today is miracle sunday and the sermon is about the reality of the resurrection.
Something happened over 2000 years ago which changed the course of human history. It was the most gruesome and terrible murder that ever happened.Jesus was pinned to the cross, and not just those kind of smooth wood you see nowadays, its that kind of very coarse and rough wood with painful splinters sticking out, thus you can imagine the feeling of skin against that kind of surface. His hands were pierced by nails and pinned to the cross and he had to keep using his legs to push himself upwards otherwise he would simply suffocate. The soldiers spit at him to humiliate him. They whipped him using the kind of whip where there are hooks attached so that the hooks can tear out his flesh as the soldier lifted the whip. And then they put a cloak over him, mocking him, saying that since he proclaimed that he's the son of god, he should wear something that befitted the status of a king. But then they tore the cloak away later and imagine the pain as the material, stuck to the open fresh wounds before are torn away, new wounds were made, more blood flowed and more unimaginable pain. Also there was the crown full of spikes, not only on the exterior but also sticking into the inside. They forced him to wear that torturous crown, not by just putting it on his head, but also pushing the crown down, forcing the spikes upon the skull, piercing through, making innumerable wounds. i suppose this is what you call the 'pain exploded in his head'. The crucifixion of jesus christ was amidst many other crucifixions in the roman empire and yet why is his death particularly important?
God made he who knew no sin to become sin for us. Jesus holds the authourity over many angels in heaven, he could have just asked them to take him away, so that he didn't have to go through that entire inhumane process.But he still chose to do that, just because HE LOVES US. All our sins and our sicknesses are washed away when he died for us on the cross. (Now, sins are things which drive us from god. sins separate us from him, sins can be simple things like lying, smoking, getting addicted to whatever (food, gaming) to things like murder, immoral sexual behaviour, theft blah blah.
What good is a saviour who remains dead? On the 3rd day after Jesus was crucified, his tomb was empty upon opening (removing of the huge rock from the entrance). Now this is something to be mystified about. The battered body of Jesus was taken from the cross after he breathed his last (the Romans think that its inauspicious to leave it there) and wrapped under layers of embalmment spices and chemicals tightly. It was put in a tomb with a huge rock blocking the entrance. Roman soldiers were ordered by the authorities to guard the body (prevent jesus' disciples from stealing it) and so they were put at the entrance of the tomb.
1) The resurrection is a pragmatic fact.
The tomb of Jesus was empty. There are 2 groups of people who could have stolen the body. The Jewish or Roman authorities and the disciples.Well, if it was the former who stole the body, while Peter was preaching to the world that jesus is alive and resurrected, they could have come out and proved him wrong by producing the decaying body of jesus as evidence and as seeing how they wanted to go against jesus and his desciples, the fact that they didn't shows that they didn't steal the body! The disciples could not have stolen the body either. The tomb was being guarded by Roman soldiers of the powerful Roman empire at that time and to fail in their task was mandatory to execution at that time for the soldiers. Anyway how could any normal person have gotten past the skilful soldiers?
2) The resurrection is a psychological fact
Jesus' disciples had followed him for some years yet they disowned him. They denied that they wee his desciples, even saying that they knew not who he was. Peter, true to jesus' predictions, denied he knew jesus a total of 3 times. (anyway i noe the no 3 makes this sound like a story and not a historical fact but its not,whether u like it or not) Initially, they didn't believe that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead. They were skeptics! But then later on when they saw for themselves Jesus in flesh, they had no choice but to believe and so they went on to preach about the resurrection of Jesus to the masses, thus incurring the wrath of the roman authorities, who crucified some of them. Yet, they were still persistent that Jesus was alive amongst them all till the last breath they take. Who would risk their lives and die for a lie? Skeptics may say that the disciples preached a lie, that now, we're preaching a lie, but who would die for a lie?
You won't get 500 people hallucinating and see the same people at the same time. That's what happened. They saw him together at once.
3) The resurrection is an experiential fact
The best evidence is to experience the touch of jesus himself who is alive. Countless of people have experienced the miracle touch of Jesus. In the earlier service there are many cancer-striken people suffering from the pain that cancer brings and after the miracle healing session, they're healed completely, their pain had ceased. Examples from my church: a boy colour-blind from birth who cannot see red and orange can now see these colours. The doctor says baby megan will have a 90% chance of having down's syndrome yet God says that she will be his child, a child free from diseases. A person addicted to drugs (when asked, he said all kinds of drugs) for 7 or 8 years had kicked his addiction after going for his first service and that had continued for a few years. A chain smoker had quited in just 1 day, with the help from God. I myself had experienced his love, ask any of my secondary school friends if i was a super bad-tempered person last time, and they would undoubtedly say yes. God is the one who has changed me. No one other than Jesus could so effectively heal anyone of their sicknesses, addictions and past hurts. No one but Jesus. No other way through but through Him.
Jesus is always right beside you. Do you ever find yourself talking to no one in particular, thinking that you're talking to yourself? But all along, Jesus is the one who's always listening to you, patiently and quietly. He's not a ghost, he's a person. You can pile your frustrations, your complaints about everything (THE school principle for example) and just about anything mundane and boring onto him. Far from being disinterested, he will be so glad that for once you've acknowledged his presence, his existence. Now, you are definitely not talking to the air, Jesus is indeed around us always, so many evidences pointing towards this simple fact that Jesus is alive! yet we simply want to doubt so. They want evidences to the root of the Christian faith? Throw them onto their faces, see if they will even be able to digest it all. If Jesus is not real, if even GOD is not real, then i must be seriously crazy, all christians must be mentally disturbed, or worse, so into their imagination. What for am i blogging about them even? What for i even bother to preach the gospel, to even mention that God is real? Where does my passion for Jesus come from? Im perfectly sane and yet i choose to believe in this crap? There's only one answer, that God is indeed real and He loves you so much it hurts! God will move heaven and earth to give you the chances to know him. Who says Christians are being brainwashed? Wow then the skills of the brainwashers must be so good lol.
Something happened over 2000 years ago which changed the course of human history. It was the most gruesome and terrible murder that ever happened.Jesus was pinned to the cross, and not just those kind of smooth wood you see nowadays, its that kind of very coarse and rough wood with painful splinters sticking out, thus you can imagine the feeling of skin against that kind of surface. His hands were pierced by nails and pinned to the cross and he had to keep using his legs to push himself upwards otherwise he would simply suffocate. The soldiers spit at him to humiliate him. They whipped him using the kind of whip where there are hooks attached so that the hooks can tear out his flesh as the soldier lifted the whip. And then they put a cloak over him, mocking him, saying that since he proclaimed that he's the son of god, he should wear something that befitted the status of a king. But then they tore the cloak away later and imagine the pain as the material, stuck to the open fresh wounds before are torn away, new wounds were made, more blood flowed and more unimaginable pain. Also there was the crown full of spikes, not only on the exterior but also sticking into the inside. They forced him to wear that torturous crown, not by just putting it on his head, but also pushing the crown down, forcing the spikes upon the skull, piercing through, making innumerable wounds. i suppose this is what you call the 'pain exploded in his head'. The crucifixion of jesus christ was amidst many other crucifixions in the roman empire and yet why is his death particularly important?
God made he who knew no sin to become sin for us. Jesus holds the authourity over many angels in heaven, he could have just asked them to take him away, so that he didn't have to go through that entire inhumane process.But he still chose to do that, just because HE LOVES US. All our sins and our sicknesses are washed away when he died for us on the cross. (Now, sins are things which drive us from god. sins separate us from him, sins can be simple things like lying, smoking, getting addicted to whatever (food, gaming) to things like murder, immoral sexual behaviour, theft blah blah.
What good is a saviour who remains dead? On the 3rd day after Jesus was crucified, his tomb was empty upon opening (removing of the huge rock from the entrance). Now this is something to be mystified about. The battered body of Jesus was taken from the cross after he breathed his last (the Romans think that its inauspicious to leave it there) and wrapped under layers of embalmment spices and chemicals tightly. It was put in a tomb with a huge rock blocking the entrance. Roman soldiers were ordered by the authorities to guard the body (prevent jesus' disciples from stealing it) and so they were put at the entrance of the tomb.
1) The resurrection is a pragmatic fact.
The tomb of Jesus was empty. There are 2 groups of people who could have stolen the body. The Jewish or Roman authorities and the disciples.Well, if it was the former who stole the body, while Peter was preaching to the world that jesus is alive and resurrected, they could have come out and proved him wrong by producing the decaying body of jesus as evidence and as seeing how they wanted to go against jesus and his desciples, the fact that they didn't shows that they didn't steal the body! The disciples could not have stolen the body either. The tomb was being guarded by Roman soldiers of the powerful Roman empire at that time and to fail in their task was mandatory to execution at that time for the soldiers. Anyway how could any normal person have gotten past the skilful soldiers?
2) The resurrection is a psychological fact
Jesus' disciples had followed him for some years yet they disowned him. They denied that they wee his desciples, even saying that they knew not who he was. Peter, true to jesus' predictions, denied he knew jesus a total of 3 times. (anyway i noe the no 3 makes this sound like a story and not a historical fact but its not,whether u like it or not) Initially, they didn't believe that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead. They were skeptics! But then later on when they saw for themselves Jesus in flesh, they had no choice but to believe and so they went on to preach about the resurrection of Jesus to the masses, thus incurring the wrath of the roman authorities, who crucified some of them. Yet, they were still persistent that Jesus was alive amongst them all till the last breath they take. Who would risk their lives and die for a lie? Skeptics may say that the disciples preached a lie, that now, we're preaching a lie, but who would die for a lie?
You won't get 500 people hallucinating and see the same people at the same time. That's what happened. They saw him together at once.
3) The resurrection is an experiential fact
The best evidence is to experience the touch of jesus himself who is alive. Countless of people have experienced the miracle touch of Jesus. In the earlier service there are many cancer-striken people suffering from the pain that cancer brings and after the miracle healing session, they're healed completely, their pain had ceased. Examples from my church: a boy colour-blind from birth who cannot see red and orange can now see these colours. The doctor says baby megan will have a 90% chance of having down's syndrome yet God says that she will be his child, a child free from diseases. A person addicted to drugs (when asked, he said all kinds of drugs) for 7 or 8 years had kicked his addiction after going for his first service and that had continued for a few years. A chain smoker had quited in just 1 day, with the help from God. I myself had experienced his love, ask any of my secondary school friends if i was a super bad-tempered person last time, and they would undoubtedly say yes. God is the one who has changed me. No one other than Jesus could so effectively heal anyone of their sicknesses, addictions and past hurts. No one but Jesus. No other way through but through Him.
Jesus is always right beside you. Do you ever find yourself talking to no one in particular, thinking that you're talking to yourself? But all along, Jesus is the one who's always listening to you, patiently and quietly. He's not a ghost, he's a person. You can pile your frustrations, your complaints about everything (THE school principle for example) and just about anything mundane and boring onto him. Far from being disinterested, he will be so glad that for once you've acknowledged his presence, his existence. Now, you are definitely not talking to the air, Jesus is indeed around us always, so many evidences pointing towards this simple fact that Jesus is alive! yet we simply want to doubt so. They want evidences to the root of the Christian faith? Throw them onto their faces, see if they will even be able to digest it all. If Jesus is not real, if even GOD is not real, then i must be seriously crazy, all christians must be mentally disturbed, or worse, so into their imagination. What for am i blogging about them even? What for i even bother to preach the gospel, to even mention that God is real? Where does my passion for Jesus come from? Im perfectly sane and yet i choose to believe in this crap? There's only one answer, that God is indeed real and He loves you so much it hurts! God will move heaven and earth to give you the chances to know him. Who says Christians are being brainwashed? Wow then the skills of the brainwashers must be so good lol.
Sometimes we may still hurting over the death of our loved ones. This kind of hurt, you can try to bury it deep in your heart and pretend that you're hurting no more. You can try to forget it, to say convincingly to yourself that you have indeed gotten over it. But, let me be frank, all kinds of hurts, whether its physical,psychological or emotional, only God can heal. Only He can truly make us 'get over it'. Only he is able to do so. No matter how deep the hurt runs, He can remove it. Claim his love and receive it in the name of jesus. Faith as small as a mustard seed is enough to experience his love... and his healing.
Once again, im proud that i know god (but that doesn't mean ill criticise the religions of other ppl). im not ashamed of him, of jesus. and im so glad that im his child. hallelujah!!!
posted by miaochen at
9:30 pm
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