Catch The Fire Church Raleigh
Resurrection Requires Death | Jess Ninaber
This week, Pastor Jess Ninaber opened up our Resurrection series with the truth that before we can see and experience resurrection, there must first be death. When we choose to die to ourselves, we are declaring who the true King is in our lives. This life that we live is not about us and our desires, it is about our Father in heaven, His will, and surrendering our will to Him. The practice of daily surrender and dying to self brings us closer to the Spotless Lamb, and we become more alive than ever before.
(upbeat music) - Welcome to the Catch the Fire Church podcast. We're so glad you're joining us and we hope you're encouraged by this message. (upbeat music) - Thank you, Jacob. Awesome. One thing I wanna say just about our Easter outreach or Easter egg hunt is, you know, one of the mandates on this house is to really embrace our city and to be, for this Sunday morning, gathering to just be a part of what we do. And we wanna be people that go outside of the four walls and reach the people in our lives. And so there's about 10,000 families that live in this Briar Creek area alone with children. And so our heart is really like last year to invite those people in who maybe wouldn't otherwise go into the doors of a church and just share the love of God with them and have a smile on our face and have fun and pray with people, administer to them. So I wanna encourage all of us to be a part of that. And, you know, we're asking just for, we need about 100 volunteers who wanna serve 90 minutes. So an hour and a half on that Saturday before Easter at the Easter egg hunt. And so if that's you and you wanna do that, please, please come and talk with the leader at the back after the service at our connect area and we'd love to plug you in. But at this time, we're gonna take a moment just to return our tides and sow our offerings. And so if this is your local church and you consider this to be your home church, we wanna invite you into that place of worship where we actually return to God the first 10%, our first fruits of everything that we have. If this is not your home church and you're just visiting, you're welcome to sow an offering, but please don't feel under any obligation to do so. Let's just pray for a moment over our finances this morning. So if you have your phone with you, if that's how you give, if you have an envelope, just hold it in your hand as an object of your faith this morning. But God, we thank you this morning that you are God of more than enough. We thank you that when we give of our offerings, when we return our tides to you Lord, what we are doing is we are partnering with you and your heart and your call for our lives and for the kingdom of heaven. And so we ask that everything that we have at receive that we sow Lord would go into fruitful soil. We've asked that you would bless us, that you would shower your favor upon us Lord in all areas of our lives, whether that be in our businesses, our finances, our families, our schools, our relationships and friendship, Lord, would you just shower your favor and blessings upon us? In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Well, it's my joy today to speak on our first sort of Easter message. We're gonna be looking at the Easter message leading all the way up until Resurrection Sunday on the 31st. So if you wanna invite someone to church with you on Easter, I encourage you to do that, okay? This is the perfect time. It's like the easy layup, you know, where you can be like any of my creaster friends, like the ones who wouldn't really go to church except on Christmas and Easter, they get to come and be a part of that and why not make it right here at Catch the Fire where they can encounter God's transforming presence. But as I've been reflecting and preparing my heart in these weeks leading up to Easter and what it looks like for me personally, but also for us as a body, I, you know, we celebrate the Resurrection and the victory of the cross and rightly so, 100% so we wanna celebrate that. We're gonna celebrate hard on that 31st, but we can't celebrate Resurrection until we go and reflect and walk through that death, right? And so the title of my message today is Resurrection requires death. And before you get all panicked and scared in your seat, thinking about, oh no, what does this mean? I'm not talking about the physical dying. I'm talking about that proverbial dying, the dying to yourself, that we are invited to go through, we are invited to walk and share in the sufferings of Christ and we can't understand and celebrate his Resurrection until we understand the death that preceded that Resurrection. And there's the event of the cross and then there's the way of the cross. And this morning more than ever, I felt like I was living out this message today, okay? You guys ready for a bit of realness this morning? I was woken up at 5 a.m. by my child vomiting everywhere, all right? And then I went and woke up my other baby. Aaron was on worship, so it was just me this morning, getting everyone ready an hour early, right? And my other baby, in his crib, vomit everywhere. And I'm like, Lord, have mercy. I have to get these kids to church today. I didn't have a babysitter. That's a shout out. If you wanna put yourself forward, I need help on Sundays. So shamelessly. Anyway, so I'm driving to church and I'm just digging deep into God. And I'm like, God, if there's ever a day where I need you, it's today, Lord. As my son is throwing up in the back, I'm in worship and first service. And I just get this tap on the shoulder. I'm like, oh no, I open my eyes. It's our kids' pastor. I'm like, no, what's wrong? Just like your daughter's throwing up in class. I'm like three down for the count. All right, here we go. Okay, I'm digging deep into God this morning. So honestly, you guys, truly, I feel like I am teaching an up here before you from a place of what I'm about to speak on this morning. So here we go. You ready to dive into the scripture today? We're gonna be reading a lot of scripture. I hope that's okay with you if it's not. I'm sorry, but we need the Bible more than ever. All right, so you need to know your word. And we're gonna dive right in. So Matthew 26, here we go. Matthew 26, verse 36. It says, "Then Jesus went with them "to the place called Gethsemane. "This is translated as the olive press, "which is the place of crushing." Just think about that for a moment. You know, that place of crushing is available to all of us who want to look like Jesus. And he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." And taking with him Peter in the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful. "Even to death, remain here and watch with me." And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, "So could you not watch with me one hour? "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. "The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak." Again, for the second time he went away and prayed, "My father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, "your will be done." See, Jesus here, he's at a place where he's been, he's 33 years old, okay? He's been living his life, a perfect life. He's been in ministry for the last three years. He's seen incredible miracles, the dead being raised, the demons being cast out, the sick being healed. And he comes to this place, to this garden. And this is almost, it's a glimpse into the first bit of death that had to happen in Jesus. Because he's here in the place of crushing, in the all of press, and he's crying out to his father. And we know in other translations he's there, and he's sweating and weeping so bitterly that he's sweating beads of blood, okay? That means he's under immense distress. And he's saying, "Not my will, but your will be done." And what he's doing in that moment is he's killing himself. The inside, the Jesus, and he's saying, "Lord, I've known all along your plan, "and here I am now." And I'm saying, "Not my will, but your will be done." And he's showing us a glimpse of what it means to live in a place that is completely surrendered and obedient to the will of his father. He was obedient unto death, surrendering his own plans, his own timeline, his own everything, and he's in this place, and he's saying, "Not my will, but your will be done." See, we are a generation and a culture, especially the Gen Z generation, where we've been fed a buffet of individualism, where we've forgotten that the epicenter of the gospel is death itself. And we often think that Jesus joins our dreams for our lives, and he joins our ministries, and he joins our churches, and he joins everything that we're doing. But he doesn't just join what we're doing. He is everything of why we're doing what we're doing. He is not joining our dreams, he is the dream. He's not just joining our church, he is the head of our church, right? And Jesus, he's an all or nothing God, and he wants everything from us. He wants every part of us. And when Jesus becomes our dream, the dream, all of our dreams get swallowed up by him. And if you're wondering what God's dream for us is, his dream for us is his son. Everything that the Father wants, every plan that the Father has is woven into the glory of his son. Just let that sink in for a moment. Jesus is everything. He's everything. There's nothing else. There's nothing else. Turn with me to Ephesians 1, 1 through 22. Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. So it's all in Jesus, all of it, right? We see that. Verse four, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself. Say this, I belong to Jesus. As sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him, meaning in Jesus, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ, in himself, right? As a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth, in him, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him, who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. So who's excited here that the gospel was God's idea and not yours? Hallelujah, amen. Salvation was God's idea, not yours. Did you know that your healing was God's idea, not yours? And your freedom from addiction was God's idea, not yours? It all starts in Jesus. Therefore, it is all about Jesus. It's him. Verse 13, "In him, in Jesus, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. Your redemption is incredibly secure. Your redemption has been sealed by the promised Holy Spirit." Verse 14, "Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory?" This is God's idea, guys. The Father's dream is in his son, Jesus. Therefore, we have to allow all of our dreams to be swallowed up by him. See, God the Father is crazy about his son, Jesus. He thinks his son, Jesus, is phenomenal. He thinks his son, Jesus, is glorious. And what is it about him that makes him so glorious? Let's keep reading. Philippians 2, 5, says, "Have this mind among yourselves." What that means is think like this. Let your soul and your mind be renewed in this way, have this disposition, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself. Some translations say, "Made himself of no reputation." When you fall in love with Jesus and his church and his bride, and I'm not talking about the building, I'm talking about the people that make up the church and the body, when you fall in love with the bride, the church becomes more important to you than your personal preference. And in the immature stages of our faith, everything is about us, my wants, my needs, my desires, and so we choose churches that recognize our giftings. And we go to those churches long enough for them to notice our giftings. And if they don't, then we leave. And, sorry. And I'm going to move on to the next church to see if they'll recognize me and my giftings. And there's a few things wrong here. Number one, they were never your giftings to begin with, okay? Number two, if you really understood that, you wouldn't have to make room for your gift. The Bible says your gift makes room for you. And as a pastor, you know, sometimes we have this gift of discernment and we can see it from a mile away, like a bright neon sign blinking when someone's like, "Look at me, look at my gifts, I'm here to serve. Can I have the microphone? Can I show you how gifted I am?" And without knowing what we're doing is, it's honestly devilish because we're making church about us and not about him. And people say to us, they're like, "I've seen it time and time again. People come because they're offended because people didn't see their gifts, and they're upset that the last place they were at didn't see their gifting." And it's like, well, of course they didn't, because they weren't looking at you. They were looking at Jesus, all right? And so if you're a worship leader or a musician, what that can sometimes look like is you want to go to a church where you get to play the most sets, or if you feel called to speak and preach, you want to go to a place where you can open your mouth the most and have a microphone in your hand. But this is all, sorry, without knowing this, what we're saying is this is not my house, this is, or this is my house, not the Lords, okay? And it's the opposite and the antithesis of what Jesus did. He actually made himself of no reputation. He emptied himself. He's showing us the way that we're to go. We want to be a church that's looking at Jesus, that is ascribing honor and glory and praise forever and ever and ever and on and on and on to Him. It's not about a person, it's not about the one person holding the microphone, it's not about that. It's about Him. And the purpose of us gathering together is to be a body that's in one accord ascribing glory and honor to Him. But that's not to say that the Lord doesn't take those of us who have made ourselves of no reputation and raise us up. He does do that, but it's saying I'm not going to raise myself up. I don't call myself, I don't anoint myself, I don't send myself. He does. And that's to encourage us for the end time harvest that it's not us who go and send ourselves, it's Him who commissions us and sends us. It's what propels us forward properly. It's about Jesus, guys, it's all about Jesus. And I don't mean just thinking about Him, that's where it begins. I want us to get caught up in thinking about Him and adoring Him. It's a beautiful place to be, but it's so much more than that. It's even further than that. It's the purpose of the body of Christ to bring glory to Him. Let's continue reading Philippians 2, we're on verse 7. It says, "By taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of Ben and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. Even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name. So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. So the glory of God, the Father. This is the Jesus who has revealed Himself to us on the cross. Where individualism is plaguing the church, my needs, my views, my criticism, my perspective, my view, where dishonor is rampant against leaders and pastors in the church. You know, it's a plan and a plot from Satan himself to rob the church of the glory that we're supposed to be bringing to God. Of being a united body, ascribing glory to Him. It's where we say, "I will and I think and you failed me." And we've forgotten that the Lord's Prayer begins with our Father. As Aaron reminded us beautifully last week when he spoke on prayer, that was such a good message. If you didn't hear it, go back and pray. Or go back and watch it and then pray. There you go. And Justin spoke on it a couple months ago too, reminding us that the Lord's Prayer begins with our Father. And what that saying is, "Yes, He's my Father, but He's also our Father." That means that my perspective is not king. He is. Right? He is. John 828 says, "So Jesus said to them, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me." John 1231 through 33 says, "Now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out, and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. In verse 33 there at the end, Jesus is declaring His deity, meaning declaring Himself as God by the way that He dies. Now if any of us were to show that we were God, I doubt that we would hang naked on a tree. I sure wouldn't. But Jesus shows us the way that He is God by the way that He dies. That is the opposite of self-exultation. But there's something about the way that Jesus dies that opens up the eyes of His followers to know and see who He is. And that's the glory of the cross, guys, the glory of the cross. And that's where the enemy is trying to, he's trying to remove it and destroy it and burn it up out of church life where we say don't talk to me, don't correct me, don't walk with me. I've already made up my mind, don't try and change my mind. And we've lost this ability. And I'm not talking about just in this church, but you know, just a generalization. When we allow that self-ambition and that self-exultation to creep in, we don't walk in humility and we don't walk with one another. We walk in pride. And we don't allow one another to do life with us or for allow other people to do life with us. We don't allow others to speak in gentleness, in love and correct us. Call us higher. It's the antithesis of what it means to carry the cross. And there's, you know, this is the devil himself, he says, I'm going to ascend to the hill of the north. And I will be like the most high. And what does he say to Adam and Eve? He says, eat of this fruit and you will be like God. But Jesus, he chooses a completely different method. And he shows us the different way and the different path to declare who he is. And he says, watch how I die. Because when I die, I will prove to you that I am the Lord when I am lifted up. And I will draw all men unto myself. There's not a superhero on the throne in heaven. There's a lamb. And John recognizes this when he has the revelation in the book of Revelations and he has the vision and he sees Jesus as the lamb on the throne. And Duncan pointed out to me this week as I was processing my sermon with him and I was just, he said, you know, when John has the vision, he actually lists off all the other things that he sees in the vision first. You know, the jewels and the gold and the elders and all these people and things. And then he sees the lamb. Because John was probably not expecting to see Jesus as a lamb. That maybe he didn't even notice him until that moment. And he realized that there's the lamb, the lamb who was slain. When we think glory, we don't think the lamb on the throne. We think, you know, the warrior king. And he is that, but he's also the lamb. And he's also meek. When we think glory, we don't think, well, we think, watch me do my thing. Don't watch me die. We think, watch me do this wonder and this miracle. Don't watch me die. We don't think persecution, but we all need a limp. And we all need a limp to share in the sufferings of Christ. It's a sign of brokenness and humility to be like Jesus, to walk like Jesus. And Duncan says, humility has no worthy opponent. That means you'll never lose when you walk in humility. You will never lose. You will always come out on top. Jesus, he redefines greatness through Calvary and the cross. And God loves us too much to leave us walking in our own confidence. That's why he wants us to walk with a limp and he wants us to carry our cross. And it's what I said earlier that the cross is not just an event, but it's a way of life. It's carrying your cross and dying to yourselves. It's a death to ourselves so we can declare that he is king. It's us moving ourselves out of the way so we can make room for him in our lives. It's this beautiful mystery and paradox that we would look at the cross and see him hanging their naked and think that is beautiful. That we would see him as a slaughtered lamb and think, isn't he beautiful? It's one of the mysteries. And we have to wage war on our culture and what the world says and walk in the opposite spirit, living a life completely different. We have to be the cheek-turners and the feet washers and the cross-carriers and the ones who say, "I love my enemies." In fact, I'm going to go even further than that and I'm actually going to not have enemies. I'm going to walk in the way of the cross. And when we're in lack, I'm going to be generous. Paul writes in Romans 8, verse 36, he says, "As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long, we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Knowing all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." How many of you in this room know that you are loved by God? Come on. I want you to think for a moment here, not just because you know it. Think biblically for a second. What's a verse that you know of why God loves you? Just say it out. John 3, 16. Galatians 2, 20. Go look it up. That's a really good verse. But I was looking for John 3, 16. It's okay. All right. I want you to say it with me. For God what? So love the world. Okay. Let's stop for a moment here. This word here, so it's not talking about an amount. Okay. It's not speaking about a quantity. It's not saying God loves you this much. God loves you a million times a million that he gave his son. No, that's not what it's saying here. It's speaking of a method. It's saying God loves you in this way. God loves you in this way that he gave his son. Now that word gave in Greek is didome, okay? D-I-D-O-M-I. What that means is offered. It's Levitical. It's priestly. It means the sacrifice. It means God shows you. It's not God loves you this much that he let you borrow his son for 33 years. No, it's saying God loves you in this way that he has offered himself to you as a sacrifice and has died for you. God loves you in this way that he died. Period. He's saying the way I tell you I love you is by dying. Close your eyes for a moment and let that sink in. For God so loves and he tells the world that he loves us by giving of himself and dying for us. You can open your eyes, but I want to invite us into death itself. I want to invite us into a death to need to be right. I want to invite you into death to need to win the argument. I want to invite you into the Christian life, which is death itself, where you pick up your cross, surrendering our will. Our will is often like the throne of our soul, surrendering our will and saying not my will, but your will be done. Not my life, Lord, but your life. Through me. Kill every part of me. Kill Jess. Killer. I don't want her. Killer. I want Jesus to shine through me. The wisest thing that we can do is die to you and come alive in Jesus. Amen? And he's stripping us back and he's saying he wants less ideas from us and less activity and fake productivity. And he wants more submission and more obedience and more surrender and more simplicity from our hearts. And he's slowly pruning us away until hopefully by the end there's nothing left but him. Do we want to look like the world and culture or do we want to look like Jesus? That's the question I want to ask us today. And you know, I think the answer is pretty obvious for most of us in this room. But there is a cost to that, guys, and the cost will cost you everything. And it's something, it's one of those prayers that you pray, and then you're like, Lord, what the heck did I just pray? Like don't make it actually come true. Like when I'm saying die, Jess, die, like do I actually want that? Are we going to be like Eve who chooses wisdom? Thank you so much for joining us. There are so many opportunities to grow, connect, and be encouraged. To learn more, visit ctfrolley.com and follow us on social media. Thank you so much for being part of the family. We are so thankful for you. [Music]