Sermon Notes

I Will Rise Up - Sunday – 17^th September, 2023

Overview

1. Introduction – I will rise up
2. We are the members of the Body of Christ
3. We are one spirit with Jesus
4. Moses – raised up by God
5. Lord Jesus Christ and His challenges
6. Challenge of Survival
7. Challenge where People were not able to understand Jesus
8. Challenge of Temptation – three kinds of temptation that Jesus faced.
9. Challenge of Rejection
10. Challenge of disciples leaving Jesus
11. The challenge of not being able to progress
12. Challenge of Crucifixion and death
13. Conclusion

Introduction – I will rise up

We will rise up, because

• We are the members of the Body of Christ

And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not!

1 Corinthians 6:14-15 (NKJV)

We are Born Again believers and we are the members of the Body of Christ. Jesus is the head and we are the body. If the head has the capacity and inbuilt system to rise up over every situation, the body also will have the same capacity because the head and the body are not two, they are one. So, as the head always wins, we cannot fail in any situation and also His church never fails in any situation. Born-again people will never fail in their family lives, in their marriages, in their professions, in their ministries, in their finances because there is an automatic power that is rising to win, because the head has risen over every situation.

• We are one Spirit with Jesus

God created all of us as Spirits, God Himself is a spirit, Angels are spirit beings, demonic powers are spirits. In the spirit world, Paul is saying, that we and Jesus are one (1 Corinthians 6:17). Not just in the flesh, but even in the Spirit realm, we are one. This spirit is always victorious because by nature the Holy Spirit is victorious and that spirit is in us, as we are joined to Jesus. So, every time we face a situation, a hurdle, a hindrance, or a problem, the Holy Spirit inside of us will tell us we cannot fail, we will rise up.

God raised up Moses

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear,”

Deuteronomy 18:15 (NKJV)

The life of Moses is a good example of a person whom God raised up in life. Moses was a Hebrew boy born at the time when Egyptians were taking the Israelites under slavery. But God raised Moses to be a man who brought out the Israelites from their slavery, poverty, sickness, bondage, and so on. The Holy Spirit is not only given for sanctification but it is given so that we will be like Jesus rising up above every situation.

Jesus

Our Lord Jesus Christ rose above every challenge that He faced.

• Survival of Jesus (Matthew 2)

One of the major challenges that Jesus encountered in his life was when he was a little boy. When we read Matthew 2: 1 onwards, the first challenge was the survival of Jesus. King Herod of that time, got the news that there was another king going to be born and he declared an order that every child below two years old should be beheaded. The first thing that Jesus wanted victory in life was personally surviving. It was not the ministry. It was not the family of Jesus; it was the very survival of Jesus.

Even today we need the power of the Holy Spirit to survive in this world. Lord Jesus Christ is a testimony for us in this situation that if Jesus could survive in the toughest situation when King Herod was at the strongest power and decrees were coming to kill Jesus and if Jesus was supernaturally protected by God and He survived by the power of Holy Spirit, then we as a church, because we are the Body joined to Jesus, the head, we will also survive in every situation.

• People were not able to understand Jesus (Luke 2:42-50)

The second challenge that Jesus had to face was when He was 12 years old, Jesus went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of faith, and when they had to return back, Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem and Joseph and his mother did not know it. And when they searched for Him and found Him, Jesus explained His life’s purpose. But they didn’t understand Him. The second challenge that Jesus had was people were not able to understand who really Jesus was including his mother.

This will be the same circumstance for the body of Christ, where people around us will not be able to understand us. The moment when somebody is unable to not understand us, be rest assured, that we are part of the body of Christ.

• The temptation of the Devil (Luke 4:1-13)

The third challenge that Jesus faced was the temptation of the devil. We have to understand that the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is also not void of being tempted by the enemy. In every situation, the devil to access, the first victory in our lives is to tempt us. Testing and tempting are different. The test of faith is from God, but temptation is always from the enemy. But the Bible says Jesus won over every temptation.

Three kinds of temptations happened in the life of Jesus

• The first temptation was about food. There are many kinds of food, and we might not know that it could contain something that our body is not supposed to take in. And with that, the spirit of death will slowly crawl in because it is a temptation.

Jesus won over the temptation by confronting the devil with the Word of God. The two things that will help us to win over the temptation that food can cause in our lives are to love the word of God and the next is to do the will of God. By exercising that we will be strong.

You need to arise over these situations because God wants you to be a victorious person.

• The second temptation that happened to Jesus was when the devil took him up the high mountain and He showed him and said, I will give you everything, the authority and the glory. The second thing that we need to win over in our lives is never to get glory from the world but to allow the Holy Spirit to glorify the name of Jesus in and through our lives. It is a permanent beautiful glory that the Holy Spirit God will give us.

Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here.

Luke 4:9 (NKJV)

• The third temptation that Jesus had to face was ‘when the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle, and said, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down.’ This can be called as a point where we are exercising faith which is not based on the word of God. Faith has to be in obedience. It has to be in alignment with the word of God. You cannot use your faith for anything which is not from the Almighty God.

• Rejection (Luke 4:16 – 30)

The fourth problem that Jesus had to face in his life was rejection. When Jesus entered the temple and spoke in the synagogue from the book of Isaiah, the Bible says the people were filled with wrath and they rose and thrust him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.

Here we see that His own people rejected Jesus and tried to kill Him. They rejected Him because of the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the decision to serve God. But Jesus won over the rejection

• Disciples/ Committed people left Jesus (John 6:66)

From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

John 6:66 (NKJV)

There were many disciples with Jesus. People who loved Jesus. People who were committed to Jesus. The disciples were loved by Jesus more than anyone else. They were in a covenant relationship because Jesus had chosen them to be with Him. They had a special calling as apostles. But the Bible says some of the disciples of Jesus left Him. No one stood with him, till the point of Calvary. But when we read the Bible, we understand that Jesus rose over that situation. He defeated the demon spirits, death, hades, and the power of sin and he rose up victorious on the cross.

• Hindrances to Minister (John 11:47-48)

Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.”

John 11:47-48 (NKJV)

The people around Jesus were not encouraged by His ministry. We read here that Jesus had become a threat to the entire nation. There was no favor from men. The Pharisees and the Jewish leaders were plotting to silence him. There were hindrances in ministry for Jesus in one city and one town after another. But we know, Jesus still ministered, and signs and wonders happened. This can happen in our life also. The major hindrance that the enemy will try to bring into our lives is our spiritual life. Certain life situations might hinder our spiritual growth.

But praise be to God because the same spirit of God which is in Jesus is in us. We will overcome all these situations. But Jesus overcame them all. Not even the Roman Empire’s seal could hinder Jesus, but it was broken by the power of the Holy Spirit when the resurrection happened. In other words, no hindrances can stop a child of God who has the power of the Holy Spirit.

• Crucifixion (Galatians 3:13)

The greatest challenge that Jesus had to face was crucifixion. It was real pain and shame to be hanged on the cross. As Isaiah 53:2-3 says, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, absolutely no beauty on the cross. The Almighty, King of Glory had to face public disgrace, the greatest shame and pain on the cross. But the Bible says even on the cross, Jesus declared victory.

As Jesus, our head, has already raised over all these situations that happened on the cross of shame and pain, we will receive the glory of the Almighty God instead of shame and pain. We will not be put to shame, but we will rise up above every challenge.

Concluding Prayer

Dear Jesus,

We thank you for calling and appointing us as the Body of Christ. As you are the head of the Church, and as you rose above and were victorious over all situations including death, we pray and believe that we will also resurrect above all the challenges that come against us.

In Jesus' name
Amen