Today’s message summary of April 5, 2015 from Pastor Gus Brown:
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is something that is not discussed often, but it is important to look at its significance to each of us.
We need to look at the resurrection of Jesus Christ as being everything about our salvation. It is the most important thing to a believer in Jesus Christ. It is everything in how a believer has a relationship with Him. Without His death, burial and resurrection, the entire scope of Christianity is meaningless.
People have asked these questions over and over:
“Is Jesus Christ truly the Son of God?”
“Is Jesus Christ alive today?”
As a believer, at some point, these questions should be definitively answered.
People who practice Christianity on a nominal basis are always on the fence when it comes to who Christ is and what it matters to them. There needs to be a true commitment in faith and trust of Jesus Christ to change this approach. Until people really understand the power of Jesus’ life, death, burial and resurrection, they are not really compelled to live in the way God had intended them to live.
Matthew 27:38-43
Then two criminals were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left. Those who passed by were yelling insults at Him, shaking their heads and saying, “The One who would demolish the sanctuary and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” In the same way the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked Him and said, “He saved others, but He cannot save Himself! He is the King of Israel! Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He has put His trust in God; let God rescue Him now–If He wants Him! For He said, ‘I am God’s Son.'”
Mark 16:9-13
Early on the first day of the week, after He had risen, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had driven seven demons. She went and reported to those who had been with Him, as they were mourning and weeping. Yet, when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe it. Then after this, He appeared in a different form to two of them walking on their way into the country. And they went and reported it to the rest, who did not believe them either.
Even those who were closest to Jesus doubted His Word in spite of His powerful testimonies of healing and restoration. They did not know what they had gained in the relationship. They had only considered what they had lost.
Jesus Christ is really living right now. What you need to be convinced or persuaded of, if you are still unsure of, is His presence today.
Luke 24:5
So the women were terrified and bowed down to the ground. “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” asked the men.
God wants to touch you, heal you and provide you with the steps to live your life. He is a living God.
Luke 24:6-8
“He is not here, but He has been resurrected! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and rise on the third day’?” And they remembered His words.
How does God value His resurrection? He values it because it must be part of your confession when you become a believer in Jesus Christ. In order to acknowledge Jesus as your living Lord and Savior, the acknowledgment of the resurrection of Jesus must be a part of your confession.
Romans 10:9-11
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. Now the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on Him will not be put to shame.
If you believe that God is alive, it will have a profound effect as to how you live your life and, consequently, live for Him.
What we speak out loud is what we really believe. Your heart will reflect your belief, and your mouth will confess it before God and before others. When you know that you have a living God who is going before you, you will want to talk about it!
You can say that “He kept me.”
You and I should be confident that you are secure in your relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. He made you righteous in order to be righteous before God, and you are compelled to tell others about it!
Mark 1:1
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Jesus was truly a human being. He was man and yet He was also God. The gospel of Jesus Christ is all about His life, death, burial and resurrection, and also that He is coming again–for He is not dead but indeed alive! The only way that you can believe He is coming again is to believe that He was brought forth from the tomb and that He is alive.
Romans 1:3-4
…concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh and who has been declared to be the powerful Son of God by the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness.
1 Corinthians 15:3-8
For I passed on to you as most important what I also received:
that 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 that He appeared to Cephas,
then to the Twelve.
Then He appeared to over 500 brothers at one time;
most of them are still alive,
but some have fallen asleep.
Then He appeared to James,
then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one abnormally born,
He also appeared to me.
It is the power of God that raised up Jesus. It is the power of God that gives you the ability to resist evil and to seek and do what is good. That is the distinction between those who are nominal believers and those who are seeking Him and acknowledging Him as Lord and Savior.
Ephesians 2:1-10
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens, so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace through His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.
God does not want people just to partially believe in Him–He wants people who are totally committed to Him.
1 Corinthians 15:13-15
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is without foundation, and so is your faith. In addition, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified about God that He raised up Christ–whom He did not raise up if in fact the dead are not raised.
We surrender to Jesus Christ because we know that He can be trusted and that He is faithful–and that He is alive.
If Jesus Christ is not raised from the dead, then why are you at church? The church’s sole purpose is to proclaim Jesus Christ and to help people to see and acknowledge who He is. It is up to the individual to believe who Christ is. His resurrection is the evidence that we will have eternal life. His life is much more than just for our present way of living. His life means that you can have an eternity with Him.
1 Corinthians 15:19-21
If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man.
Akron Alliance Fellowship 