Confidence
Character Traits of Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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Intro
Intro
The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed. What is the most important day or moment in your life to this date? We all have dates in our history that mean something to us. Our birthday. Our wedding day. The birth of our children. But we all know that those are not as important as the day in which your surrendered your life to Jesus. That was your most important day in your life.
Just like your salvation day is the most important day to you, today is the most historically pivotal day in the the world’s history. Some might say that three days ago was the most pivotal day in history because he died on the cross. While that day is important, if Jesus never rose from the grave, the faith he taught would have been made obsolete.
Everything that Jesus taught about and modelled for us is hinged on his resurrection from the grave. In fact, your faith is based on his resurrection from the grave.
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
We are told that part of surrendering to Christ is believing that he raised from the dead. If that event doesn’t happen, there is no faith to have. So today we not only celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, we are celebrating the most important day in the history of the world because Christianity isn’t around with Jesus.
Jesus Rises
Jesus Rises
If you have your Bibles turn to . Over the last three days, emotions have gone all over the place. Loss. Disappointment. Sadness. Fear. Resignation. Their leader is gone. The world they had been hoping for is no longer there. Let’s read .
After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”
So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
This passage starts off with Mary and Mary going to the tomb. When you read the accounts in Mark, Luke and John you get some additional details about this visit. It was customary to go and put spices and perfume on the body. In fact, on the way the ladies are wondering who is going to move the stone for them.
As they approach a miraculous thing happens. The tomb is open and the body of Jesus is not there. The angel proceeds to tell them that Jesus has risen!
Have you ever been in a situation where fear might be the overwhelming feeling until you hear the news you were hoping for?
All their fear and sadness is gone in a moment. Joy. Hope. Peace. A future. A simple message about the resurrection of Jesus changes the outlook and lives of a handful of people. Because of their impact by Jesus, 2,000 years later we experience the impact of hope restored and a future secured.
What I find interesting about the story of the resurrection of Jesus is how little people paid attention to Jesus as he shared about his ending. Two weeks ago we talked about the courage of Jesus. He knew he would be beaten and. On three different he told his disciples that this would happen. Listen again to these verses:
Matthew 16
From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.
Matthew 17:
Matthew 20:17:19
Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”
Three different occasions. Three different times Jesus told his disciples that his end would be brutal. If you remember reading these a couple of weeks ago, you might have noticed that I left out a phrase in each of these verses.
All three times Jesus explains what will happen leading up to his death but he gives the disciples hope by a little phrase found in each of these three instances. All three times he includes this phrase: “On the third day he will be raised to life.”
We’ve been studying character traits of Jesus as he journeys to the cross. We talked about courage which I’ve already mentioned. Last week we talked about humility. Today we talk about confidence.
I haven’t yet mentioned the character trait yet
What is confidence? It means “the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something.” All three times Jesus talked about his death he also talked about his resurrection. Just as the talked about his death is certainty, he talked about his resurrection with certainty. In other words, because he knew the outcome, he could face the momentary pain and suffering with courage.
So what does confidence look like? Here are some words to describe it.
Assurance
Certainty
Poise
Courage
Fearlessness
Reliance
Firmness
Does it make going through the crucifixion easy? Of course not. Does it make it worth it? You bet. You see, when you read the Bible, we get pictures into the hope and joy we receive because of Christ’s confidence that should give us the same confidence. Listen to these words from .
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
“We are more than conquerors through him.” Who is it that loves us? God. How did he display it? Through Christ. You can overcome. You have overcome. You will overcome. When looking at the life of Christ, we get a picture of how we are to live. He shows us courage, humility and confidence. But it’s more than that. Listen to .
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
It’s not just the confidence of conquering what this world will throw at us, it’s also the confidence knowing that one day we will be made perfect without sin or blemish. Death is no longer the end. Words like “conquer” and “victory” give assurance and confidence that Jesus’ journey to the cross was not in vain. It was in confidence because he conquered and he came about victorious. Why is all this important?
Before Jesus even came here to this earth, he agreed to and submitted to his Father’s will for all of humanity. He displayed confidence in God’s perfect will for salvation. In fact, as we look at the disciples after the resurrection of Christ, we see that through faith they displayed confidence in a few different ways.
The first is Confidence in God. The instructions given by Jesus before his return home are obeyed completely. They witnessed his death. They witnessed his resurrection. They witnessed his ascension. How can you not be changed and completely willing to follow God after seeing those things.
This isn’t something new though. Read through the OT and you see this language throughout the OT.
But I am like an olive tree
flourishing in the house of God;
I trust in God’s unfailing love
for ever and ever.
This verse talks about flourishing. Read the first few chapters of Acts and you see the church flourishing in Jerusalem. Jews are turning from centuries of religious practice to surrender to the risen Jesus.
Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,
which cannot be shaken but endures forever.
Two weeks ago, we listed the disciples and the way they died. Nothing that happened between Jesus resurrection and their death was powerful enough to stop them on their mission. They weren’t always perfect (who is?) but they went to the grave believing and trusting and ultimately becoming victorious.
The Lord is good,
a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him,
How much more confidence can we have knowing that Jesus has made us victorious through his resurrection and that God will care for us? Our God is an amazing God who sent his Son and made a clear path to us. How amazing to know he cares for us.
The second way we see in the disciples is Confidence in what God can do. Now we really move into what God is actively doing. All of this is through his Holy Spirit which Jesus told his disciples would come after he leaves them.
The disciples were given the great commission to preach the gospel, baptize people and make disciples. They spent time praying before the Holy Spirit came and when He came upon them, they walked out into the town and started preaching. did they know that 3,000 people would surrender to Jesus that day? Nope. But they preached none the less.
He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,
The disciples were given the great commission to preach the gospel, baptize people and make disciples. They spent time praying before the Holy Spirit came and when He came upon them, they walked out into the town and started preaching. did they know that 3,000 people would surrender to Jesus that day? Nope. But they preached none the less.
As Paul writes to the Corinthians he reminds that God has proven faithful in keeping them safe (we don’t know what exactly that is) and that he continues to believe that God will show up. What if what we go through is orchestrated by God to draw us into him? Does that mean everything we go through is orchestrated by God? No. Sometimes it’s our fault. In our passage in Romans, we read a couple of verses that tells us that God is working everything out for our good.
God is working for your good. He has your best interest at heart. So we can take confidence in what God is doing.
The Lord is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked advance against me
to devour me,
it is my enemies and my foes
who will stumble and fall.
Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then I will be confident.
Psalm
The third way is a Confidence in what God will do. Paul echoes these words in the 2 Corinthian verse we just read. God will “continue to deliver us.” If we look back at the times that Jesus told his disciples about his suffering and death, he told them about resurrection. Jesus was confident in God was going to do.
In , Jesus tells the disciples before ascending that they are to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit. He said it’d be a few days. Imagine the wait! Our current mission is to wait until the Holy Spirit comes. Have you seen it? Do we know what we are looking for? How will we know? Questions I’m sure wen through the mind but this time they weren’t asked.
If you look at the three years of ministry by Jesus, on a number of occasions, Jesus would tell the disciples the meaning of a parable or answer questions they had. None of those questions surface this time. Instead it was the trust that what Jesus said will be true and will happen.
Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
Again, when we talk about confidence in what God will do, we have to keep in mind the eternal. We know that to be in God’s presence is a much better deal than here on earth. And we know one day we will be in his presence, but we have confidence that the reason we aren’t there yet because he has more to do here with us.
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
The last way the disciples displayed confidence was in Confidence founded on God’s grace. These guys ran when the guards came. One betrayed Jesus. Peter denied Jesus. Thomas doubted Jesus was alive. And yet God’s grace was given to these guys. In fact, it becomes the backbone of the Gospel message. God’s justice needed fulfilled and through grace Jesus took your sin.
By grace (what you didn’t earn or deserve) you were given freedom in Christ and the gift of salvation.
In that day you will say:
“I will praise you, Lord.
Although you were angry with me,
your anger has turned away
and you have comforted me.
Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid.
The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense;
he has become my salvation.”
The confidence in knowing that God has saved me is the foundation I need to live out my day. It’s the foundation of what you need to live yours.
In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
What a relief! What a joy to know that I can approach God without any fear of condemnation. That was the old system. Only the high priest could approach the altar. Only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies. On the night Christ died, the temple curtain was split from top to bottom. Mark records with in 15:38. It is not a coincidence that Mark records how the curtain split. It is God demonstrating grace and opening up for everyone to approach him.
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
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What did his grace give us? Encouragement, hope and strength. The encouragement is eternal. The hope is good. Our hearts, deeds and words are strengthened. All of that through grace!
Jesus displayed all of these on his way to the cross, his death and resurrection. I hope you’ve seen today that the implications are boundless from the resurrection.
Closing
Closing
Lee Strobel in his book Case for Christ concludes his thoughts as he examines the evidence of Jesus, his death and resurrection. He concludes them with these eight statements:
If Jesus is the Son of God, his teachings are more than just good ideas from a wise teacher; they are divine insights on which I can confidently build my life.
If Jesus sets the standard for morality, I can now have an unwavering foundation for my choices and decisions, rather than basing them on the ever-shifting sands of expediency and self-centeredness.
If Jesus did rise from the dead, he’s still alive today and available for me to encounter on a personal basis.
If Jesus conquered death, he can open the door of eternal life for me, too.
If Jesus has divine power, he has the supernatural ability to guide me and help me and transform me as I follow him.
If Jesus personally knows the pain of loss and suffering, he can comfort and encourage me in the midst of turbulence that he himself warned is inevitable in a world corrupted by sin.
If Jesus loves me as he says, he has my best interest at heart. That means I have nothing to lose and everything to gain by committing myself to him and his purposes.
If Jesus is who he claims to be (and remember no leader of any other major religion has even pretended to be God), as my Creator he rightfully deserves my allegiance, obedience and worship.
Finish with “No Other King” video