(#463) - The Resurrection: A Life Lesson and Free Gift From Jesus Christ

You are Loved!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome To 

BARAH MINISTRIES

a Christian Church

Rory Clark

Pastor-Teacher

 

Good Morning!

 

Welcome to Barah Ministries…a small and intimate Christian Church with a worldwide impact.  My name is Pastor Rory Clark.  At Barah Ministries, our God is the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We make a difference by teaching the Word of God from God’s perspective, and not from man’s perspective. 

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

The Resurrection:  A Life Lesson and a Free Gift From Jesus Christ

 

You are loved.

 

This may not mean much to you.  Right now, maybe nothing is going on in your life that is so profound that you can feel the love.  Many times I’ve heard people say they don’t feel loved, and I’ve always found this comment to be odd, especially when it comes from Christians.  Why?  Love isn’t a feeling.  True love is so much bigger…so much deeper…so much more important…so much more profound than a mere feeling.  Fleeting feelings reduce real love to nothingness.  For those who don’t feel loved, no amount of evidence will snap them out of this profound selfishness. 

 

Let’s face it.  As we walk through this life, we spend most of our time unconscious and oblivious to all that is going on around us.  We are shocked by the circumstances we experience every day.  We turn on the news and things going on in the world perplex us.  Since we're not experiencing most of these things, we're a bit shocked at the circumstances of death that are going on right under our noses.

 

You are loved.

 

Perhaps the reason we flock to churches on Easter and Christmas while ignoring God the rest of the time as we get wrapped up in the meaningless things we insist are important…is that we want to hear one more time that we are loved.  We don’t believe it…but…if we just check the box…if we just accomplish the task of pretending that we care about God…this Being who created us…then maybe we can say we aren’t so oblivious.

 

Your “croc brain” hears today’s message of resurrection…and it says, “Well I really didn’t hear anything new in that message.”  And it is right.  The message isn’t new.  Yet…the truth the croc brain proclaims…I DIDN’T HEAR.  Today I hope you hear that you are loved.  John, Chapter 15, Verse 13 says…

 

JOHN 15:13

Greater than this unconditional love…no one has for you…in that One (Jesus Christ) would lay down His life for all of you…His friends.

 

You are loved…John, Chapter 3, Verse 16 says…

 

JOHN 3:16

“For God the Father loved the world unconditionally…and He loved the world so much…that He gave His uniquely born Son (the Lord Jesus Christ (100% God and 100% man in one Person forever)…that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but instead will have eternal life.”

 

You are loved…and true love is demonstrated…Romans, Chapter 5, Verse 8…

 

ROMANS 5:8

But God the Father DEMONSTRATES His own unconditional love toward us…in that while we were yet sinners (as ungodly, unrighteous unbelievers), God the Father sent Christ to die instead of us.

 

You are loved…and when someone loves you, they tell you the truth…John, Chapter 16, Verse 13…

 

JOHN 16:13

But when God the Holy Spirit of truth comes…the One whom I, the Lord Jesus Christ, will send to you…He will guide you into all the truth…for God the Holy Spirit will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears from God the Father He will speak…and God the Holy Spirit will disclose to you what is to come.

 

You are loved…by God the Father…by God the Son…by God the Holy Spirit…and by the uniquely born, Sovereign God of the Universe…the Lord Jesus Christ.  Welcome to a place where you can hear the story of how much you are loved…and why you are loved…when your life story may show that you deserve anything but this amazing and unconditional love.  

 

The love God has for you is the life…a resurrection life…and believers in Christ possess this resurrection life right this moment, a life lesson and a free gift from our amazing God Jesus Christ.

 

Who is this God?  In Revelation, Chapter 5, Verses 5 and 6…John…the apostle whom Jesus loved…describes Him this way…

 

REVELATION 5:5

“…and one of the elders said to me (John), “Stop weeping…behold, the LION that is from the tribe of Judah…the Root of David…has overcome…so as to open the book and its seven seals.”

 

REVELATION 5:6 

“And I (John) saw between the throne…with the four living creatures…and the elders…a LAMB standing…as if slain…having seven horns and seven eyes…which are the seven Spirits of God the Father…sent out into all the earth.

 

Well first, Jesus Christ was a lamb led to the slaughter of death on a Cross…and after three days He rose from the dead in resurrection…and then after a short time, He came again to restore the resurrection life to those who lost its power and meaning. Here’s Crystal Lewis to tell us about Jesus… THE LION AND THE LAMB.

 

MUSIC AND REFLECTION

Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ

Enjoy the Singing of His Praises

 

LION AND THE LAMB

Crystal Lewis

 

OPENING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

We’re grateful, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…

 

Almighty Father…we thank you for your glorious riches…especially for the wealth available from a relationship with Your Son, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…thank you for sending Him to the earth in human form…thank you for letting Him humiliate Himself to save us…and thank you, most of all, for sending Him to rescue us while we were ungodly, unrighteous, unbelieving sinners…

 

Help us to seize and hold the life Christ’s death made possible…help us to celebrate Jesus today as our Conqueror…our Victor…our Redeemer…who purchased us from the slavery of sin…help us to honor the One who reconciled us to You, Father…keep us focused on the resurrection life those of us who believe in Christ will have for all eternity…keep our focus off of the temporary circumstances of death we experience…knowing that we have the victory, every time, through Christ…

 

…we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s

name...Amen.

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

The Resurrection:  A Life Lesson and a Free Gift From Jesus Christ

 

What life lessons can we learn from Jesus Christ’s life?

 

Jesus has many lessons to teach us in this week in history…the culmination of His most important life lesson…LOVE… John, Chapter 15, Verse 13 says…

 

JOHN 15:13

Greater than this unconditional love…no one has for you…in that One (Jesus Christ) would lay down His life for you…His friends.

 

You are loved.

 

His love for you existed long before you did…in eternity past.  An omniscient God…who knew all that is knowable…looked down the corridors of time…and He saw death…spiritual death…the biggest catastrophe of divine history…an event that would separate Him from the creatures He knew He would create…including you!

 

His reaction? OMG!  Oh my God.  Sin alienates us from God, and the very last thing the Creator wanted from His creatures was to be separate from them.  Sin separates.  Sin alienates.  Jesus experienced this when He was being crucified on the Cross, as He was paying for the sins of the whole world.  Matthew, Chapter 27, Verse 46…

 

MATTHEW 27:46

About the ninth hour (3:00 PM) Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi…Eloi…lama sabachthani?” … that is … “My God, My God…”

 

OMG!

 

I can hardly believe the contention that God the Father forsook the Lord.  In fact, several translators say lama sabachthani actually means, “This is my destiny…for this I was spared.”  We can ask God when we get to heaven.  We do know this…there was little else to say when a perfect God realized how deep the depravity of sin goes.  God’s idea was always perfection… Genesis, Chapter 1, Verse 1…

 

GENESIS 1:1

In the beginning (not a beginning) God (The Lord…God the Son…Jehovah Elohim) created the heavens and the earth.

 

Perfection.  And it was God’s intention for His creatures to be perfect as well.  Genesis, Chapter 1, Verse 26…

 

GENESIS 1:26

Then God said, “Let Us (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) make man in Our image (perfect!)…according to Our likeness…and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

 

Alas…sin…Romans, Chapter 5, Verse 12…

 

ROMANS 5:12

Therefore, just as through one man…Adam…sin entered into the world… and spiritual death through sin…and so spiritual death spread to all men… because all were considered to have sinned when Adam sinned…

 

You are loved.

 

In spite of our imperfections…in spite of our willingness to allow ourselves to be duped…God loves us unconditionally.  The enemy of God, Satan, the ruler of this world tricked Adam and his wife…Genesis, Chapter 3, Verse 6…

 

GENESIS 3:6

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food…and that it was a delight to the eyes…and that the tree was desirable to make one wise…she took from its fruit and ate…and she gave also to her husband with her…and he ate.

 

Sin…spiritual death…an awful predicament.  Yet you are loved.  The life lesson Jesus taught us is to not hold the mistakes of others against them. Forgive.  And forgive our God did.  John, Chapter 1, Verse 14…

 

JOHN 1:14

And the Word (the Lord…God the Son) became flesh (true humanity…Jesus Christ), and tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory…glory as of the uniquely born One from God the Father, full of grace and full of truth.

 

You are loved.  The life lesson our forgiving God taught us is that when we make mistakes He will cover us.  Thus…the Incarnation.  OMG! To cover our sin, Jesus had to die. Philippians, Chapter 2, Verse 8…

 

PHILIPPIANS 2:8

Being found in appearance as a man, Jesus humiliated Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death…even death on a Cross.

 

Luke, Chapter 23, Verse 46…

 

LUKE 23:46

And Jesus…crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Having said this, He breathed His last.”

 

The life lesson Jesus taught us was said well in the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar…“to conquer death you only have to die.” Jesus conquered the flesh by putting it to death on the Cross.  Jesus conquered the world by putting it to death on the Cross.  He paid the price with His blood.  Jesus laid down His life for you to show you that you are loved.

 

And then there was a silent period…Jesus was buried… Matthew, Chapter 12, Verse 40…

 

MATTHEW 12:40

…for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster…so will the Son of Man (Jesus) be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

 

You are loved.

 

The life lesson Jesus taught us with his burial is to keep our promises, just as He kept His.  

 

God sees your life. He placed you in the kingdom of death here on planet earth.  He allowed you to experience spiritual death.  As believers in Christ, we are identified with His death and His burial. To conquer death we too have to die. We died to sin.  We died to the Law.  We died to the flesh.  We died to the world.  When we return from the break, Jesus teaches us the lesson of what happens after death…the resurrection life…a lesson and a gift.

 

FIVE MINUTE BREAK

COME SEE A MAN

June Murphy

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

The Resurrection:  A Life Lesson and a Free Gift From Jesus Christ

 

Every week you get a chance to reflect the Lord Jesus Christ in your giving.  Let’s welcome Deacon Denny Goodall with today’s offering message.

 

THE OFFERING

Deacon Denny Goodall

 

OFFERING VERSE

 

HEBREWS 13:15

Through Christ then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God the Father…that is…the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.

 

OFFERING VERSE

 

HEBREWS 13:16

And do not neglect doing good and sharing…for with such sacrifices God the Father is pleased. 

 

OFFERING SONG

THERE IS NONE LIKE YOU

David Bauer, Instrumental

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

The Resurrection:  A Life Lesson and a Free Gift From Jesus Christ

 

In Revelation, Chapter 1, Verses 17 and 18 the Lord teaches us the life lesson of resurrection…

 

REVELATION 1:17

When I (John) saw Jesus, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid…I am the first (the Alpha) and the last (the Omega…the Almighty One)…”

 

 REVELATION 1:18 

“…and I am the living One…and I was dead…and behold, I am alive… forevermore…and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”

 

Because of Jesus Christ, believers in Christ have what Chris Tomlin is singing about in the next song…RESURRECTION POWER.

 

MUSIC AND REFLECTION

Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ

Enjoy the Singing of His Praises

 

RESURRECTION POWER

Chris Tomlin

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

The Resurrection:  A Life Lesson and a Free Gift From Jesus Christ

 

Welcome back!

 

You are loved.

 

HE IS RISEN…true words of love…Jesus is alive…He is resurrected from the dead… Luke, Chapter 24, Verses 1 to 8…

 

LUKE 24:1

But on the first day of the week, Sunday, at early dawn, the women came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared to preserve Jesus’ body from decay.

 

They were expecting to see a dead person.

 

LUKE 24:2 

And instead the women found the stone rolled away from the tomb…

 

LUKE 24:3 

…but when they entered the tomb, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

 

LUKE 24:4 

While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men (angels) suddenly stood near them in dazzling white clothing…

 

 

LUKE 24:5 

…and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground…and the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead ones?”

 

Remember what Job said in Chapter 19, Verse 25?

 

JOB 19:25

“As for me, I (Job) know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last coming Jesus will take His stand on the earth.”

 

Continuing at Luke, Chapter 24, Verse 6…

 

LUKE 24:6 

“(The angels said to the women) Jesus is not here, but HE HAS RISEN from the dead. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee…”

 

LUKE 24:7 

“…saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men (unbelievers)…and be crucified…and on the third day rise again?” 

 

LUKE 24:8 

And the women remembered Jesus’ words…

 

The lesson Jesus taught us in death is that in His plan for His believers, death is always followed by life.

 

For the next forty days, the Lord offered proofs that He lives.  He didn’t expect our frailty to just have what the world calls “blind faith.” The Lord offered evidence.  Acts, Chapter 1, Verse 3…

 

ACTS 1:3

To the apostles, Jesus also presented Himself alive after His suffering (on the Cross)…by many convincing proofs…appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.

 

The life lesson is that Jesus does not work in mysterious ways…He works in clear and predictable ways that are fully understandable to those who want to know.

You are loved.

 

From spiritual death to spiritual life (you are born again)…like the Lord you will die physically and then you will ascend to heaven with a personal escort to be face-to-face with the Lord.  Acts, Chapter 1, Verse 9…

 

ACTS 1:9

And after Jesus had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

 

Forty days after His resurrection Jesus, as the Son of Man, ascended into the presence of His Father. He is now seated at His Father’s right hand…Psalm 110, Verse 1…

 

PSALM 110:1

The Lord (God the Father) says to my Lord (Jesus Christ)…“Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

 

The life lesson Jesus taught us is that your enemies will not have a victory over you.  He will make a table of feasting for you in the presence of your enemies…He will vindicate you.

 

You are loved.

 

This life is your Pentecost. Fifty days after His death on a Cross, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, as promised, to His believers…first to His apostles.  Acts, Chapter 2, Verses 32 and 33…

 

ACTS 2:32

This Jesus…God the Father raised up again (in resurrection from the dead)…to which we apostles are all witnesses.

 

ACTS 2:33 

Therefore…having been exalted to the right hand of God the Father…and having received from God the Father the promise of God the Holy Spirit…the Spirit has poured forth this which you both see and hear.

 

You are loved, and God provides evidence of His love.  The ultimate evidence of His love is a victory.  First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verses 25 and 26…

 

FIRST CORINTHIAN S 15:25

For Jesus must reign until God the Father has put all Christ’s enemies under His feet.

 

Victory!

 

FIRST CORINTHIAN S 15:26 

The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

 

Philippians, Chapter 2, Verses 9 to 11…

 

PHILIPPIANS 2:9

For this reason also, God the Father highly exalted Jesus Christ, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name…

 

PHILIPPIANS 2:10 

...so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth…

 

PHILIPPIANS 2:11 

…and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Deity)…to the glory of God the Father.

 

The apostle Paul puts the life lesson Jesus teaches us into perspective in Philippians, Chapter 3, Verses 4 to 11…

 

PHILIPPIANS 3:4

…although I (Paul) myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I should…and farmore…

 

PHILIPPIANS 3:5 

…circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews…as to the Mosaic Law, a Pharisee…

 

 

PHILIPPIANS 3:6 

…as to zeal, a persecutor of the church…as to the righteousness which is in the Mosaic Law, found blameless.

 

PHILIPPIANS 3:7 

But whatever human things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

 

PHILIPPIANS 3:8 

More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish (human excrement) so that I may gain Christ…

 

PHILIPPIANS 3:9 

…and so that I may be found in union with Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Mosaic Law, but that righteousness which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God the Father on the basis of faith in Christ…

 

PHILIPPIANS 3:10 

…that I may know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings…being conformed to His death…

 

PHILIPPIANS 3:11 

…in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

 

Thanks be to God the Father for His magnificent gift…Jesus Christ…and for the lessons His life imparts.

 

GOD WANTS YOU!

Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life

 

The closing moments of our study are for the benefit of anyone who does not have a personal relationship with the Sovereign God of the Universe, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We want you to know that GOD WANTS YOU. 

 

As human parents, often we are emotional, arbitrary, and sentimental.  We tell our children exactly what we want them to do, expecting that they will do it.  Quite often, they do the opposite.  And when they do the opposite, often they ask us for an exception to our request.  “I know I didn’t do exactly what you asked…but please, please, please…can I do it my way?”  Our emotional, arbitrary, and sentimental side kicks in, and we allow them to go against our requests.  By doing this, we teach them to ignore our requests.

 

Many people think God is a similar parent.  God tells us exactly what we must do to be saved, and many don’t do it, but they think in the end God will be emotional, arbitrary, and sentimental...and He will let them into heaven their own way.  But in John, Chapter 14, Verse 6…

 

JOHN 14:6

Jesus said…“I am the way (to salvation)…and I am the truth (through the Word of God)…and I am the resurrection life…and no one comes to God the Father (in heaven) but through believing in Me.”

  

The Lord isn’t emotional, or arbitrary, or sentimental.  In Matthew, Chapter 7, Verse 21, the Lord says…

 

MATTHEW 7:21

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven...but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter into the kingdom.”

 

What is God’s will in the matter of your salvation?  Second Peter, Chapter 3, Verse 9 says what is not God’s will…

 

SECOND PETER 3:9b

…(it is not God’s will) for any of you (unbelievers) to perish (in the Lake of Fire) but for all of you to come to repentance (a change of mind about having a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ).

 

God’s will makes a simple request…Acts, Chapter 16, Verse 31…

 

ACTS 16:31 

“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”

 

If we ignore God’s request, there are consequences… John, Chapter 3, Verse 36…

 

JOHN 3:36

“He who believes in the Son has the resurrection life right at that moment… but he who does not obey the command to believe in the Son will not see the resurrection life…instead the wrath of God (the Lake of Fire) abides on him.”

 

So if you want to get to heaven, it’s probably just best to do what God asks you to do!  Here’s June Murphy to sing about the Living One in the song REDEEMER.

 

CLOSING SONG

 

REDEEMER

June Murphy 

 

CLOSING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

Thanks for coming!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for listening!

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