Luke, The Orderly Account of Truth - Jesus Is Alive - Luke 24:1-12

Welcome to the roots, where it's all about Jesus.

We love God, we love people, we reach the lost,

and we make disciples. I'm really grateful to be here

with all of you because one of the things, as

we're all about Jesus, we also want to help you

be all about Jesus.

And so one of the ways that.

We do that is by regularly going through God's word,

and so that's what we get to do today. I'm

really excited to be able to do that with you.

And this last week it's kind of been nice as

finally the beginning of my preaching rotation, but right before that,

this last week, me and my family got to kind

of steal away for a day go spend a time

at a water park at the Great wolf Fledge, which

was really fun of refreshing time for us, although me

and my wife did kind of learn because we told

our children like way too early that we were going

to the Great Wilfledge, like a month early, and so

every single day is today the day? And then when

you say no, they're like, is it tomorrow? And so

that was pretty much our entirety of our last month

was us just being kind of pastored about that, which

is fun. And then even when it was the Dave

like my son has his backpack on, He's like, let's go, Like,

we don't leave till later, bro.

So it was really it was really fun. It was

a great time.

But they uh, yeah, they were anticipating. They wanted that

it to be today.

But it was really great. It was a good time.

But I wanted to ask you guys a question to

start today's word. Have you ever gotten news that changed

your life forever?

Have you ever gotten.

News that once you've heard it, you were no longer

the same things had changed? You're pregnant, you have cancer,

you're going to be a dad, your mom passed away

last night, you're hired, you're fired, or maybe, if you're

my wife, that news was Duncan has a crush on you.

She's not here, but you guys can tell her. We've

all experienced news that changed us in ways that we

will never that we have never been the same since.

Yet we also live in a world full.

Of news that doesn't matter, and yet we live like

it does. And I know that because we go around

we hear this news that doesn't matter. We go around

announcing the latest headlines like we're paid by the marketers

to tell our friends and family, which I'm not. If

you are, let me know that sounds like a cool gig.

But we're running around with our regurgitating this news, these

headlines that we see that do not matter, things like

did you hear this celebrity got another divorce? Did you

know that the sales going on down the street? Did

you hear what the crazy politician.

Said this week?

And all that excitement over these headlines changes nothing in

our lives, Yet we give them so much attention and

relevance as if they do. It's just something. It's what's

on the tip of our lips. It's always ready, and

our phones don't really help us with that, right Like,

it's kind of what we just consume all of the time.

But we have heard those news that those things that

once we've heard them, we were never ever the same.

There is no return address for your children. Once you

find out that you have them, they are yours and

you have them.

So there is news.

There is good news that, by God's grace, Lord William,

by the end of today, you will never be the

same either. Not only will you never be the same

for this life, but also in the life to come.

Please open your bibles with me.

We are going to be in the Gospel of Luke

and we're in the final chapter of Luke's Gospel. Can

you guys believe that the final chapter We made it

for those of you who may be new in joining

us more recently for the first time. We've been in

this for like over two years, and so we're home

stretch final chapter.

It's really really exciting stuff.

But we've been in this gospel account where Luke has

been going basically play by play of the life and

ministry of our Lord Jesus. And Luke wrote these things

down with the hope that the one who would read

these things would have certainty concerning the things taught about

the person and work of Jesus Christ. So what we're

gonna do is we're going to read these verses, pray,

and get into this great news starting in verse one.

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn,

they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared,

and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

But when they went in, they did not find the

body of the Lord Jesus. And while they were perplexed

about this behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel,

And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to

the ground, the men said to them, why do you

seek the living among the dead.

He is not here, but has arisen.

Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee,

that the son of Man must be delivered into the

hands of sinful men and be crucified. And on the

third day rise, and they remembered his words, and returning

from the tomb, they told all these things to the

eleven to the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna,

and Mary the mother of James, and the other women

with them, who told these.

Things to the apostles.

But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and

they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran

to the tomb, stooping in or stooping and looking in,

he saw the linen clothes by themselves, And he went home,

marveling at what had happened. This is God's word. Let

us pray, Lord, as we open your word. I just

asked that you would be opening our hearts, opening our

ears and our minds to understand the word that you

have for us. Today I asked that the songs that

we have sung, have prepared, our hearts prepared, are our lives,

are God to receive this great news that you have

for us. So Lord, we give you this time. We

asked that your word would not return void, and that

you would be glorified in all of it. And Jesus

name Amen. So the last several weeks we've been going

through the darkest days of Jesus's life. The darkest days

A little recap. Basically, in the last couple of days

of Jesus's life, he was betrayed, abandoned, denied, rejected, accused, abused, mistreated, tortured,

and finally murdered in the most humiliating and painful way

of dying, by being stripped of his clothes nailed to

pieces of wood to hang until he died, in which

he did. He died on a cross and was buried

in a tomb with a large stone covering the front.

Those around him who had been mocking him went away

beating their chests, realizing that they just murdered an innocent man.

His disciples buried his body and they left him there

until after the Sabbath, when there was no work to

be done, and some of the women who had followed

Jesus saw where they put his body, where they had

laid him in the tomb, and they went home and

prepared spices to bring the day after the Sabbath, the

disciples who had fled and abandoned Jesus, their teacher was dead,

and in a turn of events that none of them

had expected, they have now seen their teacher killed and buried.

And now there's this whole day of rest where they

have to sit on this fact. But you really think

about that, You've witnessed all these things, and now there's

just a whole day to kind of sit and stew

on all of this. Finally, Sunday arrives and they can

go finish preparing Jesus's body, and so some of the

women head for the tomb early in the morning.

And picture of that walk.

I imagine that like you've been waiting, You've been sitting

on all these things, and so you're heading to the tomb.

You're on the way to the tomb.

The last time you saw Jesus he was either hanging

on the cross, dead or wrapped and put in a tomb.

You've had a full day to sit on this and

now you're going to go face it basically all over

again by finishing the preparation of his body. But then

you get to the tomb and something unexpected happens, something

you didn't expect to see when you get there. Look

at this in verse one. But on the first day

of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb,

taking the spices they had prepared, and they found the

stone rolled away.

From the tomb. That's the first thing.

But when they went in, they did not find the

body of the Lord Jesus.

Where is Jesus's body? And here's the deal. We know

this story, right, so we're like, we know where it is,

but imagine being.

In their shoes, Like you saw Jesus die be buried,

and now you show up to the tomb and his

body's gone.

No explanation.

I mean, we all know the feeling of like leaving

something somewhere and coming back and it's not there anymore.

The tomb that had had Jesus's body in it was

now empty. There was nobody in there. But their bewilderment

didn't last long before something incredible happens.

Look at verse four. It says while they were perplexed

about this.

Behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.

It's a great word, dazzling.

Not only are they perplexed at a loss with themselves,

but now show up two dudes in dazzling apparel and

that word dazzling.

Because I had to look it up. I was like,

that seems like an interesting.

Greek word or for them to be using dazzling, but

it actually means it was like lightning. It was bright

and shining was it was this incredible display. You can

imagine that this is not exactly how they thought their

morning was going to go.

So these angels deliver to them the greatest news in

the history of the world.

Look at this Verses five through seven, and as they

were frightened, because that's the proper response when an angel

shows up. Just to be clear, every time in the Bible,

pretty much every single time in the Bible and angel

shows up, people are on their face.

So this is not in my notes.

But if anyone ever tells you an angel showed up

to them, not impossible.

It can happen. But my first question is, and like,

how quickly did you hit the ground? Right?

That is the biblical account that we see over and

over and over again.

Anyways, the men said to them, why do you seek

the living among the dead. He is not here but

has risen. Remember how he told you while he was.

Still in Galilee, that the son of Man must be

delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified.

And on the third day rise Jesus is alive. Say,

Jesus is alive. They say, why do.

You look for the living among the dead. He is

not here, but he has risen. And amazingly enough, just

like the angels thirty years prior had announced the birth

of the Messiah, now these angels announced to these women

the first born from among the dead.

Jesus Christ, who has been resurrected.

And they tell and the angels say, to these women,

remember that this is exactly what Jesus said would happen.

And amazingly enough, that's exactly what happens.

They remember it.

They're like, oh, yeah, he did kind of mention this.

I guess he had a whole day and you didn't

remember this. So not only do they remember this, but

then they do what any reasonable person would do. They

go run to tell everyone else. They go run to

tell the disciples what has happened. See this is verse eight.

And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb,

they told all these things to the eleven and all

the rest now is Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary

the mother of James, and the other women with them,

who told these things to the apostles. This is incredible news.

The tomb is empty. Angels have told us Jesus, our teacher,

is alive. We've seen angels and they told us so.

So all the.

Disciples God have and started cheering. Right, No, that's not

what the disciples did verse eleven. But these words seem

to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.

Sometimes it's funny reading the gospels right, like it's we

have we get to read all of it, so we

know the ending. We've heard it maybe growing up in church,

like we have this idea. So it's really easy to

give the disciples a hard time. These disciples don't believe

the women. And actually the Greek word here for idle

tale means nonsense.

So they come to them and say Jesus is alive.

Some angels told us the tombs that this is crazy

what's going on.

They're like, this is nonsense. What are you talking about?

They do not believe them. They hear the report of

these women and dismiss it as nonsense, and wives, you

should resist the urge to elbow your husband's Actually years ago,

when me and my wife first married, we moved into

our first apartment in Tumwater, and while we were living there,

my wife started noticing or claiming that stuff in our

house was moving, or so she claimed that's what that's

what she claimed. We had these pair of elephants on

the TV stand entertainment center or whatever, and she was

claiming that they were moving. So she's like, weren't those

facing outwards? But now they're facing inwards? And I'm like,

what are you talking about? This is crazy. You know,

first year of marriage, you don't know what you're gonna

expect or get.

I hadn't moved them, and she hadn't moved.

Them, so I concluded that she was crazy and it

was nonsense. And here's what's actually kind of crazy, is

it like it didn't happen one time, it happened over

and over again. But my explanation for the situation was

that every time she moved them. She just forgot which

way she moved them, and so then she thought someone

else moved them, and she was basically just losing it.

It's true, I mean it was crazy. I didn't know, Like,

what do you mean stuff's moving the house. We're the

only people who live in this house.

I'm not moving it, and you're not moving it either.

One day, she were sitting on the couch and she

pointed at a cross that was like upside down leaning

up against the wall. She's like, what's up with that?

And I'm like, what do you mean, what's up with that?

It fell off to the entertainment center. It's like, I'm

not gonna get scared. You can't do that, you know.

Like so once again, a logical explanation was that she

was crazy. It had fallen down.

I knew my wife, and I did not believe my

wife because the other possibilities were so far the other

possible explanations were so far out of my realm of

possibilities that I could not believe her. Well, As it

turns out, when we finally moved out of these apartments,

our friends who were also living in the same apartment

complex came clean. One of my best friends had secretly

made a duplicate key to my apartment and would come

over to our place to get things he needed, and

was also subtly moving stuff in our house to drive

us crazy. And my wife noticed, and I didn't. I

just thought she was crazy. Literally, the elephants the Cross.

The thing that he said he really wanted to do

was move our couch was backwards more and more and more,

until one day we ran into it. He didn't do that,

he wanted to be more subtle to my disbelief. My

wife was right and I was wrong. These women come

to the Disciples with this great news, but the disciples,

not able to see how it's even possible, dismiss it

as nonsense, as a tall tale. But good old Peter,

despite everyone's unbelief, he has to at the very least

confirm what these ladies are saying. So Peter runs to

the tomb. And what does Peter find. He finds that

the news is true. The tomb is empty, and this

can only make Peter, who has yet to realize the

fullness of the truth, go home in wonder. Look at

this verse twelve. But Peter rose and ran to the

tomb stooping and looking in he saw the linen clothes

by themselves, and he went home, marveling at what had happened.

So Peter doesn't know it yet fully, but these women do.

Jesus is alive. Say Jesus is alive, Jesus. Jesus has

been raised from the dead. Jesus has been resurrected. And

this is the greatest news in all of history. A

man who was dead came back to life, and not

after two minutes of not having a pulse. He was

in a tomb for three days, and now he lives.

Say Jesus is alive, Jesus. In just these few verses,

Luke has captured the account from the very first eyewitnesses

to the resurrection of Jesus. The first testimony in account

that Jesus Christ is alive, spoken by angels, witness first

from women, and told to the disciples who have yet

to believe. Now the following weeks we're going to get

to work through their interactions with the risen Jesus. But

what Luke wants us to know in our text today

is not only was the tomb empty, but Jesus is alive.

That is the thing we need to grasp today. This

is the news that if you believe it, it will

change your life forever. So this is what I want

us to spend the rest of our time unpacking together.

That Jesus is alive. Say, Jesus is alive. This is

the central claim of Christianity. Like this is like this

is gospel ABC's, this is Christianity ABC's.

It's the nuts and bolts.

There doesn't get more simple than this, that Jesus is alive.

This is why we have hope.

Without the resurrection of Jesus, there is no Christianity. Jesus's

resurrection is not only the confirmation of who he claim

to be, that is God in flesh, but it is

also the proof that death is not the end. This

is the center of Christianity, the core of the good news.

Look at this one Corinthians five one through five. It says, now,

I want to remind you, brothers of the gospel I

preach to you, which you received in what you stand

and by which you are being saved. If you hold

fast to the word I preached you, unless you believe

in vain, for I delivered to you as of first

importance what I received. You hear that he delivered what

he received as of first importance. That Christ died for

our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried,

and that he was raised on the third day in

accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared Tocephis under

the twelve spoilers. That Jesus died for our sins, was buried,

and was raised on the third day.

That Jesus is alive.

This is the hope that we profess, and this is

at its core the gospel message.

Look at this.

Romans ten to nine says, because if you believe, or

if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and.

Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,

you will be saved.

If you believe in your heart that Jesus was raised

from the dead, you will be saved. If you put

your faith in Jesus and believe the good news, you

will be saved from the wrath. Do your sin, and honestly,

the gospel is so it's we forget it. The gospel

is so simple. This is the simplicity of the gospel.

The gospel message is that Jesus is alive. Jesus is living,

Jesus got up from the dead. The beauty of the

gospel is the simplicity of this gospel. But how often

do we forget how how the gospel is truly the simple.

It's so simple that a child can comprehend it, yet

so simple that some reject it as nonsense. It's too simple.

And this is the single greatest divide from every religion

and belief that is out there, every religion. This is

where Christianity differs. All the religions of the world point

us to follow men who have long since been dead,

but Christianity points you to follow the one who is

still living, who is still alive. Also, Christianity rises and

falls on the resurrection of Jesus. So, honestly, if you

just want to like throw this whole thing away, just

go prove Jesus and rests with the dead.

That's all you have to do. That's the only thing

you have to do.

It's also why Christianity has actually never been defunked, because

the resurrection has never been defunked. Actually, in fact, many

books have been written by those who tried to debunk Christianity,

and as a result, many of those skeptics became serviants

and believers of the one that they sought to disprove.

Why because God's word and the fact that Jesus was

raised from the dead cannot be refuted.

They can't be refuted. And here's the deal.

You can reject the truth, you cannot believe the truth.

You can't refute the truth. That's like really good news.

Even as for a believers, like at the end of

the day, no one can say, like that didn't happen.

I mean, you can say it, but it doesn't prove anything.

You can reject the truth, but you can't refute it.

And Paul, when defending the resurrection himself, says something astonishing.

Look at this one Corinthians fifteen twelve through nineteen. He says, now,

if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how

can some of you say that there is no resurrection

of the dead.

But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not.

Even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not

been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your

faith is in vain. Okay, Paul, He even goes further.

He says, we are even found to be misrepresenting God

because we testified about God that he raised Christ whom

he did not raise. If it is true that the

dead are not for if the dead are not raised,

not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has

not been raised, your faith is futile and you are

still in your sins, he says, you still got big problems.

If Jesus has not been raised, he says, then those

who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in

Christ we have hope in this life, only we have

all pity, or people most to be pitied. Paul says

that if there's no resurrection, if Jesus hasn't been raised,

then our faith is in vain and it's pointless and

people should feel sorry for us. That's what That's literally

what Paul says, people should feel sorry for us. If

Jesus was not raised from the dead head. We will

give our whole life to this thing. And if it's

a lie, then what do we give our life to.

Paul would then go on to say that in fact,

Christ did rise from the dead. But this is how

much emphasis Paul puts on the resurrection. The resurrection is

the only reason we have true, true hope in this life,

because it is the proof that Jesus is who He

claim to be that our sin has been dealt with

and that.

There is a future hope after death. And for all who.

Believe in Jesus, one day they two will be raised

from the dead to eternal life with him. Those who

die in their sins, having rejected Christ, will rise to

everlasting torment for the wrath do their sins say Jesus

is alive. So this is what I want you to

walk away with today, that Jesus is alive, and I

need the band to come up please, But that's not

where I want us to end, because what I really

want to challenge you all and even myself in this truth.

Jesus is alive. But do you live like it or

do you live like it's nonsense? Is this news that

is that has and will change your life forever? Or

is this another fad headline for you? Would your life

say that Jesus is alive or does your life expose

that you think it's nonsense? Is it good news or

is it nonsense to you?

Now?

Many of us would claim that this is good news

for our life.

But it hasn't changed us.

Many of us have people we love who have died,

who have passed away and it's usually only after we

have lost these people that we rethink our life a

little bit. We wish we'd use the time better and

that we had had with them. But what would you

do if you had them back? What would you do

if you have them back? But that's a lot of

times why.

We and the.

Learning to appreciate those who are still around us a

little bit more because we think back on like, well, well,

if I had them back, things would be different. My

life would be changed. That person that passed away came

back to life today, you wouldn't waste any time calling

them again, talking to them, spending time with them. And

the Disciples got Jesus back. The Disciples thought Jesus was gone.

But the Disciples got Jesus back, and we have Jesus

back forever.

He isn't going anywhere. Say Jesus is alive.

This is the hope that we share when we talk

about Christianity to our family, our friends, our coworkers. This

is the claim. This is what we're talking about. We're

saying Jesus is alive. That's it. It's I mean, even

preparing this message for me, it's very helpful and thinking

about how I interact with non believers, and at the

end of the day, all I'm saying is, yeah, Jesus

is still alive.

Jesus is alive.

This is why we live our lives for him, because

he's real, He's alive, and he's active.

But do you live like it?

That was really the challenge of working through this message

because for believers, we're like, yeah, this is like the

most basic thing in the world. But that's what really

hit me. It's like it is very basic, at least

if you've grown up in the church. I think we

can forget about it. So the real question is do

you actually live like it? Though?

Has it impacted your life?

Do you seek God as if he's living and active,

or do you seek him or interact with him like

he's a cold, lifeless corpse.

Jesus is alive and he sits on the throne right now.

He lives.

But for many of us who claim to know Christ

with our lips, our lives look like we think it's nonsense.

I want to paint you a picture.

And there's two men who say they believe a person

who claim to be God in flesh paid for their

sins by dying on.

The cross and rows from the dead now. One of

them spends every Sunday worshiping.

This person with his people. Every day teaches his family

that they have to know this person. They got to

know this person. He talks to this person, He reads

letters from this person. He sings to this person. He

serves this person and his people. He talks about this

person with others.

He gives to this person, and he wants to be

like this person.

The other man will come to church when his sports

team isn't playing, or his kids didn't have anything better

than they wanted to do, or his family isn't too tired.

He's received letters from this person but doesn't bother to

open them. He may talk to this person if he

gets asked to, has a hard time finding the time,

the energy, the money to give to this person, and

he has no desire to be like or look like

this person. Both claim to know this person and believe

that this person is alive, but one's life is actually

gripped by the fact and changed because of it, but

the other lives like it's nonsense, it's an afterthought, it's

something you can tack on. This is exactly the claim

that Jesus' disciples would go on to make when they

wrote to other Christians like what John says, And by

this we know that we have come to know him

if we keep his commandments. Whoever says I know him

but does not keep his commandments is a liar.

And the truth is not in him. Well, whoever keeps

his word in him, Truly, the love of God is perfected.

By this, we know that we are in him.

Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in

the same way in will.

Which he walked. These people knew Jesus.

John knew Jesus, and he's telling other believers. He's like,

if you say you know him, your life will look different.

There's in no world where you say that you know

Jesus and your life isn'tdifferent because of it. That you

abide in Jesus and your life isn't different because of it.

And John has no problem like calling them out. He

just says, you're lying, bro, Like you're not telling the truth.

And here's the deal.

This is convicting to me.

Also, I've been thinking about it a lot lately because

how easy is it to be on your phone or

binge watch shows, spend countless hours a week doing so

you're like, well, I still read my Bible, but like, actually,

contrast the time, the balance is off.

The balance is off. Fifteen minutes a day of Bible.

Reading does not compete with three hours or more or

whatever of being on your phone or watching his show,

I mean even just reading other books.

And we will.

Neglect time in God's presence with him with letters that

He's given to us to know him. So, as believers,

if we claim that Jesus is alive but don't actually

live it with our lives, then all that says to

unbelievers is that we think it's nonsense to.

Think about our witness. It was easy to.

Look at the disciples who saw all there is in Jesus,

and we'll go on to die for it. People are like,

there had something changed in John, something changed in Peter.

He is not the same Peter that I knew before.

But when unbelievers look at our life, would they actually

believe us say that there's a king of kings and

a lord of lords rules the earth, all authorities his

I'll take a rain check on doing anything he's asked

me to do. Has it changed my life one bit?

Has it reordered my priorities?

At all.

Would unbelievers look at our lives and believe us. Our

mission here is to be all about Jesus, and we

want to help you make your life all about Jesus.

But I do need to tell you some thing. We

can't help you. We cannot help you make your life

all about Jesus if the conviction that Jesus.

Is alive is not present in your heart.

If you don't actually believe that Jesus rose from the dead,

we can't actually help you make your life all about Jesus.

The best we could do is wash the outside of

a tomb where a dead person is still on the inside.

That's the best that we could do. But the good

news is that Jesus is the resurrection. Jesus is the resurrection.

What that means is that just like Lazarus, he can

call out to you and have you come out of

the tomb. He can call on your spirit that is

dead and the chrespasses and sins in which you once walked,

and called to you to come out of the grave

and live.

We see that.

Phesians two four through six. And I pray to God

that you do hear his voice now saying come out

and live. Ephesians two four through six says, but God,

being rich in mercy because of the great love with

which he loved us, even when we were dead in

our chest passes, made us alive together with Christ. By

grace you have been saved and raised us up with

him and seated us with Him in the.

Heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

What that means is Christ's resurrection means our resurrection if

we're in him.

And here's the deal. There's like a million things.

There's a million things, a million implications and consequences, but

in a good way of Jesus having risen from the dead.

But today I want you to examine, if you profess

Christ as alive, does your life say it's good news

or nonsense?

Will you go home still living like.

It's nonsense, or will you go home living like it's

good news?

What does your life say? What would your Let's just back.

Up a second. What would it look like if this

truth did grip your life?

What do you imagine?

What do you think would be different about your life

if you actually believed it? If you let this truth

take over your life and not have a pocket for

a couple hours on a Sunday.

Picture that.

That's probably the direction. We just need a head. We

just need to move in that direction of what do

I think it would look like?

Now here's the deal. There's clear teaching.

There is a place that tells you what your life

will look like if you believe Jesus has risen from

the dead.

It's in here.

And because of that, you maybe you've you've come to

church or you've grown up in church, so you've heard

things here and there.

You know like, oh, I could work on that. I

could work on that. Yeah, I could work on that. Yeah,

I could work on that.

But at the end of the day, that's that's just

a direction that we could head to have our lives

actually be fully gripped by him. What would change right now?

What could change in this moment, right now when I

go home? What would be different? I truly believed that

Jesus rose from the dead, He's alive now and has

full authority over my life. How would that change me?

I can't even tell you because I don't know your life.

I don't know what's going on. I know what's in

your head. You do, though, So examine your own life.

What would change?

What do you think would change if you truly believe this,

And it's hard because like it's I know you do

believe it, Okay, But the challenge is if we let

this whole thing grip us, if this wasn't an add

on to our life, but was our very life, how

would that change us? We treat it like it's an

add on. That's wrong. Shouldn't do that bad? Just in

case there's any clarification needed, it's not an add on,

it's Christ or nothing.

What would change?

If you truly believe Jesus is alive, your life will

show it. And just for examples your life, it will

show up in so many different ways. You could show

up in the way that you treat your wife and

the way that you treat your husband, or the way

that you teach, in the responsibilities that you have for

your children, the way you interact with your coworkers and

your bosses and unbelievers.

You could just go down the list like it should

touch every point of your life. There's nothing off limits

for Christ. If all authority is His, who are we

to be like, Well.

You can have some of this stuff and some of

that stuff, but don't touch these.

Things affect what you watch. It'll affect what you listen to.

It'll affect what you prioritize on a Sunday, It'll affect

where you use your gifts. It should affect everything. The

fact that Jesus is alive. I want it to sting

as believers, because once again, the reason this needs to

sing and it should sting in a good way, is

that we hear Jesus is alive and we go.

Yeah, yeah, the gospel.

ABC's all right, just another resurrection message, but we don't

even live like it's the most basic thing. We're like,

it's basic, but we don't even like do it. It's

like it's brushing your teeth. It's like you should do it.

It's the most basic thing. It's not really an option.

We go, yeah, yeah, I know I should do that. Yeah, yeah,

I know I should do that, or yeah yeah I

already believe that. But if I look at your life,

what I really believe you, what I actually believe you,

does your life actually look different? It's basic, but we

don't even live like it.

It should break our hearts. If we go to share Christ.

To someone and they were to be thinking or even

say to us, why should I believe something? That you

don't even truly live out, hasn't actually captured your life,

hasn't actually changed.

I know you. There's some situations.

People have their lives changed with Jesus and they go

back to their old friend groups, they go back to

their families, and people are like, what's wrong with you?

Why are you being a freak? Why do you join

a cult? Like? There's so many others like because you're

not the same.

Right, it might be on the hinge to say like, like,

if you didn't actually like change, no one would know

that you were necessarily in a cult. Right, I'm not

saying this is called I'm saying in general. In general,

the reason people start going like are they in a cult?

Is because something changed, something has happened in their life.

It's actually started to affect it and take over it.

That's why people notice something is different. Terrible compare, but

it works.

Does your life?

Say that Jesus is alive? Is the fact that Jesus

is alive is the greatest news. It should be the

source of our greatest hope, source of.

Our greatest joy.

Because everything we could ever need, every problem we could

ever face, has its answer in Jesus.

I'm gonna say that again. Everything we could ever need, every.

Problem that we can face, has its answer in Jesus.

Doesn't mean that you like the answer. It doesn't mean

that you what you're calling a need is a real need.

But Jesus orders all of those things.

And here's the deal.

Most of us live our life like this is the

only life we have. We've bought in to the lie.

That's what our phones tell us, that's what our news

headlines tell us. This is the only life you have.

Get yours, Do what makes you happy, make sure that

you spend enough time with your loved ones. The Gospel

says that's wrong. This is not the only life that

we have. We live like this is the only life

that we have, so we prioritize getting hours before the

lights go out. But the resurrection of Jesus, the fact

that he is alive, tells us that death is not

the end. There is any eternity coming where you would

either spend it an eternal life or eternal torment. The

only hope to be saved from the wrath through your

sin is to put your faith in Jesus, believing he

died on the cross in your place for your sins.

Was buried and was raised, and if we believe in him,

we're found to be in.

Him, that we two will have a resurrection like his,

where our true life will begin. We forget about that,

like our real life, our true life will begin, our

eternal life with him. And we got to put into

pic our mind what's to come like, or else we forget.

It's I gotta do all the things today because I

might die tomorrow. And that's it not true. There's a

life to come that can't even compare with the things

of this life. It's one of the amazing promises. Listen

to this one Corinthians two nine.

But as it is.

Written, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor

the heart of man, imagine what God has prepared for

those who love him.

That is just a good verse Romans eight eighteen.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time

are not worth comparing with the glory that is to

be revealed to us. There's good news. There's good news

in this resurrection. There's good news in the fact that

Jesus is alive. The hope of the resurrection, the fact.

That Jesus is alive.

It gives us the greatest hope, and it should wake

us up from our sleepy state.

It should wake us up.

Constantly running from thing to thing, anxious about everything, living.

Like this is the only life we have.

But the truth is, our true life has yet to start.

What we have now in Christ is only a glimmer

of the things that will be revealed in full when

Jesus returns. But in the meantime, while we wait for

that day, we know it's coming. It's like Gray Wolflage

and my Children on its way. But do we wake

up going like is today the day? I'm waiting for it?

And I can't wait for it to be here? Have

we gone tired or forgetful? Forgetful like the women who

had to be reminded by angels of what Jesus had said.

That's what I hope this moment is.

Right now, remember what God has said.

I pray that today.

That this would be your wake up call. You're reminder

of the good news. Maybe it's the first time you've

heard this great news. I'd love to talk to you

even more about it afterwards, and I will not yell.

I promise.

And I pray that you will live in light of

this great news and stop living like it's nonsense, say

Jesus is alive. I pray that our church and that

for our church, the fact that Jesus is alive wouldn't

be something that's just present on our lips, but present

in our lives, because this is the greatest news in

the world. This is the news that will change your

life forever if.

You believe it. Jesus is alive.

So we go into closing, I want to share the

lyrics of a hymn with you.

It's gonna be not crazy long. It's beautiful.

Lyrics speak to all the amazing things, or so many

of the things that it means that Jesus is alive.

And because I wasn't going to take a bunch of

time to go through the myriad of things, I wanted

to let this song do it because it's beautiful. I'm

not gonna sing it. I'm going to read it to you.

But the hymn is called I Know that my Redeemer Lives.

It goes like this, I know that my Redeemer lives.

What comfort the sweet sentence gives.

He lives.

He lives who once was dead, He lives my everlasting head.

He lives triumphant from the grave. He lives eternally to save.

He lives all glorious in the sky. He lives exalted

there on high. He lives to bless me with his love.

He lives to plead for me above. He lives my

hungry soul to feed. He lives to help in time

of need. He lives to grant me rich supply. He

lives to guide me with his eye. He lives to

comfort me when faint. He lives to hear my soul's complaint.

He lives to silence all my fears. He lives to

wipe away my tears. He lives to calm my troubled heart.

He lives all blessings to impart. He lives my kind, wise,

heavenly friend. He lives and loves me to the end.

He lives, and while he lives, I'll sing. He lives,

my prophet, priest and king. He lives and grants me

daily breath. He lives, and I shall conquer death. He

lives my mansion to prepare. He lives to bring me

safely there. He lives all glory to his name. He

lives my Jesus still the same, Oh, the sweet joy

this sentence gives I know that my Redeemer lives. Would

you please stand