Jesus Is Alive: Is He Alive in You?

Easter Sunday Message

Good morning again. Good morning.

It is so wonderful to see each and every one of you with us today. I also just want to welcome you again. If you are visiting today, after the service we would love for you to come to the lobby right through those doors. We have a gift that we want to give you. We are just so glad you are here.

We also have connection cards in a lot of the pews and in the backs of the pews. So if you are visiting, or if you are a longtime member and you need a prayer request, we would love for you to fill out that card and put any contact info. If you are visiting, we would love to be able to reach out to you. You can just bring it back to the lobby after the service today.

What a blessing to have each one of you with us.

Jimmy shared that I am having surgery tomorrow. I am having hernia surgery. The doctor told me it will not be too bad. I hope he is right. But when I think about that, I am so thankful to God that I have been able to keep doing ministry up until today. Yesterday we had a great time at the egg hunt. All week we had a lot going on with church and with chaplaincy. Today we have baptisms. I am just blessed. I just thank God.

But He is risen. Amen. Jesus is alive. Jesus is alive.

That is actually what we are speaking about today. Do you believe that He is alive? Yes. Do you believe that He has risen? He has risen. He has risen indeed.

We are going to go to Matthew’s account of the resurrection today—Matthew 28. I invite anybody who has your Bible to open up there to Matthew 28.

Does anybody enjoy this time of year—going and reading the different Gospel accounts about the suffering of Christ, about His burial, and about His glorious resurrection? I love this time of year to get to reread those passages. So if you have not had a chance yet, go to all four of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I would encourage you to go home this evening with your family or in alone time with God and read through Matthew’s account, Mark’s, Luke’s, and John’s account of the resurrection. It is an amazing miracle what happened.

The fact that Jesus died for our sins as God in the flesh and He rose on the third day so that anybody who believes in Him will be saved—Jesus is alive.

The title for our message today is Jesus Is Alive. Is He Alive in You?

I invite anybody who is able to stand with me in honor of the reading of the Word of God. We are in Matthew 28, the final chapter of Matthew, and we are going to begin reading in verse 1 and go all the way through verse 8.

Matthew 28, beginning in verse 1. The Word of God says:

“Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee. There you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.’

So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to bring His disciples word.”

God, we love You. We just thank You and praise You for this day. God, I thank You for each person You brought here together to worship together—each boy, each girl, each baby, each adult, each person. And God, I just thank You for Your glorious resurrection. I thank You that today, certainly and every day, we can celebrate that we do not serve a dead God. We can celebrate that You, Jesus Christ, are alive.

God, we love You and we can celebrate what that means for us when we trust in You. We love You, Lord. I just pray You work today in our hearts. God, use it to mold us as believers more into Your image to live more for You. And God, if there is anybody here that has never given their life to You, Lord, I pray today would be the day that they make the greatest decision of their lives and surrender all to You. It is in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

A Beautiful Resurrection Morning

It really is so good. I love seeing so many people up close. It is really cool. To me as a pastor, it is exciting seeing a big crowd up front. It is exciting seeing all of you though, everywhere. I see some good friends back there. It is so good to see so many of you. I love you guys. Just a blessing.

You know, I was walking this morning and praying. When I gave my life to the Lord a lot of years back—about 20 years ago—I was 27 on the shores of Carolina Beach. Sometime soon after that I just really right away had this yearning to grow closer to Jesus and I did not know how. The church I grew up in—I never really grew up learning about the Bible. I never heard about salvation. So luckily, fortunately, God had blessed me with Crystal. She was a helper to me and other people as well.

But I remember early on God put on my heart to walk and pray. It takes some time first thing in the morning to just spend with God right away. Now I will tell you, if you are not doing that, it will bless you. It will bless you if you do that—just take some time to be with God first thing.

But this morning as I got up, it was about dawn and I was walking outside and I was hearing the birds chirping and I was thinking about that morning of the resurrection. It says there, “Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week, Sunday, began to dawn.” We know others said very early in the morning.

I just thought to myself, I do not know the exact time, but we know it was sometime early as the day was about to dawn. What a beautiful time of day that is. And the resurrection is so beautiful—the way the timing of it, the way it was on Sunday, you know, the Lord’s Day, the way it was early in the morning.

I could just picture, as I was praying, those women who were seeking after Jesus. Matthew’s account says after the Sabbath, they rested on the Sabbath. By the way, if we are not taking a Sabbath, we need to take a Sabbath. They had a lot going on, but they still rested on the Sabbath. And it says after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.

Now, we know they saw that day that Jesus is alive. They learned that day. Again, that is what we are talking about today.

We get two names of two women that came early on resurrection morning. Luke 24:10 says it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. So in Luke’s account, we also read about Joanna, another woman, and it says “other women.”

So when I read that, what it seems to me is that there were at least five women. Matthew’s account zones in on Mary Magdalene and Mary, and Luke’s account tells us about Joanna. Also, Mark’s account of the resurrection says, “Now when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices that they might come and anoint Him. Very early in the morning on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb.”

So we read about four different names of women: Salome, Mary Magdalene, Mary, and Joanna. And we know Luke’s account says “other women.” I do not know the exact number, but it seems to me there were at least five women, probably more, who were seeking after Jesus first thing.

The Example of the Women Who Sought Jesus

Before we get into the heart of the message, I will just say this: to me, they give us a good example. The men were somewhat missing in action, were we not? We really were.

Now, this was prophesied that this would happen. A lot of people believe there in Matthew 26:31, the Lord said, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night. For it is written,” and what Jesus quoted was what we know as Zechariah 13:7: “I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.”

Most scholars believe that refers to when Jesus was betrayed and arrested and beaten—the disciples kind of went MIA. Us guys can be kind of weak sometimes. The women are a little tougher, are they not? The women, they were faithful. The men—we read about John at the cross, but other than him, we really… Peter denied Jesus three times. But those women, they were seeking after Jesus. They were there at the cross. The women were. We read about that in the Gospels. They were there at the burial.

Remember Joseph of Arimathea? He came to get the body of Jesus. When I was reading the Gospel accounts, it seems like Jesus might have been on the cross around 9:00 a.m. It went dark from noon to 3. It talks about the Jewish day that day. Then Jesus died. It seems sometime close to 3-ish or a little after. And then sometime later that evening, Joseph of Arimathea came to get the body of Jesus. And you remember when he went to the tomb, who was there at the tomb that Friday evening? The women. They were there at the cross. They were there at the burial. And they were there seeking after Jesus first thing on the morning of the resurrection.

Now, they did not anticipate Jesus would be alive. They had spices. They were coming to anoint Him. One of the Gospels shared they were anticipating that they would be caring for His body. They did not go on the Sabbath because they were resting like God commanded them. But as soon as they could, as soon as possible, they went because they were seeking after Jesus.

So one thing I hope we all take away is to have a heart that seeks after Jesus. And by the way, they were seeking after Jesus and they heard the best news ever—that Jesus is alive.

Matthew 28:5 says, “But the angel answered and said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He is risen.’”

He is alive. He is risen. Jesus is alive.

That is what those women—they were the first to get the best news ever: that Jesus conquered the grave—because they were seeking after Jesus.

I hope today everyone here is encouraged to know we do not serve a dead God. We serve a living God. He is alive. Ever since He rose from the dead on the third day, then He was in His resurrected body on this earth for about 40 days, then He ascended to heaven—Jesus is alive.

Do you believe that today?

The Big Question: Is Jesus Alive in You?

I think that if you are born again, if you are saved, I hope you are confident in that. We need to have confidence in that—that Jesus is alive. It is really no question whether we believe it or not. Jesus is alive. Amen.

But this is the question God put on my heart for us: Is Jesus alive in you?

Jesus is alive. Is Jesus alive in you? We celebrate that He is alive. Would people, if they look at your life, would they say Jesus is alive in you?

If you have trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior and if you are saved and if you are born again—if people were to study you, if people were to look at the things you do day to day, if people were to listen to the things you say day to day, if people would look at how you treat your spouse, how you treat your children, how you treat co-workers, how you live day to day—would people say Jesus is alive in you?

By the way, I just want to say this real quick. As I have been preaching, I have seen so many faces here that I know that I have not seen in a while. It is so good to have you here. I have looked at so many people out here. Guys, I love that God brought you here today. I love that God brought you. I pray you come back. It is just awesome that you are here.

When people say that Jesus is alive in you, if you are born again, you know Nicodemus came to Jesus by night and remember what Jesus told him: you have got to be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Sometimes a person will think it is close-minded, you know, and I have a lot of family this way when I will talk to them about the Lord. “Well, no, I believe you can believe in anything you want to believe. Any god you…” There is only one true God—God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

Think about this—and I have said this before to some of you that come here regularly—God reserves the right to make the way we can be saved. Just like God gave us life. And just like there is one way that we are born physically in our mother’s womb—there is one way. All of us are born in our mother’s womb, right? God also reserves the right to make one way to be spiritually born. And by the way, that is God’s full of grace to make a way for someone as sinful as me. To make a way we can go to heaven as flawed as we are. That is amazing grace.

God made a way by sending Jesus Christ to die for us and to rise on the third day so that anybody who believes in Him will be saved. And if you have been saved, if you have been born again and you know God has done that, shouldn’t Jesus be alive in you? Knowing that Jesus came for you, He died for you and He rose on the third day. If He has saved you, and if you believe that you are saved and your sins are forgiven and you are going to go to heaven one day, doesn’t it make sense that people should be able to see that you love Jesus? Shouldn’t Jesus be alive in me? Shouldn’t Jesus be alive in you?

Sometimes we might think, well, you know, nobody is really paying attention. If you are a Christian, there is probably somebody watching. And probably some of those people are lost.

The way we live and if Jesus is alive in us or not alive in us could be the piece that—if He is alive in us—that could lead a person to say, “I want some of what that person has.”

I was talking to Leon and to John before they got baptized about how God had changed them. And by the way, when you have been saved, tell people how God has changed you. Your testimony is powerful. God can use your testimony. Even if you think it is boring, it is not boring. If you got saved, you were going to hell. It is not boring. Even if you got saved as a four-year-old kid, you think… Even if you got saved as—I remember, I see a lot of the Joiners. I always remember Robert Joiner talking about he got saved right at 67. He told it thousands of times. We should tell our testimony. Tell our testimony.

Is Jesus alive in you? And would people say that Jesus is alive in you?

Listen. If Jesus is not alive in you, if Jesus is not alive in us, that is kind of concerning because if Jesus is not alive, is it that Jesus is dead in you? Is Jesus alive in you or is Jesus dead in you?

That might sound crazy to say, but if you look around, a lot of people that either are Christians or say they are Christians do not look too fired up for Jesus. And I think we can all be guilty of that. I think we can all have times where we are not as alive for Jesus like we need to be. I know I can have times that I am not as fired up as I should be knowing that God saved me.

But do you ever notice that? Do you ever look around—someone that is born again? We should not look like the world. We should not be letting worldly things drive our life. We should be letting Jesus Christ drive our life. And as a church, we need to encourage each other in that because we have got flesh and we can easily stray if we are feeding the flesh. If we are not feeding the God inside of us. By the way, if we trust the Lord, we have got God inside of us too. We have got the Holy Spirit inside of us. We have got to feed the God inside of us.

Is Jesus alive in you or would people say Jesus is dead in you?

Why Aren’t Christians More Alive for Jesus?

When I think about that, I think about this question: Why are not Christians more alive for Jesus? Why are we not more alive for Jesus? Knowing that, man, as much sin as I have done, as you have done, and God saved us—shouldn’t we be alive for Jesus?

I am not trying to tell you whether you are alive or not. That is between you and God. But why are not more Christians more alive for Jesus? I do not know all the reasons.

You know, I know one verse in the Bible where it says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”

So first thing I think we all have to ask ourselves is: Have I given my life to Jesus? Have I made—do I know that if I were to die today, I would go to heaven? Because there is only one way to heaven. It is through the blood of Jesus. It is through faith in Jesus. Do I know? And it is not complicated. We just got to believe. We got to fully believe in Jesus. Do I know that I have placed my full faith and trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior?

If you do know that, praise God.

But what else would keep a Christian? If you are a Christian today, do you ever have times maybe you do not feel as alive as you need to be in Jesus? What else would keep us?

Well, I tell you one thing that will keep us from being as alive for Jesus is if we let sin be in our life. Now, I know every one of us, none of us are perfect. I get that. But when we trust in the Lord, we are changed. When we are truly born again, the Bible says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. All things have become new.”

When somebody truly is trusting the Lord, we are changed. And we are not meant to live in the old man. We are not meant to live in sin. And if you are a Christian today and you have habitual sin in your life, you know it. If you are sitting here right now and you have trusted in the Lord, you know if there is something in your life that does not need to be there. The Holy Spirit will convict you of that.

That is another thing that will keep us from being as alive for Jesus. If we are living in a state of sin where we know we are regularly sinning, we are not going to be as alive for the Lord. Sin can separate us from God for eternity, but also sin will keep us from that sweet fellowship with God.

Another thing that will keep us from being as alive for Jesus—because I think we all want to be alive for Jesus—is our fellowship. Are you in fellowship with the Lord if you are a believer today? And by that I mean, are you—if any of us want to have good marriages, good relationships with our children, so forth—we need to spend quality time together, right? If we are not spending quality time and loving each other and taking time to show the other person we care for, it will affect our relationship.

Well, with our relationship with the Lord, our relationship with the Lord should be greater than any relationship. Jesus has done everything for us. How is your time with the Lord? Because our fellowship—that can directly relate to if we are going to be as alive for Jesus.

If we are just feeding ourselves before—how are we waking up every day? Are you waking up every day and just jumping on that phone? Are you waking up every day and watching TV? Are you waking up every day and going straight to the busyness? Or are you waking up every day and taking some time to be with God?

If we are constantly just filling ourselves with things of this world, it will affect our fellowship and it will keep us from being as alive for Jesus.

How to Be More Alive for Jesus

Hey, do you want to be alive for Jesus? Okay, we agree that Jesus is alive. And if you are a believer, we agree that we want to be alive for Jesus, right? How can we be helped to be more alive for Jesus?

I will tell you, I think one thing is what we just talked about: Putting Jesus at the center of our lives. Putting Christ at the center and letting Jesus drive the way we spend our days. And the way we start our days, I believe, is important.

You know, there is a lot in the Bible where we read about Jesus rising early and He would get alone with the Father. I believe if Jesus needed to get alone distraction-free, I believe I need to get rid of my phone sometime. I believe I need to get away from the TV sometime. I believe I need to get alone with God—just me and God. And I believe I do that every day. And on the days where I do not do it as well, I can tell the difference. On the days that I really take time, man, it blesses me every single time.

So if we want to be more alive for Jesus—if you are here today and you are a Christian and you say, “Yeah, I know Jesus is alive and I want Him to be alive in me”—I think starting our day with the Lord and putting the Lord at the center of our lives, and I think it is also like: Are we in the Word?

This is the living Word. The Word is powerful. When we start digging into the Word, it will bless us.

Listen, I use my phone. I use the computer to look up Scripture. So I am not saying we cannot do that. But I do know this much: I know the enemy has a way of distracting me. I know that the enemy can easily, when I am trying to read the Bible or I am trying to pray, I know the enemy can easily find ways to get me off task. Does anybody else struggle with that sometimes?

So one thing that I want to try to keep doing better of is I love reading a hard copy of the Bible. It is not that I do not use my phone. I use computers. But if I really want to get alone with God, I do not want a message to pop up and distract me. I do not want an email to pop up and distract me. I do not want my phone to ring and distract me. You know what I am saying?

One thing I think that will help us so much to be more alive for Jesus is being in the Word. The Bible says, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night.” It is such a blessing.

And if you are here today and if you want to be more alive, I just want to tell you, ask yourself: How am I doing taking time to be in the Word? And it does not have to just be all your day or anything, but are you taking time every day to get alone in the Word? And also ask yourself: How am I doing in my prayer life?

You know, it is a blessing when we have a moment of prayer and God can answer a prayer in a moment. Actually, this morning, Scott, our worship pastor—he was stuck on the right before the bridge at Cape Memorial. When you are coming from Cleveland today, there was a bad wreck and the cars that were right behind the wreck got stuck for over an hour.

So he texts me. So I knew to take his boat home to get into Wilmington. We did not hit any traffic. He still looked down. I could see he was down there stuck after two hours or—I said but in all honesty, think Crystal and I were driving through downtown if y’all know that way. At the point right before people would come off the bridge into Wilmington and we were at the light right before it. I said, “Lord help Scott get off the bridge.” And it was a real quick prayer. Then Crystal looks and he is like, “Josh, the cars are coming out right now.” So God can answer. It was not anything about me. It is just God can answer a prayer even if it is nothing. I did not say anything special other than that.

But I will say this: it will bless us when we also get moments of taking time with God in prayer. I know for me a lot of times that I need—if I take just a little longer—I start to feel the presence of God. I start to feel the Holy Spirit moving. So if we want to be more alive in Jesus, we ought to ask ourselves: Am I spending time with the Lord in the Word? Am I spending time with the Lord in prayer? Am I coming to church? Am I active in my church? Am I serving God? And do I have sin in my life or am I living for God?

You know, this Easter, that is the challenge that God put on my heart to do better and better with. I hope it encourages some of you here to make sure Jesus is alive in you. Take a moment and talk to God about that. Is Jesus alive in you? And if you do not feel like He is alive like He needs to be, what is keeping you from having Jesus alive in you?

If you are a Christian and if you are saved and if God has forgiven you and you know you are going to heaven, what is it? What barrier or barriers is keeping you from having Jesus—from people saying, “Man, Jesus is alive in that person.” They—you can see that person loves Jesus.

Is it busyness? Is it sin? Is it that you are not taking time to be in the Word, taking time to be in prayer? What is it that is keeping you from Jesus? Because I do not know about y’all, but I do not think there is anything. If there is something in my life, if there is something in your life keeping us from being alive in Jesus, is it really worth it? I do not think so.

So is there something that we need to rid ourselves of to have Jesus be alive in you?

And I will tell you, if we make that decision today to say, “I do want to make Jesus alive in me. I know Jesus is alive and I want to make Jesus alive in me. And I am going to commit, God, that I am going to—with Your help—I am going to commit to having Jesus more alive in me.” I know it will help us.

Go and Tell: The Commission of the Resurrection

I just want to close with this. I think we should also commit on this Easter when we think about those women coming to the tomb. They got the best news ever. They saw the stone rolled away. They saw the earthquake that made the men pass out, but they were still standing. They heard from the angel that He is not here. He is risen.

And then watch what it says in verse 7: “Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead.”

That is another challenge I want to take away. I hope you will take away: Tell this world about Jesus and that He is alive. Make sure Jesus is alive in you. And also, let us recommit to telling this world that Jesus is alive and that He is alive. And what that means—that He is alive.

Verse 8 says, “So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to bring His disciples word.” They went to tell. And then they went to tell the disciples that Jesus is alive.

Matthew 28, the very next verse, verse 9—we did not read this one. It says, “And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, ‘Rejoice!’” So they saw Jesus in His resurrected body on resurrection morning. So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.”

The women were faithful. They were seeking Jesus. They got the best news ever that He is risen. And then they became the first witnesses—the first witnesses to say Jesus is alive. And they were faithful to tell the disciples and others that Jesus is alive.

And we also know the disciples—they met Jesus in His resurrected body. And you remember what the Lord told them. It is our commission too: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe the things I have commanded you. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Jesus told them, “Go, go therefore and make disciples.” Mark’s account says, “Preach the gospel to every living creature.” And the disciples were faithful too. The women were faithful. The disciples were faithful. And now, over 2,000 years later, people are getting saved every day. People are coming to Jesus every day.

And God has you here. God has me here for a reason. And if we are a Christian, part of that reason is to tell this world about Jesus.

So I just want to close again. I hope on this resurrection morning we are reminded that Jesus is alive. Make sure Jesus is alive in you and make sure you and I—that we go out and tell this world that Jesus is alive and the good news that that means for them when they trust in Jesus.

God, we love You and I just thank You for this day. I thank You for Your Word. I thank You that You are alive. We do not serve a dead God. We serve a risen Savior. And God, I thank You for what the resurrection means for us. I thank You for the promise of Your Word that You say, “Whoever believes in You will be saved.”