Greg Laurie - It Is Beginning! (01/07/2018)
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Pastor Greg Laurie shares from Matthew 28 and John 20 that Jesus' resurrection turns "It is finished" into "It is beginning." The cross wasn't the end but God's plan A for atonement, leading to new life, forgiveness, power over sin, and eternal hope. The empty tomb assures acceptance, intercession, resurrection bodies, restored relationships, and final judgment for believers as reward.
From "It Is Finished" to "It Is Beginning"
Let's turn in our Bibles now. We are going to go to two passages today. I want you to turn to Matthew 28 and to John chapter 20. Matthew 28. And if you have one of those fancy Bibles with ribbons. This is an opportunity to bust out the ribbon. Put the ribbon in John 20 and then turn to Matthew 28. And the title of my message is, "It Is Beginning."
I heard a story about an old man that liked to go out and fish. And he was sitting in his boat one day and suddenly he heard a voice saying, "Hey you, pick me up." Well he looked around. He couldn't see anyone. There was no one near him. He thought, I must be hearing things. So he went back to fishing. And a few moments later again the voice said, "Hey you, pick me up." He looks around again. And much to his shock he looks there in the water and looking straight at him is a little frog who says for the third time, "Hey you, pick me up." It is a true story. And the frog then went on to say, "If you pick me up and kiss me I will turn into a beautiful bride." So he reached down and he picked up the little frog and looked at it for a moment and started to put it in his pocket. The frog said, "Excuse me. Didn't you hear what I just said? I said, If you kiss me I will turn into a beautiful bride. You will be the envy of all of your friends." And as he was just sort of tucking that frog down in his pocket on his shirt he said, "You know at my age I would rather have a talking frog." Talk about missing the point.
The Disciples Missed the Point
This is exactly what the disciples did when Jesus died on the cross. They missed the point. Despite the fact that Christ had spoken repeatedly about his betrayal, his arrest, his crucifixion, and resurrection, collectively they seemed to completely miss it. So when it actually happened, when Jesus was arrested, and beaten, and tried, and convicted, and whipped, and crucified, and was hanging on the cross, and managed to give seven profound statements. One of which was, "It is finished." That is exactly how they felt. It is finished. It is over with. The dream is gone. Our hope is shattered. It is finished. And probably more to the point they felt like, We are finished. I mean these guys had given up everything to follow Jesus. They had left homes. They had left careers. They had left everything to be one of His handpicked disciples. And then everything seemed to go off the rails. Everything seemed to go horribly wrong. And then He was beaten and crucified before their very eyes. And when they saw that Roman soldier thrust in His spear and saw water and blood come out they knew He was gone. They would never see Him again.
You know it is really hard to understand what that is like. To lose a loved one. Unless you have lost a loved one. To have someone with you one day and gone the next. And sometimes you don't know if you can go on. It is so devastating. So life altering. And they had lost everything. Jesus was their Lord. Their master. Their hero. Their teacher. Their friend. He was their very life. And now He was gone. Inexplicably in their mind. The two disciples on the Emmaus road summed it up best. Pretty much how everyone felt when they said ironically to Jesus. They had hoped He would have been the one to deliver Israel. Hope. Past tense man. The party is over. Something went wrong. We don't know what. But this is the way it happened.
Everything Went According to Plan
And you know it just seemed like everything was progressing beautifully. Christ had ridden into Jerusalem on the back of the donkey. The people laid the palm branches at His feet. They cried out Hosanna to the Son of David. And all of a sudden He is betrayed by Judas Iscariot. And then even Simon Peter turns and runs and goes into hiding. So these guys just scattered. You know it is very easy for us to be critical of them and say, you know why didn't they have more faith? Hey remember they didn't know the end of the story. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John didn't read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They were living this in real time. And in their minds something went wrong.
See here is the way they thought about it. They thought that Jesus was going to come and establish an earthly kingdom and drive the Romans out of power and they would rule and reign with Him in a kingdom of righteousness. That was the basic view of the Jew of that time as to the office and role of Messiah. But this is not what the Bible taught about Messiah. The Scripture taught that Messiah would ultimately rule and reign. But before that Scripture taught that Messiah would die a horrific death on a cross. Read Psalm 22. Read Isaiah 53. And multiple other passages. You see they missed that. But listen. Everything was going exactly as it was supposed to go. Just as God had planned.
Because Jesus came specifically to die on the cross and to rise from the dead. Listen to this. The incarnation was for the purpose of the atonement. The birth of Jesus was so there would be the death of Jesus. You know when we think about Christmas we rarely think about the fact that He died. But that is really why there was an incarnation. A birth in Bethlehem. So there would be an atonement. That is a death on the cross. This was always the plan. This was not plan B. This was plan A. It is not like plan A was Jesus comes. Establishes His kingdom and rules and reigns. And everyone lives happily ever after. Oops. Something went wrong. The train came off the rails. Okay. Here is plan B. No. No. No. Plan A was Messiah comes. He is born in a manger in Bethlehem. He lives a perfect life. He has a three year ministry. He goes to a cross. He dies for the sin of the world. And He rises again from the dead three days later.
From the Cross to the Empty Tomb
From the moment of His birth Jesus lived in the shadow of the cross. It was God's plan. In fact Peter later preaching to some of the men that were actually involved in the crucifixion summed it up this way in Acts 2. He said, "This Jesus following the deliberate and well thought out plan of God was betrayed by you who took the law into your own hands and you nailed Him to a cross and you killed Him. But God untied the death ropes and raised Him up. Death was no match for Him." I love that summation. It was God's well thought out plan. Everything was going exactly as planned.
Now we come to the first Easter. The ending was not an ending at all. But it was a new beginning. Hence the title of my message. My last message was "It Is Finished." The message now is "It Is Beginning." Let's read Matthew's version of what happened on the day that Jesus Rose from the dead. Matthew 28:1 "Now after the Sabbath, on the first day of the week, as it began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning. His clothing was as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men."
The Angel's Message and the Women's Joy
"But the angel answered and said to the woman, Do not be afraid. For I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He is risen. As He said, Come see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell the disciples He is risen from the dead and indeed is going before you into Galilee. There you will see Him. Behold I have told you." So they went quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy. And ran to bring the disciples' word. As they went to tell His disciples, Behold Jesus met them saying, "Rejoice." And they held Him by the feet and they worshipped Him.
Notice Matthew says in verse 11, All that happened. A lot of crazy stuff had transpired as Jesus hung on the cross and now has risen from the dead. You remember of course that darkness covers the whole area from twelve noon to three o'clock. The veil in the temple is ripped from top to bottom. Dead people come out of their graves and are walking around on the streets of Jerusalem. And then there was this great earthquake. A devastating earthquake. And now these guards realize that they are in trouble. Look at verse 2-4 in Matthew 28 again. Let me read it to you from the Phillips translation. "At that moment there was a great earthquake. The angel of the Lord came down from heaven, went forward and rolled back the stone and sat on it. I love the fact that he sat on it. And his appearance was dazzling like lightning. His clothing was as white as snow. And the guards shook with terror at the sight of him and collapsed like dead men." These are Roman guards. These guys are tough. They basically faint. They are so scared seeing what they are looking at right now as Jesus is risen again.
Jesus Appears First to the Faithful Women
Now I want you to notice that as the Lord is risen we read that He appeared to the women. Verse 5. The angel answered and said to the women, "Do not be afraid. I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified." Why did Jesus appear to women before men? You want the simple answer? They were there. That is why. The men were not there. But women were. God rewarded them for their faithfulness. Women were the last at the cross and they were the first at the empty tomb. Think of all that we miss out when we are simply not there. Think of all that Thomas missed out on when the Lord appeared to the disciples in the upper room. And then they say to Him the next day, "Hey Thomas you should have been with us last night." "Yeah well I was busy." "Yeah well you should have been there." "Yeah well why?" "Well guess who showed up?" "Who?" "Jesus." "Right. I'll believe that when I can feel the wounds in His hands and see the wound in His side." And so the next time they gather together guess who showed up? Thomas. And guess who appeared? Jesus. And Jesus said, "Hey Thomas go for it. Do you want to put your hand right here in this wound? Do you want to touch the wounds of my hands?" "Oh no." Thomas was good. He fell down and said, "My Lord and my God."
But I'll tell you what. We miss out on a lot when we are not in fellowship with God's people. These women were there. And what a wonderful thing they were able to see. Verse 8 says, "They went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy." Have you ever experienced fear and joy at the same time? Sure you have. Sort of like when you ride on a roller coaster. There is kind of excitement and raw fear happening simultaneously. Or maybe if you are out surfing and a huge set of waves comes in and they are out so far that you can't quite get to them in time. But you are thrilled. The waves are coming. The bad news is you are in the impact zone and you are in deep trouble. So there is fear and joy.
Mary Magdalene's Encounter with the Risen Lord
You know as I get older I, what gives me fear and joy is different. Like, you know, ordering something new off the menu. I will have the chef's special. Whoa! Going back to roller coasters, I have given up on them. For me now roller coasters are all fear and no joy. I can't even remember the last time I rode one. But I remember I was going up the track. You know, you are going up to the top. You are going to do your job. Clickety clack. Clickety clack. Click, click, click, click, click. And you get right up there and you look down. And I used to be excited. And the last time I said, I hate this. I don't want to be here.
There are other things that give us fear and great joy. Buying a house for the first time. It is like, wow this is a big responsibility. Or getting married. Fear and great joy. Having your first child. So here they are. Yeah there was a joy. There was excitement. But there is a fear. The joy is, Jesus is risen. The fear is, what do we do now? Where do we go? And so everything worked out because they see the risen Lord. And their questions are answered. Verse 9, "And as they went to tell His disciples, Behold, Jesus met them, saying, Rejoice." And they held Him by the feet and worshiped Him.
You know this phrase met them is a word that speaks of a common greeting like, Hi, or Good Morning. It was the ordinary greeting of the marketplace and traveler passing on the road. In other words it was sort of casual and low key. It wasn't like, Hello. It was more like, Hey. How is it going? You know the way we greet one another. You know you see someone, Hey. How are you? Hi. You know when you are walking down the street and someone is walking towards you. There is no one else around. So it feels you should say something. So you walk by, Hi. And they will say, Hi. Or sometimes they won't say, Hi. That really bugs me. Now I said, Hi. Hi. They don't say anything. They look like that. I hate you. Not really. But you know, and then if you are in the south, it is not Hi. It is Hey. They will say, Hey. How are you all doing? In Hawaii it is, How is it? How is it? How is it? And if you are a guy they will say, How is it brah? Over in Australia it is, Good day. Good day mate. Good day. Just common greeting.
So here is the risen Lord who has conquered death, bore the sins of the world, risen again from the dead. They see. It is Jesus. He is like, How is it? Hey. Good day mate. Hi. I love that. It is so low key. It is surprising really. And they grab Him by the feet and they worship Him. Mary Magdalene is mentioned in verse 1. She was the first at the tomb. Now she sees the stone has been rolled away. And she goes and tells Simon, Peter, and John the tomb is empty. So we read that they both ran to the tomb. Boys will be boys. Probably it was a race. Why do we think it was a race? Because John actually points out in his gospel that he beat Peter to the tomb. John 20:4, "The other disciple outran Peter and got there first." That is a quote. So obviously it was a race.
Mary's Tears and Jesus' Personal Call
Peter and John see the empty tomb. What do they see? They see bandages wrapped around that which was a body. It wasn't like just a pile of rags. It was almost more like a cocoon shape. See back in those days when a person would die they would wrap them up in cloth and they would put bits of things to sort of preserve it. Frankincense, other elements like that. And they would wrap the person up tightly. The modern equivalent one would be like a mummy or something resembling a cocoon shape. So they come in. They see this shape. But Jesus is not there. John sees it. Immediately believes. Peter is not quite sure what to make of it. The Bible says he walked away wondering what had just happened.
But Mary stays. She has nowhere to go. She doesn't know what to do. She is devastated. She came to anoint the body of Jesus. And now even the body is gone. So she just burst out in tears. What happened next? Okay. Grab John 20 now. Let's look at that verse. Because this is where the story picks right up. John 20:11 "Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping. As she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. They said to her, Woman why are you weeping? She said, Because they have taken away my Lord and I don't know where they have laid Him."
"Now when she had said this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? She supposing him to be the gardener said to him, Sir if you have carried him away tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him, Rabboni, which is to say teacher. Jesus said to her, Do not cling to Me for I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brothers and say to them I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples she had seen the Lord and that He had spoken these things to her."
What a beautiful story this is really. Woman, woman who are you seeking? Woman why are you weeping? She is talking with Jesus and she doesn't know it is Jesus. It is hard to see through eyes that are filled with tears. She was heartbroken. She was devastated. Just tell me where His body is. I will carry it away. I love that. Now I don't know how big Mary was. But I am assuming she was not strong enough to carry the body of Jesus. We don't know what the weight of Christ was. But I think we can be relatively confident that He was in strong shape physically. He was a man that was probably somewhat muscular with all the physical labor he did and so forth. So to pick Him up was basically an impossibility. But that didn't bother her at all. She had such love for Jesus. Just tell me where He is. I will move the body myself.
Seven Takeaways from the Resurrection
This touched Christ. And He said, "Mary." As only He could say her name. That inflection. That tone of voice. Immediately she recognizes it is the Lord. And notice His next word is, "Mary don't cling to Me." Now we may sort of mystify that as to what it means. But maybe what He was just saying was, ow let go. I mean think about this. Later on we read the disciples grabbed hold of Him and worshiped Him. He didn't tell them to let go. He appears later in the upper room to Thomas and says, go ahead and put your hand on My side. But to Mary He says, don't cling to Me. Maybe she was like a drowning person grabbing hold of the lifeguard. Maybe she was grabbing Him so tightly she was cutting the circulation off.
I think the more likely interpretation though is if you look at the phrase, don't cling to Me. It would better be translated, stop clinging to Me. I think in effect Jesus would say, Mary, things are going to change now. Okay. This holding on to the physical needs to stop. I am going to ascend. I am going to go to the Father. I will no longer walk among you physically as I do now. But Mary I am going to come and live in your heart. And listen to this. I am going to ascend to my God and to your God. To my Father and to your Father. Do you realize what a revolutionary thought that was for the Jewish mind of this day? To call God Father? Oh sure Jesus did it. And they accused Him of blasphemy. But now Jesus is not only calling God Father. He is saying He is my Father and He is your Father. This is the new covenant. This is because Jesus has gone to the grave and He is risen again that we can come into this new relationship with the Lord.
Jesus was alive. And He made many post-resurrection appearances. They saw Him again and again. Not merely once but many times during this period. In fact Acts 1:3 says He presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days. And by the way this phrase used there in Acts, seen by them translates, He was eyeballed. And the idea is just stared at. Have you ever been eyeballed? You girls know about this right? Guys looking at you. And they don't think you know they are looking at you. But sometimes people would just stare. I have had people do that to me. They just stare. Stare at me. I had someone come up to me. I was in a little kid's clothing store looking for some little outfit for our granddaughters. And she is staring at me. And she said, Are you Greg Laurie? And I said, No. People ask me that all the time. I said, I'm a stunt double. She has some random thing I came up with in a moment. She went, Oh. And then she went on talking about whatever it was. And I said, Well wait. Did you believe what I just told you? She goes, Yeah. I believed it. I said, No. I actually am Greg Laurie. What were you thinking when I said I was a stunt double? She says, I just believed it. Because what I told her was, I'm a stunt double. Whenever Greg falls I do the folly. So he doesn't have to. She like accepted it. Okay. That is not a good thing to do. That was very bad. Bad preacher.
But Jesus showed up again and again. And people would stare at Him. They knew He was alive. There was no denying this fact. Now some have suggested that the resurrection of Christ was a hoax concocted by the disciples. But if that were true, why would everyone one of them go to an early grave saying they could not deny the fact that Jesus had risen? You know when people are on their deathbed that is when they want to clear their conscience. That is when they want to get things sorted out. But every one of these men for the most part were martyred except for John because they could not deny the fact that Christ who was dead was alive again. He was risen.
Seven Truths from the Resurrection
So what does this mean to us today? Let me close by giving you seven takeaway truths from the Easter story. Seven things you need to know that come as a result of the resurrection of Jesus. Number one, the resurrection of Jesus assures that I am accepted by God. The resurrection of Jesus assures me that I am accepted by God. Romans 4:25 says "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised again to life for our justification." See we need to lay to rest this concept that if we live a good life we will get to heaven. The Bible does not teach that. In fact the Bible teaches the very opposite. We will never be good enough to get to heaven. There is no forgiveness from balancing records. Only from cancelling them. And at the cross Jesus met the righteous demands of God. And thus I am justified. Remember what that means? Just as if it never happened. But it also means that the righteousness of Christ has been put into my account. As I said before, quote, "God treated Jesus as if He had lived your life so He could treat you as if you had lived His life." This comes as a result of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Number two. The resurrection of Jesus assures me that Christ is interceding in heaven for me. The resurrection of Christ assures me that He is now in heaven interceding for me. Romans 8:34 says, "Who is He that condemns? Christ Jesus who died. More than that. Who is raised to life. Who is at the right hand of God and is interceding for us." Why is that important? Why do I need Him interceding for me? Well think of it as a courtroom. Think of Him as your defense attorney. Why do you need a good defense attorney? Because you have a really scary prosecuting attorney. His name is Lou. Last name Issefer. Or something like that. Yeah. The devil is the prosecuting attorney, the Bible says, accusing us before God day and night. So there is the devil saying to God, you know Greg Laurie. This guy is a hypocrite. When people don't say hi to him on the street. He says, I hate you. He lies to girls in children's clothing stores and says he is a stunt double. This guy, he is not a good Christian. You should not hear his prayers. And Jesus steps in and says, I know Greg is messed up. But I love him and I am interceding for him. That is my intercessor. That is your intercessor. Interceding before God for you.
Why is that important? Because the devil will come and whisper in my ear, why don't you go ahead and sin? No one will ever know. I won't tell if you won't tell. So you take the bait. And you do the wrong thing. And then the devil comes right back to you and says, you miserable hypocrite. Do you think you are worthy to approach God? Do you think God will hear your prayers? See he comes with the temptation. And then when you take the bait he comes with the accusations. But the good news is because Jesus died and rose again he intercedes for me before the Father.
Power, Eternity, and New Bodies
Number three. The resurrection assures me I have the power I need to live the Christian life. Because I am told over in Romans 8:11 "the Spirit of God who raised up Jesus from the dead lives in you. And just as He raised Christ from the dead to give life to your mortal body so you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do." You know sometimes people think, I just can't change. I can't overcome this addiction. I can't stop doing that wicked thing. I cannot control my thought life. I am always going to be a victim to these things so I might as well just give up. That's not true. Because Jesus died and rose you can overcome these things. Because the same power that resurrected Christ from the grave lives inside of you and will give you power over sin. Listen. It is not hard to be a Christian. It is impossible without God's help. But Jesus died and rose again to give you that power.
Number four. The resurrection of Jesus assures me that I too will live forever in heaven. The resurrection of Jesus assures me that I will live forever in heaven and then later on the new earth. This is a great promise. Death died when Christ rose. Because Jesus rose I too will rise. Because Jesus died I will never die. You say, Oh Greg you have lost your mind. What do you mean you will never die? No. I will never die. Yes you will Greg. Oh I understand. I understand in a technical sense. There will come a moment when my body stops functioning as it does now. But in another sense I will never die at all. You see I will live forever. That is what the Bible says. Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die." For the believer death is not the end of the road. It is only a bend in the road. When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead he conquered death. He took the sting out of death. And so that is the great hope that we have.
Number five. The resurrection of Jesus assures me that I will receive a new body just like His. The resurrection of Jesus assures me that I will receive a new body just like His. 1 John 3:2 says "we know that when He is revealed we will be like Him." So here is my question to you. When Jesus rose again from the dead was He in a real body? Or could you put your hand right through Him? No. It was a body. Remember when He appears to Thomas he says, Hey you want to see the wounds? Touch them. He ate a piece of fish. That is pretty physical. Now He could do some cool stuff, granted. Like appear in a room without using the door. And He also could ascend to heaven. Say, well how did He pull that off? I don't know. But guess what? My body is going to be like His in the resurrected state. So that is pretty exciting to realize.
Resurrected Bodies and Relationships
And I think this is important because there is some confusion among believers as to what our bodies will be like in heaven. Of Americans who believe in the resurrection of the dead, two thirds believe they will not have bodies after the resurrection. Well what do you think we are going to be like? Casper the friendly ghost? You know? No. We are going to have real bodies. Job said in Job 19:26, "In my flesh I will see God. I myself will see Him with my own eyes. I am not another." Listen. When you get to heaven you are going to be you. It is not like you are going to be another you. Sometimes it is said you get to heaven and you don't remember anything from earth. It is like just a big brain wipe. You know? And you are like this ghost phantom floating around watching fat babies with wings play harps. This does not sound appealing to me. And the good news is that is not the biblical heaven. That is the mythology that is growing around it. You are in heaven. You are going to still be you. You are going to just be the upgraded version of you. Okay? You are going to be you perfect. Not flawed. But you will still be you. I will still be me. My personality. Your personality will still be intact without the sinful tendencies. And then when I come back to earth in my new body I will rule and reign with Christ. This is all because of the resurrection of Jesus.
Number six. Because of the resurrection of Jesus we will have resurrected relationships. We will have resurrected relationships. You know after Christ came back again He effectively picked up where He left off. In John 20 is the story of the disciples going out fishing Peter, James, and John. They caught nothing. And I don't know if these guys ever caught fish if Jesus wasn't helping them. Every time we read about them fishing Jesus is giving them direction. So they are out there fishing, toiling all night and so forth. Jesus says, Why don't you throw your net on the other side of the boat? Now they are thinking, Where have we heard that before? And they do it. And they have so many fish they can't contain them in the nets. So they bring their boat in from the water. And they are pulling in this giant net with all of these fish. And what do they see? Jesus, the risen Lord, standing before Him with a little coal of fires and some fish cooking. I love that scene. Isn't that great? Do you think Jesus was a good cook? He does. And you are right. So Jesus had this meal waiting. He says, Come on boys. Come and dine. Come and have breakfast. Let's have a meal together. He picked up the conversation where it last left off.
You know, in life we acquire friends. Maybe not as many as we would like. I read in the news the other day that the average amount of the friends that most people have now is two. Used to be three. Maybe it is the economy. I don't know. But it is less. I can't afford you. I am sorry. I am cutting back to two. Next year probably one. And who knows after that. Well anyway, there are different kinds of friendships. Right? There are some kinds of friendships that I would describe as high maintenance. You know what I mean? These are the friends that get easily offended. These are the friends that get upset with you if you don't call them every weekend and do something with them and give them a basic daily update of everything that you are doing. They are fragile friendships. But then there are friendships that go on for years. I have friends that I have known for over 35 years. And I won't see them literally for a year. And when I see them we will actually pick up where we last left off. Just like, hey remember that one time? It is like we were just together. But it is one of those solid friendships.
That is what we are going to do. Because we have loved ones that have gone on to heaven. And there are things we wish we could have said to them. And there are things we wish they would have said to us. But the conversation was cut off suddenly. But there is going to be reunited relationships and continued conversations. Have you ever been talking to someone on the phone and lost service? Let me put it another way. Is your carrier AT&T? I will probably get sued now. But you know you are in the middle of a call. This happened to me yesterday. I was talking to my wife. And we are going back and forth. And I asked her something. I thought, why is she answering me? Well she had been off the phone for a while. The sad thing is it wasn't the fault of my carrier. She just hung up. No she didn't. But I got cut off. But in heaven those conversations will be continued.
Final Judgment and Invitation to Christ
And number seven. Because of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead there will be a final judgment. Because of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead there will be a final judgment. Acts 17:31 says, "He is appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by this man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this by raising Him from the dead." Yes. A final judgment. Now if you are a Christian this shouldn't frighten you. Because here is the good news. Though it is true there is a final judgment it is also true you won't be there. Now Christians will be judged. But as I pointed out before it is more of a reward or an award ceremony that will happen in heaven as rewards are meted out for faithful service to the Lord. But it is not at all a judgment as to whether or not you get to heaven.
See when a believer dies they don't go before God. Let's see if your name is in the book. Okay you are in. Come in. Oh you are not here. No, no, no. That is not how it works. Believer dies. They go straight to heaven. You are in. It is done. It is sealed. You go straight to heaven. The people that stand at God of the great white throne there is no oh you get to come in and you don't get to come in. If you are at the great white throne judgment you are not getting in. You are not getting in. Ever. This is just demonstrating why you are not getting in. And the reason you are not getting in is because your name is not written in the Lamb's book of life. Because there in Revelation 20 when we read about it we read whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Now because Jesus died and rose again I won't be there. And if you are a Christian you won't be there either. If you are not a Christian you will be there. I don't care who you are, how important you are, how famous or wealthy you are. None of that will matter. You will stand there before God. And the big question will be what did you do with Jesus Christ. See you don't need to be at this final judgment if you don't want to. If you will put your faith in Christ He will forgive you. He will open up this relationship with the Father. And you can know with certainty that you will be ready to die when that day comes and go to heaven. But you will also be certain that you will be ready to meet the Lord if He comes before that day of death and calls us to glory. We call it the rapture of the church.
So here is my question to you in closing. Are you ready to meet God? Jesus came to this earth to die. To pay the price for our sins. To rise again from the dead. So we don't have to be afraid of what happens after. I can be ready to meet God. And if you are not ready. If you are not certain that Jesus Christ is living inside of you. If you don't have the confidence that you will go to heaven when you die. If you walk around right now with a burden of guilt and you don't know how to get rid of it. I am going to give you an opportunity to get right with God. An opportunity to ask Jesus Christ into your life and be forgiven of all of your sin.
So you will be thinking about what you are going to do as we close now in prayer. Let's pray. Father I pray now for every person hearing this message. I pray you will help them to see their need for you. I pray that you will help them to come to you and believe in Jesus. Now while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we are praying. How many of you would say today, Greg pray for me. I want Christ to come into my life. I want to be ready to go to heaven. I want my sin forgiven. Pray for me. I want Jesus to forgive me right now. I want to be right with God. If that is your desire. If you want Christ to come into your life. If you want to go to heaven when you die. If you want Your sin forgiven. Wherever you are, would you just lift your hand up and I will pray for you. God bless you. Just lift your hand up. God bless you up there in the balcony. God bless you down here on the floor. If I can't see you, you are watching one of the video screens, lift your hand as well. I am going to lead you in this same prayer. It is really not important that I see you. What is important is that you take this little step of faith and say to the Lord, I need to get right with you.
Anybody else, you are not sure that you are ready for the Lord's return. You do not have the confidence your sin is forgiven, but you want to change that. You want Jesus to come into your life. Let me pray for you. Lift your hand up. God bless you. Wherever you are, lift it up. God bless you. Wherever you are watching this, on the screen, wherever, lift your hand up. I will pray for you. God bless you. Anybody else in this final moment, if you have not lifted your hand yet, lift it now. I will pray for you. God bless you. All right. I want all of you that have lifted your hand to ask Christ to come in your life. To stand to your feet. And I am going to lead you in a prayer. Just stand up right now where you are. Don't be embarrassed. You are among friends and family. Just stand up. And I am going to lead you in a prayer. If you did not lift your hand but you want to make this commitment or recommitment to Jesus just stand up right now. Wherever you are. Watching on a video. Harvest Orange County. Harvest Orange Crest here at Harvest Riverside. Stand to your feet. I will lead you in this prayer. God bless you. Anybody else? Stand now. One final moment. If you are going to stand, stand now. God bless you. Stand up. God bless you. Anybody else? Just stand up. I will lead you in this prayer of committing your life to Jesus. Receiving His forgiveness. Stand now.
All right. All of you that are standing, I want you to pray this prayer out loud after me. And this is where you are asking for God's forgiveness. So wherever you are, pray this prayer out loud after me now. Pray this. Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner, but I thank you for dying on the cross for me and rising again from the dead. Now come into my life. Be my Savior. Be my Lord. Be my God. Be my friend. I choose to follow you, Jesus, from this moment forward. Thank you for calling me and accepting me and forgiving me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.