What the Resurrection of Jesus Means to You | The Debt He Paid

Greg Laurie and Harvest Ministries recommend a book by a historical Jesus Scholar,

highlighting archaeological finds such as the Shroud of Turin,

supporting the truth of Christianity.

We want to send you this book by Dr. Jeremiah Johnston.

It's simply called the Jesus Discoveries,

and it's going to help you grow stronger in your faith and a great tool for you

as you share your faith with others.

So order your copy of the Jesus Discoveries for your gift of any size.

Get your copy at harvest.org.

God's not mad at you, God is mad about you.

Most of us are wired to look for a good deal.

We like to exchange something of lesser value for something of greater value.

Well, on a spiritual level, Jesus offers us an arrangement that's too good to refuse.

We owed a debt we couldn't pay, but Jesus stepped in and paid a debt he didn't own.

Today, on a new beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us appreciate the price paid at Calvary,

but even more remarkably, after Jesus died for our sins, he rose again.

We're life begins.

Hey, everybody, why don't you grab your Bible and turn to two passages of scripture,

Mark 16 in John chapter 20.

And the title of my message is what the resurrection of Jesus means to you.

If you've ever lost a loved one unexpectedly, you know how it feels.

There's shock, there's disbelief, sometimes followed with denial,

even anger, a deep sadness that sets in, you realize that that person that was so much a part

of your life is no longer there. You can't have a conversation with them, you can't hear from

them again. Your world, as you know it, suddenly changes overnight. I bring that up because that's

exactly how the disciples felt 2000 years ago when Jesus Christ, their Savior, their Lord,

their Master was murdered in cold blood before their very eyes. They watched it happen and they

watched the Roman soldier take his spear and thrust it into Jesus and out came blood and water

indicating a complete heart failure. Clearly, he was gone and they never got to say goodbye. He was

taken from them. So in their minds, the dream was over. And also in their minds, I might add,

it appeared that Jesus had failed in this mission. This is indicated in a conversation he had

after his resurrection with two disciples on the road to Emmaus as recorded in Luke's gospel.

They did not realize that we're talking with the risen Lord and he asked them would have been

happening lately and they said, well, how much you heard about Jesus and all the things that he did

and then I think it's kind of funny really. Jesus said, no, tell me what things and they're telling

Jesus about Jesus. And here's what they said, we were hoping he would have been the one to deliver

Israel, but it's been three days since he was crucified. Hoping, notice, past tense. Their hope

was gone. The dream was gone and everything seemed to be going perfectly up to that moment.

When Jesus got in that donkey and rode in Jerusalem and the people laid the palm branches down

before him crying out, Hosanna, the disciples said, finally, everyone knows what we've known that this

is the Messiah, but then suddenly he's not himself or so it would seem in the upper room when he's

talking about betrayal. And then one of their own turns out to be the betrayer, Judas Iscariot,

and then Simon Peter, of course, denies him and they see him unraveling as it would seem.

And the Garden of Gisemini, as he is crying out to the Father and literally sweating blood,

all of this was happening, but here's the problem. The writers of the gospel said never read the

gospels, you see. They were experiencing this in real time. They didn't know how the story

actually ended. They didn't understand that the incarnation was for the death of Jesus. The

incarnation was for the purpose of the atonement. The birth of Jesus was so there would be the death

of Jesus. It was all part of God's master plan. Later, Simon Peter preaching to the very men who

crucified Jesus and said in Acts chapter 2, this Jesus following the deliberate and well thought

up plan of God was betrayed by men who took the law into their own hands. Did you catch that?

It was the deliberate well thought out plan of God. The crucifixion, the resurrection,

the deliberate well thought out plan of God. And by the way, God has a deliberate well thought out

plan for you as well. Because I know there are things that happen in your life that make no sense

when you lose a loved one or when you get bad news from a doctor or want some tragedy,

but falls you. You think where's God in all this? God is right there and he has a plan and he

has a purpose. Maybe with the passing of time, you'll understand that plan of purpose. And maybe

you won't fully understand it till you get to the other side and you realize in heaven why God

allowed that to happen. But just be assured of this one thing. God has a deliberate well thought

out plan for you. And ultimately that plan for you is good because God can take your ending and

turn it into a new beginning. And that's what happened for these disciples. In our last message,

we talked about what the death of Jesus means for you. Now let's talk about what the resurrection

of Jesus Christ means to you. Mark chapter 16, I'm reading verses 1 to 8, Saturday evening when

the Sabbath ended, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome went out and purchased

burial spices so they could anoint Jesus body. Very early on Sunday morning, just at sunrise,

they went to the tomb and on the way they were asking each other, who's going to roll away the

stone for us from the entrance to the tomb. But as they arrived, they looked up and saw the stone

which was very large had already been rolled aside. And when they entered the tomb, they saw a young

man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side and they were shocked. And then the angel said,

don't be afraid. You're looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He isn't here. He's risen

from the dead. Look, this is where they laid his body. Now go tell the disciples and Peter that Jesus

is going ahead of you into Galilee. You'll see him there just as he told you before he died.

The women fled from the tomb, trembling and bewildered and said nothing to anyone because they

were too frightened. So Jesus has been crucified in an amazing series of events are happening

in the aftermath of it. First of all, there was that global darkness that took place. You remember

from 12 in the afternoon to three o'clock. Then the veil and the temple was ripped from top to

bottom. In the temple where the Jews would go to worship God, there was a veil which was really a very

thick curtain. It would almost be like a wall, a material wall of sorts that separated the

inner sanctum, the holy of holies where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. No, it's not in a warehouse

somewhere. If you watched Indiana Jones and the readers of the Lost Ark. So there they had the

Ark of the Covenant and that veil symbolized that separation between God and man. Now the veil

is ripped. Not from bottom to top. As a man is doing it, it's ripped from top to bottom because

God is saying this veil is gone. And you have access to me through my son, Jesus Christ. Also,

we're told that dead people were resurrected and we're walking around the streets of Jerusalem.

This is one of the most interesting verses in the Bible to me. So you're walking in town and you go,

is that Uncle Harry? Didn't we just bury him a couple of days ago? It was sort of like a preview

of things to come. Dead people were coming back to life. I see dead people who are alive again.

And so then there was a great earthquake that followed. So this is an amazing series of events. And

so these women that we just read about come to the tomb, hopefully to anoint the body of Jesus

and they find the tomb empty. And the angel tells them that Christ is risen. Matthew tells us of

this event. And Matthew 28, they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy.

Have you ever had fear and great joy at the same time? Maybe when you got in a roller coaster,

there is fear. Like I'm going to die and there's great joy. But it's so much fun.

I've given up on roller coasters. By the way, I rode them many years and then one day I just realized,

I don't even like this. And I don't know if I ever liked it. You know, as you get older, you don't

want to take those kinds of risks anymore. For me now, taking a risk is ordering something different

in the restaurant. I'm going to try that chef solid instead of the normal hamburger and fries

I get every time. Listen, you know, you're getting older when you go to the same table in the same

restaurant at the same time and order the same thing. There's a lot of signs of getting older,

aren't there? You know, you're getting older when you drop something and when you bend down to

get it, you wonder if there's anything else you can do while you're down there.

You know, there's a lot of bands that were very popular in the late 60s and they had great hits

that many of us still remember. And it's funny. A lot of young people are rediscovering these bands.

And you'll see kids walking around with T-shirts with lead Zeppelin and Jimmy Hendrix and all

these bands are rolling stones, the Beatles and so forth. But a lot of those bands have had to rework

some of their hits. They don't do them quite the way they used to. I met Peter Noon, by the way,

not too long ago, who was Herman of Herman's Hermits. And he's a wonderful guy.

Had so many amazing stories. But while I remember that song by Herman's Hermits, Mrs. Brown,

you've got a lovely do-tap. Remember that one? Now they've updated it to Mrs. Brown. You've got

a lovely walker because Mrs. Brown is a lot older today. Abba, remember Dancing Queen? That's

Denture Queen now. They've had to update it. The Beatles, that big hit that Ringo would sing,

I get by with a little help from my friends has not been updated to. I get by with a little help

from Depends. A crystal gale. Remember her song Don't Make My Brown Eyes Blue? Now it's Don't

Make My Brown Hair Blue. Eagles are no longer singing. Harding tonight. They're singing

Hartburn tonight probably from at the 8th. Jerry Lee Lewis, he's no longer singing a whole lot

of shaking going on. Now it's rather a whole lot of aching going on. A Leo Sayer used to sing.

You make me feel like Dancing. Now he sings. You make me feel like napping. Leonard Skinner,

no longer singing about Sweet Home, Alabama. Now it's Rest Home, Alabama. Nancy Sinatra,

no longer singing. These boots are made for walking. Now these boots are giving me arthritis.

So you see they've all had to update their songs. I have two more. These are the jokes people.

The Who? Remember talking about my generation? Now it's talking about my medication.

And finally the Trogs had a big hit, Wild Thing. Now they've named it Bald Thing. And my theme song,

by the way. But so there are things that we don't like to do as we go older. We don't like to take

risks necessarily.

Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment.

Here everybody you can watch our Sunday services on a special broadcast that we call Harvest at Home.

It's streaming on the Harvest Plus platform. So download that app right away. Harvest Plus

and you can enjoy being a part of our extended church family every Sunday.

Well today Pastor Greg is helping us peer through the lens of scripture to the first century.

When the disciples are filled with mixed emotions, having learned that Jesus is no longer dead,

but alive. Let's continue today's message. They're experiencing this joy and excitement.

And they're trying to figure it out. They don't understand what has actually happened to them.

And then they see the risen Lord. We have to pull from different

gospels to get the whole story. In Matthew 28 we read, they went to tell his disciples and

behold Jesus met them. Saint red joys. So they came and held them by their feet and worship them.

Now it's an interesting phrase there when it says Jesus met them. It speaks of the common

greeting that one would receive in the marketplace. Just if you saw someone, he said,

hello, if you're on a walk, you see someone walk by, hey, how are you? Have a nice day. Just

common greeting. That is the phrase that is used here when it says Jesus met them. I find that

fascinating because it's so low key and so casual. You know, in different parts of the country,

we greet each other in different ways. If you're in the South, you'll see something along the

lines of, hey, hey, how y'all doing? How all y'all doing, right? In Hawaii, it'll be aloha or

how's that brought? In Australia, they'll say, good, ain't. In New York City, they ignore you.

And then they'll say something like, what are you looking at me? And followed up by, well,

forget about it. That's one word by the way. And here is the risen Lord who greets his disciples.

He's so casual. He's just like, oh, hey, guys, how's it going? Aloha, how are you?

Really relaxed about the whole thing. And they can't believe their eyes. They are looking at

Jesus. And so they grab him by the feet and they worship him. And that's because they recognize

he was God. You know, a number of years ago, I was driving with two of my grandkids in the car,

Ali and Christopher. At that particular time, Ali was age five and Christopher was age three.

And they're having this conversation. And Ali turns to Christopher and says, Christopher,

Jesus is God and God is Jesus. And I'm thinking, that's very good, you know, for a five-year-old to

understand that. And I was very impressed by that. And then she said, he lives in our heart.

In some day, he'll live in our stomach. You have to talk a little more about what that all means.

But Jesus was God and he was worshiped by his disciples. Coming back to our story, we see Mary

Magdalene is mentioned in verse one. What a unique lady she is. Mary Magdalene first to the tomb.

So she sees that the stone has been rolled away and immediately tells Peter and John. And

if we go over to John's gospel, we'll see that they then begin to run to the tomb. So she says,

Jesus isn't and they run to the tomb. I love that. You know, boys will be boys, right? And it

became an actual race because John mentions he beat Peter in the race. He says the disciple

whom Jesus loved out ran the other one. So that's maybe one of the perks of writing a gospel.

You get to remind people about who actually won the race. So they see the empty tomb.

And they come back. John believes he looks in there. He realizes what is happening.

Those crisis alive. And the Bible says Peter walked away perplexed. And that brings us to our next

text. John chapter 20. Let's see what else happened to Mary Magdalene. John chapter 20 verse 11,

but Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the

tomb and saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head, the other at the feet,

where the body of Jesus had lain. And they said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said to

them because they've taken away my Lord. And I don't know where they've laid him. Now when she had

said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but did not know it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her woman, why are you weeping? Who are you seeking? She thinking he was a gardener

said, sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've laid him. And I'll take him away.

And Jesus then said, Mary, Mary responded by saying, Reboni, which means teacher. And she grabs

hold of Christ. And he said, don't cling to me for I've not yet ascended to my father

into your father. And I'm going to ascend to my father and your father and to my God and your

God. Wow. The persistence of Mary paid off, didn't it? Everyone else was gone, but she stayed,

and she meets the risen Lord. And what does he say? Don't cling to me. She's holding on to him.

Now you wonder what's going on here. Because it's not that you could not touch the risen Lord.

Because in fact, he appears in the upper room to the disciples and Thomas, who we called

downing Thomas was there. And Jesus said, go ahead and put your hand in my side and touch the wounds

in my hand. So he could be touched. Maybe it was the way he was holding on to him. She was grabbing

so tightly. And he says, Mary, don't cling to me. I think in effect, he's saying, Mary, everything

has changed now. Effectively, it's a whole new ball game. It's not going to be the way it was before.

In the past, I was there where you could reach out and touch me physically, but it's going to be

different, Mary, and it's going to be better. Because now I'm going to come and live in your heart.

And I'll always be there. And we'll never be separated again. And what is true of Mary is true

for all of us. By the way, it was a revolutionary thought to say to a first century Jew that God was

their father. They would not refer to God in such a way. But Jesus is saying he's our father now too.

How did he teach us to pray and what we call the Lord's Prayer? He said after this manner,

therefore pray, our father who art in heaven, how it would be your name. And by the way,

Jesus made many post-resurrection occurrences. Acts chapter 1 verse 3 says he presented himself

alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs being seen by them for 40 days. And that

phrase seen by them could be translated to be eyeballed by him. So in other words, they're

not believing their eyes. They're looking at Jesus. And he's appearing again and again and again.

He appears to Peter. And we don't know what happened there. We just know he appeared to him.

And then he appeared to him again in John chapter 20 and recommissioned him. Then he appeared

to Thomas that I mentioned on another occasion. He appeared to 500 at one time. He appeared to the

two disciples walking on the Emmaus road. But remember the title of this message is what does the

resurrection of Jesus mean to you? The resurrection of Jesus assures me. I am accepted by God.

Let me say that again. The resurrection of Jesus assures me and I am accepted by God.

Romans 4.25 says he was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised alive for our

justification. Somewhere, I don't know how this happens, but people, even Christians sometimes

think that you must earn the favor of God. You must do certain things and then God will love you.

But the opposite is the case. There's nothing you can do to earn the favor of God. And the fact

is God loves you no matter what you do. And the resurrection of Christ proves this. We read again

there in Romans 4.25. He was raised alive for our justification. What does that mean? That means when

you put your faith in Christ, you are justified. To be justified means number one, you're forgiven

of all of your sins. So if you put your faith in Christ, your sins are forgiven by God and they're

forgotten by God. And he has put the righteousness of Christ into your moral bank account, if you will.

On the cross, God treated Jesus as if he had lived your life so he could treat you as if you

had lived his life. That's not original to me, but it's a perfect description of justification.

Let me repeat it. On the cross, God treated Jesus as if he had lived your life so he could treat

you as if you had lived his life. So again, the resurrection of Jesus assures me I am accepted

by God. Isn't that great to know? You're accepted by God. You're loved by God. Listen, God's not

mad at you. God has met about you.

Great encouragement about our standing before God. From Pastor Greg Laurie's message today on

the new beginning called, what the resurrection of Jesus means to you. And there's more to come.

Well, we have an important guest here with us today, Dr. Jeremiah Johnston and Pastor Greg will

introduce him in just a moment. But before we go any further, Pastor Greg, I know you had a

further word you wanted to share. So as you've been listening today, maybe you thought to yourself,

man, I wish I had this relationship with God that is being talked about. Well, you can. He's only

a prayer away. You see, becoming a Christian, it doesn't take years, it doesn't take months,

it doesn't take weeks, it doesn't even take hours can happen in a moment. The Bible describes

it as turning from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. But before that happens,

the Bible says you need to have your eyes open. And here's the amazing thing. It's just like in a

flash, a light goes on and you say, this is all true. That's how it happened for me. I just heard

the gospel and all of a sudden I realized this is all true. And maybe you've realized that as well.

Let me ask you, would you like Jesus Christ to come into your life? Would you like him to forgive

you of your sin? Would you like this relationship with God we've been talking about today? If so,

why don't you just pray a simple prayer with me? You could pray it out loud if you like, but

say this to God. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the Savior who

died on the cross from my sin and rose again from the dead. Jesus, I turn from my sin and I choose

to follow you from this moment forward as my Savior and Lord, as my God and friend. Thank you

for hearing this prayer. And I ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Hey, did you just pray that prayer?

If so, I want to send you at no charge what we call a new believer's Bible. Here's Dave to tell

you more. And let me just say congratulations. You've made the right decision. Yeah, that's right.

And listen, to help you begin to live this new life, this life where you're at peace with God

and can begin to enjoy the peace of God. Let us send you Pastor Greg's new believers Bible.

It's the perfect resource for someone who's new to the faith. We'll send it free of charge,

if you'll just contact us and request it. Call 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to

harvest.org and click no God. And then thank you for partnering with us to help these daily

studies continue. Your investments have eternal benefits. Why not make this a part of your

personal ministry to partner in an effort that's making a real difference with the gospel of Jesus

Christ? Thank you for your prayers and for prayerfully considering how God might lead you to help

tangibly. Online you'll find us at harvest.org and there you'll see the way we'd like to thank you

for your donation right now. That's harvest.org or write us at a new beginning box 4000 Riverside,

California 92514 or call us at 1-800-821-3300. We're here around the clock to take your call again at

1-800-821-3300. Well Pastor Greg pointed out that the resurrection assures us that we're

accepted by God. But that's just one of six ways the resurrection impacts our lives.

Pastor Greg has more for us next time. Join us here on a new beginning with Pastor and Bible

Teacher Greg Lauren.