The Hope Of Easter

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Lord, thank you.

We've come to bask in the sufficiency of what you've done.

We'll never get over it.

We'll never get past it.

We've not come up with a better idea, and we stopped trying a long time ago.

So, Lord, open up the eyes of our mind and the ears of our heart so we can see and understand and just kind of bask in the beauty of all that you've done, what you accomplished.

You lived a sinless life, you died a purposeful death, and you rose from the grave.

The resurrection is the receipt that reminds us that God has accepted the payment of Jesus for our sins.

And so we're not just forgiven people, we're free people.

And so, Lord, we want to be more free when we walk out of here today as a result of what you say to us from your word and by your spirit.

So do it now, Holy Spirit.

We pray in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, don't sweat it.

What I say will come up on the screen up here.

I want to talk to you this morning about the hope of Easter.

The hope of Easter.

Why is it that on Easter Sunday, men cram themselves into a sports coat that never that doesn't fit anymore, and women buy new dresses and come to church?

Some people come.

This is the first time all year, and the only time all year.

And so if that's one of you, I'm glad you're here.

Hopefully, you'll so enjoy today.

You'll come back before next Easter, okay?

But let me explain to you why we have the hope that we have, what I call the hope of Easter.

I'm gonna read the first 11 verses, and then I'm gonna point to four things in the Bible, and then some questions at the end.

Some questions come up on the screen just for us to think about.

Uh, we believe Christianity is a truth to be understood, it's not an emotion to be sustained.

And so we will not do anything to try to manipulate your emotions.

We'll tell you the truth.

Now, will your emotions be stirred?

Maybe that's between you and God.

But but but again, we believe that people want the truth, and so we'll give you that and let you process, give you some space to process it.

Uh, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 1.

1 Corinthians 15:1

The apostle Paul records these words.

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, and he was raised on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures, and that he has appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God I am what I am.

And his grace towards me was not in vain.

On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Whether then it was I or they, so we preached, and so you believed.

What is the hope of Easter?

There's four things from the verses we just read.

And the first one is simply this: that there's actually good news.

There is actually good news in a world full of bad news: COVID, war, inflation, the USFL is back, uh, supply chain issues, uh, political tension.

The hope that we have is actually good news.

And I want to start unpacking this good news by just pointing to four or five words that are contained in the first two verses there.

And the first one is the word remind.

Paul says, now I would remind you, brothers, remind that word means this, to talk about this in such a way that you gain knowledge from it about it.

Let me say that again.

To talk about this in such a way that you gain knowledge from it about it.

A lot of people have knowledge about the gospel, about the Bible, about God, about Christianity, but it doesn't come from the Bible or from God.

It's something a coworker said or an agnostic cousin or whatever.

And the Bible says, Hey, Paul says, I want to remind you.

I want you to get primary source material about the most important thing in your life.

Second word is gospel.

He said, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you.

Gospel is news.

It means gospel literally means good news.

And so the gospel, uh, the good news of Christianity is news, not information.

Okay.

Information tells you how to do something.

News tell you tells you what's already been done.

Like if you're old like me, you turn on the news at 5:30 every day because you want to see what's happening in the world.

It's not information, okay?

He said, not telling me this is how you change the oil in your truck, Neil.

No, no, no.

It's news.

And so when I say gospel, it's not harsh.

Like recently someone said to me, Hey, uh, you probably should be harder on us when you preach.

And I was like, What?

And the guy said, you know, like yell at us and stuff.

I thought he was kidding.

So I said, it's real funny.

He goes, No, I don't feel like I've gone to church unless I've been yelled at and I leave feeling bad.

And I was like, You probably should find another church.

Or I don't know what to tell you.

And he's like, No, you know what I'm talking about.

I said, I know what you're talking about, but here's what you need to understand.

If you're visiting today, we're not that.

I'm not going to yell and scream at you, tell you you're bad people or whatever.

And here's why.

Because we believe the gospel.

It's not, it, it, it's news, it's not information, it's not how to do something, it's news about what's already been done.

This is something we talk about a lot around here.

Think of it like this a long time ago, there was a good king, a gracious, kind king, and he provided for his people.

He got root, he got news that an invading army was coming.

And so he sent out his army to meet this invading army before they got to where his people lived to meet them out on the battlefield.

Now, if he loses the battle, he sends back military advisors to say, get ready, the enemy's coming.

We got to get ready.

We need archers over here and the cavalry over here, and we need all this stuff.

Somebody get Rambo, let's go.

But if the king's army wins, he sends back messengers to say the king is one.

Continue to live in the peace that the king has provided.

The king is one.

The good news of Christianity is that the king is one.

And so, because so we appropriate this victory over our lives on a consistent basis and a constant basis.

Why?

Because the king is one.

And so we're not fighting a culture war, we gotta win.

No, no, no, no.

That's what political parties talk about to raise money.

That's not the gospel.

The gospel is let's just reside comfortably in all that God has already accomplished on our behalf and yet for his glory.

Here's the third word that I want you to see.

It's a little word in.

He says, now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand.

In the gospel is so big, you can stand in it and never touch the edges of it.

Uh, if you if you've been here any length of time, you know that we don't only preach the gospel, but we practice what we call pastoral care.

Some people call it counseling.

Uh, we think that that the Bible kind of stirs up our head and our heart, and people make appointments with our pastors to say, hey, I need to kind of process some stuff.

Talking to a guy recently, and he's got a very negative view of Christianity.

And I said, What is your big deal?

And he goes, Well, I just I just a bunch of rules and regulations.

And and God gave me a picture and I said, You talk about Christianity like that you live in your like God's saying, hey, move out of your house and move into one of those tiny houses.

If you know what a tiny house is, say amen.

It's something I'll never buy, by the way.

Uh, don't give me that for Christmas because people, and he goes, Yeah, you know, yeah.

I said, the people look miserable.

They're like, oh, this thing's 125 square feet.

I'm like, my garage is bigger than that.

But I said, you act like it's that's what it is, like God's kind of confined you to this tight space.

You ask you, yeah, thank you.

Now I've got a I've got a way to describe it.

I said, well, before you take that, let me just correct you and let me just help you out.

You live in a tiny house right now.

You were born in a tiny house, and so were every one of you, hunched over and accommodating, trying to make it look satisfying.

We're saving the planet, honey.

We live in a tiny house.

We've reduced our carbon footprint.

And I said, But see, the gospel is that God pulls up and says, Hey, you get tired of living in that, you're gonna come out here and live on some acreage in a big house with a chainsaw where you can cut stuff up.

And he looked at me and goes, Chainsaw.

I said, Yeah.

You ever fired up a chainsaw and cut something?

Man, you cut down a tree on your property, you'll go ring your neighbor's doorbell and go, You got everything that needs to be cut?

Wham, whom, because you're ruling over creation and subduing it.

He's like, What?

So you're saying I was born in a tiny house?

I'm saying we were all born in these cramped quarters of our own depravity.

And God says, You'll know the truth, the truth will set you free.

In, in which you've taken your stand.

And then he goes on to say this he said, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved.

Notice those two words, being saved.

You're like, no, wait a minute, is it not a what's the deal here?

Salvation is both an event and a process.

It's not a tightrope that you walk on and one step in any direction and you fall, and it's all over.

It's progress, not perfection.

It's progress, not perfection.

I have a friend that's an addict and he does good, but a couple times a year, he'll stub his toe.

If you know what I mean by stub his toe, say amen.

He will just gloriously put it in the ditch.

And he'll call me and say, Hey, I kind of need to come see you, but I'm embarrassed.

And I say, Hey, listen, you ain't gotta be embarrassed.

There's nothing about you changes my mind about you.

You come on, I'll clear my schedule this afternoon.

Come over, let's have coffee.

Uh now, why is that?

Because it's progress, not perfection.

Uh, Jordan Peterson, the sociologist, said this.

He said, Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not who someone else is today.

Compare yourself to who you were yesterday.

Progress.

It's not perfection.

Here's the the fourth word I want you to see the word vain.

He said, and by which you're being saved if you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain.

In vain.

What do you what does that mean?

It means without just cause or effort.

Without a just cause, you you believe for no reason at all.

You should have a reason for why you believe.

The Bible says in 1 Peter, always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within you.

So you you without a just cause or effort.

Now listen very carefully.

The Bible's against earning.

You can't earn it, but you have to exert some effort.

You should ask yourself today, hey, what's something I should do to exert effort in my spiritual life?

Because that's how you become a deeper, mature, more uh secure believer.

You begin to understand things.

And so the hope of Easter, first of all, is that there is actually is good news.

Secondly, God has acted personally to do something about our sin.

God, he didn't send somebody else on an errand.

He came himself, acted personally to do something about our sin.

It's verse 3 where it says right there, Christ died.

Excuse me, Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.

Now, this summed up so much in these words.

Uh now he says, Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.

Now, I don't want to talk a lot about this because I talked about it at Good Friday, but you cannot explain the state of the world without the word sin.

Without a doctrine of original sin or an understanding of sin, the world does not make sense.

Now, I know that some of you are like, no, wait a minute, wait a minute.

You may think, I think people are inherently good.

Thank you, Luke Bryan.

Uh, I believe all people are good.

Uh well, here's the thing: you got a little over seven billion people in the world.

Let's take that fallacy just for a minute.

If there's seven billion people and they're all good as we've been taught that they are, and they're all working for good, why is the world such a bad place?

Why did a man in New York go on the subway and set off a smoke, uh a smoke bomb and then open fire on people?

Why did three people open fire at a mall in South Carolina on Saturday?

If people are inherently good, you go back to the Bible to the very beginning, Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

It says on the you know, on the first day, God created this and there, and God said, Let there be this, and there was this, and it was, what's the word?

Good.

Second day, same rhythm of creation.

God said, Let there be this, and there was this, and it was and the third day, let there be this, and there was this, and it was.

If a perfect God created a good world, how did it get so bad?

I would submit to you, it's because of sin.

Matter of fact, everything in all creation has been subjected to the to the price and penalty of sin.

The Bible says that creation, rocks and trees and skies and soil and dirt and grass, everything you see, creation is groaning as a woman in the pangs of childbirth.

Now, I've never given birth, but it looks painful.

Okay?

Now, before all you women roll your eyes like you have no idea.

I was there twice.

I saw it, I heard it, it was brutal, okay?

Our first child, no epidural.

They said, we can't give you an epidural because something's going on with your platelets.

You're gonna have to deliver this baby naturally.

And our doctor said, Marcy, I need you to set up and push.

And my wife morphed into a superhero, grabbed the bedroom, and a kid came out.

And my wife started making such guttural noises, I just backed up.

I'm over in the corner, and they're kind of like, sir, are you the father?

And I'm just a spectator.

Go ahead.

But look at me, the Bible says that creation is groaning.

Oh, it's a woman in the pains of childbirth.

Now, somebody came up to me recently and said, Hey, Pastor, why don't you talk more about climate change and about what we can do to deal with and address climate change?

And I said, Because I don't think our issue is climate change.

I think the climate is the way it is because of sin, and it's making creation groan.

So what we really need is repentance instead of climate change.

And but they didn't say that.

They were like, What?

And I said, Yeah, you're treating the symptoms instead of the disease.

Creation is groaning because people can't stop sinning.

I wish I could see your faces.

Y'all look like you walked out of Walmart and forgot where you parked.

Did he just say that?

Yes, yes, because the Bible says, again, creation is groaning.

Why?

Because the creation is not the way God intended it to be.

Why do you think God's gonna have to redeem it?

So I'm not saying we shouldn't be good stewards of the environment.

Don't send me emails.

I'm down with that.

I am saying that if you think you can spend money and reverse the effects of sin, you've lost your mind.

Save your money.

Climate change is just something politicians do to make you think they care.

No, if you really care, stop sinning, stop passing sinful policies.

I'll be running for president in 2024.

I appreciate your vote.

Again, Christ died for our sins in accordance with scriptures.

Christ died.

Let's just take them one by one.

Christ died.

This is punishment.

Christ died.

I'm not sure that there are two other words in the English language in existence that you could put together to say so much.

Then Christ died.

Because you see that and you think, oh yeah, they nailed him to a cross and he died.

Crucifixion doesn't kill people.

I could nail you to the cross this afternoon and you would survive.

It is painful, but it's a hole in your hand and it's a spike through your feet.

It would not kill you.

And when he says Christ died, so much is wrapped up in those two simple words.

Before he was put on the cross, he was flogged with a what's called a cat of nine tails.

It's a wooden handle, about 18 inches long, had seven to nine straps of leather with uh uh bone and glass and steel embedded in the leather strapping, and on the end of one of them, the little bit longer than the other ones, was like a treble hook, like uh like a three-pronged hook.

And they would just take your outer garment off, expose your back, and they would beat you 39 times.

That's why Paul says I was beaten 40 times with a lashes, uh, 40 times minus one, because the law said you you can only punish somebody this much.

And so Jesus was so severely beaten with this whip-like device that his family and friends didn't even recognize him.

Okay?

And so he says, Christ died, it's like, okay, uh, okay, we get it.

They nailed him to us.

No.

After they beat him, then they nailed him to the to the cross.

And by the way, when they nailed you to the cross, they nailed you where your knees were bent.

Why is that important?

Because in order to get a breath, you'd have to push up on the spike through your feet and get your diaphragm open so you could get it, just get some air in your lungs.

The way people died in crucifixion was because of suffocation.

They lost the capacity to push up on the nails and their body just gave out and they slumped there.

He said, Well, how do you know that?

You're smart people reading the gospels.

When they came to check Jesus and see if he was alive, they said, Should we break their legs?

And they checked Jesus and said, No, he's already dead.

Why did they say that?

They just gonna pick on a dead guy?

No, they would break their legs so they would go ahead and suffocate faster.

Christ died.

It's punishment.

He was punished, so you do not have to be.

Secondly, for our sins, purposeful, very purposeful.

On the cross, God does for us what we could never do for ourselves, he pays for our sins, plural, every one of them.

Now, here's the application for the sermon today, okay?

Here's what I want you to do this week.

I want everyone in you in this room to pay for something this week and watch people's response.

If you want to, when the gospel starts losing its wonder to you, pay for something and then anonymously, or if you can't always do it anonymously, but pay for something, watch people's response.

Like, here's the easy one.

Go to the gas station.

And just get out, walk up to the pump, and just stand there.

And people get out and go, excuse me, ma'am, I know the economy is kind of crazy and it's kind of kind of the man's got his foot on all of our neck.

Can I pay for your gas today?

And be prepared for people to be like, Are you serious?

Absolutely.

Well, how much can I get?

Two dollars worth.

Here's a cup of gas, pour it in your tank.

No, now you say fill up, and they're like, What?

Now, by the way, if somebody's got an old school suburban, that thing's got a 40-gallon tank.

Watch yourself, okay?

They're like that.

That that that gas pump will shut off and you gotta restart it to fill that thing up.

But people have no frame of reference for something being for a stranger paying their bill.

That's the wonder of the gospel.

When it says that Christ died for our sins, very purposeful.

And then it says this, in accordance with scriptures.

Now, by the way, before we get to that part, let me just say this.

When it says, for our sins, that that sense of wonder that something's being paid for, it's why you read things in the Bible and it's like, wow, the Bible talks about God like it talks about nobody else.

Like here's an example in the book of Micah, Old Testament, chapter seven, he says this, who is a God like you?

See what I mean?

Who is a God like you?

Now, why does the Bible talk about God like this?

Pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance.

He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in steadfast love.

He will again have compassion on us, he will tread our iniquities underfoot, and he will cast all of our sins into the depths of the sea.

That's why the Bible talks about God, because he's done something about your sins that nobody else could do.

Then it says, in accordance with scriptures, it's prophetic.

It's prophetic.

What do you mean, in accordance with scriptures?

In other words, just like the Bible says, 700 years before Jesus dies on the cross, the prophet Isaiah recorded, this is what it's going to be like.

He wrote these words in Isaiah chapter 53.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

He says, Surely, of Jesus, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.

And with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way.

And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, he was afflicted, and yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before it shears is silent.

So he opened not his mouth.

This is why we have hope in Easter, and this is the hope of Easter is that God is acted personally to do something about your sins.

So when you come to church, you don't have to sit there and think, man, if you people knew what I was really like, God does, and he paid for it.

Here's the third reason you have hope in Easter.

The resurrection feels full, the Bible.

The resurrection feels full the Bible.

Let me be clear.

It's not, I'm not saying the Bible's lacking, I'm saying it is cohesive.

It's not lacking something the resurrection makes up for it.

No, no.

The resurrection should cause you and I to have a deeper, fuller appreciation for the Bible and how cohesive it was.

It says there it says that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures.

There's that phrase again.

It's almost like nothing about the life of Jesus caught the Bible off guard.

He was buried.

He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

Now, look at me.

There's a lot of places in the Bible I could go to explain in accordance to the scripture, but I want to go to kind of an unusual place.

I want to go to the story of Jonah and the big fish.

We say Jonah and the whale.

We don't know that it was a whale.

The Bible says it was a big fish, okay?

Now, if you watch Veggie Tales, uh, say amen.

Hold on to your veggie tails because I'm fixing to rock your world, okay?

Pay careful attention.

When you come to church, you should come to church and think, okay?

Uh now he was buried, he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scripture.

Now, think of it like this: the Bible sometimes can feel like a puzzle.

All right.

Now, here's why it's important that you find a church that actually teaches the Bible and does it in a way you can understand.

Because uh it feels like a puzzle until you get some more pieces.

And then it goes from being a puzzle to becoming this, you see this picture emerging.

Now, the Bible's one big cohesive picture and a story that all fits together to magnify the one story that God's been telling from the very beginning.

Let me demonstrate from Matthew chapter 12.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

Let me give you the context.

Jesus has just healed this guy, uh, cast a demon out of this guy.

The religious people couldn't do anything about it.

And they are ticked off.

They're like, Jesus, or they're trying to figure out if Jesus is really the Son of God.

Is he really the Messiah?

And Jesus is not a politician.

He's like, Yeah, I healed the guy.

Here's my card.

Here, tell all your friends.

No, he does what only God can do, and he's like, and they are enraged.

This is what they say.

Matthew chapter 12, verse 38.

Matthew 12:38

And some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.

But he answered them.

An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign.

But note, now, by the way, don't you wish you could tell people off that politely and then not even catch on?

Teacher, we want to see a sign.

An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign.

Translation, you people are evil and adulterous.

They don't even get it.

They're so religious, they're like, keep talking.

He says, An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

That's the that's the that's Jesus being buried in the tomb.

The men of Nineveh will rise up of the judgment with this generation and condemn it.

For they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Now let me pause and acknowledge something.

For some of you in this room, and for a lot of people, one of the biggest obstacles to faith in the Bible and Christianity is that your biggest intellectual objection to Christianity is this right here.

I hear it, I've heard it twice in the past month.

It sounds like this.

I just can't believe that a man lived in a fish for three days.

Now, look at me.

If you're thinking that right now and you're like, I'm not gonna say anything because I don't want to make my grandma break my grandma's heart, the last guy that said it to me, he goes, I just can't believe that a dude lived in a fish for three days, to which I responded, neither can I.

And he looked at me like, ah, oh, oh.

I said, You think I'm like phony, like I don't believe the Bible?

He goes, Well, I've never heard a preacher say that.

And I said, let me explain this to you, because if I don't, you're gonna be condemned by the men of Nineveh at the judgment.

He's like, What did you just say?

I said, I'm gonna explain this to you, the whole Jonah and the big fish, because if not, if you don't believe, you're gonna be condemned by the men of Nineveh at the judgment because they repented when Jonah came and preached to them.

And someone greater than Jonah is here, not me, Jesus Christ.

And he said, So you've thought about this.

I said, Yeah, Christianity is not for eggheads who just emotional messes that just kind of lean on Jesus because we can't figure life out.

That's what you think.

You're the dude still living in the tiny house, okay?

Give me a break.

He's like, Well, oh, oh, oh, okay, go ahead.

Now, by the way, notice that they repented at the preaching of Jonah.

Uh, and and in the Bible, Jesus says this for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Now, here's your problem if you think Jonah lived three days in the belly of a of a whale of a big fish, uh, because some scholars come along, Islamic scholars come along now and they say, Hey, your Jesus didn't really die on the cross.

Because and they'll point to Matthew chapter 12 and says, it says right here, but just as Jonah lived three days.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

So if Jonah was, and Jesus himself says, just as Jonah, if Jonah lived, then Jesus could not have died.

And so what they'll tell you is that your Messiah didn't die.

It's called the swoon theory.

In other words, Jesus had he had bled out, and and so he kind of passed out, and then he came to when they put him in the tomb.

And so he just pushed the rock away and walked out.

Some of you are making notes right now.

Burn veggie tails when I get home.

No, not not at all.

What am I telling you?

I believe Jonah was swallowed by a great fish.

I believe he did not survive that process.

That doesn't make any sense at all.

I believe Jonah died and was resurrected.

You want some bonus round material?

You say, Where do you get that from?

Here's three three three evidences for I'm I'm not trying to be shocking today.

Just stay with me.

We're just about done.

Are you still awake?

Yes.

The ham's gonna be there when you get there.

You're gonna celebrate your Jewish Messiah with ham.

It's another good idea Americans have.

But I digress.

Now look at me.

Hey, stop laughing.

You're in church.

Look at me.

Here's why I believe that he died.

Because he says in the book of Jonah, he said, I cried out from the depths of Sheol, S-H-E-O-L.

Sheol is historically the place of the dead.

Secondly, he says, My spirit, my nepish, fainted.

It's what Jesus said on the cross when he says, I faint because of thirst.

I'm dying here, people.

He didn't say, I'm swooning.

Ain't I got a lifesaver?

My blood sugar's low.

No.

And then finally, when he's regurgitated up on the shore, I believe is a dead body.

And God speaks to him and says, Arise, go to Nineveh.

That word arise in the Hebrew, that's the same word Jesus, phrase Jesus used when he says to Jarius' daughter, when he says, Talifa kum.

Arise, little girl.

Same word.

So this is what I believe.

I believe it's why Jonah went to Nineveh.

Remember, he didn't want to go to Nineveh.

He was on the ship and the guys threw him overboard.

They're like, dude, he said, I'm the problem.

They said, We can solve this.

Fish comes on, boom.

God resurrects him on the shore, and first thing he does is go to Nineveh and he preaches and they repent.

The whole city repents.

And this is why Jesus builds a case against these religious Pharisees.

He says, Hey, somebody greater than Jonah is here.

And if you guys don't listen to me and repent, the men of Nineveh are going to condemn you on judgment day.

So here's what it comes down to: there's one greater than Jonah.

So the question is, are you willing to listen to and believe in the resurrected Jesus?

Don't you get tired of building these intellectual little pseudo-arguments?

Well, I don't believe in a fish that live three days.

Now I have a friend that a guy recently became friends with.

He and I talked about that this past week, and then he said, Well, what about the burning bush?

I said, It's always something, right?

I said, You mean the bush that caught on fire and didn't?

Here's what I would ask you, Mr.

Natural Properties.

The bush never burned up.

It's called a theophany.

God appears to Moses, sees the bush on fire, goes over.

And the thing that tore that tweaked his mind was the bush was on fire, but it didn't burn up.

It's like having fire, uh it's like having wood in your fireplace and it never burns up.

How sweet would that be?

Now, if you're smart Alex, you're thinking, yeah, it's called gas logs.

That doesn't count.

You're not a real man if you've got gas logs, okay?

Build a fire, Skippy.

Burn some stuff, those gas logs, you could sit on them, they don't make they're not hot.

But the thing caught on fire and never worked.

So I look, I just looked back on him.

I said, You tell me, how does this plant-based material not burn up if it's just a fire?

He was like, You got something there.

And so I'm not mocking your intellectual intellectual objections to Christianity, but I am saying that the Bible is cohesive.

It's one story.

It's not a bunch of disconnected moral fables that we tell our kids to get them to go to sleep at night.

It's one story that God has been telling from the very beginning all the way to.

And you may be here today and, like, man, it's kind of a puzzle to me.

Well, great.

Get you some pieces, go home and put them in place, and then come back again and just keep getting more pieces to the puzzle until you see this picture emerging, because this is what God created you for.

Now, here's the last thing the Bible tells us while we can have this hope of Easter, is because God makes the first move.

God makes the first move.

Look at verse 5.

After it says, in accordance with the scriptures, verse 5, it says, in that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom were still alive, but some have fallen asleep.

And then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me was not in vain.

When I say God makes the first move, here's what I mean.

It's that word appeared.

I think it's used four or five times.

And then he appeared to this person, and then he appeared to these people, and then that person.

That word appeared means this: to see with the eyes and know with the mind.

To see with the eyes and to know with the mind.

Okay?

It's not just intellect, it's intimacy.

And so, how do you know to see with the eyes and know with the mind?

If you're single, if you've ever asked somebody that's married, because I asked people when I was married, uh, I remember I was dating a girl, we dated like eight months, and my buddy was married, and I said, Hey, how'd you know she was the one?

He goes, Oh, you just know.

They're like, That's not helpful, dude.

And he's like, Yeah, I promise you, you'll just know.

He said, How long have you been with this girl?

I said, eight months.

He goes, You don't know.

You should break up with her.

What are you doing?

So if you're here and you've been in a relationship more than eight months, break up, come get a lily and call it a day.

Sorry, ladies, I'm I'm helping you out today.

But my buddy just looked at me and shrugged.

Like, you just know, you mean you don't know?

What are you doing hanging out with this girl if you don't know?

Well, I'm just waiting to see where it goes.

He said, I think what you're doing is defrauding her because you don't want to be alone.

Don't encourage that.

But you know what, my friend's right.

You you may give some different answer to that question, but when it came to you and your spouse, you there came a point where you just knew.

You just knew you saw with your eyes, but but but but but you knew in your mind, you knew in the deepest parts of you.

So when the Bible says he appeared, it was like, yeah, yeah, well, there he is.

Okay, this is true.

I'm all out of intellectual objections now.

I got no more YouTube videos that I'm watching at night to build my case.

Who are these people?

Why did he appear to them?

Let me just tell you, first of all, they're Cephas.

Cephas is Aramaic and it means rock or stone.

It's a reference to Peter.

That's what Jesus looked at in Matthew 16.

He said, You are Peter, and upon this rock I'll build my church.

That doesn't mean Peter's the first Pope.

That means, look at me, God builds his church on inconsistent, flawed men and women.

Aren't you glad?

Peter's the guy that denied three times and even knew Jesus.

He even swore the last time.

He's so disassociated from him, he was overcome with shame and he ran away.

The hope of Easter is for people who've just absolutely wrecked it.

Next is the 12th.

It's a reference to Jesus' 12 disciples, his closest followers, who were bitterly disappointed at how it ended because they did not get cabinet seats in the new administration.

They checked the polls and their candidate was losing.

So when the chips were down, they fell asleep or walked away.

And after the cross, look at me, they were hiding in fear of the authorities because they thought they were gonna do some contact tracing and figure out that they were followers of Jesus.

And so they were locked up in someone's house, cowering in place.

The hope of Easter is for people who let fear get the better of them.

Next is the 500.

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 19, 15, in the mouths of two or three witnesses, let a thing be established.

Hear that again.

In the mouths of two or three witnesses, let a thing be established.

How about 500?

500.

It says, you know, though most are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

That's Bible talk, for they died.

Translation, if you doubt this, you can go talk to these people and it can be disproven.

But it couldn't.

Why?

Because the hope of Easter is sustained by verifiable proof.

Fourthly, there's James.

This is a big deal.

Why?

Because he's the half-brother of Jesus.

And look at me, he didn't believe until after Jesus was resurrected.

It's John, I think, chapter 7, about verse 6.

Some of his brothers did not believe him.

They're like, dude, I grew up with you.

You're crazy.

Get out of here.

You're God.

Wait, whatever.

Stop smoking weed.

Give it a rest.

So the family, by the way, he has another half-brother named Jude.

Both of them record a book of the New Testament.

Now, why is this a big deal?

It's a big deal because his brothers were cynical until after he was resurrected.

It was the resurrection that convinced them that Jesus really was the Son of God, the Messiah.

Let me ask you a practical question.

What's it going to take to convince you?

Can you imagine Jesus?

He sees them.

Who's mom's favorite now?

Why is this a big deal?

Because the hope of Easter is for your family, too.

Be careful that you don't go get so into Jesus that you forget your family.

Like I got family members that are far from God.

Far from God.

And they think they're gonna get into heaven because they're related to me.

And they all ask me to pray for them.

I do their funerals, I do their weddings, I pray for them, but I say, hey, God will listen to you.

Oh, shut up, man.

Just fire one up when you talk to the big man.

Wow.

I got people in my family that are in their 60s and they still smoke weed.

I told one of my brothers, I said, Listen, if I lived your life, I'd smoke weed too.

Now, high school students, I'm not endorsing engaging in the left-handed democratic cigarettes, okay?

Look at me.

I've got people in my family that live such a dysregulating life.

They need something to self-medicate them.

And I love those people.

I'm not better than them.

They all, oh, you think you're better.

I'm not better than you.

I don't pay child support to three women.

That's why I've got some money, but anyway.

Look at me.

Do not neglect your family.

The way you relate to them is the Bible they are reading right now.

And the last one, Paul says, and last of all, he appeared to me.

As the one untimely born, he appeared to me.

That phrase untimely born is the Greek word ektromah.

Ektrama.

And it refers to a miscarriage or an abortion.

Paul was so right that he was wrong and he couldn't even tell it.

He was a religious terrorist that went out.

When he says ectrama, my life was kind of a miscarriage.

It was, I was out of sync with the times and the timing of what God was doing.

I was so filled with religious zeal.

I thought what I was doing was the right thing, and it was wrong all along.

And one day he's going down the road and God knocks him to the ground and causes him to be blind, takes his vision away.

And all Paul says is, Who are you, Lord?

If you knock me down in the parking lot, I'm cut and I lose my eyesight.

I'm calling Jim Adler, the text hammer.

But all Paul says is, Who are you, Lord?

Look at me.

Here's why that's important.

You get the right answer to that question, everything else will sort itself out.

And so he says, Last of all, he appeared to me as the one untimely born.

I was out of sync with it.

And then he says this, look at verse 9.

He says, he has reasons.

He says, For I am the least of the apostles and I'm unworthy.

I'm least and I'm unworthy.

And here's why.

I've got an explanation.

Because I persecuted the church of God.

Some of you in this room have an explanation for why you're unworthy.

But look at verse 10.

But by.

You say, for I, but God says, but by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace towards me was not in vain.

You have an explanation.

God has an invitation today.

And the invitation is to this grace that can only be found in God and in a relationship with God.

See, here's why you should consider the claims of Christianity today.

Here's why you can have hope on Easter.

Only God has the grace to accept you as you are.

And this grace is so powerful that as you live in it, you begin to change into who the Bible says you can be.

Let me say that again.

We're done.

Only God has the grace to accept who you really are.

And this grace is so powerful, the more you live in it, the more you get out of that tiny house environment and you get into the vastness, the wideness, and the wonder of who God is and how God is, this grace begins to find you and unwind you.

And you begin to change into who the Bible says you can be.

This is why we have hope on Easter.

And this hope is available to every one of you in this room.

Let's pray together.

If you're new to our church, what we like to do is teach the Bible and then give you some soul space to think about it.

So I'll voice a brief prayer.

No one's gonna jam you up.

We're gonna respect your space.

But just take about a minute and just think before we get out of here.

Let me pray.

God, thanks for the Bible.

Thanks that things that happened were in accordance with the scriptures.

It's as if you've had a plan all along.

It's because you have.

You have a plan for everybody in this room.

Holy Spirit, even now, would you reveal the Father to them?

We just linger in love for just a moment, God.

Speak.

We're listening.

Father, we can behold you, we can see you because you appear.

You manifest, you reveal yourself to us, to our eyes, and to our intellect.

So no one has to try to win an argument to get us in.

You're the God that woos us in.

He says, Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and you'll find rest for your souls.

Pray for anyone in this room that needs soul rest today, that they would come to you for it.

You gladly give it.

Thank you that you lived the sinless life, you died a purposeful death, and you rose from the dead.

That the resurrection is the receipt that proves that something got paid for.

For that we're grateful.

So we say thank you in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen, amen, amen.

If you're a guest, let me say thanks for being here.

You're always welcome.

If this is your first time, if you don't have a church you're not meaningfully connected to, I'd love for you to come back and visit again.

Okay.

Uh what we did today, we don't do something special on Easter.

This is what we do every Sunday.

Right now, we're preaching through the book of 1 John.

And so I'll be in 1 John next Sunday.

I would love for you to be a part of that.

If you're not meaningfully connected to a church, okay?

If you have any questions about anything you saw or heard today, some of our pastors will be down front as soon as we're dismissed.

You can come up to any of them, ask us anything.

No question is off limits, okay?

Like in the first service, we added a service at 7:30, and a guy stopped me and he said, Hey, you didn't take up an offering.

What kind of church is this?

You didn't take up an offering?

I said, Oh, we receive an offering every Sunday.

We just don't pass a plate.

I said, Those wooden boxes by the doors.

And he's like, Oh, okay.

I said, Some people do it online, some people do it there.

He's like, Uh oh, okay.

Also, in that 7:30 service, I have a friend that years ago sold his business, moved up on Lake Conroe, got a beautiful house right on the water.

I didn't realize they were gonna be here.

They got up and left Conroe in time to be here for a 7:30 service.

Yeah, you slackers come slouching in here at 10:30.

Is there any coffee left?

Look at me.

My friend, he's not quite there.

He got some objections.

I saw him this morning and he said, Hey.

I said, Hey, what are you doing here?

He goes, I got me some more pieces to the puzzle.

So look at me.

If all you get today is some pieces to the puzzle, that's enough for us.

You're not a target.

If you're ready to explore Christianity, we'd love to talk with you about that, okay?

We have a lot of things going on in the life of our church, not just for you, but for your children as well.

Give your attention to this video right here, and then uh for our announcements this week, and then we'll be dismissed.

Thank you for joining us today.

Here's some things we want you to know.

If you're new, text welcome to 281-626-5707.

This way we can know that you're here and get you connected with the life of our church.

Starting point is happening next Sunday, April 24th.

If you want to learn more about the church or are ready to take the next step and become a member of the body, this is for you.

Register at grandparkway.org.

Summer is just around the corner, which means camps will be here before you know it.

We provide opportunities for kids 18 months old all the way to 18 years old so they can have fun with their friends and experience God's goodness.

Register at grandparkway.org.

While you're getting registered online, be sure and give us a follow on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.

If you have any questions about what you heard today or would like someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing.

So if you would stand to your feet, hold your hands out.

Jesus died and he rose from the dead.

The Bible says he's the first fruits of those who come from the dead.

The law of first fruits means there's more fruit.

Translation This life is not all there is.

So don't live like it.

Depart now and live in light of the resurrection.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.