MESSENGER

Sunday, April 21, 2019

He Is the Risen Lord – Savior to All Who Believe


Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our sermon or midweek study. You will normally see us posted on Sunday and Wednesday. I am Rev. Laura A. Neff. Our ministry was built on the truth of God’s love. It doesn’t conform to society’s wishes. This ministry shares the Word of God, the Spirit of Christ Jesus. Those who know me well will recognize that there are definitive differences in the creation of every sermon from this point forward. It is God’s will that has brought this to be. We wish only that God’s truth will be shared within His words as brought to us by the Spirit as it fills my heart, mind, and soul to be shared with my hands, but with His words alone.

You will find us in the following location: http://www.covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com

 Rev. Laura’s other sites: Facebook & Google+ & Blogspot & Twitter

Prayer List: We have many on our prayer list. Some wish to remain anonymous, and others only wish to have their first names mentioned. Our prayer list grows or changes every week. This is our current list.

- Please pray for Elder Cal Jennings who has been suffering greatly with his health. May the Lord bring his spirits up and help heal him.

- Pray for my friends Dena, Karen, and Kristy for their health, happiness, and well-being.


- Please pray for relief in the trials and tribulations for Sister Theresa and myself as we have had a great many over the past year and more.

- Be thankful for each day we live as we do not know what tomorrow brings.
- Pray for our nations that the voice of God be heard through the Spirit.
- Pray for our friends and families that their tomorrows bring blessings and pray our own be the same.

- Pray for those suffering as a result of the terrors that have occurred just this past week around this world.

- Pray for our sick and wounded that they may heal.

Prayer: Father in heaven, our prayer today is to have the Holy Spirit bring clarity to our decisions. We pray for enlightenment and understanding while studying Your Word. We thank You for these gifts and the many more You have brought us. Help us to see the many gifts Your love brings and the unknown locations it might be found. May our pain and sorrow be eased. May peace be brought from our hearts and shared with others. May Your gifts of love shine through us toward others. We pray for the poor, the sick, the sorrowful, the wounded, and the frightened. We pray for the soldiers, the Samaritans, the children, and the rest. We pray in thanksgiving for every gift brought us. We pray that every tomorrow would bring good things. For each of these we pray in Your Holy Name, through our Savior Jesus Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Amen and so it shall be.

Opening Song: Ten Thousand Angels Cried https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLsLWf6NBM4

Sermon: Normally, an Easter sermon begins with the first moment after the tomb is opened and they find it empty. That is one reason I started with a sad, sorrowful song this morning. I was inspired to start here and work backwards a bit to explain what it means to us here and now, and how that is both the same and different from when these moments occurred. We’ll start here with this one.

1 Corinthians 15:20-22 KJV – But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

God promised Adam, and furthered that promise with Abraham and Noah, that every person would one day be redeemed and able to live an eternal life beyond what we see as we live in the here and now, and way back in their times. Jesus promised us one thing, eternal life as long as we lived as part of His truth, His love, within our hearts, our minds, our spirits, and our souls. Even though He was beaten, forced to carry His cross, and hung there in the hot sun baking, bleeding, suffering, all that could possibly be suffered, not just His own, but multiplied by the deaths of every single person living, and yet to live, all over the earth. Imagine, suffering the deaths of billions of men, women, and children, all by Himself on that cross. Then, think about this.

Matthew 28:1-2 KJV - In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

There is a whole lot of information just here in this pair of verses. Yet, in truth, how would anyone want to believe what happened if we didn’t see it from various points of view? This is one question I have heard many times. How can you believe in something you cannot see with your eyes to know the truth as an eyewitness. Jesus showed us how to believe and see the truth within that belief. He did so, when He was resurrected and shared time with His disciples and family members. The passage is a long one, but shares everything that answers the biggest question people always seem to have.

Luke 24:12-15 KJV – Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.

Jesus had already risen from the grave, but as the Resurrected Son of God, was unrecognizable even to His closest friends and colleagues. So, what does Jesus do? He asks a question, of course. Did you not pay attention to all I said for these many years?

Luke 24:16-17 KJV – But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?

Now we get to the point of their disbelief that the Lord had indeed gone from the crucifixion to glory in resurrection. Here we see their reaction at the potential that Jesus could be standing there alive with them, talking and communicating as though three days earlier on what we celebrate as Good Friday had never occurred.

Luke 24:18-24 KJV – And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.

Believing in anything without proof for most of humanity is a seriously difficult hurdle. Believing in God and Jesus when we have not seen what these disciples and Apostles had seen, shares something as well. Jesus wanted us to see what truth God’s prophetic Word assured in the existence, life, ministry, death, and resurrection, of Jesus Christ the ONLY begotten Son of God entailed, not just in bits and pieces, but all together as a whole. 

Luke 24:25-35 KJV – Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.

Here you see how they reflected upon what Jesus had brought them since His resurrection. He showed them that belief goes beyond what we see with our eyes, our mind. Belief goes through to our heart, our subconscious being, our soul and spirit. That is where the truth lives, where God should be through the Holy Spirit as it is given to each and every one of us who believes.

Luke 24:36-53 KJV – And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them. And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

Believing is more than seeing His truth in front of us. Believing is sharing in the truth that has been shared in our hearts, through our spirits, seen in our minds and felt in our souls.

John 6:29 KJV – Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

Now that’s something to think about as we pray in the prayer that Jesus taught us saying:

Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
(Matthew 6:9-13)










~ Shalom ~

Rev. Laura A. Neff


Elder Calvin Jennings


Covenant of Hope Ministries Main Site: http://www.covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com

Scripture Excerpts: The New Open Bible Study Edition: Copyright © 1990: Thomas Nelson Publishers, Inc.

Scripture Excerpts: Holy Bible: Copyright © 1982: E. E. Gaddy and Associates, Inc.

Scripture Excerpts: Holy Bible: Copyright ©circa 1890-1910: International Bible Press, The John C. Winston Co.; Philadelphia, PA, USA

Sermon or Study Copyright © 2015 http://www.covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com

Our mission for Covenant of Hope Ministries is not to exploit fear, but to conquer it, and overcome all that is created through fear together as the bringers of the light of Jesus found in the midst of darkness.

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