What the Resurrection of Jesus Means to You: Paying the Price We Can’t Pay

You're listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Visit our website and learn more about Harvest Partners at harvest.org. The resurrection of Jesus assures me I am accepted by God. Isn't that great to know? You're accepted by God. You're loved by God. Listen, God's not mad at you.

God is mad about you. Most of us are wired to look for a good deal. We like to exchange something of lesser value for something of greater value. Well, on a spiritual level, Jesus offers us an arrangement that's too good to refuse. We owed a debt we couldn't pay, but Jesus stepped in and paid a debt he didn't owe. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us appreciate the price paid at Calvary.

But even more remarkably, after Jesus died for our sins, he rose again. This is the day, the day when life begins. Sometimes followed with denial, even anger, a deep sadness that sets in. You realize that that person that was so much a part of your life is no longer there. You can't have a conversation with them. You can't hear from them again.

Your world as you know it suddenly changes overnight. I bring that up because that's exactly how the disciples felt 2,000 years ago when Jesus Christ, their Savior, their Lord, their Master was murdered in cold blood before their very eyes. They watched it happen and they watched the Roman soldier take his spear and thrust it into Jesus and out came blood and water indicating a complete heart failure. Clearly he was gone and they never got to say goodbye. He was taken from them.

So in their minds the dream was over. And also in their minds I might add it appeared that Jesus had failed in this mission. This is indicated in a conversation he had after his resurrection with two disciples on the road to Emmaus as recorded in Luke's gospel. They did not realize they were talking with the risen Lord and he asked them what had been happening lately and they said, Well, haven't you heard about Jesus and all the things that he did?

And then I think it's kind of funny really. Jesus said, No, tell me what things? And they're telling Jesus about Jesus.

And here's what they said. We were hoping he would have been the one to deliver Israel but it's been three days since he was crucified. Hoping.

Notice. Past tense. Their hope was gone.

The dream was gone. And everything seemed to be going perfectly up to that moment. When Jesus got on that donkey and rode in Jerusalem and the people laid the palm branches down before him crying out, Hosanna, the disciples. Finally everyone knows what we've known.

That this is the Messiah. But then suddenly he's not himself or so it would seem in the upper room when he's talking about betrayal. And then one of their own turns out to be the betrayer, Judas Iscariot. And then Simon Peter, of course, denies him and they see him unraveling as it would seem in the Garden of Gethsemane as he is crying out to the Father and literally sweating blood. All of this was happening but here's the problem. The writers of the gospels had never read the gospels, you see.

They were experiencing this in real time. They didn't know how the story actually ended. They didn't understand that the incarnation was for the death of Jesus. The incarnation was for the purpose of the atonement. The birth of Jesus was so there would be the death of Jesus. It was all part of God's master plan. Later Simon Peter preaching to the very men who crucified Jesus said in Acts chapter 2, This Jesus following the deliberate and well thought out plan of God was betrayed by men who took the law into their own hands.

Did you catch that? It was the deliberate well thought out plan of God. The crucifixion. The resurrection. The deliberate well thought out plan of God.

And by the way God has a deliberate well thought out plan for you as well. Because I know there are things that happen in your life that make no sense when you lose a loved one. Or when you get bad news from a doctor.

Or when some tragedy befalls you. You think where's God in all this? God is right there. And he has a plan and he has a purpose. Maybe with the passing of time you'll understand that plan and purpose. And maybe you won't fully understand it until you get to the other side and you realize in heaven why God allowed that to happen. But just be assured of this one thing. God has a deliberate well thought out plan for you.

And ultimately that plan for you is good. Because God can take your ending and turn it into a new beginning. And that's what happened for these disciples. In our last message we talked about what the death of Jesus means for you. Now let's talk about what the resurrection of Jesus Christ means to you. Mark chapter 16.

I'm reading verses 1 to 8. Saturday evening when the Sabbath ended Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, went out and purchased burial spices so they could anoint Jesus' body. Very early on Sunday morning just at sunrise they went to the tomb. And on the way they were asking each other, who's going to roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb? But as they arrived they looked up and saw the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled aside. And when they entered the tomb they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side.

And they were shocked. And then the angel said, don't be afraid. You're looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He isn't here. He's risen from the dead.

Look. This is where they laid His body. Now go tell the disciples and Peter that Jesus is going ahead of you into Galilee. You'll see Him there just as He told you before He died.

The women fled from the tomb trembling and bewildered and said nothing to anyone because they were too frightened. So Jesus has been crucified and an amazing series of events are happening in the aftermath of it. First of all there was that global darkness that took place.

You remember from 12 in the afternoon to 3 o'clock. Then the veil in the temple was ripped from top to bottom. In the temple where the Jews would go to worship God there was a veil, which was really a very thick curtain. It would almost be like a wall, a material wall of sorts that separated the inner sanctum, the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept.

Although it is not in a warehouse somewhere if you watched Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. So they had the Ark of the Covenant. And that veil symbolized that separation between God and man. Now the veil is ripped not from bottom to top as though man is doing it. It is ripped from top to bottom because God is saying, This veil is gone and you have access to Me through My Son Jesus Christ. Also we are told that dead people were resurrected and were walking around the streets of Jerusalem. This is one of the most interesting verses in the Bible to me.

So you are walking in town and you go, Hey is that Uncle Harry? Didn't we just bury him a couple of days ago? It was sort of like a preview of things to come. Dead people were coming back to life. I see dead people who are alive again. And so then there was a great earthquake that followed.

So this is an amazing series of events. And so these women that we just read about come to the tomb. Hopefully to anoint the body of Jesus and they find the tomb empty. And the angel tells them that Christ is risen.

Matthew tells us of this event in Matthew 28. They went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy. Have you ever had fear and great joy at the same time? Maybe when you got on a roller coaster.

There is fear. Like I am going to die and there is great joy. But it is so much fun. I have given up on roller coasters by the way. I rode them many years and then one day I just realized I don't even like this.

And I don't know if I ever liked it. You know as you get older you don't want to take those kinds of risks anymore. For me now taking a risk is ordering something different in the restaurant. I am going to try that chef salad instead of the normal hamburger and fries I get every time.

Listen. You know you are getting older when you go to the same table in the same restaurant at the same time and order the same thing. There are a lot of signs of getting older.

Aren't there? You know you are getting older when you drop something and when you bend down to get it you wonder if there is anything else you can do while you are down there. You know there are a lot of bands that were very popular in the late 60s and they had great hits that many of us still remember.

And it is funny. A lot of young people are rediscovering these bands. And you will see kids walking around with t-shirts with Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix and all these bands. The Rolling Stones. The Beatles and so forth. But a lot of those bands have had to rework some of their hits.

They don't do them quite the way they used to. I met Peter Noon by the way not too long ago who was Herman of Herman's Hermits. And he is a wonderful guy.

Had so many amazing stories. But well remember that song by Herman's Hermits. Mrs. Brown you've got a lovely dota. Remember that one? Now they have updated it to Mrs. Brown you've got a lovely walker.

Because Mrs. Brown is a lot older today. Abba. Remember Dancing Queen. That is denture queen now.

They have had to update it. The Beatles. That big hit that Ringo would sing I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends has now been updated to I Get By With A Little Help From Depends. Crystal Gale. Remember her song Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.

Now it is Don't It Make My Brown Hair Blue. Eagles are no longer singing Heartache tonight. They are singing Heartburn tonight probably from what they ate. Jerry Lee Lewis. He is no longer singing A Whole Lot of Shaking going on.

Now it is rather A Whole Lot of Aching going on. Leo Sayer used to sing You Make Me Feel Like Dancing. Now he sings You Make Me Feel Like Napping. Lynyrd Skynyrd no longer sings about Sweet Home Alabama.

Now it is Rest Home Alabama. Nancy Sinatra no longer sings These Boots Are Made For Walking. Now she sings These Boots Are Giving Me Arthritis. So you see they have all had to update their songs.

I have two more. These are the jokes people. The Who. Remember talking about my generation. Now it is talking about my medication. And finally the Troggs had a big hit Wild Thing.

Now they have named it Bald Thing. My theme song by the way. So there are things that we don't like to do as we get older.

We don't like to take risks necessarily. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. I want you to know tonight one thing. God loves you. In a new book on the life of Billy Graham.

Pastor Greg Laurie brings us a deeper appreciation for the man and his message. No matter what you have done. No matter how you have lived. No matter what the color of your skin. No matter what your racial background.

No matter what language you speak. God loves you. And he wants to come into your life.

He wants to give you a new beginning. Billy built bridges to people. And he always shared the Gospel. And he always emulated Christ.

And I think we can learn from his example. So I write about that and a lot more in this new book I have written called Billy Graham the Man I Knew. It is an evangelist's book at the life of history's greatest evangelists. Get your copy of the new biography Billy Graham the Man I Knew.

Go to Harvest.org. Well today Pastor Greg is helping us peer through the lens of Scripture to the first century. When the disciples are filled with mixed emotions. Having learned that Jesus is no longer dead but alive.

Let's continue today's message. They are experiencing this joy and excitement. And they are trying to figure it out.

They don't understand what has actually happened to them. And then they see the risen Lord. We have to pull from different Gospels to get the whole story. In Matthew 28 we read. They went to tell his disciples and behold Jesus met them saying rejoice. So they came and held them by their feet and worshiped them.

Now it is an interesting phrase there when it says Jesus met them. It speaks of the common greeting that one would receive in the marketplace. Just if you saw someone and said hello if you are on a walk you see someone walk by. Hey how are you? Have a nice day. Just common greeting.

That is the phrase that is used here when it says Jesus met them. I find that fascinating because it is so low key. It is so casual. You know in different parts of the country we greet each other in different ways. If you are in the south you will see something along the lines of hey hey how are you all doing? How are you all doing? Right? In Hawaii it will be aloha.

Or how is that Brock? In Australia they will say g'day. In New York City they ignore you. And then they will say something like what are you looking at me? And followed up by well forget about it.

That is one word by the way. And here is the risen Lord who greets his disciples. He is so casual he is just like oh hey guys. How has it gone? Aloha. How are you?

Really relaxed about the whole thing. And they can't believe their eyes. They are looking at Jesus. And so they grab him by the feet and they worship him. And that is because they recognize he was God.

You know a number of years ago I was driving with two of my grandkids in the car. Ali and Christopher. At that particular time Ali was age five and Christopher was age three. And they are having this conversation. And Ali turns to Christopher and says Christopher Jesus is God and God is Jesus. And I am thinking that is very good you know for a five year old to understand that. And I was very impressed by that. And then she said he lives in our heart and some day he will live in our stomach.

You have to talk a little more about what that all means. But Jesus was God. And he was worshiped by his disciples. Coming back to our story we see Mary Magdalene is mentioned in verse one.

What a unique lady she is. Mary Magdalene first to the tomb. So she sees that the stone has been rolled away. And immediately tells Peter and John. And if we go over to John's gospel we will see that they then began to run to the tomb. So she says Jesus is risen. And they run to the tomb. I love that.

You know boys will be boys right. And it became an actual race. Because John mentions he beat Peter in the race. He says the disciple whom Jesus loved outran the other one. So that is maybe one of the perks of writing a gospel. You get to remind people about who actually won the race. So they see the empty tomb.

And they come back. John believes. He looks in there.

He realizes what is happening. Jesus Christ is alive. And the Bible says Peter walked away perplexed.

And that brings us to our next text. John chapter 20. Let's see what else happened to Mary Magdalene.

John chapter 20 verse 11. But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping. And as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And saw two angels in white sitting.

One at the head the other at the feet. Where the body of Jesus had lain. And they said to her, woman why are you weeping? She said to them, because they have taken away my Lord.

And I don't know where they have laid him. Now when she had said this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there. But did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? She thinking he was a gardener said, sir if you have carried him away.

Tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. And Jesus then said, Mary. Mary responded by saying, Rabboni which means teacher. And she grabs hold of Christ. And he said, don't cling to me for I have not yet ascended to my father and to your father. And I am going to ascend to my father and your father and to my God and your God.

Wow. The persistence of Mary paid off didn't it. Everyone else was gone but she stayed and she meets the risen Lord. And what does he say, don't cling to me. She is holding on to him.

Now you wonder what is going on here. Because it is not that you could not touch the risen Lord. Because in fact he appears in the upper room to the disciples and Thomas who we call Downing Thomas was there. And Jesus said, go ahead and put your hand in my side and touch the wounds in my hand. So he could be touched.

Maybe it was the way she was holding on to him. She was grabbing so tightly and he says, Mary don't cling to me. I think in effect he is saying, Mary everything has changed now. Effectively it is a whole new ball game. It is not going to be the way it was before.

In the past I was there where you could reach out and touch me physically. But it is going to be different Mary and it is going to be better. Because now I am going to come and live in your heart. And I will always be there.

And we will never be separated again. And what is true of Mary is true for all of us. By the way it was a revolutionary thought to say to a first century Jew that God was their father.

They would not refer to God in such a way. But Jesus is saying, He is our Father now too. How did He teach us to pray in what we call the Lord's Prayer? He said, after this manner therefore pray, our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your name. And by the way Jesus made many post resurrection appearances. Acts chapter 1 verse 3 says, He presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs being seen by them for 40 days. And that phrase seen by them can be translated to be eyeballed by Him.

So in other words they are not believing their eyes. They are looking at Jesus. And He is appearing again and again and again. He appears to Peter.

And we don't know what happened there. We just know He appeared to him. And then He appeared to him again in John chapter 20 and recommissioned him. Then He appeared to Thomas that I mentioned.

On another occasion He appeared to 500 at one time. He appeared to the two disciples walking on the Emmaus road. But remember the title of this message is, What does the resurrection of Jesus mean to you? The resurrection of Jesus assures me I am accepted by God.

Let me say that again. The resurrection of Jesus assures me that I am accepted by God. Romans 4 25 says, He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised alive for our justification. Somewhere I don't know how this happens but people even Christians sometimes think that you must earn the favor of God. You must do certain things and then God will love you.

But the opposite is the case. There is nothing you can do to earn the favor of God. And the fact is God loves you no matter what you do. And the resurrection of Christ proves this. We read again there in Romans 4 25. He was raised alive for our justification.

What does that mean? That means when you put your faith in Christ you are justified. To be justified means number one you are forgiven of all of your sins.

So if you put your faith in Christ your sins are forgiven by God and they are forgotten by God. And He has put the righteousness of Christ into your moral bank account if you will. On the cross God treated Jesus as if He had lived your life so He could treat you as if you had lived His life. That is not original to me but it is a perfect description of justification.

Let me repeat it. On the cross God treated Jesus as if He had lived your life so He could treat you as if you had lived His life. So again the resurrection of Jesus assures me I am accepted by God.

Isn't that great to know? You are accepted by God. You are loved by God. Listen God is not mad at you.

God is mad about you. Great encouragement about our standing before God from Pastor Greg Laurie's message today on A New Beginning called What the Resurrection of Jesus Means to You. Hopefully you heard every word but if you didn't you can catch what you missed by going to our website harvest.org.

Just look for the title What the Resurrection of Jesus Means to You. Well we are talking about the ten things that might surprise you about Billy Graham. These ten observations come from Pastor Greg's new book Billy Graham the Man I Knew. We have learned that Billy originally wanted to grow up and be a major league baseball player. We learned that young Billy was a bit of a hyperactive mischievous young man.

But he matured and ended up becoming a door to door salesman with the Fuller Brush Company. So Pastor Greg what is number four on the list? Okay number four but I need my echo chamber to announce it properly. Are you ready?

I am ready. Billy Graham ten things that will surprise you about the world famous evangelist. Okay here is number four. His time on the golf course made a significant impact on his ministry. Okay so Billy was attending the Florida Bible Institute in the Tampa Bay community of Temple Terrace. And he held a lot of odd jobs. He did housekeeping duties, dish washing, lawn mowing but then he became a caddy on the school's golf course. And that gave him access to some very important Christian scholars and administrators and preachers and evangelists. And he later became a golfer himself and golfed with many U.S. presidents including Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. He once said to me privately, Greg you ought to learn how to golf because I've gotten to know a lot of people on the golf course who later went on to other positions.

Like senators and congressmen soon who later became presidents. Billy once said of golf quote, the only time my prayers are not answered are on the golf course. End quote. That's pretty funny. So Billy loved to golf you know and it was a way to relieve stress and it was a way to meet people. And he had some amazing adventures out there on the golf course. So I talk about that a little bit in my book.

Here's another one. Number five, Billy Graham's wife was vital to the success of his career and witness. Oh that's so true. Ruth Bell Graham, Billy's wife of 64 years was an amazing woman. I would say she was in every way his equal. Billy said of Ruth she's the theologian of the family and he wasn't kidding. If you walk by Ruth's office all these books were opened up on her desk, all these bibles and when you talk with her she just had quote after quote and so much wisdom as well. And Billy really listened to what she had to say.

She really was the love of his life. Some years ago Billy wrote an op-ed for Ladies Home Journal on the women's liberation movement happening in the early 70s. So he writes the article, he submits it to Ruth and he recalled and I quote from Billy, she handed it back to me all blue penciled and said I don't agree with most of this.

So I rewrote it. Only Ruth could do that but I remember one moment with Billy and Ruth. Ruth was very sick at this point.

She wasn't long for this life on earth. Billy was sitting with her. They were holding hands.

Ruth was in a wheelchair. And my friend Dennis Aghajanian was playing the Hallelujah chorus on his acoustic guitar. It sounded something like this. And while Dennis was playing this song I looked over at Billy and Ruth and they had their eyes locked. And there was a smile on both of their faces.

I could tell they were sharing some kind of a special moment but I wasn't really sure what it was all about. When the song was done Billy turned to Ruth and said that's a song they played on our first date. So as it turns out when Billy Graham invited Ruth Bell, that was her name then, out for a date he took her to a concert where they performed Handel's Messiah. So I'll never really forget that. I love spending time in their home and I actually write a lot about Ruth in this book Billy Graham the Man I Knew because we would go and speak at a conference center that was really Ruth's vision. It was called the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove. And she would attend and then afterwards she'd say you want to come over to our house for lunch.

And I'm like do fish swim? Yes. And so we would have sometimes food from downtown. There was takeout Chinese food and some great ribs and other things. Sometimes Ruth might even make something for us. And we would sit around, we'd tell stories, we'd laugh, listen to Ruth's great wisdom.

And she was always such a delight to be around. And so I wanted to tell her story as well as Billy Graham's story. Because honestly I don't think there would be a Billy Graham as we knew him if there had not been also a Ruth Bell Graham. So this is all in my book Billy Graham the Man I Knew.

And we'll send you a copy of this book for your gift of any size. Whatever you can send will take those resources and use it to continue this ministry and inspired really by the example of Billy Graham. We will continue to call people to Christ. You know Dave, effectively everything I learned about evangelism I learned from Billy Graham.

I learned it by listening to him, by watching him, by asking him questions about how he did it, why he did it. And so I took those same principles and I applied them whenever I invite people to Christ. We're called to do that here at A New Beginning. Yes we're here to teach you the Bible. Yes we're here to encourage you in your faith.

But yes we are here to call people to Christ. And we have many, many people come to Christ every year through our radio broadcast alone. So if you believe in reaching people that don't know Jesus, order your copy of Billy Graham the Man I Knew. Yeah that's right and we'll send it your way to thank you for your investment in this important work of reaching people with the gospel.

It's a unique look at the life of one of our generation's true heroes of the faith. The book is brand new and we'll send you a copy to say thank you for your investment in these daily studies. We can only bring them your way as listeners invest to help us continue to reach out as we do. So thanks for your partnership.

It couldn't come at a more strategic time. Again it's called Billy Graham the Man I Knew. Write us today at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime 24-7, again at 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to Harvest.org. Well Pastor Greg pointed out that the resurrection assures us that we're accepted by God. But that's just one of six ways the resurrection impacts our lives. Pastor Greg has more for us next time on A New Beginning.

This is the day, the day when life begins. Hey everybody thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to Harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally go to Harvest.org and click on Know God.