Transcription
The following program is sponsored by friends and partners of Kingdom Connection. This month, request your Easter DVD set at Kingdom.com with two new messages from Jensen Franklin, recorded live at Free Chapel. As we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, this powerful series will be a blessing to your life and is available this month for your best gift.
[Music]
I want to speak for just a few moments on why the resurrection is so important. It's not a take it or leave it thing. If you call yourself a Christian, the resurrection means everything. That we believe hinges on whether or not Jesus rose from the dead. Did he actually come out of that grave? That's the question.
I remember hearing a story about a man who was walking home and he decided to take a shortcut through the cemetery. It was dark, and he was walking, and he accidentally fell into a freshly dug uh grave. And when he got in it, he couldn't get out of it. He jumped and clawed his way, but to to it didn't help him any. He ended up exhausted and finally went to the other end where the dark shadows of the grave were, and he just sat down on a pile of dirt and decided to wait for the sun to rise and some help to come.
And then about 30 minutes later, another fellow came walking through the cemetery, and he fell into the same grave on the opposite end. And he started jumping up and reaching up and trying his best to get out and wore himself out and finally exhausted, he almost sat down. And just as he was about to sit down, he heard a voice. Voice from the shadowy darkness said, "You cannot get out of here." But he did.
2,000 years ago, Satan put Jesus in a tomb, and a voice from the shadows said, "You cannot get out of here." But Jesus did, and he is alive today. And I'm thankful for the fact that Christ is risen. Say that with me: Christ is risen.
Go back with me 2,000 years ago. This past Thursday night, Jesus and his disciples were in the Garden of Gethsemane praying when suddenly there were torches as the Roman soldiers began to snake their way into the garden. And then came Judas to Jesus and gave the cursed kiss and betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver. The guards quickly arrested Jesus, and as they were leaving, you could see through the torches the shining of the sword of Simon Peter as he was cutting the ear off of the servant of the high priest. It was then that Jesus rebuked him and said, "Don't do that. My kingdom is not a kingdom of violence, but it's one of peace." And then he reached down and performed his last healing miracle when Jesus picked that ear up and put it back on that servant's ear.
They then took him, that malicious mob, the Pharisees and those that were called the Sanhedrin. They were a vicious, Godless mob, and they took him to Pilate. And there Pilate looked at the evidence against him, and three different times he said that he's innocent, and I find no fault in him. But they slapped him and they made fun of him. And then he passed him off to Herod. And Herod's men of war began to slap Jesus. They ripped the hair from his beard, and they tore the robe off of his back. They put a cruel crown of thorns on his head, and they put a robe of mockery on him. They spit upon him, they slapped him with their hands, and then they took him back to Pilate.
And it was there that Pilate gave him the scourging with the cat of nine tails. The leather strips, the steel, the bones that ripped through his flesh, shredding his back. And then they sentenced him to death. And there they placed on his back that old rugged cross. And Jesus began to drag that cross down the cobblestone streets of Jerusalem, carrying it heavily under the weight. He dropped, and Simon of Cyrene picked that cross up and began to carry it for him.
There, Jesus, the Son of God, went to that place that is called Calvary. He carried it and he hung on the cross, suspended between heaven and earth. When they nailed his hands and crossed his feet and nailed his feet there, the Son of God was from Friday afternoon at 12 noon until 3:00 that afternoon. Jesus Christ in torture that we cannot imagine. The way of crucifixion ultimately conquered its victim by suffocating them to death. In order to get a breath, they would have to push up on their feet, and it would be very painful, and he would catch his breath, and then the victim would drop back down, and it would be hard to breathe. And finally, at 3:00 in the afternoon, Jesus pushed up for the last time on that nail and that that old cross, and he took his last breath. And then he said the words, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." And then he cried, "It is finished." And his body slumped. And Jesus, the Son of God, died for the sins of the world.
His devoted followers took his body down from that cross and they placed it in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. They put all over it the ointments, 100 pounds of ointment upon his body, as was the custom of the Jews for their dead. And they rolled a stone in front of that grave. They put the majestic seal of Rome, and guards were hired to make sure that no one would steal the body of Jesus Christ.
All night Friday night and Saturday night, the demons in hell rejoiced. The politicians gloated that they had stopped the insurrection from Galilee. The disciples scattered in terror with the memory of this this corpse on the cross, this man that they had journeyed with for three and a half years. This was the man who had walked on the water. This was the man who had fed the multitudes. This was the man who had cast out demons by the power of his word and calmed the raging sea. This was the man who had called the dead back to life and cleansed the leper. But now he was a lifeless corpse. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was weeping without consolation. The Roman guards were hired, and they were there watching, making sure that there was no way that Jesus could get out. Satan, I believe, was laughing in the chambers of hell as the Son of God was incarcerated in that tomb. At that moment, death was still powerful. At that moment, the grave was still a gloomy pit.
But then came the dawning of the third day, that first Easter Sunday morning, when the angel of the Lord swooped down from heaven and broke the seal and rolled the stone away. And then sat upon top of the stone as if to defy death, to try to put it back. In that moment, suddenly Jesus Christ, the Son of God, rose from the dead. And a 100 million voices strong in heaven began to sing and cry out, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive glory, honor, and praise." Jesus Christ walked out. But before he did, he folded his grave clothes and laid them neatly in the corner of that grave and stepped out and said, "I am the resurrection and I am the life. He that believes in me will never die."
And today, we are all champions over death, champions over the grave, champions over sin, champions over our past, because Jesus Christ is alive. If you believe it, give him a great praise. That's what he did for you. I'm not intimidated by death because I believe in the resurrection. When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for my conqueror has gone before me and explored the grave and came out the champion of life. And he said, "Because I live, you will live also."
When the guards found themselves on the ground, paralyzed, and finally the paralysis lifted, they jumped to their feet and ran to Pilate's house and they proclaimed and screamed in his courtyard, "Pilate, he's out!" I believe that suddenly the demons began to run through the chambers of hell screaming, "He's alive! He's alive!" And Satan shook in fear at the fact that the blood of Jesus Christ would cleanse us of all sin and break the curse, and his master plan had been defeated by Jesus.
Easter is about life. Jesus is alive. Make no mistake about it. This is not a sad day. This is a happy day. Jesus is alive! And if Jesus is alive, then we ought to be Christlike. The church ought not to be some old dead place where a bunch of dead heads come in, the dead in Christ sitting in the pews. And at 12:00, the grave gives up her dead. Well, I'm part of the upper crust. That's where all the crumbs hang out. What you need to do is get down at his feet and realize he's worthy of a shout, he's worthy of a hand raise, he's worthy of a clap. Don't care what denomination you're from, praise the name of Jesus, the name above all names. Come on, let's just take a praise break and give him the honor and give him the praise. If he brought you out of that grave, Lord, we praise you. Lord, we praise you. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Bless his name.
I heard about one preacher that was preaching the funeral of one of his members, and he kind of tripped over himself verbally when he said, "I've known and been the pastor of this corpse for 25 years." I hope that's not spoken over you or over me. I am alive in Jesus Christ. I don't have a sad story. Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning when you believe in Jesus Christ. Easter is about life.
Why is the resurrection so important? What's the big deal? Well, either Jesus was Lord, or he was a liar. That's what the resurrection proves. Critics say the disciples stole the body of Jesus. Well, if they did, all they got was a corpse. Corpses don't inspire anybody. Corpses don't cause people like Simon Peter, who was a coward and denied Christ three times, to then turn around and stand up on the day of Pentecost and preach to 3,000 people boldly, and they get born again. Corpses don't get in. They don't inspire people like Thomas, who was a doubter, full of unbelief, to go to India and then Persia and then be martyred and hacked to death with a pickaxe, and still he would not deny Jesus Christ. Do you think a corpse inspired him to do that? Look at all the other disciples. They were crucified upside down, stoned. Every one of them but one died the life of a martyr. And yet, there was something about what happened after the resurrection that they saw, not a corpse, but Jesus ate with them and lived with them and talked with them. And it was so real to them that they were willing to die, they were willing to be stoned, they were willing to be crucified, not over a corpse, but over a living savior. They were convinced of it. They believed that he was the Son of God. He appeared to 552 people in 13 different locations after his resurrection.
Why is it so important that we believe in the resurrection? Because if he didn't come out, you won't come out. There's no hope today if Jesus didn't come out. What was he like when he rose from the dead? It's a picture of what your life would be like beyond this life. He had a body, a glorified body, a disease-free, sick-free, cancer-free, heart disease-free. All this body had was life, and it was a glorified body. Turn to somebody and say, "Does this look like a glorified body to you?" One day you're going to get a glorified body. No wrinkles, no aging. Isn't it going to be wonderful when we trade these bodies in?
His body was so powerful that he could travel from Earth to heaven in one day. It takes hundreds of years, thousands of years of light to get from Earth to the nearest star, traveling at 186,000 miles per second. But Jesus, in his glorified body, left Earth, went to heaven, and came back to Earth in the same day. That's fast. And we're going to have a body like that. In his body, he walked through doors, he walked through walls. It's a glorified body. It was a body that talked. He spoke. That alone will be heaven for some of you. When you get to heaven, you won't cease to communicate. I believe he talked because we are going to need our voice to praise Jesus when we get to heaven. The fact that Jesus talked lets us know that we will be able to speak. We will recognize one another. We will know one another in this place that he has prepared for us in the world to come. I heard the story of a little boy who was asked by the doctor if his father said anything on his deathbed. He said, "Did he have any last words?" And he said, "No, mother was with him right till the end." But one day you'll have a glorified voice. He ate. Jesus ate food. Oh, the good news is no more fasting when we get to heaven. When we go there, we'll have a glorified body, and we will eat. Come on, get excited over that. We will eat all we want to eat. We've never tasted food that was not under the curse. So the best meal you've ever had was still it came from the ground that was cursed. But one day we're going to eat the marriage supper of the Lamb with Jesus Christ, and what a day that's going to be.
In Mark chapter 12, the Bible said the Sadducees came with a clever trick to to say to Jesus and trip him up about the resurrection and question if the resurrection was real. You see, the Sadducees didn't believe in angels, and they didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and they didn't believe in the resurrection of the saints. So Jesus was there, and they came and they created a scenario. They said, "If there is a resurrection, then tell us the answer to this question: In the resurrection, if a woman married a man, and according to the law of Moses, if that man died before that couple produced a child, then the brother had to marry that woman and produce a child. And what if the woman married the first brother, and he died, and there's no child? Married the second brother, and and and he died, and there's still no child. And then the third brother married the same woman, and there is no child. And the fourth woman, uh, fourth man married this woman, and the fourth man dies, and and there's still no child. And the fifth man, the fifth brother marries her, and there's still no child. And the sixth..." Don't you know the sixth guy was nervous? The sixth guy is he's walking down that aisle, he's like, "Anyhow." But this is what they said: Seven brothers marry the same girl, and she's childless. They all die, and then she dies. When she gets to heaven, who will she be married to?" And I think they were grinning, thinking, "We got him on this one." He said, "You err, not knowing the scriptures."
But they told a truth that I want to focus in on: that death is a certainty. That everybody's going to die. All seven brothers died, and then the woman died. Everybody in this room is going to die. I want you to understand that the first human to die was able, and death has not ceased since. And it's a matter of time before death touches your family. And this is the message of Easter.
I remember the first time death touched our immediate family. We received a phone call. Sharice and I were pastoring, and we were just young kids. I was in my 20s, and Sharice is seven years younger than I am, and so she was she was barely legal, amen. And and and we were we were pastoring here in Gainesville, and we received a phone call. My dad, at the age of 54, had had a massive heart attack. There's a pilot in the uh church, and I called him and said, "Is there any way you can get us to Ashboro?" He's in critical condition. So Sharice and I hopped on that plane. And the Andrew Lewis, still in this church, was kind enough on his plane to fly us to pick up my sister Jennifer and Larry, and we flew to Ashboro, North Carolina. We rushed to the hospital. The rest of my family was there. We went into that intensive care room. It's it's those moments that change your life forever. My mother was there, my brother Dale and Kathy, and Jennifer and Larry, her husband, and my other sister, Ginny, and her husband, Larry. We were all standing there. Richie and Rena standing there. And I remember walking over, and we all were saying our goodbyes because they had said, "Baring a miracle, he was going to die." You remember the strangest things when death touches you the first time. You know, you're young, you're innocent, and you think you're going to live forever. But when death invades the ranks of your intimate family, then it changes you somehow. And um, I walked over and I kissed Dad on his cheek, and I remember whiskers. He had whiskers that that were not usual for him. He usually was clean-shaven, but because he had been in the hospital that whole day. And I kissed him on his cheek, and I squeezed his hand, and I said, "Daddy, I love you." And he said, through his oxygen mask, "I love you, son." And it was just a few moments later that they rushed us out of that room, and we went in a little holding room, but it had a window, and we could see see what was going on. Is there was a lot of hustle and bustle, and nurses and doctors running in and out. And within minutes, the doctor came in and said, "He's gone." In that moment, you're changed. In that moment, life takes on a different perspective.
I remember reading about uh Daniel Patrick Moynihan. They say he was a genius, and at the age of 36, he was on John F. Kennedy's cabinet. And he happened to be with JFK's sister when JFK was assassinated. And when she heard the news, she fell into his arms, and they were both very close to him. And he said that she cried out and she said, "Patrick, we'll never laugh again after this day." And he said, "Yes, we will. We will laugh again, but we will never be young again." And only until you've walked through it do you understand that day in that hospital, even though I was in my 20s, I would never feel as young again because I recognized that death is real. Hebrews 9:27 said, "It is appointed unto man once to die, and after death comes the judgment." And we were all in this life subject to the bondage of the fear of death.
I'm saying to you today that ladies and gentlemen, Easter is about life. Easter is about the fact that Jesus Christ died, and then he rose again. And because he rose again, the trumpet is going to sound, and the dead in Christ shall be raised. And until then, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And we can rejoice because we know that he has conquered death for us. Just take a praise break and worship God. This is the message of Easter. This is the great hope. He is alive! He is risen! And he is coming back!
I close with this: Sm Lockridge, the great black preacher, preached his sermon, "Friday It's Friday, But Sunday's Coming." Man, he could preach it. You, you, I've heard tapes of him. He would get that preacher voice, and he would preach on Friday. I'm not going to try it. I can't do it. I'm too white. But on Friday, on Friday, they stretched him high, and they they hung him up, and they nailed him, but Sunday was coming. On Friday, hell had a party, but Sunday was coming. But I want to make one more point. It's Friday, but Sunday's coming. But I want to say, it's Sunday. It's Easter Sunday. But Jesus is coming. The world's still in a mess. The world's still in pain. The world's still in addiction. But Jesus is coming again, and you better get ready. When that trumpet sounds, everything's going to change in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. That's the message of Easter. Christ is risen.
Now, now, watch this. Just in case there's somebody here that's a skeptic. How many of you in this room and in the overflow would be truthful in saying, "I know for a fact Jesus is alive because I have met him and he has raised me from my dead life"? If you can say that, give the biggest praise. This is your chance. This is your moment. Oh, he's risen! He's alive! He's coming back! Let's just praise him. Get up on your feet and honor him. Praise him all over this room. Jesus! Jesus!
I believe this message has stirred faith in your heart, and I want to invite you to receive Jesus Christ as your savior. If you've never prayed this prayer and asked him, just say, "Lord Jesus, I believe you died and rose again, and today your blood cleanses me of all my sin. Just say that. Today I surrender all my life to you. Use me. Touch me. Save me. Forgive me. Cleanse me. In Jesus name I pray. In Jesus name I pray. Amen."
You know, when you say the name of Jesus, hell envisions two things: an empty tomb and an occupied throne. He ever lives to make intercession for you. Do you understand? Jesus has been praying for you, and we are too. We love to hear from you. If this telecast has been a blessing, let us know. If you prayed that prayer, let us know. We just love to hear those reports of people surrendering their life to Jesus Christ. Thank you to all of our partners and friends who are helping the miracle happen in the miracle marketplace in Haiti. We are just seeing amazing things. 2,600 jobs will soon be provided, and food for life for the precious Haiti people. And you can be a part of that miracle. Thank you so much for joining us. Happy Easter, everybody. Let's celebrate the fact Jesus is Alive.
This month, request your Easter DVD set at Kingdom.com with two new messages from Jensen Franklin, recorded live at Free Chapel. As we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, this powerful series will be a blessing to your life and is available this month for your best gift.
[Music]
Join Jensen Franklin for 40 Days in the Gad Arena, June 26th through the 28th. Special musical guests Hillsong Young & Free, Planetshakers, Matt Redman, Israel Houghton, and Massie in the Free Chapel Band, along with special guest speakers Chad Veach, Lisa Bevere, John Gray, Reggie Dabbs, and Jensen Franklin. Register now and be part of this life-changing event with breathtaking worship, powerful teaching, as well as lifelong connections with thousands of new friends for 2014 this June in the Gad Arena. Register online at BCconference.org.
[Music]
Life is real, vivid, alive, beating, breathing. It happens behind closed doors and out in front. There's joy, there's laughter, and chaos. Lifelong friendships are forged, love is found, moments cherished and never forgotten. Life is a gift, and together we are real family, real friends, real people experiencing real life. This is Free Chapel.
[Music]
This program has been brought to you by the friends and partners of Jensen Franklin Media Ministries. For more information on this broadcast or for additional resources, go online at JensenFranklin.org.