The Resurrection Changed Everything

Hi, this is Pastor Daniel Bracken. You're listening to Kings Alaska podcast. I hope the Word encourages you and you get a touch from God that brings transformation and equips you to experience life with people, power and purpose. Thank you for joining us. Enjoy the Word.

Take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Acts, chapter 27. We've looked at a number of passages throughout the scriptures and how New Testament, how Jesus changed everything whenever he showed up. Water became wine. People got healed, people got set free and delivered, people got saved. When Jesus shows up, he changes everything.

Say that when Jesus shows up, he changes everything. I've entitled this this morning. The Resurrection changes everything. Acts 20:6. If you would stand with us, we're going to read from the new living translation today.

Acts 26 and verse 4. Let's read the word of the Lord. Are you ready? Let's go. As the Jewish leaders are well aware, I was given a thorough Jewish training from my earliest childhood among my own people and in Jerusalem.

The apostle Paul speaking here. Verse 5. If they would admit it, they know that I've been a member of the Pharisees and the strictest sect of our religion. Now I'm on trial because of my hope in the fulfillment of God's promise made to our ancestors. In fact, that is why the twelve tribes of Israel zealously worship God night and day.

And they share the same hope I have. Yet, your majesty, they accused me for having this hope. Why does it seem incredible to any of you that God can raise the dead? Verse 9. I used to believe that I ought to do everything I could to oppose the very name of Jesus the Nazarene.

Indeed, I did just that in Jerusalem, authorized by the leading priests. I caused many believers to be sent to prison. And I cast my vote against them when they were being condemned to death. Many times I had. Many times I had them punished in the synagogues to get them to curse Jesus.

I was so violently opposed to them that I even chased him down in foreign cities one day. Would you say that with me? One day I was on such a mission to Damascus, armed with the authority and the commission of the leading priests. About noon, your majesty, I was on the road, and a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shown around me and my companions. We all fell down and I heard a voice saying to be an Aramaic.

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is youth. Useless for you to fight against my will. Who are you, Lord? I asked.

And the Lord replied, I am Jesus 1. You are persecuting now get up to your feet. For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness. To tell people that you have seen me and to tell them that I will what I will show you in the future. Verse 17.

I will rescue you from both your own people and from the Gentiles. Yes, I'm sending you to the Gentiles to open their eyes so they may turn from darkness and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God's people who are set apart by faith in me. So, King Agrippa, verse 19. I've obeyed the vision from heaven I preached.

First to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem, throughout all Judea, also to the Gentiles. That I must. That they must all repent of their sins and turn to God and prove they have changed by the good things they do. Some Jews arrested me in the temple for preaching this and tried to kill me. But God has protected me right up to this present time so that I can testify to everyone, from the least to the greatest.

I teach nothing except what the oppression prophets of Moses and Moses said would happen. That the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead and in this way announce God's light to Jews and Gentiles alike. And suddenly Festus shouted, paul, you're insane. Too much study has made you crazy. But Paul replied, I am not insane.

Most excellent, Festus. I am saying. What I am saying is sober truth. King Agrippa knows about these things. I speak boldly, for I am sure these events are familiar to him where they were not done in a corner.

King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do. King Agrippa interrupted him. Do you think you can persuade me to become a Christian so quickly? Then Paul replied, whether quickly or not, I pray to God that both you and everyone here in this audience might become as I am, except for these chains.

Let's go. Father, thank you for your word. A lamp unto a feet, a light upon our path move in great power. Let every one of us be brought low and you be glorified and magnified today. Thank you for what you've done already in this service and what you'll do now.

I pray, Lord, as your word goes forth, it would touch the hearts of every single one. And the effects of this service. For those online and those in this great sanctuary, the effects of this service would be far reaching even to eternity. In Jesus name, Amen. Turn to somebody and say, Jesus changes everything.

I don't get canned messages from Preacher.com. and I certainly don't get messages produced by chat. I seek the Lord, I pray, I study God's word and I use resources for illustrations and things like that. I wrestled with many texts to bring you this morning.

And as I was praying, I. Sometimes what happens to me is I study and then I just get to the place where I can't study anymore. Anymore. I need to take a walk, I need to go pray, I just need to go work. I just need to stop studying.

And I got to that place and I was teetering between two different introductions and just really, God, this is really what you want me to share? And I was feeling like a yes, but just needed a confirmation. So I went to the sauna. And if you've been here for any length of time, I tell stories from the sauna and some of them are quite funny. Well, I went into the sauna at the club and this man walks in and quotes a whole section of my introduction.

Because a common lie in our culture, common lie in our culture, which is what he expressed and I lovingly told him so the common lie is it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you believe something, that is the biggest load.

Amen.

It's not true. And a great book that I encourage people to read and I'd encourage you to read it. I'd have all your children read it certainly before they go out to the polluted world of the university or wherever they might head out to learn critical thinking. It's called mere Christianity by C.S. lewis, one of the greatest theological minds of the 20th century.

And he, he talks about how people believe that, that it doesn't matter as long as you. But we really don't believe that. Because if I can't. If you believe that, it'd be all right to pour boiling water in my lap. I promise you I don't believe that.

And that's not happening.

I shared this with my friend. Well meaning, as he said, as long as you believe that's what matters. No, that's not what matters. You need to be. It's nice and open minded.

You're open, so open minded your brains fell out.

It's a deceptive statement and people use that as like spiritual kung fu to keep them from actually making a decision for Christ. But when you study critical thinking and read CS Lewis in different places and when you listen to what I'm about to preach to you, that slogan that people use to avoid a decision for Jesus falls flat.

Doesn't matter what you think is right. Doesn't matter what you feel is right. What matters is what is right. And as a Christian, we believe in absolute truth, absolute truth. The Bible says that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

I'm going to present to you this morning in the moments that remain clear evidence on the resurrection. And it's going to touch your life. And maybe your mom brought you. I'm glad she did. Maybe you're here on your own.

I don't know how you've ended up coming. I'm so glad you did. You could have been anywhere. Come on, you can be eating Fruity Pebbles at home right now, watching cartoons. You decided.

No, I'm going to church. And I'm so glad you did, because this is the high holiday of Christianity.

Paul here in this text, he believed in the God of Abraham. He believed in the God of Jacob. He believed in the word of God. He believed in holiness. He believed in prayer.

He believed in fasting. He believed in tithing. He believed in all these things. And yet, as sincere as he was, he was wrong. He didn't have the full revelation.

You can be sincere and still be wrong. Come on, somebody say that. You can be sincere and still be wrong. I think back in the course of my maturing and I'm still hoping to grow up but not get old. Don't ever let the old man in.

Come on, say that. Don't ever let the donut. Don't let him in. There's things that I believe when I was 30 and 40 that I found out later in my 50s, were absolutely incorrect. I'm not so much talking theologically, although I've learned and grown in the understanding of God based upon his Word, because that's the only place you should get understanding.

I had gentlemen telling me, well, you know, you know, it's all the same God, I think, no, it isn't.

You get. He was very sincere. He's just totally wrong and I hope destroyed his argument. I hope destroyed his whole way of believing. Hopefully sitting there in shambles making a decision for Jesus in the Catholic Church this morning, which is where he's going.

God bless him. Amen.

Paul discovered that you can be right about many things and still miss the most important thing.

Wow. The resurrection is Christianity. I've said it. I've said it for 20 years. 19, to be exact.

No, I've said it ever since I was preaching. The resurrection is Christianity. If there's no resurrection, there's no Christianity. Take your Bibles and turn with me to First Corinthians. Chapter 15.

And while you're going there, you see through the Old Testament, there what's called types and shadows. There's other people that were raised to death in the Old Testament. There's many, many scriptures that show about resurrection. Even the rapture is modeled through Enoch, who goes away with God. I mean, there's so much in the Old Testament.

And if you don't study the Old Testament as a New Testament believer, you'll not really be able to mature to the level that God wants you to be. And the Old Testament, you see these types and shadows of foreshadowing. There were like signs. It pointed even in the New Testament, Jesus raised people from the dead, but they were all signs, even the sign of Jonah for First Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 17. Let me read this to you.

And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you're still guilty of your sins. Oh snap.

Verse 18. In that case, you who have died believing Christ are lost. And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we're to be pitied more than anyone in the world. Verse 20. Read with me.

But in fact, Christ has been raised.

That's amazing. Come on, somebody say Christ has been raised from the dead. You see, Christianity is not a set of moral rules and laws. You said. What do you mean?

There are rules and laws. Yeah, there is. But all of those will won't save you. There's only one way you can be forgiven. And it's not by following set of rules.

It's not by obeying the the Scriptures. Unless you include that to be repenting of your sin, believing in the Lord Jesus, that he died on a cross and rose from the grave.

The resurrection is Christianity. Go to verse 21 with me. First Corinthians 15:21. So you see, just as death came into the world through one man. Let me stop.

What's that talking about? The curse of sin came through one man. His name was Adam. Well, the curse of sin left through those who believe in what's called. I don't like saying the second Adam.

Really? A better translation is the the last Adam. Let's read it. Verse 21, First Corinthians 15. So you see, just as death came through the world through one man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man.

Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. If you receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and savior, guess what you get? You get a brand new life. That's what you get. It's not.

It's not. Well, it's not man reaching up to try to become like God. It's God reaching down and forgiving you. It's the only religion in all. Can I preach in here on the Resurrection Sunday?

It's the only religion, man. I kind of like that we're using this for the production. I might. I might keep it. It's the only religion in all the world where God reached down to man.

You're not a God who forget. I've got a problem with a God who forgot they were God. That's not you.

That's Christianity. Christianity gives you new life. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come. You're going to look at this text.

It's told. Paul's Testimony is told three times throughout the book of Acts, Acts 9, Acts 21, 22. Here in chapter 26, four times.

And he meets Jesus on the road. The context here is he's on his way from Jerusalem now. He's testifying to a king. He's been arrested, he's in trouble. He's testifying and he's telling a story and he's.

He tells the story of how he's on the way from Jerusalem. He's got letters, he's got authority. He's going to go persecute some more Christians in Damascus. So he's on his way and a light shines around him. We'll look at this.

It is amazing. He. He basically becomes a believer. We'll look at it in detail. He becomes a believer.

And what's amazing to me is this one encounter with Jesus, One encounter with Jesus changes everything. Come on, say that with me. One encounter with Jesus changes everything.

The resurrection is not a myth or a fable. It's a fact. Now, let me break this down.

Verse 13 and 14. His companions heard a voice, saw light. He heard the voice speak to him, and they all fell to the ground. There's eyewitnesses. So those are witnesses there.

Then there's eyewitnesses in First Corinthians 15, 5, 8. 500 people saw him. 500 people. Some. I've had people say, and you can read those who are not believers trying to argue against a resurrection, that it was a hallucination, was a mass hallucination.

It wasn't a mass hallucination.

Some say, well, he really didn't die. This is called the swoon theory. And here it goes. It goes. It's just hysterical to Me, there's these lost years of Jesus where he's after, he's 12.

We don't hear about him because he became a swami in India and then he came back and when he was hanging on the cross. So swami guys, they can stop their heart. So really he just swooned. I don't even know what sa wound is. But that's insane because it attributes the Romans to being dumb.

And they were the best executors there were. There was no one better than killing than the Romans. So when they were going to kill somebody, they were dead. They hung on the cross, they pierced him through with a spear, fulfilling Isaiah 53. The swoon theory attributes the Romans to being inept at their job, and they weren't, because if you didn't kill them right then you're going to get killed as a Roman soldier.

Now, wrong tomb theory. They put him in the wrong tomb. Oh, sure. You see, it's kind of like it's so small an area. Everything that happened in the Gospels is within walking distance.

I, I, if you've been to Israel. The thing that blew my mind when I went to Israel, well, many things, but one of the things was it's so small. I mean, you can be in Golgotha and you can walk to the tomb, the tomb of Joseph of, of Arimathea. Come on. Do you know where your house is?

Of course. If you don't, we can pray for you at the end of service.

We know where we live. I know, I know where my, I know where my son is buried. I could, I would, I could walk there. Well, I'd have to swim a section and then, and then I could walk the rest of the way. You don't.

I, it's not a must. I was there. I was there back in the 1990s when our little boy went into the grave. I There, I've got other people there. My wife is there.

I can go and point to the. Exactly. Look around and go, yeah, it was right here. Do you actually think that they put him in the wrong tomb? So then they went to the.

Oh, this is it. And nobody's in it. He's risen again. Yeah. No, no.

Makes everybody out to be morons now. The resurrection of the dead is the only way to explain Paul, the only way to explain the highest level of education, a Pharisee of Pharisees. The only way to explain somebody who was so zealous to just kill all the church, the way those are the way the sect, this schism, Judaism. And then he Becomes the leading apostle and writes 3/4 of the New Testament through his epistles. How is that?

He met the risen Savior. The resurrection is the only way to expect Peter to. To explain. Peter. Peter.

Peter ran from a little girl who accused him of being one who belonged to Jesus. He ran. He was afraid of being killed. Peter. And yet on the day of Pentecost, he comes out and preaches until thousands of people get saved.

What check place in the life of Peter the apostle. He knew that Jesus had risen from the grave and he had been filled with the same spirit that raised him. The power of the Holy Spirit. He comes out and he preaches. What's the transformation?

It's the same. When you looked at all the apostles, all of them, I mean, they go to these far flung places. They go all over the world and all of them are martyred. All of them? No, actually not all.

There's one. His name is John. They boiled him in oil, they French fried the boy and he still didn't deny. Jew. Why not?

Because it's real. The power of God. The resurrection is real. It's not a myth, it's not a fable. Paul was completely changed.

Come on, say that Paul was completely changed. The only way to explain my life. Shoot. I know some of you all before you gave your lives to Jesus. The only way to explain the likes of you is that you got born again.

You got changed. You used to be such a jerk.

And I was worse than that.

Paul says I was one as I was one abnormally born. Because of his persecution of the Church. That's why he said that you see in second Corinthians, chapter four and verse four, turn with me.

It says Satan, who is the God of this world has blinded. Come on, say it with me out loud. Satan. I can't hear you. Ready, set, go.

Satan, who is the. This world has the minds of those who don't believe. They are unable to see. See the glorious light. Paul gets impacted by Jesus.

One encounter changes him. And he's then called to go to Gentiles and Jews alike. To do what? To open their eyes. Do you know why your brother in law doesn't serve God?

Do you know why your auntie doesn't believe in Jesus? Do you know why anybody doesn't believe? Maybe even here under the sound of my my voice. Because they're blind. And they're blinded biblically to understand it.

2nd Corinthians 4, 4. By Satan. There is clearly demonic power sent from the underworld. Satan. To blind you.

Now I wouldn't go Whipping that out and say, my pastor said that you don't believe Jesus because you're blinded by Satan. It's a better way to win souls. But it is the truth. Come on, somebody say it's true.

To open the eyes. Verse 18. To turn people from darkness to light. From the power of Satan to God. That's what Jesus spoke to Paul to do.

That's what we're doing right now. That's what we're to do every day of our lives. To walk in the truth, to share the love of God. To declare the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And to break the power of darkness off of people.

That they would turn to the light and love him and live for him and serve him. And be set free from every bondage, set free from every curse. Loose from addiction, loose from pornography. Loose from everything that the enemy puts upon people to keep them blind. Come on, say amen.

In the house of God. What? What must we do? I'm glad you asked. The reason we're here, you know, the reason we built this church, the reason that we are a church is for one reason, and that's just.

It was not a little religious club. I hate religious clubs. I hate all kind of clubs. I just don't like them. We're not a religious club.

We're here for one purpose, and that's to see every man, every woman and every child turn to Christ, become a disciple of the Lord Jesus, and fulfill their divine purpose and destiny. That's why we're here. That's why we do. We do all the productions. We used to do those egg hunts.

Thank God we haven't done those, man. The egg hunt would just drive people out of the church. And then all those eggs. Anybody remember when you used to boil eggs and I better move on.

What must we do? Well, the first thing is believe in Jesus.

You got to believe in Jesus. That's the first thing. That's what Paul did. That's what we must do. You got to give your heart to Jesus.

Do it today.

Believe in Jesus.

Don't hide like Festus did. King Festus hid, made all kinds of hoopla, lack of understanding. He's getting understanding and he just doesn't want to hear. It was interesting. And if my friend ends up coming to the church one day, I'll never tell you who it is.

But, you know, last night we diced. We ginsued his argument. We sliced and diced his argument. Lovingly pared it down, destroyed what he was saying. Lovingly.

I used to not do it so lovingly now, but love is way better. He's be like, oh, yeah, be sweet. You can be sweet and destroy arguments. People don't like having their arguments and their whole. Their whole belief system destroyed.

They don't realize they're full of a bunch of bs. Belief system, what's wrong? Come on, renew your mind. Renew your mind.

And so as we got to the point where his argument is destroyed, it just was too hot in the sauna. It's like, I gotta go. I bet it's like dropping a bomb. I've dropped a bomb on you this morning. It's not.

It's not a myth, not a fable. Jesus is alive. He rose again from the grave. And there's many other convincing proofs. Believe in Jesus.

Do it today. And next we. We have to have a. A reach for others so they can become forgiven. You know how the number one way this church grows is by you inviting people.

Invite people. We're trying to improve everything we can. We made more parking for you this morning. I hope it was easier. We've got seats out to make it comfortable for you.

We have the right temperature. We do everything we can to remind it, try to make it comfortable, and then preach the word to you so you're convicted and turn towards Jesus or get equipped. We've got to reach people. Would you. Would you.

Would you reach people? Would you. Would you reach to people? Would you begin to invite people? Would you do that?

Because that's how we grow. If God's touched and changed your life, really, it's against your religion not to reach out to people within the sauna again. Sorry, that's another sauna illustration. I'm telling my testimony and some guy says, for the love of God. I feel like I'm in Sunday school.

Can you just be quiet? I just want peace in here. I turn around and the pagan guy I was witnessing to stands up and says, shut up. I was like, I didn't even have to say anything. He's telling his story, dude, shut up.

The other guy's like, yeah, well. And then I stood up. I'm like, take it easy, guys. Take it easy.

We got to have a desire to reach people. We must reach for others so they be forgiven. Invite people, and lastly, live a life worthy of repentance. This is verse 20. This is so powerful.

Are you able to put verse 20 up if you can? And if not, I understand you guys do such a great job.

I preached first to those in Damascus, verse 20, then in Jerusalem, as he goes on to tell his story throughout all Judea and also the Gentiles. I know the original text, so sorry. Acts, Acts 26:20. Then in Jerusalem, throughout all of Judea and also to the Gentiles. Listen closely.

That all must repent of their sins and turn to God. You see that?

And what does it then say? And prove? And prove they have changed by the good things they do. That to me, is absolutely profound because a lot of people say, I believe and I've received Jesus, but they live like they don't. So it's really like a lip service.

I've had people say to me, oh, I've prayed that prayer. What's that prayer you do at the end? What do they call it? The sinner. It's a sinner's prayer.

Like it's a formula, really. I've prayed that many times and nothing happened to me. My life didn't get changed. Well, listen to me, slick. The reason is because you didn't really repent, because repent means to change your mind and to change your behavior and live differently.

It's fascinating that they would repent and prove and prove they've changed. I'm gonna say it again and prove they've changed. You'll know them by their fruit. One of the reasons more churches aren't filled with people is people say that they love God and live like the devil. That's not the way it is here.

It's not the perfect church. If you find that, don't go. You'll ruin it.

There are no perfect churches till you get to heaven. But God's pouring out his spirit here and he's doing amazing things as we bring this to a close with every head bowed and every eye closed. If you've never made a decision for Jesus once, you do it today on Resurrection Sunday. My mama got saved on Resurrection Sunday many, many, many years ago. Or maybe you have made a decision for Jesus before, but you know you're not proving you're not living right.

And you've got compromise all across this place. If that's you, I want to lead you in a prayer of repentance right now.

Believe that Jesus died on a cross. You believe that he rose again from the grave. The apostle Paul said in Romans, all have sinned. Everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, you must be born again.

John 3. Jesus talking to Nicodemus says, you have to be made new. You're separated from God because of sin, no matter how good? I'm a good person. Wrong answer.

Receive Jesus right now or recommit your life to him. If that's you, you want to be included in this prayer. On the count of three, raise your hand. 1. 2.

Do it right now. 3. Raise your hand high. God bless you. Thank you for your honesty.

Lift it high. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.

Wow. God bless you. Look all wonderful, all these folks over here. Thank you. Over on this left side.

Thank you for your honesty, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Pray this with me right out loud.

Say, dear heavenly Father, thank you for sending your son Jesus to die on a cross for my sin. Forgive me for everything I've ever done wrong and come into my life. Wash me, cleanse me and make me new. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for hearing my prayer.

Amen. Would you lift a a hand to heaven as a sign of surrender? With hands raised all over those online, I pray Holy Spirit, fill, touch these, Break every bondage, lift the scales from people's eyes, break every chain, every curse, and loose these to fulfill your divine purpose as you've done for so many do for these now who are recommitting for these now giving their lives to you for the first time. They would find a place to serve you, even here at Kings, and you would use them powerfully so that when they stand, when we stand before you, we would hear, well done, thou good and faithful servant, Jesus name, we pray, put your best hand clap together for God. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.

Well, I hope you were encouraged by God's word. Thank you again for listening to Kings Alaska podcast. God bless you. For more great content, go to kcalaska.com and may God's face shine upon you and give you peace.