Power of the Resurrection

Thank you, Pitman. Good morning.

We thought it would be quiet and then Friday, but there are lots

of people outside there in the passage, in the foyer outside.

Thank you for staying. Thank you for coming.

Thank you for sitting in the traffic.

We dreamt of days like this. We dreamt of days like this.

It's great to have you here. I want to just honour my friend

Dion. I don't know if he had.

Dion the clerk are you? Yeah, I saw your son.

Yeah, maybe yet. Or not.

Yeah. Dion the clerk say nice to me.

OK. I want to honour him.

Tell him I was going to honour him.

I put my beader ear towards that.

You know, he saw Uncle Comet. It was Beader Hirikon Cartel is

he's of an ochand. And said Beader Hirikon Cartel

is work. He's of an ochand and took

Oakhurst on in front of the night.

My friends of the Kaikhete may be the Eddie Congress scene in

the Neva Ice Mark for Kirk may be the my neighbors across the

road. Peter and Hesty are here with

their family. I just want to honor them

because the Bible says you will serve God with our neighbors.

My dad used to always have two fish in his pocket and when the

grandkids came they would sit on my dad's lap and they would take

the 2 fish out of his pocket. The fish never came to an end.

I think he had a pile behind him and as they took the fish, he

had put them back in his pocket and take the fish and put them

back in his pocket and take the fish.

And I sat down today and my daughter-in-law, been a dire for

three years, put this on my chair with a very, very

beautiful letter. Because the 5th of April 2016,

10 years ago today, is the day that my dad died.

And I never, ever thought that I would get the privilege of

preaching about the resurrection on the day of my dad's death.

And I could think of no better place to preach the resurrection

than amongst the people of Pretoria.

You've been so unbelievably good.

To my family, I want to say thank you as we come together

today with the church around the world.

My mum will be watching online and my sister, my nieces and

nephews down in the house my dad built in Nottingham Road.

I want to send love to all of you and mum saying thank you for

being an amazing faith person who taught our family about

Jesus. It's my 31st Easter as a pastor.

What a privilege, I thought. I've preached everything I know

about Easter. I've done John, I've done

Matthew, I've done Luke. I've crooked sermons from other

pastors. I've done the whole lot.

I downloaded AI. Can you please give me a fresh

message on Easter 31 years later, please?

They gave me. I thought I've done all that, so

I'm going to preach. Actually, I also want to

introduce a guy called Ross Stein.

You won't know him, but Ross Stein, I'm really proud of you.

It means nothing except between me and Ross and his dad.

I want to preach some Peter today because Peter had the

greatest to me, the greatest change in his life.

Oh, please, Can you turn your phone off, Kathy?

Take the blame, Kath. Take the blame.

It's the person behind you. Take the blame, Kath.

Take it for Jesus. Don't, don't lean back.

Take it. Take it.

Kev. Peter, Peter.

I like Peter. Peter reminds me a lot of

myself. If somebody's going to jump out

the boat, it's me. If somebody's going to sink in

the water, it's also me. If somebody's going to make a

big claim, who do people say I am?

You are Christ, the son of the living God and, and the

president. You just deny Christ, you know,

1-2, three times things get hot, you pull your sword out and you

cut the ear off because you don't know what to do.

So you just go into defensive mode.

I've done that a few times, cut a few people's ears off, and

then Jesus takes three people. It says it's the greatest

struggle of his life as he goes into the Garden of Gethsemane

and wrestles with God about his will for his life.

And he's asking is this somehow Lord God that we we can do this

differently. Lord God or give me the strength

to go through the cross and he is sweating blood and he takes

with them Peter, James and John. And every time he comes back

from prayer, they fast asleep. But the last three books of the

Bible are written by Peter, James, and John.

The last three books of the Bible are written by Peter,

James, and John. And the difference between

falling asleep in the garden and writing one of the last books of

the Bible was the resurrection, The thing that changes

everybody. And I want to share 4 very

unbelievably, brutally simple points about the resurrection.

If you can turn me to 1 Peter chapter 1 please.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to God's elect.

Strangers in the world, say strangers in the world.

We don't belong here. The reason why we don't really

fit in here is we're not meant to fit in here.

We don't actually exist for this world.

We exist for another world, scattered throughout Pontus,

Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Butplas, Bithynia and

bronchosprait. Well, that's what it's meant to

say in common terms. We have been chosen according to

the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctifying

work of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling

by His blood. Grace and peace be yours in

abundance. Reach out to your hands and say

to the person in front of your Grace and peace be yours and

abundance. Say it again.

Grace and peace be yours and abundance.

Sounds very angry, can I? Let's just say one more time.

Grace and peace be yours and abundance.

I set my, my, my timer for an hour.

I thought for an hour, I'm going to stand on my study and I'm

going to imagine this moment and for one hour I'm going to say

grace and peace be yours and abundance.

And after about 7 minutes I got bored.

So I really, I had this great intention, but I never followed

through. OK, 2 verses of scripture,

that's all. Praise be to the God and Father

by Lord Jesus Christ in his great mercy, say great mercy.

He has given us new birth, say new birth, into a living hope

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in His

great mercy, so great mercy. He has given us new birth into a

living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ

from the dead and into an inheritance that can never

perish, spoil or fade. 4 points. You can put them up.

You're going to remember them today.

I like your red shirt, Nico. 4 points.

New births, a new birth. Great mercy.

Living hope secured future in the resurrection of Jesus

Christ. My dad was a successful man.

He never passed my trick, he failed my trick and he went to

Damen College to get his my trick and he failed university

and he built a business from the bottom up through unbelievably

hard work and in the eyes of the world he looked unbelievably

successful. But I remember as a 22 year old

man going into the mountains to pray because I was so worried

about my dad's salvation. And I never knew how this

self-made man with all the answers to life and no need of

anything would ever find the need for Christ.

And yet when I looked into his eyes, he was lost.

He needed Jesus. And I remember going into the

mountains to pray for three days.

I cried out to God. I said, Oh God, please save my

father. And I came back to church.

I parked my car. I went to worship.

And the lady walked up to me that I've never seen before and

I've never seen her again. She walked up to me and she said

to me, young man, I said, yes, ma'am.

She said, get a witness so that you know what I'm saying.

And she called somebody to witness.

She said, young man, you've been in the mountains praying for

your father. I said, how do you know that,

ma'am? She said I saw a vision of you

crying out for the salvation of your dad.

She said don't worry young man, God has heard your cry and she

has your father in the palm of his hand.

And young man, you're going to be a full time preacher.

You're going to be used in the gift of healing and you're going

to preach to thousands of people.

I was 22 years old. 25 years later, 25 years later, I was

preaching at a conference with Angus Buchan and I was mainly

preached first and Angus Buchan was mainly preached second.

And my dad came to listen to me and he said, I've come to listen

to you, not to the farmer. And I said, dad, I'm preaching

first. He said, Shana, when you're

done, I'm gone. I said that's fine, dad.

And the organizers came to me and he said, Rory, do you mind?

Angus has got a new schedule. Do you mind if he preaches first

and you preach second because he needs to go?

So I went to my dad and I said, dad, we shopping the order.

He said, oh, no. He said, I suppose I'm going to

have to listen to the farmer. I said, yes, dad.

And that farmer got up to preach in an auditorium maybe half the

size but full of people. He got down from the podium.

He walked down the crowd and he put his hand on my dad's

shoulder like this. And he preached like us about

Jesus from there to there to there to there.

And he preached and he just kept touching my dad's shoulder like

this. Can you imagine?

I've not come to listen to the farmer.

You don't decide why you here. You don't even know why you

here. You're a visiting family.

You stuck in the outside, you stuck in the foyer, maybe even

sitting outside, but you don't know why.

But God can take a farmer if he wants to, to get hold of a man

who has made it himself without the help of anybody, he thought

a self-made man who needed nothing, but he needed Christ.

And then Angus Buchan walked to the front.

I was sitting in the front row. He walked to the front.

Clint was in that meeting. He walked to the front and he

clapped his hands and he said, gentlemen, it's time to make

right with Christ. And my dad jumped up from there

and he ran to the front and Angus Buchan turned to him and

he said, Rory, come and lead these men to Jesus.

And I started to weep. I started to weep because 25

years before God had given me a promise.

Young man, you have been praying in the mountains for your

Father. Today in the resurrection of

Christ is the promise of new birth.

Today in the resurrection of Christ is the promise of being

born again. And maybe sometimes you only

come to church on Easter or Good Friday or Christmas, But I want

to tell you, this is what Jesus said to Nicodemus.

Nicodemus came to him in the middle of the night and he said,

what must I do to inherit eternal life?

He said you must be born again. You must be born again.

There was a girl here recently in one of our services and a

girl called Vanessa Lennox. She was jollying on the strip at

3:00 in the morning, bummed out of her mind, dancing on the

strip as a university student. And a girl walked up to her and

said, will you come to church with me?

Can you imagine saying to someone on the strip at 3:00 on

a Saturday night, will you come to church with me?

And she said, yes, I will. Which church?

She said three CR church. And she walked in here still

completely and utterly bubble us.

And she had an encounter with the living God, the resurrected

Christ. And she got born again, met her

husband here, married her husband.

They lead a church in Middleburg.

Now they leave a church in Hillcrest.

And she said what happened? She said in my bubble ass state,

I met the living God, that I got born again.

I don't know if you hear her friends completely bubble ass

from last night. I don't know if you watched the

Bulls playing. I don't know if you went to one

of the rugby tournaments at AFIZ or at St.

John's or at CARES and maybe you stayed really late and maybe

you're sitting here completely against you will completely

bubble us. But I want to say to you today,

Sir, today you'll get born again.

It's when the living Christ and you have a collision and

everything changes. It's not a maintenance service.

It's completely different. I get born again, my pastors

erased. I have a new father.

I have a new destiny. I have a new purpose.

Peter came face to face to the resurrected Christ and his life

changed. Today, friends, you will feel

so. Rory, can you?

I can't manipulate you. You will feel the beating in

your heart. You will feel the beating in

your heart. The greatest preacher that ever

lived in the 19th century was a man called Charles Adams

Spurgeon. On Easter Sunday he woke up at

12 years old and trudged through the snow in England to get to a

little Chapel with only 12 people in a really poor

preacher. It's not the power of preaching,

it's the power of the word of God and the Spirit coming

together in your heart to resurrect you from the dead.

He speaks to Coffin and says come out, be born again.

And Charles Adams Spurgeon, little 12 year old boy sitting

at the back of the church with 12 people and a part time

preacher. He eventually pointed to the

back and he said, you young man at the back, you young boy, you

need Jesus. And he gave his life to Christ,

became one of the greatest preachers this world has ever

known. Got born again at 12, changed

the world. Maybe today, maybe today it's

time in front of your family and friends to say I've had enough

of running my own race. I've had enough.

It took my dad 70 years, 70 years to come face to face with

the living Christ through a farmer from greater.

Maybe today is your day, new birth into a living hope by

great mercy, say great mercy. That word in the Bible is hesed

or chesed. Great mercy is hesed.

It's a beautiful word. You'll you'll know it from

lamentations. The song, The steadfast love of

the Lord. Never you see, you've got to be

really old to know that song. The steadfast love of the Lord

never ceases his his kissed. His kissed never comes to an

end. It is new every morning.

New every morning. Great is his faithfulness, O

Lord, great is is that's the hesed that is in the middle of

the book of Lamentations when everything is going wrong,

everything is going wrong, Lamentations, the whole nation

is weeping and slap bang in the middle.

It says the hesed. The mercy of God is new every

morning. Friends, when the resurrection

took place, Peter understood that there was mercy that could

last them for 24 hours. And every 24 hours you get a new

package of mercy. So you don't throw your toys out

the cot when the petrol price goes up.

Because God's mercy is new every morning.

Amen. Can you imagine Peter?

Can you imagine Peter? He's denied Christ three times.

He's denied him. If people deny me, you vibe,

you're gone. If you insult me, you offend me.

You deny me. God bless you.

I'll check you in heaven. Yeah, how do we know that

because some of you have thought your family because you had a

fallout with your family and you will not give them mercy.

And so you're sitting here with broken relationships because you

do not understand the mercy of the resurrection of Christ.

Matthew 15 don't you can take it down.

OK, let's there was a woman from Babesontane.

So what Jesus does on Easter Sunday, not only does he in

incarnation, not only does he step down, but he also steps

across. So it says there's a woman from

Canaan, from Tyre and Sidon. That's like from the moot.

That's where you live, eh, Dennis?

Where do you live? In the moot.

Oh, praise God, eh? You're in your nose.

I like him and I like him. What's it like in the moot?

It's good. He's good.

You're the you're the only English speaking people there.

That's like that. No, it's not.

But anyway, Jesus stepped down and he stepped across.

They stepped across into your life, into your life, into your

brokenness. And a woman comes to him and

says, Lord son of David, have. And you know what the disciple

says? Send her away.

She's a nuisance. Send her away.

Who? Peter, James and John send her.

Lord son of David, have mercy on me.

It says Jesus is quiet. She cries again.

Lord son of David, have mercy on me.

Jesus said, I've not come for you.

I've come for the people of Israel.

Haven't come for you in Word guys, haven't come for you

English guys. Haven't come for your Jewish

God, haven't come for your Portuguese guys.

I can't. It's like, no Jesus, please,

please Jesus. I'm going to press.

Thank Lord God. He said, I've not come for you.

I've come to give it to the children, not to the dog.

Calls her a dog, calls her a dog.

You know, she does. She keeps pressing in.

And he says this only two people in the Bible.

He says this too. He says you women have got great

faith. She handled the silence test,

she handled the exclusion exclusion test and she handled

the offensive test before the cross, Before the cross, she

handled it. Then Jesus goes to the cross so

that he can absorb all those things.

And Peter thinks at the end of his life, I'm going to be

excluded. He's going to go silent on me

and he's not going to be able to handle the offence.

And Jesus says, Peter, do you love me?

He said, Lord, you know I love you.

He said, feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me?

He said, Lord, you know I love you.

He said, feed my sheep. He said, Peter, do you love me,

feed my sheep. So when Peter writes on Easter

Sunday that in the resurrection of Christ there's great mercy.

I want to say to you, it doesn't matter how many times you've

offended God on Easter Sunday, there is great mercy, there is

great mercy for you. Great mercy.

He steps down and he steps across into your life.

Great mercy, say great mercy, great mercy.

The whole of the Old Testament is great mercy.

David, when he thinks about his friend Jonathan, who's died, he

asks this question. He says, is there anybody, is

there anybody in Jonathan's house to whom I can show

kindness? He said, mercy, is there anybody

to whom I can show kindness? He said, yes, there's this one

boy. His name is Mephiboseth, but

he's crippled in both his feet. I've been a pastor for 31 years.

I've seen the resurrection power of Christ take crippled people.

It said invite that boy to our table and for the rest of his

life Mephiboseth the crippled boy had a seat at the table of

David. Friends, this church is full of

cripples, sexual, emotional, financial, relational cripples

that have been invited by the mercy of God to eat at the table

of Christ. And there we get healed.

Ruth and Boaz. I preached on Ruth and Boaz at

my old school Hilton and I preached about Boaz saving Ruth

and an English teacher. I've always got to be an English

teacher. If you're a feminist, go and

study English. The English teacher came to me

and said, how can you dare stand up in this church and talk about

we need a man to save a woman? I said you never understood me,

ma'am, we need a savior to save a Sinner.

I never said I was Boaz. I said I was Ruth.

I was the one from Zimbabwe who came down and found myself on a

farm in Bronchos Sprite where a farmer showed me kindness.

That farmer is Christ, who resurrected me and gave me new

life and New Hope and new meaning and formed a union with

me so this Kingdom could advance.

That's hesed. That's mercy.

Amen. 22 minutes. Three things.

First thing, New birth. Great mercy.

Living hope. Say living hope.

The problem with our hope is that it's like wishful thinking.

I hope to win the Lotto. I've never entered it, but I'm

still hoping. I know some of you have entered

it and you haven't won it. Keep hoping, it's not going to

work. I hope to spend Christmas in

Austria skiing and I hope to have summer at Lake Coma.

We've all got hopes, haven't we? Hopes and dreams.

But the hope of the Scripture is different to our hope.

I mean, I hope to live in Mycliffe.

No, I don't really. I hope to open a Willies and

boardwalk. It'll do well with this, sort

of. But the hope of Scripture is

different to that. It's not wishful thinking.

The hope and Scripture is secure.

Jeremiah says this. You've all got it on the back of

your cars and on your Diaries. Jeremiah 39 verse 11 I know the

Jeremiah 39:11

plans I have for you plans to said I like that part.

God says you'll prosper me. I know the plans I have for you

plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you and

say it hope. And so Peter realizes that in

this world, because they're under unbelievable pressure.

Now he's writing to people who are under pressure and he's

saying, listen, guys, you've got to realize it.

Because of the resurrection, we've got something in the

future that we can hold on to. It says this in Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 6 · chapter mention

6. The hope is like an anchor to

our soul. It goes into the Holy of Holies

and it gets lodged there. You have to go to Durban.

You see all those ships with the wind blowing against them that

that anchor can hold that big ship.

Friends, I want to say to you on Easter Sunday you don't panic

because our anchor is in the throne room of heaven and it

doesn't matter how the wind blows, we should not be shaken.

There are too many Christians shaken by circumstances.

Instead of believing what happened on Easter Sunday, you

have a living hope. You have a living hope, say

living hope. And finally as he just put the

scripture up again and we finished praise be to the God

and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in his great mercy, say

great mercy. Like I said, the great mercy.

It doesn't matter what you've done.

This man denied Christ three times and writes one of the last

books of the Bible and got crucified upside down because I

would not allow, he would not allow himself to be crucified

like his own Savior. Great mercy.

He has given us new birth into a living hope, say living hope.

Just keep that up and keep looking at those words.

I've heard of seven suicides in Pretoria in the last two weeks,

7 suicides. I'm talking about lawyers,

advocates, heart specialists aren't talking about people who

have lost hope. When Stephen preached on that

four or five weeks ago, he said there will be 130 people in this

auditorium right now contemplating suicide.

There was a man in this auditorium.

He went and had lunch with his family, spent the afternoon with

him, and on Monday morning shot himself in this auditorium.

Everything might have fallen away from you.

You might be like Mephibosheth, a complete cripple, relationally

crippled, sexually crippled, emotionally crippled,

relationally crippled. But I tell you what, when Jesus

steps down, he steps down and he steps across.

And maybe you sitting here divorced and unbelievably

lonely, that's your first Easter alone, I want to tell you.

He steps down and across and maybe you didn't know where on

earth to go today, so you just decided to come here.

You didn't know. You just got there's a lady that

still serves God with us. She was driving one day on her

way to commit suicide. We called her EU turn lady.

She did AU turn in the middle of the highway and ended up here

and gave her life to Christ because it's a living hope

because God stepped down and into her car that did AU turn

and she ended up here. You have a living hope.

You have a living hope. And into an inheritance that can

never say never, perish, spoil, or fade kept in heaven for you.

You can turn it down. You know where your inheritance

is? It's in heaven.

The Israelites are losing their land second to none.

And we don't even know what's going to happen in our country.

Is there going to be a land grab?

Are they going to take our farms?

Are they going to take our houses?

Is the government going to steal our stuff?

It doesn't matter what they take.

The inheritance that is given to us by God will never perish,

spoil or fade. But we are so caught, our

friends, with all due respect, on Uffiz and Housefontaine and

Menlo Park and Hilton and Gray College and all these things and

money and cars, and we are so caught up.

But I just look at cars. Every time I see a car that's

been in the sun too long, I look.

And I think that's just like me. It came out of a showroom one

day, absolutely brand spanking new.

It was the dream of somebody who'd saved up for the car.

And then you see it driving around Pretoria with its paint

peeling off. And I think that's just like me.

But that's not my inheritance. And it doesn't matter how much

the sun beats against you. It doesn't matter what life

gives to you. That was given to us on Christ

by Christ on Easter Sunday, can never perish.

Because the issue was fruit. He said, you've got to know by

your fruits. And many of you say, yeah, well,

we're going to retire now with the fruits of our labor.

Your fruit will rot, Sir. Your fruit will rot.

They have a perish. Spoil.

Spoil is a word of purity, and God can keep our purity.

I was reading the story of of Randolph Churchill after Stephen

preached about it on Friday, I went in research that he died

from syphilis. He died from syphilis, a

sexually transmitted disease of which some inside of this

building will be carrying those right now.

It can never perish or spoil. That disease can eat you, but it

can never kill you because God made your spirit alive.

And while our bodies are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being

renewed day by day. And friends, you just have to

look at the mirror. You can stop it with any surgery

you'd like, but at the end of the day, when you look in the

mirror, you realize that you are fading fast.

And on this Easter Sunday God says but that which I have from

you. For you will never perish, spoil

or fade. Easter Sunday, 4 things.

I have a new birth by great mercy into a living hope, and a

completely steadfast, safe inheritance.

And for that we should sing. He is Risen, He is alive.

God bless you.