Easter Sunday

Good morning.

Fok Wai Ji Phi Lok.

Is that sort of right?

Okay, great.

Happy Easter for those of you who like me,

aren't very good at Cantonese.

And welcome, welcome to our Easter service.

If you are a guest of ours this morning,

please make yourself right at home.

It's so wonderful to have you with us

as we celebrate what is the most wonderful

and significant day in the Christian calendar.

This morning, across the globe,

from Tokyo to Texas, from Canberra to Canada,

from the southernmost tip of Africa

all the way to the northernmost tip of Asia,

followers of Jesus from every culture,

every background, every language,

every socioeconomic group are celebrating

not just that Jesus died

and he took our sin upon himself,

not just the fact that God came to earth for us,

but the fact that Jesus rose again

physically in bodily form.

This morning, we celebrate

that the grave couldn't hold him.

This morning, we celebrate

that the tomb couldn't contain him.

This morning, we join with the angels who say,

why look for the living amongst the dead?

He is not here.

He has risen.

And so this morning, we celebrate

the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

But the question is, what does that mean for us?

How does this historic and most important day

affect our lives tomorrow

or on Tuesdays, you go to work?

How does this day affect us

when you're sitting in the doctor's room

and you have got a medical report in front of you?

How does the resurrection of Jesus affect

not just your eternity, but your career,

your approach to money, your marriage?

How does it affect you

when you get paid a nice bonus?

How does the resurrection of Jesus

affect your successes and your failures,

your ambitions and your disappointments?

This morning, we're gonna just,

for 15 minutes,

we're gonna look at this passage of scripture

that was read to us.

And the scripture tells us

two profound implications

of the resurrection of Jesus.

Two implications that speak

to our deepest existential need,

but two implications that also speak

to the nitty-gritty days of life,

the days when we're in the trenches,

the realities of life.

And so if you've got the bulletin,

look at the bulletin scripture with me.

In verse 15, Paul is writing,

and the apostle Paul writes to these Christians

in this very superstitious city of Ephesus.

And he writes that he's praying for them.

And he's praying this prayer,

and this is the prayer that he prays.

He says,

I pray that the eyes of your heart

may be enlightened,

may be opened,

that you may know,

so not just theoretically know,

not just know in your head.

I pray that deep down in your heart,

you will know something.

And what does he want them to know?

He wants them to know two things.

He wants them to know the hope

to which God has called them,

and he wants them to know the great power

that is promised to those

that are followers of Jesus.

Okay?

So look at what he says, verse 18.

I pray that the eyes of your heart

may be enlightened,

in order that you may know

what is the hope to which God has called you.

Friends, the resurrection of Jesus

gives hope to the hopeless.

All of us know

that hope has the ability

to both stir you up

and to crush you, right?

You know, the Proverbs writes

that the hope deferred

or hope unrealized

makes the heart sick.

Can anyone recognize that feeling?

You hope for something

only for it not to happen,

and your heart feels sick, right?

But why is that?

Why does hope have this ability

to both encourage us

and to crush us?

Well, the reason is

because when we talk about hope,

we talk about hope

as something like a desired outcome

that we hope is going to happen,

but the outcome is very uncertain, right?

You hope to have good grades

to get into university.

You hope that your mother's cancer

will go into remission, right?

You hope that you will be made MD this year.

You hope that your child

will get into med school

and become a doctor.

It's these things that are,

it's the desired outcome,

but the outcome

is not necessarily certain.

Every year,

I hope that my football team

will win the league,

and in my case,

it's very uncertain, right,

that that's going to happen.

But we're all familiar

with the uncertainty of hope.

Hope has the ability

to disappoint us.

But you know,

when the Bible speaks about hope,

it actually uses it

in a very different way.

The Bible talks about hope

as something which is,

the outcome is guaranteed.

It's absolutely rock solid certain,

but the path towards that outcome

is very uncertain.

Or the route,

or if you're American,

the route towards that outcome

is very uncertain, right?

So think about it in this way.

In our culture,

we think about hope

as like driving a car

without a GPS system.

You hope that you're going to get

to the destination,

but whether you get there or not

is not very certain.

Okay?

But when the Bible talks about hope,

it talks about hope

as being like somebody

that's blind,

but taking the hand

of somebody trustworthy.

The path in front of you

is unknown.

It's going to require faith.

It's going to require trust.

It's going to require courage.

But you can be guaranteed

that the person

is going to get you

to your destination.

Okay?

Does that make sense?

Now,

look at what Paul says here.

He says,

I pray

that the eyes of your heart

will be opened,

that you may know,

not just intellectually,

that you may know

in your heart

what is the rock-solid hope

to which God has called you

because Jesus has risen

from the dead.

Now,

why does Christ's resurrection

give us this hope?

Why can we bank our lives

this rock-solid hope

because Christ has risen from the dead?

How does Jesus rising from the dead

give us this hope?

In the book of 1 Corinthians,

the apostle Paul writes,

and he says this.

He says,

if Jesus didn't rise from the dead,

well,

our faith

is actually in vain.

Our hope

is worthless.

We've got nothing to hope for

because all we've got to live on

is that which is around us,

the circumstances,

the situations.

We hope that things will go well

or maybe things won't go well.

Our faith is worthless

and hopeless.

It's all in vain.

But then he says,

but,

says Paul,

in fact,

Christ did rise from the dead

and is the first fruits

of those who have died.

In other words,

he's saying,

Jesus died

and he's gone to heaven,

but he hasn't just gone to heaven.

He's opened the way.

He's paved the way

for all those who trust in him

and to hope in him

that we will follow him

to glory one day.

In other words,

Jesus didn't just die

to save us from judgment

from God one day.

Jesus rose from the dead

and his resurrection life

is now available

for you and I

right here today,

right now.

As you go to work this week,

as you work on your marriage,

as you worry about your children,

something of Jesus' resurrection life

and power

is available to us today.

It's no secret that in Hong Kong

there's a real sense of hopelessness.

That right?

People feel like the system

is against them.

The housing market,

rental is so expensive,

education,

the pressures of work,

these long hours

that you have to work,

the expectation of your bosses,

the pressure to provide

for your children

everything that they need

to succeed.

For many people in Hong Kong,

the system,

the sense that the system

is against you

renders so many people

with a sense of hopelessness.

Friends,

I want to tell you this morning

that the gospel gives us a hope.

It guarantees that there's an outcome.

It guarantees that if you take the hand

of the living God,

you may have to trust Him.

It doesn't guarantee that your life

will be comfortable or easy.

As you take His hand

and He says,

walk with me,

there will be times

where the route between here

and glory

is not comfortable or convenient.

But there is a hope

that the resurrected Jesus gives us

that you can take His hand

and He will not let you go.

There is a hope that

in your heart of hearts,

you can face the obstacles.

You can face the storms in life.

You may have storms around you.

You can get up in the morning

with hope in your heart

because Jesus is alive

and has risen from the grave.

And I want to ask us

to think about

the implications of this.

Think about the implications

in two ways.

Firstly,

think about the implications

for hardship and trials,

difficulty and suffering.

This week,

I was listening to a podcast

of a man called

Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones.

The podcast was about

this man's life.

And Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones

was a,

he grew up in the United Kingdom

and at 10 years old,

his father had a shop front, right?

So you know how in Hong Kong,

the old shop front,

there's a shop on the bottom

and a house up on top.

And so his father

was a shopkeeper

and they lived above the shop.

And at 10 years old,

one night,

the family's all fast asleep

in the house

and something in the shop

catches a light

and the shop

bursts into flame.

The flames engulf the shop

and soon they engulf

the whole house.

And so the family

realized what's going on

and they escape.

And they get out alive,

but they've lost everything.

Absolutely everything.

This was in the early 1900s.

They didn't have insurance,

good policies in those days.

And so the family

loses completely everything.

And they try and trade

their way out,

but things just get worse.

And so after a few years,

the family is declared bankrupt.

And the shame,

they've got to sell everything

and they've got nothing.

But listen to what

the podcaster wrote about this.

He said,

these financial troubles,

this frowning providence

was actually hiding behind it all

a smiling face

because the financial losses

would become the impetus

to push Martin Lloyd-Jones

into becoming the man

that he had later become.

You see what he's saying?

Even in the midst

of great hopelessness,

in the midst of great despair,

as this family lost everything,

behind all that hardship

was the smiling face

of the sovereign God

that knew what he was doing

and was using that moment

to forge this person

to becoming

one of the greatest leaders

in the last century.

I'll tell you more about him

in a second.

Well, consider the apostle Paul.

Paul is in prison

and things aren't going well.

He's getting beaten in jail.

And what does he do?

He rejoices.

He rejoices at the trials

that he's facing

because in the midst

of the trials,

he sees the fingerprints

of God.

He knows that God

is in the trials

and God is there with him

even in the prison.

He says that the prison

has allowed him

to know God deeper,

to find out something

about the nature

and the character of God.

Even as he's being beaten

and mocked,

Paul finds reason

to rejoice.

And he writes this.

He says,

even though my body

is wasting away,

my body is becoming frail,

even in my old age,

I'm not as strong

as I used to be.

He says,

my inner self

is being renewed,

made new every day.

These light

and momentary troubles

that I face

are preparing for me

an eternal weight of glory

beyond all comparison.

You see,

others might have looked

at Paul

as this defeated preacher,

this man who's

in the misery

of a Roman dungeon jail,

being beaten,

left for dead.

They could have thought,

what a waste of a life.

But Paul knew

that because Jesus

is alive

and is on the throne,

that even his dying

in the dungeon

is not the end

of the story.

That Christ is preparing

for him

an eternal glorious home.

And Paul knows

that the route

between here and there

may not be easy.

It may be challenging.

There may be obstacles,

but he knows

that the dungeon

is not the final word

on his life.

He knows that there is

a word that speaks

a better word

than even what

the Roman prisoners

and authorities

can throw at him.

There is a word

that says,

Jesus was dead

and now he is alive

and I'm preparing

a home for you.

Friends,

I'm not sure

what challenges

you face.

There might be

some really tough situations.

I'm not minimizing

the pain of that.

Friends,

I want to tell you

this morning

that in spite

of the challenges

you face,

in spite of the hardships,

in spite of the trials,

the final word

in your life

is not what is happening now.

If you are a Christ follower,

if you are in Jesus

and Jesus is in you,

the final word

of your life

is that Christ

has died

and has risen again

and he's pouring

his resurrection life

into you

and therefore

there is hope.

The resurrection

promises us

hope

in the midst

of trials

and hardships.

But think about

how the resurrection

also not only defines

our trials

and our hardships,

the resurrection hope

also redefines

our successes

and what's important

in life.

In our city,

success

is measured

or defined

by accolades,

by applause,

by affirmation,

and by financial reward.

But for the Christian,

our hope

is not found

in the applause

or the affirmation

of people around us.

For the Christian,

our hope is found

in the affirmation

of the one true God

for whom we were made

and with whom

we will live

for all eternity.

You know,

Martin Lloyd-Jones,

this man I was telling you

about who at 10 years old,

his family home

was burnt down.

When the family

lost everything,

he realized

his parents

couldn't afford

to send him to school

and so he studied

extra hard

and he won a scholarship

to a very good school

and at the school

he did very well.

And so at 16 years old,

he got admitted,

which was a very young age,

he got admitted

to the top medical school

in London,

St. Bartholomew's Hospital.

So at 16 years old,

he goes to medical school

and there he just excels.

He does exceptionally well

and in fact,

in his final years

of study,

the doctor by the name

of Sir Thomas Horder,

who was the king's physician,

noticed Martin Lloyd-Jones

and actually in his final exam,

Martin Lloyd-Jones

diagnosed a patient

with something

that this Dr. Horder

had missed.

And so Dr. Horder,

before the results

of his exams are out,

Dr. Horder approaches him

and says,

I want you to be

my clinical assistant.

And so here at the age

of 22,

Martin Lloyd-Jones,

is the clinical assistant

to the king's physician.

And over the next few years,

he wins some more

research scholarships.

And eventually at 25,

Martin Lloyd-Jones opens

his own practice

on Harley Street.

And Harley Street

is in London

where all the top physicians are,

the cream of the crop.

And so 25 years old,

he is tipped

to become the next physician

to the king of England.

He's got a private practice

on Harley Street.

Dr. Horder has introduced him

to the wealthiest

and the most upper class

of London society.

He is being a doctor

to members

of the royal family,

parliamentarians,

the upper class of society.

He's made it,

he's absolutely had it made.

25 years old,

he's got everything

that he wants

in front of him.

And 18 months later,

the age of 26,

he walks away

from it all

and he decides

to become a minister

in a small farming community

in the south of Wales.

Here was a man

who had it all.

In the eyes of society,

his hope and therefore,

his life was completely set.

He had the money,

he had the career,

he had the reputation,

he had everything going for him.

But because of the hope

of the gospel,

because of the hope

of the resurrection,

he knew that his hope

wasn't defined

in the things

that society said

gave him hope.

He knew that his success

wasn't in the eyes

of society.

He knew that his hope

was in something

far deeper,

something far more profound.

And so he gave up

this high-flying career

with parliamentarians

and royal family

to go and minister

to a bunch of farming folk

in the south of Wales.

Friends,

the good news

of the gospel

is that because Jesus

is alive

and he's real,

he's making himself known

to those who love

and trust him,

this redefines our success

and what's important

in life.

You know,

in one of Paul's

prison letters,

Paul wrote lots

of letters in prison.

In one of his prison letters,

he writes this.

He says,

as a young man,

I had it all going for me.

I had the career,

I had the money,

I had society's approval,

I had the wife

and three kids,

I had the car,

I had everything going for me.

And then he writes this.

He says,

but what I had,

I've now written off

as rubbish.

All these things

are now considered rubbish

compared to the surpassing

worth of knowing

the resurrected Jesus Christ

in order that I may gain him

and know him

and know the power

of his resurrection.

Friends,

what the resurrection

of Jesus declares to us

is that this life

is not your final

resting place

and therefore

the most important things

in life

are not gained

or found

by hard work.

They're not secured

by being the brightest

or the smartest.

They're not given to you

by opportunities

or money

or connections.

What the resurrection

tells us

is that the most important

things in life

are found

by following

the path of Jesus,

of dying to ourselves,

of picking up our cross,

following Christ

to Calgary

and there we find

resurrection life.

Friends,

this is the hope

of the gospel

that Jesus has risen

and if you trust him,

Christ is in you

and you are in him.

Christ,

your hope of glory.

Second thing is this.

So two things

the resurrection gives us.

The resurrection gives us

a hope.

Friends,

as you go to work this week,

the resurrection gives you hope.

Maybe your boss

is moaning at you.

Maybe you make a mistake.

Maybe you think

you're about to get fired.

Maybe your marriage

is difficult.

Maybe parenting

is difficult.

Maybe you've hit

a roadblock

in your career

and you don't know

which way to turn.

Friends,

this world does not have

the final word

in your life.

The resurrected

Lord Jesus Christ

has the final word

in your life

and you can hope in him.

You can bank your life

in him.

Second thing is this.

The resurrection

gives us a power.

Look at what

Paul writes here.

He says,

I pray that the eyes

of your heart

will be opened

that you may know

what is the hope

to which he's called you.

Okay,

we spoke about that.

Verse 19,

and what is the

immeasurable greatness

of his power

towards those

who believe.

The same power

that God worked

in Christ Jesus

when he raised him

from the dead

and seated him

in the right hand

in the heavenly places.

One of the reasons

why in Hong Kong

people feel so hopeless

is because we feel powerless,

right?

We feel like the system

is against us.

We feel like the rent

is just so high.

We feel like things

are so expensive

and you just can't

beat the system.

But some of us

also feel powerless

because we can't

change our own lives.

The patterns of behavior,

the addictions

that we feel,

it's like we try

everything to become

the people

we so desperately

want to become

and we just can't

change our lives.

But here in this passage,

Paul tells us

that the Christian,

the life that God

calls us to

is not by summoning up

or working extra hard

or trying extra hard.

That actually,

there's a power

in the resurrection

of Jesus

that changes your life

beyond what you are able

to do

through the power

of the Holy Spirit.

I don't know

if you're hearing anything

but I'm trying my best,

right?

We're almost done,

okay?

We're almost done.

You know,

Martin Lloyd-Jones,

that medical doctor,

right?

He becomes a medical doctor.

He's tipped to become

the next king's physician.

At 26 years old,

he packs it all up

to become a minister

to a farming community

in the south of Wales.

Do you know why

he did that?

The reason he did it

was because

as a medical student,

he had to often work

with the poorest

and the most uneducated

in London society.

And he found out

that there was

this powerlessness

to overcome

the patterns of behavior

in their life.

These people

that as a med student

he had to work with,

they just couldn't break

the patterns of behavior

in their life.

And he assumed

that the reason was

because they were uneducated,

they didn't have access

to opportunities,

their poverty

had trapped them

in a lifestyle

and they were powerless

to overcome it.

But then a few years later,

he becomes doctor

to members

of the royal family,

to parliamentarians,

to the most powerful,

wealthy,

and the elites

of London society.

And he finds out

that the elites

of London society

struggle with

the exact same thing

that the very uneducated

and the poor did.

He realized

that if you have nothing

or if you have everything,

both people

are powerless

to change

the patterns of behavior

in their life.

And so one day

he wakes up

with a sense

of hopelessness.

He says,

God, what is the point?

If you've got everything

in the world,

you still are powerless

to change your life.

If you've got nothing,

you are powerless

to change your life.

Where is the hope

for these people?

And he realized

that there was a power.

There is a power

that's not found in them.

There's a power

that's found outside of them.

And so he decides

to become a doctor,

not of medicine,

but a doctor of souls.

And he leaves it all

and he packs it up

to go to the south of Wales.

And on the south of Wales,

there are people there

that thought

they could never change.

There was one man

that was so angry,

it's such an anger problem,

that one day

his dog irritates him.

He brings out a knife

and he hacks his dog

to pieces out of anger.

He walks into

Martin Lloyd-Jones

preaching one day

and he's a changed man.

The power of the gospel

changed him.

One day a lady

comes into his services,

she's a median,

a spiritist,

she helps people

speak to spirits,

and she comes

into his meetings

and she says,

I know power,

I work with power.

There's a power

in that meeting

that I've never

encountered before,

but it's a different

kind of power.

It's a clean power.

I want that power.

And her life

changes around.

After 12 years,

Martin Lloyd-Jones

leaves Wales

and he goes back

to London

to work with the high

elites of society.

And there,

men and women

that were trapped

in the power of sin

that they couldn't

break free,

their lives

are turned around

as they encounter

the power

of the gospel.

Friends,

as I look

at the holiness

and the beauty

and the majesty

of Jesus,

and I look

at my own life,

I'm tempted

to become

overawed

with a sense

of hopelessness.

How is it

that someone

like me,

someone as rotten

as me,

could ever please

my God,

my maker,

how is it

that I can ever

live up to

what he did

on the cross

for me?

Friends,

apart from

the power

of Christ

and the power

of the Holy Spirit,

what hope is there?

But I have hope

when I look

at the power

of the gospel

because if Jesus

can change people

like me,

if Jesus can change

people like Saul

of Tarsus,

if Jesus can change

millions of people

around the world,

friends,

there is a hope

in the midst

of the most hopelessness

because Christ

is powerful.

Friends,

when I get

overwhelmed

by the expectations

and the pressures

of life

and what people

expect,

it can be exhausting

until I recognize

that my identity

and my hope

and my security

is not what people

think of me.

It's not what I can do

or what I can achieve.

My hope

and my identity

is in the power

of the living God

who was once contained

in the grave

but is no longer there.

Who was once nailed

to the cross

but he's no longer there.

My hope

is in the power

of the risen,

resurrected Christ

who is seated

in the heavens.

Friends,

this Easter,

I pray,

I pray that we will

lift our eyes

off of ourselves.

I pray that this Easter

we will lift our eyes

to the heavens

where Christ is seated.

We'll find our hope there.

I pray that this Easter

we will know

that if you're in Christ,

Christ is in you

by the power

of the Spirit

and the power

of God

that raised Jesus

from the dead

is alive

and is in you.

Friends,

if you've come

to place your hope

and your faith

in Christ,

Christ's death

and resurrection

is not just

a fact of history.

It's not just

a story from the Bible.

It's a power

that gives you hope

in the midst

of the most hopeless

of situations

because Christ's word

speaks a better word

than everything else

around you.

Romans 15, 13

says this,

May the God

of all hope

fill you with joy

and peace

in believing

so that by the power

of the Holy Spirit

you may abound

in hope.

Let's pray together.

Jesus Christ,

this morning

we celebrate

the most glorious

good news

that has come

to mankind.

Not only did you die

in the cross for us,

not only did you take

our shame

and our guilt,

not only did you

take our sin

that separates us

from you,

but Jesus,

you rose again.

Jesus,

today you are

seated in the heavens

above all rule

and all authority.

Jesus,

today your power

is at work

in those that have

come to know you

by the power

of the Holy Spirit.

Oh God,

I pray,

won't you infuse

our hearts

with a hope

in the midst

of great hopelessness?

God,

I pray,

today may the power

of the Holy Spirit

come upon us,

God.

may you change us,

may you give us

fresh hope,

God.

God,

I pray for those

of us that

feel hopeless.

Jesus,

won't you open

the eyes of our hearts

to see you

and to know the hope

to which you've called us.

God,

may you give us

a new identity

this morning.

And God,

I pray that your Holy Spirit

will be at work in us.

God,

I pray this morning,

may we take your hand

knowing that for certain

you'll get us

to our destiny.

knowing that we can

bank our lives

on you.

God,

we know it'll require

trust,

it'll require great faith,

may require some courage.

Jesus,

this morning

we take your hand

and we walk with you

banking our lives

on you,

our resurrected

and living King.

We pray these things

in your wonderful

and powerful name.

Amen.