Jesus is risen. Jesus is risen. Jesus has defeated death, hell, and the grave. Jesus has never lost a battle. He is our Redeemer. He is our Savior. You can trust Jesus today. His track record is perfect. He keeps all of his promises. And there's no other name under heaven by which we may be saved. In fact, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. If you're glad that Jesus has risen, give him some praise right now. And it's so good to say His name. Let's just say His name together, Jesus. One more time, Jesus. Who's risen? Jesus. This is a church family where we're focused on Jesus. We're all about Jesus, and we're so excited. There's so much to celebrate today, and we're so grateful that God has given us life and also eternal life through our resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ. And today we're gonna begin in Luke chapter 24, and we're all gonna read this scripture together. This is Resurrection Sunday, and here is one account of the resurrection. Let's read together in Luke chapter 24. On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, he has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee, the son of man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again. This is not dead religion. We don't have a dead savior. We have a living hope because Jesus right now is at the right hand of the Father and he will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And all of our faith is centered around this miracle and this event, the resurrection. If there's no resurrection, there's no celebration and gathering today. The Bible says our faith is futile, but there is a resurrection. And we know this because the historical evidence is compelling. There were over 500 witnesses. and you look at and study the lives of the disciples and how they changed after they saw the resurrected Lord. In fact, they were persecuted, martyred, and you don't die for a lie if you know it's a lie. You can't fake that. But when you know it's the truth and it's real, you're willing to lay down your life. And the greatest evidence is that the tomb is empty and no one has or ever will find Jesus's body because it's not there. He's the only one who overcame the grave, and we've gathered today to celebrate the miracle, and the miracle is central, but the miracle is also connected to the movement. There is an eternal movement from that miracle where people all over the world, every nation, tongue, and tribe come to know Jesus and will be with Jesus forever in heaven. This is an unstoppable kingdom, and this is the movement through God that continues strong today. And the resurrection life that God has called us to is how we wanna live. We don't just look back and compartmentalize the resurrection, but in fact, that event, it continues all the implications of our life, including God empowering us to live a resurrected life. Is anyone here interested in living a resurrected life? Absolutely, Jesus is in both overcoming the grave and helping his people live an abundant resurrected life. What does this look like? We're gonna highlight three aspects of the resurrected life today. And this comes from Ephesians chapter one, and look at this in verse 17. This is a prayer that Paul shares and prays to the church in Ephesus describing the resurrected life. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power." Let me say that again. His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power, what kind of power? That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. What kind of power does God give us? The same power that raised Christ from the dead is available to us as we follow God and rely on Him. The resurrection power of Christ. Now, when you think about a resurrected life, Think about the mind because God renews our minds and God wants us to have his perspective. When you draw close to God, when you're in the word, you align with heaven and you gain how he views people, how he views us, how he views the potential, and all of this is part of that perspective. Tim Keller, who went to be with the Lord recently, describes it this way. Tim Keller says, if Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said. If he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching, but whether or not he rose from the dead. If he's still in the tomb, he doesn't have the authority. And his teaching then is not reliable. But because he's fulfilled every prophecy and every promise, and because he has victory over death itself and the grave, then it's not based on our feelings. In our culture, we say, what's your truth? Well, you might have one perspective, but Jesus is the truth. and no one will change the truth because it comes from God. And the resurrection just emphasizes that Jesus is trustworthy, he's true. Don't be confused or duped in this world by lies, deception, but Jesus is the truth. Clarence Hall describes the same thing this way. The resurrection of Jesus changes the face of death for all his people. Death is no longer a prison, but a passage into God's presence. Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won't stay there. The truth is that death does not have the final victory. Death does not have the final say. I talked to someone after the first service today and she said, this has helped me so much this morning with how I view death. Death is just a doorway. Death, the Bible says, is sleep. Death is the passage into God's presence where we will be with Him forever. And we will see Jesus face-to-face. We will receive resurrected bodies. And death is just that transfer from this temporary body into our permanent dwelling with the Lord. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting? Jesus has overcome death. That changes our perspective and enables us to both rest and also to risk. In the Bible, Job went through trials and suffering that you really couldn't even measure on the scale. And yet Job had this confidence in God. In Job chapter 19, verse 25, he declares, I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end, he will stand on the earth. In fact, Jesus is going to return and there'll be a new heaven and a new earth. Jesus says, I make all things new and Job in his deep suffering. Have you been deeply suffering lately where you just feel like no one really understands, no one's really there, who still cares? And Jesus is our Redeemer. When there was a funeral, He wept, He entered into the pain, He's well acquainted with sorrows. No one suffered more than Jesus. No one has more compassion than Jesus. He's gonna walk with you and He's gonna redeem. Continue to stay close and abide with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 4, verses 16 to 18, again, gives us God's perspective, renews our mind. Therefore, we do not lose heart. We never lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day for our light momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but when what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. A resurrected life is an eternal perspective. That is difficult as my trials are right now, they will always be light and momentary compared to the eternal glory that is coming. that I can keep them in perspective so I'm not consumed and overwhelmed, so I don't have despair, but I will choose to fix my eyes on Jesus, and God is gonna help at every turn. Trust in the Lord in the most difficult times, and God will be faithful. God is with you. No one can separate you from the love of Christ. Let these truths renew your mind and encourage you, because we're living in a day where a lot of people feel defeated. And they're wondering, is life worth living? Is there any hope? And the message of the resurrection is a strong yes. There's an indestructible hope that comes through Jesus. And it looked like Jesus was defeated on the cross. and people who are following him, they were very discouraged. They even denied him and they didn't know what to do sometimes with, he laid down his life and he was murdered and they watched this cruel death on a cross. But here's the good news, Jesus was never defeated on the cross. In fact, it was through death that he overcame death. And there was a plan, there is a plan. God's plans can't be thwarted. There's no resurrection without a death. If Jesus doesn't die, he can't prove and demonstrate that he has victory over death. The same that's true with our savior, that we can trust him. There's a victory coming. The best is yet to come. The church, the early church needed to hear that because they were distraught. They were discouraged. They felt like giving up. And then what happened? Jesus appeared. The resurrected Jesus appeared. People like Thomas who had doubts and said, I don't know if I believe I'm gonna need to see the nail marks. Jesus showed up and said, Thomas, look at these marks right here. And Thomas became a passionate follower of Jesus and spread the good news even throughout India. God turned around the disciples' lives. The doubts turned into faith. The fear turned into courage when they saw the resurrected Lord. Not defeat in their spirit, that's not the resurrected life. Jesus himself, the resurrection, that's the courage that he brought and that he still brings today. In 2024, it's a time where a lot of people are wandering in their faith, deconstructing, denying their faith, trying to remove the Bible. And I'll tell you, as you look at the statistics around the sound, this is the least religious place in America. This is the least faith-filled city in America. And if you're a follower of Jesus, you might hear that and get discouraged and kind of feel defeated. But I'll tell you, the story is not over. And God can do it. God changes lives. The love of God. Jesus is still the light of the world. It doesn't matter if Seattle doubts or even mocks, Jesus is still the light of the world. And Jesus also calls you the light of the world. So don't look around in terms of what's popular and then put out your light and snuff out your light. No, this is a time to be who you already are. You're the light of the world. It's time to light this place up. It's time to light up Auburn and light up the sound with the love and light of Jesus. And that's the only way things are gonna change. It's going to be through Jesus. This is God's perspective. It's his presence, it's his promises, and start to see the potential that God sees in other people. Start to see the potential that God sees in this church family. Start to see the potential that God has for your life in what God wants to do in the sound in 2024. Start to say yes to God's perspective and throw away that narrative of hopelessness because this is the resurrected life that Jesus gives us. It's a new perspective. It's a new perspective. There's also a new purpose. Jesus gives us resurrection purpose. And our faith is relational. It's not just rituals and religion. This is a relationship. Paul describes it this way in Philippians chapter three, verse 10. This is his desire. He says, I want to know Christ. Yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participate in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. Paul wants to know Christ. The purpose of our life, our primary purpose, is to know God. And then as we know God, as we abide with Jesus, we're gonna bear much fruit and we're gonna make God known. People struggle, what's my purpose? Like beyond just the paycheck or the job I'm working, or beyond just this or that in my to-do list, your purpose is to know God and make him known. To know and abide with Jesus every day. Trust, rely, walk closely with God. And then Jesus is gonna do incredible things in your life beyond what you could even think, plan, or imagine. That's who he is. And J. I. Packer, this hope that we have, J. I. Packer describes this great hope in our purpose. He says, Christian hope is a certainty guaranteed by God himself. Now, optimism reflects ignorance as to whether good things will actually ever happen or actually ever come. Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of his life and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth on the basis of God's own commitment that the best is yet to come. That's not a maybe. Christ's return isn't a maybe. I hope so. I wish he'll return. It's already guaranteed. No matter what you think today, the return of Christ, it's already guaranteed. The best is yet to come. That gives us purpose for today, because we realize today matters, people matter, lives matter, love matters, and we're gonna live differently because we know the hope we have isn't a maybe, it's a certainty and a yes in the Lord. That changes everything. 1 Peter 1, talking about the hope that we have, it's a living hope. Peter, again, who denied Jesus, now realizes the resurrected Lord. This is the good news. There's no better news. He says, praises be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you. This hope that we have is a living hope. We're gonna take the month of May, 28 days of hope. We're gonna go deep with hope. We're gonna receive God's hope. We're gonna give God's hope. That's what we're looking forward to and encourage you to join us on that adventure as we journey together coming up in May. Today, we have this living hope in Christ and God wants to increase our hope. God wants us to live with purpose. And I know if you're following the Lord, these are times where there's a lot of confusion, there's a lot of chaos, there's a lot of mixed messages, there's a lot of agendas. And it's difficult to navigate. What does it look like to live with purpose? I'll share, as I read the news every day and I look at it, I try not to look too long, because the news can get kind of discouraging, right? Spend more time in the Word. But there's different things that happen and I start to process. Let me just walk with you through this one. As I was reading this weekend, you know at the White House there's an egg hunt. We have the National Guard and the kids of the National Guard, they make the eggs. Well, the White House made it very clear that there can be no racism or bigotry or faith expressed, and especially with the eggs. No mention of God, no mention of Jesus, nothing on the eggs. So I just read that as news, like just trying to process that. And I thought about those little kids and what message that sends to the kids. It's like, okay, racism's wrong, bigotry's wrong, those are absolutely wrong and sin, and then also no faith. Oh, okay, so then it must be wrong to put my faith on my eggs or something. It's complicated for a kid to sort through. That's not unique to that egg hunt. There could be many egg hunts where that happens. It happens in businesses and schools and many different settings across our land where there's a message, and sometimes it's explicit or implicit, and the message is, your faith belongs only in the church building. This is where it belongs. You shouldn't go public. You've got to keep it in this room right here. But when I think about Jesus, he didn't keep his faith in the four walls of a temple. Jesus was very, very public with his faith. And when I think about the early church and the disciples, the message wasn't compartmentalize it into one day, one hour, one place, but it was everywhere you go. Faith is very personal and private, and it's also public, starting with baptism, a public declaration. So as we hear these messages that increase in our culture, that your faith is offensive, your faith is controversial, your faith needs to stay quiet, what I see happen sometimes is that Christians keep retreating, retreating, retreating, and then there's this silencing, and then what happens, even in churches, is people start to question their faith, and then the Bible's not even taught. It's watered down in the churches. So the movement goes from instead of it being public, the good news of Jesus, now it becomes contained in a church, now even within the churches, well, you don't know what you're gonna get from the pulpit anymore. And it's like, do you ever stop and just wonder what's happening spiritually in our land? What has God called us to do for such a time as this? And my encouragement to you is don't let any critics of your faith silence your faith, give you a spirit of anxiety and just keep retreating and treating and retreating, trying to please everybody. Instead, fix your eyes on Jesus for such a time as this and live out your life faithful to Jesus. If you are a student in a school, you can gather some other students and still pray. You can form a club and you can meet after school. You can still share your story with one of your friends. If you're at a workplace, you might be able to take someone out for lunch. Don't necessarily share your faith on your company's hour. They don't need to pay for that. But you could have someone over to your house. You could bring someone a gift. You could encourage someone. You can go beyond your job description. You can shine the light of Jesus in that setting. we've had a lot of prayer within our church. There'll continue to be a lot of prayer within our church, but we started to move into drive-thru prayer the last few years. And on Auburn Way, we simply offer prayer for anyone who wants to drive into the parking lot. And what's happening is more people in our church are saying, I wanna get involved. And now we're looking at going from just Friday nights to adding another night. And more churches are saying, we wanna do drive-thru prayer, and we wanna do it. So it's starting now in Enumclaw, in Puyallup, and even over to Texas, our team went there. And this last weekend, there's a Russian church in Federal Way that said, could you come help us? And now they just launched Drive Thru Prayer. You see what's happening here? I want to reassure you today that no one can cancel the resurrection and that no one can cancel Jesus. And just like you can say, well, I disagree with gravity. I would say, well, go ahead and drop something and see if you win or gravity wins. I'm pretty sure gravity is going to win that. It doesn't matter how many people mock or spit on or kill or try to drive Jesus out and cancel him. You cannot stop his death. You cannot stop his resurrection. You cannot stop his return. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And it's time for the church to rise up with Purpose with resurrection purpose and say God doesn't give us the spirit of timidity but power and love and humbly and authentically we're going out of our comfort zone because Jesus's resurrection won't stay in the grave and our faith won't stay within the walls of this church. Our calling is too great. And you say, how are we gonna do this? Well, it's not gonna be through committee, it's not gonna be humanistic, it's not gonna be through technology, it's not gonna be one of those things God says it'll be by my spirit. In other words, resurrection power. Even in our weakness, God is powerful. Now, God throughout the Bible tells us that different things are already saturated with his power. This Word is saturated with the power of God. It is the Word of God, it is living and active, and it penetrates deep into hearts, transforms lives. This Word is powerful. So what does that tell us? We don't have to try to add power to the Word. It already has all the power. Our role is to invest our time in the Word and then have the Word in us. You have more of the word, you're gonna have more resurrection power. You've got less of the word, you're gonna have less resurrection power. If you spend four hours on social media and four seconds in the word, what's that gonna lead to with resurrection power? But if you start to say, oh, I'm gonna take 20 minutes of my phone and put it in the word and the word gets in me, you're gonna experience the power of God because this word is powerful. What else is powerful? Prayer is powerful. God says it. Says it's already powerful. The prayers of my people are powerful. God answers prayers. It's not our words. It's a powerful God who chooses to work through prayer. But when we pray, prayer is powerful. And I'll tell you, if you start to devote yourself to prayer, you're gonna experience more of the power of God. In your home, if you're married, if you start to pray together with your kids and grandkids and you start to pray together, if our church starts to pray more together, there's no limits to what God can do because prayer is already saturated with God's power. Here's another thing as you study the Bible. God says, my gospel is powerful. It is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe, Jew and Gentile. The gospel has the power of God. Well, what does that tell us? We don't have to try extra hard. No, we can't save or change anybody. But when we share the gospel, when Jesus is lifted up, he draws people to himself. So what's our role? Share the gospel. It could be a book, a website, your story. Share the gospel, and the power of God will change lives. The laws of the land aren't gonna change human hearts. They serve a purpose to protect, and they uphold justice. But I'll tell you, the hearts are changed with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And what do we do? We learn these things and we cultivate these things. You wanna have resurrection power in your life? Get in the word, the word gets in you. Get on your knees, open up your mouth, find your voice, share the gospel, and God's power is gonna take over, because he's already saturated and anointed those things with his power, with his power. It's not us to be eloquent or clever or tricky. No, just go with what God says is powerful. And you say, well, I really need a lot of help. And the truth is, we all do. We all do. We need God's spirit. Jesus knew this. There's the death, the resurrection, and then the ascension, the disciples. That's kind of difficult when you walk with your savior for three years and now he's gone. Jesus had a plan. He ascends and he gives us the Holy Spirit. not a spirit of timidity, but power and love. In Acts chapter 1 verse 8, this is what the disciples hear, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Supernatural power is what we need. Supernatural power is the story of the Christian life. We have treasure in jars of clay. We live in a culture that is so individualistic, materialistic, and humanistic that somehow we've twisted it to think that this whole Christian life is about trying harder in what we can accomplish. But I'm telling you the church then was dead until the Holy Spirit came and the church here today will just be going through the motions of religion, have the form of religion without the power until we say yes and are filled with the Holy Spirit. And if you say, wow, this sounds Pentecostal. No, it's just biblical. It's Ephesians 5, 18. It's for every group. It's just be filled with the Spirit. Well then how do you get filled with the Spirit? Luke 11, 13, how much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask for the Holy Spirit? So how do you ask for the Holy Spirit? You turn from your sins and repent. You surrender to God and you say, God, fill me with your Spirit today. And God will be faithful to do that. And then people are just gonna see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness coming out of your life. And they're like, what's going on? You say, I got filled with the Spirit. The Spirit's moving in my life. That's the story of the Christian life in a nutshell. And this is a turning point, 2024. It's a turning point in our hearts, in our homes, in our churches. Something's got to change, and with some urgency, God wants to do some great things. It'll be through his resurrection power. This is Resurrection Sunday, which leads us to a resurrection life, and that includes resurrection power. the word and the spirit together, resurrection power. Now here's a number to consider, and this number is a fraction, it's a decimal, .0027397. Would you agree that's not a very big number? If someone said they had something really great, and you were like, how much do I get? And someone said, I'm gonna give you .002, you would not be too excited. If they had a cookie, you'd be thinking, how small is that crumb right there? Point zero zero two seven. What is that number? That is not the likelihood that the Mariners are going to win the World Series this year. We love our Mariners. They're stronger than that. What is that number? That number is the fraction one three hundred and sixty fifth. Okay, why that fraction? The resurrection, we celebrate it on Resurrection Sunday. This is a great day to celebrate the resurrection. I wanna make it so clear that the resurrection power of God is not just available today. If this was the only day we could experience God's resurrection power, we would have a famine for 364 days, and all year long we'd be saying, when's Easter coming? Here's the good news. You can have just as much of the resurrection power of Jesus tomorrow as you can have today. You can have just as much in your house as you can have in this house. And you can have just as much on a Friday night and a Sunday morning. Even if people hate the gospel, the resurrection's power, because the one who's in you is greater than the one who's in the world. Don't settle for .002 anymore. There is a greater gift God has for you. His perspective, his purpose, his power, the resurrection power of Jesus is for all God's people. all the time in all the places. Let's just say that together. That wasn't in the notes, but let's say that together. The resurrection power of Jesus is for all God's people at all times in all places. That's the resurrection of our Lord. And it leads to this last truth. Jesus is the resurrection and his presence is the victory. The apostle Paul, who was called Saul originally, hated Jesus, hated Christians, violent, killing Christians. And then what happened? The resurrected Jesus appeared. Paul loves to share his story. You go through the book of Acts, Acts chapter 9, 22, 26, he shares a story. This is what he says right here in Acts chapter 22. We read, about noon, as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground. I heard a voice say to me, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Who are you, Lord? I asked. I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting. He replied, My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who is speaking to me. Three words changed Paul's destiny. I am Jesus. I am Jesus. You need to know today he is Jesus and he is risen. Jesus has changed our lives. Share your story. Paul shares his story in jail, everywhere he goes. Start sharing your story about the goodness of God, the protection of God, the answer to prayer, God's provision for you. Start to share your story how Jesus changed your life. Samuel Rodriguez said, we share this gospel and we know nothing and no one can hinder, obstruct, deter, impede, tarnish, silence, or minimize the undeniable, unshakable, unparalleled truth found in this truth. He is risen. God is calling us to abide with Him and to live a resurrected life. Here's two choices you can make today. The first one, if you're here today and you don't know Jesus, what better Sunday than Resurrected Sunday to start a relationship with Him? Maybe the people who you came with, you know they follow Jesus, but you haven't made your own decision. This isn't religion, this isn't achieved, it's received. Christ died for our sins and He's risen, and you don't need to wait any longer. Just like you trust that chair right now to hold you up, To put your faith in Christ, you put all your faith, your weight on Christ. He is faithful. And this is a relationship. It's a covenant that you choose. And right now you can pray as we decide together. God, right now, for anyone who doesn't know you, I pray for a first time decision to follow you, Jesus, to put their trust in you. And we pray this in your name, Lord, that you would be their Lord and Savior for eternity. We thank you, God. Amen.