Our Lord Jesus Is Risen

For every problem has been taken care of, Jesus is risen. Then what is your problem? Do you have obstacles in life? Do you have challenges in life? Has the enemy chained you? Has the enemy given you hardships? Put everything in the hands of the most capable, in the hands of the Almighty God and say, Lord, today you are truly risen, then you have raised me with you. I, the sinner, the fallen, that is deserted, the left behind, the forgotten, the left on the wayside, you today came for everyone who says, I am dead, I am lost, I am forgotten, I am forsaken and I am struggling, I am heavy burdened.

Today the Lord is saying, I came to take away all your worries and say to you once and for all, today if you have me in your heart, today if you take me as your Lord and God, today I say to you, my child, I live forever, you live in me forever too. This is the ultimate victory. The ultimate victory is to overcome death.

Every religion on the face of this planet has no answer for death, therefore it's useless. Useless, that's it. If your religion cannot give me eternal life, guarantee me eternal life, then what is the point? What is the point? You could say nice words till kingdom comes, my dear friend, those nice words are not going to go anywhere because at the end you'll die, I'll die and all of us will die.

What good are those nice words anymore after I go down to the pit? But I need someone to come and say to me, even if you believe in me and you die, if you believe in me and you die, you will live. And if you take my body and drink my blood, you will live in me forever. In this, there was 12 eyewitnesses that lived with Jesus Christ of Nazareth for three years and four months.

They watched him every single day, they saw him every single day, they walked with him, they ate with him and they witnessed the wonders and the miracles which the Jesus had done. And they also saw him risen after he was placed in the tomb and remained there for three days. They saw him after the three days, the living Messiah, the one and only.

To this, they testified. To this, they gave their blood, they died for it. And so many church fathers thereafter, like the stars of heaven, all of them accepted death and never denied this truth.

We came to preach the gospel, we came to say to the dark world the good news, Christ is God, he is risen. He has conquered death and crushed death by his death, burial and resurrection. Once and for all, death is conquered forever.

My beloveds, we face four enemies. Please pay attention. We face four enemies.

One, sin. Two, condemnation. Three, Satan.

Four, death. Sin, condemnation, Satan, death. These four enemies, there is no human being on the face of this planet that could overcome any or all of these enemies.

Every human fails. When it comes to sin, every human sins. Every human being sins, whether you are a Christian, whether you are a Muslim, whether you are a Buddhist, whether you are a Hindu, whether you are an atheist, whatever you are and whoever you are.

My dear, every human being sins. No one can overcome it. And because of sin, there is condemnation.

And because of sin, there is Satan. And because of sin, there is death. The wages of sin is death.

Now the ultimate enemy to any human being, the ultimate enemy is death. Death is much greater than Satan. Death is the ultimate enemy.

Maybe, maybe with hard work, I could overcome Satan. But no matter how hard I try, I can never overcome death. This is why King David says it so beautifully in Psalm 23.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Does death have shadow? Well according to King David, according to the scriptures, yes there is.

Now what is the shadow of death? Hell. You see, eventually, what was the reason for a human to end up in hell? It was death. So death sentenced that person to hell.

Now hell is the shadow of death. King David says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you. Who is you? The Lord is my shepherd, the beginning of Psalm 23.

For you, the Lord is my shepherd. Now who is the Lord my shepherd? Jesus Christ of Nazareth. King David prophetically is talking about Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Lord who is the good shepherd.

So he's saying to the Lord Jesus prophetically, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Thy your staff and your rod, they comfort me. Now death sentenced us to the shadow.

The shadow is hell. Now when people end up in hell, it is impossible to come out of it. Humanly, impossible to come out of it.

So the Lord is saying through King David, you see death is your ultimate enemy. Everybody dies and when you die, you're a sinner. As a sinner, you'll end up in hell.

When you end up in hell, it is a one-way street. There is no comeback. But when you have me, I, Jesus Christ, as your Lord and as your the good shepherd, I will not only bring you out of death, but I will bring you from the ultimate destination, the shadow of death, i.e. hell.

Out of hell I'll bring you, not only out of death. So out of the impossible, I will bring you. For I am God and what is impossible to men is possible to God, who is Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

The Lord will bring us out of hell, the impossible, and he will raise our bodies from the graves. He'll bring us out of death and out of the shadow of death, hell, because your staff and your rod, they comfort me. The staff and the rod make up the cross.

It is by the power of the Holy Cross, we are taken out of the shadow of death, out of hell itself, and out of the grave. Lazarus, come forth. Lazarus, come forth.

One small thing about the gospel of today. When Mary Magdalene realized that the tomb is empty, so she ran to Simon Peter and John the Beloved. John the Beloved is the one who wrote the Holy Gospel, the epistles and the book of Revelation.

So she runs to these two disciples of the Lord, Simon Peter and John the Beloved. She says, they've taken the Lord. They forgot three days ago, the Lord told them, I'm going to be crucified.

I'm going to die. I'm going to be buried. But on the third day, I will rise.

They forgot three days, human nature. My goodness, don't we forget so easily? Amazing. One day I say, no, the Lord is with me.

I will fear nothing. Tomorrow I'll say, where is the Lord? I'm lost. I'm gone.

I'm dead. Have faith. Have trust.

Don't forget, the Lord is always with you. So she goes to them. She said, they've stolen his body.

They both ran to the tomb. Now, John the Beloved, as far as age is concerned, he was like the son to Simon Peter. Simon Peter was much older than John the Beloved.

John the Beloved was the youngest in age out of the 12 apostles. He was the youngest. So Simon Peter would have been at least double his age.

So they both ran. Well, what do you say if I ask you this? Someone is running to the grave, to the tomb at the age between 40 and 50. The other one is fresh 20 year old.

Who do you think is going to win the race? The 45 or the 20? More than likely the 20 year old, correct? That's why the Holy Bible says, John the Beloved got to the tomb before Simon Peter. Simon Peter huffed and puffed and stopped for a glass of water halfway. And he says, Lord, my back is aching.

My knees are gone. I can't run. I'm too old for this race, Lord.

But John O, Formula One brother, is fresh 20 year old. So he beat, he beat Simon Peter to the tomb. The Holy Bible, look at this lesson.

So that way we understand how the Lord operates in his church, how he operates. The Holy Bible says, John arrived before Simon Peter. He looked from outside.

He did not enter the tomb. He waited until Simon Peter came. Simon Peter looked, entered, and then John entered the tomb.

Why? The Lord, through his Holy Spirit, is trying to tell us one thing. In love, there is something called respect. In love, there is something called respect.

Respect your elder. When someone comes and wishes to serve in the house of the Lord and does not have this respect, he cannot have love for Christ. It is impossible.

So when someone comes and says, in the name of the Lord, I'll disrespect you because I listened to the Lord and we should listen to the Lord more than you. But excuse me, who placed me here? It's the Lord himself. So when you are disrespecting me, eventually you are disrespecting the Lord who put me here.

So you come and say, I don't care about the bishop. All I care is about Jesus. I'm going straight to him.

Who gives one penny about the bishop? The Lord is upset. I'm not talking about this bishop. I'm talking about the ecclesiastical order, the priesthood which the Lord has placed in his church.

Simon Peter, chosen by the Lord. John the Beloved, chosen by the Lord. How come John the Beloved waited for Simon? He said, my rank and Simon's rank is the same.

We are all twelve apostles. We are all equal in the eyes of the Lord. However, Simon is older than me.

I need to respect those who are older than us. We need to respect. There are people today, in the name of Jesus, they wipe respect out of their life.

But how do they do it? Ah, because I need to listen to Jesus, no one else. Jesus didn't say that. The Lord did not say that at all.

He said, if you love me, you need to respect the people that I have chosen and placed in my church. I chose Simon and I chose John the same way. I love them equally.

But you see, I put it in John's heart that you need to respect Simon. He's older than you. You're still a baby.

You're 20 year old. He's 40 something year old. So he comes first.

You do not walk before someone who is older than you. And this goes to children that are living at home with family. I beg of you, you need to respect mom and dad, for they are chosen by God to be your parents.

That rank, my dear child, you cannot wipe, you cannot ignore, you cannot deny, and you cannot disrespect. Because when you go against that, you're going against God. And when you go against God, God said it, respect father and mother, so that I may bless you and give you a long abundant life.

If you wish to be blessed by God, and be given a life of abundance, then you must respect mom and dad, regardless whether they are good, bad, beautiful, ugly, tall, skinny, black, white, red, yellow, short, that's so none of your business. Your job is to respect mom and dad. And when you come to the church, there is an order.

Because in love, everything is in order, is in perspective. It is not chaotic. God is not the God of chaos.

He is the God of order. Everything has to fall perfectly in its place. That's why you see in the church, there is an order.

Why? To teach us all on how to respect. Respect my beloveds.