Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: What a beautiful time in God's presence this morning.
So lovely to be able to worship and to experience, understand his love and his power.
This morning we're going to read from Luke 24:1 9.
It's interesting. We've already kind of gone there already, so I'll just repeat where we've been.
God often does that. He repeats what he wants to do. We don't always compare our notes, but I love that that's how he operates. We must be listening to the same God. Praise the Lord.
So let me read from Luke 24:1:9. On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the woman 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.
You know, they were expecting him to be there.
Even though they believed they were expecting him to be there, they still didn't believe the miracle at this point.
While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them in their fright. The woman 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 to life again. Then they remembered these words when they came back from the tomb. They told all these things to the 11 and to the others.
Would you pray with me this morning? Father, we thank you. Thank you for this incredibly significant day in the history of humanity.
The day where you were raised to life, Lord Jesus, that you finished the work of death and sin, that you gave hope and life for all of us.
Lord, I pray as these words are spoken that, Lord, they would come into our hearts. That we would hear you speak to us and that we would respond.
Thank you. That because you live, we face tomorrow with hope and with purpose and with the future.
Lord, bless the time we have. In Jesus name, Amen.
Today we gather on the most significant day in history to celebrate the most significant moment in history, to celebrate the most important man in history.
You know, the cross is powerful, so powerful.
But if it was only for death, it would hold no power. It would be the final say.
But because of what happened beyond the cross, that is where the power lies today.
Everything I am is because of what Christ has done on the cross.
I think we'd all have A testimony of I was lost, but he found me.
I was broken, but he brought healing.
We're going to hear in a moment the story of what God has done in somebody's life.
But when my world is falling down around me, when I am plagued by anxiety and fear and that's all trying to grab a hold of me, where do I go? Where do I turn to? What's my response?
Do I try and save myself? Or do I reach out to the one who can save me?
You know, the cross is an interesting symbol in our culture today.
I mean, many of us probably have a cross.
Many of us might be wearing one, some of us might have a tattoo or something that signifies this cross. Now it's become for many kind of a status symbol or an icon or something that we carry. But when we think about it, it's a torturous execution weapon.
Imagine if I was to hang around my neck an image of an electric chair or a lethal injection. That would make for some great supermarket conversation, wouldn't it?
But I wonder if the cross has almost been a little bit sanitized that we've got this gleaming. I remember Michael W. Smith back in the 80s or 90s, wrote a song, why do you wear that cross of gold around your neck? And there's something that we can lose the power and the significance of the cross. And I pray that even whatever cross you might have, we've got a beautiful cross that sits in our home.
But sometimes I can look at it as, oh well that looks lovely.
My Lord died upon the cross.
And because of his death and because of his resurrection, I now have life today.
You know, Hannah last week at Princess Hay shared a beautiful description of the evidence for Christ, the power of the evidence of him living. A lot of people still today would say, well, was Jesus even a real person? Did he even exist? There was so much evidence for his existence that even historians who didn't like Jesus record that he existed.
Jewish historian Flavius Josephus wrote about Jesus in 93 AD.
Twenty years later, two Roman politicians, Pliny and Tacitus, they held some of the highest offices of state in Rome. They spoke of Jesus being crucified, but they didn't like Jesus.
Everything they said lined up with the gospels, the Gospel account.
But Pliny, he says, describing Christians pig headed obstinacy.
Tacitus said their religion was a destructive superstition.
And yet they still declared that Jesus was alive and he was crucified.
The witnesses that saw Jesus following his resurrection, many lawyers today would say that would hold up in court.
Jesus is real.
He lived. He's still alive because he not only died, but he was raised to life, ascended into heaven with a promise. What? That he will return.
And so we are in the moment before his return where we have to keep talking about him, we have to keep preaching, we have to keep living with the story of Jesus and what he's done in our lives with every person we meet.
We take up our cross and we endure the hardship. We take on the scorn, we take on the mockery, even because we have a message to tell that Jesus is alive. And because he lives, we can face a better tomorrow.
We showed the Case for Christ yesterday. It was an amazing movie. If you haven't had a chance to watch it, please do. Of Lee Strobel, a reporter whose wife responded to Jesus. Just beautiful, powerful salvation, and then he seeks out to prove that her faith isn't real. Not a great way to build a relationship in a marriage. But he went so deep into all of the evidence, trying to disprove that Jesus was actually. That the crucifixion even happened and the resurrection, and he couldn't find any basis for truth, that it didn't exist. In fact, he was so compelled by the evidence that he responded to God himself and is now teaching about Christ, dived deep into all of that, and he found that Christ was who he said he was.
You know, the literal use of the phrase dead and buried, that's how people would have described Jesus. But he is not dead and buried. He is alive. And this morning, we're going to hear from somebody who didn't just have a testimony hundreds and thousands, thousands of years ago, but somebody who has encountered the living Christ. I'm gonna ask Ellie to come and share. She shares so beautifully in the first service. Come on. Would you welcome her this morning?
Oh. Oh, my gosh. We've got a double treat this morning. Hello. You okay?
Where's my high five? High five. Where's my high five?
Yeah. Come on. We're ready to go now, Ellie.
[00:08:32] Speaker B: Hello?
Is it on? Is it working?
[00:08:34] Speaker A: You're good. You're good.
What was your life like before you encountered Jesus?
[00:08:40] Speaker B: Try and remember my answers from the first service. Cheat.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: Make it fresh.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: My life before Jesus was very dark.
Full of trauma, brokenness, sadness, being alone, not feeling truly loved, or ever experiencing true love.
Struggling to love myself.
Yeah.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: Would you. How would you describe the place you found yourself in?
[00:09:20] Speaker B: Rock bottom? Quite simply, yeah.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: Then what happened?
[00:09:27] Speaker B: And then I.
So I actually thought about this after the first service. And I thought I'd speak about that in the second one.
So I remember one evening, there was always something going on. There still is.
But this one was very difficult to put to bed. And as a single parent, you don't have anyone to tap you out. And that night I needed someone to tap me out. And I left her crying, screaming, and. And I remember falling to my knees and I said, come and be a father in this household. I can't do this on my own.
And I had my hands out and I felt as if someone had put a brick in either of my hands. The heaviness and the presence that I felt in that moment was indescribable. There aren't any words to describe that. And I stopped crying and I started laughing and I went back in and I put her to bed and. And yeah, yeah.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: But then that moment kind of where probably there was not a full understanding, you kind of said, all right, well, I'm diving in. What happened from there?
[00:10:43] Speaker B: So I remember before coming to Rediscover that I was always thinking about Jesus or God. And for coming from a non Christian family, someone who had never been to church before, it was really confusing. And I thought, you know, what's going on?
Started looking for a church and rediscovered come up on my live when they do the lives on Facebook. And I thought, oh, I'm going to go next week. Met with Des and Rachel nearly a year ago now and came and never stopped coming.
[00:11:21] Speaker A: So what's life like now? Because he lives.
Because you understand, because you've encountered the living Christ. What's your life like now?
[00:11:30] Speaker B: My life is full of happiness.
I am loved and I love myself.
I am a better person, a better mother.
Everything.
[00:11:47] Speaker A: Is your life free of troubles?
[00:11:48] Speaker B: No, I was going to get to that bit. So I said in the first service that, yes, my life is much better. That's a bit close. Sorry, guys.
My life is better, no doubt about it. But easier. Definitely not. I still face troubles.
And that was something that I really struggled with when I came to Christ. Like, hey, why am I still struggling? You know, like, make my life better. And he did.
And I was saying in the first. This coming back to me now that he taught me something really important this weekend. It was yesterday and it's after the crucifixion and the waiting period for when he is risen again.
And I am in that season of waiting and the absence of.
The absence of. No, hang on. The silence does not mean that God is absent.
I got there in the end and you know, Just have faith. I hear myself saying it all the time and it's. I know it's not me saying it, but consciously. Have faith early. Have faith early. Have faith. And yeah, it's just so important that no matter what, you fix your eyes on Jesus and you will get there in the end.
[00:13:02] Speaker A: Amazing. Amazing. Can we pray for you? Yeah. Double blessing. How does that sound?
Father, we thank you for Ellie. Lord, we thank you. She's a great mum, an amazing woman of God. Father, I thank you that you've taken her from her broken place into a place of hope. Lord, I thank youk that she understands that life, there will be troubles and challenges. But Father, you are with her. Lord, I thank youk for what she carries. I thank youk for the words that powerfully come out of her mouth as I prayed in that first service. Ali, I believe that yout will preach the word of God. I believe youe will share beyond this, that yout will tell youl story, that there will be other women that will be blessed because of what yout share. That through the difficulties and the trials and the challenges that you have experienced, but found hope that will be hope for others.
As you go deep into his word, as you know and understand the Scriptures, you'll be able to speak and preach and teach people the goodness and the faithfulness of God. Lord, bless her. I pray, Lord, be with her. Be her protection, her provision. Be all that she needs. In Jesus name, Amen.
[00:14:05] Speaker B: Amen. Thank you.
[00:14:06] Speaker A: God bless you. Amazing.
How wonderful.
This morning, I want to look very quickly at the statements that Jesus made on the cross and there's seven of them. Don't worry, I'm not going to take too long. I promise I'm going to fly through them.
But because he lives beyond the Cross, what He said on the cross holds incredible power.
My first truth today that we see from the cross is that because he lives, we can be forgiven and forgive others.
Luke 23:34. Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.
Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.
I believe that forgiveness is one of the very hardest things to do as a human being.
When I've been hurt so deeply, when I've been wounded, when somebody's hurt me, abused me, whatever it is, when I have felt that and I have experienced that, to then forgive someone is. It feels impossible, and it actually is.
But Jesus made this statement from the cross. He says, father, forgive them. He opened the door for forgiveness, that we could then walk through and invite others to walk through as well. Forgiveness is a gift.
It's a gift that can feel like someone could trample on.
It feels like you could forgive someone and they could turn around and do it all again.
But when I forgive someone, what I do is I stop the judgment.
I release them from my judgment over them and I say, God, I release them into your hands.
Otherwise I stay chained. If I hold unforgiveness in this moment now, and I take it into next week, it will be with me in a month, in two years, and right on my deathbed, I am still holding that unforgiveness and offence. If you're struggling with unforgiveness, can I encourage you to just surrender that to God? As painful as it would be, say, God, I'm hurting.
I can't, in my own strength forgive. But I choose to forgive. I choose to release this person.
I choose to set them free.
Would you extend that forgiveness to someone today?
The second truth we see from the cross is that because he lives, we can receive mercy.
We can receive mercy.
Jesus answered him truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.
Today you'll be with me in paradise.
Jesus was speaking to a thief on the cross.
Jesus hung between two thieves.
One mocked and cursed him, and the other recognized that he was who he said he was.
There was this awareness hanging beside Jesus that the thief said, we are punished justly. In Luke 23:41, we are punished justly for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.
There was an acknowledgement that was repentance right there.
I know that I've got it wrong. This man has not.
I'm guilty, he is not.
Friends, we don't deserve his mercy. And yet God extends it to us.
A mercy we don't deserve. And yet, because he lives, we can receive mercy.
What I love about this thief on the cross, Jesus says, truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.
So they quickly popped off the cross, did a little baptism course, did a church membership plan, and they studied the Bible a little bit.
No, they went right to death.
It's what we believe in our hearts.
To all who believed him, to all who received him.
It's a belief. It's receiving him as Christ, as Lord, as Savior.
To them he gives the right to become children of God. John 1:12. We've been looking at that over these last few weeks.
Would you believe? Would you receive?
Then you get to become a child of God because he lives. We can receive mercy. As John declared in Mark 1:15. The time has come, he said, the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news and receive the mercy of God. The third truth we see from the cross is that because he lives, we can find comfort and can comfort others.
John 19:26, 27. When Jesus saw his mother there and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, woman, here is your son. And to the disciple, here is your mother.
From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
I don't know about you, but if I was hanging on the cross, I'm thinking about myself in that moment.
I have no interest in anybody else. I'm just trying to breathe and stay alive.
I'm probably thinking selfishly how bad it is for me and my circumstance. And I'm in the depth of my pain. And so it's all about me.
Jesus, he was thinking of others. While he is hanging in agony, he looks down and he sees his mom.
He says, john, would you look after my mom?
Mom, here's John.
Look after one another. He extended comfort from the cross. And because he lives, that comfort that he showed us, we can then show to others.
There is a power in sharing our story, the deepest, darkest moments of our life that feels like it's going to take us out. And sometimes it does.
When we recover from that space, when we surrender that pain, that disappointment, that fear, whatever it is that you go through, when we surrender that to God and he redeems that story, there is a power when we share our story of what God has done. Out of our place of darkness and out of our pain, when we share that testimony, people find hope. They find life.
If you've had a past and people see you looking different, sounding different, behaving different, treating people different, they say, how have you become who you are today?
That's the power of the testimony.
When we go through the difficult times, God can do a miracle in our lives because he lives, we can find comfort and can comfort others.
I love the acrostic of joy.
I think I learned this in Sunday school years ago. Jesus, others, yourself.
If we live with joy.
Jesus, others yourself.
Mark 12:30. Jesus said, Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself.
Jesus, others, yourself.
I think sometimes we struggle to love ourselves.
I think sometimes we are our own worst criticism. We look at all of our faults and our failures and we take ourselves to our own jury. And we are the jury and we are the judge, and we execute judgment on ourselves.
I think we have to learn to love ourselves in the way we would love our neighbor and the way we would love God.
I felt coming into this morning that there were people just carrying guilt and condemnation, feeling like you don't measure up to God's holy standard. Can I let you in on a little secret? You don't guilty. I don't. I'm not good enough.
I couldn't try in a whole lifetime to get everything right and succeed.
But he is good enough. And he asks us simply to receive that mercy and that comfort.
The fourth thing we see when Jesus is speaking from the cross is because he lives. We don't have to be alone.
Mark 15:34. At three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, eloi, eloi lama sabachthem sabachthani, which means my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
I love that this is recorded, that we see the humanity of Jesus. We see it in the garden. We see where he's crying.
He's crying out to his Father. If it be possible, would you take this cup, this cup of suffering that I'm going through and I'm about to go through. Would you take it from me? But not my Will yours be done?
On the cross, the divinity of God is still in full display. But we also see the humanity of God.
We see that Jesus. In John 1, we've been learning that Jesus came and became flesh. He dwelt among us. He took on an earth suit and he moved into our neighborhood and he became like us. He experienced what we experienced when we've been afraid. Jesus experienced it when we've been tempted. Jesus experienced it when we felt fear and apprehension. He would have experienced all of that. And now in this moment, he is recognizing with the weight of the sin upon his shoulders of all of humanity, a holy God. His Father cannot touch the Son.
The weight and the judgment of sin had to take place. And there was a moment where there was a sense of being forsaken.
Jesus had to go through that moment of separation for that moment, final debt to be paid.
When the weight of sin was finally released, that unity with the Father was restored.
It's the pain that Jesus was prepared to experience, to go through, because he knew what was on the other side.
For the passion set before him. Jesus endured the cross.
The thing that he carried was the promise of that we would be right with the Father, that there was hope for humanity beyond the cross.
Every time I picture Jesus experiencing this, my God, my God, why have you forsaken Me, but also willingly taking on your sin and my sin.
I said, what a wonderful God we have. What a wonderful God we serve. That he would serve humanity, that he would lay down his life so that we can. Could have life.
The fifth thought this morning is, because he lives, we can be refreshed.
We can be refreshed. John 19:28. Later, knowing that everything had now been finished and so the scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, I am thirsty. A jar of wine vinegar was there. So they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant and lifted it to Jesus lips.
Many commentators believe that this is a direct parallel to the moment where Jesus sat beside the woman at the well.
And Jesus said, I know every. She went back to the town and said, let me tell you about a man who knows everything about me. Jesus just prophesied with the words of knowledge. He just said, yeah, you've been in multiple relationships and the one you're in is not even your husband. He's like, wow, you know me. She goes back and tells everybody, but they have this dialogue, like a really lengthy dialogue, it looks like, has this conversation and she's talking about a physical water.
And Jesus starts speaking about a spiritual water. He says, I can offer you a water that is.
You'll never thirst again.
We thirst for all sorts of things, don't we?
For pleasure, for significance, for acceptance.
We thirst and whatever we try doesn't quite satisfy. But Jesus was saying, there is something that you can drink, there is a water that you can consume where you won't thirst for those things again.
It satisfies your thirst.
He satisfies your thirst.
And I want to encourage you right here in this moment, take a moment, close your eyes, if you would, because there are springs and rivers of living water that want to bubble up out of you.
I got this picture as I was praying this morning that there were just boulders that were stopping the flow, stopping up the flow of what God wants to do in your life. And would you just simply say to Jesus, I give you this boulder.
Maybe it's offence, maybe it's unforgiveness, maybe it's fear, maybe it's anxious thoughts.
Would you say, would you remove that so your spirit can flow again?
I don't want stale, I want fresh. I want living. I want today, Holy Spirit water flowing through my body.
Would you just receive his spirit today, fresh and new, Never run out, never run out of supply.
Holy Spirit, would you come and refresh those dry places in our life?
Maybe it's been a while since we've truly connected with you.
Maybe we've been reading your Word, but it's just felt dry and we just haven't.
We haven't been sensing that connection to you. Would you fill us, Holy Spirit? Would you renew us? Would you satisfy our thirst that we wouldn't long for anything but you?
Thank you, Jesus, that because of the cross, because you live, we can be refreshed.
Bringing it into land now I promise the sixth thing he says, because he lives, we stand in a place of victory.
John 19:30. When he had finished the drink, Jesus said, it is finished.
With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit for me. These are some of the most comforting words in Scripture.
What does this mean when it says, it's finished?
Jesus was not saying, my life is finished because he was going to live on.
He's saying, it is finished.
Sin, judgment, accusation, failure, disappointment, fear, anxiety. It is finished. Jesus said, it is finished. The work I came to accomplish is now completed.
The sacrificial system that they had to go through time and time again. I failed. I messed up. I come back and I offer another sacrifice. I'm forgiven. And then I go out and I do it again. Jesus says, no longer.
He says, you now come to the great high priest.
I've gone before you, and I have experienced all you have. And I have become the propitiation for your sins. I have been the one who has paid the price. I have stood in the gap for you.
You can now stand before God because of what I've done.
Holy are you, God.
Holy is your name.
With everything I've got, I praise you.
And it was all part of God's plan.
Revelation 13:8 declares, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
So even before the planet was created, even before Adam and Eve took the stage, even before the the garden and the trees and the sin, the separation and the casting out of the garden, even before then, God knew there would be a lamb slain before the creation, the foundation of the world.
This was it.
This was the moment for all of humanity. It is finished.
No longer do we have to go through that sacrificial system. Jesus is the perfect and only sacrifice.
Which means that today, if I sin, if I fall short of this glorious standard, which I will. You will. I promise you.
But we don't stay in that place of guilt and condemnation. The conviction of the Holy Spirit comes and says, come on, Mike, come on, you know that's wrong.
Repent, turn, come back to me.
I think we can Sit for days and weeks and months in the guilt of our sin. And Jesus says, just come, it is finished.
Come to me.
Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, carrying burdens of all sorts, and I'll give you rest.
Would you receive that rest? Would you receive that forgiveness today?
And because of this, we can receive this final promise that speaks of an eternity and a hope and a glimpse of what will be.
Because he lives, we can know our loving Father.
Luke 23:46. Jesus called out with a loud voice, father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
When he had said this, he brought breathed his last.
This act of Jesus was one of surrender and an example for all of us.
For everything in our life we desire to control, God has no opportunity to help us with.
So if I am holding onto something that is not surrendered to God, I'm going to be the only answer. That's terrifying.
But if there's something that's out of order, something that needs to change, something that needs the miraculous hand of God, and I put that into God's hands, what could be?
Come on. We hold so tightly to our pain, to our offence.
What if we let that go?
What if we said to Jesus, I can't hold this anymore, I can't handle this anymore.
Would we allow God full access to our hurt and our pain and our burden?
Because he lives, we know we can know. Our loving Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
Do you?
Will you?
Could you commit into his hands your spirit?
I want to be in the arms of my Father, want to be received by him.
We're going to take communion now.
A moment, an opportunity for us to remember what Christ has done. And on Resurrection Sunday, on the day we remember that Christ was raised from death to life, we remember a moment that happened on the night before Jesus was crucified.
They celebrated the Passover, something that was common, something that was recognized and understood by those young Jewish men that were walking the journey with Jesus.
But the Bible says that he took bread, he broke it, gave it to his disciples.
He said, this is my body that's broken for you.
In this world, there is brokenness, there is sickness, there is sin.
So many things that come up against us.
And Jesus said, my body was broken for you, so my brokenness will lead to your healing.
And if you are experiencing brokenness in relationships, struggles in business, the way you see yourself and your identity, if you're struggling in any of those spaces, Christ's body was broken for you so that you might be restored, that you might Be healed. So when you receive the broken body of Christ, this healing for your body, for your friendships, for your relationships, may you receive his blessing today. Thank you, Jesus.
And then Jesus took the cup.
He said, this is the cup of my new covenant again. No longer the sacrificial sister, but now under this new promise that we can go directly in and through Christ Jesus. Our righteousness is found in him now, not in our own efforts and our own abilities.
That his blood, which the juice represents, was poured out, was spilled on the cross, poured out for the forgiveness of our sins because he died, because blood was shed, our sins could be forgiven.
Perfect holy God, who died so that our sins could be forgiven. Would you receive forgiveness for your sins today?
You can drink.
And you might be here today.
And your relationship with God you might describe as non existent.
You found yourself here today in church, maybe bought by a friend, or maybe actually you've been on a journey of trying to find him and discover who God is. A lot like Allie, who shared her story.
I knew there was something, but I couldn't understand quite what it is. And you find yourself here today.
And as we've worshipped, as you've heard Ali's story, and as we've been speaking this morning, you know you need to be right with God.
Well, Shea, because he lives, you can be.
And it's simple, but it costs everything.
This isn't signing up to a newsletter.
This is taking up your cross, following Jesus because he took up his cross first.
And if you're ready to respond, if you're ready to say, jesus, I want to give you everything and I want to follow you. And I need your help because I'm in the middle of my life, my storm, my challenges, and I need you. I want to follow you.
I'm going to pray a prayer and I would love it if you prayed that prayer as well.
I'm going to say the words and you can pray after me.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you that you loved us so much that you sent your son to die on the cross for my sins.
Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you that you went to the cross willingly so that my sins could be forgiven.
Today I choose to repent, to turn from my old way of living.
I ask you to forgive me.
I receive your grace.
I receive your forgiveness.
Please help me to live for you.
Holy Spirit, come and live inside of me. Me.
Make me new in Jesus name.
Amen. Amen.
