The Resurrection

Today on Bold Steps Weekend, Mark Jobe will walk you through a special Easter message. Mark will share a powerful message about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This message will also focus on what Mark calls "the hinge of the Gospel," the cross of Jesus and its profound significance in history. 

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Episode Transcript

S1 (00:00):
Today on Bold Steps weekend. Mark Jobe walks us through
a special Easter message.

S2 (00:05):
The same power that resurrected Jesus from the dead is
the same power that changes and transforms our lives. Today,
it's resurrection power.

S1 (00:34):
Happy Easter and welcome to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe.
Mark is president of Moody Bible Institute and the senior
pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. My name
is Wayne Shepherd. On today's program, Mark is going to
be sharing a powerful Easter message about the crucifixion and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. This message focuses on what Mark
calls the hinge of the gospel, the cross of Jesus,

(00:57):
and its profound significance in history. He reminds us the us,
the resurrection we celebrate today represents the ultimate victory that
followed Christ's sacrifice. If you'd like to learn more about
the Ministry of Bold Steps or share these messages with
a friend, visit our website at Bold Steps. All right,
now let's get into the Word of God and a
message Mark is titled The Resurrection.

S2 (01:21):
Jesus said he would rise again. Now death is something. Well,
it's something that we don't always like to talk about.
Many people ignore death, try to act like it's never
going to happen to them, even though they know the
clock is ticking towards death. Some of you don't go

(01:43):
to funerals because you don't want to be reminded of it.
I know people that don't go to hospitals because there's
an eerie reminder that life is frail and that sickness
could take their life. Some of you don't want to
plan for a funeral. You don't want to talk about
the songs or or what you want done. You don't
want to buy a plot of land, you don't want

(02:03):
to make arrangements. Because if you feel like you don't
talk about it, somehow in your mind you think you
can postpone it. But death is real, it's powerful, and
it comes to all of us. I heard of three
men talking about their funeral and what they would like

(02:23):
people to say about them at their funeral. One man
said that he would like people to say that he
was a great person who cared about his community and
made changes in his neighborhood. The second man said, well,
I would like to be remembered as and like people
to say he was a good father, a great husband,

(02:44):
a family man, someone worth modeling our life after. The
third man thought for a second. He said, would I
would I would really like people to say, I would
like for them to look down at my coffin and say, hey,
I think he's moving. None of us want to experience death,

(03:05):
in part because we don't really know what's on the
other side. Some people claim some cynics claim that Jesus, well,
he didn't really die. They claim that he passed out,
went into a coma, and somehow, on the third day,
rose again, rolled the stone out, and then came out

(03:27):
of the grave. I want us to think about that
for a second. Do you realize that the Roman guards
had a lot of experience at killing people? They had
crucified thousands upon thousands of people in the area of Judea.
When Jesus was before Jesus was taken to the cross.

(03:49):
They had beat him severely. The Roman guards would use
a a whip that they called the Cat of Nine Tails.
This whip had nine strands of leather on it. Each
strand of leather would have glass and rock meshed into
the leather. Each whip on a victim's back would tear

(04:16):
chunks of flesh and expose bone. Some people would die
simply because of the whipping. After Jesus was severely whipped
that way, then he was nailed to a cross. Nails
were would pierce his wrist and then pierce his feet.
Agonizing pain, bleeding, severe bleeding. And for hours he hung

(04:40):
on that cross. When he was dead, just to make
sure that he was dead. The soldiers didn't do this
to all victims of crucifixion, but they did with Jesus
because they wanted to make sure he was truly, truly dead.
And so they took they took a spear and they

(05:02):
jabbed it into the side of Jesus. And the Bible
tells us that water mixed with blood came out. If
you're a doctor and you know about physiology, you won't
understand that that is a symptom of death. When the
when your blood starts to separate and water comes out.
So Jesus was dead. This wasn't a play. This wasn't

(05:29):
a church reenacting the crucifixion, which can be dangerous at
times as well. This is a real story. I heard
of a big church that was doing a reenactment of
the crucifixion of Jesus, and the pastor liked to have
weapons that were real, just so it looked real. And
in their play, they actually speared the side of Jesus.

(05:52):
But they had a spring spear. But the soldier was
so nervous he forgot to change it out, and so
he used a real spear and speared the acting Jesus
on the cross. I'm told that suddenly when he speared him,
there was a voice that said, oh my God, I've
been stabbed! And this poor actor experienced some of the

(06:16):
real pain of Jesus. I'm not talking about that kind
of that, that kind of crucifixion. Jesus was stabbed in
the side after hours of torturous death. The Roman guards
checked him to see if he was still alive. Then
his body was taken and his body was prepared, which

(06:37):
means that they would wipe his body down. The blood.
They would put ointments on him. They would prepare his body.
It would take sometimes hours to prepare his body so
they could tell whether there was a heartbeat, whether there
was breath, whether there was any living indication about him
because they spent hours preparing the body before they put
wrapped it tightly and put him in a tomb. Three

(07:02):
days with no water. Three days with no food. I
can guarantee you that Jesus wasn't in a state of coma.
Wrapped up. No water, no food. Being crucified. Being beaten
and suddenly breaking out of his bandages. Rolling back a
stone that weighed a couple tons and say. Voila! I'm here.

(07:24):
Jesus was dead. Now, the significance of his death, witnessed
by many witnesses and his resurrection witnessed by at least
500 people. The significance of the fact that he overcame
bodily death is powerful. If you study scripture, you will

(07:47):
discover that the Bible tells us that death entered into
the world because of sin. There was no death before
there was sin. Death is a Consequence of sin. If
you've never sinned, you don't die. Every person in this

(08:08):
in this world is born with a sin nature. Even babies.
But before there was a sin nature, there was. Adam
and Eve had no sin. Nature and and death only
entered once they sinned. Jesus, in resurrecting from the dead
and never dying again, gave credence to the fact that

(08:29):
he was sinless. And so because he was sinless, he
could overpower death itself. That's what Scripture teaches us. Now,
this is significance because it speaks to what Jesus did
on the cross. And I want you to hear me
very well. The Bible says in Matthew chapter 28, verse

(08:49):
six and seven that when they went to look for
his body, the angel said, he is risen just as
he said he would. Jesus rose never to die again,
ascended into heaven and said, I will come back the
way I have come. The way I left, so I

(09:10):
will come back again. Jesus resurrection implies that Jesus is
still alive, still living. And here's what I want you
to understand. As the Apostle Paul began to speak about
in further Scripture, he began to teach us about the
resurrection of Jesus. He makes clear that we understand that

(09:34):
the same power that resurrected Jesus from the dead is
the same power that changes and transforms our lives today.
It's resurrection power. Paul says. Paul says in Ephesians chapter

(09:59):
one verse 19, he says, and his incomparably great power
for us who believe that power is the same as
the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from
the dead. Now, this is compelling, and this is powerful,
because there are some of you here today that you

(10:20):
feel like you could never change, that God could never
alter you, that your circumstances are beyond the intervention of God.
Some of you are here today and you feel like
God could never break through. That there's part of your

(10:44):
sin and darkness that God could never wash. Maybe you're
married to someone that you say God could never change
this guy. I want you to understand this, that the
Bible tells us that the most powerful force on the
universe that has power over life and death, that can

(11:04):
resurrect the dead and raise Jesus to the right hand
of the father. That same power, the power of the
resurrected Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. That
power is here right now, right here today, manifest in
the presence of Jesus as we gather in Jesus name.

(11:29):
What does that mean? Let me tell you what it means.
It means that God of the universe, in all of
his mind and I. I know this every time we
gather together that God, this great God of the universe,
that same power that started to manifest itself in the

(11:52):
grave and that resurrected the Son of God, that overcame
death and sickness and disease. That same power is at
work in anybody who believes. I want to clarify. Clarify
for you. The gospel is not joining a religion. Religion

(12:15):
will not save you. Religion has never saved anybody. Institutional
religion doesn't make you right with God. Are we clear
on that? Because I talk to people all the time
and say, well, how are you with God? And they
tell me what brand of religion they're from. Like, that
makes it okay. Let me tell you, religion cannot save you.

(12:36):
Religion hasn't saved anybody. Religion doesn't save you. And some
people say, well, pastor, you're just trying to convert me
to your religion. I don't have a religion to convert
you to. We're a non-denominational church. I don't have a
religion to convert you to. I have a relationship to

(12:56):
introduce you to a dynamic living Having a relationship through
Jesus Christ, the Son of God and a God that
lives today. I have a relationship, not a religion, to
introduce you to, and we need to understand the difference
because many people hide behind the fact that their religion,
a certain religion thinking that makes you right with God. Listen,

(13:18):
you can read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and
you'll never find any religions that we have, any Christian
religions that we have today. Mention in the Bible you
won't find Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Assembly of God, Pentecostal, Catholic.
You won't find any religion mentioned in the Bible. Never.

(13:39):
No religion mentioned in the Bible. Let me tell you,
the fact that you grew up in a religion doesn't
make you right with God. The fact that you were
baptized as an infant doesn't make you right with God.
The fact that you went to some classes and learned
about the Bible doesn't make you right with God. The
fact that someone blessed you doesn't make you right with God.
The fact that you have a crucifix on your neck
doesn't make you right with God. The fact that you

(14:00):
have a Bible beside your bed that you seldom read
doesn't make you right with God. The fact that you
pray occasionally doesn't make you right with God. The fact
that you have a tattoo with Jesus on your shoulder
doesn't make you right with God. Those things do not
make you a Christian. Listen to me. The fact that
you attend New Life Community Church does not make you

(14:21):
right with God. Come on now. Let's get personal here.
The only thing that makes you right with God is,
is you have experienced the resurrection power of Jesus and
surrendered your life to the risen Savior, and Jesus was

(14:43):
very clear about it. If you could hear the voice
of Jesus speaking to you today, the resurrected living Jesus,
I know he would say what he told his disciples
years ago. What Jesus simply said is, come and follow me.
And what does it mean to come and follow me? He.

(15:05):
He also explained what it meant to follow him. He said, come,
deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. Jesus said,
if you love your life, you'll lose it. Jesus claimed,
unless a man is born again, he cannot enter into

(15:26):
the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said two things. The apostle
said two things. The early church said two things that
you must do. You must repent and believe. Repent and believe.
You must believe and repent, or repent and believe. They
both go hand in hand. What does it mean? To

(15:46):
believe means that you have to believe what Jesus said
about himself. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and
the life. No man comes to the father but by me.
You have to believe that Jesus was not just a man,
but he was the Son of God, and he was
God Himself. All. God made man incarnate on this earth,
living a perfect life without sin, so that he could

(16:10):
become the perfect sacrifice to pay for your sin and mine.
You have to believe that your good works cannot get
you into heaven. You have to believe that your self-improvement
can't make you right before God. You have to believe
that you need a Savior. You have to believe that
his sacrifice was sufficient. You have to believe that Jesus

(16:30):
paid in full the price for your sin and my sin.
That's believing in faith. Then you need to repent or
repent and believe. You see, if your belief doesn't lead

(16:53):
you to repentance, you probably haven't believed enough. Repentance means
a change of lifestyle. Repentance means I'm going one way
and I turn around and I go in an opposite direction.
It means a turnaround, a turnabout. Repentance means I know

(17:13):
that I've been living in a way that's displeasing to God.
And so now I choose a way that's God's way.
It may be a harder way. It may be a
more narrow way. It may be a more difficult way.
But I choose the path of God, because although the
path is harder, the life is better in God, the
life of God. Peace with God is what I want.

(17:37):
The Bible says that the way that is, that is,
that leads to destruction is wide, and a lot of
people are on it. Listen. Most people, most people are
not living a relationship right with God. That's what the
Bible teaches us. Most people are not right with God.
Most people are on the way that leads to destruction.
Not because it's not offered to everybody, but because in

(17:59):
order to enter into the narrow way, you have to
determine that you are no longer Lord of your life.
But Jesus is Lord. You have to determine this is
no longer my life and my rules and what I desire.
I submit myself to a Savior and a Lord, and
I choose to follow his way. That's what it means.

(18:21):
And so there are very few people. People want religion
but don't want relationship. If you want something easy, choose religion.
It's a lot easier than relationship with the Most High God.
You want religion? It's easy. Show up on Easter, on Sunday.
Put a little something in the offering plate. Say your
prayers at night. You got religion. But I'm going to

(18:41):
tell you religion won't save you. Most people in Chicago
have religion. They don't have relationship with the Most High God.
That's a Sunday affair. That's a holiday experience. That's what
you post on Facebook. What are you? Religion. Christian? Okay,

(19:03):
you got it. But that is not relationship with the
Most High God. Relationship with the Most High. God will
change your life. It will change the way you talk,
the way you walk, the way you eat, the way
you relate, the way you date, the way you marry,
the way you raise kids, the way you breathe, the
way you think, the way you move about life. It's
a relationship that will alter who you are. That's relationship.

(19:29):
That's why most people choose religion over relationship. Because relationship
will change your life. Jesus said, you want to enter
the kingdom of God. You must be born again because
you don't clean yourself up and offer yourself to God.
You come to God the way you are and let

(19:50):
God change you, transform you, renew you, wash you, and
cleanse you. It's the work of God. If you could
do it, he would let you do it. You can't
do it. It's a supernatural work of God that requires
the resurrection power of Jesus to change you. So here's
how it works. You come to God the way you are,

(20:12):
but you don't leave the way you came. You repent.
You ask for the cleansing of God, the power of
God to wash you. You submit yourself to the Lordship
of Jesus. You invite the power of the resurrected Jesus
to begin to change you, and he begins to transform
and change you from the inside out. That's what the

(20:33):
Bible calls being born again. It's not you trying to
measure up to religious standards. It's God working in you
to transform you and change you from the inside out.
What I love about the gospel is this. I don't
know where you came from or what you did this weekend.

(20:56):
I don't know who you are or how long you've
been there. You need Jesus. You need Jesus just as bad,
just as much as the person that you would point
to in the prostitute that's walking down 47th and Cicero

(21:16):
selling your body for 30 bucks. You need Jesus just
as much, because we've all sinned and fall short of
the glory of God. And if you could save yourselves,
you would have done it. We all need a savior.
So whether you're a very, very good religious person or
you're a person that lives on the street and knows

(21:39):
that you're not worthy and a violent person, listen, what
I love about the gospel of Jesus Christ is you
can come and experience the power of God today, and
God can change you so that you walk out of
this place. A changed individual, having chosen to follow the
way of Jesus and experience the power of his resurrection.

(22:08):
You've heard the message. When I preached this message, we
had dozens of people come forward and kneel there and say, yes,
I need to give my life to Jesus Christ. You're
not in a church auditorium right now. You may be
in your car, in a kitchen, in your living room,

(22:28):
wherever you're hearing this message. But you don't have to
be in a stained glass windowed building to respond to Jesus.
So I would like to pray with you if you
are responding to God at this time. Father, I pray
for that individual that's heard the gospel but yet feels

(22:51):
very far from you. But today their heart longs to
be right with you. They've been awakened by the Holy Spirit,
drawing them into your presence. And today, God, they can't
get away from saying, yes, I want to be right
with God. I know I'm far from him. And today
I pray that as they surrender their life to you,

(23:13):
that your Holy Spirit would come and wash and cleanse
and take the debt and the weight of sin off
their shoulders, and awaken a new relationship with the living
God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I pray that
today would be a day of new beginning, that they
would be born again. Father, the first day and a

(23:34):
journey of following you. Father, I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

S1 (23:41):
Amen. And if you just prayed that prayer and would
like to know what your next steps are, visit us
online at Bold Steps and click on the my NeXTSTEP
link on the left side of the page, you'll learn
more about what it means to be a believer in
Jesus Christ, and you can even reach out and connect
with someone from our team. Now, as regular listeners know,

(24:01):
every month we pick out a very special book that
we believe will help strengthen you and encourage you in
your spiritual growth. It's known as our bold Step gift.
And this month, we've got a resource that's tailor made
for our modern age. Because in today's fast paced digital world,
it just seems harder and harder to make genuine connections.
Often we don't know what to say, what to ask,

(24:23):
or how to respond to our own family and friends,
even when we want to go deeper. That's why doctor
Heather Holloman's book, The Six Conversations is a life changer
through real world guidance and biblical wisdom. This book will
transform how you approach every interaction, walking you through from
start to finish, and how to build better communication and
also discover breakthroughs in your relationships. This bold step gift

(24:47):
offers proven strategies to help you move beyond small. Talk
to conversations that truly matter. So reach out today and
get your copy of this life Giving resource. We'll send
you a copy with your gift of any amount to
support bold steps. Just call 800 D.L. Moody. That's [phone]

(25:07):
or give online at Bold Steps org. You can also
send your gift through the mail. Of course, you can
write to us at bold steps. 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago,
Illinois 606 ten. And if you ever have trouble joining
us for these weekly messages, we'd like to invite you
to listen to Mark's daily program throughout the week by
listening to Bold Steps Radio on your local station. And

(25:29):
of course, you can always listen to Bold Steps directly
from our website. Bold steps.org. I'm Wayne Shepherd, wishing you
again a Happy Easter. Be sure to join us again
next time when Mark begins a new series titled Headlines
Navigating Life in Two Worlds. That's next time on Bold
Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. Bold Steps Weekend is a

(25:51):
production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.