Opening
For me, the gospel means that I know I am going to Heaven when I die and that I can experience heaven on earth while I’m here.
-and you can’t have heaven on earth by yourself!!!!!
Introduction
-Top 5 conspiracy theories…
• 5 is the moon landing…
• 4 is Roswell…
• 3 is 9/11…
• 2 is the JFK assassination…
• 1 is Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married…
-You know what’s not on this list…Jesus’ resurrection!
• Jesus encounters for 40 days following…
• The meteoric growth of Christianity in the first century…
• NT books written during lives of first hand witnesses…
-The question we should be asking Easter weekend is not whether or not Jesus rose from the dead…my guess is that 99.9% of everyone here already believes this!
-The questions is this…
Why hasn’t His resurrection transformed and changed our lives the way it transformed and changed the lives of the people we read about in Scripture?
-Take Paul for example…
-Philippians 3:8-11
-Romans 8:10-14
I believe that we struggle with the power of the resurrection having its full impact on our lives because like Adam and Eve still struggle with overcoming our enemy.
-John 17:13-15…The Evil One
-1 Peter 5:8
-tonight we are going to walk through three distinct encounters Jesus had with the Evil One, the Devil, and not only look at how Jesus overcame him but recognize a pattern of when he comes to tempt us…let’s be ready for him!
Our Public Moments
-1 John 2:16
-Matthew 4:1-11
-We see that the Evil One appealed to Jesus’ humanity through the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life
-Are you ready to combat the Evil One with Scripture? (Galatians 2:20, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Psalm 1, and Philippians 4:8)
-The timing of the Evil One’s temptation is not coincidental…
-Matthew 3:16
When we are ready to go public with our faith in Jesus, making church a priority, life groups, missions trips, Faith Promise…the Evil One is going to do everything in his power to stop us!
Our Purpose Moments
-Matthew 16:17-23
-Here we see Jesus declaring His God given purpose…to give birth to The Church and to die for the sins of the world!
-Ephesians 4:16 (you have a God given purpose…)
-Matthew 16:24-27 (His purposes always come at a cost…)
-(tell story of God speaking to me about coming here…24 moths later, CDW…all the times I used Jesus’ phrase in that first year!)
-Are you ready to RESIST the Evil One?
-James 4:7-8
-The timing of the Evil One’s temptation is not coincidental!
When we are ready to devote ourselves to our God-given purpose, to our calling, to our destiny, to our project of existence…the Evil One is going to do everything in his power to stop us!
Our Personal Moments
-John 13:21-30
-I don’t think just because Jesus knew Judas would betray Him that it hurt any less…I don’t think Judas was one of the twelve because Jesus needed someone to be the bad guy…He was one of the 12 because Jesus wanted to give him every chance to do the right thing.
-I believe the Evil One knew at this point he couldn’t stop Jesus so he tried to stop him from trusting anyone else… “If I couldn’t trust Jesus then maybe I shouldn’t trust any of the rest of them.”
-John 18:4-11 (Luke…how many of you have been hurt by churhes?)
-What do you see Jesus doing for 40 days? He keeps showing up!!!
-Are you ready to beat the Evil One by trusting again?
-The timing of the Evil One’s temptation is not coincidental!
When we are ready to trust again, ready to give community another chance, start trying to find another church…the Evil One is going to do everything in his power to stop us!
Transition
-I’ve got good news and bad news…
• The bad news is that you and I have an enemy…
• The good news is that he is a defeated enemy…
-1 Corinthians 15:3-9, 54-57
-So I say to you this day…ARISE!!!!!!
Band
-West Palm Beach story of V and kids trying to scare me and Ethan…
-sometimes we are absolutely certain and yet we couldn’t be more wrong…
-are you sure you don’t need Jesus?
-none of what we have talked about tonight works unless Jesus is in us!
-John 14:20…when was your “that day…”
Close
-Romans 1:1-4
