Extra Ordinary Jesus- Prophet, Priest And King Series

Last week we looked began to look at the Resurrection of Jesus, and said, like Paul, that for Christians the Resurrection is of vital importance, because without it there is no Christianity, no Saviour, no salvation, no forgiveness of sins and no hope of resurrected eternal life!

Without the Resurrection our faith is futile and we are still in our sins!

And because the Resurrection is so important to our faith many from outside of the Kingdom have tried to attack and deny it over the years, and so we spent some time looking at those arguments and looking briefly at some of the evidences for the Resurrection of Jesus.

This week, to finish off, we'll look a little at what the Resurrection means to us, and just why it is so important.

And the 1st thing we can say is this- The Resurrection of Jesus PROVES that He is ALL He said He is!

And Jesus made some pretty big claims! As we read earlier and in other places in the Gospels, Jesus' main claim was that He is God!

He used divine titles like 'Messiah' and 'Son of God', He forgave sins (against You and You alone have I sinned). He said He would judge the world- explicitly and implicitly Jesus claimed to be God!

But have you heard the saying 'Actions speak louder than words'? It's easy to say something, to claim something but 'the proof is in the pudding is in the eating'! If Jesus DIDN'T rise from the dead ALL those claims would come to nothing!

Sure He did some great miracles! Healed the sick, feed the hungry, raised the dead- all pointing to His divinity. But history records other men doing such things too! Moses, Elijah, Elisha! Sure, these men never claimed to be God, instead giving the glory to God, but history records some amazing things!

If you remember the account of Moses and the Pharaoh, you'll recall a meeting where Moses threw his staff down onto the ground and it turned into a snake, then the Pharaoh's magicians came and did the same thing! So these things were amazing, don't get me wrong, but have been seen before- both from God's people and counterfeit wonders by the Devil!

But no one, NO ONE has ever raised themselves from the dead! No one has ever said 'I will die and then, after 3 days, I will raise myself from the dead' some may have said something like that before, but NO ONE but Jesus has ever done it!!!

Why? Because Jesus IS GOD!!!

Also, the Resurrection reveals Jesus as King. In the covenant God made with David, God promised that His Son, Jesus, would be raised up from the line of David, would establish His Kingdom and reign over it for eternity! (Main verse last week -- Romans 1:3-4)

At the birth of Jesus, in Matthew's Gospel we see this title of King given to Jesus, and then again at His death where Pilate asks 'Are You the King of the Jews?' and Jesus replied 'It is as you say' and when He was crucified you'll remember a plaque was nailed on the cross too which said 'Jesus, King of the Jews'

Jesus is the Great King! And what we see of great kings throughout the Old Testament is that they lead the people, protect them and provide for them! King Saul was a warrior, King David even greater! Josiah was who king who went out with his armies to fight in battle!

As kings these men were defenders, protectors, providers and leaders! And they lead from the front! When a threat came, they didn't send the army out, they lead the army out! And Jesus is no different!

The King of kings, came and went out to meet the enemy head on! And through His Resurrection He defeated the greatest enemies of all- Sin, Death And Satan!

He provided for our welfare by giving us eternal life and continues to lead us, provide for us and protect us and will do for ever!

The Resurrection reveals Jesus as our High Priest.

The function of the high priest in the Old Testament was to offer sacrifices on behalf of the people. If you were here on Wednesday we heard about the Grain Offering and as we read through Leviticus we'll read about many more!

But the most important sacrifice was made once a year on the Day of Atonement where the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies and offer a sacrifice for the atonement of sin for the entire nation! And this was done every year!

But Jesus, our High Priest, offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the atonement of ALL mankind's sin on the cross at Calvary! And in His Resurrection we see that God was satisfied with this offering, sin was forgiven, death defeated and Jesus raised to life!