Easter Sunday 2014: His Ability to Triumph

Alright, you may be seated.

So I want to tell you two stories this morning.

The first story, you know, it's gonna be the Easter story.

The second story, I think, explains the Easter story a little bit.

So our text is gonna be Luke 24.

If you brought your Bible, uh, I think it wells, it's it's it's in the bulletin.

So uh Jesus was was killed, Good Friday.

That's what we celebrated on Friday.

Jesus was killed.

This was um this was a political maneuver.

Uh I mean this was the Romans um wanting to squash any uprising that was occurring to keep the peace in the empire.

And so the Romans are wanting to squash the political um any uprising that could threaten them.

Uh the Jewish authorities, Jesus was a threat.

He was a radical.

He was he was upsetting the system, right?

I mean, if you want to pick a fight, take away somebody's power.

And Jesus was coming in and he was threatening the system that gave a lot of people a lot of power.

Because he was saying, I'm I'm the final sacrificial lamb, I'm the Messiah.

This whole system of sacrifice, this whole system of law, of doing enough.

Like if I do enough, then I will be uh approved by God.

If I eat the right things, if I do the right things, if I make the right sacrifice, if I do enough, and Jesus comes along and say, No, well, actually, I'm going to be the fulfillment of all of that, and though you are not enough, through me you are enough.

And he so he's throwing everything off, and so the the Romans and the Jews, and we can read the Good Friday stories, and uh Jesus ends up on a cross.

And so he's on the cross, and then later that evening, Joseph of Arimathea and probably a few other people helped take Jesus off the cross, and Joseph owned a tomb, probably close to Jerusalem, and so they put Jesus in the tomb, but Sabbath was coming up the next day, so they probably did not finish the burial process.

They put him in the tomb.

Now the Romans they come along and they want to make sure that the uprising, the whole threat is squashed.

Like it's over, it's done.

And so they come along, they say, Here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna seal up the tomb, we're gonna put soldiers outside of it, so no radical can come along and steal the body, and they say, Oh, Jesus is alive.

Um so what they do is they come along and the Romans put a stone in front of the tomb, and they put the Roman seal on the tomb, which means you mess, the seal means this.

You mess with this, you will be crucified upside down.

That's what the seal meant.

And then there's Roman soldiers there.

So the story picks up for us uh in uh chapter 24 of Luke, verse 2.

So these women, we're about to read about some women coming up to the tomb.

These these women, they are showing up hurt.

I mean, this was their friend, Jesus was their friend, and he was crucified, a horrible death, to think about your friend having to die.

Maybe they saw it.

And so they're showing up and they're hurt, they're grieving.

Uh not only that, their hope has been squashed.

He was gonna be their deliverer.

And at this point, they they're still thinking, they were thinking, they're gonna deliver us.

He's gonna deliver us from Rome.

And so all of that has been shut down, and so their hope is gone, they're hurting, and so they come to finish off the burial process.

Verse 2, they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

But when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

And maybe you just say, hold on, I that's actually where I'm just kind of out.

You know, I I can't get my mind there.

I can't I can't accept that.

A resurrection from the dead.

I can't accept it.

I don't think I can argue you into that belief.

I don't think anybody can argue you into that, but I do have a few thoughts, and it begins with this.

If do you believe in a God?

And if you do believe in a God, could he do that?

And then if he wants to communicate to humanity about justice and about grace and about love and about humility, would this be a good way to do it?

Would this be a brilliant way to show history and show humanity who he is if he wants to reveal himself?

Just a question.

I mean, there's 500 people saw Jesus after the resurrection.

The new church started based not on a moral code, not on teachings on how to live.

That's not how the church started.

The church started based on an event.

It's based on he rose from the dead.

And people are going, yeah, I saw him.

Let's start a church.

I'm not saying I can argue it into the kingdom, but what I am saying is you've got to account for this.

I don't, I don't, I'm not always the one with the burden of the proof here.

You also have to account for the history of this event.

Verse 4, while they were wondering about this, or they're in there and they're not seeing Jesus, and he was here, and we're here with our spices, we're gonna finish off the bear heal process, and they're not, he's not there.

Suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.

In their fright, you know, lightning clothed men, I would be a little afraid.

The women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, Why do you look for the living among the dead?

Verse 6, he is not here, he is risen.

Where I'm from, he ain't here.

He ain't here.

He has risen.

Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee, the Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.

So he had said that.

Then they remembered his words.

So this phrase, son of man, this is from Daniel chapter 7.

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

And this is a this is a phrase Jesus always preferred to the phrases son of God and Messiah tend to have like political reference and overtone to them at the time.

And Jesus was always calling himself son of man, kind of trying to sway away from that political side and trying to say, you know what, I'm God to you.

I'm not here to give you political freedom, I'm here to give you inner freedom.

He's saying, I'm I'm both God and man.

I am God in the form of man, so you can know me.

And so this this brings me to the second story, which I think helps explain that story.

This idea of what is it that God is communicating through the cross and through the resurrection?

What is the heart of God?

And this Luke chapter 7, I love this story.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

Maybe you've heard this story before.

I love, I can't get enough of this story.

Jesus is having another dinner party at a Pharisee's house.

A Pharisee would have been a Jewish authority.

Pharisees were, they were proud of themselves in terms of their behavior.

But I mean there was definitely a hierarchy had occurred, and the hierarchy up at the top was I have my act together, and there was definitely segments off, you know, lower down that they they were the ends, right?

They were the socially elite, powerful, and religious.

And so Jesus is there dining with them.

See, this is Jesus loved people.

Pharisee, prostitute, heretic, harlot.

Doesn't matter.

People.

Just people.

And so Jesus is eating with the Pharisees, he's eating with the Pharisees, he's eating with the prostitute.

Doesn't matter to him.

They're just people.

No hierarchy, no divisions.

And so Jesus is there eating with these people, and a prostitute learns that Jesus is going to be there eating the prostitute.

She's heard about Jesus.

She's heard about the claims he's making.

She's heard about his miracles, and she's heard that he can forgive sin.

And she knows who she is.

It's real clear to her.

I mean, she's a prostitute.

Nobody becomes a prostitute without a history.

A lot of wounds.

So she's got a lot of wounds.

She's made a lot of wounds.

She's caused a lot of destruction.

She knows who she is.

She knows she has sinned.

She knows she's broken.

She's ashamed.

She sneaks into the house somehow.

I don't know how she gets it.

She sneaks into the house of this socially elite, religious, kind of powerful dinner party.

And she sneaks up right behind Jesus and she has a jar of perfume in her hand.

And probably everybody's talking about how great they are, and she's just broken about who she is.

And she gets up right behind Jesus and she just starts she just starts to weep.

See, she she's at the end of herself.

She is at, she is undone, and she is at the end, and her tears are falling down, and they're falling onto Jesus' feet.

We saw this in John a few weeks ago on Sunday morning, and this was Mary cleaning the feet of Jesus, and now we have a social outcast cleaning the feet of Jesus.

She's down on the floor and she's crying, and she's cleaning his hair with uh his feet with her hair, and she pours perfume on him, and then you imagine the religious crowd?

A prostitute?

I mean, this this guy's saying he's God, he's holy, he's righteous, a prostitute cleaning his feet?

I mean, and so Simon sees this and he immediately casts judgment on it.

And he says this in verse 39.

If this man were a prophet, he would know who was touching him.

He would know what kind of woman she is, that she is a sinner, right?

I mean, this attitude, she is so different than me.

I mean, look at her.

Did you hear what she did?

Did you hear what he did?

Did you hear about, did you hear about them?

Don't we live?

We feel so, when we say stuff like that, we feel so good.

Because we're not them, I mean, after all.

And I just hate this.

I hate this attitude.

I hate that that's even in me to look at somebody else and and sort of like rank myself in comparison and go, okay, well, I know I'm bad, but I'm gonna make myself feel better in this moment, and so I'm gonna I'm gonna judge them and I'm gonna compare them, and then I'm gonna rank myself higher than them.

Look at look at her.

I mean, doesn't he know who she is?

And Jesus catches on to this, and he just looks at Simon and he says, I Simon, I have something to tell you.

And I don't know, I don't think he said it angrily.

I I think it was just very pointed, I've got something to tell you.

And he tells this little story, and you've got to remember the woman's still down on the floor weeping, and he says, All right, so two men owed a guy money.

One of the guys in debt owed him 50 dinero, the other guy owed 500 dinero, and then the guy who was owed the money comes and he says, You know what?

It's wiped, it's clean.

It's clean.

Neither of you owe me.

And you gotta wonder, the woman is weeping, maybe she's hearing this, and you gotta think she is relieved.

Oh, because she's understanding I'm the 500 dinero.

I'm in that category.

And the debt can be wiped away, gone.

I don't have to work my way out of this hole.

This is unbelievable to her.

And then he looks to Simon and he just says, Hey, who will love the man more?

And Simon says, Yeah, I suppose the one who has the bigger debt's gonna love the man more, and he says, Yeah, you've judged correctly.

Jesus says, You've judged correctly.

You, Simon, you actually get it.

And the lady is still down there and she's undone and she's weeping.

And then verse 44 of Luke chapter 7, then Jesus turned to the woman and said to Simon, Do you see this woman?

Luke 7 · chapter mention

He'd already seen her.

He had already made his judgment on her.

I came into your house.

You did not give me any water for my feet.

But she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

You did not give me a kiss.

But this woman from the time I entered has not stopped kissing my feet.

You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.

Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven, as her great love has shown.

But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.

Jesus is not saying that Simon has little to be forgiven of.

He's saying to Simon that Simon doesn't see that he needs to be forgiven of much.

And maybe his sin is religious and moralistic and prideful, and her sin is more kind of rebellious and pleasure-seeking, and just what we would call just kind of debauchery.

Don't you see you're both?

You both fall short of what you should be?

I mean, Simon was unable to see that he needed to offer hospitality to Jesus.

He didn't offer him water for the feet, and but you know, that would have been an act of hospitality.

Simon couldn't see it.

He's too self-bent.

Who am I talking to?

Maybe there's other religious people there.

And he's like, who should I talk to to kind of move my way up in society here?

He's unable to give compassion to somebody who's hurting.

Instead, he offers judgment.

Compares himself.

Maybe you're like Simon.

Maybe self-reliant, maybe self-righteous, maybe focused on what you have done and what you do.

And when you screw up, you spiral downward, and then when you do well, you feel like, oh, life is good.

My position with God is so secured.

I feel wonderful.

And you know what?

You are getting more and more and more exhausted.

You've made yourself your own God.

No different than this woman.

But this woman broke from that.

She broke.

Her sin is seen.

She gets it.

She's broken.

She's at the end of herself.

And she needs outside help.

She needs another story beside her own story.

She's just coming to Jesus saying, I need your grace to me.

And then verse 48.

Then Jesus said to her, Your sins are forgiven.

And the other guests began to say among themselves, Who is this who even forgives sins?

And Jesus is thinking, Well, I'm God to you, so you can understand God, and so you can understand that.

Actually, soon I'll be crucified and then I'll be risen from the dead.

And Jesus said to the woman, Your faith has saved you, go in peace.

So just two clear points.

There's two stories, two clear points coming out of it.

Number one, Christianity is about shifting faith from your story to Jesus' story.

That your faith is not about you getting better and improving your storyline.

That's not what's going to make you feel validated as a human being.

It's not going to help you become righteous.

It's not going to help your standing with God.

That what's going to help is shifting faith from your story into Jesus' story.

That we have faith in Him crucified and risen.

The cross is about our sin being put upon him so we don't have to dig our way out of our own hole.

The cross is that is a ladder down into our hole, and Jesus coming down, not even us climbing back up the ladder, Jesus coming down the ladder into the hole and getting us and climb aboard up on the back, and I'll climb you out of the hole and make you right with God.

And then the empty grave is about his authority over sin, his authority to come to you and be able to say, Yeah, I do cover you with righteousness.

Though you create death in your behaviors and in your thinking, I cover you with my righteousness.

I have authority over death.

That's point number one.

Christianity is about shifting faith from your story to Jesus' story.

The second point, you are God's beloved because of his ability to triumph, not yours.

Isn't that good news?

That's what Easter is: God's ability to triumph.

And you are God's beloved because of his ability to triumph, not yours.

Maybe you're here this morning and you are Simon.

And you're tired.

Trying to validate yourself, create your own identity, create your own righteousness, maintain the whole thing, be the perfect moral citizen, be the perfect devoted Christian.

And some of that is good, but when you're just in it to perfect your own story, you're getting exhausted.

There's a story outside of your story.

That's what Good Friday and Easter is.

It's the other story.

It's the story that we put our faith in so we can believe and know we are God's beloved because of his ability to triumph, not ours.

He died for you.

For you.

And he rose from the dead for you.

And this is radical good news because what it means is it means we can stop now.

All that pretending, all that performing, all that earning, you can stop.

You don't have to keep doing it.

Jesus' is sufficient for that.

Or maybe you're here and you're like the women approaching the tomb.

Before they knew that Jesus had risen, they're just hurting.

Just hurting.

And maybe you're here because you're hurting because of past mistakes that just keep replaying in your mind.

Maybe things you haven't even told anybody about.

Maybe wounds you created, maybe wounds that were put on you, and they just keep replaying in your mind, and you're just, you're hurting.

And it can own you and it can define you.

But listen, it doesn't have to, because hurt is not the end.

That's what the tomb says.

The tomb says there's triumph over darkness.

And the radical good news for us, if you're in that category, is you are not defined by your story, but you can place your faith in the other story, in the greater story that creates new life in us.

And the victory is sealed.

The triumph has been settled.

So even when we're not being triumphant, he is triumphant because we've placed our faith not in our story, but in his story, we are triumphant.

I don't care what you've done.

I don't care where you've been.

Jesus is sufficient for you.

Our wounds and our mistakes no longer have to define us.

We are free of that.

There is nothing else for you to add to this story.

That he died on the cross, crucified, buried, and risen.

You are God's beloved because of his ability to triumph, not yours.

This is the story that we place our hearts and minds, souls and lives in.

Let's pray together.

God, we come before you, and some of us would say, Yeah, I'm Simon.

And maybe you've been Simon in the past, or maybe you say, you know what, this week I just became Simon again.

And we come before you and say, I cast so much judgment on others.

I compare myself.

My faith is in me.

And God, I am, I'm confessing that.

I am sorry for that.

I don't want to live like that.

God, would you break us this morning of that sort of self-righteousness and pride?

Would we just see that we're people?

And we come before you and say, we need you.

We need your great grace to us.

We need you on the cross and we need the empty tomb.

And we shift our faith.

We shift our faith from our story to your story.

And maybe you're here and you're you're one of you're like the women walking to the tomb before they saw it was empty and just hurting.

And you just need to remember the tomb's empty.

And it's not gonna make all the hurt go away.

I promise that.

It's not gonna create a perfect life.

But you can know there's triumph even in hurt.

And that you are God's beloved based on his triumph, not yours.

And so, God, we come to you and we say, our hope is not in us.

Our hope is in you and in your story and in your ability to triumph over death and darkness.

Praise in Jesus' name.

Amen.