Alive Forevermore - Pastor Rob Urban

Welcome to Logan City Christian Church podcast where we bring God's Word to you weekly.

We pray that what you hear will bring clarity to your situation and open doors in your life.

Enjoy the message.

And what Christ has done in Keith and in you and all of us is just an amazing testimony

to me of many things but one that stands out the most and that is that Jesus is alive.

Jesus is not dead. He is alive and He's well and He's alive forevermore praise the Lord.

And I'm really excited about that. Thank you Rohan and the team for the doing that video

presentation a lot of work and there's more to come and I think it's really good to see the

you know that to feel that emotion of what happens in a person's life because rarely we get to hear

the nuts and bolts of what happened and the process to get us to where we are and it's just

wonderful. Thank you. Thank you Keith as well for allowing us to do that today. It's just wonderful.

Well here we are Resurrection Sunday. It's to me the most exciting day on the Christian calendar

it's the most powerful day of the Christian calendar. I mean Good Friday granted as well

Resurrection Sunday. It's the process how Christ Himself how He died for our sins. He went to the

grave on the third day that God raised him from the dead the awesome power of God. You know this

morning I'd like to read a little bit of scripture that I believe will bring incredible encouragement

to each and every one of us and really I think this morning there's nothing new. There's no

new revelation that's going to come this morning. I believe it's more of a reminder and encouragement

for each and every one of us to know that Jesus is alive as I said and He's alive forever more

and that God is still on the throne regardless how we see this world running the affairs of this world.

God's in control. He's totally in control. He's totally got this and we see that as things wind

down to the end as we hear a lot of us Christians saying that the end is near and the reality is the

end is near. This world as we see it today is not going to be like this for much longer.

There are going to be great changes take place. The rapture of the church is going to be such an

incredible event and ask me if I'm looking forward to that. It is going to be a great

time and so Revelation chapter 1 and I'm going to read from verse 7. It's a bit hard to cut in

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

because for the sake of time I'll start from verse 7 and behold He is coming with clouds

and every eye will see Him even they who pierced Him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn

because of Him even so amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end says the Lord

who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty. I John now here's Apostle John they

walked with Jesus around three years had just now seen Jesus in his glorified state and he said that

he saw his hair was white like wool, his eyes like fire, his feet like burnished bronze.

The way that he was presented the resurrected Christ the glorified Christ was very different

to the person whom he would have recognized walking on earth however Christ revealed himself

in His majesty and in that glory that God had bestowed upon him and so here is John the Apostle

John that had just had an experience with Jesus. You see Apostle John was on the Isle of Patmos and

the Isle of Patmos first thing we might think is that an island oh could you imagine being stranded

on an island wouldn't that be a wonderful thing? Being stranded on Fraser Island or Morton Island

I mean how tough could that be but Patmos was not like that. Patmos was just a lump out of the ocean

of volcanic matter. I believe there were no trees or if there were there very few it was a hot place

it was an arid place it was dry and that's where they brought criminals and forced them to hard

labor and so here was Apostle John in a time where he was no doubt reflecting his life and his walk

with Christ and I'm sure as he did whether we do as well at times we think what's it all about

and right at a time when Apostle John was at I guess one of his toughest moments Jesus appears

to him and said John I got some good news for you and some of these things that I well these

things that I share with you I'm going to write it want you to write it down and this is going

to be on record with the Christian church and the rest of the world till the end of the age

and so I could only imagine that Apostle John would have been greatly encouraged when he had

that encounter and I want to encourage you to this morning in saying this is that you may have your

own Isle of Patmos experience where you may be in life right now thinking that things are hard and

arid and dry and you know nothing seems to be happening are you doing it tough or persecuted

whatever it might be I want to let you know that Jesus can arrive on your Isle of Patmos and he can

change the whole thing around he may not change the surroundings but I tell you what he's going

to change the world around him but I tell you what he can certainly do a deep work inside of us

and encourage us if we will let him and so I John both your brother and companion in tribulation

and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of

God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ so he made it very clear the reason why he was

because he was considered a criminal for being a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And verse 10 it says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and I heard behind me a loud voice

as of a trumpet saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. What you see,

write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos,

Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. And then I returned to see the voice that spoke with me

and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands and in the midst of them, seven and in the midst

of the seven lampstands, one like the son of man clothed with the garment down to the feet and

girded about the chest with a gold band. His head and hair were like white, were white like wool

as white as snow and his eyes like a flame of fire. His feet were like fine brass as if refined

in the furnace and his voice as the sound of many waters. He had in his right hand seven stars and

out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword and his countenance was like the sun shining

in its strength. What an incredible vision to have and experience and encounter and it changed him

again forever without a doubt. Verse 17, and when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead

but he laid his right hand on me saying to me, do not be afraid I am the first and the last. Now this

is the third time that Jesus in a very short conversation has mentioned I'm the Alpha, the

Omega, I'm the beginning, the end, the first and the last and in here he says that I am the first

and the last. What is Jesus actually saying to John and what is Jesus meaning for the Christian

church today? What he's saying is the Alpha, the Omega, the first and the last beginning and the end,

Jesus is saying regardless what you go in through in life, Jesus has always been.

Jesus is not a New Testament person. Jesus didn't show up in this world or in

the economy of God. He just didn't show up born of a virgin in a manger that we celebrate

Christmas. Jesus, He's saying I've always been, I've always been and I am now and I will be forever

more and what an encouragement that is is that we know we have that assurance that Jesus has always

been, He's always existed and how He came the Son of God and humbled Himself, became a man and walked

as a human being, a hundred percent human being, yes the Son of God but He laid aside His deity

and He walked as a man yet He Himself was the Son of God. So He's letting us know today that

I've always been around, I've always been here and I'm always going to be around

and anything that takes place in your life or on earth will not take Him by surprise.

He's always aware, He's always on to it, God is amazing. So He says do not be afraid, I am the

first and the last. Verse 18, He said I am He who lives, praise the Lord, I am He who lives

and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore, praise the Lord, amen and I have the keys of

Hades and of death. In other words, Jesus is saying the work of Calvary, the work of

the work of redemption is complete. God the Father raised Him from the dead, I'm alive forevermore

and now that I'm alive forevermore, I have total authority, Jesus has total authority over everything.

Hallelujah, praise be to God.

It says here that He says I have the keys of Hades and of death and this is the thing that I'm

going to go through in the scripture in Romans chapter 6 is that Jesus, as He said here I have

Romans 6 · chapter mention

the keys of Hades and of death is good news, it's good news for us today to know that Jesus

has the keys of authority over Hades. It's speaking about the unseen realm to the natural eye but a

realm that certainly exists and one of the things that really gives me a great picture, what I

shared on Friday night, Good Friday night, about the thieves, either side of the cross were crucified

with Jesus and one of them was mocking Jesus and the other one actually rebuked the other thief

and said to Jesus, Jesus remember me in your kingdom and Jesus said to him this day you shall

be with me in paradise. Now here's the thought, Jesus himself has the keys of Hades and of death

and I can imagine that at that place that it speaks about in the bosom of Abraham that there was a

great chasm and some was on its side of torment and the other were in the side of where Abraham was

and of peace. It was the holding pen of the saints if you like. Now these two criminals,

it goes without saying that one of them was with Abraham, one of them was in paradise

and the other one was like the Lazarus on the other side, the crying of the cross,

the Lazarus on the other side, they're crying out just for one drop of water on my tongue,

give me something and I believe that criminal that mocked Jesus realized then how close he was to

salvation. He realized then who Jesus really is and how he missed it but God is great in mercy,

man. God is so great in mercy. Romans chapter 6, I'm going to go straight there and there's a very

Romans 6 · chapter mention

powerful passage of scripture that I believe is, as I said there's no new revelation but it's a

good reminder of what we have in Christ, who we are in Christ, a great revelation and this here

in Romans chapter 6 will bring this out I guess very clearly and precisely. I'm going to read from

Romans 6 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 6 from verse 1 to 14 and so as I do bear in mind what I've just previously read

Romans 6 · chapter mention

that Jesus said I was the first and the last beginning the end, I was alive, I was dead and

now I'm alive forevermore, I hold the keys, the authority of Hades and of death. There's no more

to conquer. Jesus has conquered everything. Now as we've read that, keep that in mind as I read this

because this to me is going to be really encouraging for us by way of reminder. I'm very

confident about that. Romans chapter 6 from verse 1 reads, what shall we say then? Shall we continue

Romans 6 · chapter mention

in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into

His? What were we baptized into? His death. Hold on to that. Therefore, we were buried with Him

through baptism into death. That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,

even so we also should walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the

likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, our old nature.

That the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

For he who has died has been freed from sin. You might be thinking, Rob I'm not getting this. Don't

worry. I'll come back to it. We'll go through it and it'll all open up. Verse 8, now if we died with

Christ, we believe that we should also live with Him. Knowing that Christ, having been raised from

the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died,

He died to sin once for all. But the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise, you also,

as is speaking to us, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus,

our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin,

but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of

righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law,

but under grace. Hallelujah. That is worth shouting about. Praise be to God. But it gets

to the point where it goes back to the analogy. Christ, how He was risen from the dead. He died,

rose again, glorified, alive forevermore. An apostle Paul is speaking to the Christians

and he's speaking to us today, expressing to us, explaining to us, guys, it is better to be

righteousness conscious than sin conscious. He's saying about the importance of baptism,

the water baptism, but more so the effects of Christ, the work of Christ on the cross,

what has taken place in our life. And so therefore we were buried with Him through baptism

unto death. As Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should also

walk in the newness of life. I think a good thing to meditate on here today is to know this.

Because Jesus is alive, there's nothing that can overpower Him, overrule Him,

overpower His authority or His dominion. That's been settled. So that leaves Jesus

as the ruler and it leaves Him as total authority. The scripture says, Jesus said,

all authority has been given to me in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And so that means

that all of creation, all of the universe, all of earth and all what's in earth and what's on earth

is all under the authority of Christ. Everything. And He said, because of this,

because I have this, I've now given it to you. So fear, don't fear, but go out and preach the

gospel to every creature, to every person, because you're on the winning side. You're on the side of

the power of God to preach a gospel, to preach good news for people to be able to be saved,

to experience this resurrection life in our bodies, in our lives. But this analogy here,

and it's such a beautiful picture of water baptism. And we know that when we, you know,

some people say, oh, you don't need to be water baptized to be saved. Hey, if Jesus was water

baptized and He knew it was good to be baptized, it's good for us to be water baptized. Amen.

But there's a significance in this. Some people say, oh, it's just about, you know, you got to do

it for a, you know, a religious person. No, no, no, no. We do it for a very spiritual reason.

And the fact is, is that when we, when Christ, when He was buried in the grave, and on the third day,

when He rose, He rose to a totally different person. As He went into the grave, people

recognized, they had that picture of who Jesus looked like, His face and how He talked and how

He walked. But when He was risen from the dead, Mary didn't even recognize Him when she saw Him.

She thought He was the gardener. John didn't recognize Him, yet He was the closest one. He

was the center of the inner circle of friends for Jesus. And He described what Jesus looked like

as the glorified Savior. So Jesus went into the grave in one way, but when He was risen

from the dead, He came up glorified. He came up out different, totally empowered

with an authority given to Him. The same is with you and I, the day that we receive Christ into

our life, that we acknowledge that somewhere along the line, that we needed Christ in our life.

And when we accepted Christ into our life, a great work took place and we were no longer the same.

And when we go through the waters of baptism, we are identifying with what Jesus did,

and it's more than identifying, it's actually becoming likened to. And now there is a difference.

Being likened to means that I share the same as. So when we go down in the water of baptism

and we come up, I know the day that I was water baptized, my Lord, it was just something else.

Being born again was incredible. Being water baptized was an incredible experience.

And filled with the Holy Ghost was another incredible experience.

But I know for me that when I came up out of the water, this revelation, this knowing, it's like

I'm a new creation. It's all new. And that's what it says here about that we're all the same.

It says here about that we should walk in the newness of life. But here is where I think it can possibly go wrong.

And I'm seeing it and hearing it. And maybe you are too today in the modern realm that we live in,

the modern world, that there is a modern gospel, if I can say, that's not the... it's close, but it's not quite the same.

The reality is if we want to experience the resurrection power of Christ in our lives,

that we truly, truly be raised into the newness of life, just as there was a funeral with Jesus,

as there was a burial, there too needs to be a burial with us when we accept Christ.

Now you may think, hey, that's not a real encouraging message to share on Resurrection Sunday.

I think it is. I think it really, really is. And let me explain why I think it's a really encouraging message.

It's because we don't accept Christ as an addition to an existing life.

That's not what happened. That's not what the Bible says.

Some I've heard have said, well, just get saved, receive Jesus and He'll help you live, fulfill your life that you want to live.

And that doesn't work because Christ will help us. Christ still loves us. God will always love us.

But when we're speaking about salvation and to experience the fullness of the new life,

which is a spiritual new birth, and as I've just read, that with the burial, therefore,

we who were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead,

from the glory of the Father, so us too, there cannot be a raising to the newness of life unless there was first a death.

A spiritual one. Now, can I say this? That the old Adamic nature, the old sin nature of Rob,

that if I came to Christ and said, Jesus, in my old state, unsaved state, Jesus, I want you to save me

because I want what you have and I've seen what others can do when you're in their life.

And I want that. I don't want to surrender what I have to be able to receive Him.

The old nature and the new nature cannot exist in the same room together.

They can't. It's impossible. So one will live or the other will live.

And the decision is entirely ours, our own decision. We cannot have the two to coexist.

You know, something I noticed when we do funerals and that and when, I mean, I don't mean to be too graphic,

but when the burial is complete, you don't, kind of like, go to the wake and the deceased is there having a coffee saying,

that was a pretty big deal, wasn't it?

That person's dead.

It's the end of that physical life. It's the end. There's no more. It's completed.

What's done is done. And this is the, I think, what is missing in modern Christianity today.

We come to the cross at Calvary, but I surrender, we surrender all that I am,

everything that I've ever wanted to be and hoped and dreamed to be, I lay it all down before my Lord and Savior.

Then He can raise up and bring to life what He wants in my life. And what is not good in my life, He will leave in the grave.

And that is the only way that we as born-again believers can experience the newness of life.

If first there was a death, a spiritual death, there must be a spiritual funeral before there can be a spiritual resurrection.

There must be a death before there can be a raising from a spiritual death into the newness of life.

In the same way that Jesus, that He said, I was dead, I'm alive, and I'm alive forevermore,

that we through identifying with His death, His burial, His resurrection, we are exactly just like Jesus.

That we in Him will live forevermore spiritually. This physical body has an expiry date on it.

Some of us have more mileage on the speedo than others. Some of us are feeling the aches and pains more than others,

but we do have an expiry date. And that's just a natural thing.

But when we speak about spiritual things, we're speaking about a different realm here altogether.

That spiritually, we must understand and we must be taught, especially in discipleship,

now that you've accepted Christ, everything that you've ever hoped to be needs to go into that grave as well.

And I'll tell you something, when Chantelle mentioned this to me when she led me to,

I mean, she had nine and a quarter years of witnessing to me.

So I heard the whole gospel, I had everything from cover to cover, including the book of maps.

It was everything. It was very complete.

But the reality is, is that I was able to make an informed decision based upon what I was told,

what I learned and what I knew. And I knew that giving my life to Jesus was a total handing over of my life to him.

So I see that in Christianity today, often we hear things like, I don't know why I'm still struggling.

I don't know why I just can't seem to break through. I don't know why. Was there truly?

I'm not here to try and sow doubt into your conversion experience at all.

But I do believe that reflection is very powerful.

And to say this, at that point when we gave our life to Christ, did I lay everything?

Did we lay everything down?

Did we give it all? Absolutely everything.

Or did we not?

Well, God still loves you. God's always there for you.

The grace of God abounds more and more and more and more and more.

God is just so amazing.

But I see that there is a reality, a truth, this thing about why is it that as important as it is and foundational as it is in our Christianity,

why is it that often many will not want to speak about the blood of Jesus, about blood, oh the blood, just ugh.

They don't want to speak about a death. They don't want to speak about sacrifice.

I want to speak about repentance, the Church of God. Let me say this.

These are foundational to knowing God, being born again, be received into the kingdom of God, truly, holy and solely being born again.

I like what Apostle Paul wrote. I go find it here, Galatians chapter two, verse 20, very powerful passage of Scripture.

He says, I have been crucified with Christ.

The tense of this is past tense.

He said, I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Hallelujah.

So where does that leave us today?

Let me close by saying this.

Christianity is the most exciting life that any person could ever live, ever, ever.

I've seen what Christ can do and what is done. We watched the video this morning.

I look at Mama Carrie and see the woman that comes to Christ and gives all and then Christ uses her.

Plants Bible schools and orphanages and schools and does works and work in different nations all on a pension.

How God has used you to do incredible things.

How amazing it is that God will use a very ordinary person and empower them to do extraordinary things.

You know, it's because of Christ that he lives and lives forevermore.

And there's a work to be done here on earth. And we're doing it.

It's being done in the name of Jesus.

But here is the thing. I think sometimes if we haven't truly accepted the reality that I died in Christ.

Have you ever thought about it before?

If ever we go through a thing, whether you may struggle from depression, anxiety or or whatever, loneliness, whatever, hang on a minute.

That that's supposed to be in the grave. Why is it still here?

Think of whatever you may be going through today. Is it possible that that should still be that should be in the grave that we gave it all?

Oh, but the devil's really good. He wants to raise things from the dead as well.

Our old self, our old life, our old things.

You see, God, I do not believe is interested in empowering our plans, our decisions.

Our wants.

But when we surrender our lives completely to him, just like Jesus on the cross of Calvary.

What an act of faith what he did.

Knowing he spoke to the disciples at times and he said, the son of man will surely be betrayed into the hand, be given into the hands of betrayers and they will crucify him.

And he will die and God will raise him from the dead on the third day.

He was speaking this knowing that that was the will of God.

But let me tell you, there still would have been an element of faith in that.

So there was Jesus when he drew his last breath.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

It wasn't an easy process.

But in the center of the earth, in Hades, on the third day, doesn't matter how dark life can be and get God's glory can find where you are in a place of darkness and a place of hopelessness, wherever it may be, God's goodness will find you.

And that's why it's so important to cry out to God, call upon the name of the Lord and you shall be saved.

So important.

And so Jesus, if God didn't raise him from the dead, he'd still be there.

How pitiful life would be.

And so he was 100% relying and trusting that he went through with the death.

But the resurrecting was not in his power.

Think about it.

Jesus was not able to raise himself.

Couldn't do anything.

And us as well, if we want to experience the resurrection power of God in our lives as children of the living God, there too must be that element of faith, knowing that this person, the old nature spiritually needed to die

and trust that in that death and that faith and that obedience to Christ, that God is going to raise out of that a new person.

Second Corinthians 517.

Very, very powerful

scripture

about being a new creation in Christ.

Apostle Paul had this revelation

that I am a new, he's speaking about a new creation in Christ, he said, old things have passed away.

What do we say when somebody, what do they say, they die, they kick the bucket or whatever.

What do we say, they said they passed away.

They're gone, it's finished, it's completed, it's done with.

He said, I'm a new creation. God did not recondition the old person who went in the grave.

He didn't work with that substance at all.

He made a new creation.

And that's who you are today.

Because of what Christ did.

So if ever you're thinking life is hard, we may be battling with things like

from sin things or whatever it might be.

Think more about your amazing God.

There are things that we haven't laid down, lay them down.

Because when you lay it down and I lay things down, trust me, Christ will ensure that it stays down.

And when we lay it down, it's only then that that newness of life can come.

The two cannot coexist together.

Jesus wasn't dead and alive at the same time in that natural sense at all.

Are you getting me this morning?

The two cannot coexist.

God saved the old you died, dead, finished, the moose done, finished.

And out of that, God created a new you.

One created so wonderfully and fearfully made.

Being born of the spirit, being born from above, God birthed you into his family.

So therefore you have every right as a child of that family to the privileges and to the inheritance.

Because you were born into that family where the Bible says adopted but a spiritual birth.

Absolutely.

As I close this service this morning, I'd like to give an opportunity to every single person here this morning.

And those watching online, that Resurrection Sunday is a message of life, of new life, newness of life,

of new beginnings, a new future, that everything new.

And you might be thinking, how good would it be if I could leave this place today

and have everything that I've ever done wrong left behind me and I could move ahead into life

just looking ahead what is good and what God has for me.

Can I share with you?

That can happen for you today.

God's in you today and your future.

You and I cannot change the past but Jesus can deal with some things in our past.

What can he do? He can forgive you. He can forgive me and he does.

So today I'm going to pray a prayer similar that I prayed some 30 years ago

when I truly received Christ into my life.

It was a total new beginning for me.

And those of us here today that are born again, you know what I'm speaking about.

Resurrection Sunday, the whole message of Christ from beginning to end

was so that God could seek and save those who were lost and bring them back into the family of God.

Would you follow me in a prayer, a very simple prayer?

And if you mean, really mean from your heart what you're about to pray,

God will truly save you, a great miracle will take place in your life.

What will that miracle be?

It will be there will be a death and there will be a resurrection.

There will be a new birth, a newness, life come up in you.

Come on, let's pray.

Repeat after me, Father God, I come to you in the name of Jesus.

Lord, I believe in my heart.

I confess with my mouth that you, Jesus, are the Son of God and you died for me.

I ask that you would forgive me all the things I've done wrong.

This day, I give all of my life to you.

All of it I give to you.

I ask that you would save me.

I call on the name of Jesus.

Now, save me. Amen.

Every head is bowed, every eye is closed.

You've truly meant that today.

You just quickly raise your hand up and down, very quickly up and down.

No one else will see it but me.

Would you do that? Would you do that?

I see that hand there.

Is there anybody else here this morning?

Would you do that?

Don't be shy.

Don't be shy.

You know, any preacher that's been preaching for a certain length of time

knows when a person or people have made decisions

and are finding it very difficult to find that boldness to acknowledge it,

just say, Lord, that was me.

That was me.

And I know there are some here this morning that you're finding it difficult.

That's okay. We're human.

But I want to let you know today that your decision that you made is so important.

And it's that important that you need to tell somebody.

You need to let somebody know, hey, that was me.

I made a decision today.

Would you help me?

Because when you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior,

it's the first step of many to come.

And from that point, we need someone to teach us

and to show us what the Bible means, how this all works.

It's called being disciple.

I would like to encourage you to do that.

Those watching online today, we thank you for watching.

And also, if you've made a decision,

follow Christ, would you contact us with the information on the screen?

We'd love to get in touch with you.

It would be wonderful.

So today, Jesus is alive.

He's alive.

He's not dead.

And he's alive forevermore in the name of Jesus, we all said.

Amen.

If there's anyone here this morning you'd like prayer for anything in your life,

would you come out?

I'd love to pray for you.

Last Friday night, the power of God was just moving so amazingly.

Just so wonderful.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you for joining us.

We pray God's richest blessing on your life.

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You can also find us at logancitychristianchurch.com.

See you next week.