Resurrection Sunday: A Message from Pastor Andrew Thurber

Good morning, Passionate Life Church. Happy Resurrection Sunday. Come on. We do not serve a dead God. We serve a living one.

I want to welcome everybody watching us online right now. Thank you for tuning in and staying connected. And for those of you who are here in person, thank you for coming to church today. I do not care why you came. Maybe someone dragged you here. Maybe someone bribed you. It does not matter. You are here. And it is not by mistake. The Holy Spirit wanted you here today.

Now I want to be upfront with you. This is not your traditional Easter message. Those of you who know me know I do not like to get put in a box. So today I am going to start with some facts, because this is the most significant event in all of human history. A man came to earth born of a virgin, lived thirty years of ordinary life, started his ministry at thirty, gathered disciples, was crucified on a cross, and three days later rose from the dead. And I want to give you the intellectual, scientific, and historical case for why that is true before we talk about what it demands of us.

Let me pray first.
Father, I thank you for every person in this room and watching online. It is not by mistake that they are here. It is not by luck. Holy Spirit, you wanted every person in this room here today. Open our hearts and our minds. I bind and rebuke the father of lies out of every heart and every mind right now in Jesus name. We only welcome the Holy Spirit into this room. Holy Spirit, have your way. Jesus, get me out of the way. None of me. All of you. In Jesus name. Amen.

The Facts
Let me go through some facts this morning.
Maybe you are someone who considers yourself an intellectual. You want evidence. Fair enough. According to Alfred Edersheim, a nineteenth-century Jewish scholar who converted to Christianity, he documented four hundred and fifty-six Old Testament passages that Jesus fulfilled. Four hundred and fifty-six. When mathematicians try to assign a probability to Jesus fulfilling even a handful of those, they end up getting saved because the numbers are so statistically impossible. And yet He fulfilled all of them.

Maybe you are a science person. Is NASA science enough for you? NASA has used its eclipse models to pinpoint a partial lunar eclipse that occurred on April 3rd of the year 33, coinciding with a man being crucified on a cross. Geological evidence from Dead Sea sediments confirms an earthquake around that same date, which matches the description in the book of Matthew of what happened at the moment of Jesus's death. If you seek truth, you will find it.

And then there is the Shroud of Turin, which I have preached on for the last two years and which I want to touch on briefly today. It is the most studied artifact in human history. The image on it is not a painting, not a dye, not a scorch. It is a superficial discoloration of linen fibers only a few microns thick that presents as a three-dimensional photographic negative that cannot be reproduced with modern technology. Forensic analysis shows injuries consistent with Roman crucifixion, including a crown of thorns, whip marks, and blood stains of type AB at the pierced wrists and a wound in the side. Pollen found in the cloth traces specifically to the region around Jerusalem. The stitching matches techniques used in Judea during that era. And researchers hypothesize that the image was formed by a burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation estimated at approximately thirty-four billion watts or higher, covering the surface of a human body instantly.

The critics used to say Jesus was not a real person. They do not say that anymore. The evidence has made that position impossible. They do not even argue that He was crucified. We know the day He was killed because of NASA and science. The debate is shifting toward the resurrection, and I believe the evidence there is heading in the same direction as everything else.

You are going to be pretty hard-headed not to believe. You are going to have to work pretty hard to stay in denial.

Disciples, Not Fans
Now here is the question that matters for those of us in this room. If Jesus really did the most impossible thing, if He truly rose from the grave three days after being crucified, are we living our lives in a way that represents what He did for us?

Because here is the thing. Jesus did not die and rise again to build a crowd, an audience, or a fan base. Pastor David talked about this last week. You cannot trust the crowd. One day they cheer you. The next day, they want you dead. Jesus is not interested in fans. He is interested in disciples. People who will follow Him. And for the rest of our time this morning, I want to talk about what that actually looks like, because some of you are going to give your life to Jesus today, and I do not want you to be confused about what that means.
Giving your life to Jesus starts with a hand raise, a declaration of faith, a confession. But that is not the end. That is the very beginning.

Matthew 16: What It Means to Follow
Jesus was walking with His disciples, and He told them He was going to be arrested, beaten, and killed, and then rise three days later. And this was Peter's response in Matthew 16:22-24. Peter took Jesus aside and began to reprimand Him. He said, heaven forbid, Lord. This will never happen to you.

And Jesus turned to Peter and said, " Get away from me, Satan. You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God's.
Jesus says to one of His closest disciples, " You are thinking and speaking demonically. That means it can happen to us too. We can start thinking like the enemy. We can start speaking like the enemy. We need people around us who can correct our wrong thinking, because God does not think the way we think.

Then Jesus says, if any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.

He did not say if any of you want to be my fans. He said followers. And to His original audience, the cross was not a piece of jewelry. They knew exactly what a cross was used for. It was a Roman instrument of execution. It represented suffering, sacrifice, and death. When Jesus said take up your cross, they were not thinking about a small wooden cross hanging around their neck. They were thinking about what crucifixion looked like. And He meant it.

We are not carrying Jesus's cross. He already carried His. He finished that work two thousand years ago. What He is saying is that you have a cross. You have to carry me into the world. This is not a passive instruction.

The Parable of the Four Soils
For the heart of what I want to say this morning, I want to preach from a sermon that Jesus preached. Jesus is the best preacher. This is the parable of the farmer scattering seed in Luke 8:4-21.

One day, Jesus told a story to a large crowd. A farmer went out to plant his seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath where it was stepped on, and the birds ate it. Other seed fell among rocks. It began to grow, but the plant soon wilted and died for lack of moisture. Other seed fell among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants. Still other seed fell on fertile soil. This seed grew and produced a crop that was a hundred times as much as had been planted.

Jesus essentially opened his message by telling the crowd that seventy-five percent of them were not going to get it. One in four. That is how He started. And that is what I preach every Sunday.

The seed is God's word. That is where everything starts.
The seed on the footpath represents those who hear the message only to have the enemy come and take it away from their hearts before it can take root. This is real. Some of you are going to give your life to Jesus today, and the moment you walk out of this building, the enemy is going to attack you with doubt, shame, and guilt. It is not enough to raise your hand one time and never think about Jesus again. You have to get into His word. You have to be part of a community. You have to prepare for the spiritual warfare that begins the moment you step out the door.

The seed on the rocky soil represents those who receive the message with joy but have no deep roots. They get baptized, they are fired up, they get a taco, and they are excited about following Jesus. And then they are gone within a few months. Why? Because they are consumers, not followers. They go from church to church looking for a better worship team or a funnier pastor or skinny jeans or no skinny jeans. Every time they move, their roots get pulled up. You never grow deep roots because you are chasing what your flesh desires rather than following Jesus.

You want to know why the American church is so shallow? Because we keep giving people milk. When you are a baby, you drink milk. It is weird when you are forty years old and still only drinking milk. I am not going to apologize for saying that. You need to be in a community where you can get offended, where the preacher says something that convicts you, and where you are held accountable. Jesus never lowered the bar. He always raised it.
Plants with deep roots do not move when the storms come. They are steady.

The seed among the thorns represents those who hear the word but let the cares, riches, and pleasures of life crowd it out. Club sports. Birthday parties. Whatever fills your calendar. And here is the practical thing I want parents to hear. If church is something your family does when nothing else is going on, that is what you are teaching your children: church is. They are watching you.

Discipleship is not watching podcasts. Discipleship is getting into circles with real people, having real conversations, being held accountable, and growing together.

Then there is the good soil. This is the twenty-five percent. These are the honest, good-hearted people who hear God's word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest. They give up their own way. They follow God's path. And Jesus says they will produce a crop a hundred times what was planted. God has a hope and a future for your life. But you have to give up your way to step into it.

My Story: The Balcony at Three in the Morning
I was on my own path for seven years. I was not half in and half out. I was all in for the world. Drugs, alcohol, and everything that came with it. One night at three in the morning, high on cocaine and other substances I cannot fully list, I walked out onto a balcony on the third floor of my friend's apartment. And the Holy Spirit showed me something. He showed me a path, like a sidewalk heading into dark woods. No light. No hope. No future. And He said, " That is the path you are on. It goes into deeper darkness. You are either going to prison or you are going to die.

That was over twenty-five years ago. I have been following Jesus since that moment. I have never once looked back and wished I were still doing drugs and partying my life away. Not once. God's plan is always better. Always. But it requires full surrender. Not forty percent. Not sixty percent. A hundred percent.

The moment I said God, I cannot do this anymore; I need you, He showed up. And when I surrendered all, He took away every desire to drink or do drugs ever again. Gone in an instant. Because that is who Jesus is.

Matthew 7: Not Everyone Who Says Lord, Lord
I want to end with one of the most sobering passages in the New Testament. Matthew 7:21-23. Not everyone who calls out to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. Only those who actually do the will of the Father. On judgment day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, performed many miracles in your name. And I will reply, I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God's law.

Church, this should wake us up. These people were doing things for God. But they were doing them for their own glory, not His. And they were living however they wanted to live the rest of the time. They had religion without relationship. Activity without surrender.
This is not about perfection. There was one perfect person, and they nailed Him to a cross. This is about a genuine relationship, full surrender, and a willingness to give up your own will and follow Jesus even when it costs you something. Even when it costs you a relationship, a job, or a life plan.

Jesus does not want to be second. He refuses to be second. He must be first.
And I can tell you from over twenty-five years of following Him one hundred percent, knowing what I know now, there is not a single moment I regret it. The plan He has for your life is better than anything you could come up with on your own. I know that because I lived my own plan for seven years, and I know what that path looks like in the dark.

Closing Invitation
Let me close with every head bowed and every eye closed. Maybe you have never said yes to Jesus, and today is the day. Or maybe you have been fifty or sixty percent in for years and today is the day you go all in. Just raise your hand. I just want to pray with you.

Repeat after me. Dear Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross. And I ask this morning that you would forgive me of all my sins, that you would come into my life and be my Lord and King. And from this day forward, I surrender all. In Jesus name. Amen.
Heaven is rejoicing today. Come on.

We are transitioning into our response time. Three stations are available. The station of the cross, where you can write whatever is on your heart, pin it to the cross, and declare it is finished. The altar, where you can get alone with God. And the prayer cove, where prayer partners are ready to stand with you. Respond to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you this morning.

Watch the full message on the Passionate Life Church media page. If this message stirred something in you, submit a prayer request and let us stand with you. Get planted in a life group where real community happens. If you are ready to take your next steps, reach us through the contact page or call (303) 835-7968. Services are every Sunday at 9:00 AM and 10:30 AM at 10393 W Alamo Pl, Littleton, CO 80127. We would love to see you.