Dharius Daniels - I Came Up

One of our church mothers is saying, «All the way, y’all, pastor! All the way!» I said, «This is Kingdom Church; this is all the way up!» Listen, today we celebrate what is, in my estimation, the most significant event in human history: the death and resurrection of Jesus. I say unashamedly, in my summation, that it is the most significant event in human history because time is divided into dispensations based on the birth and death of Jesus: BC and AD. His resurrection is not fabricated fiction; we truly believe He got up, and His resurrection is a powerful picture of possibility for those of us who believe. His resurrection should ignite our faith to trust in God’s ability to bring life to dead things. His resurrection should cultivate confidence within us to believe that if the grave couldn’t hold Jesus, then our graves cannot hold us. Therefore, whatever is gripping you, whatever is sucking the life out of you, whatever is holding your hope hostage has to bow its knee, release its grip, and relinquish its authority when confronted with the resurrecting power of Jesus. He got up as an example to inspire us to believe, «You can get up too!» But today, I want to challenge us not just to be inspired by the resurrection but also to be educated by it. Not just to be inspired by it, but to learn from it. There’s a lesson I would like to lift for us today, which can be captured in the following phrase: The resurrection of Jesus teaches us that our setbacks don’t have to be setbacks; that our setbacks can be setups for come-ups. Are you going to help me preach? Jesus didn’t come back; Jesus came up. So don’t call it a comeback because that’s not what Jesus did. He didn’t come back; He came up. He went into the grave beaten, bloodied, battered, and bruised; He came out of the grave healed, whole, empowered, endowed with all authority in heaven and on earth in His hands. He came out of it better than He was when He went into it. If you think about the reality of death and graves, when you go into a grave, you’re not supposed to come out better; you’re supposed to come out worse. But Jesus decided He wouldn’t allow how the grave impacted everybody else to determine how He would allow the grave to impact Him. In other words, He is able to look at a tomb and say, «Everybody else that went in one stayed, but I’m not everybody else.» You didn’t hear me! We should be able to look at the tombs in our lives—whether it’s a tomb of divorce, heartbreak, sickness, despair, a failing business, a failing marriage, or a failing parental relationship—and say, «Other people went through you and came out worse, but I’m getting ready to come out better!» I’m not coming out defeated; this is exactly what Jesus is trying to communicate to the disciples in the text. He is trying to help us to see that setbacks don’t have to set you back. This is the heart of what He’s trying to get across to the disciples in Luke 24. In Luke 24, we get to eavesdrop on a conversation Jesus is having with His disciples. It is a post-resurrection conversation, one He has with them after the resurrection. They are in a specific space engaging in conversation about Jesus, and Jesus shows up. One of the Gospel writers describes this encounter as the disciples being locked in a room when Jesus enters without opening the door. Right? Because when you’ve been into the grave and back, you’re able to get into places that other people stay locked out of. He comes into the room with them, and they’re surprised, startled, and frightened. So He asks them, «Why are you troubled, and why is doubt rising in your minds? In one season, you were confident in my capability; you saw me make storms cease, and you made statements like, 'What manner of man is this, that even the wind and sea obey Him? ' What has happened to you that is shaking the stability of your faith so much that you are now questioning what you used to be confident about?» Let’s pause for a minute and be honest. There’s a type of trouble that’ll hit your life that will make you pause and begin to question. Let me go on this side because I feel it! There’s some pain that can hit your life that, if you don’t shake yourself and come back to your spiritual senses, will have you questioning whether or not what you believe is really solid ground for you to stand on. But every now and then, when you have those moments, you’ve got to shake yourself, and you’ve got to get in the ring, and you’ve got to fight doubt and despair, saying, «You don’t get to win.» That’s what Jesus does. He sees doubt rising, but He doesn’t rebuke the doubt; He helps them deal with it and address it. He sees the doubt but doesn’t judge it. I’m not going to bother this too much, but it teaches us how to handle people who are dealing with doubt. Because what we can do as…