Because He lives

Matthew 28:1-7 (NLT) Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb.Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint.
Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you.”
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That first easter Sunday 2000 years ago changed the world forever
We read of how Mary and Mary Magdalene went to visit the tomb of Jesus expecting to visit a full grave, but instead they encountered an angel of the Lord who gave them a very simple message: Jesus who they had seen crucified and killed was no longer here, because He is Risen.Now that is an unusual expression for the angel to use, “He is risen.”

Normally, to describe someone having risen we would  say “He has risen”, which emphasis that the action of him having risen is complete.But the angel didn’t say this. Instead, he said that Jesus is risen. By phrasing it like this the emphasis is on the fact that yes he did rise, but not only that,  he continues to be risen, or He is in a continual state of being risen.

The angel was proclaiming that Jesus rose and is still alive even today. But not everyone believed this message.

Mark 16:10-14 (NLT) She went to the disciples, who were grieving and weeping, and told them what had happened. But when she told them that Jesus was alive and she had seen him, they didn’t believe her.Afterward he appeared in a different form to two of his followers who were walking from Jerusalem into the country. They rushed back to tell the others, but no one believed them.Still later he appeared to the eleven disciples as they were eating together. He rebuked them for their stubborn unbelief because they refused to believe those who had seen him after he had been raised from the dead.
Mary and others who witnessed the resurrected Jesus excitedly went to tell others about this miracle, but many did not believe them. And we live in a world where many people still do not believe that He rose from the dead, But we are gathered here this morning because we do believe. Did we come here this morning to remember a dead man? Did we come here to remember a piece of history? No, we came here because we know that He lived then, and that He lives now.

Jesus is still alive today. He is a living, present tense God, and that means that we can have hope, because we do not worship an historical figure from the past, but a God who is alive now.That is why we celebrate Easter Day because Jesus’ resurrection brings us a hope that we cannot find anywhere else in the world.

Because he lives, we will have eternal life

As He was drawing near to the end of his time here on earth, Jesus told his followers this:

John 14:19 (NLT) Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live.

Jesus told them that the result of the fact that he is risen is that His followers will also live. Because he has eternal life, so do His followers.

There are a couple of ways of understanding what Jesus meant here The first is that when we follow Him, He gives us literal eternal life.

John 11:25-26 (NLT) Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die.

You see Jesus was more than just resurrected, He is the resurrection. There is no resurrection outside of Jesus, it’s more than just what He did on Easter Sunday, it is His very being. Similarly, He doesn’t just have life, he is life. He is the very source, the definition of what life is.  He was the giver of life at the beginning of creation, and everything is sustained by His word.

So Jesus gives us a promise, a cast iron guarantee that anyone who lives and believes in Him will live even after dying, that they will never die. It is an inescapable  fact since the day that that we were born is that we are going to die, Now this will be at different times for each of us, some of us will live longer, some of us shorter, And it’s not something that we like to think about, in fact most of us put it out of our minds, but death is going to happen to each of us. But Jesus promises us that if we live our life in Him, if we believe in Him, in who He is and what He says, then although we will still die, we will live forever even after dying. What He means by that is that our bodies will die but our soul and spirit will live with Jesus for eternity.

Because he lives, we can live a full life.

But there is a second meaning behind Jesus saying that since he lives we will also live. It is not just about the life he gives us after death, but that life that he gives us now. 

John 10:10 (ESV) The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 

When He said this, Jesus meant that in each of our lives there has been a thief. And that thief has come to rob us of life, to take away our joy of life by burdening us with some of the things that are wrong in the world. And this will be different in each of us, but we are all weighed down by burdens we face of life. And not only has this thief come to rob from us, but he has also come to destroy us, and even to kill us. It wants to take every bit of enjoyment of life away from us and then lead us to our death. But Jesus came to do the opposite to that. He came to give us life. And not just any old life, but abundant life, here and now.

Jesus’ resurrection accomplished that. By dying on the cross and being raised to life again Jesus broke the power of death that has existed since the beginning of mankind. By going to that cross for us, he paid the punishment that WE should have paid for our sins,  and when He rose again He emerged victorious over all death. And whoever believes in Him can experience that same life that He has for each and every one of us, that abundant life. 

John 5:21 (NLT) For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants.

The father gives life to those he raises from the dead, and when he raised Jesus the father gave Him life. And now Jesus imparts that life to anyone he wants to. That is what He came for, to impart life.

2 Corinthians 4:16 (NLT) Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day

We know that our physical body is slowly dying, but our spirit, that which is inside us, the life inside us is being renewed every day. We can’t help that our bodies are aging, that is a part of life, but our spirit, the life that is within us is being renewed every day. God is not done with us yet, no matter how old we may feel, He still renews our spirit.

Because He Lives He adopts us into his family

Jesus accomplished so much more than even giving us life when He rose from the dead.

John 1:12 (NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

To whoever believes in Him and accepts Him, He gives the right, a legal right to be His child.  He signs the adoption papers, it becomes a legal contract that He becomes our father, and we become His responsibility, we become His problem! And because we are adopted as His child, we also become His legal heirs.

Romans 8:17 (NLT) And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

Being a legal heir of God means that we are legally entitled to inherit all that He has, that we are entitled to inherit His life, His joy, His peace and His love.

Because He lives, we are provided for

And because God becomes our father, and we are His responsibility, He provides for us. God is not just any old father, He is a good father, and one of the jobs of a father is to provide for their children.

Philippians 4:19 (NLT) And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

Philippians tells us that God has many glorious riches, and that through Jesus Christ He is able to supply all our needs. And he can only do this because He lives


Because He lives we can confidence that He hears us when we pray.

1 John 5:14-15 (NLT) And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.

We can ask Him for anything that pleases Him and we know that He hears us and gives to us. This good father listens to us. He has time for us, He cares for us. He wants us to come to Him and ask Him for what we need, and when we ask for what pleases him He gives us our requests. Because we are adopted by a loving father who provides for us hears us when we ask of Him it means that we are not alone.

Hebrews 13:5-6 (NLT) Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” So we can say with confidence, “The LORD is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?”

He will never abandon us, so we can say with confidence, the Lord is my helper. We can be confident in the provision of our Heavenly Father.

Because He lives We do not have to worry about the future

Matthew 6:31-33 (NLT) “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

Jesus taught us that worry about the future is what dominates the thoughts of unbelievers. And there is a reason for this, it is because unbelievers do not have a Heavenly Father looking after them, they haven’t been adopted into God’s family. But we are taught that as believers, we do not have to worry about the future. Jesus tells us to change our mindset, change how we think.

He tells us we no longer have to think like unbelievers, but as children of God. Our responsibility is to seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, which means seek His way, and everything else will be provided for us.

Because He lives we can have His peace.

Romans 5:1 (NLT) Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.

This living God is a god of peace, a God who gives us peace with Him, and even when our circumstances are hard, gives us peace within the world because we know Him. And Jesus death and life means that we are no longer enemies of God as we once were, but we have been restored to Him, That we can call Him Lord and King, but we can also call Him friend, because all those who follow God’s will become His friend.

Conclusion

Two days ago on Good Friday we looked at everything that Jesus accomplished by His death. And today we have heard some of what Jesus accomplished by His resurrection. The greatest news that humans has ever heard is the news that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead as He promised.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the chief proof of the Christian faith. It is the truth that lies at the very foundation of the Gospel.  Other doctrines of the Christian faith are important, but the resurrection is essential. 

Romans 10:9 (NLT) If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Easter is a day we associate with spring and all the new life that is going on around us. But it is also a day that can bring new life to us as well. All we have to do to receive this life is believe in Jesus, turn to Him and live in Him.

John 3:16-17 (NLT) “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

There is a famous Hymn that we are going to sing called “Because he lives.” - because He lives I can face tomorrow, because he lives, all fear is gone, because he lives, I know he holds the future. And life is worth the living just because he lives.