What the Resurrection of Jesus Means to You | Sunday Message

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You're listening to the Greg Laurie podcast and my objective is to deliver hopefully compelling practical insights and faith, culture and current events from a biblical perspective to find out more about our ministry, just go to our website, harvest.org. So thanks for joining me for this podcast. Mark 16 and John chapter 20. And the title of my message is, what the resurrection of Jesus means to you. If you've ever lost a loved one unexpectedly, you know how it feels. There's shock, there's disbelief, sometimes followed with denial, even anger, a deep sadness that sets in. You realize that that person that was so much a part of your life is no longer there. You can't have a conversation with them. You can't hear from them again. Your world as you know it, suddenly changes overnight. I bring that up because that's exactly how the disciples felt 2,000 years ago when Jesus Christ, their Savior, their Lord, their master was murdered in cold blood before their very eyes. They watched it happen and they watched the Roman soldier take his spear and thrust it into Jesus and out came blood and water indicating a complete heart failure. Clearly he was gone and they never got to say goodbye. He was taken from them. So in their minds the dream was over and also in their minds I might add, it appeared that Jesus had failed in this mission. This is indicated in a conversation he had after his resurrection with two disciples on the road to Emmaus as recorded in Luke's gospel. They did not realize that we're talking with the risen Lord and he asked them what had been happening lately and they said, well, haven't you heard about Jesus and all the things that he did? And then I think it's kind of funny really, Jesus said, no, tell me what things and they're telling Jesus about Jesus. And here's what they said, we were hoping he would have been the one to deliver Israel but it's been three days since he was crucified, hoping, notice, past tense. Their hope was gone. The dream was gone and everything seemed to be going perfectly up to that moment. When Jesus got in that donkey and rode in Jerusalem and the people laid the palm branches down before him, crying out, Hosanna, the disciples said, finally everyone knows what we've known that this is the Messiah but then suddenly he's not himself or so it would seem in the upper room when he's talking about betrayal and then one of their own turns out to be the betrayer, Judas Iscariot and then Simon Peter of course, denies him and they see him unraveling as it would seem in the Garden of Gethsemane as he is crying out to the Father and literally sweating blood. All of this was happening but here's the problem, the writers of the gospels had never read the gospels, you see, they were experiencing this in real time. They didn't know how the story actually ended. They didn't understand that the incarnation was for the death of Jesus. The incarnation was for the purpose of the atonement. The birth of Jesus was so there would be the death of Jesus. It was all part of God's master plan. Later, Simon Peter preaching to the very men who crucified Jesus said in Acts chapter two, this Jesus following the deliberate and well thought out plan of God was betrayed by men who took the law into their own hands. Did you catch that? It was the deliberate well thought out plan of God, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the deliberate well thought out plan of God. And by the way, God has a deliberate well thought out plan for you as well because I know there are things that happen in your life that make no sense when you lose a loved one or when you get bad news from a doctor or when some tragedy befalls you. You think where's God in all this? God is right there and he has a plan and he has a purpose. Maybe with the passing of time, you'll understand that plan and purpose and maybe you won't fully understand it till you get to the other side and you realize in heaven why God allowed that to happen. But just be assured of this one thing. God has a deliberate well thought out plan for you and ultimately that plan for you is good because God can take your ending and turn it into a new beginning. And that's what happened for these disciples. In our last message, we talked about what the death of Jesus means for you. Now let's talk about what the resurrection of Jesus Christ means to you, Mark chapter 16. I'm reading verses one to eight. Saturday evening when the Sabbath ended, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, went out and purchased burial spices so they could anoint Jesus' body. Very early on Sunday morning, just at sunrise, they went to the tomb and on the way they were asking each other who's gonna roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb. But as they arrived, they looked up and saw the stone which was very large, had already been rolled aside. And when they entered the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side and they were shocked. And then the angel said, don't be afraid. You're looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He isn't here. He's risen from the dead. Look, this is where they laid his body. Now go tell the disciples and Peter that Jesus is going to head of you into Galilee. You'll see him there just as he told you before he died. The women fled from the tomb, trembling and bewildered and said nothing to anyone because they were too frightened. So Jesus has been crucified and an amazing series of events are happening in the aftermath of it. First of all, there was that global darkness that took place. You remember from 12 in the afternoon to three o'clock. Then the veil and the temple was ripped from top to bottom in the temple where the Jews would go to worship God. There was a veil which was really a very thick curtain. It would almost be like a wall, a material wall of sorts that separated the inner sanctum, the holy of holies where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. No, it's not in a warehouse somewhere. If you watched Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, so they had the Ark of the Covenant and that veil symbolized that separation between God and man. Now the veil is ripped not from bottom to top as though man is doing it. It's ripped from top to bottom because God is saying this veil is gone and you have access to me through my son Jesus Christ. Also, we're told that dead people were resurrected and we're walking around the streets of Jerusalem. This is one of the most interesting verses in the Bible to me. So you're walking in town and you go, hey, is that Uncle Harry? Then we just buried him a couple of days ago. It was sort of like a preview of things to come. Dead people were coming back to life. I see dead people who are alive again. And so then there was a great earthquake that followed. So this is an amazing series of events. And so these women that we just read about come to the tomb, hopefully to anoint the body of Jesus and they find the tomb empty and the angel tells them that Christ is risen. Matthew tells us of this event in Matthew 28, they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy. Have you ever had fear and great joy at the same time? Maybe when you got on a roller coaster, there's fear. Like, I'm gonna die and there's great joy, but it's so much fun. Persian, I've given up on roller coasters, by the way, I rode them many years. And then one day I just realized, I don't even like this and I don't know if I ever liked it. You know, as you get older, you don't wanna take those kinds of risks anymore. For me now, taking a risk is ordering something different in the restaurant. I'm gonna try that chef salad instead of the normal hamburger and fries I get every time. Listen, you know you're getting older when you go to the same table in the same restaurant at the same time and order the same thing. There's a lot of signs of getting older, aren't there? You know you're getting older when you drop something and when you bend down to get it, you wonder if there's anything else you can do while you're down there. You know there's a lot of bands that were very popular in the late 60s and they had great hits that many of us still remember. And it's funny, a lot of young people are rediscovering these bands. And you'll see kids walking around with t-shirts with lead zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix and all these bands are Rolling Stones, The Beatles and so forth. But a lot of those bands have had to rework some of their hits. They don't do them quite the way they used to. I met Peter Noon by the way, not too long ago who is Herman of Hermans Hermits. And he's a wonderful guy. Had so many amazing stories. But well remember that song by Hermans Hermits, Mrs. Brown, you've got a lovely dota. Remember that one? Now they've updated it to Mrs. Brown, you've got a lovely walker. Because you know Mrs. Brown is a lot older today. Abba, remember Dancing Queen? That's denture queen now. They've had to update it. The Beatles, that big hit that Ringo would sing, I get by with a little help from my friends, has now been updated too. I get high with a little help from Depence. A Crystal Gale, remember her song, don't it make my brown eyes blue? Now it's don't it make my brown hair blue? Eagles are no longer singing heartache tonight. They're singing heartburn tonight, probably from what they ate. Jerry Lee Lewis, he's no longer singing a whole lot of shaken going on. Now it's rather a whole lot of aching going on. Leo Sayer used to sing, you make me feel like dancing. Now he sings, you make me feel like napping. Leonard Skinner, no longer singing about sweet home, Alabama. Now it's rest home, Alabama. Nancy Sinatra, no longer sings. These boots are made for walking. Now she sings, these boots are giving me arthritis. So you see, they've all had to update their songs. I have two more. These are the jokes people. The who, remember talking about my generation? Now it's talking about my medication. And finally the Trogs had a big hit, Wild Thing. Now they've named it Bald Thing. And it's my theme song by the way. But so there are things that we don't like to do as we get older. We don't like to take risks necessarily. But they're experiencing this joy and excitement. And they're trying to figure it out. They don't understand what has actually happened to them. And then they see the risen Lord. We have to pull from different gospels to get the whole story. In Matthew 28, we read, they went to tell his disciples, and behold, Jesus met them, saying rejoice. So they came and held them by their feet and worshiped them. Now it's an interesting phrase there when it says Jesus met them. It speaks of the common greeting that one would receive in the marketplace. Just if you saw someone who said, hello, if you're on a walk, you see someone walk by. Hey, how are you? Have a nice day. Just common greeting. That is the phrase that is used here when it says Jesus met them. I find that fascinating because it's so low-key, it's so casual. In different parts of the country, we greet each other in different ways. If you're in the South, you'll see something along the lines of hey, hey, how y'all doing? How y'all doing, right? In Hawaii it'll be aloha. Or how's that, bro? In Australia they'll say good day. In New York City, they ignore you. And then they'll say something like, what are you looking at me? And followed up by, well, forget about it. That's one word, by the way. And here is the risen Lord who greets his disciples. He's so casual, he's just like, oh, hey guys, how's it going, aloha? How are you? Really relaxed about the whole thing. And they can't believe their eyes. They are looking at Jesus. And so they grab him by the feet and they worship him. And that's because they recognize he was God. You know, a number of years ago I was driving with two of my grandkids in the car, Ali and Christopher. At that particular time, Ali was age five and Christopher was age three. And they're having this conversation. And Ali turns to Christopher and says, Christopher, Jesus is God and God is Jesus. And I'm thinking that's very good, you know, for a five year old to understand that. And I was very impressed by that. And then she said, he lives in our heart and someday he'll live in our stomach. I'm like, no, we have to talk a little more about what that all means. But Jesus was God and he was worshiped by his disciples. Coming back to our story, we see Mary Magdalene as mentioned in verse one. What a unique lady she is. Mary Magdalene, first to the tomb. Mary Magdalene standing at the foot of the cross. I might add when all those disciples, all those men were gone with the exception of John the beloved. So she sees that the stone has been rolled away and immediately tells Peter and John. And if we go over to John's gospel, we'll see that they then began to run to the tomb. So she says, Jesus has risen and they run to the tomb. I love that, you know, boys will be boys, right? And it became an actual race because John mentions he beat Peter in the race. He says, the disciple whom Jesus loved outran the other one. So that's maybe one of the perks of writing a gospel. You get to remind people about who actually won the race. So they see the empty tomb and they come back. John believes, he looks in there, he realizes what is happening, those crisis alive. And the Bible says Peter walked away perplexed. And that brings us to our next text, John chapter 20. Let's see what else happened to Mary Magdalene. John chapter 20, verse 11. But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb. It saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head, the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, because they've taken away my Lord and I don't know where they've laid him. Now, when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? She thinking he was a gardener said, sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've laid him and I'll take him away. And Jesus then said, Mary. Mary responded by saying, rabboni, which means teacher. And he said, don't cling to me, for I've not yet ascended to my father into your father. And I'm going to ascend to my father and your father and to my God and your God. Wow. The persistence of Mary paid off, didn't it? Everyone else was gone, but she stayed and she meets the risen Lord. And what does he say? Don't cling to me. She's holding onto him. Now you wonder what's going on here because it's not that you could not touch the risen Lord because in fact he appears in the upper room to the disciples and Thomas, who we call Downing Thomas was there and Jesus said, go ahead and put your hand in my side and touch the wounds in my hand. So he could be touched. Maybe it was the way she was holding onto him. She was grabbing so tightly and he says, Mary, don't cling to me. I think in effect he's saying, Mary, everything is changed now. Effectively, it's a whole new ball game. It's not going to be the way it was before. In the past I was there where you could reach out and touch me physically, but it's going to be different, Mary, and it's going to be better because now I'm going to come and live in your heart, not in your stomach, but in your heart and I'll always be there and we'll never be separated again. And what is true of Mary is true for all of us. By the way, it was a revolutionary thought to say to a first century Jew that God was their father. They would not refer to God in such a way, but Jesus is saying, he's our father now too. How did he teach us to pray in what we call the Lord's Prayer? He said, after this manner, therefore pray, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. And by the way, Jesus made many post-resurrection occurrences. Acts chapter one, verse three says, he presented himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them for 40 days. And that phrase seen by them could be translated to be eyeballed by him. So in other words, they're not believing their eyes, they're looking at Jesus and he's appearing again and again and again. He appears to Peter and we don't know what happened there, we just know he appeared to him. And then he appeared to him again in John chapter 20 and recommissioned him. Then he appeared to Thomas that I mentioned. On another occasion, he appeared to 500 at one time. He appeared to the two disciples walking on the Emmaus Road. But remember the title of this message is, what does the resurrection of Jesus mean to you? And I'm gonna close now with six practical truths on how the resurrection of Christ impacts you and me today. Here's number one, the resurrection of Jesus assures me, I am accepted by God. Let me say that again, the resurrection of Jesus assures me and I am accepted by God. Romans 4.25 says he was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised alive for our justification. Somewhere, I don't know how this happens, but people, even Christians sometimes think that you must earn the favor of God. You must do certain things and then God will love you. But the opposite is the case. There's nothing you can do to earn the favor of God. And the fact is God loves you no matter what you do. And the resurrection of Christ proves this. We read again there in Romans 4.25, he was raised to life for our justification. What does that mean? That means when you put your faith in Christ, you are justified. To be justified means number one, you're forgiven of all of your sins. So if you put your faith in Christ, your sins are forgiven by God and they're forgotten by God. And he has put the righteousness of Christ into your moral bank account, if you will. On the cross, God treated Jesus as if he had lived your life so he could treat you as if you had lived his life. That's not original to me, but it's a perfect description of justification. Let me repeat it. On the cross, God treated Jesus as if he had lived your life so he could treat you as if you had lived his life. So again, the resurrection of Jesus assures me I am accepted by God. Isn't that great to know? You're accepted by God, you're loved by God. Listen, God's not mad at you, God is mad about you. Number two, the resurrection of Jesus assures me I have all the power I need to live the Christian life. Romans 8, 11 says the spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. And just as he raised Jesus from the dead, he'll give life to your mortal body by the same spirit living within you. So dear Christian friends, you have no obligation whatsoever to do which your sinful nature urges you to do. You know, sometimes people say, I've tried to live the Christian life and I fail, okay? Let me say something you might find surprising, even provocative. It's not hard to be a Christian. It's impossible without the help of the spirit of God. So there has to come a moment where I say, I can't do this. I can live by what this book teaches. I can't resist those temptations in my own strength. I need a power greater than the power I personally have. And that's where the Holy spirit comes in. Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. But then Paul writes, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Listen to this, there is no sin, there is no habit, there is no addiction, there is no vice that needs to hold you any longer. The resurrection of Jesus assures me I have all the power I need to live the Christian life. Number three, the resurrection of Jesus assures me that I too will live forever in heaven. It assures me that I too will live forever in heaven. Listen to this, death died when Christ rose. Because Jesus rose, I too will rise. Because Jesus died, I will never die. Now you might say, Greg, you're delusional and you're getting old by the way. So do you realize that you could die someday, maybe even soon? Hey, I'm aware of that. I'm not denying the reality of death, but I'm also looking at it in another way. Because for the Christian, we never really die. Oh, sure, our body goes into the ground. But we live on because the real me is the soul that lives on and God will resurrect my body also. But death is not the end of the road. It's just a bend in the road. And when Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, he conquered death. 1 Corinthians 15, 50, 4 says, when these perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die, the scriptures will come true. Death has swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? Have you ever been stung by a bee? I was walking on the beach with my wife, not long ago, and there are all these bees out there. I don't know why, I've never seen so many bees on the beach. And Kathy said, be careful of the bees. I said, I'm not gonna step on a bee. And right then, guess what happened? Of course, I stepped on a bee, it hurt. And then my foot was sort of swollen. So not something you wanna do if you can avoid it. It's interesting that death is compared to the sting of a bee. I heard the story of a father who was traveling in his car with his son, who was highly allergic to bee stings. In fact, if the little guy got stung, he could die as a result. So a bee somehow caught in the car and it was buzzing around and the little boy was panicking and screaming. And suddenly the father reached out his hand and closed it, and then he opened it again and the bee came out again and the boy's saying, daddy, daddy, the bee is still out. And the father said, son, don't worry, look. And the little boy realized that he had taken the stinger of the bee. You see, and that's what Jesus did. He took the sting of death. He bore it in your place. The tomb is not an entrance to death, it's an entrance to life. In the moment we take our last breath on earth, we take our first breath in heaven. And because of the death and resurrection of Jesus from the dead, I don't have to be afraid of dying. 1 Corinthians 15-20 says, Christ has been raised from the dead and he has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again. And so this is the great hope that we have right now, because that brings me to point number four, the resurrection of Jesus assures me that I will receive a new body just like his. Now there's some confusion about these new bodies. I read a stat not long ago that said of the Americans, two thirds of Americans believed it'll be a resurrection of the dead, but they also believe that they will not have bodies after the resurrection. Well, what do you think you're gonna be? A ghost? Casper the friendly ghost. Now you're not gonna be a disembodied spirit just floating around. You're gonna be you, because God is gonna resurrect your body. God will resurrect the body of every person who has died in faith and you will be a radically upgraded version of yourself. Job said in Job 1926, in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes, I and not another. And the example of the model of this, dare I use the word prototype, understand the context I'm using it in, is Jesus. Jesus died and he rose again from the dead. Now was he still Jesus? Of course. Was there any connection between the risen Lord and the crucified Lord? Again, yes, because he's still bore in his body the marks of the crucifixion. But remember he would sit down with the disciples and eat food. You know, and I don't think he was like translucent. You can see the food going down. He was in a body, but he was in a resurrected body. And you and I will have a new body one day as well. Colossians 3, 4 assures us with these words, when Christ who is our life appears, you shall be like him. Number five, because of the resurrection of Jesus, we will have resurrected relationships. Have you ever been talking with someone on the phone? Why don't we do this for the phone? That doesn't even look like a phone. Our phones are flat now, aren't they? But anyway, this is what our phones look like. But some people I suppose have phones that look like that. Anyway, so you're talking to someone on the phone, on a cell phone, and suddenly they drop out, but you don't know they dropped out. So you're still telling them something, maybe something very important, and there's silence, and you're thinking, oh, they don't like what I'm saying, or they're judging me, or they hate me. No, actually you lost service right there. And so, you know what it's like to be cut off in a conversation. Seriously though, if you're in a conversation with someone you love, and then suddenly they're taken, they die, and you can't finish that conversation how hard that is. Because of the resurrection of Jesus, we're gonna pick up, or we last left off, with loved ones who have preceded us to heaven. You know, when Jesus rose again, there was a familiarity with him and the disciples, a connection to the past. And so one day we will be reconnected with loved ones. And listen to this, it won't just happen at death, it will happen then. But there is a generation that will not see death. A generation that will not go to the grave. A generation that will be caught up in a moment and the twinkling of an eye into the presence of God. Sometimes it's called the rapture. And some will push back and say, the rapture is not in the Bible. Well, maybe the word rapture is not in the Bible, but the event is, many times the word rapture comes from the Greek word harpazo, which means to be removed or taken away and it's used many times. And we'll get into all of this in more detail when we start our series on the book of Revelation. But we'll be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Here's a description of it in 1 Thessalonians 414 and a number of other verses from that chapter. Since we believe Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus comes, listen, God will bring back with Jesus all the Christians who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout and the call of the archangel and the trumpet call of God. First, all of the Christians who have died will rise from their graves and then we'll be caught together with them who are still alive and caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever. So comfort and encourage each other with these words. So one day it's possible we could be this generation. You're just walking around, going about your business, eating a burger, making a phone call, getting up in the morning, going to bed at night, whatever it is you're doing, and then just in a moment, you can't even measure it in time. You're in the presence of God and you're in the presence of your loved ones who have preceded you to heaven. It's a twinkling of an eye. By the way, that's not even the blinking of an eye. The word twinkling comes from the root word Atomos. It's from the root word Adam. It means something that cannot be divided. So think about all that Jesus has done for you because he died and rose. There are so many blessings available to us. We're made acceptable to God. He gives us the power to live the Christian life. We know we'll go to heaven. We know we'll be reunited with loved ones. We know we'll have new bodies given to us and this can happen at any moment and there's one last thing and this is number six, what the resurrection of Jesus means to you because Jesus died and rose again from the dead. We need to tell others. We need to tell others. Go back to Mark 16, verse 15 and then verse 20. Then he told them, go into all the world and preach the gospel to everyone. And the disciples went everywhere and preached and the Lord worked through them, confirming what they had said by miraculous signs. Now this is part of what we call the Great Commission here at the end of Mark's gospel. The other part of the Great Commission is found in the end of Matthew's Gospel chapter 28 where Jesus says, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teach these new disciples to obey the commandments I have given you. There's two very important things to note here. Number one, they're a command. Listen, if you're a Christian, you are commanded by Jesus to go into all the world and preach the gospel. If you are a Christian, you are commanded by Jesus to go and make disciples. What does that mean? To preach the gospel means to verbally articulate the message of the gospel. And what is that? In a nutshell, here it is. God loves you. You're separated from God by your sin. Christ died for your sin and rose again from the dead. If you'll turn from your sin and believe in Him, you can know with certainty that you'll go to heaven when you die. I'm commanded by Christ to go into all the world and preach that message. But there's another part to it, and make disciples. What does that mean to make a disciple? It means to help them to get up on their feet spiritually. Jesus explains it. Go and make disciples, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. Listen, when I became a Christian at the age of 17, this is 10 years ago. I'm kidding, you knew that. Okay, long time ago. I didn't really know what I'd done. I didn't understand what it meant to be a Christian. I didn't know in a Bible. I'd never been to church for the most part, except when I was a little kid going with my grandparents. I didn't know what the next step was. No one offered me a new believer's Bible like we offered to folks that responded to the gospel. I didn't know, but thank God, a guy named Mark just came up to me and I'm in high school. And he said, hey, I saw that you prayed and accept Jesus the other day, because I did it right there in the front lawn of my high school campus. And I was a bit resentful. I'm like, yeah, so? He says, oh, well, that's great. And I'd like you to come to church with me. And my response is, no, thank you. No, I want you to come to church with me, Mark said. I said, no, I don't want to go to church with you. He says, where do you live? I'm gonna pick you up and take you to church. I don't want to go to church. The next thing I know, I'm in Mark's car going to church with him. And after that, he took me home to his family and they were all Christians and would sit around the dinner table and have a meal. And then they would talk to me about what the Bible said. He discipled me. He helped me get up on my feet spiritually. You can do that for someone. Let me take it a step further. You must do that for someone because it's not only good for them, it's good for you. You see, they need you to stabilize them and you need them to be energized. It's sort of like when you're around a bunch of kids, it can almost energize you for a while, maybe a couple hours and it's good if they go home, then you'll take a nap. But though, seriously, a new believer can energize you. Why? Because as they discover for the first time, the truths of God, you in many ways can rediscover them because sometimes we don't appreciate all that God has done. So I'm urging you to go into all the world and preach the gospel. So number one, there are a command. That's why we call it the Great Commission, not the Great Suggestion. Number two, these words were not directed to the original 12, but to everyone. In other words, this is not just for the so-called professionals, all will, Greg, you're an evangelist, you do that or maybe the pastor should do it or the missionary, no, everyone should do it. Everyone should do it. The student should do it. The businessman should do it. The housewife should do it. No matter what you do or who you are, you're commanded to go into all of your world and make disciples. This is the Great Commission. And what is the message we're proclaiming? It's the message of the gospel. And I've already told you what that is. And maybe you would like to believe the gospel right now. In other words, you would like Jesus Christ to come and live inside of you. One story I touched on in my message today, and it's really one of my favorite post-resurrection appearances of Christ, is when Jesus walked with those two disciples on the Emmaus Road. The thing is they didn't know it was Jesus, they thought he was a stranger. But at the end of their journey, they realized they'd been talking to the risen Christ. And here's the part of the story I wanted to focus on. The Bible says Jesus acted as though he would keep on walking. And they constrained them and say, no, no, no, stay and have a meal with us. And the Bible says as they broke bread, suddenly they realized it was Jesus. Isn't that interesting? Jesus acted as though he would keep walking. Listen to this. Jesus will not force his way into any person's life. If you don't want Christ in your life, well, you don't have to have him. But if you want him in your life, he wants to come in. He wants to save you from your sins. That's why he died on the cross. He wants to transform your life. He wants to give you the power over all addiction, and vices, and any other thing that has a hold of you right now. He wants to give you the guaranteed assurance that you'll go to heaven, but you must ask him to stay. Just like those two disciples did. Jesus said, behold, I stand at the door knock, and if any man will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in. Right now, Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart, of your life. And if you want him to come in, it can happen right here, right now. It's so simple, it'll blow your mind. It's as simple as praying. The Bible says, whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So in a moment, I'm gonna lead you in a prayer. So if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life, if you want him to forgive you of your sin, if you wanna know that you will go to heaven when you die, I want you to pray this prayer with me right here, right now. You could even pray it out loud. Just pray these words, Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner, but I know that you are the savior who died on that cross for me 2000 years ago, and rose again from the dead. Now Jesus come into my life and forgive me of all of my sins. I repent of those sins, I turn from them, and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Jesus' name, I pray, amen.