He is Risen Sermon.
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???????????????????????????????????????????????He Is Risen.
?The Bible says that And?as they were saying these things, He Himself stood among them.
Jesus stood right there in the midst. This passage does not say where Jesus was before
this passage. But he suddenly appeared to them. He said to them,?“Peace?to you!”?37? The Presence of God is very terrifying. ?If we think that we would have a different reaction we are very wrong. But God says peace to them, because he wants them to be at ease. It was the footsoldiers meeting their Commander in Chief, and they were totally unprepared. ?When God appeared to Gideon he said that the Lord is with you, Mighty Warrior. When the Holy Spirit took control of David, he was able to do exploits and save the nation of Israel. Wherever the presence of God is , there is peace. One of the names of Christ is the Prince of Peace.
The Disciples were unprepared and the Bible says But they were startled and terrified?and thought they were seeing a ghost.?38?“
They had thought that they saw someone who was dead. In spite of all of the works and miracles of Jesus, they did not believe. In spite of the fact that Christ said destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up, they still were not ready. The thing about Christ’s resurrection is that it is based on Scripture and on Christ’s own words. It wasn’t the case that someone just died and resurrected without any basis. Christ had a total picture of who he was, what he had to do, and where he had to go. The people around him, even his closest disciples, missed this aspect of Jesus. People around him thought that he was a prophet or a good man. And in thinking this, they were not offended by Christ who walked around and performed miracles. It was when he said, Before Abraham was, I am, that they wanted to stone him.
His disciples thought that when they had sealed the tomb that Christ would be forever buried. They wanted to go back to being fishermen and tax collectors to go back to their previous lives. To them, since Christ had died and they could not see his resurrection, them knowing Christ was just a phase that they could tell their friends and family about, and nothing more.
The amazing thing is that he appeared in a glorified body. This is what terrified them, because they remember Christ’s bloodied body being put in a tomb. If it was true that Christ just pushed the stone and walked miles to see his disciples, then he would have still been bloodied and be able to barely speak. The reaction of the disciples to seeing Christ would have been not only terror, but pity. They would have gotten doctors, they would have panicked at the thought of the Romans coming after them because they would have thought that they had stolen His Body. The people who say such things are not familiar with the Biblical narrative, because they do not know that the disciples, who were with Jesus for three years, disbelieved at first that Jesus rose from the dead and had to be convinced.
Why are you troubled?”?He asked them.?“And why do doubts arise in your hearts??39?
Look at My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself!?Touch Me and see,?because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.”?Having said this, He showed them His hands and feet.?
Christ kept the residue of the piercings as a sign that he went to the cross and prevailed. He could have easily removed such signage in his glorified body, but he chose to keep them. So that his disciples could press their fingers into his hand where the spikes were driving into his hand. But it was not spikes that kept him on the cross, but love for mankind. Also, ?So that they could put their knuckles into his side and see the place where the spear pierced his body. They could see that he walked on pierced feet and believe.
But while they still were amazed and unbelieving because of their joy, He asked them,?“Do you have anything here to eat?”?So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish,and He took it and ate in their presence.
There is a progression in this passage. Jesus appears and they did not believe, he shows them his hands and feet, which would be unique piercings to him being on the cross and they still do not fully believe. But then Jesus eats a piece of fish in their presence and then a light goes off in their minds. Because ghosts might be able to appear and show their sides, but ghosts don’t eat. And in taking it and eating it, they were able to see that the Christ they thought was dead was alive again. Life suddenly had meaning again. What they did for three years was not in vain, but it was for a purpose.
There once was a man who lived in a two story house.?The house was near a river and unfortunately the river began to flood.?As the river rose, warnings were given via radio, TV and shortwave. Large jeeps drove through the area to evacuate people.?As a jeep drove by the man's house, he was told:"You are in danger.?Your life is at stake.?You must evacuate.?Get in the Jeep.?Let us help you evacuate."
"No," the man replied from his doorstep.?"I have faith.?I will be ok.?The flood won't get me.?God will take care of me."The water continued to rise.Soon the man was on the second floor.?A boat was going through the area and arrived at the man's house. Rescuers made every effort to convince the man to take action so that his life would be saved."You are in danger.?Your life is at stake.?You will drown in the flood."
"No worries," says the man.?"I have faith.?Everything is ok.?Even though the flood is rising, I will be fine.?God will take care of me."The flood continued to rise.The man went to the roof to avoid the rising water.?A helicopter pilot sees him on top of the roof and hovers above the man.?Using a megaphone, the pilot tries to convince the man to grab the rope ladder which was dangling above his head.
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"You are in danger.?The flood is still rising.?You will drown if you do not grab the rope ladder.?Let us help you.""No worries."?says the man.?"I will be fine.?Yes, the flood is higher but I have faith.?God will take care of me."The flood rises.?The man drowns.
At the pearly gates, the man says to God:?"I had faith.?You let me die."To which God replies: "I sent you a jeep, a boat and a helicopter.?What more could I have done for you?"
This Easter, Christ is calling on all of us to believe that he died and rose again from the dead. He is not only relegated to being a prophet, but he is fully man and fully God. ?God has sent us Jesus to save us from death, hell and the grave. The wonderful news is not just that he died on a cross, because dying on a cross was a common punishment. It was that his death, burial, and resurrection was predicted by Scripture and he rose again in victory over death, hell and the grave. Christ triumphed over hell. The Bible says that he made a spectacle of the forces of death while he was in hell. The Devil thought that he succeeded. He was a master of killing mankind and now he thought that he had won the ultimate prize, which was to kill God. But he was mistaken. This was a case of the seed of the woman crushing the serpent’s head. The Devil realized to his horror that Christ now held all of the power and his back was broken now and forevermore. Christ gave us those keys that he took from the Devil. He did not get the kingdoms of the world from Satan when he was tempted, because then he would have been a servant of Satan and Christ did not come to serve Satan, he came to break Satan’s hold over mankind. 44?Then He told them,?“These are My words?that I spoke to you while I was still with you
that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets,?and the Psalms?must be fulfilled.”?Then He opened their minds?to understand?the Scriptures.?He also said to them,?“This is what is written:[b]?The Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead the third day,?
and repentance for[c]?forgiveness of sins?would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations,?beginning at Jerusalem.?You are witnesses?of these things.?nd look, I am sending you[d]?what My Father promised.?
Christ said that it was prophesized that he would die and rise again. More than 700 years before
Jesus was ?born, Isaiah provides prophecies of His life and death. The Messiah would be rejected
(Isaiah 53:3;?Luke 13:34). The Messiah would be slain as a sacrifice for the sins of His people
(Isaiah 53:5–9;?2 Corinthians 5:21). The Messiah will be silent in front of His accusers (Isaiah 53:7;?1 Peter 2:23). The Messiah will be buried with the wealthy (Isaiah 53:9;?Matthew 27:57–60). The Messiah will be with criminals in His death (Isaiah 53:12;?Mark 15:27).
There were two presidents that were shot this century and survived, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. In the case of Theodore Roosevelt, he was campaigning for a third term in 1912 and he was shot in the chest by a deranged person. But he said, it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose, and he continued with his speech. Later on it was discovered that the shot was partially stopped by the speech that he had folded into his pocket, and that this folding of the speech had saved his life. And in the case of Ronald Reagan, he was out doing the duties of the presidency when he was shot by John Hinckley. He was thrown into the car and taken urgently to the hospital. When he arrived at the hospital, he said, Please tell me you are Republicans. Later in correspondence with his wife, he said, Honey I forgot to duck. But he would make a full recovery in part because of the prayers of a nation.
Imagine the grief of the disciples that their Commander in Chief was slain. But he was risen, and as a result we are free. It was not like anyone getting executed, but it was prophesized by Scriptures. There was a statistic that said that the chances of anyone other than Christ fulfilling all of the Scriptures was 1 followed by 60 zeros. So in the totality of creation only Christ could have fulfilled the prophecies and rose again. If Christ had only one sin, if he told one lie, he would not have risen again and mankind would have been doomed. But because he is sinless we are free. We walk in victory. Easter is not a time of sadness it is a time of rejoicing.
Then He led them out as far as Bethany,?and lifting up His hands?He blessed them.?
?And while He was blessing them, He left them and was carried up into heaven.?
After worshiping Him,?they returned to Jerusalem with great joy.?
?And they were continually in the temple complex praising God.[g]
Christ told them to stay in the Upper Room until the Holy Spirit would fill them with power. They had to stay in the Upper Room, not the Lower Room, or the bed chamber, or the parlor, but the Upper Room. The Holy Spirit was going to hit them in the Upper Room. Christ blessed them and then rose up to heaven. But in rising, he made sure that the disciples believed. We must not fail to recognize that belief in Christ is freewill. We must individually make the decision to believe. We cannot make the decision for others and we cannot impose that decision on other people. This is why we must fulfill the Great Commission to go to other nations and therefore spread the Gospel. The disciples were continually in the temple complex. They were aware that those in the temple were looking for them, but they did not care. They had received an encounter with the most High and they were celebrating.
We must not sit on our encounter with God. We must be willing to share our testimony with other people and tell them of the goodness of God. Then the whole world will be blessed. Amen.