Easter Friday 2016

Good morning and let me add my welcome.

My name is Sam and I'm on the ministry team here at St Paul's.

I'm going to pray for us and then we're going to reflect on that passage

and the story of Easter that we have been reminded of this morning.

Father God, we thank you for the chance to gather this morning

and we ask that you might give us clarity

as we reflect on a story that might be familiar,

that might even have baggage attached for us personally.

Please give us the ability to look fresh

and to hear what it is that you want us to hear. Amen.

This week, the British comedian Ricky Gervais

was asked by the Wall Street Journal to write an article for Easter.

It was a follow-up to an article that he did around Christmas time

entitled, Why I'm a Good Atheist.

This article he entitled, Why I'm a Good Christian.

He was quick to concede that the heading was provocative and misleading.

But in his article, he talked about how he admired Jesus.

He admired the teachings. He admired the life.

Although he rejected any claim that Jesus might be a God or a saviour.

And he expressed that he was frustrated with Christians

who claimed to follow Jesus but were so drastically

nothing like the one they claimed to follow.

And from there, his article proceeded to work its way through the Ten Commandments,

one at a time, basically showing how he was ticking the box on all ten of them.

And then finished with the sentiment that he guesses,

in light of his ticking the box on the commandments,

he's as good a Christian as anyone.

Now, I find Ricky Gervais a very funny comedian.

I really enjoy the stuff that he does.

And so, I was interested in his reflections.

Obviously, I disagree with him on a bunch of stuff.

But what stuck out for me was where he ended up

having been asked to write something about Easter.

He's clearly not a believer.

He doesn't think that Jesus legitimately died and rose again.

But having been asked to write this article,

he didn't wrestle with the historical reliability of Jesus.

Didn't touch it.

He doesn't express difficulty believing that Jesus rose again.

For him, an article about Easter is an article about morality.

That was, for him, what it meant to respond to the question,

what is Easter for me?

It was to measure how good or bad he thought he was

by this apparent standard that God sets.

And for a lot of people, and even for some Christians,

that's all Easter is.

Following Jesus is about little more than living

some kind of exemplary moral life.

And, of course, holding other people to do the same,

being the moral police.

Now, I don't know what your perspective on Easter is.

I don't know why you came into this building this morning.

This could be your annual or your biannual church visit.

Now, I don't know what interactions you've had

with Christians in the past, good or bad.

But I do know that many people I speak to

approach a day like today feeling guilty.

We've sung and we've been reminded of the savageness

savageness of that first Good Friday.

That an innocent man would be butchered.

And it could be that you're here today

because you know you're supposed to be.

You know that it is significant, you know it matters,

and you get this sense that if you don't come here,

you might be doing something wrong.

And so you are here.

But maybe there's a part of you,

maybe it's even a really big part of you,

that will breathe a sigh of relief

when we get to the end of our time together.

And maybe you can go back into that normal pattern

where maybe you know that God might not be happy with you,

but it's easier to kind of hold it at arm's length.

If that's you,

I want to say I'm really glad you're here.

Because I actually believe that God has something significant

that he wants to say to you this morning.

Something that might actually transform the way

that you not just view Easter,

but the way that you view Jesus himself.

Because Easter is not about guilt.

Jesus didn't die on the cross

so that then he could spend the rest of our lives

making us feel bad about how far short we fall

of the kind of life that he calls us to.

Jesus didn't go through everything he went through

so that we could be pressured into being more moral.

Easter is the high point of God showing us who he is.

Easter is the moment where God tries to just zoom in on himself for us

so that we might get a picture of what he's like,

how he works, who he is.

And the Bible makes it really clear,

God is love.

Not just God loves, although that's true,

but the Bible actually says love is who he is.

It's how he works.

And so importantly,

it's how he feels towards you.

I want to show you two things this morning about God's love

that I hope and pray will transform the way you feel

when you come to Easter,

when you think about church,

when you think about Christians.

But more than that,

I want to show you two things about God's love from the Bible

that I believe could transform your whole life.

And so I want you to bear with me.

I want you to give God a chance to speak a little bit louder

than maybe some of those negative interactions

or unhelpful voices have spoken in the past.

And I want you to hear from him two things.

First one,

God loves you.

God loves you.

I remember growing up as a kid,

one of my biggest fears was whether or not God loved me.

Now, it's not something that I would focus on regularly.

It's not like I walked around thinking,

does God love me now?

But I had this awareness.

I knew enough about God.

I'd heard enough Bible stories.

I'd heard the Easter story enough times.

And I knew enough about me

that there was some sort of a gap there.

I knew God was powerful.

I knew he was holy.

I knew he was perfect.

I knew he was in charge.

And I knew that I was the kid at school

that other kids' parents would say,

don't hang out with that kid.

I knew what it was to do the wrong thing and get punished.

I understood how life worked.

If you do something bad,

then there's consequences.

And so for me,

taking that correct understanding of life,

that do something wrong,

pay the price for it,

and then this God who is good and requires me to be good,

those things coming together didn't make sense to me.

I'd heard the phrase,

God loves you.

I'd heard the sentiment that God is loving.

But I couldn't understand how someone like me,

who was bad,

is bad,

could be loved by God.

The way I had experienced love in my life

was so restricted

to when I do good things,

I'm loved.

And when I do bad things,

I'm punished.

It's not to say my parents were harsh or bad

or anything like that.

They were great.

But that is how we engage with love with one another.

We tend to love when it's positive coming back the other way.

But when someone hurts us,

that love quickly dries up.

And so from that place,

the idea of a God who is love and could love me

was really difficult to comprehend.

And this is why Easter can be offensive.

This is why I understand,

and it makes sense that some people maybe don't want to

be in church or around Christians

or hear this message.

Easter and the cross and Jesus' death

is the answer to the problem

that God is holy and we are not.

So even wrapped up in this message

and wrapped up in the fact that God is trying to show you

how loving he is towards you,

part of that message is

you actually don't deserve that love.

It's not the whole message,

and that's the problem.

When we just stop there,

hearing that we're not good enough

and walk away feeling worse

or feeling this pressure to try harder,

it's not the whole message,

but it is part of the message.

And so if you have come here this morning

and you do feel that sense of guilt or failure,

I want to say on one level,

that's actually kind of okay.

Because it's true.

You and I and everybody else

isn't worthy of the love of a perfect God.

The way that we treat him when we live,

the things that we put in front of him in our lives,

the things that we treat as more important,

is not okay,

is offensive,

but it's just not the whole message.

And see, the issue is,

when you come to Easter

and you hear something like that,

what do you do with that?

You can do the Ricky Gervais trick

and just move the goalposts a bit.

He just changed the way he read the Ten Commandments

to give himself a tick on all of them

and then you might feel a little bit better.

Alternatively, you could just reject God

and say, I'm not interested

and I won't be held to your standard.

But maybe there's a third option.

Maybe there's something better

that God actually designed for us.

As Steve was reading out that passage for us,

two thieves were crucified on either side of Jesus.

So one on either side of Jesus.

And there's two responses there.

I remember hearing this story as a kid.

There was a children's storybook version

of the thief on the cross.

And I always found it entertaining

because one thief just looked like a derelict.

You know, he was unshaven.

He had a scowl on his face

in each of the illustrated pictures.

You knew straight away that he was the bad guy.

But the other guy who eventually asks for Jesus' mercy

somehow looked like it was an accident that he was there.

He'd been mostly good.

I mean, he was even clean shaven.

And then somehow he just ended up in the wrong place

and was alongside this other criminal.

But just to be clear,

that's the kid's story version and it's wrong.

All the Bible says is that there were two criminals

and they both deserved to die for how they had lived.

That's the man's own admission.

We're getting what our deeds deserve.

These two men,

when confronted with the innocent death of Jesus,

respond in two completely different ways.

One is to mock and reject the fact

that Jesus could possibly have any right over his life,

could possibly be loving towards him.

The other one is to recognise

that actually when you stand next to the perfection of Jesus,

the only response is to recognise,

yeah, I am unworthy.

But this thief recognises something else.

That Jesus is here to deal with that unworthiness.

The whole reason he came

was so that God's love could steamroll our inadequacy.

God's love is an offer for anyone.

When I say God loves you,

it's not some vague hope that possibly he might love you

and you might think,

Sam, you don't know who I am, what I've done.

You don't know my past.

You don't know my thoughts.

It's not a hope that God might love you.

What this story shows us

is that God can and does love the worst person

on the worst day.

In this passage,

he offers forgiveness to a thief

who does nothing except ask for it.

There's not even the opportunity for this thief

to somehow try and make up for the life that he had before.

He's about to die.

And yet Jesus says,

I love that person.

One of the most significant prayers in Scripture

was in verse 34.

Just try and be in this moment.

Jesus has just had nails

driven through his wrists and feet.

He's hanging on a cross,

slowly suffocating,

barely alive from the beatings he's had

for the previous few days.

And he looks down at the people

who have done this to him.

And he prays,

Father,

forgive them,

for they do not know what they are doing.

Even in their moment

of most active opposition to Jesus,

he still has love for them.

He still has care for them.

And so I can say,

and you can know,

that even in your worst moments in your life,

even in the points

where you most actively reject God

and ignore him

and treat him like he doesn't matter,

that love is still offered.

If Easter time makes you feel guilty,

I guess that's okay.

Because you are guilty.

But you need to understand,

there is no standard to meet

if you're going to be loved by God.

The fact that you don't deserve God's love

doesn't actually disqualify you from it.

There's no entry requirements.

Just stop running

and ask God for his mercy.

There were probably nicer, better people

than the thief and the soldiers on that day.

But they were the ones who said,

God, I want the love that you're offering.

God's love isn't his way of saying,

look, let's forget about

some of the rough edges in your life.

Let's pretend they never happened.

He's not looking at you

through rose-colored glasses.

Easter is God saying,

I know the worst bits about you.

And I love you anyway.

But more than that,

the second thing that God says to you at Easter

is look at how I love you.

Because just love in itself

might actually just add to the guilt.

I mean, the idea of love sounds fantastic,

but maybe that's not enough

if you're feeling guilty.

I believe it was a few months ago

that some hackers

cracked the internet site

Ashley Madison.

It's a site that exists

to facilitate extramarital affairs

discreetly.

Some hackers decided

that they would go in

and take the database of members

from that site

and make it public.

The result being that

thousands and thousands

of marriages

were thrown into disarray

when suddenly

the infidelity of one partner

became public.

The awkwardness of this,

it even resulted in instances

of some people committing suicide

because they couldn't deal

with the guilt.

And I read one story

of a wife

whose husband

had committed suicide

and her devastation was

that she would have

worked through it with him.

She would have continued

to love him.

But can you understand

that the awkwardness

in a scenario like that

is that even though

one party has been unfaithful

and the other party

has said I'm willing

to keep loving you,

the unworthiness of the love

that this cheating partner

is receiving

almost makes the love

hurtful.

It almost makes you feel worse

because you know

you don't deserve

to be treated this way

because that's not the love

you've been giving.

And so it could be

that you hear God is loving

and it's not that you haven't

heard that message

but really it just makes

you feel worse.

You hear that Jesus

loved you so much

he died on the cross

and if anything

you're like

stop telling me that

because he would love me

that much

while I'm over here

treating him like

he doesn't matter.

If anything it might

just heap guilt on you.

But Easter isn't just

God saying he loves you.

It's showing you

how his love

fixes that issue.

God's love

is more than just

some feeling

or some sentiment.

The cross is not

some masochistic

bunch of flowers

or hallmark card.

It's effective.

It works.

It does something.

In the Old Testament

in the book of Isaiah

written a long time

before Jesus turned up

God promised

that he would provide

a saviour

to deal with that issue

that gap.

And the way

that saviour

would save us

was through an exchange.

Now let me read it to you

from Isaiah 53

it'll be on the screen.

He grew up before him

like a tender shoot

this is describing Jesus

and like a root

out of dry ground

he had no beauty

or majesty

to attract us to him

nothing in his appearance

that we should desire him.

He was despised

and rejected

by mankind

a man of suffering

and familiar with pain

like one

from whom people

hide their faces.

he was despised

and we held him

in lower seam.

Surely he took up

our pain

and bore

our suffering

yet we considered

him punished

by God

stricken by him

and afflicted

but he was pierced

for our transgression

he was crushed

for our iniquity

the punishment

that brought us

peace was on him

and by his wounds

we are healed.

What happens

in the cross

is that

that all the things

that are part

of our life

and our character

and our values

and our actions

and our thoughts

and part of us

that in any way

draw the just

judgment of God

it is completely

transferred

to Jesus.

When we look at him

on the cross

as an innocent man

we look rightly

but what we need

to look harder

and see

is the reason

he's there

is not just

to do something

dramatic

as an innocent person

but so that

the punishment

we deserve

can actually

be given.

God can't just

shrug his shoulders

he can't just

let us off.

What we have done

deserves to be punished

and what Jesus does

is absorb

that punishment.

The forgiveness

that God offers

isn't a

let's forget

what you've done

it's a

let me pay for it

let me cover

it over

let me atone

for it

he takes on him

every bit of you

that is unworthy

of God

and his love

and not just

takes it

but exhausts it

satisfies it

absorbs it

deals with it

finishes it

Easter

isn't just

God

saying

he loves

you

but it's

God saying

my love

is enough

for every bit

of you

it's God

saying

if you would

just

accept

my love

if you would

just

ask for

my mercy

then you

would never

be unloved

it's God

saying

the death

of the

God

man

of Jesus

is sufficient

for everything

you've ever

done

or will

do

and so

guilt's

not there

anymore

even if you

make mistakes

in the future

Jesus' death

in your place

is enough

Easter is not

a time

to feel guilty

there is a

weight and a

gravity about

Good Friday

but it's not

a time for

guilt

today is the

day that we

remember and

celebrate

that God

offers freedom

from guilt

forgiveness

from sin

love

unconditional

unending

please hear

God today

as you are

right now

no changes

no improvements

no adjustments

as you are

right now

God says

I love you

that's why

Jesus came

that's why

he died

so that you

could know

God loves

you

so that you

could have

confidence

that in spite

of who you

are God

will keep

loving you

but one last

thing

this isn't

some transaction

going on

it might all

sound a bit

mechanical

so ours goes

over here

dealt with

we're good

ticket to heaven

fantastic

might sound

like we get

this little

bit of God's

love to be

forgiven

we look

forward to

heaven and

then we've

got this

earth waiting

room

and maybe

there's some

half truth

there

but the cross

means more

than that

God's love

is bigger

than just a

tick on your

report card

and something

to look forward

to in the

future

remember that

the whole

point of

Easter is

that we

might see

what God

is

see how

he works

see what

he's like

being loved

by God

is not so

much about

the love

that God

gives

it's about

the God

who gives

that love

that's what

Easter is about

that's what

the barrier

of us not

being good

enough and

God being

perfect

that's the

problem

that we're

not connected

to him

that we can't

relate to him

that we can't

talk to him

that we can't

depend on him

Jesus death

in our place

doesn't unlock

a fix of love

it doesn't give

you a shot in

the arm to

make you feel

better about

yourself and

so that you

don't have to

fear hell

Jesus death

on the cross

actually takes

you from being

far away from

God the Bible

even says being

an enemy of

God and

draws you into

a relationship

with him where

you are a

precious child

where you are

immovably

brought into

the family

loved

protected

provided for

Jesus love

isn't a fix

it's a

foundation for

life

I remember

as a kid

growing up

I used to

sometimes question

my parents

love for me

in the little

things

they would do

big things

for me

they would

look after me

they would

provide food

for me

they would

take me to

school

they would

support me

and encourage

me in

whatever I was

doing

but oh

horror

sometimes they

would deny

me McDonald's

and in

anguish

sometimes in

tears I'm not

embarrassed to

admit

I would wonder

whether they

still loved me

I would sit

in my room

reflective

angry

mopey

thinking how

could they

possibly love

me and deny

me something

so amazing

and as I

grew and

matured

ever so

slightly

I began

to realise

that

the costly

ways that

they loved

me

the big

things that

they did

in my

life

at their

own

expense

gave

context

to the

little

ways they

loved me

that I

didn't

understand

it was

out of

love for

me

that they

didn't

allow me

to eat

McDonald's

every day

and it's

out of

love for

me that

they

discouraged

my

habit at

the

moment

but in

that moment

I didn't

understand

it

it wasn't

until

I was

that little

bit

older

and could

actually

look at

the big

things they

done in

my life

the sacrifices

they made

so that I

could do

what I

needed to

do

that I

suddenly

realised

that even

though I

don't get

it

even though it

doesn't make

sense to me

they're actually

probably loving

me there

because it

would be

ridiculous

for them

to do

something

that costs

them and is

painful for

them out of

love

and then to

withhold something

small and

insignificant like

a five dollar

McDonald's meal

just to

spite me

the New

Testament tells

us in

Romans chapter

Romans 8 · chapter mention

8 it's on

the screen

he who did

not spare his

own son but

gave him up for

us all how

will he not

also along

with him

graciously give

us all

things

he who did

not spare his

own son

God who

was willing

to send

Jesus to

the cross

put him to

that through

the anguish

of absorbing

our punishment

when that

becomes the

baseline of

the way that

God loves

us we

can be

confident that

there is no

moment no

circumstance

no difficulty

no struggle

no joy

where God

is not

actively

loving us

what Easter

does is not

just give you

the tick of

forgiveness

although that

is incredible

what Easter

does is not

just give you

the guarantee

of heaven in

the future

although that

is overwhelming

what God

does in the

cross is give

you the

baseline for

his love

he gives

you the

biggest thing

the most

costly thing

so that even

in struggle

you can say

even though I

don't get it

I know that

God would not

withhold something

good for me

even though he

might not be

making me better

quick enough

for me

even though he

may not be

giving me a

job quick

enough

even though he

may not be

solving my

financial struggles

quick enough

even though he

may not be

settling my

anxiety quick

enough

even though he

may not be

providing the

partner that I

desperately want

quick enough

or even at

all

I know he

still loves me

because the

baseline is he

gave me the

biggest best

most costly

thing first

so how would

he not also

give me every

other good

thing for me

out of love

what Easter

does what the

cross does

is gives us a

foundation for

life

because of

Jesus you can

know that God

loves you even

though you don't

deserve it

and you don't

have to spend

your life feeling

guilty about that

because he's

wiped away the

guilt he's

paid the debt

it's done

there's no point

dragging it back

out it's been

pushed to the

side Jesus has

said it's

finished and so

you can bask in

the love of God

confidently you

can know that his

love is sufficient

for even now when

you fail and you

can know that his

love is limitless

because the God

who created

everything has

already given his

best gift to

you his most

costly gift to

you and so in

any situation

no matter how

painful and

there will still

be painful

situations you

can know that

God is loving

you then because

of Jesus even

if you don't

understand it you

can look and

say I know he

loves me because

he's already given

me his best there

is nothing he

would withhold from

those who are his

precious children

I don't know why

you came today

I don't know what

Easter meant for

you when you

walked in the door

but I really pray

that today you

hear and believe

God's words to

you

he says I love

you just as you

are

no conditions

no strings

attached

my love is

enough to deal

with anything you

have done or

will do

and my love for

you is

unconditional

undeserved

unlimited

and unending

I pray that

today you might

taste and feel

that kind of love

for you

and have your

whole life

transformed by

it

let's pray

father God we

want to thank you

for Jesus

we want to thank

you that even

though we don't

deserve it you

were willing to

go to incredible

lengths that we

might be confident

that your love is

not just a

sentiment it's an

action it's

sufficient

God I pray that

if there are

people in this

room now who

maybe are following

you but are

wrestling with

doubts

wrestling with

their own

failures may

they know that

your love is

enough

there are people

in this room

wrestling with

the insecurity

or uncertainty

of circumstances

in life may

they see the

cross as the

guarantee that

there is no

limit to your

love

if there are

people in this

room who don't

yet know what

it is to be

loved like that

I pray that

today might be

the day where

like the thief

they ask for

mercy

and they

taste and

experience your

perfect love

Amen

beautiful

Amen

ippa