Today we celebrate the very heart of Christianity.  The power plant of our hope if you will.  Well Peter will.  He said in 1 Peter 1:3, “Blessed (not the same “blessed” used in the Sermon on the Mount, but this “blessed” here in the Greek means something more like “worthy”) so worthy, high above, lifted up, altogether other be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has brought us forth again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”  Check the sermons and focus of the early church through the Book of Acts…several times you’ll find their subject of preaching recorded for us…and that focus, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Why?  You see the resurrection man, it’s the core, it’s the catalyst, it’s the confidence…Paul would agree.  He wrote to the Romans in Romans 1:4 that Jesus’ entire declaration that He was indeed the Son of God, filled with power and authority and completely perfect, filled with the Spirit of holiness, was by way of the resurrection from the dead!

Why, who cares?  What’s the big deal?  Well it’s that word by way of in the Greek…literally and originally…well…is ek!  Can you hear them?  The corporate shriek of the demons man?  Can you see him?  The terrified eeeeeeek of the devil, bro?  Can you see it?  The awful and terrible eeeeek of all those that chose to reject the very One whose love poured out upon a cruel cross for them…when they see for themselves precisely what hundreds saw for themselves…with your own eyes just as they saw with their own eyes…that indeed He was dead…yet indeed He lives.  He rose.  The grave could not hold Him and therefore the implications are life-altering…what life?  This life…and the next!

What do you mean they saw him?  Turn in your Bibles to 1 Cor 15.  The gospels record the events of Resurrection morning, but the earliest written report concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ was actually written by Paul only about twenty-five years after Christ’s death.

Verse 3, For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received:  that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.  After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.  After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.  Then last of all He was seen by me…

How interesting.  How amazing.  I count about 513 folks in Paul’s statement.  He was seen by the disciples, risen.  Then He was seen by over 500 at once, a huge crowd, in what state?....risen!  And then finally, Paul saw Him…talked to Him…and He was?…you got it…risen.  And this is the amazing part.  Still today, even in Paul’s day, still some don’t believe.  Now look, there is much more to being a Christian than simply believing.  Being a Christian means that you place your life in His hands, your trust in His love, His will and His plan…your hope in His promises and His presence.  Being a Christian means you know Him man…from the inside out…you’ve come to the personal revelation that God loves you so much that His heart broke over your busted state…and sent all He ever had to rescue you…

And you bow the knee to Him who is worthy of your praise and He arrives in the home of your heart…changing everything, opening your eyes, filling you with His love, His power and His soundness, strength of mind…now all of that…starts with belief…simply hearing the gospel, hearing the resurrection, and believing.  Yet some still do not…and that just makes me tweak.

James Holmes is on trial right here in Centennial for killing 12 precious people in cold blood and wounding another 58.  Let me ask you…is there any doubt in your minds, in the judge and jury’s minds, in the minds of the entire world…that he is absolutely and unequivocally guilty?  Is there any doubt?  Absolutely not.  How many were there that night that saw him?  Less than 300!

By Paul’s record, I count at least 513 for Jesus.  John says he touched Him.  Mary clung to Him.  Thomas examined Him.  Yet you still have beef?  Are you sure you don’t believe?  If you would say, “yes I’m quite sure”…would not you agree you’re a little bit irrational?  No?  Then would you please go and be the one to protest Holmes’ guilt?  I don’t think so…I think the real reason why folks find it so hard to believe the gospel is that truly, deep down, they find it so hard to believe that God would love them…that God would accept them.  I know I did.

I had done too much man…gone too far…my entire being was evil and yet someone wants me to believe that God would love me, accept me, choose me and secure me?  Please, my own father wouldn’t do that…you know what, I’m not even going to ask…I’m not even going to come to Him because I don’t want to hear what I’ve heard my whole life from my earthly parents…you’re just not good enough…isn’t that really it?  I think so.  I know so.

God will not reject you.  The One who gave all…He will not disappoint you…you’re not yet too far gone…and no matter the power or the pain or the penalty of the sin that maybe even you’re paying right this second…I want you to know, there is One who has promised you life…and then proven it.

Proven it?  Yea man, He proved it!  You see Jesus, on several accounts made statements that no other has ever made…statements that almost sound crazy…but you know what they say right, just like that commercial…its only crazy if it doesn’t work.  Check this out…Jesus was hanging with His crew the night He was to be betrayed and ultimately crucified…and just like a good Father, a faithful Friend, He was strengthening His brethren.  Telling them of what was about to happen and what they should do…how they should think…

And Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know the way!”  And Jesus looked at Him, loved Him and filled Him with strength in that He said, “Thomas, I am the way, the truth, and the life.”  The life?  But you’re about to be betrayed!  You’re about to be killed!  How is it that you’re the life?  Dead people aren’t the life!  Precisely.

Jesus’ friend had gotten sick and had died.  Laz was his name.  And Jesus traveled to his family and when He arrived, Lazarus’ sister met Him in the road and she fell on Him in grief and said to Him (this is all in John 11), “Lord, if you had been here then my brother would not have died…”  And Jesus held her up, strengthened her and said to her, “Martha, I am the resurrection and the life!”  You’re the life?  But how?  Dead people aren’t the life…

Mohammad is dead.  Budha is dead.  Chrishna is dead.  Joseph Smith is dead.  Confuscious is dead.  Ellen G. White is dead.  Charles Taze Russell is dead.  Literally there are hundreds of men and women who have claimed to be life…to have it man…and they are all dead!  All the men and women that have lived from the beginning of time…some saying I am my own god, some saying there is no god, some saying god is what or whoever makes me happy…all of them…dead.  They found nothing but dirt man, six feet down!  All but ONE!

I am not a push over.  I am not weak.  I am not unaware.  I am responsible for my soul.  I am responsible for three little souls that run around this place in play.  I will not follow the fads of the day and the trends of society.  And in that, I will not follow a false god.  And therefore Jesus, if You are the way…if You are the truth…if you are the life…and man if that’s true then that changes everything…that affects everything…not just this life but the next…not just me but my little one…if you are where life is to be found eternally…then PROVE IT!  And on the third day…He did.  He who was dead…lives!  This Jesus who claimed to be God, claimed to be the Way, claimed to be truth, claimed to be life…Has proved it!

Think of it this way…if I told you that I have a plan that could guarantee you financial freedom and could guarantee even for your children and your children’s children a life lived without lack of resources…and then I go and declare Chapter 7 bankruptcy, then you and everyone else would know that my plan is all talk, it’s useless and it’s ultimately worthless!   It doesn’t lead to riches, obviously!  It leads to great loss!

Don’t you see?  If Jesus had remained in that tomb, if Jesus could have been held by the power of death in that tomb, after all He said, after all He had promised, after He had even promised everlasting life, then His Way, His Truth and His Life would be well, lifeless.  But, the tomb could not and did not hold Him!  And notice what happened to His homies…His followers…what will happen in your life when you quit the irrational, unreasonable idea of not believing or maybe being a Christian in title but a demon in lifestyle…

Where were His disciples while He laid in the grave?  Gone!  Gone to their homes and locked away for fear of the Jews!  Jesus rises and they become unstoppable!  Peter, denies Jesus time and time and time again, even in His very presence…filled with the fear of man!  Jesus rises and Peter explodes into a mighty man of God leading thousands upon thousands!  Matthew, follower of this Jesus, deny Him or we will order you executed by stabbing…No! > killed.  James, son of Alphaeous, deny Jesus or we will crucify you…No! > killed.  James, brother of Jesus, deny Him or we will beat/stone you to dead…No! > killed.  Mark, deny Him or we’ll burn you…No! > killed.  Peter, deny Him or we’ll crucify you upside down…No! > killed.  Thomas, deny Him or we’ll thrust you through with a spear…No! > killed.

All of them!  All of them undeniably mighty man!  To the point that even when faced with death said forget it man, how can we deny the One who did not deny us?  We will not run from the very grave that He defeated…You see He kept His promise…He promised that He would rise…He said He would come for us…and – He – Did. 

And you know what that means?  What on earth does the resurrection mean, man?  Well remember 1 Peter 1:3?  We talked about it at the beginning of our discussion this morning, how Peter said that God has won us back, proven Jesus worthy by the resurrection?  Well 1 Peter 1:4 goes on to tell us to what God has won us back…to an inheritance (that’s family talk man) an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled that does not fade away, reserved since the beginning of time in heaven FOR YOU!  Awesome!

What does the resurrection mean?  What on earth does the resurrection mean?  Well remember Jesus’ conversation with Martha when she met Him in the way?  How He told her that He is the resurrection and the life?  Well we didn’t finish that verse.  Its John 11:25, Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live!”

And so what does the FACT of the resurrection of Jesus Christ mean?  It means we have found life!   We have found Truth!  We have found the Way!  He has proven it!  And He is THE One. 

The resurrection validates all of Jesus’ teachings…that He was and is indeed God come down from heaven to bear the sins of man and that everyone, anyone, whosoever would believe in Him, accept and invite Him, would inherit eternal life.  Would come alive man…and ditch all of this junk and decay…worry, addiction, strife, insecurity…it’s all junk.  Jesus said in John 10:10 that He came that you might have life (zoe life, real life, alive life) and have it abundantly!  No matter the storm, no matter the circumstance, you abound and ultimately, eternal life…HE – PROVED – IT as He walked right out of that coffin.

That is God’s will for you…but the choice is yours.  You must choose Him…He’s already chosen You.  He’s already done all that He can do to restore you…it is you who must want to be restored. 

The resurrection is the very heart of our hope…and that hope is simply undeniable.  Place your trust in the risen Son today and be set free!  He will not deny you…that’s already been proven.  He is waiting for you.