we're going to kill you unless you say caesar's lord the disciples all of them except for john died brutal deaths not ever once denying jesus you think if it was a gag that they were playing on humanity that somebody would have cracked and said okay we're just lying jesus really didn't don't saw me in half lengthwise i'd rather live do you realize that's how james died they took james laid him on a table with a big saw lengthwise and they said we're going to cut you in half unless you deny jesus but he would not because he saw jesus raise up from the grave and he knew that jesus was in fact the risen lord thomas had his brains beat out with a club peter they were going to crucify him on a cross just like jesus except peter as history tells us he says i am not worthy to die the same death of jesus so they turned the cross upside down and hung him inverted and he crucified they crucified peter and man read fox's book of martyr there were hundreds of people followers and followers of jesus that died horrible death saying we will not deny jesus why because they knew that he was resurrected that's what it says here at the end of this verse his disciples remembered that he had said this to them and they believed the scripture and the word which jesus said if jesus didn't rise up from the grave we could pack it up and go home and say forget religion altogether let's be atheists but the resurrection is key why is it such a key you can jot these down but these are key components of why the resurrection is so important what does it mean well number one it's verification of who jesus is you know jesus was different than all these other religious leaders and he said here's the verification i'm not a good teacher or a good prophet or any of that stuff people try to diminish jesus the muslims say he was a prophet less than muhammad and he definitely not was not the son of god in fact on the dome of the rock shrine that's there on the temple mount the golden dome it's written in arabic allah does not have any son or no nor does he have a begotten it says that all the way around the circumference of the dome of the rock shrine saying there's no son of god and it says it over and over and over again around the rim of that it's something that that jesus claimed he said i am god in the flesh and when you crucify me on a cross i will raise up from the grave and when jesus did that it verified that he was not just a good teacher as oprah calls him or a nice guy or you know whatever he was who he claimed to be it verified his claim of being god in the flesh not only verification but john 14 verse 9 jesus said if i have been so long with you he's speaking to philip yet thou has not known me philip he that's seeing has seen me as seen the father and how santan show us the father jesus made this claim that he was god in the flesh if you've seen me you've seen the father in heaven now i like to remind especially if you're new here or maybe a critic critical person of the bible you might say well yeah but maybe jesus was just making the claim that he was united with the father if you know i and my father are one well good for you jesus you're tight with god it's not what he was saying the jews knew exactly what he was saying because remember when he said this the jews began to pick up stones and said this man makes himself equal to god and they said let's stone him to death but that's what jesus was claiming he wasn't saying i'm tight with god he was saying if you've seen me you've seen the father so god became a man lived among us and how do we know that that's true because he died and he rose again just like he said he would verification who jesus is number two confirmation of the power that he claimed to have like we read earlier he has the power over life and death john chapter 10 verse 17 and 18 he says therefore enough my father loved me because i lay down my life there's a willingness there that i might take it up again no man takes it from me but i lay down of myself and i have power to lay it down and i have power to take it up again this commandment have i received of my father jesus says i willingly win one of my problems with some of these jesus movies over the you know decades is when jesus is apprehended in the garden of eden or garden of gethsemane pardon me um they saw him sort of struggling and the romans would grab him and he'd sort of like kick and scream a little bit say i don't want to but that's not what happened jesus knew exactly what was going to happen to him and he went willingly in fact i would argue that he might have been walking out with a smile on his face why do you think that remember what the bible says it was the joy that was set before him that he endured the cross and despised the shame jesus went to the cross willingly and he has the power to lay down his life but he also has the power to raise it up again this this again is not only verification confirmation but also number three substantiation of jesus being able to do what he claimed he would do mark chapter 10 verses 32-34 it says when they were going the way up into jerusalem and jesus went before them and they were amazed as they followed they were afraid and he took again the twelve and began to tell them the things that should happen unto him saying behold we go up to jerusalem the son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and unto the scribes and they shall condemn him to death and shall deliver him to the gentiles excuse me the romans you know there and they shall mock him and scourge him and shall spit upon him and shall kill him and the third day he shall rise again jesus told his disciples with great detail everything that was about to happen to him he didn't he wasn't confused he he wasn't going i don't know what's going to happen to me no he knew exactly what was going to happen he went willingly and then he said you'll know this is all true that i'm telling you because on the third day i will rise again now the disciples heard this and they thought yeah we don't get that let's just kind of forget that and they did they forgot it until he rose again and they said hey this is what he said he was going to do and and that's when jesus rose from the grave that's when you see very different disciples the disciples from the resurrection and onward were bold unwavering immovable men of faith and they said we believe that jesus is the messiah because he rose from the grave so you've got these main component components of the resurrection verification confirmation substantiation no other religious group has that um it's all just some guy saying trust me i'm i'm muhammad i'm the prophet of allah or trust me i'm confucius or trust me i'm buddha um but there's no real substantiation confirmation or verification now when jesus died they buried him in a tomb and um you know it's interesting because i love just the life and the joy of an empty tomb um if jesus died and never came out of the grave then i would say this atmosphere of death and kovid and life is short and live you know living knowing that you're just going to die and the startling statistic 10 out of every 10 people die well that would be a really bleak thing but but because of an empty tomb you know when i take groups to israel we see a lot of religious places and relics and and uh some of it's even kind of grotesque what do you mean well if you go to the place where the catholics believe jesus was buried which i think it's actually kind of funny because because they believe it was the church of the holy sepulchre there in jerusalem do you guys know who deemed that location the spot where jesus was supposed to have been buried it was constantine's mother you know somewhere around 300 a.d she said i think jesus must have been buried right here she was not an archaeological expert she didn't know much other than she was a follower of jesus but she she didn't know what she was talking about was that the place i don't know maybe maybe not and there's evidence of why it might not be the place now it is interesting there is a garden tomb that they found in the 1800s by a british guy who was doing archaeological digs there and they found a tomb from the first century and it was a rich man's tomb and it was also one there was no human decomposition evidence or dna left in this tomb so it was like an unused brand new tomb remember jesus only borrowed the tomb i mean don't you love that jesus borrowed a tomb he borrowed the donkey he borrowed boats he borrowed airs everything but he even borrowed a tomb i mean nobody else can claim that can i borrow your tomb i only need it for three days just three days uh then i'll give it back to you like like that's funny to me um but one of the things we go to the church holy sepulcher and there are people are you know wiping the stones where they think they laid jesus with rags in their hair and weeping and kissing and it's just kind of like get the lysol man this is gross uh and it's and there's you know millions of people that flood in and see the church of the holy sepulchre but i enjoy going from there to the garden tomb whether that's the place or not i don't know by the way um if you read the biblical narrative there are nine things that have to be in place for a tomb to be a legitimate possibility in jerusalem and the the the garden tomb is one that has all nine of those attributes let me show you some video that micah and i shot uh when we were there uh a few years ago but this is where there was a they called the garden tomb this is the tomb of a rich man remember joseph of arimathea was a rich man who was going to loan jesus to his tomb it had to be in a garden this has a garden with a cistern that water in the garden from the first century we like to go there and do worship and sing songs and do communion and then we all get to go into the tomb and we get to see this you know 2 000 year old first century empty tomb now whether this is the place of jesus you know honestly i don't care as much you know it's interesting and it's intriguing but the fact is there's something about being in jerusalem and seeing this empty tomb there is something that's very moving about it when you're there it's hard to explain it's hard to articulate but when you're there you just realize wow i serve a risen savior he's not here he has risen and and we get to celebrate that now by the way this tomb there's a there's an anchor that's carved on the front uh a face you can barely see it but an anchor you say what big deal did you know that the early church knew nothing of a cross as being a symbol of christianity that came centuries later crosses but the actual symbol of the early church was two things the anchor and the ichthus or the fish jesus said i'll make you fishers of men but also church history tells us they would carve anchors in the tombs and the places where the church would meet and they would see that as a sign oh this is where the church of jesus christ is but all that to say the garden tomb it's a real place that you can go and visit but the thing that i love about the garden tomb is its redemptive quality now this this is that brings us to the second notion here paul makes the argument if christ be not risen you are still in your sins now let me ask you a question that might just be the most important question you will ever face and it's that question are you still in your sins now there's really two kinds of people according to the bible there's the people are still in their sins and there's a people who've been forgiven for their sins there's the people who will be held accountable for their sins and there's the people who've been freed up from their sins um now now don't get mistake you know mistake on this this point of uh no one's perfect you know if you've been forgiven of your sins it doesn't mean you're perfect it means you're perfectly forgiven there's no such thing as a perfect person except for jesus um but but the question are you still in your sins it's more are you still gonna be held accountable for your sins paul makes this argument if jesus didn't raise up from the dead you're still in your sins and man that's bad news for the world because anybody who's still in their sins what that means is when you're resurrected revelation chapter 20 says you'll be taken to the great white throne judgment and you'll be judged according to your sins and everyone at that judgment they'll be doomed because the wages of sin is death and you'll have to pay that penalty and it's eternal death and hell that's what the bible says revelation chapter 20 makes it clear but because jesus was risen what happens to our sins well check this out there's a few scriptures you can jot down romans chapter 10 verse 9 and 10. i mention this all the time here at the creek because this is such a powerful and concise verse or a couple of verses about salvation how do you know if you're not in your sins or if you're still in your sins well as it turns out paul made it clear to the romans he said that if thou confess with thy mouth the lord jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that god hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation what's that when i ask that question are you still in your sins if you've never believed in or confessed your faith in in jesus now now let me say something notice that paul says in the middle of this he says that if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart so it's got to be a real belief and you're confessing that that god raised him from the dead that's what separates it out what you're doing in confessing and believing you're saying i believe that jesus died for my sins and i believe that he was legit because he rose from the grave everything we're talking about here if you confess that and believe that it says thou shalt be saved that's the gospel message anybody who will confess with their mouth or believe in their heart so really the question are you still in your sins or aren't you has to do with are you saved are you a christian who's accepted the work of the cross if you have never done that you are still in your sins and if you died today you would stand before god and be accountable for your sins and there's not much of a future in that trust me the bible just says it's the worst possible future for all eternity but this is where the good news of the gospel comes in you see this is the third part not only you know if christ be not raised our faith is a waste of time preaching is a waste time but he says if christ be not raised then you're still in your sins but then i love that paul seals it up and he says this is point number three but because christ is risen what well because jesus did raise it from the dead this is some of the things the bible teaches john 14 19. jesus said had a little while and the world seeth me no more but you see me be because i live you shall live also. it's like that old hymn we sang earlier that the kids uh you know were singing it was so good you know that because he lives i can face tomorrow because he lives you and i get to live for eternity eternity that's what the lord jesus said in romans 8 11 paul said but if the spirit of him that raised up jesus from the dead dwells in you he that raised up christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwell in you in other words because jesus was raised you get to be raised as a believer as a christian i love that you can walk out of this room should you choose and know that your sins are no longer held against your account if you want you can get up from this place and say i know that my redeemer lives and i know that my sins are forgiven you know there's there's this thing that somewhere along the way people get this notion i hope my good outweighs my bad that's ridiculous the bible says there's no one righteous not even one all have sinned and fall short of the glory of god so this idea that you know somewhere people pick up well i hope my good outweighs my bad that you better not put your hope in that because the bible tells us over and over again that we will never measure up but that's why jesus came god loved the world i love how simple it is you know what i love is i love the whosoever whosoever is that a great verse whosoever what do you mean brett well for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever you could be adolf hitler for crying out loud brett are you saying adolf hitler could have been saved if he would have repented of his sins and confessed his faith in christ his sins would have been forgiven and he would end up in heaven even adolf how do you know that brett well there's a guy named manasseh in the old testament who was pretty much like adolf killed people did horrible things sacrificed children on altars like manasseh was one of the worst kings in all of the old testament maybe in all of history of the world maybe even gave hitler a run for his money and i don't say that lightly you know people compare everybody to hitler all the time i think he's hitler uh that's usually tells me you don't know your history uh that person you're comparing did they kill six million jews in gas ovens uh if they did that then maybe he's as bad as hitler uh so so it's this uh world view well guess what manasseh was as bad as hitler and guess what at the very last 10 seconds of his life he repents and he turns to the lord and we're going to see him in heaven that's that's crazy how can god forgive a guy like manasseh but while i marvel at that i say well that's good news for me if god can save a wacko like manasseh then the lord can save a wacko like me and how does he do it he says whosoever whosoever believes now remember satan believes in jesus satan believes in god but what you've got to do is confess with your mouth believe in your heart that christ died for your sins which means you've repented you're acknowledging your sin before god and you say lord i've sinned and i'm receiving the forgiveness that you have satan's never done that he's never confessed his sin and then said lord i want to be saved and forgiven for my sins but the bible says man that's how you're saved if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart and it's not just some weak claim that we as religious christians say you can be saved if you accept christ now some people say brett that's too easy cheap grace man nope it wasn't cheap it came at a massively huge cost god became a man was tortured and brutalized and hung on a cross so that the whosoever that's you could say lord i'm a sinner and i need to be saved and forgiven. and anyone who does that is going to be saved that's the good news of the gospel don't you love this this is why the resurrection is so great you know jesus raising up from the grave is what gives you and me any hope at all of anything good um and it's and it's a legitimate hope with substantiation and verification um you know it makes me just want to shout from the rooftops really um you know there's a lot of people that are coming up with their world views today and there's a lot of new world views in fact if you missed our prophecy update uh the night before last um i talked about a new religion i used to joke about wokism and we'd laugh at oh mr potato head's getting canceled again and kermit and uh you know all these different canceled culture things and it was a little bit laughable but you know what i'm not laughing as much anymore you want to know why is because i'm realizing wokism is a massively huge religion that people are buying hook line and sinker i'm not laughing anymore because people are becoming lost and and it's its own religion complete with condemnation and a sort of self-righteousness i'm woke and you're not and guess what if you're woke you're not woke enough and if you're a white privileged male you could try to be woke but you will never be woke you're just guilty because you were born white male and there's this new religion that's kind of condemning and and it's got a self-righteous but here's the thing there's no redemptive quality of wokism cancel culture there's no forgiveness you just need to be canceled there's been other times in history where cancer culture was that we didn't call it that we called it the french bastille and the guillotine chopping up off their christa their crystal crystal crystal cats i'm thinking of the disney movie um the aristocrats um uh chopping off all those guys heads now there's other times cancel culture was alive and well but that's where woke-ism is going you will never be woke enough and by the way the woke people are eating their own right now it's really something to see and i talked about this in the prophecy update but but the reason i bring it up here is woke-ism is a religion that treat that preaches condemnation and there's no hope even if you try to be woke you'll never be woke enough but guess what as christians you and i we're all sinners and we admit that we're a mess and we admit we've done sinful things but there's a god who's forgiving and redemptive and he deals with the sin of man himself he takes upon himself the pain and the suffering and he dies on the cross and then he rises up from the grave proving his claims that's the religion i want to follow nobody's going to measure up to being woke but guess what talk about woke jesus rose up from the grave and rolled the stone away and came out and presented himself alive the risen savior the verified savior the powerful able to forgive savior that's jesus and that's why we celebrate man i hope you're willing in a town like portland we need to we've got a better message than wokism in cancel culture and all this other stuff we've got a message of redemption and forgiveness and salvation we should be shouting this from the rooftops and especially on a resurrection weekend like this i'm reminded of a guy back in england um who was a preacher before that he was a military general uh from you know world war ii uh there in the british minister w.e sangster but as he was getting older in his ministry and preaching he noticed that his throat started to hurt and his legs started to drag and his muscles were starting to atrophy he went to his doctor and found out he had this progressive muscular atrophy disease his muscles would gradually waste away and his voice would start to fail and he could no longer preach and so he started writing down sermons and passing them around and and he was he was committed to just doing whatever his muscles could muster up he was just trying to keep going um he threw himself into his work of prayer and and writing and figuring as long as he could write he'd still have more time for prayer and and and he'd pray lord let me stay in the struggle that's what he pleaded he says i don't mind if i can no longer be a general or give a regiment to lead but he said but i want to continue to serve you people throughout england prayed for him because they loved this guy and they'd say oh we're so sorry about this and he said i'm only in the kindergarten of suffering that's what that's what he would say but it was two weeks before he died on a resurrection sunday morning like this one today he woke up that morning and thought the last thing is his muscles barely able to scratch out of writing but he wrote his daughter a note but this is what he said in part of his note to his daughter he said it is a terrible thing to wake up on easter morning and have no voice to shout he has risen but he said it would be still far more terrible to have a voice and not want to shout he has risen i think that's true you and i have voices to shout something in a world that needs to hear good news and while the world is cowering and fearful because there's certain death of kovid and all the darkness and lockdowns and all the negativity and the bummers we as christians have a message of hope that's real and that's legitimate that man your sins can be forgiven and even if you do die good news you have eternal life through jesus christ i'll take that world view over over secularism over all that stuff any day it's the most glorious message that all of humanity could hear to be saved amen amen lord how thankful we are for such a glorious message that you rose from the grave you didn't just claim to be a religious leader you didn't just make up stories but substantiation verification confirmation lord how thankful we are for our faith that's so rock solid and lord i pray for those today who may not know the answer to that question are you still in your sins i pray that today as people are listening to this teaching from your word that lord people would repent of their sins and confess with their mouth and believe in their heart the glorious gospel message lord i pray that you'd lovingly tap those people of their need on the shoulder and just say that they need to be forgiven that they no longer should be under the guilt and the penalty of their sin and if you would christians just continue prayer and having your heads bowed i'm going to ask if there's anybody in the room or anybody who's watching online with us if you're watching i want to invite you to accept christ that romans 10 verse 9 and 10 is so powerful if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart the lord jesus christ that god raised him from the dead you will be saved it doesn't say you got to go to church all the time carry a 20 pound bible and a fake smile it doesn't say that you've got to know exactly all the theology of the doctrines of the bible it just says you got to repent of your sins confess with your mouth and say i'm a sinner and i need to be saved and that confession with the mouth of repentance leads to salvation that's what the bible says well brett i happen to know the bible that says faith without works is dead exactly once a person is saved by grace through faith then they're going to see some changes in their life but god does that and there will be good works that will follow but the first step uh and if there's only one step that you do in your life you need to be saved and forgiven of your sins i'm not gonna embarrass you i'm not gonna make you march in front of a bunch of people but right where you sit right where you're watching online you can accept christ right now and i'm gonna pray a prayer in just a second of confession of faith and if that's you and you're saying pastor brett i i want to make sure i want to be able like you said you know walk out of here and say i'm no longer held accountable for my sins but forgiven if you want to have that declaration on you by god then this is the way you do it right here is confession of faith and belief from your heart through your mouth to god and then he does all the work if that's you would you acknowledge that right now just by raising your hand everybody else is praying right now and and bowing their heads in but if that's you would you acknowledge that right now just lift your hand awesome see you there there cool let me just look around i don't want to miss anybody they're in the back i see you don't let me don't let me miss you cool i see you back there if you're online and you want to raise your hand you can by the way the lord sees it but if you want to let me know there's a text number you just text that say new believer and that'll let me know and i'll find out right now that you that you're out there raising your hand too i'd like to see that but if that's you we're gonna pray this prayer i'm gonna ask the whole church to pray this prayer out loud confessing this with you because we love getting behind what you're doing it's the best decision i ever made confessing my sins and being forgiven and the lord doesn't make you perfect from this day forward but he makes you perfectly forgiven that's what christianity is so let's pray together out loud dear father in heaven i believe in your son jesus christ i believe that he died on the cross for my sins and that he rose up from the grave and that i'm forgiven help me to walk with you thank you for saving me in the name of jesus christ amen and lord how thankful we are so great at salvation lord i pray for these new believers today that you just lovingly wrap your arms around them that they know that you love them and that their sins are forgiven that you're not grouchy or mad but lord you're merciful and kind lord may all of us celebrate on this easter sunday morning may we just rejoice and shout from the rooftops that the lord lives that he has risen lord we owe you hallelujah after hallelujah because you're worthy lord so we bless you and we thank you in jesus name amen let's all stand together and i think it's fitting for us after having considered such a powerful truth it's fitting for us to sing hallelujah don't you think let's finish with one more song worship team let's sing out hallelujah to the lord [Music] it took my soul [Music] let's sing out this new chorus [Music] hallelujah set me free [Music] if my signature [Music] me [Music] hallelujah set me free [Music] i want to teach you this new bridge it's really easy just three words give me uh hallelujah let's try that out right [Music] keep me hallelujah give me a hallelujah [Music] give me [Music] hallelujah set me free me [Music] a amen have a wonderful resurrection sunday may the lord bless you and we'll see you next time you're dismissed you

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 10,522

Rating: 4.8989897 out of 5

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship, Resurrection Sunday

Id: F2YwQPc29v4

Length: 85min 56sec (5156 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 04 2021