Where Is Your Hope Found?

Easter. Yeah. You know, in an early church, they got together. It was one of the very first kind of creeds or sayings that they said with each other.

From the very first gathering after Easter, they would say something like this. I would like to welcome you to the celebration of the risen Lord.

And everybody in church would say, he is risen indeed. Can we try that? So I'd like to welcome you to the celebration of the risen Lord.

He is risen indeed. Okay, one more time. I'd like to welcome you to the celebration of the risen Lord.

He is risen indeed. Amen. Yeah, I love this time of year. If you're visiting for the first time at a watermark, we want to welcome you.

We are about two and a half years old. We're a pretty new church here, growing and just going in community.

We're on a journey together as we walk together with our amazing God.

My name is Tobin Miller. I'm one of the pastors here.

And I get the privilege of bringing to you God's Word today.

You know, I love Easter, Christmas and Easter.

Something about those times that just, they just allow you to talk about things that are religious and people don't feel weird and people ask questions.

And it's just an amazing time, just even interviewing the kids, just to see the joy in their face and the ability to talk about Christ at five years old, six years old and sin.

And things I had no concept of until I was much, much older than they were.

But I love this time that we can do those things.

So on Thursday, I was shopping for some gifts.

I wanted to get a friend a really neat gift.

And I went to this store. I don't know if you've ever been to it.

It's called King and Country.

It's in Pacific Place.

So now Colin knows where this is.

And Granger, I think he's a life member there.

But some of you guys know what it is.

But ladies, what it is, is this guy's and kid's dream.

It's this store in Pacific Place about the third floor up.

And it's just full of model tanks and airplanes and soldiers and all different eras.

You know, it goes all the way from the very beginning of Egyptians to Vietnam to Korea, all these in Germany and everything there.

And there's just battle scenes set up there.

And it's like, I mean, it's like any guy's fantasy if you ever played with soldiers.

And so I was there looking around, buying a gift.

And as I walked in, this guy was at the table there.

And the lady was behind the cash register watching him.

And he had these tanks.

And he was playing around.

And he's a grown man, right?

So he's on his lunch break.

He's somewhere in Pacific Place.

He works.

And so he's on his lunch break.

And there's like six guys in there all doing those type of things, right?

And so I guess he's there.

And it's really cool.

And the lady says, can you wait a minute?

And I said, yeah, that's okay.

I'm watching the battle right here.

So I'm sitting there.

And the guy's blowing up tanks and everything.

And then so the lady says, well, what do you want?

And I said, can I have a nativity scene?

So you're in this store with soldiers and everything else.

But they have this Roman period.

And they have this nativity scene.

I go, well, I'll take the nativity scene.

And, you know, I feel kind of like a weird, a little sense, you know.

And the guy looked at me and he goes, are you a Christian?

And I'm like, well, how can you tell?

And we're in this store with soldiers.

And I come in and go, do, do, do, do, do.

Can I have the nativity scene?

And so I get the nativity scene.

And we start talking.

And it's really interesting because this season just brings out things.

And I don't even think I tell him that I'm a pastor.

And in the conversation, I say to him, I said, his name is Joe.

I said, Joe, I said, do you have faith?

And he goes, well, I'm a Catholic.

And I said, that's great.

And he goes, but we are very, very different in our beliefs.

And I was like, okay.

And I said, well, how?

How are we different?

And Joe looked at me and said, well, you guys, you're much stricter.

I'm like, what?

Because, you know, my view of Catholicism is pretty rule heavy and oriented and things like that.

And I said, you know, okay, okay, so we're stricter.

But our goal is the same, right?

Our goal is to get to God.

And today or this weekend is Easter.

And we all celebrate that, right?

And he goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's true.

We have the same goal.

And so I just, for some reason, I said, are you going to be in heaven?

And he said, no.

I'm like, he goes, yeah, I don't, you know, I just don't know if it's all true.

And if it's all true, I'm sure that I have not been good enough.

And I'm like, what do you mean?

He goes, well, I drink occasionally and I do things.

And I'm like, I drink occasionally and I do things too.

And he looked at me, you know, and he just kind of sat there.

And I just, I felt so heavy hearted with this guy.

And I talked and I talked and I talked about the meaning of Easter and Christmas and Christ.

And I said, God bless you.

And I walked out the door.

And as I walked out the door, Joe said to me, you know, I'm glad that it works for you.

And I've been thinking about that for like three days.

I mean, have you ever had somebody say that to you?

I mean, it's kind of like the get out of jail free card.

Whenever you're talking about life and meaning of life and philosophy and religion, ultimately they say, well, this works for me and I like it.

And if that works for you, that's good.

And you like it.

And it's just important that it just works for you.

And it's almost like if we're, what they're saying is that we validate faith and we validate thought solely if it works for us.

If it makes you feel good, then it's good.

If it makes you feel happy, then it's happy.

If it gives you hope, then that's a great thing.

I mean, it has to be true or valid if it gives you hope or if it makes you feel happy.

I don't know where you are today in your journey here.

Maybe some of you are struggling with, is it true?

Maybe some of you are struggling with, if it is true, I just don't know if I can be good enough.

And maybe some of you are struggling with, if it's true and I can be good enough, I don't know if it really will work for me.

And what I want to do very briefly today is run through, I think, this passage of Easter, which is an amazing passage.

It's a passage that we always go to.

And there's three things in this passage that we're going to touch on very briefly.

What I see about hope and what I see about Easter and what I see about resurrection.

And what this passage, I think, says and what I want to talk about is it's going to say that hope is always found in truth.

Hope is always found in grace.

And hope will always work for you.

Hope is found in truth.

Hope is found by grace.

And hope will always work for you.

So the first thing in this passage I think of as I look at it, it says hope is found in truth.

What we're saying today is that the resurrection is true.

That Easter is true.

William F. Buckley, a very famous writer, speaker, if you've ever heard of him, he talks with a very proper accent.

He uses words that most people don't even know.

Some people say that he's probably the most influential thinker in America in the last 50 years, especially conservative thinker.

And this is what he said when he was thinking about Easter, which I find very, very interesting because I don't know where he was at his faith.

I know that later he became practicing a Roman Catholic.

And he said this.

He said,

The uniqueness of the scandal of the Christian faith, the uniqueness of the scandal of the Christian religion, rest on the idea that its teaching and its revelation happens in historical events.

Christianity is not just a code for living or a philosophy of religion.

It is rooted in real events in history.

To some people, this is scandalous.

You like to use that word scandalous.

To some people, this is scandalous because it means that the truth of Christianity is inexplicably bound up with the truth of certain historical facts.

And if these facts should be disproved as false, Buckley says that Christianity has to also be false.

He said this means, however, that what makes Christianity unique and unlike any other religion or world philosophy in the world today,

is that modern man has a means of actually verifying Christianity's truth by historical evidence.

He said, anything like any other thought, anything like any other religion, modern man today can verify Christianity's truth by historical evidence.

What he's saying is that if you can disprove the resurrection, if you can disprove today that we celebrate, you disprove all of Christianity.

I mean, what he's saying is that if you can disprove any historical event in the Bible, because it's so intertwined, unlike any other book,

if you can disprove any other historical event in the Bible, you can disprove Christianity.

I mean, think about that.

All other religions and all other religious leaders, they've died.

They've left this code of ethics, this idea of hope, and they've given it to us as their teachers.

And they said, hey, if you follow it very well, if you do very well, if you show that you're worthy,

if you show that you're not a bad person, if you show that you're a good person,

and if your life changes a little, if you transform outwardly and inwardly to this ideal that your teacher has given you,

if you do all these things, then you're good.

But Christianity says this, Christianity says it's based on a dead Savior who comes to life to prove that he's God

and to make a way for us, unworthy and broken people, to get to God.

About this time when I'm having conversations with people, often people would say something like this to me

when we discussed the resurrection.

They would say, you know, ancient people were so naive.

Ancient people were so primitive.

Ancient people are so gullible.

Ancient people are so stupid.

They're pretty dumb.

I mean, they would believe anything.

But us today in Hong Kong, us modern men, we know what's going on.

We can show me.

I can find out the truth.

I can do it.

But those guys back then, they just couldn't do it.

They didn't have their act together.

I don't know what's going on with them.

C.S. Lewis said that when he was talking to somebody and they gave these thoughts to him,

he said that's just kind of like chronological snobbery.

C.S. Lewis said that you think that just because you're modern, that we're more mature, we're more better, we're more capable.

But he said sometimes we forget where all our thoughts came from.

Sometimes we forget where all of our philosophies came from.

Sometimes we forget where calculus and mathematics came from.

They came from our ancient, stupid, naive brothers and sisters.

And when you look at this passage, what I'm going to say to you today is that I think people in Jesus' day have the same problem in believing the resurrection as we do today.

They just could not do it.

I mean, read the Bible.

What does it say?

Over and over and over, Jesus said, if you kill me, I'm going to rise in three days.

Tell Herod, destroy this body, I'm going to rise in three days.

If you kill me, I'm going to rise in three days.

I'm going to rise in three days.

I'm going to rise in three days.

But in the passage here, at the tomb, at three days, are any of the disciples there?

None of them.

They couldn't believe it.

I mean, they heard Jesus talking these things, but their primitive worldview could not hold the idea of a resurrection.

Just like we can today.

I mean, none of them were there.

You would think, you know, if I were the disciple, I would think at least I would take the most junior guy.

Hey, you've been the disciple of the least longest.

We would need you to go and sit at the tomb and just watch it and see if it's going to happen.

Because we don't know what's going to happen, but earn your dues, go do it.

But they didn't even do that, right?

I mean, no one was there.

No one believed.

No one thought it was possible for him to rise again.

But then you see this change in them, and you have to ask yourself the question,

what would it take for you to believe in the resurrection?

What would it take for you to believe in Easter is true?

What would it take for you to believe that Christ raised from the dead on the third day?

And the same is probably true for the people in Jesus' day.

Because they had the same thoughts, the same doubts, the same concerns, the same struggle.

But what we see is they saw something so amazing, so incredible, so out of their world,

so out of their grid, so out of their ability to even think about it,

that they saw something that changed them so radically

that they believed.

What was that?

Well, the passage gives you just a couple things,

and again, we're just going to look at it really quickly and talk about it.

The first thing it says as we talk about hope, beast, and truth is in verse 1

is that the stone was rolled away.

Now, I've been there to this tomb.

The stone would have been massive.

It was in tracks, and you could roll it,

but it would have taken several people to do that.

But what we don't know is that in the other Gospels,

it says that there were a stamp put on it by the Roman pilot,

which said, hey, there's a death penalty if you open this tomb.

There was a contingent of soldiers all around it protecting it,

because even though the disciples didn't believe that Jesus was going to raise from the dead,

the religious leaders said, hey,

he said he was going to raise from the dead.

We need to send some guys here to make sure that doesn't happen.

We need to send some guys here to check that out.

So even though his followers didn't believe it, his enemies believed it.

And the tomb was open, and I don't think it was to let Jesus out.

I think it was to let us in and to look at it and to verify it.

The tomb was empty.

I mean, all historians say that it was empty.

They don't know how it got empty.

They're arguing over that, but it was all empty.

I mean, the tomb wasn't empty.

The minute the Christians started waving palms and freaking out and Jesus is alive,

and all the Romans and the Jewish people had to do this, no, he's not here.

Here's his tomb right there.

Shut up.

Go home.

There it is right there.

The seal's still on it.

Stop.

It's a false.

He's a false prophet.

He's not true.

It's not worth following him.

The tomb was empty, where everybody would have been pointing about to that for the end of time.

When you go to Israel with us, we're going to go in May, you go and you still see King David's tomb.

It's there.

He's inside of it.

You see Abraham's tomb.

You see Sarah's tomb.

You see Isaac's tomb.

You see Jacob's tomb.

You see all those tombs, and the bodies are still inside of them.

But when you came to the tomb on that day, it was empty, and no one could point to a body.

Verse 5 and 6 says that the tomb was orderly.

It wasn't chaos.

It wasn't like grave robbers came in and tore things off, but it was very nicely orderly.

When you buried a body in Jesus' day, this is what you did.

You took linen, and you basically covered them with about 100 pounds of ointment and gook,

like lubriderm or something like that, or Vegemite.

I don't know what it is.

Something really gross, right?

Something really gross.

And they covered them, and they took these really expensive linens,

and they wrapped his feet and wrapped them all the way up to about right here.

And then this upper part, because they still do this today,

this upper part, they took really nice linens,

and they kind of wrapped them in a circle and covered them up.

And so when they walk into the tomb, it's orderly,

and what the disciples say in the Greek and the Aramaic is what they see is a cocoon.

They see hardened cast of linen laying there,

but the body's just passed out of it.

I mean, the linen's not everywhere.

It's not, paste is everywhere.

It's just, there's just a cocoon there.

And everybody saw that.

It'd be like if I just disappeared,

and my clothes were left here,

I'd be standing here for a second,

and my clothes would be like this,

and then I'd be gone,

and my clothes would fall to the ground.

If I laid down,

they would stay in the same place that they were when I disappeared.

And that's what the Scripture says happened to Christ's body.

That the linen was there,

but the body was gone.

The passage goes on and tells us there were angels there.

There was angels there to testify to what Christ had done.

They spoke the truth.

When you look at Jesus' life,

there's always angels present whenever there's a big event.

There's only one event where there weren't angels present,

and that's at the crucifixion.

Every other event, you see angels everywhere.

They're talking.

But at the crucifixion, they're not there,

but he says, if I called my father,

he would let loose five legions of angels

with swords drawn right now.

But he didn't do that.

And so the angels testified to the truth.

The Bible goes on, and it says that over the next 40 days,

Jesus walked with people, he talked with people,

he ate with people, he taught people,

he allowed people to touch his body so they could see the nails.

All these things Jesus did for the next 40 days,

and the Bible says hundreds and hundreds and hundreds

of people saw this, and when they saw it, they believed.

There's two other things that make me think this is true.

Bear with me.

The first thing is this, and I know I'm going to get in trouble,

but a woman is the first witness.

A woman.

Now, you don't understand it, but in Jesus' day,

women, every day the rabbis wake up and say,

Dear Lord, thank you for not making me a Gentile,

and thank you for not making me a woman.

So women had a very, very small place in Jesus' day.

I mean, when he had women traveling with him in his band,

that was amazing.

That was the first time that ever happened.

But the fact that Mary, she's not just a woman.

She's demon-possessed.

She was a crazy woman.

She's a crazy woman who Christ healed,

and she's been following him,

and she's the first witness to the resurrection.

She's given the truth that Jesus is alive.

Now, if I were going to make up a story in Jesus' day,

I would never do that.

That would be a total fail.

It would never work.

No one would ever, ever, ever believe it.

If I were going to make up a story that everyone,

I wanted them to believe what happened,

I would have said Jesus rose from the grave.

He went to see the leaders in the Jewish synagogue

who testified of his truth.

He went to see Pilate and said,

Shame on you for allowing them to do this.

He went to see all the bad people,

and then he went to see his disciples.

Now, if you'd written the story like that,

everybody in Jesus' day would have said,

Wow, that's true.

The only reason the authors would write it like this

is if everybody knew it was true.

I mean, if I wrote it and said,

Well, then Jesus went to see Pilate,

and Pilate was the first testimony to that,

people would look at you and go,

That's not true.

Everybody knows the first person you saw was Mary.

Everybody knows that.

How come you're plagiarized?

What are you doing here?

The fact that Mary is the first witness

and given this opportunity to share the news

breaks all realms of theology, culture, and history.

It would never happen.

You would never do it.

But it happened.

And you look at it, and you go,

Wow, the only reason that would happen

is because it must have been true.

The next thing that sticks out to me

is that the evidence that the people saw

so changed their lives

that they all went from cowards

to martyrs.

Do you realize that?

I mean, not just the disciples.

The only disciple who didn't die a martyr's death

was John.

He was exiled on this island,

and so he died at old age.

But everybody else got killed for their faith.

They went from running away

to they saw something so amazing

and so incredible

that they died for it,

and hundreds of the people

who actually saw Jesus

died also.

Does that make sense?

When I was growing up in America,

there was this big event.

It was called Watergate.

It happened in 1972.

The Republican Party

broke into the Democratic

National Convention Party headquarters.

They tried two times,

and they failed.

The third time,

they went in,

and they got arrested.

They were going to bug

and look for information

within the Democratic Party.

Initially, five guys were arrested,

but then it expanded

to many, many, many, many guys.

And this controversy involved

the President of the United States.

And if you read the books,

the guys all got together

and said,

this has to be our story.

This is what we have to say.

We got to protect the presidency.

We can't let it fall.

We can't do anything bad.

This is our story.

Within two weeks,

the story was broken.

And the guys could not keep the secret.

And they knew that they were going to be pardoned.

They knew that even if they were going to be arrested,

Nixon would pardon them.

They would never go to jail.

But they had something incredible,

and they couldn't even keep the secret for two weeks.

And here, all these disciples

keep the secret

until they die.

It has to be true.

You know what I wish I had said

when I walked out of Kingston country?

I wish I had turned back to Joe

and said,

Joe,

don't believe in Christianity

just because it helps you.

Don't believe in Christianity

just because it's irrelevant.

Don't believe in Christianity

just because it makes you feel good.

Don't believe in Christianity

just because it helps you live a better life.

believe in Christianity

because it's true.

And if it's true,

then it will work.

Then it will help you.

Then it will give you hope.

Then it will change everything

perfectly

and forever.

We don't want you coming to church here

and believing in Christianity

and thinking all these things

just because it helps you.

But we want you to believe

in Easter and the resurrection

because it's true.

Because it's true.

Because sometimes

you're going to enter

into a dark place

and your life is going to fall apart.

If you're like me.

And in those dark times,

there have been times

where I could cling to nothing.

but the truth

that Jesus Christ

has risen from the grave.

And because he's done that,

I can work through anything.

Because he's done that,

I have ultimate hope.

Because he's done that,

everything will ultimately be okay.

Don't come celebrate Christmas

because it helps you.

Don't come celebrate Easter

because it helps you.

Celebrate Easter

because it's true.

Hope comes in truth.

The next thing I want you to see

is hope comes by grace.

I've asked Henrika

to come up,

an ex-college student

and now coming back

to visit with us.

And I wanted her to share

just a little bit of her story.

I got the privilege

of baptizing Henrika last year.

Henrika's real name

is like this long.

Henrika Hadessa von,

Gertschah von Kampen.

Almost.

It took me like five hours

to try to memorize that

because her mother was there

and said,

when you baptize her,

you must say her name perfect.

So Henrika,

thanks for joining us.

And I just,

you know,

we can sit or stand

or however you want to do,

Obert style.

But I thought maybe

you could just share

a little bit about your story

and how you came here.

Hi, everyone.

Okay, so I was raised

in a Christian family

and my dad was a pastor.

And when I was young,

I just went to church.

But when I became a teenager,

I wasn't really willing

to wake up in the morning.

And yeah,

I was just...

No, no, no.

I know, right?

So and slowly,

I wasn't really interested anymore.

My parents got a divorce

when I was 10

and I moved around a bit

during that time.

And I think I was a little bit

disappointed by church community

at the time.

So I just didn't really want

to go to church anymore.

And when I became older,

like older in my teenage years,

I just slipped away a bit more.

And I don't know,

I think I came into this dark passage

in my life,

or at least I wasn't really making

the best decisions for myself.

And then I heard that my dad got sick

and he was diagnosed with cancer.

And I don't know,

I wasn't really at a good place,

but then it forces you

to really think about your life

and think about what matters

and why we are here.

And so it kind of got me

out of that situation.

So I started doing an alpha course,

which is basically an introduction course

to Christianity.

And I got the chance

to ask a lot of questions,

but it never really went

into my heart yet.

So my dad passed away

when I was 20.

And I think I was really sad.

Yeah, I was grieving a lot.

And because of my dad being a pastor,

I found it really hard

to go to church

because my memories

were so connected to church

and everything that happened

in my past.

So then I was just doing,

I was going to university

and just finishing up my studies.

And I decided that

I really wanted to go on an exchange.

So I thought,

let's go to Singapore.

But I didn't get in

because of housing situations

and everything.

So my study advisor really said to me,

okay, you should try again.

So I decided,

what is the warmest place

I could go in Asia?

Hong Kong.

At least we had a relationship

like our university.

So I went to Hong Kong.

But before that,

I kind of get into Buddhism.

It works, right?

Yeah, I was thinking,

you know,

like, let's try everything out.

And my friend was telling me,

well, if you go to Hong Kong,

you know,

that's the place to be.

So I wrote an email

on the Facebook

and they never replied me.

You were emailed to who on Facebook?

The Buddhist community.

Okay.

And actually,

I got a reply one year after.

And I was like,

oh, how am I going to say this?

I went to a different direction.

No.

So,

well,

I came here

and then there was

a Chinese New Year's boat trip

organized by Mike and Katie.

And then there was another invasion.

No,

it was the,

so I came into contact

with Watermark

and got to know

a lot of people

in this community.

And it was actually

one of the worship

at the community center

for university students

that Katie was praying with me.

And I finally realized

where my,

why I was so heartbroken

and that it was too hard

for me to go to church

because of all of these memories.

And she prayed with me.

And I think from that point on,

like,

like I really felt healed.

Like,

at least it started.

And I could work

through some of my own issues

and my own

things that I was struggling with.

And I went to a retreat

and ultimately

got baptized by

Tobin.

Went to the Philippines

mission trip

and here I am again.

Wow,

that's great.

So can you say,

on this journey

that you were on,

even when,

like you said,

when your dad got cancer,

he had lung cancer

and he never smoked

and it happened

really quickly,

right?

And you were just talking about,

okay,

what am I doing

with these things?

And now looking back,

what would you say

are some of the things

that God was showing you

or teaching you?

Or what were the things

that you would think about?

Where did you cling

to hope there?

What did that look like?

Well, the thing is,

like looking back right now,

I can really feel

that God was with me

during the most hard times

in my life.

That I think that

if I didn't have

that realization

at the time

that I need to think

about bigger things

or like,

if I wasn't thinking

about like,

what life looks like

or why we're here

on this earth

or anything

in that matter,

I would have,

I wouldn't have been

at the place

where I'm now.

And I think that

in my life,

God really showed me

that He always reached out to me,

but sometimes I was just

too stubborn.

But He's always been there for me.

Like, seriously,

in the most hard times

when I didn't want

to go out of bed

or just didn't have

that power anymore,

it became true.

There's so much healing

that just happened

this past year

that I almost

can't understand myself

when I wrap my head around it,

but it did.

And I've,

like seriously,

if anyone would ask me

one and a half year ago,

you'd be here on stage now?

No, that wasn't happening.

But yeah, it did.

And I don't know.

Like, it's not that my,

that everything is all good

right now at the moment

or that, you know,

like, oh, you know,

I'm in a high cloud,

but it's, I don't know.

It's better.

What would you say

if there are people here

who are in that dark,

weird place right now

where they find it hard

to worship

or come before the Lord

or maybe for some of us

who've gone through it

and maybe we'll go

through it again,

what would that look like?

What advice would you give

to them

after what you've experienced

so far?

I understand

if you're

at a dark place,

but just,

I would say

try to hold on

because

if, like,

the story we hear

at Easter,

it brings so much hope

and if you even try

to grasp a little bit

of that,

like how that could look like

in your life,

even when you're down

at your worst times,

it can bring light.

It can bring you

that space

to really,

you know,

just go and see God

and, you know,

see what happens,

you know,

go on an adventure

and see where it leads you.

So,

Henrika is like a role model

for,

I'm always asking her questions

about how her dad

raised her

as a pastor's daughter

and so,

and,

yeah,

so hopefully my kids

won't hear all the wild parts

of that,

but it's,

that's good.

Hey,

can I pray with you?

Okay,

let's pray.

Father,

we thank you for Henrika,

we thank you for what you've done

in her life.

We pray just for continued healing.

I pray as she just thinks

of this Easter day

and your,

your son risen from the grave

that she knows

and has hope

that she will one day

see her father again

because he will be raised also

and I pray for her

as you continue

to work in her life

and she shows us

what it means

to cling to you

and your goodness

that we would learn

those lessons also.

So I pray for the future

that you're taking to her

on this next journey

after the university.

We know that you'll go

before her

and we are excited

to see the story

that you continue

to write in her life.

We pray these things

in your son Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks.

Amen.

Amen.

One final thought

and we'll close up.

Easter in the resurrection

in the hope

of Christ coming back to life

to me is powerful

because I look at Mary's life.

If you read the last seven verses

of this chapter,

Mary was a woman.

She was disqualified

from doing things

in their culture.

She was looked down upon.

She was from a town

called Magdala.

You go there

and there's nothing there.

It's been destroyed.

There's nothing there.

She's from a small little

insignificant place.

The Bible says

that she was possessed

by seven demons.

What that really means

is that she was

perfectly possessed.

possessed.

That she was totally

and perfectly

and just completely

messed up.

As messed up

as you can be.

And the passage says

that Christ came

into her life

and he freed her

from her demons.

and she continued

to walk with him

until that day

on Calvary

when she saw him crucified.

And the passage says

that for three days

she wept uncontrollably.

She was in the darkest

place of her life.

Her life was out of control.

She forgot all of God's words.

She forgot all of God's promises.

She forgot everything.

And her life was out of control.

And on the most important day

in the history of the universe

she comes to a tomb

and she's weeping.

And she's looking for a body.

And everybody asks her

the same question.

Why are you crying?

This should be the most happy day

in the history of the world.

Why are you crying?

And in her deep despair

and in her depression

and in her angst

she even blames Jesus.

Do you see that passage there?

She says,

hey,

where did you take the body?

Where did you put him?

I mean,

nothing was working

in her life.

Nothing was coming together.

She forgot God's words.

She forgot God's promises.

And she started to blame God.

I don't know

if you've ever done that.

But I have.

God,

why aren't you working this way?

How come this happened?

How come this isn't happening?

Why aren't I married yet?

Why aren't we having kids yet?

Why is my job so terrible?

Why is my wife so terrible?

Why is my husband so terrible?

Why is my boss so terrible?

In the midst

of the weirdness

and the darkness

in our lives,

often we blame God

just like Mary does.

And the amazing thing

to me about this passage

is that Christ comes to her

and he's very gentle.

He's very compassionate.

And he speaks

words of truth to her.

And he calls her her name

in a very intimate way.

And the minute she does that,

her eyes are opened up

and she understands grace.

She understands mercy.

She understands love.

She understands forgiveness.

And then God does something

very unusual.

He gives the most important message

in the history of the world

to someone who would be seen

as one of the least important people

in that culture.

And he says,

I want you to go out

and share this good news.

The thing that sticks out to me

in this passage is

the message that she had to share

isn't ultimately,

isn't ultimately the good news.

What the good news is

is her life.

Her life,

as people looked at her life

and saw the change

that God did in her life,

the healing,

the restoration,

the grace,

the forgiveness,

the passage says,

resurrection Sunday,

Easter Sunday,

Christ raising from the tomb

is all about finding hope.

Hope is truth

and hope happens in grace.

So Mary's message is our message.

We're not the fastest.

We're not the swiftest.

We're not the most connected.

We're not together.

We're broken.

And all of a sudden,

Christ comes into our life.

He saves us.

He redeems us.

We're weak.

We're outsiders.

We're sinners.

And the message here says,

unless we can rejoice

in Mary's story,

unless we can be happy

in the grace of God,

we'll never experience

the hope and power

of a resurrection.

Unless we understand grace

so deeply and so intimately

and how God comes alongside of us,

even though we make mistakes,

we make mistakes,

we make mistakes,

and he keeps coming to us,

he keeps coming to us,

keeps coming to us.

As Henrique says,

sometimes we're just stubborn,

we don't want to listen,

and he keeps coming to us.

That's the message of Easter.

Don't leave here

and believe in Easter

because it makes you feel good.

You get good candy.

It works.

Everything's good.

I'm better off when I believe

and when I don't believe.

But leave here believing in Easter

because it's true

and it changes us.

if we allow it.

Let me pray for us.

Father, we thank you for this day.

We thank you for this message.

We thank you for Mary.

Yeah, her story will be read

for all of eternity.

We look forward to the day

that we see her in heaven

and we get to hear more

of your amazing story

and work in her life.

Lord, I realize even now

there are people here

who

there are people here

who are far away from you.

They're walking in darkness.

Their hope is found

in their skills,

their intellect,

their health,

their money,

their connections

because they work.

But Lord, you know that one day

they will enter into a stage

of their life

when those things

will not work

because they're not true.

So I pray for them right now

that they would see

the truth of your son

and they would see

the truth of the resurrection

and they would see

the hope that it brings

no matter where we go in life

that we can continue

to cling to that

because it's true

and it changes us.

Father, I pray for the rest of us

who are on this journey

already as your children.

And so often,

I think like Mary,

we just get overwhelmed

in the world

and things fall apart

and relationships break

and we get angry

and we lose our job

and we lose our children

to different circumstances

and we lose our spouses

and we lose our health.

In the midst of the craziness,

sometimes we often,

we lose you.

We don't cling

to the truth of the resurrection.

We don't cling

to the hope that is there

that no matter what happens,

no matter how bad it gets,

there will be a day

when all things are made right,

when justice prevails,

when the weak are lifted

and made strong

and when the poor

and the hungry are fed

even though it doesn't look like that

in our world today.

The resurrection brings us

ultimate hope

and truth

that one day

you will make all things right

because you made them right

already through your son

and by raising him,

you prove that he is God

and now we can come to you

through him.

So what I pray for the rest of us

who sometimes forget this truth

and sometimes we blame you,

Father, I just ask for your forgiveness.

I beg for your forgiveness

and help us to repent

and help us to be convicted

of how good you are.

Father, we love you.

We need you desperately.

We pray all these things

in your son Jesus' holy name.

Amen.