RESURRECTION SUNDAY | SUNDAY 5TH APRIL | PS AARON MORE

This morning I did say to poor Liv who

decided to sit front and center. She is

in the spit zone. So uh

I've just been away at a conference over

the weekend and uh got back yesterday

and one of the speakers their church had

made a t-shirt uh line for Easter and

the t-shirt line said this. It said a

lot can happen in three days. A lot can

happen in three days. And of course,

this was talking about uh the three days

between the death and resurrection of

Christ. But it actually reminded me of

of someone else who once told me that a

lot had happened in three days. Uh back

in the day, I I used to be a checkout

chick at uh pack and save more house. A

any other checkout chicks in the house?

So, uh, that was my, well, I want to say

my first job. I actually got fired from

my first job in two days. Um, but that

was my second job. I did last slightly

longer at that. And so, one day I come

into work on a Monday and uh, check out

Supervisor Markers there. He comes over

to see me. He's um, he he was a

good-looking man. He was bold and uh he

um he came to see me and he's like,

"Hey, what'd you get up to for your

weekend?" And I'm like, "Oh, I just um

hung out, told him whatever I did." I

go, "What did you do?" He goes, "Oh, I

went to Egypt for the weekend."

And I'm going, "I worked the Thursday

night shift and I saw saw you on

Thursday.

Today is Monday. I might be 16, but

something that's a heck of a lot

happening in three days, right? I was

like, man, something didn't quite add up

for me with Mark's story. And I don't

know if you've ever been in a situation

where someone tells you something and

it's kind of like that's a plot twist

and I was a little bit unsure like he's

my boss. Do I say liar, liar, pants on

fire or what's the appropriate response

here? because I'm not so sure that

you've been to Egypt for the three days.

But there's this interesting time in the

Gospels where Peter, one of Jesus'

disciples, uh he's listening to Jesus

and Jesus says something to him that is

kind of his moment of, "Hey, I'm not

really that sure what you're saying. Is

that right?" In Matthew 16:21,

Matthew 16:21

it says, "From that time on, Jesus began

to explain to his disciples that he must

go to Jerusalem and suffer many things

at the hands of the elders, the chief

priests, and the teachers of the law,

and that he must be killed, and on the

third day be raised to life." Peter took

him aside and began to rebuke him.

Never, Lord. He said, this shall never

happen to you.

Jesus turned and said to Peter, get

behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling

block to me. You do not have in mind the

concerns of God, but merely human

concerns.

That's a strange story right there.

Jesus says, "Hey, I'm going to get

killed." Peter's like, "No, I don't want

you to get killed." And then Jesus says,

"Get behind me, Satan." Like, I would

hope if I was to come to you and say,

"Hey, I'm going to go somewhere and I

think I might get killed." That that

that you might go, "Hey, no, don't don't

do it, Aaron." And I'd be like, "Oh,

that's really nice." Like I thought

Peter's being a good friend, right? Like

here he is going, "Hey, I don't want you

to die." And yet somehow within that

moment from going, "Hey Jesus, I don't

want you to die. I don't want you to

suffer. Never. That will never happen to

you. And then it's like uh all of a

sudden it's this caring friend reverse

uno card played and all of a sudden he's

been called Satan. LIKE I WAS SHOWING

CARE FOR MY FRIEND.

And I wonder

why

Jesus responded in that way.

But I also wonder why Peter responded in

the way he did. You see, in those days,

the Jewish people were actually uh

occupies of Rome. Rome had conquered

them. And the Messiah they were waiting

for was a political messiah that was

going to set their country free. It was

like, man, someone's going to come and

we will no longer be under Roman

oppression. You see, Peter was looking

for a political savior. He was like,

"Man, Jesus is going to come and he is

going to set us free and we're going to

go from being conquered to being the

conquerors. This is going to be

amazing." And then Jesus begins to tell

him, "Hey, I'm actually going to go and

die."

And so Peter, I'm sure his heart was

moved for Jesus as a friend, but he was

also moved for, hey, this is a plot

twist that I wasn't ready for. like I

was happy to follow you being the

political savior. Being the one that's

going to set us free, being the one

that's going to open up the the the way

that we would no longer be conquered.

But you see, the thing is in that

moment, Jesus was letting Peter know,

unfortunately, Peter, I'm not going to

be the savior that you want,

but I am going to be the savior that you

need.

You see, Peter wanted something certain

out of Jesus. But Jesus was like, "I

know you think that's what you want, but

I'm actually going to give you what you

need." You know, there's a saying that

the only thing worse than not getting

what you want is getting what you want.

The only thing worse than not getting

what you want is getting what you want.

And Peter in this moment

realized that Jesus was inviting him

into

something different. Jesus did this a

bit in in John six. He begins to tell a

story and he's like, "Hey," or not a

story, he begins to teach and he's like,

"Man, you guys need to eat my body and

drink my blood."

And they're like, "Man, I liked it when

you were multiplying food and when we

when our bellies were full. I liked it

when you said that was quite nice that

love your neighbor, you know, that kind

of thing. Now you're telling us to eat

your body and drink your blood. You

know, it then says in Luke uh 6 verse

66, Luke uh sorry, John 6:66, "From this

John 6:66

time, many of his disciples turned back

and no longer followed him." They're

like, "Man, the the miracles were kind

of good. the eating your body and and

drinking your blood. That's a little bit

weird and that's the moment that we will

move on. It's interesting in modern life

because some people uh really rate Jesus

as a great teacher. They're like, "Hey,

I love the teachings of Jesus." Like, we

love the do unto others as you would

have them do unto you. That's beautiful

words. Like, wow. What beautiful

teaching. And so you you'll encounter

many people and they may say, "Hey, I

don't really believe in the Bible. I

don't really believe everything, but I

do believe Jesus was a good man and that

he gave good teachings."

And so

then you begin to talk about the cross.

You might have realized this morning we

sang a heck of a lot about blood.

I mean, I don't know if you've ever uh

been or encountered that Christian that

in a strange environment says to

someone, "Have you been washed in the

blood?" I mean, that's a strange thing

to have asked of you in a workplace,

right? And for some reason, it's

normally a male and he also uses the

word brother. Have you been washed in

the blood, brother?

That's a weird thing to have asked of

you as a question in a workplace, right?

But there is something

about the cross and the resurrection of

Jesus that forces us to make a decision.

There is something about the cross and

resurrection of Jesus that makes me uh

have to consider he can no longer be a

good man. If that is true, then he must

be the God man.

like his teachings could make him a good

man. But if the death and resurrection

is true, then he is not just a good man.

He is the God man. And all of a sudden

there is a different response required

from my life.

One of the interesting things that CS

Lewis noted

uh when he was actually before becoming

a Christian when he was talking to the

author of the Lord of the Rings JRR

Tolken he he he looked at different

fairy tales and he began to see like

it's so strange that you have different

cultures

yet they have in some cases similar

fairy tales and actually there is a

slight difference. Uh while both exist

in both hemispheres, you actually find

that in the east, fairy tales are

generally about someone powerful who

becomes humble to find out what true

treasure is. Like in Eastern fairy

tales, many times the prince gets

humbled and is no longer a prince, but

in his humbling, he finds out what true

riches are. In western fairy tales, we

tell the opposite story where someone

who was poor became rich. So Cinderella

goes to the ball and she gets prince

charming and the one who was without

gets in our fairy tales and in eastern

fairy tales many times the powerful

person discovers what humility is and

has weakness. And so we have these two

sides

of of the stories that we tell.

It's interesting because in one

Corinthians 1:22, Paul says this, "Jews

demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom,

but we preach Christ crucified, a

stumbling block to Jews and foolishness

to Gentiles.

But to those whom God has called both

Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God

and the wisdom of God. We preach Christ

crucified a stumbling block and

foolishness.

You see, there are many things that I

could say this morning that it would not

matter what level of belief you had. You

would say, "Hey, that's a really good

thing to say. Love your neighbor." You

know, unless you're a real mongrel,

you're probably going to agree with

that.

But you begin to talk about a man who

died,

was in a tomb for three days, and rose

from the dead. And some people will be

like, I I don't know. I'm not quite on

that boat. Like, ah, yes, give me the

teachings. Give me that. sing your songs

about love, but the ones about the

blood, they're a little bit strange. If

you think they were strange, I grew up

in church that had a hymn that literally

referenced a hobgoblin.

I think it was meant to be a type of

demon that you could have victory over.

I've met a few hobgoblins in the

workplace.

I used to think it wasn't relative. And

then I joined church staff and I was

like, "Ah, victory over hobgoblins."

Like it all makes sense now.

Paul also says in one Corinthians 1, the

message of the cross is foolishness to

those who are perishing,

but to us who are being saved. It is the

power of God.

I don't know

what your relationship to Jesus and his

resurrection was when you came in this

morning. I don't know if your

relationship was, wow, this thing seems

really foolish. Like, yeah, there's some

good teachings, but this death and

resurrection thing might seems a little

bit foolish. Or I don't know if you were

like man it is life to me but my hope

this morning is that by the end of

today's service every person here would

say man I realize according to human

ways this might look foolish but I

realize now that Jesus came to be the

God not necessarily that I wanted not

necessarily that I would have chosen but

he came to be the God that I needed. it.

See, in 1 Corinthians 15:14, it says

1 Corinthians 15:14

this. If Christ has not been raised, our

preaching is useless, and so is your

faith. If Jesus did not die and ro rise

again, let's not gather around his

teachings. Let's not say, "Love your

neighbor. Let's not do all that stuff."

It's absolutely pointless because there

is no power in it. THERE IS NO LIFE IN

IT. Jesus didn't come

to make us right. He came to make dead

people live.

>> And maybe you're here this morning and

you're like, I well, I've never known

that.

Can I suggest to you that even in this

place, you've already began to feel God

speaking to your heart.

you've already began to realize, "Wow, I

might have thought it was foolishness,

but there's some life here that maybe I

didn't realize." Paul goes on and says,

"But Christ has indeed been raised from

the dead." See, it would be foolish and

worthless if he hadn't. But the great

news is 2,000 years later, all across

the earth, there are millions upon

millions of people that are saying, "My

life has been transformed because Christ

has risen from the dead." He didn't come

to give you a new ethic system, to give

you some new principles to live by. He

didn't come that we could just uh have a

better approach to life. He actually

came and died in our place so we could

experience new life in him.

>> And maybe you're here this morning and

you're like, "That's nice that people

are clapping that."

But maybe the question for you this

morning is,

what if Jesus was more than just a good

man?

What if Jesus was actually

not the God we wanted,

but the God we need?

And even in this moment here this

morning, I want to give an opportunity

to anyone who has not put their trust in

Jesus. If you're here and you're like,

man, I realize

even maybe just being here this morning,

you're like, there's so much life. I

don't understand it all, but I cannot

deny that there is resurrection life in

this place.

And I'm just going to ask everyone to

close their eyes. And if that's you this

morning, I want to be really clear. What

I'm actually inviting you to is to say,

"Wow, Jesus, I realize you died and rose

again. And my response

is to give you my life. To ask you to

forgive me of the things that I've done,

to accept the life that you give through

your resurrection."

And if you're here this morning and you

have never done that before and you are

like, "Today is my day."

Then with every eye closed, what I want

you to do is just shoot up your hand now

and just give me a wave to say, "Aaron,

that's me." Aaron, that's me. This

morning, I want to give my life to

Jesus.

We just keep our eyes closed and just in

this moment, I'm not going to drag it

out, but I'm just going to count down

from five. And if that's you, you're

like, "Yes."

Okay, I need to do that this morning.

Then as I count down from five, you can

just shoot your hand up to say, "Yes,

Aaron, that's me. I need to my life

right with God. Five

4

3

2

1.

The beautiful thing is that Jesus

did die and rise again. And in and of

itself, that would have been more than

enough.

But in doing that, he then invited us

into a fresh reality.

Wow.

You can open your eyes. I want to close

by

encouraging us this morning.

See,

Jesus rising from the dead

is not the end of our story. It's the

entrance point to our story. You see,

Jesus rising from the dead is actually a

door that we can walk through. Listen to

this in Ephesians 1. This is what Paul

prays for the church in Ephesus. That

power is the same as the mighty strength

that God exerted when he rised Christ

from the dead and seated him at his

right hand in the heavenly realms far

above all rule, authority, and power.

The same power that rose Christ from the

dead is available to you and I today.

And I don't just mean for salvation. I

mean it's available for us to walk in.

And and I don't just mean that that

means if you've been saved, you're

instantly walking in it. No, I mean

there is an invitation to walk in

greater measures of the glory of the

presence of Jesus.

And so what we're going to do this

morning is we are going to open up the

front. And if you said yes to Jesus for

the first time, I want you to come over

this side. There'll be some people who

would love to pray for you and that will

be from there. But the rest of the altar

is going to be open for us for those of

us who want a fresh filling. Pastor

Trevor spoke so amazingly

last weekend about the Holy Spirit. And

uh I've just been down in Lower Hut in

Wellington at a conference called Raging

Fire uh run by Seth Forset. And um

because of our connection with Seth,

he's like, "Oh, yep. We'll um you know,

you can come and uh you know, we're

inviting the different pastors and so um

you know, we'd love to host you while

you're here." And they're like, "Hey,

we've got a name tag for you because you

know, we're happy for you. We'd love you

to be part of the ministry team." And uh

I'll tell you I had zero interest in

being part of the ministry team. Like

they opened the altar every meeting and

I can tell you I was not praying for

anyone else. I was like I am getting to

that altar. I want more of Jesus. I was

like man there's another day where

someone can be prayed for and that's

awesome. But today I ain't praying for

no one. And I can tell you the altar got

opened every session every session bar

one because it didn't apply to me. I was

there. I can tell you I did not fulfill

that obligation. I prayed for not one

single person because I was so hungry

that I wanted more of the presence of

God. And can I tell you yesterday when I

responded to the altar, someone didn't

even need to lay hands on me. I was down

on the ground and just so impacted by

the presence of God. And I got up, I had

to leave, go to the airport. They gave

me a driver. Uh the driver and I did not

have one single word of conversation as

we drove to the airport, as I spoke in

tongues and laughed in the spirit and

was under the presence and power of

Jesus. Can I tell you if you're a

pastor, a worship leader, an elder,

whatever you are in this place, we all

need more of the presence of God. Does

the presence of God just live in altars?

No. But there is something about an

altar. And can I tell you this morning,

the prayer team prayed through this

place, through specifically through this

piece of carpet,

believing this morning that as you and I

step into this area that there would be

a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit.

So, what's going to happen in just a

moment, the worship team are going to

put h, sorry, the sound team are going

to put a song on and we intentionally I

wanted the full worship team, everyone

to be able to respond. So, that's why

we're doing it via uh video, but

there'll be a song come on and uh if you

are hungry for more of the spirit of

God, I encourage you to come forward

into this area, man. from the mezzy come

down.

There's nothing sacred per se about this

piece of carpet, but at the same time,

God sometimes responds to our obedience,

our willingness to say, "Wow, I'm

hungry. I'm going to come."

And uh some may pray for some people.

You may get prayed for, you may not. I

can tell you it's not a pastoral moment.

If you do get prayed, it will probably

be one word, Phil. And can I tell you,

man, I had some great prayers over the

weekend.

And the last one, I couldn't even tell

you what God prayed over me. It was

nothing grand.

You don't need a prayer. You don't need

a great prayer this morning. You just

need him to fill you and fill me. Aresh.

So, at the moment, I'm intending on

praying for some people, but I also

think the river's here. So how many

people we end up praying for? Who knows?