Jesus Is Alive, What Are You Going To Do?

PRAYER

Father, open my eyes to see Your Word.

Open my ears to hear.

Open my mind to understand.

And open my heart so I may receive Your Word today.

AMEN

Easter Sunday, the day that the church comes together to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The very fact that Jesus came to this earth; lived and died and rose again is the key to our Christian faith. It is the greatest truth known to man.

Jesus did not only come to teach, to heal and train disciples.

The main purpose of His coming was to open the door of forgiveness for all men by His dying on the cross so that we could have fellowship with God the Father.

There are some who find this hard to understand, they are not alone, even Jesus’ disciples had a hard time understanding this truth.

Listen to the interaction between Jesus and His disciples in Luke 18:31-34.

Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again." The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about. Luke 18:31-34 NIV

Jesus told them why He had to die? So He could fulfill the words of the prophets.

Jesus told them how He would die. He would be handed over to the Gentiles and they would kill Him.

He told them what would happen after that? On the third day He would rise again.

How did the disciples react to these words? They did not understand.

On at least three occasions Jesus warned his disciples about what would happen, but they did not understand this until much later.

Everything that happened to Jesus was in full agreement with the prophecies concerning Him.

Isaiah 53 which was written about seven centuries before the birth of Jesus is one of those prophecies.

Jesus was arrested in the garden called Gethsemane.

He was then brought before the high priest and the Jewish council. But they were not interested in a fair trial. They looked for false witnesses to come and testify against Jesus.

When two men finally spoke up, they accused Jesus of threatening to destroy the Temple of God and then rebuild it in three day.

Of course we know that Jesus was talking about His own life and how He would be in the tomb for three days and then be raised back to life.

Jesus remained silent through all of their questions until Caiaphas, the high priest finally asked Jesus, “Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God?”

Jesus’ answer was, “Yes, it is as you say.”

In the minds of the Jewish leaders, Jesus had committed blasphemy and was worthy of death. But the Jewish authorities were not allowed to pass a death sentence. This could only be done by the Romans, who governed the land.

Jesus was brought at first light to Pontius Pilate the Roman governor. Pilate found no grounds for his death so he sent Jesus to Herod.

Herod could not charge Jesus with a crime so he sent him back to Pilate.

Again, Pilate could not find any cause for Jesus to be crucified, but in order to appease the people; Pilate gave Jesus the death penalty.

Death on a cross. The most inhuman form of punishment ever devised.

Jesus was beaten, spat upon, whipped, tortured, and forced to carry a cross to the place called Golgotha. He was hung on that cross by nails pounding nails in his hands and feet.

Hung to die.

Many people were crucified in those days. Probably tens of thousands. And the one thing that all of those who had been crucified up to this point shared in common was that they had all died as a result of the punishment.

But on this day, that was about to change.

Jesus did die on the cross but He did not stay dead.

If Jesus had only died, He could have been an impostor, in spite of the many prophecies that were fulfilled in detail.

Jesus was taken down from that cross, placed in a tomb, the tomb was sealed and for three days it sat undisturbed.

But on the third day, something happened.

On the third day, Jesus rose again from death and walked out of that tomb.

Jesus is alive.

VIDEO CLIP of resurrection.

He is RISEN!

Jesus is alive! He lives today!

Just like Jesus said it would happen, He rose from the dead. He was not an imposter; He is the Son of God.