5th April || He is Risen || Jacob Morgan

Well, first of all, good morning.

Everyone hath Easter. Hath Easter.

Is that loud? It's all all OK, All good.

Can you hear me? Good.

A warm a warm welcome to everyone here this morning.

Jesus is alive. Let's go.

He's conquered death. The tomb is empty and Jesus is

risen. Can I get a Hallelujah?

Amen. Well, let's pray.

Yeah. Father God, we welcome you here

this morning. And Lord, we thank you for for

your death on the cross and the three days later you gross

again, and then we are free by your name.

The Holy Spirit would just come this morning and we welcome you

in here. Lord, may the words I speak come

from you. Amen.

Amen. Right.

Here we go. Lake Attalan, Guatemala, Easter

week last year in a small town called San Pedro.

I think we have a photo. Here we go.

Yeah. Honestly, one of the most

beautiful places that I've ever been in my life.

Volcanoes on every side, luckily dormant.

Incredible stillness on the water.

I was there during Holy Week, so there was some quite cool

processions that were going on during on.

I think we may have a video. There

we go. It was absolute chaos, absolute

chaos. Unlike they didn't mind, but

like when they were doing it as well, sometimes it'd be like 5

in the morning, I'd wake up and it'd be like this going on.

But it was, yeah, it was credible.

But it got me thinking that I don't speak these guys language,

I don't share their history. And I've grown up in a

completely different world to them.

Culturally, economically, almost in every measurable way, my life

looks very different to theirs. But there was this moment when I

looked around and his families praising, celebrating and

worshipping Jesus on the other side of the world.

These are my people. These are my my brothers and

sisters in Christ. I don't know their names.

We've never met. I have no way of communicating

to them, but we belong to the same thing.

And we're all here this morning like these guys in Guatemala,

Guatemala, to celebrate the gospel, the good news of Jesus

and the promise of God that there is hope, real hope,

resurrection hope, and availability of life in the

Kingdom of God. The story.

And this morning I just wanted to remind you of that gospel,

the story of God's redemptive plan for humanity, which is

centred on the deaf, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus.

So if you can, get all your Bibles, if you have them, and

turn to 1 Corinthians 15. There's some on the desk at the

back. If not, you can use your phone,

but the words should be on screen.

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel

I have preached to you, which you received and on which you

have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved if

you hold firmly to the words I preach to you, otherwise you

have believed in vain for what I have received.

I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for

our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried

and He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

And then He appeared to Cephas, which is which is Peter, and

then to the 12:00. And after that he approached

more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time,

most of whom are still living, as some have fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles.

And last of all he appeared to me also.

That's the one I'm normally born.

This is Paul speaking. Christ died, He was buried, he

was raised, and he appeared. And everything we're going to

talk about this morning hangs on these four things.

But to understand why they matter so much as to, as Paul

says, as of first importance, we need to understand the world

they arrive into. So let's and to do this, I'm

going to use a diagram called a chasm.

I think that's how it's pronounced.

I'm not too sure though. Has anybody heard of it?

It looks something like this and it is a way that we look at

Scripture to help us see how the the biblical narrative moves.

So we're going to start on the left hand side here and kind of

go back to the very beginning of the story, back to creation.

So just keep in mind then four things as well.

Christ died, He was buried, He was raised and he appeared.

So going back to all the way to the beginning, hopefully you can

read that mighty glasses Joe. Going on the back to the

beginning, to the garden, we read and see of a beautiful

place, a perfect world with God present in the middle of it.

God creates man and woman and for humanity to steward over the

earth. But then something happens.

Humanity made to walk with God and tend his world, turned

inward, chose self over relation, relationship, and as a

result, humanity had been permanently fractured.

The effects of this poured out out onto creation, into

relationships, and into the human heart itself.

And what we see in the Old Testament, which is the time

before Jesus, is this long aching story of a people, a

humanity where that bond was broken, a people living in

exile. A bit later in Genesis, we read

about Abraham. He was called out of nowhere and

given a promise. Through your offspring, all

nations on this earth will be blessed.

Abraham has a son, Isaac, who then also has a son Jacob, who

then also has twelve sons. But through jealousy and

betrayal all end up in Egypt. Egypt and what started as a

family over generations becomes a people, the Israelites, who

then become enslaved by the Egyptians.

But then God comes, he appears to a man named Moses in a

burning Bush and says, says in Exodus 37 to 8, I have indeed

seen your miseries, seen the miseries as my people in Egypt.

I've heard them crying out because of their slave drivers.

I am concerned about their suffering.

So I've come to rescue them. And he comes in this

extraordinary act of deliverance, putting his people

out of slavery through Moses. He sends the plagues, parts the

Red Sea, and leads them through the wilderness.

God is making a way where there was no way.

They're led by Joshua into the Promised Land.

You think the dust has settled on the story?

They're in the Promised Land, promised to them by God, and now

they can live happily in freedom.

But it doesn't happen. Almost immediately, it starts to

unravel. The death of Joshua brings

chaos. No king, no leadership is a time

of violence, corruption, idolatry, The Israelite people

turning away from God, suffering because of it, crying out to God

and God rescuing in them and starting all again.

So then they asked for a king, entered Seoul.

Then they called David for the prophet Samuel, the greatest

king, whoever lived a man of after God's own heart.

After that Solomon, the writer of the Proverbs wisdom beyond

beyond a measure, but they all fall short.

The Kingdom is now split in two. The people of God are now

divided over 400 years. And if you don't didn't think it

could get any worse. The Israelites come back carried

back into exile. So then God raises up the

prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, refusing to let hope

die. These these prophets weren't

just predicting the future, but they were keeping hope alive in

a community that had every reason to give up, holding out

for a vision of the world as God intends it, even when everything

around them said otherwise. And then we have silence. 400

years of it. Quite, quite a long time. 400

years of nothing. But then something happens.

A child was born in Bethlehem, and for 30 years he grows up in

obscurity. He steps out and teaches and

with authority that nobody has ever seen before.

He heals the sick and talks about the Kingdom of God as not

just this future hope, but something that's breaking into

the present right now. But he came to his own people,

and his own people did not receive him.

The religious leaders who knew the scriptures better than

anyone else, who had prayed for the Messiah their whole lives,

looked at Jesus and said, no, not him, not like this.

This isn't what we expected. He's from Galilee, he, he's with

sinners, He forgives people that have no right to be forgiven, so

they plot to kill him. And yet this was not God losing

control of the story, but rather his redemptive plan moving

exactly where it was always going.

Because Jesus doesn't just arrive as a good teacher with

helpful things to say. He arrives as one in whom the

whole biblical narrative reaches its climax.

Every promise, every covenant, every act of deliverance, every

cry of the prophets, all points here to him, to this moment, to

the cross. God's redemptive plan for

humanity unfolding right now. And I thought it was just quite

important to explain that. Because we get cool, and this is

where we get to the heart of it. Jesus died, He was buried, he

was raised, and he appeared. So you've been a Christian for

50 years, or this is actually your first time coming to church

this morning? This is it.

Like this is the thing. Every song we've sung this

morning, every prayer we've prayed, every act of kindness

done in the name of Jesus, it all flows from this.

Like this is the foundation, the cross, the resurrection are not

just some important moments in the Bible, but they are rather

rather the thing that holds it all together.

This is the thing at the very center.

And what Paul describes in these verses is important to notice

that this gospel is not some insightful teaching or some some

good some good advice. At the core of the gospel are

things that actually happened, actual real historical events.

And so why is this important for us?

Because if the facts point to the if the facts point to the

fact that there is no resurrection of Christ, there is

no Christianity full full stop. It's really that simple.

Paul himself says a little further down in chapter 17 verse

chapter, the same chapter, verse 17, if Christ has not been

raised, your faith is futile and you're still in your sins.

He doesn't soften it here. Even the tomb is empty and the

resurrection happened. But we're all just wasting our

time. There's no middle ground where

you can appreciate Jesus as a great moral teacher because as

we read in verse, in verse 20, that Christ has indeed been

raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen

asleep. But since death came through a

man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man.

I think this is really important, really important.

So I just want to sip the evidence for a bit because I

think some of us very much, myself included, need evidence

to believe this stuff. And it was definitely a part of

my journey very early on because it is kind of crazy when you

think about it. Like there was this man, but he

wasn't just a man. He was God in human form.

Like 100% man, 100% God. And then he got put to death on

a cross. He didn't die a normal death.

He died for the sins of the world.

And then he was buried in a tomb.

And then three days later, he write rose from the dead and

appeared to over 500 people. Like, I get it.

Like it's a crazy claim. It's a pretty crazy claim, but

it is the claim. And this is not me trying to

prove it to you, but to show you that our hope, the person who

we've put our hope in, is grounded in truth.

So what Paul writes here is a starting point because what was

written in bold you can't really see on there.

I'll read it probably easier. Christ died for our sins

according to the Scriptures, that he was buried and that he

was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and

that he appeared to Cephas and then to the 12.

After that He appeared to more than 500 people, 500 of the

brothers and sisters at the same time.

Then he appeared to James and to all the apostles.

What is written there in bold isn't very well.

It's one of the earliest, if not the earliest creed that we have

of the resurrection. So what is a creed, you ask

Drew? Well, a creed is a a formal

statement of beliefs or principles, A concise,

authoritative summary of what a person or community holds to be

true. And scholars place this one

within just a few years of the resurrection itself.

It's not legend that grew over centuries.

People could walk down the street and find the eyewitnesses

themselves and ask them about the resurrection.

Paul is literally saying here that most of the 500 people are

still alive. Like go and ask them for

yourself. So let's just start with the

crucifixion itself, that Jesus died.

This is not seriously disputed among any historians to be

honest, Christian or non Christian, the Romans were the

most efficient executioners of the time and we actually get the

word excruciating out of the Latin word.

Here we go excruciatus. There we go which?

But it literally means out of the cross.

Like they had to invent a new word for the pain of the cross

dealt. These are not men who who made

mistakes. The question of Easter has never

been wherever Jesus died, but always what happened next.

Then there's the empty tomb. Not the Romans, not the Jewish

leaders who had every reason to want Christianity strangled at

birth. At his inception, nobody ever

produced a body. If there was a body, they would

have produced it. The movement would have been

over before it even started, and none of us would be sitting here

today. The silence of the opposition is

almost as loud as a testimony of the witnesses themselves.

And then finally we have the disciples.

These are men who on the Friday are hiding behind locked doors,

terrified and finished. Look at Peter.

He'd just denied Jesus three times, but after the

resurrection, he and others are standing in the same city Jesus

was crucified, publicly declaring that he is risen.

And they never stop. Most of them die for what they

for what they believe. Now people people die for things

they believe to be true all the time.

But people don't die for things they know to be a lie.

I'm just going to say it again. People would die for things they

believe to be true all the time. But people don't die for things

that they know to be a lie. These men were not spinning a

story. They were reporting something

that actually happened and something that actually happened

to them. Has anybody heard of Sir Lionel

Luck? Who?

No, here he is. So Lionel Luck, who was a

renowned defence attorney, listed in the Guinness Book of

World Records for having 247 consecutive murder trial

acquittals. Yeah.

And he famously stated regarding the resurrection.

I say unequivocally that the evidence for the resurrection of

Jesus is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof,

which leaves no absolute room for doubt.

The evidence is there. The resurrection isn't just some

wishful thinking to make us feel better.

It is the most historically attestable miracle in human

history. But here's the thing.

Evidence can only get you to the edge.

Evidence. Sorry, evidence can only get you

to the edge, and it can show you the empty tomb.

But what it can't do is tell you what it means for you today,

right here, right now. The hope of the resurrection is

that Jesus is who he really says he is.

Death has been defeated and the Kingdom of God is breaking into

the present. So here's the thing I wanted you

to see this morning. The resurrection isn't the end

of the story. It's not God saying I've done my

part now Goodbye, rather is the beginning of another.

As we see on the diagram, it doesn't just collapse inward,

but rather it explodes outward. Out of the resurrection comes

appearances by Jesus to Peter. To the 12, then to the 120 in

the upper room, and then 3000 added to the number at

Pentecost. And the number just continues to

grow and grow and grow. The church explodes throughout

history. And finally, the same hope that

we carry stretches forward all the way to the renewal of all

things and the renewal of creation, a new heaven and a new

earth. God has come as He promised He

would, and He has come to renew all things.

And this is what the resurrection sets in motion.

That middle point there at Jesus, not just forgiveness for

our sins, which I want to add is incredible.

It is wonderful, profound, super important that Jesus paid the

penalty for our sins, that God made He who had no sin be sin

for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Second Corinthians 521 Like it's super, super important.

Like super important. I'll get that.

I'll get that across. Like it brings freedom and it

brings grace. But the thing I want to think

about you guys with the resurrection and the Kingdom of

God is to think about it this way.

In the ancient world, when a king won a battle, he didn't

just win the battle, he established a new reality.

And that is what the resurrection is.

Jesus has won, and in winning, he has established a new

reality, a new Kingdom. And that Kingdom is not

somewhere else. It's not there in the sky.

It's here, right here, right now where life in the Kingdom,

forgiveness, healing, restored relationship with God, and hope

in the face of suffering and death.

It's not something you have to wait for.

It's something that's readily available to us.

And some of you guys already know this.

You felt forgiveness land in a way that actually sets you free,

or you found hope in a season we've had no business, had no

business of surviving. You've experienced the peace

that makes no sense, and it's peace that makes no sense.

And yet it was real. That wasn't a coincidence.

That wasn't positive thinking. Were you manifesting that that

was the Kingdom of God breaking in?

That was the risen King, King Jesus making known a new reality

in your life. And that's not if that's not

something you've experienced yet, that's not because it's not

available to you. The Kingdom of God is not

reserved for people who have it all together.

I think I'm a testament to that. It's not a reward for the

faithful few who've earned their way in.

Jesus didn't rise from the dead to establish a Kingdom with a

guest list. He rose from the dead to blow

the doors wide open, to make forgiveness, healing, restored

relationship with him available to everyone who was willing to

receive it. This idea that Christianity is

some ticket system where you get your ticket at the cross, you

wait in line, and eventually you get to cash it in when you die.

That's not what Jesus announced. He didn't say the Kingdom will

be near. He said the Kingdom is near

present right now and that's what the resurrection holds.

So maybe this morning, there's some people here this morning

who are unsure what they believe.

Maybe a family friend or just a friend dragged you here along

this morning and you weren't quite sure what you're walking

into, but you've been asking questions about God and faith

for a bit of a time now. Or actually, maybe the whole

thing feels a bit too good to be true.

First, I want you to let you know that you guys are so

welcome here this morning. You really are.

And I want you to. I want to ask you not to dismiss

all this too quickly. Don't just file it away as a new

story, as a nice story until next year, but sit with it, Look

at the evidence, ask them hard questions.

I'm sure Libby would be happy to to answer them so that she's not

here. But it's super important because

if Christ is not risen, nothing else matters.

But if Christ is risen, nothing else matters.

And I believe with everything in me, He is.

And it is the most important thing you'll ever encounter.

Or maybe you're someone that's been following Jesus for years

now. You've grown up in the church,

you know the story. But somewhere along the line,

it's got a little routine. And when Easter comes around,

it's more than when Easter comes around.

It's become a date in the calendar.

A bit of leg and lamb in the oven.

I don't know. And yeah, becomes more of a date

in the calendar than a declaration that changes

everything. I just want to say to you this

morning, let it land again. Don't just nod at it.

Let it actually hit you. The story you have given your

life towards the devotion towards is true.

It happened. Romans 811 says the same power

that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you.

The risen Christ is is not done with you yet.

I have to say, well, actually, you're someone that's carrying

something very heavy right now and you feel like there's no way

through it. And you came this morning and

you're exhausted. They might not even be sure why

you're here. Jesus doesn't pretend that pain

isn't real. He doesn't offer you a quick fix

or a neat theological answer to the mess you're in.

But what he does offer you is this, that God looked into the

darkness of the sealed tomb on the Saturday, and on the Sunday

morning He made a way through it.

He has not forgotten you. He sees the mess you're in and

is concerned about the suffering that you hold.

Those were His words to Moses. As I said earlier, these are the

his words to you. I have seen your misery, I've

heard you crying out, and I've come down to rescue you.

The resurrection is God's loudest and clearest declaration

that darkness does not get the final word, Not then, not now,

not ever. The hope of the resurrection is

that Jesus is who he says he is. Death has been defeated.

So I just want to start. I just want to finish where I

started, Lake Atatlan, Guatemala.

Processions, moving through the streets, families worshipping

Jesus in a language that I don't know, a people with a history

that I share, I don't share, and a world that looks very

different to mine. That moment there, that is what

resurrection does. It creates a people and a hope

that transcends every border, every background, and every

broken story. We're a part of something that

has been in motion since the very beginning.

It's not a New Hope. It's not something new.

It's been in motion since the start.

We as followers of Christ, a part of a global body that

stretches back 2000 years and stretches forward all the way to

the renewal of all things. And yeah, I just want to finish

that. There is hope.

There's real hope, resurrection hope, not just one day in the

future, but right now the tomb is empty.

The death, death is defeated. Christ is risen.

He is risen indeed. I will just finish saying that

that creed over again. I think it was.

It's one of the main ways that they obviously communicate,

communicated back back then. So I'll just repeat it for you

guys. Christ died for our sins

according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was

raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

And he appeared to Cephas and then to the 12:00.

And after that he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers

and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still alive,

that some have fallen asleep. Then he appears to James, then

to the all the apostles, and last of all, he appears to me

also as one abnormally born. So if you've kept one thing from

today, that'll be it. The God is risen.

He is risen indeed. I think now we're just going to

enter into a bit of time and ministry to yeah, to sit in

that. So I'm going to find Graham or,

and I'll invite you to stand and we'll pray.