You can experience this same resurrection power today by surrendering your life to Jesus. Don't settle for emptiness; invite Him to forgive your sins and make you brand new right now.
Welcome to the Real Church podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
Hello, and happy Easter. Today is resurrection Sunday, and let me ask you a question. Have you ever thought there's got to be "more to life"? Like, there has to be more to what I know and I'm experiencing right now. That thought is grounded in truth.
There is more. And as a matter of fact, believe it or not, Easter is the key to knowing and experiencing that more in your daily life here and now. I'm gonna make a bold claim. Today, I'm gonna prove that Jesus Christ actually **raised from the dead** and gonna show you how believing and receiving this risen Lord, this risen Savior, this risen Jesus Christ will propel you into knowing and experiencing the more, the life that you're created to know and experience. Question number 2, do you believe that the dead can actually be raised to life?
Your experiencing the life of Jesus hinges on that very belief. Why? Why is that so important? Because without the real resurrection of the dead, you couldn't have the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then this kind of life that you're about to see and hear, this kind of life change would not be possible.
Check this out.
Hey, guys. I'm Chelsea and I've been going to Real Church for a little over a year now. I would say before I even knew who Jesus was, I was a very angry, negative, ungrateful person. I barely saw any good. I was seeing more evil in this world, so I didn't have much hope for this world until the morning of 02/10/2019.
That was the morning that my entire life had changed forever. I met a real family at a "real church" that I could truly call my home. No 1 judged me as I walked in, and I felt no shame being there. I knew I belonged there. I felt acceptance, love, peace, and for the first time in a very, very, very long time, true joy and happiness in my heart.
That was the day that I knew I had to give my life to Jesus. It's been a little over a year now, and I would say since then, my life has been full of blessings, happiness, and actual pure, pure joy. So if you're searching for a real church and you wanna feel real love from real people just like the real love of Jesus, come join us because the "best is yet to come".
Before Jesus, I was ashamed. I was scared, and I was lonely. And now, I'm forgiven, I'm accepted, and I'm new. I accepted Jesus, rededicated my life to him on an altar call in Tampa at a church, and my life has never been the same since. He's given a direction and purpose and destiny, and, I'm thankful to him for that.
The best is truly yet to come.
Who I was before Jesus was extremely anxious, extremely depressed, and extremely suicidal. I surrendered my life to Jesus in the beginning of 2019 at home crying, begging for a savior to save me. And he did, and he healed me in an instant, and I am no longer depressed, anxious, or suicidal. And today, I am now redeemed, loved, and highly favored.
Isn't that amazing? The life change that you just saw. It's real. Real people living real lives for a real Jesus and having a real good time, and that could really be you. Check this out.
In 1 Corinthians-15, we're gonna start in verse 13. It says, if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. If this whole Christianity thing because this whole Christianity thing hinges on Jesus raising from the dead, if it didn't happen, all of this is for naught. It's it's for nothing.
Like, the the millions of people who have literally given their lives for Jesus have been beheaded or crucified or are strangled or drowned because of their faith in Christ. It was for nothing. The over 2,000,000,000 people that believe in Jesus today and whatever percentage of those are actually living for him, it's for nothing. If Jesus didn't actually raise from the dead, that's how important Easter is. If Christ has not been raised from the dead, then Christianity is just a dead religion that helps those who are weak minded.
Check this out. 1 Corinthians-15:17-19, and then also verse 32, it says this, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins, then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost, meaning those who have died are lost. The forgiveness of sin means nothing. We it we're still separated from God if Christ didn't raise from the dead. Verse 19, if only for this life we have hope in Christ, we of we are of all people "most to be pitied".
And then in verse 32, it says, if the dead are not raised, then let us "eat and drink" for tomorrow we die. If only for this this life we have hope, it's useless because tomorrow we die. If if Jesus wasn't really raised, then all of this is just about feeling good. It's just about religion. It's just about following a code of rules to make us feel better about ourselves.
But that's not the case. This is real. Jesus really did raise from the dead. Once again, if he did it, then we should just go live it up. Go do what we feel.
Do what we want. Go party. Go whatever. But you know that that doesn't fulfill you because you are created for more. If you've ever tried that life, you know that it leaves you absolutely empty.
You are created for more. If you really search deep within, you know that there's more. Think about this, When somebody gets into a car crash or they're about to get into a car crash, what do they scream out right before they crash? Oh, God. And if you have time, you might say, oh, God, help me.
When somebody's on their deathbed, the last dying wish, unless they really hate God because of what they think that he did to them, their last dying wish is, God, help me. God, save me. Help me. I need you. Because we're crying out and searching for more, for what we're created for.
And I want you to know that God wants you to cry out for him, not just when you're about to die. He wants you to know him. He wants to walk with you. He wants to lead you as a good father, leads a son or a daughter through life. God wants you to experience and to know his life, and that only happens through Easter, through *death* and resurrection.
Let's check it out. *1 Corinthians-15:21* says, for since *death* came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. If you wanna understand Easter, this is key. What does it mean death came through a man? Well, if you look at science, science would concur, looking at DNA, that all men and women came from 1 individual man and 1 individual woman, 1 common set, 1 common pair.
That is in line with scripture, ladies and gentlemen. It's Adam and Eve, and death came through Adam and Eve. Adam because God is love, God gave Adam and Eve a choice to choose him or to choose sin. Adam and Eve chose sin. What is sin?
*Sin is choosing not God*. And God, the Bible defines God as life. So they were literally choosing not God, so they were choosing not life. That means they were choosing *death*. And so through Adam and Eve's sin, death entered the world and wreaked havoc on mankind.
And not only that, they passed down from generation to generation to generation to generation all the way to you and to your children, to me and to my children, a *sin* nature. What does that mean? It means a proclivity, a leaning, a bent towards choosing sin, towards choosing not God. I'll prove it to you. I've done this many times.
I say this all the time, but I'm a say it again because it's important. Think about a 2 year old. If you've had kids or your little brother, little sister, or whatever, think about a 2 year old. If you put something that they want in front of them, they say they steal it. They say mine.
We nobody taught them to be a thief for the most part. It came naturally. Right? But then you ask them, did you take that? Johnny says, no.
Sally did it. Sally did it. Blame, lying, it's natural. It's a nature thing. It came from Adam and Eve.
See, verse 21 once again says, for since death came through a man, *resurrection* of the dead also comes through a man. Remember that Jesus Christ was completely God, 100% God, but then was incarnate, which mean he was he was born of a woman. God became a man, and he lived life as a man. Why did he have to be born of a virgin? Why was Jesus born of a virgin?
Because he was not born of Adam. He did not have the sin nature. He had God's nature so he could overcome sin for us. So then Jesus lived the perfect life, and then he died paying the price for our sin. The payment for sin is death.
Jesus died on a cross, and he, the great substitute, the great exchange, he died the death that you deserve in your place as your sin, as my sin, so that you could receive the life that he deserved. And the proof that his death was good enough to pay for your sin was death had no hold on him. He'd never sinned. The payment for sin is death. So Jesus was raised from the dead, and because of his resurrection, we can experience his life.
We can receive payment for our sin. We can be forgiven. We can walk into life, which means knowing God. Jesus himself defined life. In John-17, he prayed, he said, Father, may they know you.
And he said, eternal life is knowing God. It's not just for the sweet by and by, it's for the here and now. We can walk in relation ship with him, and we can do that because of Easter. Watch this. 1 Corinthians-15:22.
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. You're either in Adam, dying in your sin, or you've received Jesus and you've been born again and you can experience his life. What does that look like? How does this happen? Let's go to Matthew-27.
Oh, this is beautiful. Can't wait to show you. Watch this. In Matthew-27 and verse 50, It says, and when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. Jesus is hanging on a cross.
He's been bruised and beaten for you, bleeding. They've screamed at him, shamed him to take your shame. They've beat him so that he could take your your healing. Because he was beaten and broken and bruised, you can be healed and experience healing in your daily life. And he fulfilled all of the prophecies of the Old Testament, fulfilled all of those things, and he cried out as we talked about in our devotion a few days ago.
He cried out and he screamed. What did he scream? He said, Tetelestai. Tetelestai. What does it mean?
**It is finished**. The payment has been paid. What I have done is good enough. Watch what happened next. Verse 51, at that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn in 2 from top.
That's significant. It was torn in 2 from top to bottom. What does that mean? The curtain of the temple, the temple, was a physical representation of our relationship with God. And before Jesus, we were separated from God.
There was a big barrier that prevented us from going into the place in the temple where God's presence was from entering into relationship, and that that barrier was the curtain. It represented this big spiritual supernatural barrier between us and God. But because of Jesus' payment, it was good enough, this big curtain was torn. See, the curtain was 30 feet wide and 30 feet tall. A man could have maybe have started tearing it from the bottom, but not from the top.
And it specifically said that the curtain was torn from top to bottom. What does that mean? That mean that means that as soon as Jesus said it was finished, as soon as he died, his death was good enough, The father ripped the curtain to shreds. He ripped it from the top to the bottom showing that the payment was good enough. He's saying, my children, run to me.
I will give you rest. I am opening the way to me so that you can experience my life. You can experience eternal life. You can know me now. Let's keep watching.
Keep reading. It says, the earth shook and the rocks split, and the tombs broke open. A lot of people don't see this point in the gospels, but it's so important, and I'll show you why. It says, and the tombs broke open, and then it says, the bodies of many holy people who had died were **raised to life**. They came out of the tombs after Jesus' resurrection and went into the "holy city" and appeared to many people.
Jesus' *death* paid for the sins of the whole world, past, present, and future. And these holy people were people who had faith in God's word. Jesus is the very word of God. They had faith in Jesus. So when Jesus died and was raised again, it not it wasn't just him that raised up, but it also sucked up the others that had had faith in Christ before out of the graves.
Can you imagine that day? Right? All of a sudden, your husband that died 20 years before comes knocks on the door, say, hey, honey. I'm home. What would that be like?
But really, what it shows us is that Jesus' resurrection life is so powerful that it can raise anyone who's put their faith in him. Just like you saw in the videos before, I am a life who has been raised to new life. The old me is completely gone and dead, buried with Christ, And I have been "raised to new life". Jesus' resurrection life, when I received Jesus, raised me to new life in him and I'm experiencing the life that he created me to live. I know God, and I am known by him.
See, I used to be someone who was very prideful, like extremely prideful, extremely just all about myself, selfish. I didn't really care that much about you. It might look like I have, but really I cared about you as much as it benefited me. So I was prideful, I was selfish. I was I was all about me.
I was a punk. But see, then I received Jesus. And as I grew in him, and I I grew to know who he is, and he showed me who he's made me to be, I became what God says that I am, humble, bold, and confident in Jesus, not confident in myself anymore, but I'm confident in him speaking through me and living through me. I'm confident in his resurrection life. And more and more, I'm becoming gentle.
And I encourage you to think about that. My life itself is proof of Jesus' resurrected life because of the change. But not just my life. There are millions of people all over the world who've experienced the same change, and it's proof that Jesus lives. I wanna show you a few.
Watch this.
Hey, guys. I just wanna share real quick about what Jesus has done in my life. And before him, I was empty. I felt inadequate and lonely. And when I was about 16 years old, I was actually just at home and realized how empty and unfulfilled that I was.
And in my bedroom, I just asked him into my heart and accepted him right there. And now after him, I am fulfilled. I am accepted. I am loved, and it has just completely changed my life for the better. So I just wanna remind you the best is yet to come.
Hey, church. Daniel Mannix here. 3 things to describe me before Christ. So I would say prideful. I was selfish and really just generally in bondage.
Bondage to performing, to meeting expectations, bondage to lust, bondage to guilt. You know, whenever whenever I committed sin, I had I had that bondage to guilt. And that all really changed for me in December 2016. I I can't give you an exact date, but somewhere in December 2016, I finally made the decision to stop trying to do things my way and finally fully surrendered to Christ. And from that moment on, I live in love and acceptance and knowing I'm worthy, not because of what I've done, but because of what Christ already did for me.
And he didn't do it for me because of an expectation that I would do something for him. It was a free gift. And because of that, I don't I don't long for other things. You know? In him, I am complete.
In in him, I have everything. And it's really only just beginning. You know, you're you're you're talking 3 years ago, 3 and a half years ago. I mean, the best is yet to come.
Before I knew Jesus, I was alone and afraid. And just lost. And I know I spent a little bit of time in a church when I was little because a bus would pick me up and bring me there. And so I knew about Jesus, but I didn't know him. I didn't choose him until I was in church when I was a lot older, and, his love just flowed through me, and his love made me wanna draw near to him.
And that was a long time ago, and now I'm accepted. And I know where I am and who I belong to, and I have such joy and peace. And you know what? The best is yet to come. And the cool thing is the yet to come part never ends.
So I will be constantly being filled by him and being changed by him and knowing who I am.
That right there is the importance of Easter. You are seeing and have seen the resurrection life in people, proof that Jesus has risen from the dead and we can experience that life. The proof is those testimonies. My testimony. And some of you who are watching your testimonies, maybe maybe you know someone, maybe you've never experienced this life, but you know someone that has you've seen this marked change in their life.
The answer, if it's the answer is Jesus. It's Jesus Christ. He is the 1, and you can experience that same change. You can experience that same resurrection life in your life today. You can know God.
*God* wants you to know him. He wants to know you. Maybe you're sitting right there and you're like, well, I I know that that's me. I know that it's time for me to receive Jesus. If that's the case, I want you to do something for me right now.
If you know beyond a shadow of a doubt, you're listening and you know that maybe you've just played church all your life, maybe you don't have a relationship with God, or maybe you've been running from God and you've you've you've just shaken your fist at him by the way that you lived, and you said, no. I know I need a change. I need this resurrection life that you're talking about. You can have it. The time is now.
If you do me a favor, put your hand over your heart. The Bible says this. It says, if you believe that Jesus died for you. Do you believe that? The answer is yes.
Let's continue. And you believe that Jesus rose again 3 days later. Do you believe that Jesus rose again? If the answer is yes, let's continue because that resurrection life is for you. It says if you confess him as your Lord, you will be saved.
You'll be born again. You'll experience his resurrection life, forgiveness and freedom and newness and love and life. You'll experience Easter today. If you're ready to confess him as Lord, you might say, what does that mean? That means, you say, I've been living for myself.
I realize it hasn't worked. I'm not experiencing what this guy's talking about. And I'm ready right now to "live for you", Jesus. I don't know what that means, but but help me. I want to know your life.
If that's you, let's pray. And I want you to pray this prayer with me out loud, wherever you are. If you're sitting, you know, in a big crowd of people, you can say it out loud, you can say it kinda under your breath, but mean it with everything you you have. Ready? Say this, Father, I believe.
I believe Jesus that you died for me. And Jesus, I believe you rose again and I have been a sinner. I've lived for myself and it's time for me to live for you. Would you forgive me of my sin? I receive you right now.
Come into my life and make me brand new, Jesus. And teach me what it means to live for you. I commit my life to you right now. Holy Spirit, which is the spirit of Jesus. Say, Holy Spirit, would you baptize me in your presence?
I receive you. Teach me to hear your voice. And I want everybody watching right now, whether you've given your life to Jesus 50 years ago or you just just have, this is for you. We're gonna confess what Jesus says about us. Confess means to agree.
You ready? Say this with me right now. Say thank you Jesus, "I am forgiven". Thank you Jesus, **I am new**. Thank you Jesus for your new life.
Thank you that it's no longer I who live, but you who live in me. Help me to remember this every moment of every day. Thank you that I'm pure in you. Thank you that I'm loved by you. Lord God, and help me to become that love, so that when others see me and others hear me, they see and hear your love flowing through me.
And let my resurrected life, like yours, Jesus, my resurrected life cause others to be sucked up out of their dead life and experience the resurrected life of Jesus. Amen.
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