He Rose In Glory
- 5 days ago
- 16 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Pastor Stan Mons
Sermon Transcription:
Welcome to Easter morning here at Safe House Church. The topic of this service, long anticipated and well prepared by all of us here at Safe House Church, is this: He rose in glory. And I've been seeking the Lord in prayer and meditating on that word more than I think I've done before. “Lord, what does that really mean? You rose in glory. What does that mean? What does it mean for me? Is that just for you, Jesus, or does it have something to do with me?” And we've had quite the week here at Safe House Church. It started last Sunday, Palm Sunday, as we saw Jerusalem bring in a new king. They brought in Jesus with an expecting heart. They brought in Jesus excited.
They identified Him as King, putting Him on a donkey, on a colt of a donkey that had never bore a load, which they all knew the prophecy: that one time, one day, there's going to come a king, and this is how we will enter the city of David. And everyone knew about it, or at least heard about it. The Bible says the whole city was in an uproar. And not even a week later, the city is in chaos again. Good Friday. Jesus now being rejected by all, as the Pharisees and the scribes stir up the crowd to have everyone turn against this King that came into Jerusalem, shouting, “Crucify Him.” He was handed over and became obedient. The Bible says all the way unto death. He allowed death—a death you and I deserved for the wrongs we’ve done—He allowed it to come upon Himself, as we heard on Good Friday. And here we are just a few days later, and the story continues.
If you would read along with me on the screen, we’re going to read and continue the story in the book of Luke, chapter 24, starting in verse one. "On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb." That’s the place where they had put Jesus to rest. Verse two: "they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And while they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. And in their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” He is not here. He has risen. Remember how we told you while He was still with you in Galilee: the Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.
Then they remembered His words. When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven and to all the others, the disciples of Jesus. Verse 10: it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened. He still didn’t believe the women, just wondering about it. Verse 13: Now that same day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, walking. Verse 14: Then they were talking with each other about everything that had happened. What a week. Verse 15: As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them, but they were kept from recognizing Him. And He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” And they stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked Him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that have happened here in these days?”
“What things?” He asked. “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed Him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified Him.” But we had hoped that He was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it’s the third day since all of this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning, but they didn’t find His body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus. And then Jesus had had enough.
He said to them, “How foolish you are and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself. As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if He was going further. But they urged Him strongly, “Stay with us. It’s nearly evening. The day is almost over.” So He went in to stay with them. When He was at the table with them, He took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him, and He disappeared from their sight. And they asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven and those with them assembled together, saying, “It’s true. The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way and how Jesus was recognized by them when He broke the bread. And while they were still talking about this, Jesus Himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
He rose in glory. He rose in glory. Glory is one of those things that comes in only after you are victoriously coming out of a great battle or a great fight. Many warriors who have won great fights become valiant in battle, but the glory of that battle is not theirs until they have won it. People who have achieved a great deal in life—there is a glory to what they have achieved. There is a respect some people receive because of the difference they’ve made in society, the great advances they’ve made for peace, for the advancement of medicine, or whatever it may be. When a great victory has been accomplished, there is a glory that afterwards accompanies that victory, that conquering that has taken place. And the Bible shows us that Jesus entered into His glory after He won this incredible victory. And we’re reading that story. But I want you to notice the incredible contrast in this story we just read. We read of Jesus, who rises from the dead, who Himself even says, “Don’t you know that after all these things, after the suffering, after the grave, the Son must rise and then enter into His glory?” And yet, intertwined with this whole story, we read about all kinds of people—and every single one of them is walking in failure. Every single one of them knew Jesus personally, but they all look like failures. Peter denied Him three times; he’s right there in the story, not left out.
The women had heard something from heaven, and they had something to say about it, but nobody listened. Imagine that—you receive a word from God directly from an angel. You go to tell those who believe in God. You go to tell those who follow Jesus, and nobody believes you. They just dismiss it. You couldn’t feel like a greater failure. The two disciples on their way to Emmaus are walking in unbelief and doubt. They’re saying, “Well, we thought this Jesus was going to bring redemption, but now He’s been crucified, and we’re leaving Jerusalem. We’re moving on with our lives. We wasted three years.” The apostles who stayed in Jerusalem wouldn’t believe the gospel, even though many women were sharing with them the great news. Peter goes to the grave. He sees the empty tomb and is still wondering, still doesn’t believe. Jesus has to show up personally for Peter.
But what we see is that all these people are failures in different respects and in different areas of faith or their lives. And yet Jesus shows up anyway—every single time in all of their lives. Why is that? Because Jesus rose in glory. He didn’t rise in judgment. When Jesus was done, He did not sit on the judgment seat to say, “Peter denied Me three times. Just be a little humble. Just be very lowly. Be very grateful if you’re even still allowed to be a believer.” The women, who had nothing to say, had done nothing wrong—Jesus shows up. The disciples, who had given up and were walking to Emmaus, moving on and saying, “Well, we thought He was it. Clearly, we were wrong,”—Jesus shows up. The apostles, who wouldn’t believe anybody—Jesus shows up. Everywhere we see Jesus appear, now that He has risen in glory, His glory comes with Him. His glory accompanies Him. That glory is now a part of who He is because the battle has been won. That glory brings forth everything the victory has achieved.
Every single thing associated with the victory of Jesus is now radiating off of Him in glory. That’s really what glory is—glory constantly radiates the incredible size of the victory that has been accomplished. The Word tells us He shines like the sun. You can’t even look at Him with your natural eyes—you’d be blind instantly. He shines like the sun. He’s clothed in the greatest glory the universe has ever seen because He won the greatest victory this universe has ever seen. Glory, though slightly hard to explain, is experienced. And when Jesus rose in glory, all kinds of things began to change once He showed up. Even though people weren’t believing Him, even though many weren’t seeking Him anymore, walking in their own failures—whatever it may have looked like—the glory that Jesus brings with Him everywhere He goes causes the doubter and the sinner to begin to sing. “I know my Redeemer lives.” We can’t always fully explain how we got there. We really know that we didn’t muster up perfected faith or have something to offer to God and come to Him saying, “Now God, I’m going to believe You. You’re welcome.”
Somehow, Jesus in His glory began to touch our lives, and we became convinced that He is alive and did not stay in the grave. And if He conquered the grave, then He is the Son of Almighty God as He says He is. And we begin to sing, “I know now that my Redeemer lives.”
His glory—the glory of Jesus, risen in glory—surrounds Him. It’s a radiance. And you can feel it when you get around it. It’s a radiance of unlimited victory. You know that there’s no one who has ever won against Jesus. It’s a display, if you will, of unmatched honor, unmatched greatness, unmatched majesty. And there’s this weightiness about His glory—a weightiness of all power. When all power within the universe, all power that exists, comes into your life, when the glory of Jesus begins to break forth in the lives of those women, the lives of Peter and the disciples, and those who were on their way to Emmaus, that power is present. The Word tells us that He upholds the universe by the word of His power. That weightiness of all power is encapsulated in that glory. And He rose in that glory. And in that glory, the blind begin to see. In that glory, the deaf begin to hear. It becomes hard to continue being a doubter because of the glory. It’s so evident that Jesus is victorious over everything. It’s so evident that He has power over all things. It’s so evident that it becomes hard to continue to stay a doubter. It becomes hard to doubt if He can win the battle. The presence of glory means the absence of the battle. The presence of the glory of Jesus means there is no battle.
The presence of glory shows that the battle is now passed because He entered into glory after He won. Any time we read in the Bible about kings or fighters or grand stories, where there was a measure of glory, it wasn’t like the glory of Jesus. It wasn’t the greatest battle of the universe that people won. But when they had glory, it was because they had won battles. And Jesus, winning the greatest battle of all—conquering death and the grave, conquering sin, that was accusing you, whom He loves—fighting and winning the battle over sin so that you would no longer be accused and be guilty before the Father—His glory just swallows up any accusation that comes against anyone. Anything still trying to fight against your good, against your soul, against you going to heaven, against you being right with God, against being heard by God when you pray—all the things the devil tries to throw at us, all of our own wrongs that try to accuse us—the glory of Jesus, the radiance of the victory of Jesus, is so much greater in size than the wrongs we have committed. Our failures are nothing compared to the size of the victory of Jesus. And so the glory is so much greater, and it changes the lives of every single person in the story. Every single person in the story—their life is changed when this Jesus, who has now risen in glory, comes around. Things begin to happen that were not happening before Jesus died and rose again, even though He was around.
He was around them, but their faith wasn’t the same. He was around them, but their expectation, their certainty, and their confidence weren’t the same. And when this Jesus, who rose in glory, now comes around, the doubters are filled with faith. The ones who feel nobody listens to them are suddenly justified and seen—they had it right all along. This glory came after Jesus won the ultimate battle. And church, here’s the good news this Easter morning: the good news of heaven is this—you get to share in the glory, not in the battle. Let me show you that from the Bible. John 17, starting in verse 22. Here’s Jesus praying to the Father, speaking to His Father, and He says this: “I have given them the glory that You gave me. I have given them the glory You gave me.”
Well, pastor, who is “them”? Who’s he talking about? You can read it just a couple of verses earlier. He says to his father, "Father, I'm now praying for those that will believe because of their word." He's talking about those people that as the disciples, as the followers of Jesus, go into the world to share the gospel. He says, "Everyone that is going to believe in the future. Everyone that is going to believe in the gospel, I have given them the glory that you have given me." He's sharing a prophetic word. He's telling us what he is going to do for every single person that hears about this gospel. and and and he says, "I'm I'm I'm giving them the glory that you've given me that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me." So that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory. The glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
The glory of Jesus, the glory that he won in victory, the glory that he was clothed in because he became the greatest conqueror of all time. The glory of Jesus is given to sinners who are willing to believe that Jesus is the son of God. They are given the glory that was won in the battle that was bestowed upon Jesus for all that he did. All the perfect obedience to the father, all the suffering for sin, rising from the dead, conquering death and the grave. The glory that Jesus received is given to sinners who believe that he is the son of God. Suddenly, just like in the story that we read today, suddenly when the glory is given to sinners as Jesus told his father he's going to do, giving it away. Suddenly, just like in the story, the power is present. The power in the glory is present. And the power is now present to believe. And the doubters are changed from doubters to those that believe because now the power is present. The glory has been given away to that person. Suddenly the honor of Christ, the majesty, the honor of Christ begins to enter a life of a man or a woman and shameful sins begin to lose its power and they begin to lose its grip on a man's life.
Suddenly, weak men and weak women begin to see and understand that all things are possible for them that believe because all power is made available to make God's will come true upon their life. None of the failures in the story, none of their failures, none of their mistakes, none of their wrongs, none of their shortcomings, none of their inabilities kept them in the same place. When Jesus gave his glory to the unbeliever, to the doubter, to the runner, to those like Peter who had denied him, the women whose voices were not heard suddenly become able to reach hearts and they're recognized for that ministry. Certainly those who felt defeated on their way to Emmas, we thought Jesus had a way out of this. We thought Jesus could make a difference. Once upon a time, I thought and I believed and I prayed that Jesus would redeem this, that or the other thing in my life. Suddenly, those who felt defeated are filled with joy. They're filled with courage. Those who had a hard time believing at all, suddenly they became leaders of faith. Those apostles who had walked with Jesus for 3 years, discouraged, won't believe the women, don't know what to do, just sitting around moping.
All of a sudden, Jesus shows up in his glory, not judging them, and he gives that glory to them. And instantly they are able now to go from doubters to becoming leaders in the faith. There was no longer any battle that they needed to win. They didn't need to win the battle against their doubt. They didn't need to win their battle against their inabilities. They didn't need to win their battle towards their unbelief. All they needed to do was receive from Jesus what he was so willing to give to those that come to him. See, there's many people that come to Jesus not really believing him. They're willing to come to him, but they feel they cannot believe. That's not a problem. There's many people that feel they'll never make any good in the kingdom of God. They can't contribute. Those women, I cannot imagine what they must have felt like. They saw Jesus rose. They heard it from heavenly voices. Nobody would believe them. But when Jesus gives away the glory that accompanies the victory, all of a sudden, none of it mattered. None of it mattered. It didn't matter how much sin they had. It didn't matter how little their faith was. It didn't matter how wrong they were in their theology or their doctrine. When they let Jesus come close again, the glory of the Lord began to lift away everything Jesus didn't want in their life. There's no battle to be won for you anymore. There's no victory for you to achieve anymore. There's nothing Jesus is disappointed in in you. He knew exactly what he purchased when he bought you. Any man or woman living in failure or feeling like a failure doesn't need to worry anymore because the glory is greater. It the glory has a stronger has a greater effect because it belongs to a greater victory.
The the victory of Christ is so much greater than the greatest failure we could probably muster up. The greatest failure we could ever put together is so astronomically much smaller compared to the size of the victory of Christ that the glory that Jesus gives away. It swallows up everything that had the strength at one time to make us a failure or make us feel like a failure. It swallows it up. It changes it around. It makes you into the man or the woman that God knows you can be. It makes you into the man or the woman that God knows you desire to be. If you would stand with me for a moment, I believe with all my heart that God so clearly put all these people with all of their failures intertwined in this story of Jesus rising to glory because there's a message in it. You are not a failure and you will never end up like a failure because Jesus has given his glory to you. See what Jesus won. The radiance of victory, the radiance of power, the radiance of honor. He has given it away to you and it radiates so strong. Anything that touches your life is just swallowed up by it and changed around by it. It's because of what Jesus gave away to you. We don't become if you're a Christian, you know we don't become good men and women. We cannot be Jesus.
We cannot be in perfect victory over our sins. We can't do that. But I'm telling you now, when you stop fighting that battle, when you stop fighting to try and change and you begin to believe what the Bible says, you begin to believe that Jesus has given you out of all people, he has given you his glory. That the glory of Christ may become clear and manifest in a man or a woman like you. That the world may see a man or a woman that did never anything right, but they're changed anyways. They didn't have a clean mouth with clean language, but it's changed anyways. And they're not religious. They're not grouchy. They're not preaching good works. They're not telling people how to live and how to be better. All that they can say is Jesus has given me everything. I never was able to accomplish a thing. But when I stopped fighting my own battles and I began to believe that his victory over the greatest battle of all, that his victory purchased the glory that he has simply given to me and it swallows up any battle I would ever face.
It causes me to become someone that causes hope in the most hopeless situations. That causes hope for sinners that don't know a way forward. That's what the glory of Christ produces in you and I. And so, here is what I want to pray about together this morning with you online and here in person. You're not a failure and you will never end up like a failure. That's the promise of Jesus saying, "I'm going to give you the glory." If you believe that this morning, you're not a failure. You're never going to be a failure because Jesus has given his glory to you. If you believe that, would you come to the front right here so that I can pray with you this Easter morning and we can put to rest some of the battles that we feel we can never win or that we feel we've lost so tremendously much that now things have gone backwards in our life. Surrender the battles. You're not going to be a failure and you'll never end up like a failure because Jesus has given you his glory. If you believe the scriptures with me this morning, let's join together right here in prayer. Lord Jesus, we bless you this morning.
-Pastor Stan Mons
