April 24, 2011 Easter Service

Our first Easter Sunday was great. It was only our second official service, but God truly spoke and we had a great time in fellowship after with an awesome breakfast! If you missed it and want a study tool to go along with the podcast, see below….

Easter is an opportunity to notice in a fresh way how ________ Jesus truly is.

C.S. Lewis concluded that the claims Jesus made demand the response that he is either is a ________, a ______ or truly the Lord.

Is he Crazy?

Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:14–15

Imagine if you met someone on the street who basically said, ” I’ve got good news from God…there is a new way of life that the world hasn’t seen yet-glimpses of heaven ________ earth and its right in front of you, close enough to reach out and grab.”

How would you feel about this person?

Later, Jesus tells a crippled man, “Your sins are forgiven.” and the religious leaders get all offended… ““Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Mark 2:5-6

He makes a radical claim about _________ _____ but backs it up with the power to heal.

Is he a Con-artist?

Shortly after feeding 5000 people…”Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. John 6:15

If Jesus was a fraud and wanted to ­­­­­__________ the people and take advantage of power now was the time, but he is not interested.

In fact, the spirit of Jesus that runs throughout the gospels is the giving away of power and prestige, to the point of death.

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45

To ransom is to buy something back that’s been lost or stolen, and in this case it’s ____!

A short time later in his ministry Jesus also made the claim that:

Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” John 8:48-49

This hearkens back to when God told Moses his name was “I am.”

Is he Lord?

Merely nice teachers don’t claim to be able to forgive sins, die on your behalf and be eternally existent. When you put even those few claims together you have the core of the scandal of Christianity, namely that our whole faith hinges on the belief in a ­­­­_________ God.

If this is true then Jesus is worth ______ _________-allowing him to regularly shape and reshape our values, our attitudes, our goals, our priorities until everything comes in line with what is worthy of the fact that God has actually come to earth to bring us back to relationship with Him.

That’s why Jesus tells his followers If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.” John 14:23

Obedience is God’s ___­­____ ___________.

He is honored not by only enthusiastic affections, but life ________ and daily ________ according to His will and plans.

Kasey Crawford