What does the resurrection mean to you? When you fully understand what Jesus did on the cross, your thinking and relationship with Him and others will never be the same.
Jesus didn’t need to die for us, but He did it out of His great love for us. As a result of His resurrection, we have been given seven things that we must have deeply rooted in our hearts and minds.
In John 20:17, we read the story of Mary Magdalene encountering the resurrected Jesus. Imagine how excited she was. She sees Him risen, and of course, she wants to come and touch Him. She wants to worship Him, and He says something seemingly peculiar. He says don’t cling to me or as the old King James says, “Touch me not.” Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father and to my God and your God.
Ten verses later, in John 20:27, Jesus tells Thomas to touch and feel Him and not be unbelieving but to believe. This is because, between those ten verses, Jesus had entered heaven as our high priest and sprinkled his blood on the mercy seat.
Hebrews 9:11-14 provides the picture of those ten verses. It says, “But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”
Jesus, our perfect and spotless lamb, went to the cross to give His life for us and be our substitute. His blood was shed to forgive our sins, and He ascended into heaven to sprinkle it on the mercy seat to take away all sin, once and for all.
Seven Things You Have Because Of The Resurrection
1. You have forgiveness of sins. You have confirmation that the substitutionary blood sacrifice of Jesus was well received in heaven and is yours now. And when you call upon the name of the Lord, you shall be saved.
2. You have a new birth. It’s one thing to have your sin taken out of the way, but the Bible says that when you’re born again, a new spirit is put inside you. Your human spirit, heart, the real you inside this human shell, is recreated and born again by the Holy Spirit.
3. You have eternal life in heaven. Because the Lord raised Jesus, we know that He will raise us up because He lives. We will live. You only have one soul and eternity matters. Jesus said in John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.”
4. You have a God with a plan. God coming in the person of Jesus, walking this earth and never sinning. Going on the cross, entering a tomb, being resurrected on the third day, none of that was an emergency 911 backup plan. It didn’t take God by surprise because the Bible says Jesus was the Lamb of God, slain even before, let there be light was spoken, even before the foundations and the creation of the world. You serve an Almighty, all-knowing God who knows the end from the beginning, and the resurrection is further proof that you serve a God who has a master plan.
5. You were raised together with Him. Ephesians 2:4-6 tell us, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Jesus was whipped, beaten, and bled. He didn’t deserve that, but you know who did? You did. And so when God the Father looks at Jesus on the cross, He sees you. And when God the Father looks at you right now,
Do you know how He sees you? He sees you as perfect, complete, and sinless.
And when you come to that place where you say, “I believe that Jesus, I receive you. Jesus, I give my life to you.” that’s when you appropriate it by faith, and it becomes real to you.
6. You have a high priest and a mediator. Hebrews 8.6 says, “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.” Why is it a better covenant? It’s because, under the Old Covenant, under the Old Testament, there was an agreement. There was a covenant between God and man, and man had to hold up their end of the bargain.
So it was if you do good, you get good. If you do bad, you get bad. When man is in charge and has to hold up the deal, he’ll always fail. That’s the old covenant.
Now comes the new covenant, established and ratified by Jesus’s blood. And what does that say? Under the new covenant, you have a mediator, a high priest.
The word priest means bridge maker or bridge builder. Religion does not want you to know this.
Institutions don’t want you to know this.
Under the new covenant, you have Jesus, resurrected in heaven as your high mediator, your high priest. And he is forever holding your end of the covenant in place for you.
So when you fall, he’s holding it together. Even if you sin, He’s holding it together. You come back to Him; He’s holding it together.
7. You have an unshakable joy. That promise is found in Hebrews 12:2, where it says, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Jesus endured the pain and the separation from God the Father at the cross because of that joy set before Him. He endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Conclusion
These seven things are available to you if you will receive them by faith. There is a condition.
You have to believe and then give your life to Him.
He did this because He loves you. He said, “I’ve come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.”
I invite you to receive this great love and to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
I want to ask you a critical question. If God forbid, you were to die today, if you were to die today, do you know for certain that you would go to heaven?
Most people say I hope so. You don’t have to hope so. I say this with love in my heart. If you’re saying, I hope so; you won’t get into heaven.
Why? Because faith knows so, faith seizes the promise. You don’t have to hope so.
If you can’t answer that question with a heartfelt, resounding yes, I want to pray with you and for you.
The Bible says that if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Lord, you will be saved, so say this out loud.
Lord Jesus, I believe in You. I believe You died on the cross in my place. I believe the punishment for sin that I deserved fell on You. I believe you were buried, and I believe you were raised on the third day. I believe you’re in heaven now as my mediator. I turn my back on the world; I turn my back on sin; I give my life to you. I am free, I am forgiven, I am made new, and I’m a friend of God in Jesus, name. Amen.
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