The Power Of The Resurrection

INTRODUCTION

 This is a wonderful day! This is a special day in which we celebrate life!

 When I was a kid, my favorite holiday was Christmas because I got presents!

 When I was a kid we celebrated Easter at my house, we would make our annual trip to church and we would get a bunch of candy. I really liked to candy stuff, but I did not enjoy the church part too much.

 After I became a Christian, my whole perspective started to change. I realized the real significance of the holiday. Easter was not about being forced to go to church, it was not about a big bunny and candy, it was about God displaying His love for me by sending His son Jesus to die on the cross for my sins.

 This holiday is one that no other religion can celebrate. If you are a Muslim, your leader Mohammed died June 8, 632 AD at the age of 61. Millions of people go to the tomb, which his body occupies to this day.

 All of the leaders of the manmade religions have either died or will die only Jesus, the one and only Son of God has defeated death.

 Today we celebrate the victory that we can have through Jesus.

 I cannot understand why a person would want to put their hopes of heaven in a dead person? Jesus defeated death. 1CO 15:55-56 says, "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 The one event that has changed history like no other is the resurrection of Jesus, the way people worshipped, the way society treated women, and the lives that have been changed are a just a few things that changed because of the power of the resurrection.

 The resurrection of Jesus is the single most important event in the history of mankind because Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that if resurrection were not true, then our preaching would be in vain, our faith would be in vain, we would be false witnesses of God.

 In verse 19 he says, If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

 After I became a Christian, I finally began to understand the significance of the Easter holiday. Words cannot describe how I feel about what God did for me by sending Jesus to die for my sins. Jesus has changed my life and my destiny. It is because of the power of the resurrection that I have been blessed. I thank God that when we celebrate this holiday we do not have a tomb to go visit.

 Today I want us to look at the power of the resurrection.

SERMON

The resurrection has..

I. THE POWER TO CHANGE LIVES

1PETER 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1. Being born again.

 Have you ever wished you could just start again? Jesus gives us that chance when give our lives to Him.

 2CO 5:17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

 How may times have you wanted to change your life, or how many times have you seen people you knew needed to change their life? I fully believe that the only way a person can truly change their life is by through Jesus.

 Peter tells us that because of the resurrection of Jesus, we too have the opportunity to start anew. Paul tells us in the 2 Corinthians passage that when we are in Christ we are a new creature, a new person, we do not have to be shackled to the past.

2. Examples of changed lives

 When you look in the bible, you see people who before the resurrection, we scared to death, the disciples who walked with Jesus for three years were hiding in fear when they crucified Jesus.

 They did not understand who Jesus was. Peter denied Jesus three times before the morning came. Thomas did not think that Jesus was going to come back and when He did, he did not believe until He touched Jesus himself.

 James, the brother of Jesus did not believe Jesus at first. In John 7:5 we find that his brothers we more or less mocking Jesus. JOHN 7:5 For not even His brothers were believing in Him. We know that James was one of His brothers from MATTHEW 13:55 which says, "Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?