It Starts With Reflection | Pastor Nelson Bowen

There's nobody but Jesus worthy There's nobody but the Lord worthy Cause they trash Him while He's worthy Who else is worthy? Say who else is worthy? Let's serve a risen King Hallelujah God You're so worthy Jesus We honor you, we praise you, we lift you up We magnify your name God you are absolutely incredible And we thank you that the grave could not hold you We thank you that death has to proclaim your name Has to bow to who you are Jesus We lift you up God and we magnify you And we thank you and if you are thankful in this place Let me hear you say Hallelujah Thank you Jesus Man God is just absolutely incredible, is He not? Well if it's your first time here let me be among the first To just tell you thank you for coming You could have chosen so many different churches this morning But you decided to come hang out with I believe the hottest church on the planet Engaged Community Church I'm Pastor B and I have the wonderful privilege of leading this place But while you're standing we've got some very special guests joining us Can we just begin to clap and cheer God behind bars Come on, man thank you so much for watching We hope that you'll begin to find freedom And you'll begin to find joy And you'll begin to discover that the Lord loves you That His love can permeate walls It can permeate a situation For some of you all who are believing for Jesus to do something amazing in your life You need Him to step in in a case

You need Him to have favor with a judge What I believe is that God is going to turn situations and lives around Come on one more time let's celebrate people Come on hallelujah God Oh you can be seated Thank you so much for hanging out with us today I am excited Anyone just excited to be in the house of God this morning? I am man Okay this is my third one And so just give me all the energy you got I got two more to go And so we're going to believe that God is with us But if you're new we're starting a brand new sermon series today Although it's Resurrection Sunday We'll be continuing it over the next four weeks And you got to see a little bit of it already It's called The Case for Christ The Case for Christ I was explaining that I think Anyone got like little kids? I got like a six year old and a four year old Any little kids in the room? Not in the room but got parents like mine So I've got a six year old And his favorite question is why? It don't matter what you're doing He just wants to know why you're doing it And as I have been so privileged To answer that question so many times

Happy birthday man Happy birthday It's his birthday on Resurrection Sunday Happy birthday Come on let's all say happy birthday Thank you so much man But one of the things that I started to realize That even in our faith We can know what's happened But very rarely can we explain why it happened And as I've just begun to journey And begin to really have my heart broken For where we are as a church And where we are as a state of the church One of the things I've come to realize Is that man Christianity is not as like Just sign up for it and just believe it Because your mother told you to believe it As it used to be People want to know some real They're asking some tough questions They're trying to figure out like Why is this happening? Why do you say you are who you are? Why do you believe in Jesus in the first place? And so over the next four weeks What I wanted to do was accomplish two things Here's the first one If you're a skeptic If you're like man I don't really get

This whole Jesus thing The Christianity The whole nine I only came today because someone dragged me here Here's what I want you to do We're not going to twist your arms behind your back And tell you to believe what we believe We're not gonna beat you over your head until you become a follower of Jesus. Instead, what I would love for you to do is just lean in for the next four weeks and let us present a case to you. Let us just put some facts in front of you. Let us just put some things in front of you for you to consider, and hopefully it may lead to you asking, what must I do to be saved? But the second thing is that if you are already a believer, if you're already someone who confesses Jesus, then what I want you to do over the next four weeks is help you make your case stronger, to give you some things that can equip you so that you can become a better believer. And so what I want to do is just encourage you that if you are a skeptic, don't make a decision yet. I mean, just give us four weeks. And if you are a believer, just lean in and figure out how in the world can I equip myself to be able to continue to spread the good news, amen? So here's what we have to understand. What we must understand is that Christianity

does not begin with a feeling. It begins with a fact. And here's the fact. The fact is that Jesus Christ truly lived, that he truly died, and love is the only motive that explains why. I'm gonna say it again. Jesus Christ truly lived, he truly died, and love is the only motive that explains why. If Jesus did not die, then Christianity collapses. But if he did, and if he did raise his own life, then everything that he says after that is worthy of a response. So if you would, here's what I would like to do. I would first like to, any history buffs in the room, anyone like, yo, just give me facts. I don't want to know what's the facts. Any history people at all? Any factual people? I appreciate it. Give me the facts. So if you would, I would like to just spend a few minutes just talking about the facts of the matter. Is that okay? And here's how I'm gonna do it. I'm just gonna give you a chart, and you can take a picture of it. Give you a chart. Here's the deal. There's this guy in first century Roman history.

His name is Tacticus. And here's what Tacticus says. He's a Roman historian. He was not a Christian. He, in fact, was a hostile witness. So he was someone who was totally against Jesus for real. The Christianity movie, all of that. And he says that Jesus was executed under Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius. He confirms that Jesus' death happened, and this is from a non-Christian, unbiased source. First one. The second one is Josephus. He's a Jewish historian with no allegiance to Christianity at all. He says that Jesus was a real man. He was crucified, and look at this. His followers continued to grow even after his death. So he confirms that both the crucifixion and he confirms the rise of a movement. Here's the last one. There's actual records. So even now, if someone is tried by the state, it's recorded. If someone's executed by the state, it's recorded. In the Roman Empire, there's execution practices and records and in the official Roman system of capital punishment, here's what it says, G, that crucifixion was a Roman death sentence, listen to me, reserved for threats.

Not myths. People who are threatening the Roman Empire. So Rome doesn't crucify myths. They crucify real people who are seen as threats. So we can debate theology, but we can't debate history. This stuff has happened. History proves that Jesus lived and that Jesus died. Now here's the thing that changes everything. Say, what is it? Every religion begins with the man who lived and died. Christianity begins with the man who died and then got up. Are you with me? So now we start setting the scene. That's history. Look at Matthew chapter 28, verse number five. Say, give it to me, pastor. The angel said to the woman, do not be what? For I know that you seek who? Who was? Because Mary and when they came to this tomb and when they came to the tomb, they were looking for a body. They were looking for Jesus. He wasn't in there. The angel starts to, hey man, listen, don't be afraid. I know you're looking for Jesus. He was crucified. Verse six, watch this. But he ain't here.

For he has risen as he. As he. As he. As he. As he. As he. So come, see the place where he lay. Now I understand you might not understand that language, but that's past tense in that language, where he lay. Then go quickly, run, tell that. Tell the disciples that he's risen from the dead and behold, he is going before you to Galilee. That's where you will see him. See what I've told you. Verse number eight. So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy. Like afraid, but also excited. Afraid, because like, that man was dead. Excited, because he alive, but still processing. So they're running while processing. You with me? And they went to go tell the disciples, hey, yo, the angel just said that G ain't here. You with me? Verse number nine. Watch this. And behold, Jesus met them and said, greet. Now, how many of you know that's a weird, like, dude, like, that'll be OK if I saw you yesterday

and we was having cramps. But you was dead two days ago. I saw them put, I saw the way they beat you. I saw the way you hung on that cross. I saw how those thorns was on your head. I saw them nails in your feet. And you just going to sit here three days later talking about some greetings. And they came and took hold of his feet. And immediately, they started worshiping him. But this angel, he gives us some facts that we have to make sure that we are emphasizing. I'm going to give you another chart. And then we're going to really start preaching and have some fun. Here's the first one. Here's the first proof. He says, Jesus, who was crucified, that confirms that this was a real death. Then he says, he ain't here. I should have said ain't instead of not. He ain't here. It confirms that the tomb was what? Proof number three, just as he, let's say that again, just as he, so it confirms that Jesus predicted it. Now, the reality is this. Say, what's the reality? Christianity is the only faith where a prophecy is fulfilled by its founder. The reality is that Jesus didn't just rise.

He called his own shot. Oh, we're going to get gangster in a second. Look at Matthew 16, verse 21. Matthew 16, verse 21, from the time that Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, watch this, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed. But on the third day, be what? Now, I like when Jesus start talking like real gangster. And he does this in John chapter 2. Because you know, G was serious. Look at what he's saying in John chapter 2. Look at this. Jesus answered him, destroyed his temple. And in three days, I will, G, kill me. But in three days, I'm going to get myself up. No, it's real gangster. So I'm just trying to lay this like this prelude, because I just left you off where the disciples went. I'm sorry, Mary went to the disciples and said, listen, that tomb empty. Now we got to go see what Peter did when he got to the tomb. You ready? Let's look at John chapter 20, verse number 6. I'm just laying the foundation. It's going to be good. John 20, verse number 6. It says, then Simon Peter came, following him, and he went into the tomb.

I'm not getting in this thing, but you understand what he did. He went to the tomb, and when he came out, you got to understand that these people are shocked. So it says, he went to the tomb, and he saw the linen cloths lying there. Verse 7, it's about to get real. And the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but what? Say it with me, but what? Up in a place by itself. Now when Peter walked into that tomb, Mr. Charles, he expected to see a body. At the bare minimum, what he expected was that there would be dysfunction. He expected that when I walked in here, G, that it would have been some signs of some struggle, some fight, some type of murmuring, because you have to understand that what was popular at the time was something called grave robbers. So the reason why the Roman soldiers rode this stone in front of the tomb is Because grave robbers would come, and when grave robbers came, they would steal the spices, they would steal the oils, and they would definitely steal the linen because the linen had value. Are you with me? And so because they knew that grave robbers were there, the Romans actually did something that they don't typically do. They put a stone in front of it and then put a seal because Jesus been walking around saying that once you kill me, I'm going to get myself up.

And so in order to prevent that, they put a stone in front of it, put Roman guards in front of it because they thought the disciples might come and try to steal the body and let this be a hoax or a myth. Are you with me? But so when they got there, Dr. Clay, they're like, wait a second, Peter's like, yo, ain't no linen, there's no dysfunction, there's no struggle. So the tension that is sitting in this text right now is that if this was a robbery, why leave the linen behind? Because it had value. Why take the time to unwrap the body? Because that would take too long. Why fold the face cloth? Because if it was robbed, there should be a mess. I mean, come on, we know that now, when someone breaks into something, it's never neat. You wish it would be neat, but it's not. It's a mess. And so when Pete went in there, he's like, yo, this is not sign of confusion. This is not signs of uncertainty. This is like, like, no, no, this looks intentional, because this was not a theft, this was a victory. You not hear what I'm saying? OK, OK, OK, OK. Oftentimes what happens is we only have the knowledge of a Sunday school teacher. And I'm not going to pity-poo Sunday school teachers. I got Sunday school teachers at my church. They're amazing. But oftentimes, we only go with what's been passed down from generation to generation, not necessarily understanding the text in which it was written. Because there's some clear language in this text that you won't understand unless you're of Jewish culture. And the clear text of something that's often missed in this entire thing was that the linen

was folded. And the reason why, you ever been to a restaurant that got one of these on the table? If you haven't, you got to expose yourself, man, like, expose yourself. But just saying. So this right here would be the linen cloth. It's actually pretty historical what happened. So if you ever been to a restaurant where if somebody's on the table, what might happen oftentimes when you sit down, they'll take one of these and fold it across your lap. You get what I'm saying? And oftentimes, what you might not know is the same thing that comes from Jewish tradition and Jewish history, that when you were finished, or if you're finished, you'll just kind of rumble it up, do this. And what it communicated to the people that were serving at that time is that the master was finished. Stay with me. So and you've done that before, maybe you've been in a restaurant and you kind of just wipe your mouth, you do whatever you got to do, you just kind of roll it up. And if you notice, people start coming. And they start coming because you have signaled to everyone else that I no longer want it. Now here's what happens though. In the Jewish tradition, if the master kind of went like this, if he folded his cloth, what it signaled was that I'm not finished, I'm coming back. I need you to understand. So when they walked into the tomb and the linen cloth was not found like that, you're not hearing what I'm saying. The linen cloth was not found like that at all. The linen cloth actually, actually was folded up. And the reason why you have to understand this is because what it says is that Jesus was not caught by surprise. What it says is that Jesus was not stolen.

What it says is that Jesus actually is communicating something more. That I know y'all thought it was over, but I, in fact, am coming back. That I have a story that's still not finished. I'm trying to tell you that I'm still here. The folded cloth shows that He was not overpowered. What it shows is that I've executed a plan that I've called out from the very beginning. Destroy this temple and I will rise it up in three days. It's so important because, OK, OK, calm down. Because what it says is Jesus did exactly what He said. he would do. It means that everything he said can be trusted. The folded cloth was not just about the resurrection, the folded cloth was about reliability. That if Jesus says you're forgiven, you are. If he says you're a royal priesthood, you are. If he says that you're chosen, you are. If he says that you're loved, you are. If he says that you're the head and not the tail, you are. If he says you're fearfully and wonderfully made, you are. If he says my beloved I wish that you would prosper above all things, you will. If he says that I go to a place that I prepare for you, he is. And if he says he's coming back, then he will. Okay, this is all about reliability. So why would Jesus do this? That's the question. Because the question that we're asking today is not did he die? He did. It's not did he rise? He did. The question is why? Why would Jesus do all of this? This is why you have to go to Isaiah 59 verse 2. I'm having so much fun with y'all this morning. It says but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God. And your sins have hidden his face from you. Now talk about this a little bit on Friday, that sin causes separation. The reason why Jesus will go through all of this is because he's trying to close the gap that exists between you and God. Because you have a father who loves you, a father who desires to be with you, a father who wants to be alongside of you, but until Jesus did this sin stood in the way. Sin is not just a mistake. Sin is not about bad habits. Sin is separation. And the issue was not that we do bad things. It's in fact that we were separated from a father who longs to be with his children. The reality is this. Sin has a cost. There's a price that has to be paid. This is why Romans 6.23 is so important. For the wages or the cost of sin is what? Is what? The cost of sin is not get better. The cost

of sin, lady B, is not manage it. The cost of sin is not try as hard as you can not to do it anymore. Gee, the cost of sin is death. Someone has to die. And good behavior doesn't erase guilt. A payment has to be made. Are you with me? And then under that system in which Jesus is now getting ready to die and has died for us, under that system the requirement is that a lamb had to be offered for sin. What had to be offered? A lamb. I'm about to equip you guys. What had to be offered for sin? Not just any lamb though. It had to be spotless. It had to be perfect. It had to be blemish free. It could not be broken. It had to be perfect. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Are you hearing what I'm saying? So there needed to be what offered? A lamb. Now look at this, John 1.29. This is why this verse is so important. This is John the Baptist. This is Jesus' cousins. He says the next day he saw who? Coming towards him. What did he say? Behold the lamb. Why did Jesus come? He tells you, who takes away the sin. Ooh, I saw some of y'all had like light bulbs that just went off. I was like, whoa, wait a second. Okay. Jesus didn't just die. He qualified his life to die. God dog. I say he didn't just die. He qualified his life to die. He was sinless. He was perfect. He was without blemish and he was the only one. one who could pay a price that he didn't owe. Now what's interesting is that in the old system, when it was time to sacrifice lambs, which was for sin, they would do it at twilight. Say twilight. Okay, let's prove in Exodus chapter 12, verse six. I'm laying the case, I'm working this courtroom, G. And you shall keep it until the 14th day in this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their what? And the lambs were for? Sin. At what time? Twilight. Ooh, I'm about to lay this case.

Okay, okay. The Hebrew phrase for twilight meant between evenings. Are you with me? Jewish scholars interpreted the time to be roughly around 3 p.m. That became the official sacrificial hour. Are you with me? Now, let's go to where this crucifixion is happening. Because the crucifixion was happening during Passover week. The Passover week is where the Jewish people will come and they will come and get ready to sacrifice lambs. At the same time that Passover week is happening, they're sacrificing lambs, you also have the Lamb of God walking this seven mile journey up Golgotha. And that Matthew 27, 45 then records this. Look at this. Now from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. I don't know if you know, but this is now 3 p.m. The official time to sacrifice lambs. You also have Jesus being on the cross who is the Lamb of God being sacrificed at the same time that all the other lambs are being sacrificed. This is not coincidence. This is divine orchestration. But remember that the lamb had to be perfect. It could not be without blemish. It could not be without fault.

And so under G, the Roman system, what would happen is in order to expedite your crucifixion, they would break your legs. And they did that so that you would hurry up and die. There's only one recorded crucifixion where this happens. I want you to see Matthew 27. Where are we at? Matthew 27. No, John, yeah, yeah. Matthew 27, 19, 30. No, no, give me John 19, 33. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Why? Because if his legs were broken, he would no longer be a perfect lamb. You just missed it, you just missed it. See, he had to keep himself perfect, not just while he was living, but all the way to death. Because if they broke his legs, then his payment for his sin disqualifies us because he's no longer the broken lamb. Oh, you hear what I'm saying? He kept himself perfect. But the question is, for who? Who did he do all this for? Romans 5, verse eight, watch this.

But God shows his love for us in that while, while we were still sinners. Christ died for who? Us. While we were still sinners. Not when we get our life together, not when we stop sinning, not when we think we deserve it, not when we think we've crotted all our I's, I mean, dotted all our I's and crossed all our T's. No, he did this at the moment that you were still in your worst case. He said, I have to die for you. Jesus kept himself perfect so that he could die for us while we were still at our worst. Translation, Jesus doesn't wait for the better version of you to die. He dies for the current version of you, the one that is at your worst. Your sin gets placed on Jesus and his righteousness gets placed on you. Here's the reality. You don't need a theologian. You don't need a history book for you to really see why Jesus died. Come here, Josh. If you wanna know why Jesus died, I'm gonna show you why. Take a look at that. If you wanna know why Jesus died, look in there. Only got one point today.

The greatest evidence of why Jesus had to die was not in the tomb. It's in the reflection. It's in the reflection. And we all know the mirror don't lie. The mirror don't lie. No I wanted you to pause and see why Jesus died. It's in the reflection. Romans 3.23 says this, for all have sinned. Who does all leave out? And all have fallen short of the glory of God. All of us have sinned and all of us have fallen short. See the problem is this, many of us we look in this mirror and we don't like what we see. And what I've discovered and what I've found is that like this mirror going to tell the truth. This suit bad. I wasn't supposed to say that out loud. Greg said the mirror don't lie. But we look in this mirror and oftentimes we use this as image management. We use this as like what can I cover and what can I hide? Would it be possible that the mirror is the modern day leaves that was found in the Garden of Eden? We're trying to figure out what do we need to cover? What do we need to hide? What do we need to conceal from ourselves? And the reality is this, that what you see, I'm talking about the real reality of what you see. Like your sin, your shame, your guilt, your lust, your procrastination, all of that stuff. Like Jesus saw all of that and decided to die for that version of you. Not the one you post about, not the one you're trying to be, not the one you're trying to project.

No, He died for the real one. And the problem with the mirror up until Christ gave His life is this, what you saw is what you get. And so when God looked at us, He saw all those flaws. He saw all of that and that's why there was separation. Because when He looked at us, He saw the baggage and the sin and all of that. And He had to figure out how do I close the gap? This is why this verse in Corinthians is so important. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21, I'm getting ready to bring it home, give me some keys. For our sake, for whose sake? For whose sake? For whose sake? He made Him to be sin who knew no sin. In other words, Jesus becomes sin for our sake so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God. Come in, D. So that in Him, so here's what happened. What happens on the cross is this, pre-Jesus, I see everything that I'm not, that I don't like. And many of us, we avoid the mirror because it tells us the truth. And pre-Jesus, what you saw is what you get. But what Jesus did on the cross, let's just say there it represents Jesus. Now when I look in the mirror, this is what God sees. He does not see me at all. He doesn't see all this stuff. All He can see is the righteousness of His Son. I'm not even in the picture no more. He only sees who Jesus is and what Jesus did. You don't have to manage your sin, you surrender your sin, you say, I can't do this no more. I need a perfect image and reflection of who God is.

That's why Jesus did it. And the reality is this, if you look in this and still see you, it's stuff that you have not surrendered to Christ yet. Because when God sees you, if you're a child of God, He sees His Son. Bow your heads. God, thank you so much for being so good. Thank you for being so awesome, so mighty, so great, so loving that you would give your only Son. I want to take a moment, no one moving, no one looking around, I'm going to take a moment to pray for some special people. Some people today want to decide to give their lives to Jesus, maybe for the first time. And maybe you had that relationship with Him, but you just kind of drifted, you found yourself walking away. Maybe this is the day that you actually come back and you say, no, I'm giving my life to the Father again. So the reality is this, is that God's not mad at you, He's mad about you, He loves you, man. He's got every single hair on your head numbered. He has your entire world in His hands, He's planned this perfect and loving life that's just for you. He cares. I said He cares, and He longs to be with you. See there's this debate about is heaven or hell real, I'm selling it for you. Yes it is. The myth is more so that God doesn't send you neither one of them. You decide where you go, and you decide to spend eternity in heaven with Jesus when you accept Him into your life. And I want to give you that moment today, maybe your heart's racing and you're like, yo, what is this? It's simply Jesus knocking on the door of your heart with one question, will you allow

me to reside with you? You see, He's a perfect gentleman, so He doesn't come by intrusion, He doesn't come by invasion, He only comes by an invitation that says, yo, I'm a sinner and I'm in need of a Savior. And today, I just want this to be a day that becomes the best day of your life where you decide, you know what, if I was to die today, I would spend eternity with the Father. So we're not going to do anything spooky, we're not going to do anything scary, I just want to ask you to raise your hand on the count of three and say, yo, that's me, Pastor, like, I need to give my life to Jesus today. Don't you run, don't you overlook this moment, don't you get scared at all, like, make this between you and God, no one around you, and say, okay, I'm settling the issue today, I'm going to give my life to Jesus. And on the count of three, I just want you to raise your hand as high as you can and say, that's me, man, I'm giving my life to Jesus today. I believe some of y'all are going to make the best decision of your life. Let's do it on the count of three. One, God loves you. Two, your life will never be the same. Three, if that's you, raise your hand. Come on, look at all over the room, let's go. Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go. Hallelujah, God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, God. So awesome. Come on, let's say this together. Say, God, today, I give you my life. I believe in my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. Come on, let's celebrate. Okay, we're going to do something really cool. We're getting ready to end.

We're going to worship on the way out, but I need every single person to pull out your phone, every single person, every single person. Pull your phone out, pull your phone out, pull your phone out, pull your phone out. We're ending this Easter with just a brief survey, but I need everyone to fill it out. I just want to ask just for your name, of course, and all of that, but there's some simple questions that we want to ask. And the first question that you're going to see is, yo, where do you stand with Jesus? And we just want to know where our church is. One's going to say, yo, I'm already saved. Another one's going to say, I'm not saved, but I gave my life today. Another one's going to say, man, I've never given my life to Jesus. And if you're bold enough to select that, I'm just bold enough to pray for you by name. And so can we just please make sure that everyone fills the survey out? It'll really help us and to make some decisions around here and just figure out what kind of church do we have. Are we churched? Are we unchurched? All of those things. So if you could do that on the way out, that would be a big help. If you said, yes, I made that decision today in the Life Center, stop by the Next Steps table, we would love to pray with you, give you some information to equip you to go about the best decision you've ever made. I love you guys so much. Did we enjoy today? Awesome. Let's worship out of here and I'll see you guys next week. God bless you. ♪ Prove to us the Father's love ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ is risen ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy ♪

♪ Who else is worthy ♪ ♪ There is none worthy of worship but Jesus Christ ♪