Resurrection Life of Jesus Church

PARADISE
It is important to stress the point that Jesus never died. Yes, His physical body died on the cross, but then the Son of God left it hanging there and went to Paradise, a holding place for those who trusted in the future Messiah and repented of their sins.

There was a great throng around Jesus during His three days and nights in Paradise.

• Abraham was beside himself with joy and rehearsed the times he had interacted with the Son of God thousands of years earlier.

• Sarah came to Jesus and asked him to forgive her for lying to him when she was told she would become pregnant with a son and thanked Jesus for Isaac.

• King David kept telling Jesus how much he loved Him and led the people in praise and worship as they sang one psalm after another.

• There were the various prophets who approached Jesus and shared the rejection they had experienced on the earth.

Suddenly an angel loudly announced that the time had come for Jesus to return to the earth and enter into His resurrected body. A great cheer arose as the people and thousands of angels surrounded the Son of God as He started to ascend from Paradise to the surface of the earth.

THE DISCIPLES
There were thousands of the men and women who followed Jesus before the crucifixion that were in a state of shock and grief because of Judas’ betrayal, the mockery of injustice imposed by the Sanhedrin, the brutal Roman scourging, and the subsequent crucifixion. Each of the events had happened so quickly.

• The inner core of disciples were hiding from the Jewish religious leadership. They had no faith in Jesus being resurrected. Their reasoning included denying the Messiahship of the God-man since He had allowed Himself to be killed.

• Peter was not among them due to his shame at denying Jesus, despite bragging that this would never be the case. He simply wanted to be alone in his grief.

• Other disciples such as Cleopas and his friend eventually left Jerusalem feeling dejected over the gruesome scourging and crucifixion.

• Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin. He had privately met with Jesus and was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. In the end, he helped bury Jesus and felt terrible about what taken place.

JEWISH LEADERSHIP
Caiaphas, the priests, Pharisees, Sadducees and the Herodians were insecure about the death of Jesus. They remembered the many miracles He had done and they had a nagging feeling that He might had been the Messiah after all. Caiaphas sent some soldiers each hour to make sure that the tomb was secure and no one had stolen the body of the God-man.

The political and religious leadership could not explain why there was darkness for three hours in the middle of the day or why the veil in the temple had been rent from the top to the bottom. There was an uneasy anxiety among them.

COMMAND CENTER OF SATAN
Lucifer set up a temporary command center in the air over Jerusalem. He ordered every fallen angel to join him and summoned the demons to control the people on the ground.

Demons whispered to the apostles that there would be no resurrection; it was all over and they sowed doubt and unbelief in every follower of Jesus.

Yet, Satan knew Jesus was the Son of God who had emphatically stated that He would be resurrected.

The Devil became more nervous as the deadline drew closer. The fallen angels saw that Lucifer was insecure and their mood turned miserable.

HOLY ANGELS
Above Lucifer and his angels, billions of holy angels from the armed forces of heaven had been summoned to Jerusalem. They heard the body of Jesus was going to be resurrected, but could not fathom what was so important that it required their presence afterwards. The intergalactic television network had cameras all over Jerusalem and the vast angel civilizations throughout the entire universe were watching events unfold.

The physical body of Jesus died about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Three full days and nights would put the resurrection sometime after 3:00 p.m. on Saturday. By the time Saturday rolled in, the Jewish leadership and Lucifer were both nervous.

THE RESURRECTION BEGINS
The regular Sabbath had ended and it was early in the morning when the sun was rising that a multiplicity of women arrived at the grave to embalm the body of Jesus with spices.

• Matthew said it was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary (mother of James).  Matthew 28:1

• Mark stated it was Mary Magdalene; Mary, mother of James; Salome, wife of Zebedee and the mother of James and John. Mark 16:1-2

• Luke declared it was Mary Magdalene; Joanna, wife of Chusa, Herod’s steward; Mary, the mother of James; and other women. Luke 24:1, 10

• John noted it was just Mary Magdalene. John 20:1a

While the gospel writers do not necessarily name the same women, it should not be considered a denial that the rest of the women were also present. For example, the apostle John was focused solely on Mary Magdalene, more than likely because of the part she would play with the risen Jesus. But just because they were not all mentioned does not mean that they were not present.

In case you missed it, the actions of the women – wanting to embalm Jesus – proved they had no hope of a resurrection on the third day.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves because there was an earthquake, an angel arriving from heaven, the stone being rolled aside, and the guards fleeing; all this took place before the women arrived at the scene.

POWER DISPLAY
Unseen by humans, the Holy Spirit entered into the tomb and life surged into the corpse of Jesus and the decaying mangled body was supernaturally refurbished. Romans 8:11

The visible power display started without warning in the form of an earthquake. Then an angel descended from heaven and came straight to the tomb, rolled back the stone and proceeded to sit upon it. Matthew 28:2

The light emanating from the angel was brighter than lightning. verse 3

If the Roman soldiers were sleeping, they were certainly awakened by the earthquake. They watched in amazement as a being of light broke the seal, effortlessly rolled the stone aside and sat upon it to show no human was involved.
He sat there on the stone, seemingly defying the guards, but they merely watched in astonishment, overcome with fear at the sight of this awesome holy angel. verse 4

REALIZATION
What took place next was only seen in the spirit world. Lucifer and his forces saw the event at the tomb, realized they had lost the battle to eliminate Jesus as the Messiah, and tried to flee, but holy angels enveloped them with a forcefield. 1 Corinthians 2:7-8

The earth opened up in front of the tomb and the whole area was lit supernaturally. Jesus arose from Paradise and walked to the tomb and entered the resurrected physical body.

He was surrounded by holy angels as He emerged from the tomb and then commanded Lucifer to be brought before Him. Holy angels grabbed the fallen cherub and brought him to stand an arm’s length from the Son of God.

Jesus told Satan to get on the ground in homage and the same angels threw Lucifer to the ground just as roughly as the Roman soldiers had done with Jesus at the crucifixion.

Even though the sun was just rising in the physical world, the entire area was lit up in the spirit realm for everyone to witness Jesus lift His foot and crush the head of Lucifer, telling him that he would never again be allowed to touch the Son of God. Genesis 3:15; John 12:31; Colossians 2:13-15

Screams of exultation broke out in the spirit world as the holy angels shouted for joy throughout the universe upon realizing the significance of what had just taken place.

Even the angels around the throne of God the Father were shouting praises for the victory they had just witnessed.

Jesus and the holy angels left the tomb area after the ceremony and Lucifer and his fallen angels were allowed to resume their posts in the high places. The demons (evil spirits) scattered on the surface of the earth like cockroaches.
The prophetic words of Jesus had been fulfilled.

“…the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death,

And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.” (Matthew 20:18-19)