The End of the Beginning: A New Beginning

Welcome Graham fam! We are so glad you could watch Sunday morning online with us. If you would like to watch our past services, you can do so here: https://www.gcwesleyan.org/teaching/ The End of the Beginning – 7 – A New Beginning Well, we are at the end of our series. Today we celebrate our risen Lord and Savior! A lot happened in the last week of Jesus’ physical life. Jesus was anointed and prepared for his burial. On Palm Sunday, he was given praise and glory. At the last supper he prepares the disciples for everything that was coming and we focused on the preparation of the Holy Spirit! Then we talked about his betrayal. Then we talked about how Peter denied him. Then we talked about the trials as he was sent back and forth between people who didn’t want to choose.It is the saddest story ever told. It is everything that we all fear wrapped up into the end of one person, the very son of God. And the fact that he knew it was coming made it worse. Any kind of suffering that we know is coming makes it so much worse! It is rejection, betrayal, denial. He was made a spectacle and paraded for everyone to see. He was mocked and ridiculed. He felt excruciating pain and suffering. A slow and brutal death. Abandoned by the people that claimed to have loved us, naked and exposed for all the world to see. He had never done anything to deserve what he was getting. Everyone knew it, but his own people traded his life for a known murderer. Even though all he had ever done was help his people. His body experienced shock, suffocation, dehydration, and eventually death. But the worst thing he experienced was that moment in time when he took my sin and your sin and experienced separation from God for the first time ever. We focus so much on the physical pain, for Jesus the worst of it all was being separated from God even for just a moment as he fulfilled the requirements of the Old Covenant (Or OT if you will) and ushered in the New Covenant (or NT) with his blood!And we get to celebrate not because it ended there, but because Jesus did even more than that! He rose from the dead. He proved once and for all that there is life after a physical death. That he has power death and the grave and that he is truly the one that is in control. Scripture: Matthew 28:1-10 Points:1. True followers look for Jesus!2. Jesus has always done and will always do what He said He would do!3. If you look for Jesus, you will find Him!4. We need to tell others! Ending:We have got to come to the understanding that being a follower of Christ is more than just making a proclamation of faith. We have a calling on our lives to tell others that Jesus Christ bled and died for your sins. We have an obligation to tell them that he rose from the grave proving that there is life after physical death. We have an obligation to tell them that he ascended to heaven proving that there is a place beyond this physical world. WE have an obligation to tell them that Jesus sends his HS to his followers to empower them to do all that he has called them to!As we celebrate Easter (Resurrection Sunday), what are there any of these things that are missing from your relationship with Christ? Have you ever made a profession of faith at all? Have you ever showed anyone that you believe in Christ? Maybe today is that day?Have you been earnestly looking for Christ? Maybe he hasn’t been in some of the places you have been looking? Maybe today you just need ask Jesus to reveal himself to you because you have been looking in the wrong places.Maybe you haven’t been telling anyone about what Christ has done. You don’t feel confident enough and maybe you need to ask Christ to fill you with the HS and empower you to speak his name?Maybe you just have sin in your life and you know th...