Joseph Prince - His Resurrection, My Victory Over Death
Resurrection Morning. Jesus conquered death, amen? A man has been raised from the dead. You know, the Resurrection of Jesus that we celebrate today is not like when he raised Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus was to wear those linen clothes, those grave clothes, again one day. He was raised in a sense, for a while, to die again. But Jesus was raised from the dead never to die again, in a glorified body. And the Bible promised that for all those who believe on him, he's gonna return for us. And the moment he comes back for us, he will transform our vile bodies like unto his glorious body. That body that he rose from the dead with, that body that is not subject or will ever be subject again to sickness, disease, mortality, or to death itself, that body is how our bodies will be transformed and conformed to, amen.
In other words, the Bible promises that if all those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will one day have a body that will never decay, never grow old, never be subject to disease or sickness or even weakness, ever. And it will never die, ever again, amen? We always have this idea that after death we'll be floating around like a disembodied spirit, amen, even in heaven we are like a disembodied spirit, you know, or playing the harp. I float into your mansion, you float into my mansion, we float everywhere. No, the Bible tells us otherwise. The Bible says, yes, for those who have passed on, the Bible tells us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, amen. To be present with our Lord Jesus.
The Bible says that body is sown in corruption, but it'll be raised in incorruption. It is sown in weakness, it will be raised in power. It is sown in mortality, it will be raised immortal. In other words, God will not leave the bodies behind. Whether it is a body that is cremated or in the ground or somewhere, all right, in the ocean or whatever it is, not a single particle, not a single atom, is forgotten by God. God designed for man to live spirit, soul, and body. You see, friend, you are a spirit, but we are so conscious of the material realm that we say that "well, you know, those things are not real but this is what is real. Gimme some cold hard cash. This is real, amen? When I see the car, that is real. This chair is real, amen? My jacket here is real, my body is real".
Now, for us, this is real but have you noticed that all these things, if it can be touched, it can be felt, if it's physical, if it's material, it is all growing old. It is all decaying. It is all rusting away. It is all coming to a place called death. Why is that so? Why is it that everything that's material is decaying, it's rusting away, it is on a downward path, it has an expiry date? Why is that so? A hundred years from now, if Jesus tarries, not a single person will be alive in your body. Why is that so? And yet we feel in our spirits, in our hearts, that death is not meant to be. We feel like, you know, we feel like death is something foreign to our human existence. We don't like to acknowledge it. Even when we go to a funeral, we don't enjoy it, right?
Of course, we know that this is something sorrowful, something that grieves us, something that is foreign to our nature. You know why? Because God made you to live forever. You know it is foreign. You know it's something that God didn't plan. In fact, the Bible calls death, to God is an enemy. Death is an enemy. Jesus said, "The thief," that is the devil, "he comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I am come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly". Let me just express to you a little bit about how God made you, okay? God made you in his image; "in his likeness," the Bible says, amen. We say that, you know, we feel compassion, we feel love, and we love creating things, and we say that, "Hey, God is also like that," when I read my Bible, "so God is like us".
Actually, we are like God. He made us in his image, and that's why we feel compassion. That's why we love to create and step back and say, "Wow, it's good," amen. God made us in his image, in his likeness. So of all the creation, God didn't make you after the image of a chimpanzee or a giraffe. Say, "Thank God," amen? God didn't make you in the image of an animal. In fact, God made everything, plus all the animals, in the early days of creation and man was made last. Why? So that man can enjoy everything that God has created. Man is God's highest creation. It's never said of the horse or the dog that God made them in his image, but it is said of you that God made you in his image.
And that's why the Bible tells us in Genesis chapter 1, the very first chapter of the Bible, that after God made, you know, everything on the first day, or the second day, or the third day, it says that God saw what he had made and it was good. It was good, amen. Then on the fourth day, at the end it says: "God saw what he had made and it was good". And on the sixth day, God saw everything that he had made, plus man. God made man on the sixth day and God said it was "very good". This time the word is "very good". So, when God made you, God said, "It's very good," amen? So for man, God made a woman, amen. So the part of man that is in the image of God is his spirit. You are a spirit being, clothed in a body, or living in a house called the body.
You are not your body, amen? Your body is subject to decay, sickness, and disease, and finally death. But your spirit is created in the class of God, which means you are forever. Like I said, you know, we think of material things as real, and the spirit unreal. But actually, it's a spirit being, God himself that brought forth the material world, that made the physical world. As you can see, it is not eternal. The material world is not eternal. It is subject to decay. But God is forever. Anything that's spirit is forever. That's why Satan, all right, will be cast into the lake of fire that burns forever. There must be a place to house even the evil creatures, spirit beings, the fallen angels, Satan and all his demons, that rebel against God. Even man is created in God's image but, of course, the angels are not made in God's image. It has never said so. But you are made in God's image and likeness, amen?
And that's why God said it was "very good" when God made you, amen? The only thing he said is not good is that it's not good for man to be alone. Only one voice of agreement. So man had everything he wanted in the Garden. Everything was made for man to enjoy, except that he didn't have a companion. So God made a woman, after he made the man. And when Adam saw her, Adam said, "Whoa, man"! And she became "woman," amen? She wasn't created, her body wasn't created from the dust of the ground. Man was created from the dust of the ground, right? Your house, not you. That's why when you drop your body, when your heart stop beating, all right, and you step out of your body, the real you is alive because you are, that part of you is created in the class of God. And there must be a place to house that spirit.
Now, if it's a sinful spirit, it's cut off from God's realm, amen, from God's kingdom. So it'd be housed in eternal hell. It's still eternal. But heaven is the habitat of those who are recreated, we call it born again, in the image of God. So they belong to the kingdom of God. So there must be a place to house these things because these things cannot be banished just like that because they're eternal. Spirit substance, do you understand? So spirit is more real than material. Everything you see is subject to change. Everything you see is subject to mortality if it's a living, breathing person, a person who looks so alive right now, but decay has started. Everything decays. Everything, all right, is on a downward spiral. Everything decays, everything, amen? Your body decays. But the real you is ageless, amen. There must be a place to house you.
So when God made man, God said to man, all right, "All the trees," you know how many species of trees and food there is and varieties there is, on earth? So God made earth more than enough, abundance. Abundance is God's idea. When God made the earth, God did not make poverty. Poverty came as a result of sin. God made it lavish, abundant, superfluous, extravagant, amen. And it's all for one man and his wife to enjoy. So this idea that God doesn't want you to have more than enough and all that is not from God. At least, in the original intent and his design. God made everything for man to enjoy and eat, that's why God made man last so that he can enjoy everything that he has created. God made man to enjoy a finished work, amen?
So, man only had to pluck the fruit and eat, okay? But God gave man something that today, no matter how creative we are, and we think that we have arrived when we have created the ChatGPT and artificial intelligence. We think that we have arrived, you know? This is the ultimate, man, in intelligence and in information technology, and we have come to a new world. But I tell you this: the artificial intelligence, that robot, whatever, it's as good as the person that programs it. And it's very limited, therefore, all right? Its knowledge can give you all kind of facts but wisdom is not accumulation of facts. Wisdom is knowing how to use the facts with a prosperous result and that is something that AI cannot give you. AI has no morals. The morals is as good as the one who program it.
So imagine the person programming the AI. So the AI is a non-existent you know, it's as good as the person programming it. No one can create the way God creates. When God made you, God stepped back and God says, "Very good". And that's why David says, "I am carefully and wonderfully made, and my soul knows it real well". So turn to your neighbor, smile, and say, "Very good". Now, in order for you to create what does man have that a robot does not have? What is it? ChatGBT does not have. What is it? Free choice. A free choice. That is something that God gave man, and when God gave man free choice, it is really free choice. Now, imagine that if you say that "you know something? My son, he never chooses bad food. He always eats good food. I've trained him from young". And I come to your house and I see in your house there are no sweets, no candies, all right, no soda drinks, you know, nothing but wholemeal bread, organic food, organic biscuit. Then you say, "My son never eats, at home, he never eats anything that's bad". There's no choice.
So, in order for God to allow man, and this is part of his jurisprudence, all right, that he has to allow man to exercise his free choice, whether man wants to love him and obey him out of his own volition or man wants to go his own way without God. So of all the trees that God planted, God had to plant one tree there. It wasn't the devil that planted it. It was God who planted it, and God planted the tree so as to give man the exercise of his free choice. Let's say everything is good, wherein lies the free choice, you know? You cannot choose to rebel against God. God says, "Okay, I give you a free choice, okay? But everything that surround you is good". You know what I'm saying? So God created a tree called the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In other words, it is called the Internet. You think about it. The Internet, right, you can find knowledge of good and knowledge of evil, and man is still the same, amen?
Man is still the same. They still wanna kill one another, amen. They still hate one another, amen. They still sin rampantly in the world today. Wars are still rampant, amen? And all kinds of plagues are happening to us that the world never expect to see in our day and age where it becomes global. And Jesus said that before he comes again, before he comes back to us physically, in his glorified resurrected body, before he comes for us, he says these are the birth pangs. He call it the birth pangs, all right? These are the signs that will happen and there'll be plagues. He's talking about global plagues, not a plague that happens to a localized area in the world, but global. Has there been a plague globally recently?
And then he says: "Great earthquakes in many places". Has there been a rise in great earthquakes, 6.5, above 6.5, above in the Richter scale? Has that been... great earthquakes. Not just earthquakes, but great earthquakes lately? Yes, in our generation. And then he says there'll be famines. Is there a problem with food globally today? And then Jesus says: "Nation will rise". You'll see these things happen. "Nation will rise against nation. There'll be wars, and rumors of wars". Straightaway you'll see if there's anything in our day and age, right now we see Ukraine war and then we see rumors of wars. Have we ever seen a plague like COVID-19 that has gone global in modern times?
Jesus said, "When you see all these things happening all at once, all right, know that these are the birth pangs, like a woman undergoing birth pangs," right, before she, you know, the contraction and all that gets shorter and shorter before she gives birth, all right? You'll see all these things happening, like, all at once. These are the signs. He say, "When you see these things happen," he didn't say, "Be discouraged. Cast your head down," amen? He said, "Lift up your heads". Don't be obsessed by it, don't be distressed by it. Lift up your heads means lift your heard above this world. Lift up your heads because, why? Your redemption draws near. Your redemption draws near means your bodily redemption.
See, for those of us who are believers, we know that we are born again already in our spirit. Our bodies are still the same. In other words, if you are bald, after you believe on Christ you are still bald, okay? If you have one ear larger than another ear, after you are saved, you are still having the same problem. Am I right? You're the one to talk. I want talk to you, okay? Okay, you must say, "Amen," all right? You're with me. All right, so if you are Chinese before you are saved, after you're saved you're still Chinese. So, listen, doesn't change, that wasn't a revelation, actually. That was like, you know? But bodily, you don't change. So when Jesus says to the religious man who came to Jesus by night because he was ashamed to come to Jesus in front of all his peers and his colleagues in the daytime, so he came to Jesus at night. His name was Nicodemus. One thing about him, he was hungry, spiritually.
So he came to Jesus and said, "We know you're a teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles that you do unless God is with him". Jesus looked at him straightaway and I love the way Jesus answers people. He doesn't answer the question sometimes. He goes straight to the heart. He goes to the core of the matter. He says: "Nicodemus, with all your erudite learning, you must be born again". Then he answered with logic. Nicodemus answered. "But how can a man enter his mother's womb the second time and be born again"? Then Jesus says, "Just like the wind that blows. No one knows where it comes, how it goes. So is everyone born of the spirit". In other words, what is born of the spirit is spirit, amen? You are born of the flesh bodily, right, once. But then, every man since Adam has sin in his blood, and the Bible says: "The wages of sin is death".
So back to the story again in the Garden of Eden. So God gave man a choice and the tree of knowledge of... what's wrong with the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Well, if you partake of it, you will say, "I don't need God 'cause I, myself, know morality. I know what is good, what is evil. I am the judge of what is good and evil," because they partake of that tree of knowledge of good and evil. So the result of partaking of that fruit is that God says, "Don't eat from it. The day you eat of it, dying, you shall die". Now, did man eat of it? Yes, so that is actually more than just eating a fruit, my friend. That is actually telling God, "I don't want your sovereign power over my life. I don't want your love and care over me. I want to live my own life, judge based on my own decisions, based on what I think is good and what is evil. If I think something's good, something is good, 'cause I am the one. I am my own God," in other words. So man became independent of God.
Now, God cannot say, "Boys will be boys. Never mind. Let's sweep everything under the carpet, you know"? God cannot do that. Neither can the judge here in our Supreme Court. He cannot be saying, "Oh, you're my son, you know. My son and my... oh, my dear son, you're right here in front of me. What did you do? Ah, never mind. Sweep everything under the carpet. I forgive you". No, that's not a just judge. And God is a perfect and just God. God is love, all right? But justice. The Bible says justice and righteousness is the foundation of his throne. The whole universe works because God is a God of his word, all right? We exaggerate, God doesn't, amen? So when God says to Adam, before he sinned, God says, "Dying, you shall die". In the Hebrew, it is two words of dying: "Dying you shall die". You will start to die. Where? Spiritually. Spiritually, where you are made in the image of God, you are cut off from God.
And that's why man either live in his body, all right, live after the lust of his flesh, live for the indulgence, a hedonistic lifestyle of pursuit of pleasure, indulgence, drinking, you know, carousing, and all kinds of things. Or he live after his mind "until I am so smart I can create AI, and AI can talk to me, I talk back to AI," all right? Either he live in his body or he live in his mind. But he no more live in his spirit. When you talk about a spirit, he doesn't understand because the spirit, the real him is dead. So God said to Adam, "The day you partake of it, dying," spiritually, "you shall die one day, physically". So, Adam didn't die immediately, physically, but he started to die. He died in his spirit, then he died in his soul and then, finally, he died in his body and, hence, everyone dies. It's not God's plan. Never was his plan. But God told man, if you take the other side, all right, the other side. And we call it sin today, amen. You go by the other way, it's death. Death is the result. God warned man, amen. But the Bible says: "God so loved the world".
Now we come back to the story of the religious leader who came to Jesus at night and Jesus said to him, "You must be born again". But in the same night, Jesus looked at him and Jesus says, "Nicodemus, 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,'" referring to himself. "'That whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'" And then he says this. Now, many people know this verse, all right? We see this verse, especially during our football tournaments and all that, you see at the site, someone hangs, "John 3:16". You do not know it, you better know it by now, amen? It's a message of God's love. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son". Didn't give the best angel, amen. Didn't give another, just another human being. He gave his own Son "that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life".
That life that Jesus says: "I come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly". But before Jesus said that, actually, by the way, this is my son's memory verse, my 10-year-old son. Memory verse last 2 weeks. John 10:10 he will tell you: "The thief does not come but to steal". Who is the thief? The devil. "He comes to steal, kill, destroy". Every time you are stolen from, every time your peace is stolen from, your joy is stolen from, your relationships are stolen from. "The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy". That's what the devil does. He hates you because you are made in the image of God. Just like a lover that has been spurned by the one he loves, you know, and what does he do? He takes the photo of that girl, or the lady will take photo of the man, and they will crush it, they'll crush it. They're not killing the man, they're killing the photo. You know what I'm saying or not? Because the photo is the image of that person.
So the devil can't get to God. You are created in God's image, he comes against you. So "he comes to steal, kill, and destroy," Jesus said, but Jesus says, "I am come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly". It does not consist on the material things that you possess. You know, the one that possess the most wins. No, there are many, many poor people who have plenty of possessions in the world. No, it is a person filled with love, joy, and peace, that Jesus says the kingdom of God inside you manifest like this righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. And that spills over into your relationships. When you are full of love, joy, and peace, it helps and prospers your relationships whether it's with your spouse, whether it's with your children, whether it's with your colleagues and people around you. And it will prosper in every way, amen.
That's the greatest prosperity you can have. Even those who win the lucky draw, you know, lottery, and all that, they're happy for a while. They're happy. They are happy and then they are shocked, and then they're surprised and then they're happy again and then they're scared they'll lose, you know, and they'll be a target of conniving relatives, and all of a sudden they have relatives, they didn't realize they have relatives, you know? And they say money's relative. More money, more relative. And then they are happy for a while, and then they realize that their life has changed and all that. And many, many studies have shown that people who win, like, a sudden windfall, right, like lotteries and all that, sooner or later they lose what they have.
Many of them have very sad endings. Those who pursue fame, fortune, why is it that we see these happening and no one talks about it? We see rock 'n' roll stars and superstars and, you know, we see people like, and so many, so many have ended up, you know, dead too young, too early, too fast. And no one wants to talk about it. Why is it that it doesn't bring that kind of happiness? Why is it that they need another fix, a higher fix? "Nobody gets too much heaven no more. It's much harder to climb by", ahh-ha-ha, "much ha..." Why is it so? Because, friend, you don't have to reach that high. Heaven came down to be where you are. Jesus came down. We can never reach heaven, amen. So Jesus said, "I am come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly," amen.
When Jesus rose from the dead, he rose bodily. And that tells us that God's plan is for us, spirit, soul, and body. So now we are saved. That means once you are saved, you are saved forever, amen? You are born again. You put your trust in Christ. Now, why is there a need for the cross? If there are other ways to God, Jesus's death, and I say this reverently, is the most stupid thing there could be. Why go through all that suffering? I mean, we sanitize even when we do the movie on Jesus, we sanitize. The closest is "The Passion of the Christ," that Mel Gibson did, but even then we don't, the Bible tells us that even his bones stared at him. It was horrible. Why go through all that suffering if there are other ways to God? Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. There's no other way to the Father but by me".
And why must he suffer at the cross? Because, friend, someone needs to pay for our sins. Therefore, on that cross, he who never sinned, he did no sin, he knew no sin, in him is no sin. But he became sin for us on the cross by choice, by choice. No one could arrest him. In the Garden, when they came to arrest him, soldiers, strong soldiers, brandishing their staves and their swords, they came to arrest Jesus, one man. Came to arrest one man, amen, and the man spoke up when they asked, "We seek Jesus of Nazareth". He stepped up and says, "I am". "I am" is a declaration of the God of the burning bush. Many years ago when God chose Moses to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt and Moses asked God: "When they ask me your name, what is your name, God, that I may tell them"? God says, "I am that I am". When Jesus came and they want to arrest him, they came up to arrest him, Jesus stepped up and says, "I am".
Do you know what happened to them? They all fell. The so-called "Divine captive" waited for them to get up to captivate him. Who is the real captive here? And who is the real captivator? But he chose to lay down his life. Jesus said it like this, you know. We think that he was murdered, he was killed. No, no, no. He says, "No one can take my life from me. I lay down my life". And why did he lay down his life? Why did he lay down on the cross? Why did he cry, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do"? Because the picture of the Old Testament, the Feast of Passover, is the feast to commemorate their coming out, their deliverance from Egypt, from slavery, into freedom. And on that first Passover, God told them, "Put the blood on the doorposts and on the lintel".
So imagine that. Picture this with me, okay? Blood on the lintel, and blood on the doorposts, the two doorposts, all right? What do you have? You have the cross. And God said this: "When I see the blood on this night, I will cross over Egypt, and the angel of death will be looking". And God says, "When I see the blood, I will cause the destroyer to pass over your house". That's why we call it Passover, the Feast of Passover. And God says: "I will not allow the destroyer to kill your firstborn," all right? Now, God did not say, "When I see your charitable deeds. When I see your fine character. When I see your good family name. When I see your academic accomplishments". He didn't say that. He says: "When I see the blood, I will pass over you," amen.
Is the blood on your doorpost of your heart? When I see the blood, I will pass over you. I will not allow the destroyer to enter your house. When is see the blood. You know what blood it is? Which animal? It's the blood of the lamb. They were all commanded to take the blood of the lamb and put it on their doorposts and on the lintel. Why the lamb? Because in those days, after that they had a temple, they had a tabernacle, and a temple to go to when they sinned. A person who has sinned, the offeror will bring his lamb. They'll get a lamb and they go to the priest. The priest represents God, okay? He speaks on God's behalf. He is like the eyes of God.
Now, when the offeror comes with the lamb, the priest does not look at the offeror. A lot of people think when they come to God, God is looking at me, all right? But if you have Jesus in your life, God is not looking at you. God is looking at Jesus, the true Lamb of God, amen? If you're without Christ, of course, if the offeror sin, all right, the idea of offeror means you're offering, don't it? But let's say he sinned and he comes boldly to the priest and say, "I've sinned," and there's no payment, no substitute. The priest will have to look at him and judge him and recompense him based on the crime or the sin that he did. He's left to his own devices, right? But when he sinned, God told them in those days when they sin, "Bring a lamb as a sin offering. Bring the lamb".
And the priest does not look at the offeror. He looks at the lamb. And he looks for blemishes. He looks for any disease, defect, any scurvy. A lamb that is to be offered must be without blemish. So the priest does not examine the man. There are still believers today who think that God is looking at them, examining them. No, God is looking at your Lamb. It's not how good you are. It's how good your Lamb is. And who is your Lamb? If you cannot say that, you are left to your own devices, amen. So he brings the lamb, and then the priest commands the offeror to put his hands on the head of the lamb. I feel like illustrating this but, you don't mind. You want me to illustrate? Okay, one of you, come. Come real fast, come real fast.
Okay, Pastor Henry, you're the priest. Come, come. You've got, somehow got a priestly crown. You've got a priestly crown around your... okay, yeah, yeah. You're the priest. You wanna be the lamb? We need a lamb, a cute lamb. Okay, come. Very cute lamb. Yeah, yeah, someone wear white, it's lamb, okay, good, good, good. So, okay. You bring your lamb. 'Kay, priest look at the... he examines. No blemish. The lamb has no blemish, amen? Now, notice, he does not look at him. It's obvious if you have sin, God knows why you have come, right? So he doesn't examine him. It's obvious he has sin. He examines how good his lamb is, all right? Then, thumbs up. Good, good? Good, okay. Then he commands him, stand in front of him, to lay his hands on the lamb, okay? On the head, you should, it is on the head, all right? He lays his hand on the lamb.
What is this a picture of in those days? These are all visual aids before Jesus came. God was training the children of Israel, going through all these rehearsals to point to the real Lamb of God that would come. And when John the Baptist saw Jesus by the rivers of Jordan, he says, "Behold, the Lamb of God". "The," definite article. "The true Lamb has come who takes away the sin of the world". So, he lays his hands. Now, two things happen when he lays his hands on the Lamb, all right? Give them a picture of the... this is what happens. Okay, the priest lays his hand, actually, we have a... you can relax, okay? You have been redeemed. Look up here. All right, so the sinner lays his hand on the head. He transfers his sins. His sins go into the lamb.
So, by laying hands, it's a picture of identification. His sins go into the lamb, and the lamb's goodness, the lamb is without blemish, it's a perfect lamb, right, goes into, his righteousness goes into the offeror. You follow what I'm saying? Two things happen. His sins... the other way. His sins go into the lamb. The lamb's righteousness, right standing, goes into him. Now, pass me the knife. All right, so the knife comes out and he kills the lamb. It's a picture of the offeror must kill the lamb, not the priest. It's a picture of your sins put Jesus on the cross. We are all there. Our sins are all there that put Jesus on the cross, amen? When he says, "Father, forgive them," you and I are included, amen? So he kills, he's dead.
Drop down, all right? And then the lamb is burned on the altar of burnt offering. When this goes up, the Bible says it's a sweet-smelling fragrance because it reminds God of the perfections and the beauties of his Son on the cross, yet, at the same time, God had to turn his back because his Son was carrying all our sins and his eyes are purer eyes than to behold evil. He turned his back on his Son and when Jesus hung on the cross, there was not one ray of light from heaven on him and there was not one drop of water from the earth to give him. He took the place of a sinner, the condemned, the one who was accursed, amen, because he took your place and my place. So, Jesus, the lamb dies and is burned. What happened to the offeror, you and I? What happened? He walks away with the righteousness of the lamb. And God's light shines on him. The favor of God is on him. All that the lamb deserved falls on him. All that Jesus deserves comes on him. He is blessed like nobody else as if he's the greatest thing that ever lived, when actually, it is all grace, amen? Thank you very much. Give them a good hand. Thanks, Pastor Henry.
This is grace. It is not going higher, do better, try harder. No, it is receiving a finished work. You see, how did Jesus become sin on the cross? Did Jesus do sin to become sin? No, he never sinned. So how do you and I become righteous today? By doing righteousness? No, we receive his righteousness, just like Jesus became sin on the cross by receiving your sins into his body, by receiving my sins into his body, and he was punished for our sins in our place, amen. And how do we become righteous? Not by doing righteous. We receive his righteousness, and then we walk away and God treats us like Jesus, just like God treat Jesus on the cross like us, the sinner that we are. And all this is the love plan of God. Sin is not the problem today. It is a lack of revelation, amen. And when Jesus rose from the dead, the stone was rolled away.
It's a very heavy stone. And in Israel today, there's a garden tomb you can go to, and I believe it's the genuine garden tomb where Jesus left behind the empty tomb, because the Bible says you have to stoop down. Peter and John, when they came to the empty tomb, they had to stoop down to see where the place where Jesus laid, and the garden tomb, you have to stoop down to see the place where Jesus laid. And the stone was rolled away, not to let Jesus out. It was rolled, because you know why? In that new body, it's a body that's physical. When he appeared in the Upper Room before his disciples who were, the doors were closed for fear of the Jews, and the disciples were all hidden there, and when Jesus appeared right in the midst, all right, he told them, "Handle me. A ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see me have".
There's material flesh and bones. So, in the glorified body, we have flesh and bones. We're not floating into each other's house. It's flesh and bones, except that you never get tired. You never feel bored again. You can sleep through your pastor's sermon, amen? You will never fall sick ever again, and you will never die. You will never grow old. In fact, the Bible says the angel that the women came to... when they came to the Upper Room, they saw the angels. They were all young. They saw a young man sitting on the stone, almost in defiance against a stone that's supposed to keep Jesus in, you know? And the Romans said they put extra guard outside to make sure, all right, the stone is not rolled away, and the angel came down and rolled the stone away and sat on it, amen? Not to let Jesus out, but to help others who came to the tomb to see in what has happened. Because Jesus's resurrected body transcends this body.
You know, our body is not, the Bible talks about this in 1 Corinthians 15. It says that there are celestial bodies, there are terrestrial bodies, there are bodies made for fishes. You know, you don't have a fish body unless you are Aquaman or Spiderman, then you got ironic body, you know? No, no, see, friend, amoeba body's one thing, insect body is one thing, another level, but when God made your body, God made your body the highest creation. But then there's a higher creation: The resurrected body of Jesus that the Bible says one day our bodies will be transformed like his body. And that body doesn't come and go. Jesus, in his resurrected form does not come, does not go. He appears or disappear. Therefore, the stone is not needed to be rolled away for him to come out. He can appear and disappear. He is no more subject to the laws of this earth like the law of gravity or whatever or time and matter. He transcends them, just like an airplane.
Every time an airplane takes off, all right, it transcends the law of gravity by the law of thrust and lift. There'll be a higher law that we'll all walk in. Jesus's body is a different body than the body of Lazarus whom he raised from the dead, right? After Lazarus was dead 4 days, the sister said, "You know, by this time he stinks," and Jesus says, "If you believe you'll see the glory of God," and he says, "Lazarus, come forth". I'm so glad Jesus says, "Lazarus," he specified, because that place got a lot of dead people around, you know? If he says, "Come forth," everyone could come forth. Lazarus came forth, bound hand and foot because, in those days, when you die, the Jewish custom is to wrap you in linen cloth like a mummy, and then they'll put spices and when the spices harden, there's no way you can crack open the thing. It's hard as a rock.
And that's very interesting because the Bible says when Peter and John came to the empty tomb, the woman, the first person that Jesus appeared to in his resurrected form was a woman. And all the women said... A new order has come, amen. Under the law, women, in a sense, is subjugated. They're not even recognized. But under grace, a new order has come. The first preacher, actually, was a woman. Jesus told Mary, "Go..." Not Mary his mother. There are a few Marys in the Bible. This is Mary Magdalene. He said, "Go and tell my brethren..." First time he calls them "my brethren". Before that, he calls them "my flock, my disciples". But this is the first time he says, "my brethren". "Tell them I'm going to their Father and my Father, your God and my God". We are now from the same family. Once you are born again, you are born with the nature and the stock and the DNA of God himself. But I will say we are partakers of the divine nature. We are not God.
Now, even for me, I'm not perfect in my behavior. I'm not perfect, just ask my wife. And guys look perfect about 3 p.m., 4 p.m., in the prime of their work and all that, they look good. But ask their wife how they are like first thing in the morning, amen? We're all subject to these bodily sensations, our soulish irritability, you know, our anger, our resentment, and all that. But you know something? When God looks at the believer, God sees him in the spirit, and you are righteous, which did not come to you as your effort or your works. It came to you as a gift through Jesus Christ. Now, our body is lining up. There's something called progressive sanctification. We are learning to line up our body with our spirit, but what a joy to know that at any time you are called back home. Heaven is your home. All your sins are forgiven.
As sure as Jesus died on the cross, your sins are forgiven. And, friend, the resurrection of Lazarus is not like the resurrection of Jesus. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, it was for Lazarus to die again in the future. But when Jesus rose from the dead, it's a resurrection which is no longer subject to death. It is life from the dead, life on the other side, and all of us who are born again, amen, spiritually we are resurrected. You are actually a resurrected being in an unresurrected body. The only part of you that's not resurrected is your body. But will God neglect the body in the tomb? Will God neglect the body whether it's cremated or in the ocean or whatever? No, not an atom is lost. And the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15 that the body is sown in corruption, right? It is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, you know, it decays, right, until it becomes bones, a skeleton. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power, amen.
So in other words, it's not as if God says, "You know, the spirit is here but, alas, we lost the body". No, not one atom is lost. God will remember where it is. God knows. And the Bible, when Jesus comes again, God's power goes right into that resurrected, corrupted skeleton left bones or even dust. It said God made man from the dust of the ground. When God made Adam, he made man from the dust of the ground. Women are made from his side, to be loved, not from the dust. And so man don't mind being dirty, you know? Women, they are very clean. "Go away, go and bathe, go and bathe," you know, you know? "Always so lazy. Get up and go and bathe," right? We say, "Ahh, to be dirty. To be filthy. This is my natural habitat. For some reason, I love the mud," right?
Women are different. They are like a higher species when it comes to cleanliness. Amen, Pastor Prince, preach it, amen. So, all right, so God has designed that way, right, and man is made from the dust of the ground and, when man dies, whether he is buried or cremated, the final form is what? Dust, dust. But why? Because God made man's body from the dust. But man, the real man, is not dust. God breathed into man. God made man like a manikin, made from the dust of the ground. And then God breathed. "Yo! What's up? Good morning, God". God breathed. You understand? So, man is lifeless, just a body. But the spirit animates the body, and there are secrets in the Bible that tells us if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal body by his Spirit that dwells in you.
We've got to learn to walk in that, but that's another sermon for the future, all right? But for now, let's look at this body. God will resurrect that body. But what about us? When Jesus comes again, those who are dead, their bodies become glorious body, powerful bodies, incorruptible bodies. But what about us who are alive and most likely, friends, we are looking at the signs of the end already, all over the earth right now, coming all at once. And when we see these signs, Jesus said, "Lift up your head. Your redemption," referring to your bodily redemption, "draws near," amen? So anytime now the Rapture can happen. Jesus will return, amen? All the prophecies about his First Coming: he'll come through the town of Bethlehem, amen. He will come, amen, from the tribe of Judah. He'll come from the line of David. And all that's prophesied and he will die where his bones will stare at him. They pierce his hands and his side.
When that prophecy, Psalms 22, when Psalms was quoted by David, there was no such thing as crucifixion. Death was by stoning in those days. So it's a prophecy, "They pierce my hands and feet," David says of Jesus, when the Romans would institute this cruel means of torture to kill someone. So all the prophecies of his First Coming has come to pass and fulfilled to the very last letter. But there are more prophecies on his Second Coming than the first. And we are seeing it happen. Before all this, Jesus says that Jerusalem would be trodden down under the foot.
In other words, the whole world in the modern world, their eyes will be on Jerusalem, on Israel once again. This tiny nation of Israel that I just came back last month from, I was preaching down there and had a great time down there. It's springtime down there now, and why is it that the whole world's attention is focused on Israel? Just a small piece of land, no larger than New Jersey in America. It's a small plot of land. Why is there so much strife and, you know, so much attention of the world? But there was a time it was just left devastated, uninhabited. Marco Polo, in his journals, he wrote about crossing this once upon a time a holy land. He says that there's nothing but a swampy place, full of malaria and mosquitoes. Not a fit place for habitation. And now, after 2,000 years, the people of Israel were driven from their homeland and now they are back again, and Jesus says when you see this happen, when you see Jerusalem back into the hands of Israel, what did he say? "The times of Gentiles is fulfilled".
We never see this. Before 1948, I'm preaching this to you, you will say, "C'mon, Pastor Prince, that place is a swampy place right now. Nothing grows there," and all that. But now no one is saying anything. And once again, the attention is on the Middle East, and Israel. Why? The Savior was sent, God's Son was sent to Israel. He died for the sins of the world in Israel. He was resurrected in Israel. And he's coming back for all of us, and he will reign from where? Israel, amen. So there are more Bible prophecies about the Second Coming but, friend, let me just bring this to a close, okay? I say that so that you feel like, "Ahh, he does close". The Resurrection is not a figment of someone's imagination, all right? It's not like a hallucination. "Well, a lot of people were hallucinating". No, no, no, friend. He didn't just appear to his disciples. He appeared, the Bible says he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time.
At one time, more than 500, and I believe this was in Galilee. Personally, I think it's in Mount Arbel, all right, where he gave the Great Commission. I believe that, all right? More than five hundred appeared, "he appeared to more than five hundred," more than five hundred, "at one time". It is too many for it to be hallucination, and some of them are alive, by the time Paul wrote this, some of them are still alive and some have fallen asleep. It cannot, it also precludes fraud. Like the Pharisees, when they found out that Jesus's tomb was empty and the claims of his disciples that they saw Jesus raised from the dead, appearing to them. They gave money to the soldiers to say that the disciples came and stole his body.
So, imagine this. First of all, they had to roll away the stone and there were people on guard, Romans on guard. What happened to them? The real story is an angel came down and they all fell down, pinned to the ground, and their whole body shook, the Bible says. You see, imagine, it precludes fraud because no one who wants to steal a body leave the napkin just nice down there. Because the Bible says when Peter and John looked into the tomb, they saw, like I told you just now, it's like a mummy, right? Like a cocoon. It's still hardened, you know, except inside it's empty. And the place where the head was, the linen cloth was wrapped nicely.
Now, that shows no haste, no callousness. Whoever rose from the dead had time to fold his clothes. Guys, Jesus, one of the first things he did was fold clothes, amen? So it precludes fraud. And if it's... the body is stolen, okay listen. If the body is stolen, all the Romans gotta do within their small city of Jerusalem, that whole place, is just produce the body. I tell you, it's very hard to keep a decaying body. They can just produce the body. And what a costly witness it is for the disciples. Nearly all of them, except for John, were martyred, were tortured for their faith. You know something, if it's a fraud and they know it's a fraud, they just make up the story, a lot of people under the pain of torture will confess it's a fraud. But no, they gave their life for the one who is risen from the dead, who redeemed them, who loved them, amen.
So why did God raise Jesus? The price is paid, right, at the cross. The price is paid at the cross. When Jesus cried, "It is finished," the Bible says the veil in the temple was torn in two, amen. God stepped out and God says, "Hello, welcome home," amen. The sin barrier between God and man is removed. The price is paid. That's why Jesus cried, "It is finished". But why did God raise Jesus from the dead, and this, we'll close with this verse here. By the way, I need to show you this. Those in the grave, they'll be raised incorruptible. What about us, who are alive? Well, the Bible says this in the same chapter: "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep," all die, "but we shall all be changed". We shall all be changed. "All" here, referring to believers. And there are preachers who teach partial-Rapture theory. Some Christians will be raptured, and some will not be raptured.
You say, "Who will be raptured? I guess you'll be raptured". "Oh yes, I'll be raptured". Why? "Because I'm ready". "How ready is ready"? No, it's just by grace are you saved through faith in your spirit. The same thing for your body by grace through faith. "All be changed" means all. When God says, "All," don't put partial. All is all. We shall all be changed. How? How fast? In a atomic second. In the Greek here, in a atomic second, in the twinkling of an eye. Now you see the twinkle, now you don't see the twinkle anymore. That fast, our bodies will be changed into our resurrected body, amen? "In a moment, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we," who are alive, "shall be changed".
And how long will we be in this body that will never die, never grow old, never be sick again, never feel tired again? Forever. And sure, your eternal destiny, amen? He's coming back for us. And he's coming back soon, all right? We go back to Romans. We close with that, ready? Ready? Yeah, the harder you clap, the faster I finish. Terrible. Father, forgive them, but they know what they are doing. All right, okay, why was Christ hanging on that cross? He was delivered up for our offenses, our sins, our transgressions, all right? You ask the average Christian, "Why was Jesus delivered up to the cross"? By the way, I said, "He laid down his life".
I believe that for the first time the Romans saw a man lie down on the cross. They never saw this before. Like I said, no one can take his life. One word and they all fall, all right? He laid down his life because the price must be paid for our sins. He was that lamb, the true Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So on that cross, right, "he was delivered up because of our offenses," but what many people don't realize is the second part of the verse. Why was he raised from the dead, bodily? "Because of our justification". Now, "because of" may be a little bit vague because it can mean more than one thing, depending on the context. But in the Greek, Young's Literal Translation brings it out: "He was raised up because of our being declared righteous".
In other words, the same body that bore our sins and received the treatment as if he's the worst sinner, in order for him to be raised from the dead and come back to God, it must be all our sins are perfectly put away. It must be that God says to all of us sinners, "I declare you righteous by what Jesus did". In other words, God ties up Jesus's Resurrection with your being declared righteous. In other words, if you're not declared righteous by God, he will not be raised from the dead, because you must understand why did he go to the cross? On your behalf. Why was he raised from the dead? On your behalf.
God has linked his destiny and history with you. He died for your sins, and he was raised because God declares you righteous. And now that you are righteous like the man who walks away with the favor of God on him, favor that you don't deserve, blessings that you're not worthy of, all the good things that you experience and you know I don't deserve it, that's why your heart is full of love, joy and peace and gratefulness and thanksgiving.
You know that you are blessed because of another. And you live your life for his glory. You have been loved, amen? If that is you, the Bible says, that is why Christianity is not you trying harder, pray harder, do more. No, it's about receiving a gift. Righteousness is now a gift. When you receive righteousness, just like God treat Jesus like the worst sinner on the cross, even though he'd never sinned, God will treat you like you're the most righteous man on earth with all the blessings of the righteous. When you pray, God hears your prayer, and God works miracles in your life. Blessings on you and your family. "I am come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly," amen?
Every head bowed, every eye closed everywhere that's watching this right now. And friend, the Bible says all you gotta do to receive this gift is by faith. Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart. The Bible says you confess with your mouth Jesus Christ is your Lord, you believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. If that is you, pray this prayer with me from your heart. Say:
Heavenly Father, I thank you for your greatest gift of love, my Lord Jesus Christ. He died as my substitute on that cross, bearing all my sins, all my judgment, and my condemnation. When it's all over, he paid for my sins to the very last drop. He cried, "It is finished". And on the third day, you raised him from the dead. He's alive today and, one day, I'll receive a brand-new body as well. Thank you, Father, Jesus Christ is my Lord and my Savior, in Jesus's name, (and all the people said), amen.
Praise the Lord. Congratulations, you are now a child of the Most High God. The spirit of sonship has come into you. The same spirit that indwelt Jesus, indwells you: the Holy Spirit, amen. You are, in fact, the highest creation now, more than Adam. Adam fell, but Jesus Christ rose from the dead, amen, and he's coming back for us, people. He's coming back for us. But there's so much more God wants you to know and receive from him, so keep on coming to church, will you? Stand to your feet, church, hallelujah. And that's why I'm so glad because this is not motivational preaching, you know, you do these seven steps and then this will happen to you. It doesn't happen, too bad, you know, you didn't do the seven steps.
No, no, friend, I am not a motivational speaker. I'm a herald and a proclaimer of the good news from the Most High God. He sent me to tell you that he's not holding your sins against you, amen. He wants you to come home and receive his power, amen, to receive his love, receive his blessings. Praise the Lord, amen? And there's so much more I want to proclaim to you in the days to come. Praise the Lord.
Lift your hands all across this place. We are increasingly entering into a world that's more and more dangerous, but the Lord knew that's gonna happen. He wants us not to be afraid or be discouraged, but to know that he is your good shepherd and you will not lack. Even you go through the valley of trouble, valley of the shadow of death itself, you will fear no evil. You know why? He'll walk there with you. He'll be with you, amen.
Surely, goodness and mercy will follow you. So, throughout this week, I pray in the name of Jesus that the blessings of Abraham, the blessings of Deuteronomy 28, the blessings that is unique, that you will know is a blessing from God when you experience it this week, will come on you and your loved ones throughout this week in the name of the Lord Jesus. The Lord himself keep you, protect you, from every sickness and disease, from every danger, harm, from the power of the evil one. The Lord make his face smile on you because of Jesus. He is smiling on you and granting you his shalom peace, health, and wellbeing, for you and your family in the name of the Lord Jesus and all the people said, "Amen".