The Hope of Easter

We're going to be in John chapter 20, john chapter 20, and I wonder if you've ever done something where you look back and you think why did I do that Back in college?

John 20 · chapter mention John 20 · chapter mention

I have a few of those moments, if you know what I'm saying.

One of those included an elevator.

So me and a bunch of my friends, we had a class on the top floor of a building and we had this great idea we're going to play this game to see how many dudes we can stuff in an elevator.

So we started with like 15.

We're like, oh, 15, like this is easy, and every week we would just add a couple more until we got to 23 guys in an elevator.

Now, I don't know if you're aware of this, but elevators have a weight limit.

We were like sure they have a weight limit, but they just it's not there for a reason.

Like it's just there because I don't know why it's there.

We're not, we're not worried about that.

So we, we, we stuffed 23 guys in there and I'm telling you we were like packed in like sardines.

I was the designated button pusher, so I was the one that pressed the button to go down, and I pressed the button and and then it happened.

And then it happened.

The elevator started going down and then it stopped, but it didn't stop when it was supposed to stop.

It stopped between floors.

Now we're like that's just weird, like why would the elevator stop between floors?

My buddy's like hey, nate, you need to press that button again, it's not?

I was like, okay, press the button, nothing, nate.

We said like you got to press the button again, nothing, nothing.

Y'all.

We broke the doggone elevator.

We broke it.

No, no, here's the thing too.

We're just coming from our classes.

So we had, like all these books, we had our books, people had backpacks, people had briefcases and we were in a Bible college.

So we were all like dressed up, wearing like ties and sport coats and all this stuff, and all of a sudden it like dawns on us we're stuck on this elevator.

What are we going to do.

My other buddy in the back is like I probably shouldn't say this, but I got to go to the bathroom right now.

In that moment I started looking around to some things I had been oblivious to.

I started noticing some things.

I was like okay, the weight limit.

I did some quick math.

I'm like you don't have to be a math major to figure out.

We do not we exceed that capacity.

I started noticing this emergency button.

I noticed the speaker over here.

I'm like what's around me?

And guys, I had to make some calls.

And 40 minutes later 40 minutes later, some knucklehead Bible college students were released back into the wild and I was in that elevator.

I had been in that elevator so many times and I was oblivious to so many things until I realized, oh man, we're stuck.

What else is around me?

And I think some of us can live our lives like that.

We can be oblivious to some things until we're stuck, and we can be oblivious to the fact that there's a real God that wants a real relationship with us.

And what can happen in our lives is we think we're good with our life until something happens.

Maybe you get the medical diagnosis, maybe you have general dissatisfaction with life, until something in your life causes you to be like, wow, maybe there's something else out there.

There's an atheist named CS Lewis that experienced this, and this is what CS Lewis said.

He said if I find myself with desires that nothing in this world can satisfy, the best explanation is that I was created for another world.

This brings us to Easter Sunday today.

I don't know what brought you here.

I don't know if you lost a bet.

I don't know if somebody bribed you, somebody dragged you.

We can still see your heel marks in the parking lot when you Somebody said meet me for brunch and they gave you the address of the church building.

And you're like what in the world?

They're like yeah, easter is a story of hope, because Easter is the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because Easter is the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And no matter your story here today, no matter what brought you here, you can experience hope in life because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And here's what we're going to do today.

I'm going to show you, if you'll choose to lean in, I'm going to show you, from John chapter 20, how, because of the resurrection, you can experience hope and you can share that hope with others.

John 20 · chapter mention

So let's pick it up In John chapter 20, if you're ready for it, would you say amen?

John 20 · chapter mention

This is what it says in John 20, verse number one.

It says on the first day of the week.

Somebody tell me what is the first day of the week?

It is Sunday.

Sunday here.

Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark.

That's early.

How many of y'all are morning people?

You wake up early?

Okay, I'll be praying for y'all over there.

I'll be praying for y'all.

Mary Magdalene, apparently she's a morning person.

She's here early in the morning.

She saw the stone had been removed from the tomb.

Now, y'all, this is a problem.

The way burials happen in the first century is they bury people in what we would kind of know of as a cave.

There would be a stone rolled in front of the cave.

So when Mary goes up to see the grave of Jesus, the stone had been rolled away and Mary is not thinking, yes, jesus resurrected.

She's thinking this body's stolen.

This is what we're going to see.

She went to Simon Peter, to the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said to them they've taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they put him.

Taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they put him.

Notice, mary's not like he resurrected, mary's like we don't know where he's at.

Nobody assumed that Jesus was going to resurrect from the dead, because people don't typically resurrect from the dead.

There wasn't an iPhone timer that somebody put on and said, okay, let's get the timers in place, because Jesus is coming back in three days.

We got to get ready, get the confetti poppers, get the banners ready, because in three days we want to be there when he walks out of that grave.

No, no, nobody was expecting no body, nobody.

Nobody thought that he would resurrect.

At that, look what Peter did, peter and the other disciple.

They went out and they were heading for the tomb.

The two were running together.

I love the description it's like a foot race to get to the tomb of Jesus.

But the other disciple outran, peter.

I guess Peter wasn't fast enough there and got to the tomb first, 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 cloths but was folded up in a separate place by itself.

And the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, then also went in, saw, and what's that last word?

Went in, saw and Believed, believed.

This other disciple is John.

Now, john had been following Jesus around for not one, not two, but three years.

John had saw Jesus walk on water.

What a sight that must have been.

Y'all John had.

Saw Jesus take five loaves of bread and two fishes and feed all these people.

What a sight that must have been.

We're talking about a buffet here.

John saw all those things.

John heard the greatest sermons ever.

They were from Jesus, but none of those things were the things that caused him to believe.

It was the empty tomb.

When he saw it, he believed.

See, when Jesus died, the disciples, the early followers of Jesus, they had all of their hopes die with Jesus.

None of them were like, hey, jesus is dead.

But, guys, we got to keep the stories alive.

Like we got to keep the message alive.

Okay, peter, you tell that story.

John's like I got this one.

Andrew, you tell that one, let's go.

That didn't happen because the message of Jesus was not the message of Jesus.

The message of Jesus was the person of Jesus.

Jesus was the message, and Christianity is actually not based on the teachings of Jesus.

Christianity is based on the person of Jesus.

And here's why this matters so much, because some of you are sitting in the room and you're like, well, I don't really believe in Christianity or I can never be a Christian because of you fill in the blank.

Because of you fill in the blank Because I had this really terrible thing happen to me, and if there's a real God, then that wouldn't have happened to me.

So I can't be a Christian.

Or we think, maybe, maybe, maybe I had this really bad church experience and those people said they were Jesus people.

If that's Christianity, I want nothing to do with that.

Or maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe you had a question or you read something in the Bible that you just couldn't get a good answer for and you're like, because of that, I'm out.

But here's the reality.

Christianity isn't based on any of those things that you fill in the blank.

Christianity is based on a dead man that walked out of a grave.

That's what Christianity is based on, and the question you have to answer is not do you understand everything?

The question that you have to answer is not has your life been good or bad?

The question you have to answer is not does everything make sense to you?

The question you have to answer, friend, is did Jesus actually resurrect from the dead?

Because if Jesus actually resurrected from the dead, then you have to consider his life.

You can't put him on the shelf.

You can't think, oh, that's just for somebody else, that's just for short, stubby pastors that talk real loud on Sunday mornings, like this is something that's for everybody if he actually resurrected from the dead.

I was talking to a friend not too long ago.

He's newer to faith.

He's like man my friend, not his friends.

He's like my family.

They did the whole Jesus thing.

That wasn't me.

That's like my family.

They did the whole Jesus thing.

That wasn't me.

That's what they did.

But something in me caused me to start searching and he said I came to this place in my life when I said I'm going to actually study the events of the resurrection and see if this actually happened.

And upon a months and months and months and months long study, he said I cannot deny that this happened, like this actually happened.

And I just recently had a conversation with him.

He's like, since I have believed, he's like it has changed my life.

We were talking on Friday.

He was like Good Friday is different than any other Good Friday in the rest of my in the history of my life because were talking on Friday, he was like good Friday is different than any other good Friday in the rest of my in the history of my life, because I now realized that Jesus died for me and for my sins and it changed everything.

And you might be here this morning and you might say oh man, like I don't know about Christianity, I don't know about Jesus, I don't know about all this stuff.

Here's the deal, bro.

If he actually resurrected from the dead, then you got to consider him.

You got to Every one of us have to Up to this point.

The disciples had been walking with him for three years.

They came to this place where they didn't even fully understand this was going to happen.

In verse nine, this is what the text says, for they these are Peter, john they didn't even understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead.

The prophets prophesied that this was going to happen.

Jesus said this was going to happen, but they still didn't understand it.

This really encourages me, because they walked with Jesus for three years and they still didn't fully understand it.

Here's why this encourages me, because I can be a slow learner.

Sometimes.

Anybody else in the room, you, honest enough, you're like.

Sometimes I can be a slow learner.

Raise up your hand.

If you didn't raise up your hand, you lying, bro, you are lying.

How many say the person next to me they're a?

No, don't raise your hand, don't raise your hand.

They lion.

How many say the person next to me?

They're a no, don't raise your hand, don't raise your hand.

They've been walking with Jesus for three years, three years, and they still don't understand this, even though Jesus said it would happen Until they saw it.

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

Mary stood outside the tomb, crying as she was crying.

She stooped to look into the tomb and look what she saw verse 12, two angels in white sitting where Jesus' body had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet of Jesus, the other at the feet where he had been laid.

They said to her where he had been laid.

They said to her woman why are you crying?

Because they've taken away my Lord.

She told around and saw Jesus standing there and the rest of Mary's life began, not because of a teaching of Jesus, but because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because he resurrected.

Now you think about the resurrection, though.

The resurrection is an event that caused great joy and great hope, but before there was ever great hope, there was the death of Jesus.

There was the death of Jesus, which produced great sorrow.

In fact, great hope began with great sorrow.

Easter Sunday began with Good Friday the disciples that had been following Jesus.

They had left everything to follow him.

They thought Jesus was going to overtake the Roman empire and set up his kingdom and they were going to lead the way in all this.

They were excited about it.

They had given up their dreams, their ambitions, their jobs to follow him.

And then he died and they were devastated.

They went into hiding, they were sorrowful, but what they didn't know is, though he was dead, he was going to rise again.

Though he was dead, resurrection was going to come.

And this is why I bring this up, because some of us are in a place in our life where we have some great sorrow.

There are some dreams, there's some ambitions, there's some desires that we have that we thought this was going to happen, or we thought this was not going to happen.

This was not going to happen and it didn't happen.

Or maybe it did happen and we have become sorrowful.

And can I just say that is normal.

But in the kingdom of God, what God can do is God can bring a resurrection from a death.

God can bring hope from great sorrow.

God can turn our turmoil into a testimony, and please listen to this friend.

One of God's greatest powers is his ability to redeem death, brokenness and hardships.

God is a God that can redeem things.

The worst thing that could ever happen, the execution of Jesus, an innocent person, was the very thing that allowed us to have our sins forgiven, and some of us are going through stuff that we did not plan, that are not expected, that we did not put on our 2025 bingo card, and we're like what in the world is happening?

How can any good thing come from this?

Because this is a really bad situation, friend.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ shows us that hope can come from any situation and, yes, that thing might be bad and yes, that thing might be terrible.

And I'm not sitting here telling you, bro, like put on rose colored glasses.

No, you can be real about this, but you can also be real about the fact that if Jesus resurrected from the dead and God can redeem that situation, then God can redeem your brokenness and your hurt and your pain and your mental health struggles.

And the gospel is not just something that should be in a building on Sunday morning, on Easter Sunday, but it's something we live every single day of our lives in brokenness and hardships and pain and difficulties that we go back to this message that though he was dead, he came back to life and though things die and though bad things happen, we have a God that can redeem.

Can somebody say amen?

Come on, back in 1980, there was a 13-year-old girl named Carrie Lightner that was filled with excitement because she was on her way to a carnival.

How many of you guys have been to a carnival before?

Remember when you were a kid and you were going to a carnival and how much fun it was?

Yeah, before.

You remember when you were a kid and you were going to a carnival and how much fun it was?

Yeah, and while she was walking to that carnival, the unthinkable happened A drunk driver swerved and killed.

Her words cannot even communicate what that was like for her mom, and her mom could have done what would make sense.

Her mom could have said this happened to me.

I'm going to spend the rest of my life being bitter and angry, and that would have made complete sense.

But her mom said this thing is terrible, but I'm going to let my daughter's memory live on and something can happen from this terrible thing.

Something can happen from this terrible thing, and she made this decision to start something that you may have heard Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

She started forming initiatives.

She stood before state representatives, she partnered with organizations like the NFL and others.

She coined terms like the designated driver.

You've heard of that Came from her and since 1982, drunk driving deaths have gone down 50%.

Because this woman said yes, this is bad, but I'm going to redeem this bad thing for something good.

And some of you in your life.

Something is bad, something is challenging, something is hard, but there is a God that resurrected his son, jesus, from the grave, and hope can come from this great sorrow that you're experiencing.

If you choose to embrace the fact that Jesus actually resurrected from the dead, if he actually resurrected from the dead, then everything that we're talking about isn't some feel-good story.

Then Easter isn't just about hey, let's hope Pastor Nate stops teaching so we could go get some brunch.

You know what I mean.

It's going a little long.

Easter's not just about let's get like our cute Easter pictures.

You know, make sure you dress up.

Oh, we've got to paint some eggs.

No, no, easter is so much more than that Easter.

Easter says that somebody died on the cross for your sin and that person that died on the cross for your sin resurrected from the grave.

And what separates Jesus from every other religious leader is that you can go and they celebrate where they're buried and their tombs and all those different places, and they have monuments of, oh, this Buddha was buried here and this person was buried here.

Go to Jerusalem.

This is what you will find.

You will find an empty tomb.

An empty tomb.

And, my friend, we cannot live lives like I lived when I was in college in that elevator, oblivious to what was happening around me.

We have to wake up and realize that Jesus is a real savior, that Jesus is somebody that can change our lives, that the gospel says that Jesus died in our place because we were sinners and through his death we can have life.

This is why I invite every person to do this morning.

I invite every person to take a step in one of three areas.

For some of us, what this means is to trust Jesus, that risen Savior, to be our Lord and Savior.

That you will say, okay, I need to make the decision to trust him to be my Savior.

It's a personal decision.

After the service, the 845 service.

Somebody came to me right Right here, down here, at these steps, and they were like I want to make that decision, like I want to.

I've made this decision in service.

I want to trust him to be my savior.

Maybe that's some of you, for some of us.

Number two we need to remind ourselves that God can redeem our pain, our brokenness and our hardships.

We need to tap into that, like this week, in our pain, our hardships, our brokenness.

We need to remind ourselves of the resurrection, that life can come from death, that hope can come from great sorrow, that from turmoil can come a testimony that grace can come from our weakness, that God can do that.

And then, number three I don't know where you're at, but maybe there's some other way that you can take a step in your faith.

Some of us need to re-engage with our faith.

Some of us need to say, hey, this isn't just going to be an Easter thing for me, this is going to be the start of the rest of my life.

Easter Sunday 2025.

We got something coming up next Sunday called Celebration Sunday.

We're going to close with a song this morning.

That's everybody's walking up, in case you're wondering.

We got something called Celebration Sunday.

That's what we're gonna do next Sunday.

We're gonna celebrate what God's doing in people's lives.

We're gonna have baptisms.

Maybe you've recently trusted Jesus to be your Lord and Savior.

Maybe you make that decision today.

We invite you to publicly express your faith through baptism.

We have people baptized.

We're gonna have a taco truck giving out free tacos, because everybody loves free tacos.

Can I get an amen?

Come on, let's just keep it real.

It's just us here, balance house for the kids, and so we're going to invite you I'm going to invite all of y'all to come back next Sunday.

Before the 845 service.

There was a couple of families that came to me and they said hey, one year ago they just looked like.

Both of them were like one year ago.

I was like one year ago.

One year ago, I walked into this building for the very first time easter 2024 and one of them said not both families, but one of them said my life has been forever changed because of that decision, not because of this, but because of the God that we serve.

And I wonder could this be the rest of your story?

I end with a quote from the atheist that I brought up, his quote at the beginning of the service.

This is what he said about Christianity.

He said Christianity, if false, is of no importance and if true, of infinite importance, the only thing it cannot be is moder no importance and if true, of infinite importance, the only thing it cannot be is moderately important.

Has this thing been moderately important, guys?

It's time for us to open our eyes and realize that, if this is true, that if he resurrected from the grave, then this thing matters more than anything else, that we have hope, no matter what we're facing, that Jesus is a risen Savior, that this is not just something that we talk about but, friends, we have a living hope and let's take next steps in our faith, as God is leading us.

People are going to be available at the prayer and next steps banners.

I'm going to be down here at the front in just a minute, but let's all stand together.

I'm going to pray.