EASTER SUNDAY | SUNDAY 20TH APRIL | PS AARON MORE

huge welcome my name is Aaron and a

special welcome to my friend Mukb who is

uh visiting us it's amazing to have you

here this morning so thank you so much

for coming Mukbull and uh you might have

heard the story about a family that were

having a vacation in the Holy Land and

uh it was their extended family and

while they were there the mother-in-law

passed away and so they uh said to him

uh they came to the son-in-law and they

said you've got two options they said

"We can either do the funeral here in

the Holy Land and that will cost you

$250 or we can take the body and send it

back to the United States but that will

cost over

$10,000." And he said "You know I'll

take the $10,000 option please." They

said "No one's ever taken that option

before why are you taking the $10,000

option?" He said "Well 2,000 years ago a

man died here and he came back to life

i'm not taking any chances and uh to my

mother-in-law if you're watching this I

love you

um hey it's uh amazing to be able to

share with you on resurrection Sunday

and in John chapter 20 in the scriptures

John 20 · chapter mention

we see the story of the resurrection and

it says "Now on the first day of the

week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb

early while it was still dark and saw

that the stone had been taken away from

the tomb she ran and went to Simon Peter

and the other disciple the one whom

Jesus loved and said to them "They have

taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do

not know where they have laid them laid

him." So Peter went out with the other

disciple and they were going toward the

tomb both of them were running together

but the other disciple outran Peter and

reached the tomb

first stopping to look he saw the linen

cloths lying but he did not go in then

Peter came following him and went to the

tomb he saw the linen cloths lying there

and the facecloth which had been on

Jesus' head not lying with the linen

cloths but folded up in a place by

itself then the other disciple who had

reached the tomb first also went in and

he saw and believed for as yet they did

not understand the scriptures that he

must rise from the dead then the

disciples went back to their home but

Mary stood weeping outside the tomb and

as she wept she stood to look into the

tomb and saw two angels in white sitting

there where the body of Jesus had lain

one at the head and one at the feet they

said to her "Woman why are you weeping?"

She said "They have taken away my Lord

and I do not know where they have laid

him." Having said this she turned around

and Jesus was standing there but she did

not know it was Jesus jesus said to

her,"Woman why are you weeping whom are

you seeking?" She supposed him to be the

gardener she said to him "Sir if you've

carried him away tell me where you have

laid him and I will take him away." And

Jesus said to her "Mary." She turned and

said in Aramaic "Robini," which means

teacher jesus said to her "Do not cling

to me for I've not yet ascended to the

Father but go to my brothers and say I

am ascending to my father and your

father to my God and your God." Mary

Magdalene went and announced to the

disciples I have seen the Lord and that

he had said these things to her

one of the interesting things about the

Bible is it doesn't just ring true about

God but it also tells us so much about

human nature like the Bible is the

inspired word of God but it actually

wasn't written by God it was written by

people and you can tell that it tells us

something of human nature when you

realize the only gospel that says which

disciple arrived at the tomb first is

the gospel of John and John was the

other disciple who got there first so he

also refers to himself as the one who

Jesus loved and I just wonder like he's

he's he's sitting down to write the

Bible the the Gospel of John that's

going to be two for 2,000 years spoken

of and I think he says "Jesus if you

really loved me could I just add in the

bit that I actually beat Peter there?"

And then he actually reiterates it a

second time right like he's like "Hey um

and the one who arrived first." I mean

it it's so male isn't it like

everything's a competition even going to

the tomb becomes a competition and then

he's like "Thank you Lord for the grace

that I can ascribe this for all

eternity." If you're visiting or new

here this morning and uh maybe even this

church thing is new to you we do believe

a crazy thing we believe that Jesus

Christ of Nazareth actually died and was

placed in a tomb and then he rose from

the dead and and I'm aware when I say

that that is an outlandish claim like I

get it like that's not normal thing to

believe you know if you go out and and

ask most people do you believe people

rise from the dead most people will say

to you "No no I don't believe that." But

not only do we believe it but we

actually believe that's the one of the

most important things that we believe

like in the New Testament Paul wrote a

letter and he said "If Christ did not

rise from the dead our preaching is in

vain and your faith is futile." If

Christ didn't rise all of Christianity

that's been going for 2,000 years falls

flat on its face based on the whether

Jesus rose from the dead or not and in

just a moment the team are going to put

on a video and this is actually an

atheist talking about the resurrection

of Christ and his name is Alex Okconor

in fairness to him he does go on to talk

after this what what his opinion is but

we're just going to watch a little clip

of that now so can we have that video up

please guys

how do we explain the fact that this man

gets crucified by the Romans and then

people claim to see him after he died

and were willing to be put to death for

that belief okay maybe he didn't die

unlikely as they say the Romans knew how

to kill people and supposedly you know

they check okay so likelihood is that he

was actually crucified and then a few

days later people are claiming to see

him maybe they're lying but then you

don't tend to go to death for something

you know to be a lie you're willing to

be put to death for things that you

think are true that are false but very

rarely are people willing to die for

beliefs that they don't actually believe

themselves that doesn't really happen so

they probably weren't lying as maybe

they were maybe they were mistaken

imagine spending every single day with

this person living with this person

eating with this

person and then you've only seen them a

few days ago and somehow imagine

somebody managed to convince you that

they were me even if I had a twin

brother they probably wouldn't be able

to convince you that that it was me or

maybe they were hallucinating in

groups the one of the earliest

uh gospel New Testament sources is the

is the the letters of Paul the earliest

And in one of those letters Paul refers

to Jesus having appeared to 500 people

at once and in some of the gospels you

get at least some group appearances at

least more than one person and sometimes

you know groups of disciple uh the the

12 all seeing Jesus all at once you

don't get group hallucinations like that

and so it doesn't seem like they were

they were they were mistaken either and

so if they're not mistaken they're not

making it up what explains the fact that

these people claim to see him after he

had died

so one of the uh defenses for why uh you

know people believe in Christianity and

one of the rational defenses that they

use is that very argument that the

historical fact of the resurrection and

that you had multiple people willing to

die for the fact that they believed I'd

seen a risen Christ is an historical

fact for the resurrection but I believe

in the historical fact of the

resurrection believe me if you're in my

job and you begin to say "I'm not sure

if I believe that it was a historical

fact i'll be at Winds on uh Tuesday

looking for a new job." I do believe it

is an historical fact but this morning

the reality of the

resurrection is far more important than

it just being an historical fact even

though that is true

i uh was listening to Peter Roland's and

uh he's a philosopher and uh I wouldn't

necessarily take a whole lot of theology

from him but he thinks a little bit

different and often makes Christians

uncomfortable myself included um so he

went and he was lecturing at this place

and he was lecturing at this place and

the people began to get a little bit

concerned about what his beliefs were

and as I've already said if you are an

Orthodox Christian if you believe Jesus

uh a huge part of it is believing in the

resurrection because the New Testament

says "Hey if Jesus wasn't raised from

the dead then we are still dead in our

sins and our faith is useless." So he's

sharing and he's making these Christians

uncomfortable and this man puts up his

hand at question time and says "Hey

you've been talking a lot about Jesus

but you haven't really mentioned the

resurrection do you deny the

resurrection of

Christ?" And Peter Roland's pauses for a

moment and he says "Yes I deny the

resurrection of Christ." And in that

moment the oxygen gets sucked out of the

room and the event organizers begin to

think how do we get this man off stage

he said "In fact everyone who knows me

knows that I deny the resurrection."

And again he pauses and there is this

deep uncomfortable silence in the room

and he says every time I walk past a

hurting person and do not stop to show

the love of Jesus i deny the

resurrection every time I am selfish and

try and live life my way i deny the

resurrection every time I do things that

hurt other people I deny the

resurrection and then he said "But on a

very few occasions I affirm the

resurrection when I step in in love to

someone else to meet their needs I

affirm the

resurrection." Because the thing about

the resurrection is this it is not just

that it was a historical fact that

happened it was actually a historical

fact that happened and became an

invitation to you and me that we could

enter into resurrection life so it was

not just a something that happened it's

actually something that happens not only

did Jesus get risen from the dead but

because he got risen from the dead we

are all given an invitation to receive

resurrection life

in Romans 8:11 it says "If the spirit of

Romans 8:11

him who raised Jesus from the dead

dwells in

you he will also give life to your

mortal bodies through his spirit who

dwells in you

if the spirit of him who raised Jesus

from the dead you see what happened to

Jesus was he came fully God fully man

died upon the cross and actually his

resurrection was dependent on the Holy

Spirit it tells us that the spirit

raised Jesus from the dead and then what

it tells us is that same spirit that

rose Jesus from the dead if we accept it

it will live in us he will live in us

through his spirit that's a pretty

amazing concept isn't it

if the spirit of him who raised Jesus

from the dead dwells in you it does kind

of beg a question to ask what does it

mean for the spirit to dwell in us and

how does the spirit who rose Jesus from

the dead dwell in us and so we look

again to the life of Jesus and we see

that on Good Friday Jesus died and and

Easter Sunday he was risen from the dead

through the spirit and it's actually the

same path for us where we choose to die

to

ourselves we choose that ourselves would

die uh to the things of this world that

we would give our lives to Jesus and in

doing so that he would give his life his

resurrection life to us you see there

are some that try and say to follow

Christ you know oh well just um you can

just have Jesus and and you don't really

have to give up everything and that's

actually not

true to follow Jesus you actually have

to give your life up as he did that's

the one we're following the one who gave

his life

up someone said "To follow Jesus will

cost you

everything and at that price it is an

incredible

bargain." To follow Jesus will cost you

everything and at that price it is an

incredible bargain why because of the

resurrection life that

comes through

Jesus there's a story of a

donkey that uh comes in from its day it

comes back into the stable and it says

"Um mom you always told me I was a

special little

donkey." And I always thought you just

said that cuz you were my mom you know

and you know if you've got a face that

only a mother can love you'd appreciate

that right like that sometimes moms say

things you know so says to this donkey

this donkey says "You know I thought you

were just saying that because you were

my

mom but it was amazing Mom i believe it

now cuz today I went out into the street

and as I walked down the street these

people began to wave

palms and they began to yell "Hosana!"

And they began to yell "Here comes the

King." And they began to praise me and

oh I was so amazing oh mom today I

realized how special I really

was and the mom said "Well it's true you

are a special

donkey but they weren't doing that for

you they were doing it for Jesus who was

riding on

you and us as ordinary frail people get

this

invitation to be in union and one with

Jesus we get this invitation you know me

standing up here

speaking I I feel like I'm just a beggar

maybe telling some other beggars where I

found some

bread like on my best day I'm just a

donkey that simply gets to host Jesus in

my life that got to experience

resurrection power in my life that was

not just a concept the re the

resurrection was not just something that

happened 2,000 years ago but for me as a

13-year-old broken lost just so messed

up grieving the death of my father

struggling with so many things and God

came and put his resurrection life in me

and everything in my life changed

because of that reality because of the

invitation to resurrection life very

good see resurrection isn't just an

historical fact it is a present day

reality and I realize we will have some

people here that are um not used to

being in church and uh you know I don't

want this next part to freak you out but

we believe resurrection life happens and

Jesus is here and so right now if you're

here and you uh have pain in your body

if there's um active pain maybe a sports

injury or or an accident why don't you

just raise your hand if you've got

active pain in your body particularly if

it hurts now if you're like "Man I am in

pain right now." Why don't you just

raise your hand up high if you're in

pain and

uh if you're uh a believer in Jesus and

you're next to someone who's got their

hand raised why don't you just place a

hand on them don't start praying or just

place a hand on

them and what we're going to do right

now is together we're just going to ask

the resurrection power of Jesus to flow

into these bodies

why don't you just say kingdom of God

come will of God be

done resurrection power of Christ come

into this

body and pain leave in Jesus'

name and if you have just been prayed

for sometimes what we find is actually

someone uh so used to focusing on the

pain so just stop focusing on the pain

and just have a moment and then just try

it out and sometimes people actually um

are like "Wow I've got pain in my

shoulder." And then that actually as

they try to do something they wouldn't

normally be able to do they actually

feel the very healing presence of Jesus

and realize they're painfree so if

that's you this morning if you just had

someone lay hands on you if you why

don't you can you just try out what you

need to do if you need to stand that's

okay if you need to just try something

but sometimes it's in the uh moving of

something that we actually receive the

healing and uh you know if someone uh

feels like they've had a significant

change in their body why don't you just

raise your hands maddie that's awesome

another one down

there anyone else just as they're trying

it out anyone in the

messy wow awesome another one thank you

Jesus paul

wow and so we believe

Jesus brings

resurrection

life all of us are called to live in

resurrection life and probably for some

of us if you are a follower of Jesus in

this place when I say we are called to

live in resurrection life probably for a

lot of us we actually begin to feel a

little bit guilty because we kind of go

"Okay I'm supposed to live in

resurrection life but I realize I said a

four-letter word this week that wasn't

gosh and maybe more than one." And uh

you know I did this I did that I did the

other like I was supposed to be living

in resurrection life and my life doesn't

seem to measure up with resurrection

life would there be anyone honest that

goes back over there last week and says

"Man I think my week doesn't quite add

up with resurrection life." Wow I love

those hands all the others are still in

deception and lying so that's okay

that's okay um we we we you can you can

encounter resurrection life and stop

lying that's that's fine

um you know so often we hear something

like this and we say "Man it's so devoid

from my reality." Like "This isn't

actually the reality of my life." And

you know sometimes I look and I think

"Man if we had the reality of

resurrection life how different would

our city be?" Like even if just the

people in this room who follow Jesus if

we really walked in resurrection life

what would it be like and see the

problem as we begin to look internally

and do an inventory is we're looking to

the wrong place you see we begin to do

an inventory and we go "Wow I didn't

measure up i guess this resurrection

life is just a theory." And every now

and again there's an amazing story that

happens and I'm reminded yes someone got

healed or this happened but I don't seem

to live in the fullness of resurrection

life but Ephesians 2 says "For by grace

have you been saved through faith and

that not of your own it is the gift of

God not of works so that no one can

boast." So we come to Christ through

grace but here's what it says next for

we are his

workmanship created in Christ Jesus for

good works which God prepared beforehand

that we should walk in them it's not an

accident that this starts by talking

about grace and what you did not

earn do you know every person here when

they accepted Jesus was created aresh in

Christ they were given new life and then

there were actually good works that God

had in advance for you to

do but

actually so often the only thing

stopping us is that we expect it to come

from our sense of goodness we expect it

to come from us and we forget that Good

Friday happened and Jesus died and so

actually all we have to do is being

really good at being dead to

ourselves all we actually have to do is

remind ourselves wow there is nothing

good in me but there's everything good

in Jesus and when we remain in that

place we actually become hidden with

Christ and resurrection life begins to

flow through our bodies but so often we

are looking at the body in the tomb uh

uh symbolically we're looking at the old

us expecting to see something good and

Jesus is saying the goodness is going to

flow when you actually remain in me all

you actually need to do is remain in me

oh I was so moved this morning during

worship just that revelation um I was

just yelling out "God I am in you and

you are in

me." Wow thank you Jesus for that thank

you for your resurrection power that

flows to me by grace

and so this morning we are going to

close by saying two prayers and the

first prayer that I'm going to pray is

if you are here this morning and uh you

have never uh given your life to Jesus

you've never come to him and asked for

that resurrection life then this morning

we want to give you an opportunity or

maybe you did that once a long time ago

and you're no longer walking with God i

I don't mean that you've had a bad week

i mean if you're no longer walking with

God and you're like "Man I need to

reconnect with God." Then this morning I

want to say a prayer and I would love to

include you in that prayer so if

everyone could just close their eyes and

if you're here this morning and you're

in a place where you're like "Hey I

realize I want to give my life to

Jesus i want to experience resurrection

life."

Then this morning I'm going to ask you

to do something brave and just raise

your hand and say "Hey Aaron would you

include me in that prayer?" Maybe you've

walked far from God and you're like "Man

I know I need to come back to Jesus."

And so with every eye closed just as I

look around if you're like "That's me

this morning i want to say yes to Jesus

i need to give my life back to

him." I want to be included in that

prayer then I'm just going to ask you to

pop your hand up now

i see that hand god bless i see that

hand god

bless i see that hand god bless

you and if you raised your hand or you

feel like you should have I'm just going

to say a prayer now and you can just

pray this um yourself

and uh this isn't the one this is the

start of something it's not the end of

something this isn't the whole thing

it's just the start of something and

even um as you pray this prayer I just

uh encourage you to say it from your

heart and then maybe at the end of the

service it would be amazing if you came

forward and we'd love to connect with

you and help you on your journey but if

you raised your hand or right now you're

like "Oh I I shut off." Then this

morning just as I pray this you can pray

these words under your breath and just

uh invite Jesus into your

life jesus I come to you this

morning i may not know everything but I

come to you in faith and believe that

you died for my sin so I could

experience your

life and God this

morning I give up doing life my way i

turn and choose to do life your

way lord would you let resurrection life

flow into my body and into my life help

me to follow you in Jesus' name amen

amen can we just give a round of

applause for those who prayed that

prayer and the second group of people

which is probably most of us is those of

us who have got caught in a

cycle of looking at ourselves instead of

looking at the resurrected one of

looking at ourselves instead of looking

to him and if that's you this morning

we're not going to come out the front

but if that's you just uh there's only

going to be a moment for this but right

now if you want to stand where you are

if you're like man I know I've been in a

place where I get caught looking at

myself and man I want to look at the

resurrected one just uh just going to

count down from five if you're going to

stand five four three two one awesome

and uh this

morning I realize that this is really

hard to do because we're in seats that

are right next to each other but just as

you can what I want you to do is uh

symbolize stepping backwards in just a

moment and so you're just going to at

best you can it'll be a shuffle for most

of us but we're just going to step

back and it's like we're stepping back

into the fullness of who Christ is it's

that reminder that I'm stepping into the

reality of the one who gave his life for

me i'm stepping into his death burial

and resurrection so this morning why

don't you just uh do that this morning

as a sign you can just shuffle back whoa

Lord and even as we do that Lord we just

place our lives in your hands again lord

we step back into that reality of the

risen Christ

wow you are hidden in Christ and Christ

is in

you and then what I want to invite you

to simply do now is take a small step

forward and that's the reality of you

stepping forward from this

moment aware that you are hidden in

Christ with resurrection power flowing

through you according to the glory of

God lord I bless each person here lord I

bless them to know that they are deeply

deeply loved by you lord as we step

forward Lord may we step out with the

realization of resurrection life flowing

through us lord may our eyes be on the

reality that you are in us and we are in

you and Lord may we walk forth that way

into the day weeks months and years

ahead lord to see your kingdom come your

will be done in the mighty name of Jesus

amen amen awesome