Jesse Duplantis — Not A Typical Resurrection Message
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, I'm Jesse Duplantis. You know what made Christianity? The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about that. We ought to be celebrating that every day of the year because the resurrection of Jesus Christ says that we've been raised with Him. I want you to call a friend, tell them to turn that television on.
They're gonna be blessed by this wonderful message. It's a resurrection, not a typical message. It's not typical, but you are gonna be blessed by it. So let's go right now of this great message, and receive from God because you ought to be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. Watch this now.
I want to read St. John 20:1. "The first day of the week cometh--" And I'm reading out of the King James version. "--Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, "unto the sepulchre, "and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. "Then she runneth, "and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved--" That's John. "--and saith unto them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, "and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth,and that other disciple," John, "and came to the sepulchre." Now, I'm gonna read a little bit. "So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter--" Notice this. I wonder why Peter wasn't, you know, since he was the head-- the first Pope.
Maybe like Pope Francis, might have ate a little too much pasta. Now, can't you leave a man alone, for God's sake? Did y'all see that on television? They said he needed to cut back because he's eating too much pasta and pizza.
I love the cardinal of New York. He said, "Father--Holy Father, "I would never give you any advice, but I'll give you this: Get another doctor."
I thought that was funny myself. Glory to God. "So they ran both together: "and the other disciple did outrun Peter, "and came first to the sepulchre. "And he stooping down, "and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying; "yet went he not in. "Then cometh Simon Peter following him, "and went into the sepulchre, "seeth the linen cloths lie, "and the napkin, that was about his head, "not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself."
Notice Jesus was very organized. Everything He does is organized. "Then went in also that other disciple, "which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed." So something happened there. He went in, saw, and believed. So is it possible that Peter went in but didn't believe? Because why wouldn't they say that?
You see, the difference between John and Peter at this moment, one has moral courage, the other one has physical courage. Peter had physical courage. Look you right in the face and tell you how the cow ate the cabbage, like they say in south Louisiana. But he's a little-- he'll go in that tomb, look around, but mmm...
Because they wasn't expecting to meet Him. Because Christianity was done away with right there. It was over. Peter got seven converts with four words. He said, "I go a-fishing," and seven of them said, "We'll go wicha." It was over. But now this is a new day.
Now, John goes in and sees this and says, "He has risen." Now, I want to keep reading here. Verse 9: "For as yet they knew not the Scripture, "that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home." Now, Jesus had told them that all during His three years of ministry, but they didn't quite understand it in the Scripture.
"But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: "and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre--" See, she didn't go in, she just stooped down in white sitting, "the one at the head, the other at the feet, "where the body of Jesus had lain.
"And they said unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? "She saith unto them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, "and I know not where they have laid him. "And when she had thus said, "she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, "and knew not that it was Jesus. "Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seeketh thou?"
Now, here's where I want to get to. Not a typical resurrection message. "She, supposing Him to be the gardener--" This was Joseph of Arimathea's gardener who took care of Joseph's tomb. It's springtime, things are blooming. You see what I'm saying? He's taking care-- You don't take care of a garden in the winter. The soil is resting.
But in springtime, you've got to go cut and clip and clean the place out so that growth can grow without weeds choking it out. She thinks He's a gardener. Why? Because she's not expecting to meet Him. Even though Jesus said, "You kill this temple, I'll be back in three days." Not a typical resurrection message.
Everybody Jesus preached to didn't believe He was getting out of that grave. The first one to actually believe that it was, was John, the disciple whom God loved. He walked in and he believed. Where is-- where was the holy mother? Think for a minute. Let's think. And that's not being critical now. I just want you to understand.
Where was the holy mother? You'd think she'd be with the other Mary. Because she didn't think, neither, that He would come out. >> Come on, come on, come on. Everybody is sad, including Mary Magdalene, but she was so devoted to Jesus because He cast the demons and set her free, that she came out of respect and honor to His sepulchre.
How many times Jesus has walked around you and you thought He was a gardener. How many people today that will go to church on Easter Sunday and see a gardener instead of the true Christ. See, because a lot of people know about God, but do you know God?
That's the difference. To know Him, not just believe in Him. Even the devil believes. How many times the Spirit of God in the form of Christ has walked by people, but they just saw it as a gardener instead of the Son of the Living God. You know, I want you to think about that, ladies and gentlemen.
It's so powerful to understand God's Word. He's present, and He's calling your name. Do you recognize Him? Think about that for a minute.
Let me ask you another question. Would you have expected to meet Jesus at the tomb? Hmm, that's perplexing, isn't it? Everything God does is perplexing to the mind. Why? The intellect can't receive it. See, that's what a lot of people don't understand. See, they're trying to understand God from a natural standpoint of view when He's a spirit, and you're a spirit housed in a soul and clothed in a body.
So you deal with Him on the spiritual level. Now, it gets so powerful that it'll get into the physical level. The things of God must be received through the spirit, through a renewed soul. What is the renewed soul? The mind, the will, and the emotions. And then a crucified body, which means this, that sin does not lord over you.
Oh, no; think about that. Condemnation does not lord over you. See, people think, you know, when they feel bad, "I'm convicted." No, no, condemnation makes you feel bad. Conviction makes you see the truth; and when you see the truth, you go, "Oh, I'm not gonna do that anymore."
You see what I'm saying? And all of a sudden, you flow. But a lot of times people preach condemnation and they think it's conviction, and it's not. I'm starting to preach here; I can't help myself. I've got to bring you back into the message in just a moment to make you understand that power of that resurrection.
Man, I think about that every day of my life. You know, when I pray for all of you people-- and I literally do, every day of my life. Now, I'm not just saying that to make you think I'm saying something here. I literally pray for people-- because the world needs prayer.
Buddy, people need Jesus Christ. This world is crazy. You know it and I know it. But when you accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, when you walk in that anointing, He can fix things. I can't help myself. Man, this is a powerful message. I want to take you back into the message right now.
You're gonna learn something again. Be blessed as you see this message and receive. "She, supposing Him to be the gardener, saith unto Him, Sir, if thou have borne Him," or took Him, "tell me where thou-- you have laid Him, "and I will take Him away.
Jesus saith unto her--" See, you can't get a revelation of God until life speaks. Till your name is called. And he's calling now. Every time you go in church, He is calling your name.
He says, "Mary. She turned herself--" Now, watch this. So she was walking away. "--and saith unto Him, Rabboni." Now, she's still thinking of Him as a rabbi. No, He's the resurrection and the life! See, you can be so close to Jesus and still not see the power of who He is.
She calls Him "Rabbi" when she should've said, "My God, the Son of God!" "--Rabbi; which is to say, Master." I want to stop right there and I want you to write this down: "We gain spiritual light at the expense of intellectual perplexity."
Everything I'm preaching this morning the secular world thinks is garbage, they think it's foolish, as I said earlier, because the natural man receiveth not the things of God because they're foolishness unto him. What evidence can we give them? The best evidence for the resurrection of the Lord is the resurrection of the Church.
See, we just--we should be just as alive as Jesus was when He came out of that tomb. But have we decided to be gardeners? We'll work around the church, we'll even work in the church, but ain't nobody coming out of the tomb. But the place looks good.
It's beautiful, it's fancy, it's nice. Then after a while when you become like that, Jesus becomes the gardener. You don't even recognize why you're doing what you're doing. You're doing it out of religiosity instead out of a resurrection life. People ask me, "Why are you so happy all the time?" I'm alive! And doing well! Christ in me, the hope of glory.
My God. That's why I'm not worried about all this stuff that people want me to worry about. Why would I do that? If He came out of the tomb, and He did, so did I. ( Audience Agrees ) The difference is I ain't weeping about it. I'm going all over the world shouting about it, which makes people so mad. They're mad at me because I'm happy. Try it, you'll like it.
Let me say it again, we gain spiritual light, see, because everything must be learned by the eye of faith, by the spirit of who-- that's inside of you. We gain spiritual light at the expense of intellectual perplexity. Now, let me get to this: The whole doctrine of the resurrection is the doctrine of the body because, you see, even the pharaohs believed that they would-- that they would still live, but never the body.
That's why they mummified the body so that it would not decay. They wasn't thinking that body was gonna get up. But Jesus had a whole different view. He said, "Let's freak out the atheists. "Let's freak out the other religions. "Let's make the resurrection the doctrine of the body. We're gonna take the body up."
You notice that the angels and the young-- you go into all the different-- the Gospels, you'll see that every one of them were young. That tells you, when you get to heaven, you're not gonna be old no more. You will have a youth look,a light look. There will be no more age.
Think about that. It's gonna be wonderful. You'll be able to run across the universe without getting out of breath. You can win the Crescent City Classic. And beat the Kenyans.
Think about that for a minute. The first--they say every angel in the Bible that people see have young looks. Yet they still try to make the Father old, with a beard, because they think in terms of time. Time doesn't exist with God. He is.
So let me say it again, when these things happen-- when you see somebody healed, it's perplexing. "Oh, I don't know if they're really healed," because, you see-- but you gain spiritual light from things that you don't understand, because you'll never get it in your mind.
And I'm gonna say this not critically. They say the greatest mind we have today is Stephen Hawking, the theoretical physicist who has that terrible disease, ALS or something, something, where all the-- the only thing that moves on him is this part of his body...
He wrote an article not too long ago that God does not exist at all, because now we know so much about science, that God doesn't exist. As brilliant as that mind, if anybody-- Mr. Hawking, if you're watching today, if anybody needs to believe that God is real, you do, because He's the only One who can get you out of that chair.
But, you see, it's perplexing, and yet the theoretical physicists, they give us theories that they preach as fact before it's proven. Let me make an announcement. The resurrection has already been proven; it's not a theory. This was not done in a corner, in the dark, back-- I mean, people all over the place were seeing Jesus walking around.
I mean, that right there ought to make you shout. But an unregenerated mind cannot handle that. "