Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Jacque: I just keep hearing the word secure. We can be so secure in God's love, so secure. Thank you. Thank you, God. I want to thank everybody who purchased an Easter lily on behalf of somebody that you love. Aren't they just beautiful? Today, they are absolutely spectacular. If you bought a Lily, be sure and take one home. Thank you so much. On May 6th, we have a newcomer’s fellowship. I hope they are okay Back there. On May 6th, we have a special evening planned for anybody who has been coming to hope in the last two years. We haven't had a newcomer fellowship for more than that, because of— you know why. If you have never come to a newcomer fellowship, would you come and join us? You can read all about it online and you can register online so we know you are coming, or you can call Rachel in the church office too. We just really look forward to a real relaxing, fun evening, getting to know each other better, so please consider coming. And Pastor Robert, he has some exciting things to talk to us about right now. The men of this church are busy. They are busy and they have great vision, and we appreciate you all.
Robert: Praise the Lord. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. How are we doing? Coming off resurrection Sunday— every day is resurrection in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Should I come up here?
Jacque: Yeah. Come up here, please.
Robert: Praise the Lord. Well, we are excited. The men's ministry. Men's council, some great group of guys. We've been planning some things for the year. Men, we want to get together again. We kind of missed our fellowship last month, but this Friday, April 29th at 6:30 PM. We invite you here for men's night out. Yay. Everybody say yay. I didn't give you the rest of the part. Maybe you will get more excited. We are going to eat and we are going to have the word. That's a great combination, right? But now not only are we going to eat, we are going to eat good because we are going to have a rib dinner that night.
Brian: I bet you, one of your friends is making ribs too.
Robert: I consider myself an excellent cook and most people who have had my food consider me an excellent cook, but I like to give honor where honor is due. I have to take my hat off. My brother, Ken Rivers, I've known for many, many years. Praise the Lord. He is family with Erica and Ruby, new members at Hope. And this guy can do some ribs. This is a men's night out. We'll do ribs for the rest of you later. But this Friday at six 30, we are going to have ribs. Ken has the ribs and I have the word. So we are going to give the men a word of encouragement. But men, we need you to sign up today. So we are going to pass a clipboard. Mark, if you have the other clipboard— what's that? Oh, he already passed around. He is ready to eat some ribs too.
If you haven't signed up, we need you to sign up today because Ken and I want to make sure we get enough slabs, because I'm going to eat a couple of bones myself so we want to make sure we got enough. So Ken's going to do the ribs. I'm going to help him out. We are going to have baked beans, but I also have a nice German potato salad recipe that I'm going to make. And so we are going to have that too and we are going to have a nice word for the men. We are also going to give you some marching orders for our next event. That's for the whole church and our community. We have an outreach coming up on May 20th. We are going to have a family comedy night with the amazing Mr. Norm. I've heard that this guy has done great things and he is featured at the state fair. The men's ministry is going to sponsor this outreach event. We want you to invite everybody you know, because we want people to come fellowship with us at Hope. We want people in the community to know that we are here and we love Jesus and we can have fun in the Lord too. So Mr. Norm is going to bring an amazing night of comedy and illusion and he is going to weave in the gospel story of Jesus Christ is going to have us laughing and laughing and falling out, but falling in love with Jesus even more.
Thanks to Rachael, we have these great flyers and posters at the back table. The posters in the flyers look the same, but the posters are on a thicker paper. We want you to grab some. If we run out, we'll print some more, but we want you to go out in the community, at your coffee shops. Wherever you go in fellowship. We want you to spread the word because we want to pack the house. We want to have salvations. We want to have Liberty. We want to have a good time in the Lord. We want to see this be a good outreach for Hope Community and Corcoran and beyond. Amen. So please spread the word. If you are online, our online community, we are not leaving you out, you can look online; you can pass the word as well. We look forward to it. Men, we will see you this Friday, ribs in the word. I see some heads nodding. I'm excited too. And then we'll see everyone on May 20th at 7:00 PM with the amazing Mr. Norm so we can have a good time in the Lord,
Brian: Pastor Robert, there's also some special music that night, I think.
Robert: Oh, yeah, that night. Where is my brother, Micah Lother?
Brian: He is way up in the booth.
Robert: Micah is up in the booth. Micah is going to be having a special music that night. Praise the Lord. I'm ready to hear that. We are going to have a great time that night, so spread the word and I'll see you then.
Jacque: Thank you, Robert. One more thing—Kids, you can go to your class. We love you. We are so happy you are here. Dave and Lou Bardal will be serving communion after service today.
Brian: Last week was just really enjoyable for me to share with Pastor Jeff and Pastor Robert. I thought they just brought a great aspect to the Easter story. Didn't they? Let's just give them a thank you for that. I shared some things in terms of a more apologetic side of things, the historicity of the resurrection. How many know that when you are looking at the story of the resurrection, it's really hard to do a comprehensive teaching in like 30 to 45 minutes? How many of you know that? As I was kind of finishing up last week, I thought I have so much more in my heart that I want to share about the resurrection. There is much more than meets the eye. That's the subtitle of my message today: There is more than meets the eye when it comes to the Easter story and when it comes to the resurrection.
I want to do part two today. And so we thought, well, let's leave the Easter lilies up here. They look so nice anyways. We'll have two Easters this year. It's good to ask ourselves questions at times. And one of the questions we should ask ourselves is, what really is the significance of the resurrection? What is the significance of it? Is it just another miracle, another thing that can't be explained rationally and logically? If you were to ask the average person on the street, what the significance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is, my guess is most of them wouldn't be able to give you a proper answer for that. But I also have been around enough Christians in my life to realize that there's a lot of people who have committed their lives to Christ who themselves don't really understand the significance of the resurrection and really what it was all about.
Sometimes people think that these miracles are nothing but another good episode for the X-Files or something like that. But in reality, it is much more than just a miracle and it's much more than just something that would make for a good sci-fi story. It actually means everything to you and me. It means everything to the gospel message. It means everything to your future and my future. The resurrection of Jesus means everything to our future and anybody else's future. We are going to look at a lot of scripture today, so we are going to kind of go through a lot of these quickly. And then hopefully you can go back and listen to this. We'll have this message archived on our livestream page and so forth. I want to begin with first Corinthians 15:14.
Jacque: And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless and your faith is useless.
Brian: When we look at this verse, if Christ has not been raised in our preaching is useless and your faith is useless, it seems to me that the resurrection carries some real significance then. If my faith is useless and your faith is useless, if there is no resurrection, it seems to me that there's some real significance here with the resurrection, some real significance to our faith. Let's do a little bit of a deeper dive here today on what it might mean. All of us here, especially at Hope Community in the last year or two, we've had all of our share of sorrows. We've had our share of losses. We've had a number of people that were part of our family here, pass away. We've had friends around the country as well, pass away. Last year, we did 21 funerals from March until December. There were six other funerals that I was supposed to be a part of, but I couldn't because I was doing funerals here. 27 funerals in nine months, last year in our lives. That's a lot of loss for people, people that you know.
We see this whole concept of death and the questions that surround death, but they are not new questions. They are not questions that have just started to come up in the last few years. They are not just questions since COVID has come up. We see as far back as the book of Job, this verse that says this. Joe 14:14.
Jacque: If someone dies, will they live again?
Brian: So this question, if somebody dies, will they live again? I like how the new living translation translates this whole verse. We can read it this way.
Jacque: Can the dead live again? If so, this would give me hope through all my years of struggle and I would eagerly await the release of death.
Brian: Wow. Most of us don't look forward to dying. Wouldn't you agree with that? Most of us do everything in our power to keep dying from happening in our lives. And we should. We really should do that. But the writer here in the Book of Job says, "Can the dead actually live again? And if this is so that would give me hope through all my years of struggle. And that actually I would actually await that time if I knew that there was something after this life." And so this verse addresses the question that virtually everyone has ever asked or thought throughout history. That question is this: what about my future? What's going to happen to me when I die? What's going to happen to me when I am no longer breathing?
On the day that Jesus was crucified, we know from what the scriptures say, that he paid a ransom for our freedom and in his death, he reconciled the justice of God with the mercy of God. That's a whole other large topic to really address. In his passion, Jesus melted the hard hearts of man so that evil men would no longer be evil, that the vilest of sinners, if I can use that expression, would no longer want to live in that manner, but change their way just like the writer of the song, Amazing Grace, who was a slave trader and then he came to know Jesus and he repented of his sin and he wrote this beautiful hymn that's probably the classic of all classic hymns in the church, "that saved a retch like me." That's how he saw himself. And then when Jesus came into his life— and so the passion of Christ, the, the cross of Christ and all of that, um, changed everything in terms of our hearts.
But there was one unanswered question and that is this: in spite of all of that, that Jesus did in the passion that transforms our hearts, which is necessary obviously for a changed future, Satan still held the keys to the grave. Satan still held the keys to the grave. We see a pre-resurrection parable that Jesus taught that sometimes we miss some of the significance here in this parable. I want to read it, and we are going to read the whole parable. It's like 12 verses. We find it in Luke chapter 16 verses 19 through 31. This is a story about a rich man and a very poor man whose name was Lazarus. This is not the same Lazarus that Jesus, by the way, raised from the dead. So let's read this together. Luke 16, 19 through 31.
Jacque: Jesus said there was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen and who lived each day in luxury, at his gateway, a poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores. As Lazarus laid there, longing for scraps from the rich man's table, the dogs would finally come and lick his open sores.
Brian: See, the only comfort this man got actually was from dogs. Most of them probably stray. That's the place where many people are in their lives. But let's go on.
Jacque: Finally, the poor man died and was carried by the angels with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried and his soul went to the place of the dead. There in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side. The rich man shouted, "Father Abraham, have some pity; send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. I am in anguish in these flames." But Abraham said to him, "Son, remember that during your lifetime, you had everything you wanted and Lazarus had nothing, so now here he is here being comforted and you are in anguish. And besides there is a great chasm separating us. No one can cross over to you from here and no one can cross over to us from there. Then the rich man said, "Please, father Abraham, at least send him to my father's home for, I have five brothers and I want him to warn them, so they don't end up here in this place of torment." But Abraham said, "Moses and the prophet have warned them. Your brothers can read what they wrote." The rich man replied, "No father Abraham. But if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God." But Abraham said, "If they won't listen to Moses and the prophets, they won't be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead."
Wow, there's so much in this parable. Most of it, we need to look at another time. But what I want to point out to you today is, this is not heaven. This is not heaven. This was pre-resurrection, I call it, holding tank. This was a pre-resurrection holding tank for everybody who died, whether you were righteous by having to look forward in faith, or you were unrighteous, it was a place that often is called in other portions of scripture and writing paradise. We've taken the word paradise to mean like the Caribbean, right?
But the word paradise, actually, was this place where all of the dead went to and they were held there waiting for something to free them. When Jesus died, for roughly 39 hours, if you go from 3 o'clock in the afternoon on Friday, which is the time most people believe he died till six o'clock in the morning on Sunday morning, that was roughly 39 hours, there was a big celebration taking place in the caverns of hell. CS Lewis portrays this picture really very beautifully in the scene where the great lion, Aslan, is slain on the stone table. Do you remember? The way they portray this was really spectacular, because it creates the true atmosphere of Satan, who is the wicked witch and all of his followers, which are all these different grotesque-looking creatures, they kill Aslan and they enter into this kind of very sadistic celebration.
I do believe that when Christ died on Good Friday at 3 in the afternoon, that is what was taking place with Satan and the fallen followers of Satan. In the minds of Satan and in his followers, I believe he truly thought he had won. He truly thought he had won, just like the wicked witch actually thought she had won. A few scenes later in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, we see where Aslan shows up in this battle and the witch is absolutely stunned and shocked. And he of course, conquers and wins.
When Jesus died, I believe Satan felt that Jesus was now no longer relevant. After all, Satan still held the keys to death, hell and the grave. He still held the keys. You have to understand this timeline here. All of a sudden, just like in that battle scene in the end of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, how Aslan basically kind of came out of nowhere and destroyed the wicked witch and all of the people who were fighting against the inhabitants of Narnia. Winter was now leaving and, and all the coldness was melting. That's what happens when Jesus comes around; the coldness melts.
All of a sudden in the caverns of hell or maybe paradise, a very stunned silence fell over the inhabitants there because often, the distance, an unwelcome intruder had come into that place. That unwelcome intruder was Jesus, the lion. In one spirit after another, as they began to put their eyes on him, began to fall down and bow before him. They all began to bow their knees before the son of God because every knee must bow before Jesus, who is the king of kings. We see this in Philippians chapter 10. Let's read that.
Jacque: That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
Brian: And as Jesus made his way to the very throne of Satan, all of the demonic forces that were there, fell on their faces before Jesus because they must. Ephesians 1: 21 and 22 says this.
Jacque: Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else, not only in this world, but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church.
Brian: Jesus has been made head over all things for the benefit of the church he has been made head over all authority and over all power. As Jesus approaches, I'll tell you what was happening with Satan. He was trembling. We see that in the book of James chapter 2:19.
Jacque: You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God good for you. Even the de demons believe this and they tremble in terror.
Brian: Every demon believes in Jesus. Every single fallen angel believes in Jesus and you know what? They tremble in terror in his presence. They do. Satan, in terror, bowed before Jesus is because all of creation needs to bow before Jesus, all of creation do. Remember the old Farm oil filter ad, pay me now or pay me later? You don't remember that?
Jacque: No.
Brian: How many of you guys remember that ad? Raise your hand. Okay. Well, this is kind of like this: bow before me now or bow before me later, but everyone will bow. Every knee will bow, every principality, every power, every ruler, every person who has ever been created, every angel that's ever been created. Every creature that has ever been created will bow before Jesus Christ. Satan was a defeated foe. When Jesus arrived, he didn't arrive with trumpets and fanfare. He just showed up just like he did with the disciples. He just showed up and his presence changed everything.
When he was there, I would've liked to have seen this, but he said, "I will take those keys. I will take those keys." And I don't know, Satan handed him over, or if Jesus just took him, but either way the keys to death hell and the grave were now in the hands of Jesus. When John got his revelation, which was now many years later, after the resurrection, we see that he writes this in revelation chapter 1:18.
Jacque: Jesus said, I am the living one. I died, but look, I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and the grave.
Brian: I now hold the keys to death and the grave. From the time that Adam and Eve fell until the resurrection, Satan held the keys to death, hell and the grave, but at the resurrection— my timeline sees it this way. There may be some other biblical scholars that might differ with me on this, but this is how I see it. Jesus showed up in paradise to do more than just take the keys of hell, death and the grave. He showed up to do one other thing that we are going to see in a second. When he rose from the dead, I think that Mary and so forth, the women were coming there almost simultaneously as the resurrection happened. The stone had been rolled away. The resurrection had occurred, but just a few minutes after that, the woman arrived and Jesus spoke to her, calling her by name. One of the most beautiful things God can do for anybody is to call us by her name.
He called her by name and he had this encounter with Mary. And remember when he said, don't touch me because I'm not yet what ascended to my father. He had some work to do. I believe personally that when he left Mary that's when he went and showed up in paradise and took these keys of death, hell and the grave. But he did something else while he was there. He also went and found Moses and Aaron and Job and Adam and Eve and he went and found Abraham and David and Ruth and Rehab and Isaiah and Micah and Elijah and Elisha and Jose and Daniel and John, the Baptist and the most recent arrival there, the thief on the cross. He found them all, all those who had looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, the savior, which had been prophesied about way back in Genesis 3:15 and all throughout the whole Old Testament, and all those people who had believed that God was going to send a redeemer, that God was going to send a savior, that God was going to send someone that was going to give us life if we die again.
And he said to all those who were there, like Lazarus, this poor, like Abraham, like John the Baptist, who was his cousin who had been slain just months before. And I believe Jesus said something like this, come on, gang. Let's go home. Let's go to where there has been a place prepared for you. Come on. It's time to go home. I imagine what came next was the greatest victory shout and parade in the annals of Earth's history.
We see Paul trying to describe it. I think he is struggling to find the right words, but he describes it this way in Ephesians chapter 4:8. This is what happened when he ascended into heaven, when Jesus said to Mary, I've not yet ascended yet, but there was a whole entourage that was going to be going with him. And we see Paul described this in Ephesians 4:8.
Jacque: When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people.
Brian: When he ascended to the Heights, he led a crowd of captives free, all these people who had believed in Christ, who had looked forward to the Messiah who had looked forward to God's answer to sin and death. There were people who believed who had not yet seen. Jesus talked about those who had believed and how those who were witnessing Jesus were much more blessed and honored than those who believed without having seen. Jesus gathered all of that group of people, probably millions of people, and he led them. They had been held captive because Satan had held the keys to death, hell and the grave. But now Jesus had the keys to death, hell and the grave and he led them free to heaven.
I suspect that they followed this, I guess I would call it this ticker tape of his glory, this train of his glory. They just rode it all the way to heaven and what an entrance that was going to be when that host went into heaven. This parade consisted of all of the Old Testament people who had looked forward by faith to the coming Messiah. We see in Galatians chapter 3:6 and 7 how Paul writes about it this way.
Jacque: In the same way, Abraham believed God and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.
Brian: So God looked at Abraham as righteous. He counted him as righteous because of his faith, because he was looking forward to the one who was going to provide the righteousness for him, which was of course going to be Jesus.
Jacque: The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God.
Brian: So Paul is, again, addressing the church of Galatia this issue and he is really recounting what happened at Antioch when the Judeans came down from Jerusalem and start to say that you need to be circumcised and he has to start doing all these other things in order to be saved, and Paul and Peter had a little bit of a butt heads at that moment. And then Paul later rec counts his story as he is writing to the churches of Galatia, what had happened in Antioch. He is basically saying here that the real children of Abraham, that was how they identified themselves, were the children of Abraham. The real children of Abraham are those who put their faith in God, not their faith in their works, not their faith in their religious duties or icons or whatever it might be traditions. What does all of this have to do with us?
Well, if Jesus really did rise from the dead and there's plenty of evidence to show that, there is then a heaven that he ascended to. If Jesus did rise from the dead, there's also a heaven that he ascended to. If Jesus was raised to ascend into heaven, so will all of the people who have ever believed in him and his name who have passed will ascend into heaven. I actually like the word passed; I don't like the word die. I like the word past. I tell this oftentimes at funerals. When I was in grade school my school had kind of a unique tradition. The best day of the year was always Memorial Day because that meant school was over. How many can identify with me on that? The worst day of the year was Labor Day because the next day school started.
In my town where I grew up in a little town, Northern Minnesota. If you were in fourth grade, when Memorial Day arrived, you just couldn't wait for summer vacation to start and you played all summer. We went fishing and swimming. It was a great place to grow up. We climbed the mine dumps and got dirty. It was great. But then Labor Day came, and all of us, the next day, went back to school. In our school, the fourth graders went back to the fourth-grade class, sat at the same desk that we sat in the previous year. I can still picture all of my friends. I can tell them by name, where they sat because we all were seated by alphabetical order. And then the fifth-grade teacher would come to the class and knock on the door.
And the fourth-grade teacher would say, "Come on in." She had a list of names that she began to read, and she would read David Danger, you passed. Mary Beth, Howard, you passed. Margo Kelly, you passed LaDonna Lingual— LaDonna was the gal that sat in front of me. She was an L I; I was an LO. LaDonna Lingual, you passed. I knew my name was next. You just waited with bated breath to make sure your name was called. She said, Brian Lother, you passed. And let me tell you something; I have never heard better words in my entire life.
One day, the greatest teacher of them all is going to come and knock on the door of our hearts and our lives, and he has these wonderful words to say to us, you passed, not you died, you passed. We see that absent from this body means to be present with the Lord. Paul writes about that now in second Corinthians 5:1-8. Let's read that really quickly.
Jacque: For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down, that is when we die and leave this earthly body. We will have a house in and an eternal body made for us by God himself and not with human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies.
Brian: How many can identify with that? We grow weary in our present bodies.
Jacque: And we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing, for we will put on heavenly bodies. We will not be spirits with our bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh more and more with every year, but it's not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this. And as a guarantee, he has given us his holy spirit. So we are always confident. Even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies, we are not at home with the Lord.
Brian: That is something that we have to understand. As long as we have these bodies, we are not home with the Lord. Isn't it interesting? Everybody wants to go to heaven, and nobody wants to die. Letting these bodies go is how we become present with the Lord. Let's go on.
Jacque: For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies for then we will be at home with the Lord.
Brian: For to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. Jesus has overcome death, hell and the grave. Jesus is still alive and he is still available for me and you. And all of you who are watching today by livestream to personally encounter. And because Jesus conquered death and the grave, he has now opened the door for all of us to eternal life for those who actually want it, for those who want it.
There is a voice inside our hearts today that asks this same question. This question has been asked for millennia. That question is this, is there more to life than this life? Is there more than just this life? If a man dies, will he live again?
I can tell you assuredly because of the resurrection, the answer is an astounding yes. An enthusiastic yes. There is a call today. It's coming from the mountain of the Lord. It's a call from Jesus himself. He is asking, will you believe in your heart today about what I've done for you? Will you believe in your heart today that he has defeated the effects of death and hell and the grave. Will you believe in your heart today that he has made a way for us to go home? Will you believe that, to go to our father's home?
Jesus knew the disciples were very troubled. They were troubled at the things that Jesus was saying. They were troubled at the prospect that he was about to leave and they could not understand what they were going to do. They had relied on him so much. They had seen such incredible things and now he was saying the most unbelievable thing, and that is he was going to leave, and they were deeply troubled. They were deeply troubled in their hearts and Jesus said this to them.
Jacque: Don't let your hearts be troubled; Trust in God and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my father's home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you when everything is ready? I will come and get you so that you will always be with me where I am.
Brian: You see, we can enter into all of this because Jesus was raised from the dead. If Jesus had not been raised from the dead, Satan would still have the keys to death, hell and the grave. When we die, we would go to this holding tank that is called paradise, Hades. And we would just remain there. It appears that in this description that Jesus is told of the story of Lazarus and the rich man there are two compartments, if I can use that word, to what paradise was. There was a place of torment and there was a place of no torment, but there wasn't a home prepared for those who were there. There was no way to escape and leave that place. The reason there wasn't a way to escape and leave that place in spite of the fact that it wasn't torment, it was just a holding place. The reason there was no hope of ever leaving there it's because there was a fallen being that held the keys to death, hell and the grave. And Jesus, just like Aslan when his life was taken on the stone table, he rose from the dead.
Jesus, when rolls from the dead, had a great purpose in mind and it was two-fold. It was to take from Satan, the keys that had been handed to him by Adam and Eve that he had held for centuries. He took those keys. He said, "Now I have conquered death. I have conquered the grave. I have conquered hell And I will take those keys". That's what Jesus says in the Book of Revelation: I now hold the keys. I hold them. No one else. It's because of what he did, and he led all of those people in this holding area, including the thief on the cross. Jesus said to him, "I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise." He wasn't saying you'll be with me in heaven. He said, "You'll be with me in paradise." I'm telling you that today.
When he went to paradise eyes, the thief on the cross, which was probably one of the most recent arrivals, he didn't stay there very long because Jesus led them all into heaven, which is the home that is prepared now for you. He said to his disciples, because he knew that he was going to live post resurrection and what he was going to do. And so he said, "Don't let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God. Also, trust in me.”
There is more than enough room in my father's house. And if this were not, what I've told you is that I'm going to prepare a place for you so that when everything is, I will come and get you so that where I am, you can be also. Today, we can enter into all of this because Jesus was raised from the dead, that Jesus resurrected from the dead. But it doesn't begin and end with Jesus. It begins with Jesus. There is nothing quick about it. It begins with him, but it concludes with us. And Paul says this in first Corinthians 15:23. This is our last scripture.
Jacque: But there is an order to this resurrection.
Brian: There is an order. There is a sequence to this resurrection
Jacque: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest.
Brian: The first of the harvest,
Jacque: Then all who believe belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.
Brian: But all who belong to Christ will be raised. All who belong to Christ will be raised. If you belong to Jesus, you will be raised and you will join the throngs who are already in heaven. When my mom died last year, and when Ruby died last year, there was a loss for us. I said to Jacque, We had hardly had enough time to really let my mom's passing kind of sink in and then her mom passed and three weeks later. It was a few weeks after her mom died, I said to Jacque, "For the first time in my life, I know what it's like to be parentless on the earth." And there was a loss, but I couldn't stay sad for very long because I knew where my mom was. I knew where my mom was, and the fact that her mind was now full and she was roller skating again, and that she was doing all those acrobatic things that she did when she was young and that she was with my dad and with her mom and with her sister. It was all provided in the resurrection. It was all made possible.
You notice at the end of programs, this program is made possible by—Well, eternal life is made possible by the resurrection, not just our faith in God. Because Paul said it clearly without the resurrection, we could have all the faith he would want to have in God and those keys would still be held by Satan. But Jesus in the resurrection took the keys of death, hell and the grave, and has made way for us to enter into the glory of God. And to hear those wonderful words, enter into the joy of my father in heaven.
And so today, this is why the resurrection isn't just a good sci-fi story. It isn't just another miracle that we can't explain, but it's the very essence of what our faith is built on. It is the event that made way for you and I to have eternal life in the glory of God's presence. And so when somebody asks us why we believe in the resurrection, we must say we can't help, but believe in the resurrection because it means everything to our futures. God bless you. Pastor Robert, would you come?
Robert: The hope of the resurrection— Pastor Brian, as you were sharing that last part, it reminded me about almost 20 years ago, I lost a dear friend of mine to a drunk driver. This friend was very dear to me and it broke my heart. At that time, when they would make the funeral arrangements, I was scheduled to go on my first mission trip. I was just torn. I couldn't eat; I couldn't sleep. I called her parents. I didn't know what to do. And they said, "Well, just pray and trust God, he'll give you the answer on what you should do. But If you wanted to go on this trip, she would understand because you are doing the work of the Lord."
I remember one night I had a dream, and I saw my friend. I didn't see her face, but I saw the back of her and she had this long flowing hair, this long flowing robe, and she was walking through a field of wheat. I woke up the next day with the greatest I had ever experienced in my life.
The Lord just showed me it was okay and that she was okay. I was released to go on my first of many trips overseas, which was kind of a legacy for her because she had been all over the world doing missions. At that time, before that, I had a real issue with death and dying. I used to be tormented a lot. Then the scripture that's given by Paul, "To be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord", just put a great smile on my face to realize that we try to hold on to this life so much, but the greater destiny is to be with the creator.
For many of you, life may be hard. For many of us, it is challenging. And each year that we pass by our bodies grow weary, our mind grows weary, and we ask ourselves, what is it for? Well, the hope of the message is that our laboring is not in vain because one day when we pass from this life, we will be present with the Lord.
By way of prayer this morning. I just want to pray for those that have worry, that have doubt, that have questions about this life, about the next, about your loved ones, the ones that have gone before you, the ones that are now, I pray for you to lay your burden of worry at the feet of Jesus, because he took care of it for you. He reminded us on the cross. He said it is finished. He did the work for you and I. So all of you present in this room today, all of you online, lay your burdens and your worries and your question is at the feet of Jesus, Be reminded of this message to give you the hope that the resurrection of our Lord and savior brought through his own resurrection. You don't have to worry as you are a believer in Jesus Christ. You have a guarantee because the holy spirit that raised Jesus from the dead resides in you. So I pray that this message gives you a sense of hope, but also a sense of urgency to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.
I pray for your loved ones, your prodigal, those that you are still hoping and desiring to see, come into the fold of Jesus. I pray and prophesy that even this week, there would be a stirring and that you would be favored by a connection, a point of contact That would draw them closer to Jesus. And so I pray your faith and your hope would increase this week that the Lord would draw near to them. And their hearts would not be cold. The doors would not be shut, but they would yield to the love of God. We thank you, Lord, for loving us. We are thank you for making a pathway to be with you for all eternity to come. And we pray with all fervency that more would join us in your glory in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
Brian: I'm so grateful for all of you. Thank you for being here today. It's good to have a new person watching today. God bless you, Tony. We'll be praying for your surgery this week and for the rest of you who are watching around the country, thank you for being with us today, from California to Florida, to the upper peninsula. We are so grateful you are part of our community here. And if your heart was touched today, by this message, we ask that you do what pastor Robert suggested, and that is have an urgency in your heart to begin to share the good news of the resurrection of Jesus and what it provided for you and for me. Let's raise our hands together shall now.
Now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you and may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. And may your hearts burn within you like Cleopas and the other disciple on the way to Emmaus when the resurrected Lord encountered them. This, we pray in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful day.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 4-24-22. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.