EASTER: THE JESUS NO ONE TALKS ABOUT PASTOR FRANCIS CHAN

Transcription

1 EASTER: THE JESUS NO ONE TALKS ABOUT PASTOR FRANCIS CHAN Revelation 1:17-18: Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. I have a question for the guys. Guys, I am about pounds. If you and I got into a fist fight, could you beat me up? I don t know Karate-I look like I do, but I don t. Don t worry about pride or anything else, just be honest. By a show of hands, how many of you think that you could beat me up? You girls are not allowed to play I m not offended by the way. You two girls in the front, maybe.it doesn t bother me if you think that you can beat me up. You can think whatever you want. What I want to talk about this morning is something that does bother me. What does bother me is when we underestimate the power of Jesus. What often happens when you hear the name Jesus in fact, it s one of the reasons why I got into ministry, I m so bugged by the way we often underestimate His power. People don t talk about Jesus like He is an amazing power to be reckoned with. I remember going to the Getty Museum with my wife, the more she looked at this one area, there were all these paintings of Jesus, she started getting more and more angry. She said Look at the way they paint Jesus. Look at how scrawny He is. You know, the little twig stick-figure on a cross with this weird looking face and we think, well, it s art. We paint such a weak picture of Jesus. I don t know what goes through your mind. When I say Jesus what image comes into your head? For most of you, you think about a painting you ve seen. He s got his long blondish-brown hair and he s petting sheep. We want to show this compassionate side of Jesus. And absolutely, yes, Jesus is compassionate. Did he pet sheep? Maybe. I read all the gospels this week and found no sheep-petting. But here s the thing. There is this other side of Jesus that we don t talk about. But He talked about it all of the time. And that happens to be His power. I know some people don t like to talk about the power of Jesus, it s not popular now. What s popular today is Show us His feminine side. Most of the time when Jesus talks about Himself, He talks about His power. There s an incredibly strong and even harsh side of Him. That s what I want to talk about today. Because the truth is, Easter is the time when we celebrate His power. We celebrate this verse in Revelation, when He says I was dead, and now I am alive forever. I hold the keys to Death and Hades. That s what we celebrate-a Jesus of power. If we see Jesus as weak, it causes us to be weak as His followers. Don t forget the power that He has within us. Everyone in the room, take the deepest breath that you can. Let it out. It feels good, doesn t it? There is one reason why you were able to do that. Jesus. There is a Being right now who is alive. And only because of Him did He allow you to take that breath. He is an amazingly powerful, powerful Being. He s my God. In Matthew 4 Jesus starts His public ministry. Do you know what Jesus did when He first started His ministry? He went out and He fasted for forty days. Forty days without food. I 1

2 don t know what the longest you ve gone without food is, I ve gone maybe ten days and was miserable the whole time. Forty days without food. Here He is physically at His weakest, and Satan comes to tempt Him. When the devil himself comes to tempt Him in Matthew 4 the verse says, Be gone, Satan. Just get out of here. You shall worship only the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve. In Matthew chapter 5 when He launches His public ministry, He goes straight to the religious leaders. These were the people that everyone looked up to. They had so much status, and Jesus goes right after them, and what He says He looks at a crowd of people-the Pharisees are there and the scribes are there. And He says unless your righteousness exceeds the scribes and the Pharisees, you ll never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Do you realize how bold of a statement that is? He basically saying that the religious leaders are going to hell. You d better have a righteousness that is better than those religious leaders you look up to, otherwise you ll never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I d say that s rather bold. Later on in Matthew 6, he goes after the rich-those who find their security in saving up for themselves. In chapter 6, verse 24 He says You can t serve two masters. Either you ll hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. He s giving the people an ultimatum. You can t have both. Be about me. Seek my Kingdom and my righteousness, and all the other things will be given to you. Don t even worry about what you are going to eat tomorrow. Just follow me. Matthew 7, Jesus talks about judgment day. On that day, many are going to say, Lord, Lord. Didn t I prophesy, didn t I do all these things in your name? He says On that day, I am going to say to some people, get away from me. I never knew you. This is Jesus, starting His ministry, getting warmed up here. In Matthew 7:20 the crowd was astonished at His teaching. For He was teaching them as One who had authority. Chapter 8, there was this huge storm on the lake and He was with His disciples, and the disciples think they are going to die. So they wake Jesus up, and they are terrified. Jesus is sleeping through it. He says, Why are you so afraid? He rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm, and the men marveled saying What sort of man is this, that the wind and the sea obey Him? Jesus has recently asked these guys to follow Him and the wind and waves are rolling over them. When Jesus says Be still, and the waves flatten down immediately, can you imagine how freaked out you would be? The disciples are going Who is this guy? Then they go across the lake in Matthew 8:24 and there are the Gadarene demoniacs-possessed by the devil. The Bible says that no one could even walk by them. Suddenly, as Jesus walks by, the demons that are in these beings cry out and listen to what the demons say- What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? We get so arrogant when we talk about Jesus. The demons say it s not time for you to torment us, is it? I don t know what you think of when you hear the name Jesus, but the demons shudder over that name. Christ casts the demons out-everyone hears about it because they had always been freaked out by these two people. At the end of chapter 8 it says that all the people came out to meet Jesus and when they saw Him, they begged Him to leave their region. Isn t that weird? Wait, they saw Jesus and begged Him to leave? You probably thought that they would be cheering Him on! They rejected Him because they wanted to have the status quo. Chapter nine, a paralyzed man was brought in on a gurney type of thing and Jesus says to him, Rise, take up your bed and go home. And he arose and went home. And when the crowd saw it, they were afraid. And they glorified God, who had given such authority to 2

3 men The people freaked out. Can you imagine that if that happened this Sunday morning, Easter Sunday? There was someone you knew that was paralyzed, and what if someone wheeled him up to the front, and you had known this person for years, you knew their condition, what if you saw Him just get up out of that bed, that chair and walk out of the room? Can you imagine how terrified you d be about me? You wouldn t think that you could beat me up any more That s just power. The people were afraid and they glorified God. They recognized that wasn t normal. They glorified God. Chapter ten, Jesus said some pretty harsh words. I know people don t like to hear this side of Jesus, but it is so real and you ve got to get it. Listen to what He says in chapter 10:28: Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Do you understand Jesus message when He came to this earth? He says, stop being afraid of everyone else. What are they going to do? Kill you? So they kill you. Instead be afraid of me, who can send your body and soul into hell for eternity. I know that s not the Jesus you wanted to hear about today, right? You wanted the nice version let s skip all these parts cause you re sounding like one of those hell, fire and brimstone kinds of guys. So did Jesus. I didn t write any of this. I know people aren t going to like this but I don t care. Why would I be afraid of you? What are you going to do, me? In verse 32 he says everyone who acknowledges me before men, I ll acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I ll deny you before my Father who is in heaven. Whoever loves father and mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake and the sake of the gospel will find it. Jesus was very direct. You love your sin, you love this, you love that, you love your stuff, then don t even bother following me. I m a great God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We ve gotta learn to fear Him. Chapter 11, He confronts whole cities. He looks at the cities, does all these miracles in them, and because they don t believe, He says it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for you. You guys are so cocky. On the day of judgment, it s gonna be worse for you. Matthew chapter 12, some of the religious leaders are starting to question Jesus and his disciples cause they are picking grain on the Sabbath, and Jesus makes this statement: The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. You guys are into these rules about working on the Sabbath. I made that rule. Yeah. I made it. I did that for man s sake. I didn t want you working seven days a week. Stressing yourselves out. You re telling my guys you can t pick up a piece of grain and eat it? You missed the whole point. And besides, I am the Lord of the Sabbath. I am the Master of these laws. Chapter 13:41, Jesus starts talking about the end and this is what He says The Son of Man will send His angels and they will gather out of His Kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Later on in verse 49: So it will be at the close of the age, the angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now some of you guys here that and you say Man, I don t like this. I don t like Jesus saying that. So let s just pretend that He didn t. Chapter 14, that s what we do, let s just neglect all of these parts. He was petting sheep at the time. Jesus is walking on the water. They re terrified. They think it s a ghost. They re afraid. Chapter 15, get this. Jesus just reamed everyone. He doesn t care. I love this statement. Chapter 15, verse 12: 3

4 After confronting the Pharisees again, then the disciples came and said to Him, Did you know that the Pharisees were offended when you said that? I just love that. Does it sound like Jesus is concerned about offending anyone at this moment? Jesus goes, Oh, I m sorry! No. That s not what He says. It s sad because in our arrogance rejects God s Word. Someone said Hey, I brought a friend on Easter, he was hoping for a little bunny to hop out. He was offended. Why did you have to talk about Jesus being so strong? You guys, it s gonna happen. It doesn t mean we change the message. People are going to hate this message. People hated Jesus. Why do you think they nailed Him to a cross? Because He was just kind and compassionate all the time? No, because He went against the culture of the day. He went against the authorities of the day. It s not a popular message. Why do you think He got crucified? The disciples talked about the religious leaders, worried of their disapproval. Jesus said, Leave them alone. They are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit. I m going chapter by chapter. Chapter 16 Jesus called Peter the Rock. Upon this rock, I will build my church. The gates of hell will not stand against this. Jesus is saying Do you understand how powerful I am? Do you understand why we are in this worship center right now? Because Jesus was right. The church is going to spread, it s going to grow, will you be true followers of me? In chapter 18, Jesus tells a parable about someone who was unforgiving. How the master condemns him, and in verse 34 his master delivers him to jailers until he has paid the full debt. So also my Heavenly Father will do to every one of you who does not forgive his brother from the heart. Chapter 19 Jesus confronts the rich people again. Verse 23, Jesus says, Truly, truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Again I tell you, it s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus wouldn t care if He was in Simi Valley talking to a bunch of rich people, or if He were in the third world talking to a bunch of people in the caste system. We are so cocky. We think we have some position or power or status. Jesus shoots straight. It s going to be really difficult for you to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It s going to be hard for you because you have a lot to let go of. It s okay when you have twenty bucks, but what if you have 2,000 or 200,000 or two million. At the end of chapter 19 He tells us that in the New World, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, then you who have followed me will also sit on the twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Then in chapter 20, Jesus begins talking about His death and this is where you really see His power. In verse 18, he says we re going to Jerusalem. The Son of Man is going to be delivered over to the Chief Priests and the Scribes are going to condemn Him to death to be mocked and flogged and crucified and He will be raised on the third day. Can you imagine? Jesus who has calmed the seas, who has walked on water, cast these demons out. The demons are freaked out by Him, then He tells His disciples, You guys, I m gonna die. They are going to crucify me. I am going to be buried and I am gonna rise from the grave. He says why He did this: because the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. 4

5 Here is His ultimate power here. I am going to let them kill me. Yeah, I could destroy them. You know why? Because I came for that reason. I came to die for you. A Jesus that powerful says I m going to go through this for you. This is why I came down. I m going to be punished for all your sins. I am going to take it, because that is how strong I am. You should be punished. You should be crucified. You should go to this fiery furnace that I ve been talking about this whole time. You should go there but I am going to go to the cross for you. That s why I came. I came to serve you. Then after they kill me, I am going to rise from the grave. That s how powerful I am. Chapter 21. If you think Jesus is weak and passive, chapter 21, he makes a whip. He goes into the Temple area, because in the Temple, God s Holy Temple, there are people that are trying to make money off of sacrifices, exchanging money, selling stuff. It says Jesus drove out everyone, everyone out of the Temple. He took the tables and He just threw them over. He tosses these tables over, money is flying everywhere. He literally drives everyone out of the Temple. He says It is written. My house shall be called a house of prayer and you are making it a den of robbers. People are coming here to pray and you are ripping them off. That s my Jesus. That s the Jesus I worship. He s not afraid of anyone. I am not going to let this happen. And later, in verse 42, He said the stone that the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone.v.44 the one who falls on the Stone will be broken to pieces, and when It falls on anyone, It will crush him. I am the Cornerstone. If you fall on Me, it s like china falling on a rock. It s going to shatter. When I fall on you, I m going to crush you. That s Jesus. Is this the picture that you had in your head? Jesus was strong. Jesus came in the Temple, cleared it all out and claimed to be the cornerstone. He s the Son of God. Chapter 22, Jesus talks about inviting people to this wedding feast and people were too busy, making excuses like I don t have time He describes how people didn t come to the feast says the King was angry, sent His troops and destroyed these murderers and burned their city. Verse 13 Then the King said to his attendants, Bind him by hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. Chapter 23, Jesus confronts the Scribes and the Pharisees, listen to what He has to say to them now Oh, woe to you These are the high religious leaders. Jesus looks them in the face and says, Woe to you. Woe is like this guttural, painful-like when you see someone get hurt so badly, it makes you sick to your stomach-type of cursing. When you make a proselyte, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Verse 25: Woe to you hypocrites, you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside it s full of greed and self-indulgence. Jesus says, I know what s on the inside. He calls them white-washed tombs, full of dead people s bones and all uncleanness. You get all dressed up, show up for church, look so pretty, so godly, but I know what s inside. There s a tomb and a dead body. Great robe. Look at all the sparklies on it! Chapter 24, Jesus talks about His return again. Verse 42, Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.for you must be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect. Will cut him into pieces, will put him with the hypocrites in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 5

6 Jesus said I am going to die, rise from the dead, and I can come back at any time. I actually will come at a time when you are not ready for me. That s why I am saying Stay awake. Be ready for me. It s like a master who comes back and sees his servants screwing around. Jesus warns, You need to be ready for my return. Chapter 25, He says I m going to come back and I am going to see what you did with what I gave you. He tells a parable about a master who gives his servants a certain amount of money. He queries, did you invest that for me? The ones that used what was given by God for His purposes, He s gonna come back and say Well done. Good and faithful servant. You ve been faithful over little. I ll make you over much. Enter the joy of your Master. I want Jesus to come back right now. Right now. Would be great. God, this is about You. I am doing everything I can. This is about you. But He says to the squanderer, You wicked and slothful servant. Cast the worthless servant into outer darkness. In that place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Verse 31 He says When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, He ll sit on a glorious throne, and before Him will be gathered all the nations. When I want you to know Jesus, I want you to know how you will actually see Him. I ll come back with all of my glory and there will literally be a hundred million angels with me, and I m going to sit on a throne and I m going to take everyone in this room, everyone else in Simi Valley, L.A., on the earth, I m going to gather all these people into a little spot as I sit on this throne, and all my angels are with me, and I am going to start separating people, to the left and to the right. To those on the left, they are going to be thrown onto an eternal fire, those to right will go to an eternal reward. That s what s going to happen at the end. Chapter 26. Jesus says I am going to be betrayed. It s written. It s going to happen. Verse 24 He says, but woe to the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that guy if he had never been born. Don t betray me. I m a powerful being. Do you remember when He gets arrested? The soldiers came and they found out who He was, they just all fell on their faces in fear. Peter grabs his little sword and cuts his ear off. Jesus says in verse 53 Do you think that I can t appeal to my Father, and He will at once send more than twelve legions of angels? Peter, what are you doing? If I needed to destroy this army, I d just call my Father and say send a bunch of angels down here and destroy them. You ve got to understand the power of this Jesus. The High Priest is questioning Him later in that chapter and He says, From now on, I ll see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. This is what blows me away at the end of chapter 26:67, with all of His power, He still allowed them to spit in His face and strike Him. Some slapped Him, saying Prophesy to us and tell us who hit you. Chapter 27, verse 29 says they twisted a crown of thorns and they put it on His head, put a reed in his right hand, and kneeling before Him they mocked Him saying, Hail, King of the Jews. Then they spit on Him and took the reed and struck Him on the head. And when they mocked Him they stripped Him of the robe, and led Him away to crucify Him. They mocked Him saying you who were going to destroy the Temple and build it in three days, save yourself. If you are the Son of God, 6

7 come down from the cross. Picture this. Now they are totally mocking Him. They put a crown of thorns on His head and give Him a little stick. Oh, look you are a king! And they start bowing down and putting a robe on Him. Ooo, look at this king. He s taking that for me. He s being punished for me. I love that phrase from John. Destroy this temple. Go ahead. I ll bring it back to life in three days. That s awesome. Watch what I do. I ll come right back to life. I love chapter 28. He s crucified. He s put in the tomb. The women come to the tomb. There s an angel there saying He s not here. He is risen. He told you He was going to rise again. They start running. Ran to tell His disciples, verse 8. Verse 9- and behold. Jesus met them and said, Greetings. Can you imagine? Think about it. This Jesus everyone rejected I tell you I m gonna come back, and anyone that messes with me, I m going to crush Him, I m going to go ahead and die for your sins. They are going to deliver me over to death, mock me, they re going to crucify me, but you destroy this temple, and I m going to come back in three days. I m telling you, I m coming back. It s not over. It s not the end of the story. The gals go to the tomb, they don t find Him, and He just goes, Hi! That is so insane! That is so powerful. That s my Jesus. That s the Jesus I worship, the Jesus I bow to. He tells the women to get all of the disciples together because He has something to say to them. All the disciples are gathered. Jesus proclaims All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Jesus said, I don t want them giving just a little bit of their lives to me, but baptize them, immerse them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to pray a prayer and ask me to come into their lives? Teaching them to obey everything I ve commanded you. And lo, I am with you, even to the end of the age. And He finally says, Now get out of here and go tell people who I am. What I want to say to you today is not Come back to church next weekend. Obey everything that He said. Listen to all of His words. Don t cut out the parts you don t like. I know some of you don t like this message. It may bother you and you may leave here offended. Some of you won t believe it because you don t like it and you refuse to believe anything that you don t like. I heard a great quote about twenty years ago.. I heard a little preacher. He probably wasn t little. He could probably beat me up. J Vernon McGee said This is God s universe. And He does things His way. You may have a better way. But you don t have a universe. That pretty much sums it up! You may be so brilliant and selective in what you believe. But remember, you don t have a universe!! Jesus Christ is Lord of this universe. And it doesn t end there. Revelation 1:17-18: Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. 7

8 Jesus said this after rising from the grave, after ascending into heaven, He comes back in His glorified state and He speaks to John with these words. John sees Jesus with His eyes like fire. His tongue was like this giant sword. When he saw Jesus, he fell over like a dead man. Jesus tells John not to be afraid. Don t be afraid? Don t be afraid because you are on His side. You are glad that He s that powerful. When we understand Jesus is our powerful God, it s all to our benefit. He determines who s in, who s out, who breathes, who doesn t. This is Jesus and He s on my side. A lot of us don t dwell on the power of Jesus, so we live in fear. We live our lives in shame, we fear the future. We fear other people-but it s all because we don t truly comprehend the power of Jesus Christ. I have nothing to fear because He is risen. Can you say the same today? 8