April 5, 2015

Because He Lives

Pastor: Jeff Bedwell Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:1–15:17

Easter Sunday
Because He Lives
1 Corinthians 15:1-17

“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile…” (1 Corinthians 15:17)

Easter Means…

1. Jesus is who He Claims to be

“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,” (John 11:25)

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Jesus is one of three things:

  • Deceiver
  • Deluded
  • Deity

The resurrection of Jesus Christ Validates everything He taught and everything He said about Himself

2. Jesus has the Power He claimed to have

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Matthew 28:18

There is no power greater than God’s power!

3. Jesus Does what He promises to do

“See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.” (Mark 10:33–34)

The resurrection demonstrated that when Jesus Christ makes a promise, you can Count On Him to come through

Because He Lives…

1. I can be set Free from my past

“I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.” 1 John 2:12

Some people can’t get on with the present or the future because they are Stuck in the past

In some ways you may be a Product of your past, but you do not have to be a Prisoner of your past

Jesus Christ has the power to set you free from your past!

2. I can be Empowered to meet all of life’s demands

“and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,” (Ephesians 1:19–20)

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

Wisdom is when you realize that you can’t manage all that life is going to send you, But God Can

“We call Abraham “father” not because he got God’s attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn’t that what we’ve always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, “I set you up as father of many peoples”? Abraham was first named “father” and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples.” (Romans 4:17–18, The Message)

What we need is God to show us what to do and then to give us a Power greater than ourselves to do what we should

3. I can face my future with Confidence

“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)

“In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:2–3)

All of the benefits of the resurrection can only be ours if we personally receive Jesus Christ into our lives!

Establishing A Spiritual Base In My Life:
Believe
Admit
Switch
Express