Risen King- Easter Series

Easter 2015 Risen King, by Pastor Rob Ketterling

We are here at River Valley and at all of our campuses, seven campuses, and I'm very excited to say the number seven, as we have our new Woodbury campus launching this weekend.

And we are here to remember what Jesus did over two thousand years ago. He died on the cross to pay the price for our sins. He rose from the dead to prove his promises are true, and we are celebrating that. It is an amazing, amazing day that we get to celebrate a risen king. Today is a shared sermon between myself and the campus pastors at your location, so we are going to share back and forth with this. And we are very excited that we can preach the same sermon on Easter weekend and celebrate together. We are going to look at several scriptures, and we are going to look at the song we wrote that was sung during worship, Risen King.

And I've got to tell you this, when our worship team came to me and said we are writing this song, Risen King, and they read the words and started to let me in on the process of the song, I just got excited, because any song that proclaims Jesus as our risen king is just a victorious song that I love singing. And the song is amazing. I absolutely love it. It is quickly becoming one of my favorites, and I'm so glad it is part of our CD that we are handing out. I just love that part of the song that says, Roll the stone away. See the empty grave. And every time we sing that, I get excited about it.

And if you ever watch don't watch me during worship. But if you ever do during that song, you might see, like, roll [demonstrating]. It's like I'm, like, roll! Roll that stone! I get excited about it! It's, like, get that stone out of the way! I mean, I kind of like that Extreme Makeover show, like, move that bus! I mean that's how I get. Because it is so exciting. What is behind the stone is so exciting. So to me, every time I sing that song, I just get excited. Now, please, don't watch me during worship. Don't do that, okay? But it's just good. Roll the stone away. There is something about that, and we are celebrating what the Word of God says and what that song says today.

And the song starts out, it says, you know, You chose the nails. And, of course, we know this weekend we celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross. And we also know he is risen from the dead. But it started on the weekend with him dying on the cross. And I just love the fact that they didn't have to force Jesus to die on the cross. That's a painful death. It was a horrible death. And the Bible tells us that he laid down his life willingly. In John 10:18 it says, "No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my father has commanded."

He's saying, "You know what? I'm going to lay down my life. I'm going to willingly go to the cross. There is no objection here. There is a desire to obey what my Heavenly Father says, and I'm going to do it. I know that this is the mission that I'm on, and I'm laying down my life." When they crucified him on the cross, he went willingly.

And the Bible tells us that all of our sins were placed upon him. I love that. It says all of our sins. Everything that we've done wrong. If you are not familiar with what sin is, sin is what corrupts us. Sin is that moral weakness within us. Sin is that failure to live up to God's standard. And all of that was placed on Jesus, and the Bible says he who knew no sin became sin for us. Everything was placed on him. 1 Peter 2:24 says, He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.

He died so we could be forgiven, and every one of our sins were placed on him. And the Bible tells us that if we will ask for forgiveness of those sins, we can be forgiven. And at the end of this service, here and at all of our campuses, we are going to give people an opportunity to do that. To say, "I'm ready for my moral weakness, I'm ready for not living up to the standard, I'm willing to have all these things that I've done wrong, the things that have corrupted me and stood in the way of God to be forgiven, and I'm going to ask for that forgiveness."