PASTOR LUKE LEZON | SUNDAY EASTER

Oh man. Anybody grateful for everything

the Lord's done in this house this

morning? Come on. If you're grateful,

give it up for Jesus.

Y'all can take a seat. Welcome to

Lifebridge Church, everybody. It is so

great to see you and to be here with you

all. I hope you are having a fantastic

morning. You look pastelled out. It

looks great from here. So, good job

everybody. uh you are doing what you can

to fit all the stereotypes and we love

that. And so uh hey let me just say if

you and I haven't had the chance to meet

yet uh my name is Luke Lazison. I have

the opportunity to serve as one of the

pastors here uh and we are so grateful

that you are gathered together with us

here. Uh if you're in our additional

seating, we are grateful that you are

with us as well. I hope I got to shake

your hand. And for all of you that are

tuning in online, we're grateful that

you are here as well as we have gathered

together to celebrate this Easter Sunday

morning. Anybody grateful for what it is

that we're celebrating today? And

uh you know, we have so been looking

forward to gathering together during

this time to celebrate what is a

monumental morning, but is really the

most monumental event in all of our

faith. It is the door upon which

everything we see is going to open. We

see that it is the hinge upon which that

door even will swing. It is massive. It

is the good news that we're celebrating

here today. And we call that news good

because what we know to be true is that

Jesus Christ got in our grave on Friday,

but on Sunday he had robbed it. And he

came out defeating sin and grave. And we

see that he robbed it of its sting and

power. And so we've got a lot to be

grateful for this morning. And let me

just go ahead and acknowledge the fact

that if you're in a room this size and

we've got this many people that have

gathered, there are some of you that

maybe have have never been here before.

And we hope that you feel welcome. There

are others of you who basically live

here all the time. And uh regardless of

how it is that you got here, how often

you've shown up, or what it is that's

going on in your life, I want you to

know that all of us have good reason to

celebrate this morning. I know that you

have very real human struggles that you

bring in here with you. And we're not

one of those churches that just want to

have you sweep everything under the

proverbial rug. Like the things that

you're dealing with when you came in

here will be just as real when you walk

out of this place. However, the good

news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ

is news that it's so good that it's

better than any good thing you've got

going on in your life. And it can redeem

any broken thing that you feel like is

beyond repair. And so, we are a people

that know that as we gather in this

place, it's like the famed theologian

Tim Keller once said that if the

resurrection really happened and Jesus

Christ is alive, then everything's going

to be okay in the end. That's the good

news that we are here to celebrate. Yes,

Jesus Christ has been killed and buried,

but the good news is that he rose to

life again and he is alive and well

today. And so, if you would uh we're

going to read in Matthew chap 27. We're

going to be in verses 62- 66 and then

we're going to move even into Matthew

chap 28 and we are going to move all the

way through verses 1 to7. I need you to

understand this if it's your first time

here with us. Uh we are big Bible people

at this church. We believe that the

Bible is the inspired word of God. We

believe that there are a lot of people

that are offering really terrible advice

out there on the interwebs letting you

know what they think needs to happen in

your life and none of it's really

working. We know that there is a

brokenness and a sinfulness that exists

in us. And this book is a mirror that

lets us know that there are things that

Christ has redeemed in us that we

actually have no power to redeem in and

of ourselves. And so we go back to it

time and time again that we might be a

people that look more and more like him.

So with that being said, y'all ready for

the word? It says this in Matthew 27

beginning in verse 62. It says, "The

next day which followed the preparation

day, the chief priests and the Pharisees

gathered before Pilate and said, "Sir,

we remember that while this deceiver was

still alive, he said, after three days,

I will rise again. So give orders that

the tomb be made secure until the third

day. Otherwise, his disciples may come,

steal him, and tell the people that he

has been raised from the dead, and the

last deception will be worse than the

first. You have a guard of soldiers,

Pilate told them. Go and make it as

secure as you know how. They went and

secured the tomb by setting a seal on

the stone and placing the guard. Let's

pray together. Uh Lord, we

are gathered together in this house and

I I don't know that it could ever

possibly be examined and explained well

enough for us to have mind the depths of

what the resurrection means. Uh Lord,

that there are people that are in this

place that are searching and struggling.

And Father, my prayer is that we would

find you today, Lord. That the

resurrection would be good news. is not

just something in our past but something

that has set us forth forward into the

future. Lord, we love you. We praise you

and we thank you. We ask these things in

Jesus name.

Amen. Well, in September of 1939, a man

by the name of Vitold Pitki ended up

joining the Polish armed forces in hopes

that he would be able to help defend

Poland from Nazi invasion.

Unfortunately, the Polish armed forces

ended up being defeated. And as a

result, he ended up joining something

that would become known as the Polish

underground resistance. The Polish

underground resistance ended up

discovering that there was something a

little bit suspicious happening, that

there were these political opponents of

the Nazis that ended up finding

themselves being imprisoned in a

concentration camp known as Awitz. And

so as a result, they ended up examining

things further and they found that

Polish inmates that found themselves

imprisoned at Awitz were very swiftly

afterwards receiving telegrams letting

families of those that were imprisoned

know that they had all of a sudden

encountered a sudden death. And so the

Polish underground resistance was more

than suspicious at this point when they

started to notice that there was quite

the pattern going on. And so they

decided that they wanted to launch a

mission, an investigation into what was

happening inside this camp. And not

surprisingly at all, nobody was really

interested in volunteering for the role

of leading the mission by going into the

camp. And when nobody ended up

volunteering, Vtold Pitky ended up

volunteering himself. What we see is

that he would ended up determining that

he just needed to get arrested along

with other Polish fellow individuals.

And so he found himself gathered

together with some guys that had the

intention of actually getting arrested

on purpose. And he along with 1,800

other Polish people found themselves

being escorted, detained, and then

delivered into Awitz. And as they were,

he would be assigned prisoner number

4859. And he would begin his daring and

his dangerous mission. That his goal

upon getting into the camp was to boost

uh Polish prisoner morale. We see that

he not only wanted to boost their

morale, but he was bringing fresh news

from the outside. We see that he was

getting information from the inside and

releasing it back to those individuals

that were a part of the Polish

underground resistance. And that his

mission was becoming a wild success.

That all of a sudden he was able to

compile this information. He was able to

get it to an inmate that he could

smuggle all that information to that was

going to be released. And upon this

inmate's release, what we see is that

they were able to get this information

to all of the different allies and

Polish authorities that were interested

in seeing this operation thwarted. And

so from there, we see that Pitky ended

up having quite the view inside of this

camp of all of the horrors that were

happening. We saw that there was

unbelievable mass torture, mass murders,

and deaths. We see that there were these

awful things that were happening. And

yet in the midst of the difficulty and

the danger of it, Pitky ended up forming

an operation, a group that put himself

largely at risk on an even further level

as they were operating from inside the

camp. And as we see that they were

operating inside the camp, they were

able to create radios from smuggled

parts. They were able to communicate

with individuals that were inside and

outside of the camp. And we see that

with all the information that Pitky had

gathered, he ended up himself escaping

from Awitz and he documented in a

100page report everything that was

happening in what he described as camp

life. That what we see happening is

Pitky volunteered to go into this death

camp, this concentration camp. And you

see that he lived. You see that he

volunteered to go in. And you see that

he not only volunteered to go into just

kind of any concentration camp but into

the most infamous one of them all into

Awitz. And he would suffer. He would

suffer on such a level that he said that

he was dealing with hunger that was

creating so much erosion in his stomach.

He felt like it was eroding his very

mind. He we would see that he would

endure many difficult sicknesses and

diseases. He would end up contracting

pneumonia and typhus. We see that he

would find himself volunteering to go

through this. And yet he would live

through it and come out on the other

side escaping with documentation of how

it is that there could be captives in

this place that could still be liberated

from the jaws of it. That we see that he

would end up putting forward a mission

that would become a movement of

individuals that would be liberated as a

result of him volunteering first. And I

say that to you today because in a much

more significant way, we see that Jesus

Christ volunteered to go into the

literal mouth of death. That he

volunteered and he would take on a death

that wasn't just any kind of death, but

the most infamous death of all. Death

upon a cross. We see that he would

suffer, that he would be beaten, mocked,

and scorned. That they would put a crude

costume around him after he had been

flogged. And they would put this cloak

around his shoulders, mocking him as a

king. that they would put a crown of

thorns on his head. They would put a

staff in his right hand that was just a

thin weak reed to let him know that his

claim to any kind of throne was weak. He

endured a flogging that was just one

last shy of what would kill a man. Nails

in his hands and his feet. He

volunteered and he lived. And he lived.

Not only going into the mouth of death,

but being resurrected and coming out

with the keys to death, hell, and the

grave. And we see that not only has

Christ end up defeating death, but we

see that also he is creating disciples.

He's taking you and I and he's sending

us back out into the world to say that

Jesus Christ is still liberating

captives to this day. Come on. Can

anybody testify that your life has been

rescued and liberated because he

volunteered on your behalf? But first,

what we see is that there is beyond a

shadow of a doubt one of the funniest

interactions in all of human history

leading up to the moment where Jesus

Christ will be raised from the dead.

Beginning in what we read together in

verse 62. In verse 62, it said, "The

next day, which followed the preparation

day, the chief priests and the Pharisees

gathered before Pilate." It it says,

"The next day." And then it says the

next day following the preparation day.

The next day meaning the day after Jesus

is crucified. And then what we see is

that Matthew is creating a little bit

more a little bit more clarity for us on

what exactly this day is. The next day

following the preparation day

translation is that this is the Sabbath

day. That's what this day is. Why is

that significant? Because we see the

hypocrisy in this that just a few hours

ago we see that they had been lobbying

all of these accusations against Jesus.

And one of the things that you see the

religious authorities saying is that hey

he was healing people on the Sabbath. He

was working on the Sabbath. That's

against our laws as a people. We see

that that's blasphemy. That's a problem.

Like he doesn't take God's law

seriously. And now he here we see that

they are and they are so concerned that

Jesus Christ might rise from the dead

just as he said that they're working on

the Sabbath. They're that concerned.

They're like, "Hey, I know we killed

this guy for many things. One of those

being that he was working on the

Sabbath, but we really got to talk about

something. He said he was going to get

back up again, and we don't really like

what that's going to do to us." And so

we see that it would continue in verse

62 and 63 and say that the chief priests

and Pharisees gathered before Pilate and

said, "Sir, we remember that while this

deceiver was still alive, he said after

three days I will rise again." Ain't

that interesting? The Lord's enemies

say, "We remember." They're recalling

everything that Jesus had said before he

was put to death. It's fascinating that

the Lord's enemies are remembering what

the Lord's disciples were forgetting.

The Lord's disciples should never have

been in a place where they were

forgetting that the Lord had said that

he would rise again. That should have

been forging their faith even after the

crucifixion. But what we see is that in

response to the crucifixion, the Lord's

enemies are the ones saying, "We

remember and the Lord's disciples are

the ones that are saying we ran." But

what we're trying to illustrate here is

that regardless of how far you are from

the Lord Jesus Christ, you can't ignore

the things that he said. His enemies

never refuted that he was doing

miracles. They refuted how he was doing

them. They didn't want to ascribe

sunship, that he's the son of God to

him. They were like, maybe he's driving

demons out by demons. But at no point

did they say these things aren't

happening. They just said we don't

really know how it's happening. And so

here they call him the deceiver.

Remember what the deceiver said. He said

in three days he would rise again. Which

is to say the deceiver made a promise.

The deceiver would be an accurate term

for somebody that lies to you on a

regular level, right? That makes a

promise and yet you can prove that they

had blatantly lied or it was blatantly

not true no matter how many promises

that they seem to make. And so we see

here that they're saying, "Hey, he's a

promise maker." And we're kind of

banking on him not being a

promisekeeper, but we just don't know.

The deceiver did say that he would rise

again in three days. And we are

concerned that his greatest miracle and

crowning achievement is going to be that

he's going to get up out of the grave

just like he said he would. And so they

go to Pilate and they say here that uh

the deceiver said after three days I

will rise again. So give orders that the

tomb be made secure until the third day.

Otherwise, his disciples may come, steal

him, and tell the people he has been

raised from the dead, and the last

deception will be worse than the first,

which is just

comical because what you see is that

they're saying to Pilate, our concern is

that the disciples are going to steal

the body and they're going to say that

he rose from the dead. And the hypocrisy

here is that after the resurrection,

when Jesus gets out of the grave, they

will run with the lie that they

invented. They will take money and they

will go and bribe soldiers to say the

disciples came and stole him. And as a

result, now they're perpetuating this

lie that he actually rose from the dead

when he didn't. Do you see the problem?

They created the lie that they would

eventually run with because they had

fear that this might happen, that he

would do just as he said. And so we see

that all of a sudden there are

generations of individuals that are

going to wonder, did the disciples just

steal the body? But do you understand

how committed to that lie you have to be

to die for

it? That's

crazy. I mean, to

lie all the way to the point of saying,

"Hey, if you don't renounce this lie,

we're going to kill you." And them

going, "Go for it. It happened." Like,

do you know how the disciples died? It's

not like chill. It's awful. I I mean,

good morning. Happy Easter. But James

was executed with the sword under orders

of King Herod. Peter was crucified

upside down in Rome at his request so

that he wouldn't be crucified like his

lord. Andrew was crucified on an

X-shaped cross. Thomas was speared to

death in India. Philip was stoned.

Bartholomew was flayed alive and then

beheaded. Matthew was executed with the

sword in Ethiopia. James was thrown from

the Temple Mount. Jude was killed with

an axe in Syria. Simon was sawed in half

in Persia. And John lived to old age,

but oh yeah, he was boiled alive for not

renouncing his faith. So I don't know if

we call that a win or what exactly we

think that would be, but I'm just here

to tell you I am not for being boiled

alive. Like I don't know about you, but

it would take much less to get me to say

just

kidding. I I mean, these are like

verifiable

things. If you just say he didn't rise

from the dead, we won't kill you. And

they're like, nope, do whatever you got

to do. if somebody accused me of

stealing like a

sandwich and I was just bought into like

I don't want to say this and they were

like okay we're going to flip you upside

down and saw you in half unless you I

ate two right like it's just I did it I

did it I don't want to do that it would

be crazy to get one guy to go to his

grave over it what are the chances you

get all of them to do

it what are the chances you get all of

them to do

it. Not a mathematician, but it's not

high. It's not good. It says that Pilate

told them, "Take the guards. Go and make

his tomb as secure as you know how."

They went and secured the tomb by

setting a seal on the stone and placing

the guards. Which is one of the funnier

verses in all of scripture. Go and make

the tomb as secure as you know how. Good

luck, Pilate. at this point, you can

imagine, is just upset. I mean, he's

been coerced and somewhat commanded by

these mobs of people over the last few

days to crucify this guy that that he

doesn't feel like should even be

crucified. I mean, Pilate's wife, who

is, of course, more discerning than he

is, was having dreams like, "Hey, do not

kill this guy." And he's like, "I don't

really know what to do." And so, we see

that he's just kind of been bossed

around over the last few hours. And you

can almost hear the sarcasm in his

voice. Ju just figure it out. Go make it

as secure as you know how. I mean, just

just get out of here at this point. But

there's unease and uncertainty. Wait a

minute. He said he'd rise again in three

days. There is no seal. There is no tool

that you could find on earth that was

going to be able to stop what heaven was

set to release in this moment. And in

Matthew 28:es 1-4, it says, "After the

Sabbath, as the first day of the week

was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the

other Mary went to view the tomb. There

was a violent earthquake because an

angel of the Lord descended from heaven

and approached the tomb. And he rolled

back the stone and was sitting on it.

His appearance was like lightning and

his clothing was white as snow. The

guards were so shaken by fear of him

that they became like dead men. It says

in verse 5 through7, "The angel told the

women, don't be afraid because I know

you are looking for Jesus who was

crucified. He is not here for he is

risen just as he said. Come and see the

place where he lay. Then go quickly and

tell his disciples, "He has risen from

the dead. And indeed, he is going ahead

of you to Galilee. You will see him

there. Listen, I have told

you. The women are going to the tomb."

And you see in other gospel accounts

that as the women are going to the tomb

that one of the angels will say, "Why do

you seek the living among the dead?

They're going to a graveyard and the

resurrection and the life is walking

among them. One of the most significant

things that you see from the angel here

is that he says he's

risen just as he

said. Can I tell you this morning, the

promise maker's a promisekeeper.

I mean, you have all of these people

that over the past couple of hours have

been wondering, have we put our faith in

an empty promise? Like, he said he was

the son of God. He said he was the

Messiah. He said he'd come back. I mean,

none of these things seem to be

happening. And

yet, they thought they believed in an

empty promise. But the empty tomb is

actually what fulfills all promises.

That we can know because the tomb is

empty, he makes good on every word that

he says. And there is new life in his

name for those of us that have repented

of our sins and put our faith in him.

And that's why we celebrate this

morning. The angel rolls the stone back.

Why? Not so poor Jesus can get

out, but so that you and I can step

in and see he's not

there. Romans chapter 6 would say

Romans 6 · chapter mention

this. After letting us know that all

have sinned and fallen short of the

glory of

God, Romans would tell us that the wages

of sin is death, but the free gift of

God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our

Lord. Anybody grateful that your sin has

been paid for? I mean, do we got anybody

on an Easter Sunday morning that

realizes sin fills tombs, but by the

grace of God, he's emptying them? that

we're a people that know by the cross

our debt was paid, but by the

resurrection we know that that payment

cleared. I can write you a $5 million

check. It'll

bounce. We're not one of those churches.

It'll

bounce. And it'll bounce so

hard they'll see my name on the check

and they'll go, "Good try.

Your payment

cleared. Means anybody grateful your

payment's been

cleared.

Hey, I am not going to water this down

for you cuz it's

Easter. Everybody in here has sinned and

fallen short of the glory of God.

Everybody. And you can chase anything in

this world trying to fill a void that's

just not going to work.

Money can make life easier, but it ain't

going to fulfill purpose in you. And you

can't take it with you. I have never

seen a U-Haul behind a hearse. You are

not going to have it

happen. You can pursue all the

things. But if you're in this place and

you're like, you know, I have been

searching to and fro throughout the

earth for anything that is going to feel

like it gives me my deepest meaning, my

greatest purpose. And even still, you

don't know what happens on the other

side of this.

You can have abundant life in Christ

Jesus our Lord in this very moment as

you know that you are stepping towards

eternal life where you will forever be

with him. Regardless of what it is that

you've pursued in this life, regardless

of what you've done, the gospel requires

repentance and faith. We're all working

towards obedience.

And I just want to give you the

opportunity today to not step out of

this place hoping you make it to next

Easter with no guarantee that you

might. If you would just bow with me.

And if you're in this place and you're

like, you know what, I've never put my

faith in Jesus Christ, but I don't want

to take another day and just and just

hope that I I figure something out

that's going to

work. Nothing will.

If you're in this place and you're like,

I want to put my faith in Jesus Christ

and know that my sin has been paid for

past, present, and future, and that I

can have eternal life in his name. Would

you just raise your hand if that's you,

so I can see who I'm praying for?

Yeah. Can you keep your hand up, those

of you that want to make that decision

today? Yeah. Nobody Nobody else is

looking or they shouldn't be.

If you're serious about that decision, I

want to ask you to do two things. Number

one, pray with me what I'm about to

pray, but then number two, come and find

us afterwards here at the altar. But

would you pray and just say, "Father,

I'm a sinner in need of a

savior. I believe that you live the

perfect life, Jesus, that I could not

and that you died the death I deserve. I

believe that you stood in my place on

the cross. That you willingly went

there, volunteered, and that your

perfect innocent blood takes away my

sin, past, present, and future. I

believe you were buried in a tomb for

three days, and that you rose to life

again, and that I can have eternal life

in your name. I repent of my sin and

turn my face toward you that I might

walk with you all the days of my life.

and praise God for salvation in the

house. Lord, for the rest of us, would

we worship like a people that are not

more interested in brunch than we are in

this gospel and our

salvation? Like a bloodbought people

that know that we have forever with you

as a result of what you've done, nothing

that we accomplish in and of ourselves.

Jesus, we love you, we praise you, and

we thank you. We ask this in your name.

Amen.