Easter 2023 | IF Part 1 | Clayton Hentzel

Crossing Nation happy Easter man.

It's so good to be with each and every single one of you, my name

is Clayton Hansel. And for those of you who don't

know me, I have the opportunity to be one of the pastor's here,

on staff at the Crossing, and my parents raised me in a good

Christian home. They took me to church on a

regular basis. But over time I realized that

there were some questions that I had that I didn't have a really

good answer. Answers to questions, like can I

actually trust the Bible questions?

Like did Jesus, really died on a cross questions?

Like if Jesus really died on a cross, was putting a grave on

Friday and then somehow on Sunday, came back to life.

How did that happen? I had questions and I needed

some answers because I'd also heard some teachings about

Jesus, that there was an eternal glory of Heaven, for those who

were in a relationship with him, and then there was eternal

punishment. Hell for those who didn't and

when you think about eternity and you think about the glories

of heaven or the horrors of hell, I figured I probably need

to get this thing figured out because there's an awful lot

that hangs in the balance. I had heard teachings about

Jesus teachings, that I love. That were very appealing to me

teachings, like forgiveness, Peace, Hope.

But was it, reliable? Was it trustworthy?

I'd heard about all the love that Jesus proclaimed in the

standard of love that. He He called his followers to

that. Also was appealing to me.

But was it reliable? Was it trustworthy?

And so I went on a search for answers to these questions.

And this journey took me down one of the most life-changing

roads. It changed my identity.

It changed my purpose and it changed my outlook on this life

and in the life that is to come. So today at the Crossing we are

beginning a seven-week sermon series called if because we all

have questions and I think we all deserve some answers.

It is designed to help people who already have a relationship

with Jesus Christ to strengthen. There's to give you a firmer

Foundation, but it's also designed for those of you who

have lost your faith. To those of you who are seeking

your faith. For you to be able to find it

for you, to be able to start it. I want to welcome those of you

joining at all of our different locations.

Those of you here at 48th Street, those of you who are

part of our Macomb location, Kirksville, and 929, and Pike

County and Hannibal. Those of you joining us in Lima,

Mount Sterling, Keokuk, Monmouth Jacksonville.

To those of you who are part of our inside family, at the

Western Illinois, correctional center, Pike, County Jail,

Adams, County, jail. And those of you gathering at

the Vandalia women's prison and the thousands of you joining a

online and I all. Yeah, that's great.

I also want to welcome all of you joining us for the very

first time, or maybe the first time in a long time.

We are so thankful that you are here, and I want you to know

that there are campus pastors at every single one of our

locations and staff at every single one of our locations and

difference makers at every single one of our locations that

are rooting for you and have been praying for you as a

church. We are in your corner and we To

help you find an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus

Christ. And I know in a room, this big

at all of our different locations.

There are some of you here today that are just here to make

somebody else happy We get it. So we're going to get you out of

here as soon as possible. We know that there are some of

you Gathering here today that don't believe in God.

And I want, you know, you picked one of the coolest places to

hang out if you don't believe in God.

There are some of you here today you believe in God, you're just

mad at him and I want you to know, it's okay to be here.

If you're mad at God to, there's some of you who you are going

through the Thrills of life and you think you don't need God,

and there are some of you who are going through, Through the

lows of life and you can't seem to find him.

There are some of you who you have questions that you

desperately need answered. And there are some of you

listening to my voice right now. That have questions you're too

afraid to ask for the first 18 years of my spiritual journey.

This is what I thought it meant to be a Christian and meant to

close your eyes. Cover your ears, ignore all

human thought. All human reason and just take a

blind leap of faith. And I couldn't do it.

I needed something that could be evaluated something that could

be examine something that could be questioned.

I was in a conversation with a guy, and he was telling me what

God was like, and he was saying, you know, God's whoever you want

him to be, man, there's no Heaven, there's no hell, it

doesn't matter what you do here on Earth, it's all going to turn

out well, in the end. And so, I listened for a while

and then I said, well, how do you know And he was like, you

just know man okay, I'm exaggerating a little but that's

pretty much what he was. Now we all have a little bit of

that. I said, well how do you know he

goes? I just know in my heart.

Okay, I'm that sounds cool. Make a good card but I give you

needed. Open heart surgery.

He had a friend who's like, just come on over to the house.

I'll figure it out. I know how to do heart

surgeries. And you said, well, how do you

know? And they said to you?

Well, I just know how to do heart surgeries in my heart,

you're gone. No, I need something on a wall.

I need something better than that.

What I want to tell you is when it comes to Eternity, when it

comes to your salvation when it comes to your soul, But it's

infinitely more important than open, heart surgery and I think

we need something a little bit more than I just know in my

heart. One of the commands of Jesus is

to love him with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength.

What I'm trying to tell you is one of the ways we can love.

God is through a reasoned faith. Not a blind one.

Now, listen to me, I don't want you to get me wrong intimate,

personal relationship with Jesus Christ is definitely more than

just intellectual assent. It's way more than just deep

critical thinking but it is certainly not anything less.

And today I want to take you on the journey, the end up being

life-giving to me and hopefully will help you on your faith

Journey. Here's the bottom line, the

centerpiece of Christianity is not Jesus on the cross.

I know some of you are like oh my goodness, I knew that this

church was crazy and here it is on Easter weekend, but listen to

me, it's just not lots of people died on crosses.

In fact, Jesus was only one third of the dudes who died on a

cross on the day, that became known as Good Friday, for all

the Christian bumper stickers, for all the crosses on churches,

for all the really cool cross tattoos.

It's not the cross. That makes a special.

Something different. Christianity Rises and falls on

a historical factual literal resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In fact, one of the biggest names in all of Christianity, 20

years after this event rights to a group of people in Corinth and

this is what he says. And if Christ has not been

raised, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins.

If only for this life, we have hope in Christ.

We are of all people, most to be pitied.

The resurrection isn't true. We can all get an awful lot of

our time back. And we could spend it way

differently than we spend it. We've have different standards

different measurements. So I started this journey and

there are four historical facts that everybody has to agree on.

Now when I say everybody has to agree on these four facts, I'm

gonna saying whether you're Republican or Democrat, you have

to agree on these four, whether you are a believer in God or

your you don't believe in God, atheist or agnostic.

You can't get around these four historical facts, history.

Fact. Number one, Jesus of Nazareth

died on a cross executed by Pontius Pilate.

Now this is not just the testimony of the Christian,

writers, of Matthew, Mark, Luke John, or you, or Peter, or Paul.

It's also of Josephus and tacitus.

Josephus was a Jewish historian, tacitus was a Roman historian.

And given the fact that both of these governments, both of these

nations were hostile to the person and message of Jesus.

They included this stuff as a badge of honor.

Yeah, this guy died. Nobody can dispute that there

was a man by the name of Jesus who died on a cross executed, by

Pontius Pilate. The second historical fact, is

the grave was empty. We're going to circle back on

that one in a second. The third historical fact is

that Jesus's early followers believed in a literal physical

tangible, resurrected, Jesus and this event transformed their

lives. This experience shifted who they

were, they went from being fearful, followers discouraged

and distraught followers to being radical, Proclaimers of a

gospel message, and leaders of a movement that transformed

Society. They believe that Jesus rose

from the grave. The fourth historical fact is

that the Christian church was founded?

Ended because of this belief in a risen Jesus.

And these, this event was seismic.

Here's what it did to the religious calendar, for fifteen

hundred centuries, Jewish people who are trying to worship God on

Saturdays. They would worship him.

But these early followers of Jesus, who believed in a

resurrection to honor and celebrate and commemorate, the

fact that Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday, shifted worship

from Saturday to Sunday. Now that might not seem like

that big of a deal but I said 1500 years of religious

momentum. Imagine what kind of event would

have to happen today in our world, will actually not today

1250 years into the future, where we no longer celebrated

Independence Day on July 4th We celebrated it on a different

day. Who would have to occupy us what

would have to happen on our American soil?

That would make us as an entire nation.

Go, hold on a second here. Forget about independence from

the Brits. We've got a whole different

Independence that we need to celebrate and we be letting off

fireworks at some other time of the year.

No seismic. The second thing is, is it

didn't just shift the religious calendar.

It shifted every calendar. In fact, every event in human

history and every event that will ever happen in the future

is measured off of this event. Everything before Jesus is BC

before Christ. Everything after is a D, in the

year of Our Lord, we are gathered in 2023 in the year of

Our Lord 20. Three.

These four events. Regardless of where you find

yourself on the spiritual Continuum, whether you hate God,

barely believe in God or been following out your whole life.

All four of us have these four fact, are all of us have these

four facts in Colin. Now, let's Circle back to the

empty tomb. It is a historical fact that the

tomb was empty and people have put forth a couple of theories

as to how the grave was empty because it was empty.

The first one is that everybody went to the wrong tomb.

Now, the problem with that is the first people that went to

the tomb were women And women pull over and ask for

directions. Had the first people been guys,

we never would have found Jesus. We never would have known, he

could have risen from the dead but we never would have found

out. But women will pull over the

second problem inside of this is we know who's Kim.

It was, it was Joseph of Arimathea.

Sit was a brand new Tomb, he bought it.

He had it made for himself so he would have had to go to the

wrong tomb. Not only that the religious

leaders would have had to have gone to the wrong tomb and the

Roman authorities who put a seal on it.

And Put guards out in front to guard, it would have had to go

to the wrong tomb. In other words, the women went

to the wrong tomb, the men went to the wrong tomb.

The religious authorities went to the wrong tomb.

The Civil Authorities went to the wrong tomb, and Joseph of

Arimathea who bought it, forgot where he had it.

Highly unlikely. Okay, well, the second theory is

well that Jesus didn't die. He swooned everybody say swim.

You'll never use that word again but now we have it.

What they're saying is that Jesus just didn't die.

Now let me walk you through what he went through for just a quick

second. First thing we find out is that

he was beat, then he was flogged which has been known to kill

people. Then he carried a heavy cross to

the point of failure and Simon of Cyrene had to carry it.

The rest of the way then to help him recover from what he's

already sustained. They drove Nails in his feet and

Nails in his hands and strung him up on a cross for For six

hours to help him get a little bit better.

Then the Roman officers Executioner's who are designed

to make sure that people died came up to him and said he's

dead, but just to make sure they ran a spear up inside of him and

pierced his heart and it says that blood and water flowed out,

which is pretty interesting. Because I don't know how many of

you guys have ever stab somebody in the heart, but that's like

one of the new policies we have here at the church.

No stabbing. And if I were to stab you right

now, You're living. Just blood would come rushing,

out of your heart. Okay, if I stab you, I'll put it

over here. If I were to stab you, it all

that would happen, but if you were already dead, something

happens when you die your blood separates.

When you go to give blood, your doctor will tell you this, your

blood will separate the red blood cells, will collect at the

bottom and your plasma, which looks a little bit more like

water. The clear substance will float

to the top. It's like oil and water in a

jar. So when you pierce it, what

comes out first, what's at the bottom?

The blood and then what comes after that, the water.

The only way you would get that is if Jesus was already dead

before, he was stabbed, but he survived that I guess.

And then all the blood drained out from at least this way down.

Then they don't, you know, they put him in a first-century.

I see you also known as a grave. They put him in the grave and

they wrap them up and then they put 75 pounds of spices in

there. Then they, it's cold and dark.

They roll this. The stone over the grave.

Then they just leave them in there for three days.

No food, no water, no care. So we can just rest up and then

he rises up and he makes his clothes.

That's why women love Jesus. Because when Jesus gets up, he

folds his clothes, make some snacks them all neatly.

Then from inside the tomb, he rolls the stone back, which is a

pretty Herculean effort because when the women were going to the

tomb, they said, who's going to move this big stone for us?

Well, Jesus. He's had a couple hours rest

from everything that he's been going through some So he's more

than willing to be able to move are more than able to move the

stone and then he goes out and takes out the Roman guards.

That's what they're proposing in.

The Swoon Theory, I wasn't buying it.

I'm guessing neither. Are you other people have said,

well, it was just a hallucination.

Everybody was just hallucinating that Jesus had risen from the

dead. The problem with that is people

who usually hallucinate have either done a lot of drugs or

they're going to have a severe mental illness and rarely do

people have the exact same hallucination.

I mean, some of you You. You know, somebody who's had too

much. And you were having too much

till and you probably didn't. Do the.

Are you seeing this too, man? Here's what would have had to

happen. The women at the tomb, the

disciples at the tomb Thomas when he physically touched him.

The two on the road to Emmaus, those who went fishing with

Jesus and over 500. People would have all had to

have the exact same hallucination over a period of

40 days. The other problem is it still

doesn't account for the empty tomb, all they would have to do

is go. Hey, you hallucinating crazy

people. Here's dead, Jesus.

But they didn't do that. So then what they said is, maybe

maybe someone stole Jesus. Okay, maybe his enemies did it.

Well, that doesn't make sense. Why would you use his enemies?

Steal his body. Because they were trying to kill

this infant movement. They're trying to stop it before

it got big, they were frustrated.

If they had stolen the body, all they have had to do.

So, here is that Jesus and have been over.

Well, maybe maybe the disciples stole it.

They believe so much in his message that they would have

stolen his body to keep the myth and the Rumor alive.

The problem with that is that they have had to overpower the

guards and they were never brought to trial and punished

for stealing the body. The other problem is Their lives

were completely transformed by this event, almost.

All of them were committed to it.

To the point of death. There were zero defectors,

everybody who saw Jesus alive, believed it and paid dearly for

it. They were severely punished or

killed for the belief that Jesus not only died for their sins.

But Rose from the grave in a bodily, physical tangible state.

People die all the time. People die for causes all the

time but people don't die for something that they know to be a

lie. These early followers of Jesus

would have had to have stolen the body and known in their

hearts. That Jesus did not rise from the

dead and then spend the rest of their lives at Great cost.

Proclaiming. And Offering for what they were.

Proclaiming that Jesus rose from the dead.

They received no comfort for this belief.

No social standing, no monetary gain.

All they did was suffer for what they believed.

And for me I couldn't buy it. This left me with sufficient

evidence to believe that Jesus indeed Rose from the grave.

And that means that Jesus is who he says he is and that means

that what he taught has. Value and implications for me

that I can look through and empty tomb.

And I can see the cross. And I can see the teachings that

he left for you. And for me, that means that hell

is real and so is heaven. And when I die, I need to have

this figured out and have a life that reflects it, in my opinion.

It means at least four things. A resurrected.

Jesus means one that. God loves you.

And we'll never stop loving you. He loved you before you ever

took your first breath. He loved you before you ever did

anything wrong. Because before you existed, he

sent his son to die on the cross on your behalf.

And you can tell how much somebody are how much something

is worth by how much someone is willing to pay for it.

Some of you right now, you may be experiencing an increase in

the appraisal of your home and you're looking around and you're

going, our house keeps going Up and value.

And some of you are excited about it because you're ready to

sell others of you are frustrated by it because you

know, that the accessor of the the county assessor is looking

at the same thing that you're looking at your like we haven't

done anything to our house, but the value keeps going up.

Well, it's because your house value is going up because other

people are willing to pay more for what you have.

Your value is based on what somebody else was willing to pay

for it. And if you want to figure out

how much you're worth, all you have to do is look at the cross,

because God sent his one, and only son to die on the cross to

rescue you, to purchase you to redeem you to buy you.

And it cost him the life of his son.

That's how much you're worth. The second thing that it means

is that you have purpose because God created you, you are not an

accident, your parents might not have planned you.

You might be the result of a lot of country music and a lot of

alcohol on our really long night, but that does not mean

that God did not want to bring you into the world.

That means that God believes that you have something to offer

and God has something to offer. You three, it means that you can

be made new. I wonder if there's anybody

gathering at any of our locations who could use a

do-over who would like to be made new, who would like a

restart? Who would appreciate a mulligan?

The Gospel of Jesus Christ, is not just that he changes us, but

he makes you knew. Point for the fourth thing that

are resurrected. Jesus means is you have been

completely forgiven. If I were right now to pass the

microphone around and say, everybody tell us your darkest

sin, I would walk off the stage and then all of you would go to

the bathroom and that would be the end of our church.

Okay, everybody be doing burnouts and the parking lot.

We got to get out of here because there are certain sins

that we would tell people that. We wrestle with.

And there are some sins, we don't ever want anybody to find

out. And Jesus paid for them all.

Jesus came for all of it. Well, how does God make this

happen? How does all of this take place

second Corinthians. Chapter 5 tells us?

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

Therefore if anyone is in Christ to be in Christ, is to have an

intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

So these statements are true. If you are in an intimate

personal relationship with Christ, the new creation has

come the old has gone. The new is here, when you come

into an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ,

when you are in Christ, you are made new. if you are not in an

intimate, personal relationship, with Jesus Christ, You are still

in your sins. Let's keep going.

All of this is from God. This wasn't our idea.

This was his idea. He loved us so much that he came

up with the idea to reconcile us to himself through Christ.

So, you get a right relationship with God, that reconciliation

means a right relationship. He came up with it, that it

happens through Christ. It doesn't matter how many

friends you have, it doesn't matter if your parents believed,

it doesn't matter if you make enough money or how poor you

are, doesn't Don't matter how connected you are.

How cool your job is, how fashionable you are.

How you look in the mirror, none of that matters.

What matters is are you in Christ?

Because it is through Christ that we are reconciled and those

of us who get reconciled, he gives us the ministry of

reconciliation to go out and help other people find this

relationship with God. Let's keep going in the text.

That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ.

How is he doing that? By this, by not counting

people's sins against them. Single one of us are relational

struggles with friends, family members, spouses, co-workers

bosses has everything to do with the fact that they are counting

our sins against us and we are counting their sins against them

but God chose not to count your sins against you.

Well how does he do that? We're going to find out in a

couple of verses that God was reconciling the world to

himself, not counting people's sins against them and then he

has committed. To us.

Those of us who are in Christ, the message of reconciliation.

Let's keep going. We are.

Therefore, Christ's ambassadors. As though, God, we're making his

appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's

behalf be reconciled to God. Come into an intimate personal

relationship with him and experience the purpose and the

forgiveness. And the love that you were

destined for that. You were created for well how is

God not counting our sins against Us.

How are we coming into this reconciled state with God verse

the next verse tells us? God made him.

That's Jesus. Who had no sin to be sin for us.

So that in him in Christ and Jesus, we might become the

righteousness of God. Here's what happened.

God looked at you and took all of the sins that you have ever

committed and all the sins that you will ever come in, and he

placed them on the perfect person of Jesus, And he took all

of the Perfection of Jesus and he placed it on us.

And so he still punished the sins.

He just didn't punish us. He punished the ones who bore

our sins. And so when you and I look at an

empty grave and we look at the cross.

We see Jesus suffering on our behalf so that you and I could

have a right relationship with God.

Here's what I'm trying to say. If you are needing rescued, I

know where to find it. If you're looking for Mercy, I

know where you can get it. If you need a restart, if you

need to be made new, if you need someone to take care of your

past and give you a future, I know where you can get it.

If you're the kind of person who's need to be made or

righteous, if you want the promise of Heaven if you're

looking for Hope, if you're needing some help.

If you're looking for a miracle, if you want some comfort, some

direction or peace, I know where you can find But don't go to the

tomb because he's not there, and don't go to the Cross.

He's not there either, but it's because of an empty tomb.

And it's because of a cross that I can come into a relationship

with a risen savior. He is alive, and he wants a

relationship with you. And the worst thing you could do

is put it off. We're moving to a decide time of

decision. There's some of you in here

today, you've never started an intimate personal relationship

with Jesus Christ. And I want you to hear me say

this for me and for thousands of people all across this region,

we would tell you two things. It was the greatest decision we

ever made and our biggest regret is we didn't do it sooner and I

know there's some of you in here going Clayton I still have a lot

of questions and I'm going to encourage you to ask him.

Don't hide from them. Pray through them.

But there is some of you in this room or watching online that you

know enough, here's what I mean. Most of you don't know

everything there is to know about a car.

But, you know, enough that you don't want to walk.

Some of you you don't know everything there is to know

about a house but you signed all 56 legal documents that you

didn't read when you bought one and you walked away so proud of

yourself and I get to put in your Banker could have put in

that contract, bring Clayton, a Snickers every day for the rest

of your life and like it's right there.

Like I didn't know it because I wasn't reading so you didn't

know everything but, you know, enough men Be cool here.

How many of you know everything there is to know about a woman

Yeah, we have a support group that meets on Tuesdays and how

many of you would say that? What you knew about your wife

last month? No longer applies this month.

But, you know, enough. To know that you wanted her in

your life forever. I get the desire to know God and

understand everything about him, but I need you to know you will

never understand everything about an infinite god with your

finite bring but you can know enough.

You can know enough to know that you need him and you don't want

to spend another day of your life without him.

And you can be made new today. You can be reconciled to God.

Today, you can get your restart today.

You can experience forgiveness today.

You have to make a decision and no decision is a decision and if

you have questions about what that is or what that looks like,

there's me somebody right over there by the bastard.

Who would love an opportunity to talk with you about what that

looks like to the rest of you to the Christians, to those who've

been made new been given our loved have been reconciled.

God has given you. And I a Ministry of

reconciliation and why would you settle for living for anything

less? There is no grander purpose for

your life. No better mission to submit

yourself to No Greater message to display and God is calling us

to bring his lost children home and will you join us in that

mission? Would you stand with me?

Heavenly Father, do something in this church in this service.

This right now do something that only you can do.

Stir Hearts change Hearts, altered Destinies, change

Eternal, destinations God. We believe that you can do it,

and we're begging you to do. So, and your name, I pray.

Amen.