The Resurrection Changes Everything: Confidence, Mission, and Prayer

Introduction

The tomb is empty. This Easter Sunday, Ben reminds the CVV Paris church that the resurrection of Jesus is not merely a central doctrine of Christianity or a distant historical fact: it is the event that changes the course of humanity, and that changes your life today. Starting from the healing of the lame man at the temple, in Acts 3 and 4, he explores three concrete ways the resurrection transforms us right now: it fills us with confidence, it stirs in us a burning desire for God to act in our city, and it makes us bold in prayer.

Message Outline

1. The resurrection fills you with confidence

• Peter and John, questioned by the Jewish leaders after healing the lame man, respond with astonishing boldness: "By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead" (Acts 4:10). No one accepts to die for a mere idea or for a dead lord, but for a risen Christ, yes.
• Assurance of salvation flows directly from the resurrection: because Jesus is alive, your faith in him is not in vain. Colossians 2:14 reminds us that he erased the record that condemned you by nailing it to the cross. If you doubt, remember that it is by his strength that you are saved, not by your own efforts or by the absence of doubt.
• Confidence in service flows from this too. Ben cites Timothé and Keren, a couple from the church who went to Togo to start a construction business and a health center founded on kingdom values, a bold choice, despite health trials endured in recent years. He also mentions those who live in Paris not for a career but because they sense God has placed them there.
• "God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise" (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). You don't need to be extraordinary, the most educated, or the best paid, your confidence comes from elsewhere, because he is alive.

2. The resurrection stirs in you a burning desire for God to act in your city

• The resurrection made the early Church deeply missional. It was not a club of Christians turned inward on themselves, but a people turned outward, toward the world, to share the good news of the risen Christ, because they knew that he alone is the answer to suffering.
• This proclamation was accompanied by signs and wonders. In Acts 3-4, it all begins with the healing of a lame man over 40 years old, known to everyone. Mark 16:19-20 confirms this: "the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it."
• Ben tells the story of Kings Arms church in Bedford (United Kingdom), part of the Catalyst movement of which CVV Paris is also a member. A member of that church, on a train, senses the Spirit telling him to pray for a stranger who is visibly injured. His heart pounding, sweating, afraid, then he dares. The person is healed. This becomes a snowball: that church later sees many healings in its city.
• We can believe for Paris, for Parisian executives known to be hard to reach, for loneliness to be broken, for robust life communities that touch neighborhoods, for businesses founded on kingdom values, for artists who lead the culture from darkness into light. Because Christ is risen.

3. The resurrection makes you bold in prayer

• Once released, Peter and John do not hide. They rejoin their own and pray together (Acts 4:23-31). They do not ask God to make the threats stop, but to grant them to continue proclaiming his word "with full confidence."
• Their prayer is concrete: "Stretch out your hand to heal, and grant that signs and wonders may be performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus" (Acts 4:30). And God answers: the place shakes, they are all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they proclaim the word with boldness.
• The resurrection invites us to pray in the same way: for our neighborhoods (Aubervilliers, the 14th arrondissement, Fontenay, Sèvres, Suresnes, La Défense, every life group and every workplace), for those who are downcast, for those who do not yet know Jesus.
• "Let us be filled with confidence because he is alive, because he is risen."

Key Takeaways

• The resurrection is not first a doctrine to defend: it is a fact that changes the course of your personal story today.
• Without the resurrection, the Christian faith is in vain (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:14). But Christ is risen, and this validates his divinity, his authority, his power, and his love.
• Your confidence does not come from your performance but from the living Christ. If you doubt, don't worry: place your faith in him, not in your ability to never doubt.
• Mission is not optional for a select few: the resurrection turns the whole Church outward, toward your city, your neighbors, your coworkers.
• Bold prayer (the kind that asks God to act concretely, with signs that accompany the word), is the normal response of disciples of a risen Christ.

Personal Application

1. Where are you at with the assurance of your salvation? Does it rest on your efforts, or on the fact that Jesus is alive?
2. What bold step is God asking of you, in your neighborhood, your work, your church commitment, a step you may have been putting off for a long time?
3. Who could you pray for this week, in a very concrete way, daring to ask for healing, reconciliation, an encounter with Christ?
4. Does your prayer look more like a request for difficulties to stop, or like that of the apostles who ask for more boldness to continue proclaiming the word?
5. What does the resurrection concretely change in the way you live in Paris (or wherever you are) this week?

Scripture References

• Acts 3:1-8 · The healing of the lame man at the temple gate
• Acts 4:1-22 · Peter and John before the Sanhedrin
• Acts 4:23-31 · The disciples' bold prayer
• 1 Peter 2:22-24 · He bore our sins in his body on the cross
• Acts 1:3 · Jesus presents himself alive for forty days
• Colossians 2:14 · He erased the record that condemned us
• Philippians 2:6-11 · God exalted him to the highest place
• 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 · God chose the foolish things of the world
• Mark 16:19-20 · The Lord confirmed the word by the signs that accompanied it

Further reading

• Training a Volunteer Quickly: The Method
• Measuring Church Health: Beyond the Numbers
• How to Organize a Church's Annual Calendar

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the resurrection of Jesus so central to the Christian faith?

Because without it, faith is in vain. Ben recalls this drawing on the apostle Paul: the resurrection validates the divinity, authority, power, and love of Jesus. It proves that he is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, and not merely a prophet or a philosopher. It is also the only coherent explanation for the apostles' courage, ready to die for a living Christ, not for a dead one.

How can I regain confidence when my faith wavers?

Your confidence does not come from your ability to never doubt, but from the living Christ. Colossians 2:14 says that he canceled the debt that condemned us by nailing it to the cross. If you are doubting today, don't worry: simply place your faith in him. You are saved by believing in him and in his strength, not by your own efforts. Pray, open your hands, ask God to fill you with his confidence.

Concretely, how does the resurrection change my daily life in Paris?

It changes three things. It fills you with confidence to make bold decisions (committing to a church, serving, choosing to live somewhere for God rather than for a career). It stirs in you a desire for God to touch your city, your coworkers, your neighborhood, Parisian executives, the lonely. And it makes you bold in prayer: daring to ask God for healings, reconciliations, transformations, for yourself and for those around you.