Easter Sunday - He is RISEN!

Kia ora and welcome to the St. Francis Church

Sermon Podcast. We're so glad that you've joined

us. Our prayer is that as you listen, you would

encounter God's presence, be refreshed in your

faith and equipped for everyday life with Jesus.

As a church, we are learning to faithfully follow

Jesus by practicing His way at His pace. For

more info about who we are and what God is doing

among us, head to stfrancis .co .nz. Grace and

peace. Well family, we made it to Sunday. Palm

Sunday seems so long ago and it's not just any

Sunday, it's the Sunday. The one that changes

everything for us. If you were with us through

Holy Week at the different services across Hillcrest

churches, thank you for walking that road. It

matters that we just don't skip the good part.

It matters that we sat with the weight of Thursday

and with the grief of Friday because you cannot

fully feel the explosion this morning without

having stood at the tomb first. The silence of

Saturday makes the earthquake of Sunday hit differently.

And this morning it is supposed to hit us. What

the resurrection is for our lives. So here we

are, Easter Sunday. We're all together, different

ages, different stories, different places in

life. The same news for every single one of us.

He is not on the tomb. He is risen. And what

I want to do... this morning is make sure that

we actually don't say those words and move on.

I want us to actually land on what that means.

Not just historically or theologically, but what

it is personally for each one of us. For your

actual life and for the weeks for the rest of

the year. Because the resurrection of Jesus isn't

something that happened way back then that we

commemorate in our minds only today. It is alive.

You know, it's moving. And there's something

to say to every single person in this room today.

So let's get into it. Question, big question

for today. This is just one that I've chosen.

Is Jesus risen or is he just remembered? Is he

risen for you or is he just remembered? And three

things that I want to unwrap through here is,

is he present? He is personal. He is powerful.

So picture this, because this is what kind of

happened earlier this morning and you weren't

there in the dark. So I want to kind of put us

into the picture. And maybe as we go through,

pick out who you are. Two women walking toward

a tomb. It's barely light, carrying spices for

a dead body, carrying grief that hasn't fully

landed yet for them. They're not going to see

if Jesus is alive as they walk there. They're

going to do the last kind thing that they can

do for someone who is gone. That they expect

not to see ever again. And as they're walking,

the earth shakes. It says in Matthew 28, There

was a violent earthquake for an angel of the

Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb

rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance

was like lightning and his clothes were white

as snow. Notice what the angel does first. He

doesn't announce the resurrection. The angel

sits on the stone like someone who has absolutely

nowhere else to be. Like someone who knows the

worst has already happened and has already been

dealt with. That detail alone should slow us

down today. After all what has gone before in

that week. And here's what I want us to wrestle

with this morning. Is Jesus risen for you? Or

just remembered by you? Is this just a memorial

service and that we have when we gather at the

table? Or is it the presence of Christ with us?

Because those are two completely different Easters

and where you can be in one or the other. And

Matthew 28 won't let us stay in the comfortable

middle. So let me show you three things about

the risen Jesus in this passage. The first one

is that he is present. The resurrection is not

a past event, it's a present reality. It's right

here. The angel says something that should stop

us in our tracks. He is not here, he has risen.

He has risen. Present, perfect tense, not he

rose, as though it's over and done with. He has

risen. The resurrection has happened. and its

effects are still running today. He is not here.

He has risen, just as he said, come and see the

place where he lay. So there's an invitation

here. Come and see with your own eyes. The angel

invites him to look at the empty space, not to

mourn what's missing, but to be confronted by

what it means. The tomb isn't evidence of absence.

It's the evidence of presence. He was here. Now

he is somewhere else. Alive, active, he's on

the move. At the moment you just don't know where

he is. And this matters enormously for how you

and I actually live. We can't treat Jesus like

a historical figure. Someone we study, admire.

or even love in a past tense kind of way. Well,

we can take Matthew's account seriously. The

one who walked out of the tomb is present right

now in this room. In your week, in your Monday

morning, your Tuesday, every day, he's present

there. Alistair McGrath said this. Christianity

is not the memory of a dead teacher, but the

presence of a living Lord. See, the disciples'

whole problem after the crucifixion was that

they thought Jesus was past tense. They locked

the doors. Just the verse after where we ended

there, it tells of them being in this room. They

went back to fishing. They talked about him in

the past. Easter's a moment. Jesus stops being

past tense for them and for us. Hebrews 13, verse

Hebrews 13:8

8, it tells us that Jesus Christ is the same

yesterday, today, and forever. So what is it

like for us as his disciples today as we live

our faith? Some things here for us. Where in

your life are you treating Jesus' past tense?

He's always asking us that. Where am I in the

past? A faith that used to feel alive, a prayer

life that's gone quiet, a hope that's calcified

into religion. The empty tomb announces to us

he is not in there. He is here, present. And

that's not a platitude. It's the most destabilising

claim in human history. And it has your name

on it. He is present. And when he is present,

he is personal. The resurrection seeks people

out by name. And here's where Matthew gets specific.

In a way that's easy to just skip over. The angel

doesn't just say, tell everyone. The angel says,

go quickly and tell his disciples. And then barely

a verse later, Jesus himself shows up. Not at

the temple, not to the religious authorities,

to two women on a road in the dark. Suddenly

Jesus meets them. Greetings, he said. And they

came to him, clasped his feet. And they worshipped

him. He didn't wait for them to find him. He

went to find them. And that's not incidental.

That's the whole shape of the gospel. God moves

toward people always. Even people running in

the wrong direction. Even people who scattered

when it got hard. And look at who he chooses.

as his first resurrection witnesses. Woman. Sorry,

guys. In a first century world where women's

testimony wasn't even admissible in court, God

made them the first people to carry the most

important news in history. Easter has always

been quietly revolutionary about who matters.

And it's going on today. N .T. Wright says this,

that the risen Christ does not appear to his

enemies to vindicate himself. He appears to his

friends to restore them. He knows that they were

terrified and locked in a room of what they had

said, where they were, and thinking that they

would never see him again. They clasped his feet.

Not a polite nod. Not a theological discussion.

They grabbed hold of him because this is what

encounter with the risen Jesus does. It makes

you want to hold on. There is something incredibly

telling us about this physical encounter, this

bodily personal moment about not a vision, not

a symbol about who Christ is, but feet. A voice

saying greetings. A Jesus who knows exactly who

he's looking for. Because it says in John 10,

these words, I am the good shepherd. I know my

sheep and my sheep know me. Isn't that line wonderful?

To hear that, that he knows us and we know him.

So for us today as his disciples, there is a

version of Easter faith that stays safely general.

Because many people would think and live this

way, Jesus rose for humanity. That's very general,

isn't it? But the risen Jesus is relentlessly

specific. He came for these women on this road

at this hour and he comes for you. Not the general

idea of you. I kind of know who you are, Tony.

But the specific, complicated, still figuring

out you in different parts of your life. The

question isn't whether he knows you, it's whether

you've let him meet you yet. Have you allowed

him to get close? That close that you will reveal

yourself to him. So he is present, he is personal,

but he is also powerful. And the resurrection

changes what we're capable of. It's not just

Jesus, it's what we're capable of in the power

of his Holy Spirit. This is a part we can miss,

even if we're not careful. The women don't leave

the tomb the same as they arrive. They came...

that morning in the dark, carrying grief and

arrived carrying grief to the one who they thought

was dead. And they left running. And Matthew

tells us something fascinating about what they

were feeling as they ran. So the woman hurried

away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy,

and ran to tell his disciples. Afraid yet filled

with joy. Have you been able to hold those two

together at times in your life? Matthew doesn't

resolve the tension. He leaves it there because

really that's what encountering the risen Jesus

actually feels like. The fear doesn't disappear,

but it doesn't win. Joy gets in alongside and

says, we're going to go together. It gets alongside

it and then they run. Anyway, that's not courage

as the absence of fear. That's courage as fear

that moves. And then Jesus, he echoes the angel.

Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers. He

calls them brothers. These brothers that he's

talking about, they're the same disciples who

abandoned him. who denied him and then who vanished.

He calls them brothers. The resurrection doesn't

just deal with death, it deals with shame. It

restores also what was broken and recommissions

the people who actually failed. See, Easter means

you can put truth in a grave, but it won't stay

there. And the power isn't just emotional. Here

in this account in our lives, it's directional.

Every person in this passage that you heard gets

a job. The angel says, go and tell. Jesus says,

go and tell. The resurrection is not a destination

to rest in. It's actually the starting line.

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead

is, as Paul says, at work in everyone who believes.

And that's not metaphor. That's the raw claim

of the New Testament, of the good news. For in

Romans 8 it says this, Now, you might be feeling

tired. We've been up early since this morning.

Clocks have changed and really played havoc with

our body systems. But we have the power of the

living Christ in us. So what does it mean for

us as his disciples today? What would you attempt

if you actually believed that resurrection power

was in you? What conversation would you have

with another person? What step of obedience would

you take? If you really believe that the power

of the Holy Spirit and the risen Christ is in

you, what broken thing would you try to restore?

Now, when we look at those questions in the light

that the risen Christ is in us, we do not need

to fear. See, the woman ran. They were afraid

and they ran anyway. The risen Jesus doesn't

wait till you and I are ready. He sends you now

with exactly the faith that you have into situations

where you feel you're not ready, but you have

the power of the risen Christ in you as you go.

So as we land this message, I want to come back

to that question at the beginning. Is Jesus risen

for you or just remembered by you? The guards

who were there saw everything the woman saw.

The same earthquake they experienced, the same

angel, the same empty tomb, and they shook and

became like dead men. Then they went and made

up a cover story. Same evidence, completely different

response. Easter doesn't force anything, but

it demands a response. Now, you came here this

morning. to be with Christ, to praise him. But

you can walk out of here today and file this

under nice annual tradition. Easter Sunday ticked

off. Or you can let three things land for you.

The first one that he is present. That he goes

before you into everything that's coming. And

that he is personal. That he meets you exactly

where you are with fear and great joy and everything

that's in between. And that he is powerful. He

takes broken, frightened people. He sends them

out with the most important news the world has

ever heard. And the power that is him, that power

is available to you and I right now. He is not

in the tomb. He never will be again. And that

means for you, for me, for this church, the story

is not over. It is not finished. We are not managing

a memorial. We are following a living king. He

is risen and he is already out ahead of you today

in your Galilee waiting to meet you there. He

is risen. He is risen indeed. Hallelujah.