Making a Holy Week: The Resurrection

Well, Father in heaven, we are so thankful to be here today and to get to do all the fun

stuff from Easter baskets to candy to dressing up nice today, family dinners,

baptisms, testimonial videos, Lord. We get to experience so much good because you

experience so much bad. Father, thank you for being willing to suffer and die the

most importantly for being powerful enough to raise yourself from the grave.

Lord, as we come today, I pray that you would remind every believer here of who you are,

the incredibly high price that you paid for their souls and for them to be freed and have a new

life. And Lord, if there's anybody in this room or anybody who's going to watch this service or

listen to it later who does not believe in you, that Lord, you are worth putting our trust and faith in.

You did what no one else in all of creation has been able to do. You loved us when we didn't

deserve to be loved. You died for us instead of asking us to die for you. And Lord, you have shown

us that there is life after death, that you have power over this world and the one to come,

over the physical and the spiritual, that God, you reign supreme over all things. So Lord,

I pray that you would reveal yourself in a powerful way today. I know we have a lot of physical needs

and Lord, we lift those up to you right now. Many of our people struggle continuously. We ask that

you would be with them. But Lord, we want to give you this time and ask that you would be with us,

be with our hearts and minds and our souls, purify us and cleanse us and make us yours.

Help us to give you this moment so that you can change our lives forever. Jesus, we love you and

we thank you and we ask all this in your precious and holy name, all God's people said. Amen. You

may be seated. Well, thank you guys for being here this morning. If you have not been able to be

with us for the past few weeks, we have been talking about the making of a holy week and

everything that went into making the last week of Jesus life. So incredibly powerful and memorable

that 2000 years later, we're still talking about it. When you look at the gospels, I don't know if

you've ever realized this, but probably a third of the gospels are devoted to the final week

of the life of Jesus. So there's a lot that we talk about it, what he did leading up to this

final week, but so much of this last week of his life and what he does in this moment is so powerful

that that's what makes up most of what we read about what we believe. And we've talked about all

these things that have to happen, all these things that we must believe in order for Easter

Sunday to mean something to us. The first thing we talked about was God had to come in the flesh.

Jesus had to be born fully human. It's not going to make much sense to most people to kind

of contemplate that, but Jesus had to be fully human in order to qualify to be the sacrifice

that we needed for our sins. It had to be a human being to come in the flesh, to be the one to pay

the price. There were probably millions upon millions of animals that were sacrificed from the

time of Adam and Eve's sin in the garden to the point of Jesus coming, millions upon millions of

animals, but it was never good enough. Jesus had to be the one to make it the one that was good

for all time. The second thing we talked about is, is that he had to be perfect. He had to be

sinless and this qualified him to be that sacrifice. You know, part of the requirements

for the sacrifice in the Old Testament was it had to be perfect and unblemished and God really

didn't care about the physical. He cared about the internal. There had to be no blemishes upon

Jesus' heart, his mind, his soul. He was perfect and sinless and this qualified him to be our

sacrifice, but it also qualifies him to be our high priest. He sits at the Father's right hand.

He pleads on our behalf. It's not just something that we benefit from in one moment when we get

saved, but we benefit from Christ's qualifications for all of eternity because he sits at God's

right hand and whenever we do dumb things, he says, Lord, be patient with him. I understand.

I was human. I understand how hard it is. That was tempting for me too. You know, we forget a lot

of times Jesus was tempted just like we are and so he understands and pleads on our behalf. What

we talked about last week was the fulfillment of the prophecies. How important it was for

Jesus to fulfill an estimated 400 and something prophecies even up until the moment when he's

drawing his final breath on the cross, even up until the moment where he is raised from the

tomb and he is alive again. He's resurrected on that third day. Just as he said he was, all of

these things had to come to pass to qualify Jesus to be the Messiah and the one that we can put

our trust and faith and hope in. And today is Resurrection Sunday. Happy Resurrection Sunday.

If it doesn't mean anything to you, I hope that one day it will. But as we talk about this,

we're going to look from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 24. We're going to read verses 1 through 12.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

And so let's look at this passage together. It says, but very early on Sunday morning,

the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had

been rolled away from the entrance so they went in, but they didn't find the body of the Lord

Jesus. As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them in clothed,

in dazzling robes. The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the

men asked, why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn't here. He is

the son of man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and that he would

rise again on the third day. Then they remembered that he had said this. So they rushed back from

the tomb to tell his 11 disciples and everyone else what had happened. It was Mary Magdalene,

Joanna, Mary, the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had

happened. But the story sounded like nonsense to the men so they didn't believe it. However,

Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look, stooping. He peered in and saw the empty

linen wrappings and then he went home again wondering what had happened.

Point number one this morning, I want you guys to get, is that if you seek him, you will find him.

If you seek him, you will find him. One of the most interesting things about the story

of Resurrection Sunday is that when the women went to the tomb,

they were not looking for a living Jesus, they were looking for a dead Jesus.

And they were not seeking him upon the rightful way upon which to seek him. They were expecting

something totally different, but they found him in a very, very different way. The disciples were

hiding. Were the disciples looking for him? No. Were the other followers, there were 72 other

disciples, along with thousands of other followers who loved to trail around, play groupie behind

Jesus, eat the food that he multiplied, experience the healings that he gave,

watch them raise other people from the dead, watch them heal the sick, the blind to see,

the lame to walk, the mute to talk, and the deaf to hear. He did all these wonderful things,

but when Jesus is laying in the tomb, they're all hiding. They're all gone. And it was these

wonderful women who go to the tomb. And it says in Mark that they went the night before. As soon

as the Sabbath ended, the night before they went and they bought spices and it was their expectation

to go and anoint Jesus' body one last time for a permanent eternal physical burial. That's what

they were expecting to do. But at least they were there doing it, right? And so the thing is,

is that if you seek Jesus, I believe with all of my heart, with all that I have within me,

that you will find him because he will reveal himself to you. And these women

did not go in the right mindset. You look at what the what the angel said, why are you looking for

the living among the dead? Why are you doing this? Why are you seeking him here? Because he's

not here, but at least they were looking for him. And this gave them the ability to find them.

And I want to challenge you this morning. You may not be looking for him the right way. You know,

one of the, a lot of questions I get as a pastor are, okay, I want to grow in my relationship. I

want to know Jesus more. What do I need to start reading in my Bible? How do I need to pray? What

are some things I need to pray about? And people will ask me all kinds of questions. And one of

the things I say is, listen, and I'll give them some information. I'll give them some things that

for me as a young Christian, these are some things that I found that helped me a lot. And

the main thing I tell people is look, if you look for him, you'll find him. You don't have to worry

about that. You don't have to stress about that. You may not be doing it in a right way. Your life

might be a bumbling mess. You may have failed in many different facets and ways that you can't

even explain. But as you saw from the video testimony earlier, it might be 60 something years

down the road. But if you look for him and you open yourself up to him, he'll reveal himself to

you. And it's not too late. And you haven't thrown anything away because he can use even you

in whatever place you are, whatever position you are, whatever you have to give,

God can use you if you will seek him. In Matthew seven, verses seven through eight,

Matthew records the words of Jesus saying, keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for.

Keep on seeking and you will find, keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you

for everyone who asks, receives everyone who seeks, finds, and everyone who knocks the door

will be opened. So don't stress out. Don't sit here this morning and think, I don't know,

I don't even know how to look for Jesus. Doesn't matter. Just go looking for him

because the women who knew him the best were looking for him in a completely wrong way and

completely wrong context. They were going to anoint his body and bury him for all of eternity,

but he's alive and they still found him. And so you can find him, but you got to seek him

to find him. Point number two, the living is not among the dead. As I say, if you seek him,

you will find him. So don't stress out about it. I want to pass along a little bit of wisdom

and understanding to you this morning. I believe that if you look for Jesus in some way,

shape, or form, he will reveal himself to you. However, I do believe that there are ways that

you can go about looking for him, that you will find him quicker than if you're just rambling

around doing whatever you want to do, just hoping one day that Jesus is going to show himself to you.

Because before I got saved, when I was a teenager, I remember praying this prayer,

Lord, if you're real, prove it to me. Show me that you're real. If you want me to believe,

show me that you're real. And eventually he did, but it did not come in the way that I

thought it would come. It came to the point where whenever I was a few years down the road

and I was saying, okay, Lord, I don't understand this. I don't know how this works. I don't

understand your word. I don't know how to pray. I don't know how to talk. I feel super

uncomfortable at church around all these other people and I'm always afraid I'm going to

say something I shouldn't say, but Lord, you've got to help me do this. And in those moments

of surrender and humility, that's when God showed up the most. So you can seek him

in random things. And I believe eventually he'll reveal himself to you.

But I also believe that there are shortcuts that you can get to

and you can take to find him a lot quicker. And you see that through scripture. You see that

through the example that Jesus set, because Jesus did not just come in the flesh just to

be the sacrifice for our sins. He came in the flesh to be the example for all of us to follow

before it was time for him to be the sacrifice, before it was time for him

to be risen from the grave and to ascend to heaven. And so some of these things are real

simple that a lot of you probably aren't going to want to do because they don't sound fun.

But I believe with all my heart that God is especially present in sacred things.

Is God present in nature? Absolutely. Does scripture say he reveals himself in nature?

Absolutely. Heard a lot of people over the years say, man, I can meet with God

while I'm fishing by a lake and it's peaceful and it's wonderful and I have some great moments

with the Lord. I believe that can happen with all my heart. I believe you can have great

experience that sitting in a deer stand waiting on a deer to walk by while you're just chilling

out in the woods and God can reveal himself to you. I believe that can happen. But I believe

that God is especially present in sacred and holy things. And one of those things is prayer.

You know, when you look at Jesus, Jesus went away to the wilderness.

But why did Jesus go to the wilderness? He sent his disciples away. He hid from the crowds

so that he could be alone with God in those moments. And whenever he was in the wilderness,

he wasn't investing in a hobby that he enjoyed. He was down on his hands and knees and he was

crying out to his father. Even though he was God, God in the flesh, there was still a need for him

in those moments while he's human to cry out to God in prayer. And there was an example being

said that as Jesus bowed humbly in prayer and sought the father, that God spoke to him,

filled him with the spirit and gave him the ability to do things that you and I could only dream of.

That's a wonderful thing. And so as you sit here this morning, like, yeah,

God will reveal himself to you in time. I truly believe that. But if you want to find him,

prayer is a great way to find him a lot sooner. If you'll humble yourself in prayer.

I think he's especially present in his word because the angel said he's not the God,

he's not among the dead, but he's going to be among the living. Well, God's word is alive.

It is powerful. Scripture says it's sharper than any two edged sword. It is something

that even though it was written thousands of years ago, it's still very applicable today.

Name one piece of literature that you can read that was written more than 2000 years ago,

and it still be perfectly applicable to today's time. But scripture somehow is.

It is powerful and God is especially powerful in it. And I can't tell you how many times I've read

God's word and I did not understand it. I had no clue what I was reading. And that's a very

frustrating place to be, right? Because you know you're supposed to read it and it's like, I don't

know what I'm reading. I don't know how to understand this. And it makes you not want to

read it. The temptation is you're just going to throw this down and give up because I don't

understand what I'm reading. But as I discovered the more that I read and the more that I was

willing to say, okay, God, I don't understand this. Show me what you want me to know. Show me

what I need to learn from this. Teach me how I'm supposed to do this. That he shows up in amazing

and powerful ways. And I can, that's for me. I can only tell you what he's done for me.

And I believe that he can do it for anybody because I don't believe that I'm special

in any way. And I believe that he's among his people. You know, one of the things that James

talked about in his testimony was that one of the biggest issues he had with Christianity was

there was a lot of people who claimed to know God but lived hypocritical lives. That's a huge

problem. And so God is not the God of the live or the dead. He's the God of the living. Jesus

is not among the dead. He's going to be among the living. So he's not going to be in the people

who just claim to be Christian but live hypocritical lives. To me, that's not alive. You're still living

in death and darkness if you're doing that. God has called you out of that. He's rescued you

from your sin. And so for you to find someone in this world who you know, that's a man of God.

That's a woman from God. I want to model my life after them because I trust and believe in their

life and the way they're living. They're not perfect, but I see something different in them that

I don't see in anybody else. God is especially alive and well among his people. And something

else I can tell you is being saved 25 years and being in ministry for 18 years as I surround

myself with other people who love Jesus and who have committed their lives to serving him

that I'm still learning new ways to find him better.

As long as I've been seeking, he's always been revealing himself to me. That's a wonderful

privilege that I don't deserve. But the more I surround myself with other people who truly love

God, it helps me to find him even more and in ways that I didn't even know were possible.

And so we got to surround ourselves with other people. And when you look at Jesus,

he was always in prayer. Go back and read most of the gospels. A significant portion

of the gospels is Jesus quoting Old Testament scripture. He knew God's word. He quoted it

regularly. And he was always surrounding himself with his people, with people who were followers

of God, people who are trying to live for him. Your risen Savior will not be among the dead.

You're not going to find Jesus out in the world. You're going to find him in holy and sacred things.

It's not going to be

what you will perceive from a worldly point of view as fun and entertaining.

The people that you need to surround yourself with may not look like

fun or interesting people. But one of the things I found after I got saved and I started hanging

out with other Christians is that they had something that I didn't have. They didn't need

to watch the same things. They didn't need to invest their lives in the same things.

They didn't need to talk the same ways. They didn't need to use certain language to get

their point across. They had something that was so much better than what the world had to offer.

And when you finally give your heart and life to Christ and you trust and believe in Him,

it is amazing how it just opens up your eyes and you see it clear as day what you could not see

before. But your Savior will not be among the dead. He's alive. You're going to have to find

Him in living things, living places, sacred, holy, pure places. That's the quickest way to find Him.

Point number three. You look at this story as the angel said, everything Jesus said will come to pass.

Everything. The angel said, don't you remember what he said in Galilee? He said he would be

betrayed, handed over in the hands of sinful men, crucified, and that he would rise again on the

third day. You know, Jesus called his shot. I don't know about you guys, but my whole life,

when I grew up, like one of the greatest moments in sports history is whether or not Babe Ruth

actually called his shot. Like he was bigger than life because supposedly he pointed his bat,

said he was going to hit a home run next pitch, hits a home run. And it's like immortalized in

history forever. It's one of the greatest moments of all time, but it's debated. Jesus called his

shot. You look at the gospels multiple times. He told them over and over and over again,

we're going to Jerusalem. I'm going to be betrayed. I'm going to die, but I'm going to

rise again on the third day. And he told him that over and over and over again, and they didn't get

it. When the women went to the tomb, they were looking for a dead Jesus, but Jesus is alive.

Everything that he said that he was going to do came to pass. Revelation 3 14. The second

part of that verse says, this is the message from the one who is the Amen, the faithful

and true witness, the beginning of God's new creation.

We can put our trust and hope in Jesus this morning, not because it's logical,

not because we can necessarily make sense of it, but because when you put your faith in Jesus Christ,

he helps you understand every single thing that he said that he would do

happens. It has happened. It's still happening. And if it hasn't happened yet, it will happen.

And that's what we put our trust and faith in. If you want eternal life,

you got to go to Jesus to get it. He's the one who rose from the grave. He rose other people

from the dead. He rose himself from the dead. And not only did he do that, but then after he

stayed and allowed hundreds, if not thousands of people to witness his life after death,

he ascended to heaven in front of hundreds of people. They watched him with their own eyes,

ascend to heaven and leave this world to be no more. So he didn't just rise from the grave

to die again and be buried again later on. Like all the other people he rose from the grave.

No, he rose to heaven. And I want you to think about this morning for a group of people

who were on him like white on rice during his life. And when he was being put to death,

they all scattered and they all went and hid. They saw and experienced something after that

that they said, okay, we'll die for it now. We weren't willing to die with Jesus when he was done.

But now that we've seen him raised from the dead, we have seen and experienced something

so much better. We're willing to die for it now. And thousands of people died in the name of Jesus.

Thousands of people are still dying in the name of Jesus because it's that powerful. If you allow

it to speak to you and change your life, everything that he said will happen has happened.

Point number four, it sounds like nonsense is my favorite point.

Because I know it sounds like nonsense. Like if you're not a believer,

this sounds like garbage because I can remember when I was in a believer and people would try to

explain things to me. I'm just like, that sounds like the dumbest thing I've ever heard

in my life. And it will not make sense until you step out in faith and you believe.

And what's amazing is, is that when you finally surrender to the Lord and you believe in him

and you put your trust in him, there comes a point in time where he opens up your eyes

and he helps you to see you're just like, it makes perfect sense. And you cannot understand

like how you couldn't see it before. And then you struggle with this aspect of you see it

so clearly and you understand something so clearly and you cannot understand why no one else can see

it now. It's just like, why can't they get it? But I have to remind myself, you know,

this sounds like nonsense. Paul talked about this in 1 Corinthians chapter one, verses 18 to 23.

Not going to read it, but it's a great passage talking about how the message of the gospel

sounds like foolishness to the world. But God meant it to sound like foolishness, to shame

the wise, to destroy the wisdom of the world. The message of the gospel is going to sound like

foolishness. And it's not meant to be rocket science because Jesus did it so that everyone

who believes in Jesus Christ will not perish, but have everlasting life that anybody can believe

in it and receive it. You don't have to have a doctorate to do that. And it sounds like foolishness.

What we're talking about this morning is not normal.

And that's a good thing because if it was normal, it wouldn't matter.

If it was normal, we wouldn't be talking about it 2000 years later.

If it was something that anyone else could do, it may have been this incredible feat

for a moment, but we would forget about it and move on.

It is something that was completely impossible for you and I to do that only God could do.

And so, yeah, it's going to sound like foolishness. It's going to sound impossible

because it was. And that's the whole point about believing in Jesus. If it's not impossible,

if it's just something that any of us could do, there's no reason in the world to put our faith

in Christ. But because he was able to do something that we could not do for ourselves,

because he's able to raise himself from the grave, because he's able to ascend to heaven,

it's something that we can put our trust and hope in because we know that one day when we die,

there's something within us that just longs for something beyond this world.

Whether you believe in it or not, I dare to say there's something within you that just hopes that,

man, okay, I don't believe in anything after life, but it'd be nice if there was.

Like we want to believe in that. We want to hope in that. And

the message of the gospel is that there is eternal life.

And if there is a heaven or a hell, well, which one do you want? I think any sane person would say,

well, yeah, I want heaven. But the truth is, is Jesus is the only way to get it.

He's the only one who has lived after dying. He's the only one who has raised himself from the dead

to show authority over death. He's the only one who ascended to heaven,

proving that there is something beyond this physical world that we can put our faith and hope

and trust in. But we've got to step out in faith and believe what sounds like nonsense.

And like I said earlier, the amazing thing about being a Christian is it sounds like nonsense,

but whenever God reveals it to you and you see it for that first time, it'll make perfect sense.

It'll be like, man, how could I not see this before? How can I not put my trust in hoping this before?

Paul wrote in Colossians chapter two, verses 14 to 15.

It says he canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the

cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly

by his victory over them on the cross. Every single thing that you and I have done,

Jesus has made a way for that to be taken away and cleared of.

There's no guilt. There's no shame. There's no sin that we stand condemned of.

And one of the things that I always share at funerals every time I preach a funeral,

I share this verse because I think it's really important for us to know this.

You know, you don't go to hell because of your sin.

And before you pick up stones and get ready to throw them at me and like say blasphemy,

stay with me. You do not go to hell because of your sin because Jesus has paid the price for

every single sin that you've ever committed or could ever commit to be taken away. His

you have the ability to be forgiven and redeemed from anything that you've ever done or anything

that you ever could do. Doesn't matter if you've killed people, doesn't matter.

In John chapter 16 verses 8 through 10, when Jesus is telling his disciples about the coming

John 16:8–10

of the Holy Spirit, listen at what he tells them. He says, and when he comes,

he will convict the world of its sin and of God's righteousness and of the coming judgment.

When Jesus ascended to heaven and the Holy Spirit came and filled his people.

And whether you realize this or not, there's a little bit of that Holy Spirit that is within

you because it said when Jesus paid the price for our sins, that he would write his law

on our hearts. So there's a little bit of God in every single one of us revealing truth to us.

There's something within you that tells you of God's righteousness and that there's judgment

that's coming. Like we can feel that. I believe that with all my heart that every single person

can feel that there's that somehow deep down we know that's true. And in verse nine he says,

the world's sin is that it refuses to believe in me. You know, you can be forgiven for anything

that you go to Christ and you ask forgiveness for, but if you refuse to believe in Jesus Christ,

it's like you're in a pretty tough place because there is no forgiveness of sin apart from Christ.

So the great, the greatest sin that you can commit is to not believe,

to not believe, not believe in the man who completely changed the entire world.

Now, if you're struggling believing today, I understand that it don't matter what I say

because if you don't want to believe, you're never going to believe.

You've got to get to the point in your life where you're willing to say, Lord,

I don't understand it, but I want to believe and I'm willing to believe. Help me to believe.

But nobody would argue about Julius Caesar existing. Nobody would argue about Alexander

the Great. Nobody would argue about Genghis Khan. And a lot of times there's less than like 10,

10 documents even proving their existence. But we take that as just truth. We go to school,

we learn about all these people and we say, Oh yes, that's absolutely true.

And then you look at Jesus Christ and there's over 30,000 written texts about his existence.

Over 500 eyewitnesses who saw him alive after he died on the cross.

Hundreds of people who watched him ascend to heaven. People who were hiding in fear before

while he was dying was willing to go and be ripped apart by animals, burned in oil,

burned at the stake, dying on crosses, dying by sores in the gladiator costume.

There were people who were like just changing everything about their life because they saw

something that completely changed their mind in their life.

You're talking about a man who literally changed the world.

Even today, 2000 years later, we're dating the world based off of his life.

He humanized everything. You talk about the greatest,

the greatest advocate for children's rights, for women's rights, for human rights.

There's a letter.

Written, I think it was by Hilarion to his wife, Alice. She was pregnant with a baby.

This is during the time of Christ right before he came.

This is a love letter to his wife. He's like being kind to her in this moment, but he said,

if it's a girl, throw it away. If it's a boy, keep it. That was normal.

When you look at what Jesus did and how he changed the world, everything about Jesus

is good. Everything about Jesus is beneficial. Everything about Jesus is right.

There's something within the depths of our hearts where we know it. We know it,

but the question is, can I get past what seems like nonsense? Can I seek him? Am I willing to

seek him among the living and not among the dead? Am I willing to come out of this dead world

that I'm living in to find him? Those are the only questions that you can answer

because it's your life and it's your choice. Even though he paid the price for every single sin

that you've ever committed in your life, the world's sin is that it refuses to believe in me.

Righteousness is available because I go to the Father and you will see me no more.

Righteousness is available. Eternal life is available. Forgiveness is available.

The question is, is whether or not you'll believe and receive. Let's pray.

Father God, thank you for another wonderful day. Thank you for the opportunity to come to your

house and to worship and enjoy such a good moment and thank you for being willing to suffer so we

could have these moments. I pray, God, that you would help us in our lives to just come to the

point where we're humble and submissive enough to say, Lord, I don't understand it.

It doesn't make sense, but God, I'm willing to believe if you'll just help me. Help me to

follow you. Help me to trust in you. Help me to believe in your word because I want to.

I just don't know how. God, if we'll be humble and we'll seek you,

you'll reveal yourself to us and you'll show us everything that we need to know.

Help us to do that today, Lord. We love you. We thank you. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen.