Slow to Believe - Easter Sunday

[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, we're going to go to John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: So turning, you're biobless to John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: What I love about that testimony is that it just shows that you could have a general knowledge of Christianity without seeing the significance of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you catch that in Tories testimony

[SPEAKER_00]: Though she didn't attend church regularly, she had this, she was aware of the Christian message.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when she needed a boost in life, she wasn't turned on the Christ, she turned to relationships, and also some mood altering substances.

[SPEAKER_00]: And even when those decisions that she made started to turn out bad, it wasn't like, oh, I should turn to Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: That wasn't part of the option when things got dark.

[SPEAKER_00]: And any thought in that direction, she just dismissed it to say, hey, I'm too far gone.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when things are going good, nah.

[SPEAKER_00]: When things are going bad, it probably doesn't work for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Somehow, we're able to acknowledge the message of Christianity, yet put it in another category.

[SPEAKER_00]: Put it in a category.

[SPEAKER_00]: A category of ideals that may inspire us, but they don't really change our life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that needs to change.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can grow up in the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: and we can serve with the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can be an altar boy.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can have a Christian education.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can wear a cross around our neck.

[SPEAKER_00]: But in the real world, it really hasn't made a difference in our life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because Christians can be addicted to the same substances as their atheist friends.

[SPEAKER_00]: They can attend the same parties.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their talks can sound just like everyone else.

[SPEAKER_00]: And somehow we can affirm all the ideals.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yet, we don't lean on them.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't truly believe them.

[SPEAKER_00]: My point is not whether a Christian can sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: They do.

[SPEAKER_00]: I do.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's not hypocrisy.

[SPEAKER_00]: if you have grieved the Holy Spirit, if you've grieved Him, for you to be grieved over your sin and repent.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is the Christian walk.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to be doing that to the end.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what I'm getting at is living a life as if mere acknowledgement of the Christian story is true belief.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is not.

[SPEAKER_00]: The belief that is commanded by Jesus means that there is a turning from your past life and turning and facing Christ and following Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's very different.

[SPEAKER_00]: To be a Christian, you have to believe in the supernatural.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to believe, like when I pray for healing for somebody, when I lay my hands, and I pray over someone, I have to remind myself that I believe in the Prince of life, Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because I'm here triggered as a human being to believe only what my eyes can see or only what I've, I can do.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if to be a Christian, it demands you believe in miracles, specifically the resurrection.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because without a resurrection, all you have is a Jewish revolutionary who died in the first century.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's all you have.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's turn to the passage now, John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm gonna back up and take in some of 19.

[SPEAKER_00]: Starting with chapter 19 verse 38.

[SPEAKER_00]: And after these things, Joseph of Eramathia, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for the fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he may take away the body of Jesus and Pilate gave him permission.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he came and took away his body.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of mure and allows about 70 pounds worth of weight.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a lot.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, they took the body of Jesus, bound it in linen cloths with spices as is the burial custom of the Jews.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden, a new tomb, in which no one had been laid.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, because of the Jewish Day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid

[SPEAKER_00]: Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

[SPEAKER_00]: So she ran and went to Simon Peter, and the other disciple was John, the one whom Jesus loved and said to them, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb, both of them were running together, but the other disciple, out ran Peter and reached the tomb first.

[SPEAKER_00]: And stripping to look in, he saw the linen cloth lying there, but he did not go in.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Simon came following him and went into the tomb.

[SPEAKER_00]: He saw the linen cloth lying there, the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloth, but folded up in a place by itself.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first, also went in and he saw and believed.

[SPEAKER_00]: For as yet they did not understand the scriptures that he must rise from the dead, then the disciples went back to their homes.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the section I really want to spend more time with, very tender, but Mary stood weeping outside the tomb and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had laying one at the head and one at the feet and they said to her woman why are you weeping?

[SPEAKER_00]: And she said to them, they have taken away my Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I do not know where they have laid him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but did not know that it was Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who are you seeking?

[SPEAKER_00]: Supposing him to be a gardener.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: She said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where he is, where you've laid him and I will take him away.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus said to her, Mary, she turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rabonai, which means teacher.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus said to her, do not cling to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God in your God, Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord that He had said these things to her.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now you would think all the disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: If he could raise Lazarus from the dead, he could manage not getting killed.

[SPEAKER_00]: If he raised Lazarus, it would seem to me that he could manage himself well enough not to get killed.

[SPEAKER_00]: but it happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: And those words were flung back upon Jesus, even around the people around the cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: He saved others, he can't even save himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there are followers of Jesus there, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure that that lodged with in them, and as they were present at this brutal scene,

[SPEAKER_00]: In their mind, how could it end this way?

[SPEAKER_00]: How could it end this way when faith was starting to bloom, spiritual life was starting to bloom in all the followers?

[SPEAKER_00]: His body was taken down by Joseph Eramathia, a wealthy man and placed in a tomb nearby.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was in a garden and the women who followed Jesus in his ministry continued to find where he was going to be placed.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it was late in the day, it was closing in on Sabbath day.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they went back home and prepared the spices to come back after the Sabbath.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now remember, Sabbath starts, I had to check this again.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't start in the morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: It starts Friday at sundown and goes to Saturday sundown.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's how they accounted for days.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they had to stop all their work and wait to the resurrection.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's where we find things in John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: Mary Magdalene is eager to get back to the tomb.

[SPEAKER_00]: It had been such a crazy week.

[SPEAKER_00]: She had been probably unable to sleep because she rose at the crack of dawn.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she's longing for a quiet moment to reflect, to mourn, and to perform her final act of love.

[SPEAKER_00]: We prepare the spices and oils.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what is striking about the resurrection accounts?

[SPEAKER_00]: All of them were slow to believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: Slow to believe in a resurrection.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you are embellishing these narratives, so they sound better.

[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: It shows all of the disciples doubting in a resurrection, though they saw so many.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first thing that came to mind with Mary, when she saw the open tomb, was that there was a grave robber who took the body, give me that body back, and she ran back to Peter and John.

[SPEAKER_00]: and said, you got to come to the tomb, you got to see this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so they ran there and when they got there, they saw the linen rappings, they saw the head rapping, even folded up in a different place.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was very unusual.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they didn't fully understand what was going on.

[SPEAKER_00]: When John went in, because John wrote the book of John, he says, yeah, I believed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he didn't tell anybody, because everybody else

[SPEAKER_00]: They thought that some foul play had happened, that someone stole the body, and Mary loved it.

[SPEAKER_00]: She stayed, she stayed back, and she was distraught.

[SPEAKER_00]: How was she supposed to grieve now without a body?

[SPEAKER_00]: with all this mystery, with all this confusion, that just sort of disturbed everything that she was hoping for.

[SPEAKER_00]: She didn't have this quiet reflection.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus had freed her from her troubled past.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we know a few things about Mary Magdalene.

[SPEAKER_00]: We know that she was a devoted follower to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: But her previous life, though some have believed that she was a harlot,

[SPEAKER_00]: but that she was rescued from seven demons.

[SPEAKER_00]: Luke chapter Avers 2 says that she was, that Jesus exercised seven demons out of her, which tells you that she had a very troubled past

[SPEAKER_00]: deeply troubled woman freed from all of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So she became a devoted follower of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: She saw the crucifixion and the Lord gave her the first glimpse of himself after the resurrection.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's not the empty, too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just thought, the body is stolen.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, that's what the religious leaders, they were claiming the same thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because these are rational explanations, ones that are easier to swallow for most humans.

[SPEAKER_00]: Must have been an accident.

[SPEAKER_00]: So one must have stole the body.

[SPEAKER_00]: It couldn't have been a resurrection.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Mary peered back into the tomb.

[SPEAKER_00]: She peered into the tomb, and now they're two angels there.

[SPEAKER_00]: One at the head, and one at the feet where Jesus was laid.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they said to her, because she was weeping, why are you weeping?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I think it's trying to draw her out so that she can come to believe, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because they knew why she was weeping.

[SPEAKER_00]: why are you weeping?

[SPEAKER_00]: And she says, they've taken away the body and I don't know where it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then she turned and noticed another guy behind.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was Jesus, but she thought it was a gardener.

[SPEAKER_00]: Think about that, a gardener.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, address the gardener like if you've taken the body, just tell me where it is and I will go and fetch it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, she's looking at two angels.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's seeing the resurrected Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the most compelling explanation is someone took the body.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you see how slow it is that these disciples were to believe?

[SPEAKER_00]: They were hesitant.

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't see a resurrection.

[SPEAKER_00]: form our explanations of life, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like I've gone to many funerals, and I don't expect to resurrect when my mom and dad passed away.

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't lay my hands on them to pray for a resurrection.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we place people in a casket or in a grave, doesn't it feel kind of final?

[SPEAKER_00]: The early disciples, they felt the same way.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was a great run.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those three years were amazing, weren't they?

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's over.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're all trying to grapple with all of this, even though they saw an empty tomb.

[SPEAKER_00]: It took Jesus calling her name, Mary, before she awakened.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because finally, she goes teacher and grasps a hold of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to let you go this time.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to keep, but Jesus said, you've got to stop claiming, cleaning to make, because I need to go to the Father.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because from here on out, we are going to relate to Jesus in a different way.

[SPEAKER_00]: not physical Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to be up in heaven, ascended at the right hand of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's going to be a break in his physical appearance, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: We will believe, though, we do not see.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's going to have to follow Christ, her the rest of her life, which she did, and gave testimony to Jesus, but without him present.

[SPEAKER_00]: It all has to change.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is saying, my death and my resurrection shows you something more glorious

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me go.

[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot believe in Jesus simply as a teacher.

[SPEAKER_00]: She said, teacher, it's gotta go higher than that, because he's not gonna be equal with Confucius or Muhammad.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is more than just lessons on how to treat your neighbor or how to get along with your mother-in-law.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's more than finding peace of mind or building healthy families.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your understanding of Jesus has to go all the way up and say, He is the son of the living God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has been resurrected.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's where your faith has to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Thomas, one of the 12, got it right though.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was skeptical for a while about doubting Thomas.

[SPEAKER_00]: When he saw the risen Christ, he said,

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: My Lord and my God, it wasn't Jesus, the teacher anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you and I are not so different than the early disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, it's difficult for us to believe in a resurrection.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they saw firsthand, think about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: They saw miracles firsthand, demons exercised.

[SPEAKER_00]: They saw lame people walking blind men seeing lepers restored.

[SPEAKER_00]: The multitude fell fed with fish and loaves and storms calmed by a word.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus walking on the water and water turning into wine.

[SPEAKER_00]: And three people getting raised from the dead?

[SPEAKER_00]: You think about Mary and Martha?

[SPEAKER_00]: That happened probably about a week and a half before this moment, Lazarus was raised.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, Mary and Martha asked for Jesus to come.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was critically ill. You've got to come now.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll need to lay it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when he finally got there, Lazarus was in the tomb for about four days.

[SPEAKER_00]: And even though Jesus heard people say, yes, I know about a resurrection.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus goes, I am the resurrection in the life.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they were still bewildered.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when he moved toward the tomb where Lazarus was, Martha said, no, don't roll the tomb, the tombstone away.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, no, no.

[SPEAKER_00]: Decay is already happening.

[SPEAKER_00]: Future provocation will be intense.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's not open up the grave.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus, as the resurrection says, come forth, and Lazarus was raised.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, wonder where's the body?

[SPEAKER_00]: And it would take them seeing it with their own eyes.

[SPEAKER_00]: They had to see him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Mary would go back to the disciples and announce, I have seen the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then the Lord comes into the room and vades their room and says, here I am.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Thomas, you remember Thomas, like I just quoted.

[SPEAKER_00]: And last I see his size.

[SPEAKER_00]: And last I see the marks.

[SPEAKER_00]: I will not believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus said, here I am.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he says, my Lord, in my God, I have seen him.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Mary, go back to Mary.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mary was healed of deep bondage when Jesus exercised seven demons from her.

[SPEAKER_00]: The darkness that she had lived with up until that moment was intense.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the Lord set her free and then after death and resurrection, Mary was no longer bound

[SPEAKER_00]: And when he rose, he was more than a man, it was the Son of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the promise held out to everyone who believes that you can be forgiven, you can be made whole, your eternity can be secured.

[SPEAKER_00]: Will you believe today?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because I bet you have, and at Marissa, praying for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe someone who invited you this morning,

[SPEAKER_00]: And they invited you, not because they think they're better than you.

[SPEAKER_00]: They want you to experience the same thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: They want you and your life to be made a whole because your sins are forgiven and you have a hope in the future, hope beyond the grave.

[SPEAKER_00]: In a few minutes, I'm going to ask you and give you an opportunity to follow Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I will be asking you to stand to your feet as a visible demonstration of that commitment to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as the band comes up, I want you to bow your heads, and I want you to consider some things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me ask you some questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can see that the first century disciples, people who follow Jesus and saw everything,

[SPEAKER_00]: You can see that there has a tent to believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's slow to believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not that different from you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not that different from you.

[SPEAKER_00]: But how do you think your life will change?

[SPEAKER_00]: Those of you who need a change?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you hoping that a marriage, a promotion at work, success, personal discipline?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just going to get better at personal discipline or resolutions that will bring the satisfaction and the deep peace that you crave.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, only Jesus can do that and Mary Magdalene can attest

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure she tried many, many things to find life, but it only brought her darker and darker inner path.

[SPEAKER_00]: Much like Tori.

[SPEAKER_00]: because promotion and success could not touch the demonic turmoil within Mary.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus saved her from bondage and then the judgment, her sins deserved.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Jesus went to the cross, he took it all upon himself when he died.

[SPEAKER_00]: He died for the sins of the world and you too can be free today from bondage and judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Will you believe?

[SPEAKER_00]: The question is, will you follow Jesus?

[SPEAKER_00]: Not information?

[SPEAKER_00]: Not these ideals that can inspire you, but do nothing for the Monday through Saturday.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, I'm talking about following Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Being religious is not enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wearing across or going to is not enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: You must truly believe this stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: May the Lord dissolve your doubts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Put religious hypocrisy aside, jump in, jump all in and come follow Jesus with us, because He is racing.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the Lord is speaking to you through this message on Resurrection Sunday,

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you have held yourself back from truly believing, but in this moment, feel prompted in your heart to believe, I'm going to give you an opportunity to do just that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to ask you to stand in a moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: But let me be clear, by standing, you were saying, out loud for everyone to see, you want to follow Jesus, no turning back.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's why it's necessary to do it publicly, un-shamed.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know it's a big moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know it's hard because big step when everyone's watching, but you have to break from your old patterns of people pleasing.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna please Jesus now.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna please him.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you believe that Jesus rose from the dead,

[SPEAKER_00]: And you want to follow him for the rest of your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to stand up right where you are.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can stand to your feet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just rise up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, praise God.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll count to three, even.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know some of your hesitating.

[SPEAKER_00]: Two, three, this stand.

[SPEAKER_00]: No turning back, not ashamed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And remain standing.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wanna lead you in prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wanna lead you in a prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Pray this after me.

[SPEAKER_00]: My Lord and my God.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe,

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that you are the Son of a living God.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that dying on the cross, you died for the sins of the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a sinner.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have sinned against you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I need your forgiveness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now strengthen me, I want to follow you for the rest of my life, help me in Jesus' name.