The Foundation

With us.

We are going to be in John chapter number 20.

And it is great to be back today with the greatest church family in the world.

It is great to be back.

Many of you have met my wife Angela.

If you haven't, she'll be integrating in the church over the next couple months, and she will be at the later services.

So she'll be at the 11-15 service.

Hopefully you get a chance to meet her.

If you haven't, I missed you guys while I was gone.

But something growing up that I do not miss is when I was in school, my teachers would give me something called a pop quiz.

Any of you guys ever have pop quizzes growing up?

Okay.

So you go in the classroom and the teacher would say, Clear off your desk.

It's time for a pop quiz.

I raised my hand.

I didn't know we're having a pop quiz today.

That's why it's called a pop quiz.

To see how well you've been paying attention, sir.

How well I've been paying attention?

Uh-oh.

But I will say immediately my prayer life began to grow and deepen in that moment.

God, give me divine revelation.

I'm sick after you.

And I bring that up because I wonder if I were to ask the average person, what if I were to ask them a pop quiz question about Christianity, I wonder what they would say.

If I asked them this, what is the foundation of Christianity?

I wonder what people would say.

Some people might say, well, the foundation of Christianity, um it's being a good person.

That's what it is.

It's following these rules and following these traditions, or it's it's just just like believing in God.

That's what Christianity is about.

Just believing in God.

What we're gonna see today in John chapter number 20 is well the foundation of Christianity and how if you will understand and embrace the foundation of Christianity, it will change everything about you.

Here's the foundation of Christianity.

It's very simple, it's been way overcomplicated over the years.

This is it.

Christianity is based on the person of Jesus and the event of the resurrection of Jesus.

Christianity isn't based on a church denomination.

I'm a Methodist, I'm a Baptist, I'm an episcopal, I'm a I don't even know how many they have anymore.

It's based on the person of Jesus.

Now you might say, man, Pastor Nate, uh I kind of have a tough view of Christianity because I have this really bad church experience over here, and this person that went to church, this church leader, like this happened.

It's hard for me to kind of get through this, and it's kind of like diluted the waters of Christianity for me.

Can I say that is an experience that is not Christianity?

Christianity is the person of Jesus in the event of the resurrection.

That's what it's based on.

Same way I'd say, Pastor Nate, uh, I grew up in a Christian home, and everything was like guilt and rules and shame.

That was it.

And when I think of Christianity, when I think, what is Christianity?

I think of guilt and rules and shame.

Friend, can I say, can I say this is so dangerous, this is so dangerous.

Is that you could have that view of Christianity and it's a distorted view of Christianity.

And here's why this is so dangerous.

Is because if you misunderstand Christianity, it can cause you to miss Christ.

And if you miss Christ, it means you miss everything.

If we can get the next slide up there.

If you misunderstand Christianity, it can cause you to miss Christ.

And missing Christ means missing everything.

And it can be easy in our lives to think that Christianity is all these other things, but this is what Christianity is: it's Jesus and his resurrection, nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else.

And today's gonna be a little bit of a different type of message.

If Christianity is based on the resurrection, then there probably should be some evidence for it that actually happened.

And we're gonna look at some evidences for the resurrection, and we're gonna see how the resurrection can actually be and is the pivot point for how you view the world, for how you view your circumstances, for how you view your difficulties and how you view your hardships.

And if you will understand and embrace and believe in the resurrection and live in light of it every day, it's the pivot point for everything else because all of Christianity hinges on it.

So today we're gonna look at the power of the resurrection out of John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

And if you're ready for it, would you say amen?

It says John in John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

It says, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early.

She came early.

She was going to the 8:45 service.

While it was still dark.

She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.

She stopped at Starbucks on the way in.

I'm just kidding.

That's not in there.

That's not in there.

Because we know she would have stopped at Pete's.

Verse number two.

So she went running to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, the one Jesus loved.

Time out?

Timeout, Tom.

So the other disciple, the one who Jesus loved.

This is John.

We're reading out of John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

Do you know who wrote the book of John?

John.

Look what John says about himself.

Look at this.

He says, he says, the one Jesus loved.

I just want y'all to know.

Just want you, I'm the one Jesus loved.

I just find it very interesting.

And he said to he said to them, They've taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they put him.

At that, Peter and the other disciple, remember, John, went out heading for the tomb.

The two, Peter and John, the two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and got to the tomb first.

John says this.

I want the rest of human history to know I outran Peter.

Hey Peter, you walked on water, bro, but I beat you to the tomb.

Right?

That's what he said.

I outran Peter, get to the tomb first, verse five.

Stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.

Then, following him, Simon Peter also came.

He entered the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there.

The wrapping that had been on his head was not lying with the linen cloth, but was folded up in a separate place by itself.

The other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, in case you forgot, then also went in.

He saw, and what's that next word?

Up to this point, John believed in the identity of Jesus, that he was the Messiah.

But John seeing this empty tomb, he believed that he actually resurrected, seeing this.

Verse 9 says, For they did not yet understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead.

Scripture had said Jesus had to rise.

Then the other disciples returned to the place where they were staying.

This is the account of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And we can't hear this account and be like, I've heard this before.

I heard this on Easter Sunday.

Wait, is it April?

Is it no, no, no?

Like the account of the resurrection is everything.

Here's why.

Less than 20 years later, Paul would write to some people in Corinth, and he would write this about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

He would say, if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain, and so is your.

Yes.

Why is that?

Because first of all, the foundation of Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It says in verse number nine of the text, they did not yet understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead.

When Paul would go city to city making Jesus known, he didn't go city to city saying, Man, you guys just need to believe in yourself more.

Just believe in yourself more and trust yourself and be your authentic selves.

Everything's gonna be okay.

No, he went city to city preaching the gospel, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus.

Why would he do this?

Because the resurrection isn't just a chapter in Christianity's story.

It's the hinge the whole story swings on.

It's not like, okay, we have uh these Old Testament books, we have like creation, we have all these different stories, and like the resurrection is like one small part of like this much bigger story.

No, friend, the entire story swings on the hinges of the resurrection.

Because if the resurrection happened, if it actually happened, then it literally changes everything.

It validates everything that Jesus said, and you can't ignore Jesus.

You may come in here and you might be like a skeptic, or you may just be like, Yeah, I'm here because somebody invited me, or you know, like I sometimes when I come to FCC, like I get the Jesus feels and I like the Jesus feels.

But then I also, you know, you got like you got the Muslims that there's like Muhammad, then you got like Buddha, and you got Buddha over there, and you got like New Age over there, and like right now I like do the Jesus thing, but maybe when I get a little bit older, and um then I'm gonna try the Muslim thing, then I'm gonna do like the Buddha thing.

It's just like a buffet.

Like I can just just pick and choose whatever I want.

Friends, if Jesus resurrected, you can't do that.

If Jesus resurrected, then he is the only one.

He is Lord, he is king, he is savior, he is Messiah, he is who he says that he is.

That's who Jesus is.

So if scripture says that Jesus resurrected from the dead and it actually changes everything, then I think it would be smart for us to look at some evidence that the resurrection actually happened.

Now, you might be in the room, you might say, Pastor Nate, I don't need evidence as that the resurrection happened.

I already believe in the resurrection.

It's fair.

But chances are over the next six weeks or so leading up to Christmas, you're gonna have conversations with somebody that's not yet a follower of Jesus.

And this is gonna allow you to have some conversations with them about the Christian faith.

Some of you this week, you're gonna be at the Thanksgiving table with some family members that you love.

Or you'll be at the Thanksgiving table with some other family members.

And um, I'll just stop.

Um and this is gonna allow you to have some some conversations uh about how like why do I follow Jesus?

If you go to Jerusalem today, you can see something called the garden tomb, which a garden tomb, by the way, is empty, and we can go there and we can see what's believed to be the place where Jesus resurrected.

And as we look at some evidences of the resurrection, I want you to first of all think about the death of the apostles.

History tells us the death of the apostles, history tells us that that all of the apostles were martyred for their faith in a resurrected Lord.

None of the apostles would have been martyred if they would have just denounced their faith in a resurrected Savior.

And if they were on the door of death, and they had an opportunity to live or die based on this resurrection, it wouldn't make no sense for them to die for a lie.

Because when they died, they weren't just dying for something they believed in their head or their heart, they were dying for something that they saw.

The resurrection, apart from the resurrection, their martyrdom, their giving their lives makes zero sense.

Second piece of evidence.

The first eyewitnesses of the resurrection were women.

You say, why is that a big deal?

It's a huge deal.

Because sadly and tragically, at this time period, women not only were not, not only were they not respected and valued as image bearers, but they had such little rights that their testimony wouldn't even be heard in a court of law.

And if somebody was fabricating a story, i.e.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, of the resurrection, they would never start the story with women being the first eyewitnesses because it would not support this made-up lie.

But the authors still put women front and center of the resurrection story.

Why?

Because it actually happened.

Number three, the brother of Jesus, James, was converted.

The conversion to follow Jesus.

Here's what we know about James, based on Josephus, a secular Jewish historian.

He became the leader of the Jerusalem church and he was stoned for his faith.

Now, James was the half-brother of Jesus.

He started off not believing in the resurrection or believing in Jesus at all.

He didn't believe in him.

Now, before we give James a hard time, I have a question for you.

Who in the room has a brother?

Lots of brothers, okay.

So if your brother came to you and said, Hey, I just want you to know I'm the son of God.

I am worthy of your worship.

They may have said that to you before.

I'm the Messiah, you need to follow me.

What would you tell them?

You would say, You're the son of something, but it ain't God.

And the brother of Jesus, James, came to a place in his life where he says, You are the son of God, you are worthy of my worship.

I'm giving my life for you because you are the Messiah.

What would your brother have to do for you to follow him like that?

Hey, compelling evidence of the resurrection of Jesus.

Number four, there were 500 eyewitnesses of Jesus after he resurrected.

In Corinthians, Paul would tell them, hey, go and verify that Jesus resurrected by asking 500 different people that saw him after he resurrected.

500 people don't hallucinate the same same thing.

He said they're still alive.

You can go and see them.

Number five, fifth piece of evidence.

And this is very compelling for me.

The most powerful forces on earth couldn't stop Christianity.

The Roman authorities executed followers of Jesus by the masses, and they made a sport out of it.

Yet what did Christianity keep doing?

It keeps spreading.

They couldn't stop it.

It made no sense.

It's like, you want to be a follower of Jesus, you're probably gonna die.

Okay, I'm in.

Who does that?

I'm not signing up to die tomorrow.

Why why why would these people be willing to give their lives?

Not because of something they just believed, but because of someone they saw, a resurrected savior.

And it also, if you think about it, if you're a skeptic of Christianity, you're so welcome here.

I'm so glad you're here.

And if you think about this, Jesus 2,000 years ago said that he would build his church.

And 2,000 years later, amidst all the issues in the church and the abuse and terrible things that's happened in the church that are heinous and not a part of God's plan, the church is still here preaching the gospel 2,000 years later.

Why?

Because Jesus promised that he would build it.

We're still here.

And today, hundreds of millions of people all around the world are worshiping Jesus in corporate gatherings just like this one.

And number six, and we don't have this one on the screen.

But the spread of Christianity began in the city of Jerusalem.

Think about this.

If you were making up a lie, you were making up a lie, you wanted people to believe something that isn't true.

You wouldn't spread the lie in the same place where people could verify it.

You would go hundreds of miles away, you'd be like, hey guys, guys, guys, guys, guys.

Hey, there's this guy named Jesus.

He was uh he was uh born in Bethlehem, he was raised in Nazareth, he resurrected from the dead.

Like it happened.

You should follow him.

Like, I'm gonna teach.

Like, listen to me.

Like, why?

Because these people couldn't go to Jerusalem hundreds of miles away.

Remember, there's no Ubers, there's no bus, there's no airplane.

That's what you would do if you were making up a lie.

Christianity didn't spread hundreds of miles away, it spread and exploded in the very city where those people could go and verify an empty tomb because those people in that city saw Jesus resurrected.

And if the resurrection actually happened, then friends, believing in the resurrection is the pivot point for your story.

This is what it says in John chapter 19, the text we just read.

John 19 · chapter mention

It says the other disciple who reached the tomb first, saw, went in, saw, and what's that next word?

Saw and believing in the resurrection and living in light of it every day is not just something for for John and Peter and these guys that were here.

It's for you.

Every one of us in this room, we all have a story.

Some of you look at the story of your life and you're proud of it.

Some of us aren't proud of our story.

Some of us, probably all of us, have some bumps in our story, have some hardships, have some difficulties.

It's what brings us here today.

Here's what you need to know.

You need to know this, that your story matters to God because you matter to God.

Your struggles matter to God because you matter to God.

And as we often say here, the gospel doesn't just save us, it shapes us, strengthens us, and guides us.

The gospel, the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus.

How does this story, how does this account, how does it shape us, how does it strengthen us?

Maybe I could help us understand it this way.

I uh you guys know I'm kind of a sports nerd.

I know it's it's news to some of you guys.

Go Niners.

Um and uh how many guys, how many guys uh you played basketball growing up?

Basketball, guys, basketball, okay.

How many like me?

You used to love basketball.

Okay, yeah, basketball is great.

And growing up, if you played or if you play basketball on unorganized teams, at some point they taught you something called the V-cut.

So what the V-cut would be, let's go.

What the V-cut would be is if you have a defender that's draped all over you, somebody's guarding you, you can't really see the basket, you can't really see the court, what you would do is you would find a place on the court.

You see Steph Curry do this all the time if you watch.

You step, you pivot, you make a V, you get open, you get the ball, and now I have the ball, I have space, so I can see the floor, I can do different things with the basketball.

Now that defender that was once draped all over me, now I've done a V cut, I've pivoted from this point on the court.

Now there's space.

Now here I can operate, I can function because I've pivoted off this point, and now we can go forward.

Now check this out.

Hang with me with this illustration, okay?

The resurrection allows you in your life to pivot away from being hopeless and overwhelmed and destitute and broken and hurting, pivot into somebody that lives their life with hope and confidence and meaning and stability and faith.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul tells us how this happens.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

What the gospel does, what the resurrection does, it allows us to pivot from our sin.

So it says in that next verse, you guys can put it up there in 1 Corinthians 15, 17.

It says, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, and you're still in your sin.

But if Christ has been raised, guys, then you know what that means?

We are no longer in our sin.

We are forgiven.

And when Jesus Christ paid the debt for our sins, how do we know that he actually paid them?

Because he resurrected.

Here's why this matters so much.

Because some of you live your life in bondage to things that happened to you or things you have done in the past.

And you live your life with this low-level shame and this low level guilt.

And it's like, man, I it's like I know I like made this mistake, like I know I did this.

Some of you are trying to live your life to pay back for the wrongs that you've done.

I have good news for you.

The resurrection is the pivot point that allows you to say, my sins have been forgiven because I am forgiven.

I don't have to live in guilt and shame.

Because, number two, I have now have a secure and anchored identity.

So once I was living my life in sin, in shame, now because of the resurrection, I pivot my life into having an anchored identity.

I realize that who I am is not what I've done.

Who I am is not what's been done to me, but who I am is who God says that I am.

Every person in this room, you find identity somewhere.

What's identity?

Its meaning, its self-worth, and its purpose.

It's the story you tell yourself about yourself.

For some of us, we find our identity in what people think about us.

So this week, going on Thanksgiving, you're like, man, everything's gotta be right.

I gotta keep people happy, I gotta blah, blah, blah.

And you might tell yourself, yeah, I just want to make people happy.

Well, really, because you want them to think a certain way about you so you'll feel a certain way about yourself because you find identity in their opinions.

Some of us find identity in our successes.

So we look and we're like, oh, I did that, I did this, I did that.

Man, look at this is who I am.

Some of us, we find our identity in our failures.

We're like, I am this.

I did this, I experienced this, this is who I am.

I'm nothing but a.

And we carry this identity around.

And this is what the resurrection says.

The resurrection says that if your faith is in Christ, you have a secured and anchored identity, and it is in who God says that you are nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.

You are not what's happened to you.

You are not your successes, you are not your failures, you are a child of God.

And because you are a child of God, there is boldness, there is confidence, there is clarity, there is meaning, there is hope for that in your life.

Because when Jesus resurrected and we pivot our lives living from that, I now am who God says that I am.

You are a new creation in Christ.

This is who you are.

It allows us to pivot into a new identity, it allows us to pivot our lives into a life of hope.

For many of us, our greatest fear in our life is death.

We're so scared to die.

And in this text of 1 Corinthians 17 and verse 21, it says, Death came through a man.

That guy's name was Adam.

The resurrection of the dead also came through a man.

For just as in Adam I'll die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

When our faith is in Christ, we don't have to fear death.

Because death is just a doorway into resurrection life.

In Philippians chapter 1, Paul says, For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

Paul says, if I die, I actually gain a lot.

Why?

Because of the resurrection.

And number four, it allows us to pivot into a life of service for the resurrected king.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 58, the text 58, Paul says, I want you to be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord's work because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

1 Corinthians 15:58

What the resurrection of Christ calls us to do is to live a life committed to serving the King.

And what I'm gonna invite, we're gonna do something, we're gonna end our service a little differently.

I'm gonna invite our worship team to come up here right now.

And we're gonna end singing a song about the living hope that we have because of the resurrection.

Some of us right now are in a place in our life where we need some hope.

Some of us are in a place in our life where we have some burden, some of us are a place in our life where we are finding identity in so many other things lesser than Christ.

And it's overwhelming and it's burdening, and we're just feeling the weight of stuff.

Can I just say, if Jesus resurrected, you have a living hope?

Some of us are at a place in our life where it's time for us to start serving the King of Kings again.

For some of us, we need to re-engage in service.

Paul says in verse 58, be steadfast, unmovable, abounding in the work of the Lord.

Why does Paul say this?

Because of the resurrection.

Why does Paul serve?

Because of the resurrection.

So what does he do?

He says, Hey, I'm rolling up my sleeves and I'm getting to work.

I'm jumping out a serve team.

I'm I'm I'm making Jesus known.

I'm helping people.

Why?

Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And guys, wherever you are in your life, can we get to the resurrection and let that be our pivot point into a life of living hope?

Let's pray together.

Lord.