"How to Live Forever"

From Pastor Bob:

My goal today is to try to explain, from the Bible, that if the Holy Spirit from the Father really raised Jesus from the dead, and if that same Holy Spirit dwells in you, then everything changes. Your body will be given eternal life – you will be raised to life after you die.

Sermon Outline

1. Did Jesus come back to life? What level of certainty do we have that it really happened? Are the witnesses credible?

2. Why does it matter that Jesus came back to life?

3. Have you been converted? Saved? Did the curtain of unbelief go away?

Quotes

“Each year at Easter I get to preach on the Resurrection. In my sermon I always say to my skeptical, secular friends that, even if they can’t believe in the resurrection, they should want it to be true.”
-Tim Keller

“The message of the resurrection is that this world matters! That the injustices and pains of this present world must now be addressed with the news that healing, justice, and love have won… If Easter means Jesus Christ is only raised in a spiritual sense—[then] it is only about me, and finding a new dimension in my personal spiritual life. But if Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead, Christianity becomes good news for the whole world— news which warms our hearts precisely because it isn’t just about warming hearts. Easter means that in a world where injustice, violence and degradation are endemic, God is not prepared to tolerate such things— and that we will work and plan, with all the energy of God, to implement victory of Jesus over them all. Take away Easter and Karl Marx was probably right to accuse Christianity of ignoring problems of the material world. Take it away and Freud was probably right to say Christianity is wish-fulfillment. Take it away and Nietzsche probably was right to say it was for wimps.”
-N. T. Wright

Life Group Discussion Questions

1. What categories of evidence do we have that point to the historical reality of Jesus, the Son of God, coming back to life?

2. What evidence do you have that the Spirit of God is dwelling within you? Can those evidences be improved upon?

3. Why does it matter that Jesus died for sins? Why should we want this to be true for reasons other than our own forgiveness and resurrection?