Jentezen Franklin - Easter, The Live Experience
Hello, and welcome to a very special edition of Kingdom Connection. My wife Cherise and I wanna wish you a very happy and blessed Easter. We recently had an annual Easter production, and we saw thousands and thousands of people come together to celebrate Jesus, to hear the old story of how He was crucified on a cross, died for your sins and my sins. So, I want you to gather your family around, get ready to celebrate the story of Easter. I believe God's gonna touch you through a song, through a sing, through this incredible production. And I believe Jesus is gonna be alive in your life today. Happy Easter, everyone.
Jesus and His disciples often ate meals together, just the 12 of them. But this night was different. The disciples were heartbroken when Jesus announced that one of them, His friends, would betray Him. "How could that be"? They thought. "Who would dare betray their own friend"? Each of them questioned, "Is it me? Is it me"? Desperately hoping it was not. As the disciples discussed this with each other, John leaned over to Jesus and asked quietly, "Who is it that will betray you, Rabbi"? His answer was simple, "The one who dips his bread into the bowl after I do".
And that's when John saw it, a hand reached across the table and dipped into the bowl. The hand belonged to Judas Iscariot. He was secretly betraying Jesus. John's eyes caught Judas walking out, making no announcement as to where he was going, and no one else questioned his absence. Jesus asked Peter, James, and John to follow him to the garden of Gethsemane where they would keep watch as He went to pray. They had never seen Jesus like He was that night. His face was full of sorrow, His hands were shaking by His side, sweat rolled down His forehead like drops of blood. Jesus was in anguish knowing what was to come. He walked through the garden and eventually fell to the ground saying, "Father, if it is possible, please take this cup from me". Jesus knew the gruesome death He had to die in order to save those He loved, and He was scared. Yet, at the end of His prayer, He took a deep breath and said, "Not my will, but yours be done".
The footsteps of Roman soldiers were heard in the distance, being led by the betrayer. With great fear, Peter, James, and John watched as Judas greeted our Lord with a devious kiss, sealing the deal for soldiers to seize Him. They violently grabbed His arms and took Him away. And though Peter tried to stopped them, it was Jesus who protested against His rescue.
Jesus gave the soldiers permission to drag Him away, throwing Him into the hands of men who would decide His fate.
The Roman soldiers viciously threw Jesus at the feet of Pilate, who interrogated Him to see if He was truly guilty of a crime. However, he found no basis for a charge. He even tried many times to set Jesus free, but after the Jewish leaders argued with him, his last option was to turn the decision over to the people. And when he asked the crowd what would they have him do with Jesus, they yelled out in a unified voice, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him"! Pilate pushed aside his own opinion and washed his hands of the situation, declaring that he was innocent of this man's blood. They tied Jesus to a post and whipped Him mercilessly. His skin was torn, and the pain that rushed through His body was surely unbearable. Yet, He didn't open His mouth nor did He protest. He took the punishment knowing that by His wounds we would be healed.
What they're singing about is so real to many of us in this room and overflow, wherever you're watching around the world. I was thinking about the price that He paid and how He bled from His body from seven different places, and I felt like the Lord spoke to me and gave me a little message to give you. Because every time He shed blood from some part of His body, that blood heals a part of your life.
The first time that Jesus shed His blood, He shed it in the garden of Gethsemane when He was travailing and His sweat became like drops of blood. He refused His own will and He said, "Not my will, but thine, be done". The first time that Jesus shed His blood, His blood was shed for the healing of your will, to make my will line up with His will, to make my desires in line with His desires, to make my wants come in line with His wants. He had to shed His blood. And when He cried, "Not my will, but thine, be done," His sweat became drops of blood.
Then the second time that Jesus bled, and this one is so important, He bled from His face when they tore His beard off. The text said that they literally ripped His beard off. If you can imagine such a thing, physically torn off. His skin hung, and He was unrecognizable. The second time that Jesus bled, He bled for the healing of your self-image, your image. And you may be here, and you may be a young lady, and you look in the mirror and you hate yourself. You hear a voice that says, "You're ugly. You're not pretty enough. You're not thin enough. You're not smart enough. You're not good enough". I heard that voice. It almost took my life. You may be looking at me right now. The image that God made you in is either male or female, but the enemy may be lying to you, telling you you're man trapped in a woman's body or a woman trapped in a man's body. But the Bible said, "He made them in His image, and He made them male and He made them female," and He loves you. "And you are fearfully and wonderfully made," Psalms 139. And when Jesus bled from His face, He bled for the healing of our image.
The third time that He bled, He bled from His head when they shoved the crown of thorns on His head. Bleeding from His head represents the healing of the mind. And in a generation after the pandemic that has broken mentally, broken emotionally, young people who've lost their way in the depths of depression, and darkness, and suicide, and going deeper and deeper into addiction, He bled to heal mental illness. He bled to heal our minds. You don't have to live in fear. You don't have to live in a depressed, hopeless life. He can renew your mind. He can give you a mind that is thinking right and is walk, is free from the power of the past.
And then, when He bled, He bled from His back. Why? He bled for the healing of our bodies. And I boldly decree over this congregation today that by His stripes, we are healed. That there is a name greater than cancer, and there's a name greater than heart disease, kidney disease, and lung disease. There is a name above every name that can be named, and it is Jesus. And by His stripes, we are healed. With long life, He satisfies us, hallelujah, and shows us His salvation.
Then, when He bled, He bled from His hands for the healing of our work. We think that what we do for a living is not spiritual, and we're so wrong. When Jesus drug the cross, He drug it through the marketplace because He knew that was where people worked. He didn't just want crosses in the church, He wanted people to carry the cross through the secular marketplace. And He wants to use what you do for a living, He wants the work of your hands. When they drove the nails into His hands He was bleeding for your work. It matters what you do. And He has a mission, He has an assignment, He has a plan.
He bled from His feet to heal our walk. And don't you let anybody tell you, "You just can't live it". Don't you let anybody tell you, "You can't walk out of that addiction". Don't you let anybody tell you that, "You can't get beyond the past, you can't move beyond that abuse, you can't move beyond that bad relationship, you can't get beyond the grief of that lost of a son or a daughter, you can't walk out of that". He bled so that you could walk on top of water if you have to. Whatever is over your head is under His feet, and He gives you the power to walk it out.
And lastly, He bled from His side. You remember? When that centurion guard stabbed Him in the side and hence forth came blood and water. What was that about? My mind went to the story of Adam and how that he was lonely and God saw that he was alone and God said, "It's not good for a man to be alone, he needs a wife, he need a family". And God put him to sleep and opened up his side and reached in, pulled out a rib, created a beautiful woman, woke Adam up from the anesthesia and he looked and saw a beautiful gracious woman and he said, "Wow, man". When He bled from His side, it was for the healing of our fellowship, the healing of our families, the healing of our marriages, the healing of our relationship with our children and our grandchildren. And there is nothing Hell has done to your family that the blood of Jesus cannot restore. I want you to understand, He is not just the Prince of Peace, He's the Prince of Pieces. And sometimes, all you have left is broken pieces, but He's the Prince of those pieces. If you'll say yes to that blood, it will cleanse your family, it will cleanse you, it will cleanse your will, your mind, your body. It will heal your walk. It will heal your work. It will heal your image.
Every head bowed, every eye closed. If you're in this room today and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you're at the unique transition and crossroad of life. God brought you to this church this morning, not to hear our performance, but to absolutely encounter is nail scared hand reaching for you. And if you're in this room or you're an overflow or you're watching me anywhere all over the world and you feel something just saying, "This is the day. This is the day, don't run anymore, don't back off anymore. Come home, come home, come home to Jesus. Come back to peace". Even if your life is in pieces, He can make a beautiful Messiah if you'll just give Him a chance. "Pastor, pray for me, I know that I'm not what I ought to be and where I ought to be and I wanna know that I'm saved, and I wanna know that I have eternal life, and I wanna know that I'm born again. Pray for me". If that's you, left your hand high. "Pastor, I need Him. I need Him. I need His forgiveness". That's it, hands all over this room, all over this room. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful in the overflow. Everybody pray this prayer out loud quickly. Say:
Lord Jesus, I believe you bled, and died, and you rose from the dead, and because you live, I can face tomorrow. Because you live, my sins are gone, and I have eternal life, and I am forgiven. The blood of Jesus has cleansed me from all of my sins.