For Us | Risen For Us (April 16 2017) - Mike Armstrong

Alright, well, why don't you grab a copy of God's Word if you've got a Bible in your hands or you've got it on a phone or a tablet or something and get it open and turned on to Luke chapter 24.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

Okay, Luke chapter 24 as we uh kind of continue here uh in our Easter series for us, for us, looking at uh the cross of Christ and how he did all of it ultimately uh for both you uh and for me.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

Now, as we're getting turned over there, um we love redemption stories, don't we?

Right?

We love, love, love that.

I mean, we love uh watching movies, you know, where you know the hero of the story just gets beat down like constantly all throughout the entire story, but then at the end, he triumphs over the bad guy, right?

We love that.

We love, you know, when our sports team comes back down three games to zero to win it all in game seven.

And I'm sure a bunch of you are really excited that that is not the story of the Leafs, right?

Not this series, anyways.

Uh, but we love that, don't we?

Now there may be even a sense of kind of personal redemption that we experience when, you know, for example, maybe it's the business that we started, right?

We see it kind of finally succeed after, you know, multiple failed attempts.

You know, or for for you, it's you know, all the tutoring and and all of the study and you know, all of the hard work trying to master that school subject, and you know, teachers wrote you off and they said you wouldn't amount to anything, but all of it finally results in you getting into that college that you always wanted to get into.

You know, or for you, maybe it's when you finally get the girl, you know, after years of struggling in that department.

Right?

We love, love, love redemption.

We love it.

Well, the resurrection is redemption, isn't it?

It's redemption.

You know, so many of Jesus' followers who who witnessed that, who saw him die on the cross, you know, were so, you know, shocked and and and demoralized and in their own way, sort of beat down uh by the events uh of the cross.

They didn't see it coming.

Like for them, this like totally came out of left field.

It left them wondering, you know, what was the point of all of this time that we spent with Jesus?

You know, what what was with all of the things that he said?

What was with all the all of the miracles and all the crowds that gathered to watch him?

I mean, we thought he was the Messiah, right?

But he's he's dead, he's gone, it's over.

It left a lot of them crushed, it left a lot of them in doubt and very much in fear, thinking that you know, maybe we're next.

Right?

The religious leaders hated Jesus and they had him killed.

Who's to say that they're not gonna come after us?

All right, so when Jesus on on Sunday, in that morning, when he finally rose from the grave, it was quite literally the most epic of redemption stories.

The most epic, nothing touches it, right?

And and it was it was because he defeated sin, right?

He defeated death when all seemed lost.

It was Jesus' redemption, but here's the other thing it's also redemption for us, right?

Because it was through his, through the cross that our sin would no longer be held against us.

Salvation is now possible for those of us who have received Jesus Christ as Savior.

Hell is our destiny, or uh heaven is our destiny, right?

We're enemies with God no longer.

Jesus has risen, and he's risen for us.

Right?

So we're gonna explore this story today.

We're gonna get into this, into God's word.

So if you would stand with me right now, uh, this is just a way that we can kind of show honor uh to the Lord as we read through this.

We're gonna be reading uh from verse one down to verse twelve.

It says this But on the first day of the week at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared, and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

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

While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.

And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead?

He is not here, but he is risen.

Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and on the third day rise?

And they remembered his words.

And returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary, the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles.

But these words to them seemed like an idle tale, and they did not believe them.

But Peter rose and ran to the tomb.

Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves, and he went home, marveling at what had happened.

God, we thank you that the grave has not held you down.

Lord, we do not worship a dead God.

We worship one who is very much alive.

And so, God, would our hearts sing that praise to you today?

Lord, I pray that, Lord, as we study these scriptures, as we see what you have uh delivered to us through the words on these pages, Lord, I pray that we would come away from here with greater love, greater passion for you than we had coming into this room today.

Lord, I pray that we would be more certain, more confident, more bold to proclaim the good news of the gospel that sin is no more, sin has been defeated, Satan has been defeated because you are alive.

And so, God, as we work through these things, teach us, Lord, instruct us.

Lord, I pray that your spirit would be here powerfully here this morning.

We pray all of this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, you can go ahead and take a seat there.

All right, well, Easter Sunday is of course the victory cry of redemption.

It's the victory cry of redemption.

God's crushing defeat of Satan, of sin, and of death.

Okay, so that you and I, of course, could experience the redemption of our souls.

Okay, judgment, okay, guilt, shame, condemnation, wrath, hell, all of it, a thing of the past.

A thing of the past.

That is through Jesus Christ, because we escape it by his blood.

Alright, so you ready?

You ready?

Let's go.

Let's go.

Let's get into this now.

Um, we got the first thing here.

Jesus is risen for us, and yes, it really did happen.

Yes, it really did happen.

All right, so to set the scene here, I know that you were with us uh just three days ago on Good Friday, and we looked at the verses leading up to this and the the actual death of Jesus and in those final moments here, but we know of course that he has been dead since Friday.

And his body, it was retrieved off of the cross by a man named Joseph.

Now, he was from a Jewish town called uh Arimathea.

Now, uh, who is this guy?

Well, he was actually uh part of the Sanhedrin, like the the the town council, and he was a real mover and a shaker, and he was one of the very few of these kind of leaders here that actually believed that Jesus was the Messiah.

And so he went to Pilate and he asked for the body and he got permission to take it down.

He places it in a tomb that was his, he owned it, brand new tomb.

Um, and so he put Jesus there and then he sealed it.

All right, so let's pick it up, verse one, take a look.

It says this, but on the first day of the week, okay, what day is that?

Well, that's Sunday morning, right?

That's why we're celebrating this today.

Sunday morning, on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb taking the spices that they had prepared.

And you might be like, well, who's the who's the they?

Right?

Who are they?

Well, it talks about actually in verse 10 there that it's it's Mary Magdalene, it's Joanna, it's Mary, the mother of James, and a bunch of other women that were with them.

And so they go to uh to prepare the body.

And so what do they find?

It says that they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

And when they had went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

While they were, I love this word, while they were perplexed, yeah, I bet.

Right, while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.

They might be thinking, well, who are these, you know, two finely dressed gentlemen that were standing here at the entrance of the tomb?

Well, if you jump down to verse 23 and just kind of scan that there, it lets us know that they were angels.

Right?

These were angels.

And so what was the response of the ladies here?

It says, continue, it says, and as they were frightened, okay, they were frightened and bowed down their face, or bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead?

Why do you seek the living among the dead?

Now, can you imagine this moment?

Can you picture that?

I mean, again, try and put yourself, again, as we often say, put yourselves at the scene here.

Try and try and imagine the sights and the sounds and the smells and really live here in this text.

Imagine these ladies.

They're coming filled with grief, filled with pain and suffering and confusion, and maybe anger and fear and all of that.

Right?

I mean, if we were in their shoes, we'd be perplexed too.

That's the word.

We would be frightened as we see the angels there.

I mean, it was the last thing in the world that they were expecting.

Now you might think, well, well, they should have expected it.

Right?

Because Jesus gave them plenty of teasers, right?

He let them know that he was gonna die.

He let them know that that he was gonna rise again three days later.

We're gonna see that here again in just a second here, right?

But they didn't quite, they didn't grasp it.

They didn't really know what he was talking about when all this happened.

So they weren't, they weren't in a position to expect all of this.

And so for them, they were like, is this is this really happening?

Right?

This is this is crazy.

That was the reaction.

Now, have you ever had those kinds of moments, just sort of in everyday life, where you were like, this, this cannot be happening.

Right?

Maybe for you it's happened in kind of the negative sense.

Right?

Maybe you you you've got the phone call and you found out that it's it's cancer, and you're like, what?

Like life is just it's so surreal and and and it's really hard to sort of absorb this right now, and you're like, it can't, it can't be, it can't be true.

Or maybe for you it's it's more in the positive sense, and it's that thing that you've been you've been praying for, and and on your knees day in and and day out, asking the Lord, would you please grant this prayer, oh Lord?

And then finally, what happens?

He grants it.

And and in that moment that it happens, you're like, you're you're you're surprised.

You're right again, you're you have to pinch yourself.

She's like, really?

Really?

Is this is this for real?

Now again, picture these these women here.

You know, and they were being told that that Jesus isn't dead anymore.

I mean, that that would have been tough to compute, uh compute, right?

I mean, they were saying he's risen, he's alive.

And they're being told, yeah, yeah, this this actually did happen.

It really did.

I mean, if you again, if you think about this and and spend some time kind of meditating on this, just imagine how how cool of a moment that would have been.

You know, it's so easy for us as the church.

Some of us have read this passage hundreds of times, and we and we kind of glance over and we don't think about, wow, imagine hearing this for the very first time ever.

Now, people everywhere for for generations have questioned the validity of the resurrection.

Right?

There have been all kinds of arguments, you know, all through the century uh centuries in an in an attempt to falsify the account of the empty tomb.

Right?

People don't believe it, they don't want to believe it, and they think it's just a farce, they think it's they think it's a myth, they think it's made up, whatever, and so they try and come up with these other plausible quote-unquote explanations.

Why?

Why would they want to do that?

Why would you want to falsify that account?

Well, because if you can prove that the tomb was never empty, if you can prove that Jesus never rose from the dead, Christianity itself collapses.

Do you know that?

Like the cross, the resurrection is everything for us.

I love 1 Corinthians 15, verse 14.

1 Corinthians 15:14

This is what the apostle Paul says.

He says, And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and our faith is in vain.

Right?

It's all a waste, it's it's a joke.

We're to be pitied, all of us, chumps.

That's what Paul says.

Right?

On the resurrection, our our faith, our worldview, all of our belief hinges.

Right?

It is that important.

And so the really the question really becomes so did it actually happen?

Did it actually happen?

Well, I want to give you now uh three theories.

All right, these are three theories that uh people have thrown out there against the reality of the resurrection.

And so maybe you've heard these before.

I know we've gone through uh a few of them before.

We're just taught we're just gonna cover three.

Uh, there are plenty more, but these are what people say to try and disprove the empty tomb.

All right, and so we're gonna we're gonna share them and we're gonna talk about some of the holes in those theories, all right?

Well, the first one is the swoon theory.

Have you heard this one before?

The swoon theory.

So some people would suggest that Jesus Christ didn't actually die on the cross, right?

He didn't die.

He just he just passed out.

Right, he swooned.

Right?

He didn't he just he just went unconscious and and he kind of, you know, everyone was kind of tricked because he was so badly mutilated, they thought he was dead, and so they they took him down off the cross, you know, and put him in uh a tomb.

But then he obviously revived at some point and and got out.

Okay, that's what some people have said.

Okay, there's some difficulties with that.

Okay, first of all, the Roman soldiers were expert executioners, right?

These guys were pros in death, right?

They were professionals, and they would they wouldn't have been tricked, they wouldn't have been duped by somebody who was simply unconscious.

They're not gonna look at that and be like, wow, he must be a goner, but he's really not.

Right?

No, they were, you know, they were pros at doing this, not to mention the punishment that would come down on their head if they didn't complete their task.

Right?

They too would be dead, they would be killed.

And so you better believe that they would make sure that they had finished the job.

Also, we know this we know that they did not break Jesus' legs.

We talked about this uh a week ago, that what they would often do to speed up the suffering and the death on the cross during crucifixion is they would actually break the person's legs so they couldn't push up and take a breath.

And so what would they do?

They would suffocate.

They would suffocate, but it says there that they didn't break Jesus' legs.

Why?

Because they knew he was dead.

And so what they did is they they pierced his side with a spear.

And it says there that you've heard this before, right?

Blood and water came out, which is the actual physical reaction that would happen uh if you asphyxiated.

All right, well, it's also not to mention that that his body was was wrapped, right?

And so they spent some time preparing and and caring for his body.

You would think at some point here they would notice that he's got a pulse, right?

You would think that.

They put him in the grave.

Now here's another issue.

Okay, the swoon theory doesn't also also doesn't explain um how Jesus could have survived three days in the tomb in his weakened state.

Right?

He's got he's got no food, he's got no water, he's not, you know, he's not hooked up to some machine you would see in a hospital today.

He doesn't have an IV drip, it's it's none of that.

He's got no medical attention.

Right?

How would how how on earth would he would he survive for three days so beaten down and and broken and destroyed, and then and then somehow revive, and then somehow get the stone rolled away, and then you know, escape these two guards that were placed there and you know, beat them down, these two guys, these Roman guards who are again proficient in death, and then somehow, you know, uh try and talk his disciples into the idea that he'd risen.

They're gonna be like, No, you didn't.

Like, you need medical attention.

Right?

So it shows us that when when he appeared to the disciples later, he he looked healthy, right?

He looked like he was he was all good.

All right, so there's some there's some problems with the swoon theory, right?

You kind of getting that?

Here's another one the hallucination theory.

The hallucination theory.

Some would argue that the disciples, they were so grief-stricken by the death of Jesus that they had hallucinations of seeing him alive.

Right?

They were so desperate to see him alive that you know they kind of had this like kind of dream or this vision.

Again, they were hallucinating, and apparently they saw him, and then this whole story kind of you know became this legend, it became this myth, and now we're all a bunch of suckers later, kind of believing it.

Right?

Well, as you can imagine, there might be some holes in that as well.

Okay, first of all, the disciples, they weren't, they weren't candidates for hallucinations because they weren't even expecting to see Christ risen.

Right?

They thought it was game over, they thought he was dead, done, that's it, final.

Right, and so they weren't, they weren't expecting that.

They were under any illusions that he was gonna come back to life.

In fact, they even ridiculed initial reports that he did come back to life, didn't they?

They're like, forget it, what a joke.

It seemed to them an idle tale.

We just read it.

Right?

Here's another another hole in the hallucination theory.

Hallucinations don't happen to very large groups of people, do they?

They happen to individuals.

It's like it's it's unheard of that you know any two people would have the exact same hallucination, let alone you know the remaining 11 disciples, let alone the hundreds and hundreds of people that actually saw Christ alive and risen again.

It's just it's it's uh it just wouldn't happen.

Right?

It's not it's not realistic.

Right, here's another hole.

It doesn't explain how a hallucination could eat a piece of fish, right?

Or how he could be, you know, physically touched in his side.

Hallucinations are like apparitions, like a like a ghost.

You can't you can't touch them physically, but they they touched his his hands, they touched the wounds in his side and in his feet, right?

And they ate meals with him, right?

He physically, he physically rose.

And of course, it also doesn't account for the empty tomb and the missing body.

So just imagine the the disciples saying, you know, we you know we saw Jesus alive.

What would the authorities have said?

Uh no, you didn't.

He's buried.

Let's let's go right now to the tomb.

We'll open it up, we'll show we'll we'll show you.

Right?

They would have shut that down in a hurry.

They would have shut it down.

Okay, last theory, a conspiracy theory.

All right, some have argued that the disciples somehow stole the body and kind of just made the whole thing up.

Right?

They made it up, and uh they were trying to you know propagate this idea that Christ rose to you know somehow keep their you know religion, so to speak, uh, alive.

Well, again, difficulties there.

First of all, the disciples at this point in the game had shown absolutely zero courage to be able to do something like this.

You notice that?

When when as soon as like the going got tough for Jesus, where did his disciples go?

As far away from there as possible.

They ran, they scattered.

It says at best they were standing from a distance watching the crucifixion take place.

So pretty unlikely that that in a you know in a day or two, you know, they somehow found some courage and some genius and some brilliance to come up with and concoct this tale to you know steal the body and make the whole thing up.

Also, we kind of touched on this already, but he appeared to people more than 10 times, or at least 10 times.

That's what we have recorded in the scriptures.

And at one point, he appeared to more than 500 people at once.

Okay, hundreds and hundreds of people saw him alive.

It wasn't just the eleven guys, right?

It wasn't just them.

Okay, it also doesn't explain how, if you know, the disciples made up the whole thing and the whole thing is just a fairy tale, that they would be willing to be persecuted and even martyred for it.

Okay, no one no one's gonna allow themselves to be killed for what they know to be a lie.

You know, at some point, as they're being you know, flogged and thrown in prison and starved and beaten, and ten of the eleven actually died for their for their faith, at one point, at some point, one of them at least is gonna say, Yeah, you know what, I made the whole thing up.

What a joke.

Spare my life.

I know it's a lie.

Right?

That's not gonna happen.

Here's the last kind of hole in the conspiracy theory.

Okay, the empty tomb was discovered by women.

Now you might be like, well, what's what's the significance of that?

Well, you have to understand that in first century uh Jewish culture, the testimony of women was considered inadmissible in a court of law.

It carried no water whatsoever.

So think about it.

If the disciples were making this story up, do you think they would hinge the validity of this on the testimony of women who saw him first?

They wouldn't have done it.

There's no chance.

The only way that they would explain the Facts that the that the women saw this whole thing happen first was if it was actually true.

Listen, when you gather the evidence and you kind of carefully consider the facts and you you know give the proper weight to them, it suggests that a miracle took place here.

That's what it suggests.

And yes, the re uh the resurrection really did happen.

He literally, physically, actually rose from the dead.

Okay, if you again gather all of the information that you can, there really isn't another plausible explanation.

Now, if you're here today and and maybe you came here kind of dragged, right?

You were you you've come kicking and and screaming and you don't want to be here and and and or maybe you have some kind of you know doubts about this, or you know, you reject it, and and and no matter what is presented, no matter what is said, you know, you are going to just flat out say, forget it, what a joke, it's a fairy tale.

Okay, let me put the onus on you.

Let me put it on you, you know, to come up with uh with an honest, you know, facing the facts, well thought through, evidence-considered, plausible explanation.

Right?

You come up with one.

But then beyond that, let me just encourage you here right now to just soften your heart, right?

And and and open yourself to the possibility that this may in fact be true.

The evidence suggests that it is.

If you were to give it kind of just an honest look.

Alright, here's the here's the next thing.

Jesus is risen for us.

And it was his plan all along.

It was his plan all along.

All right, so the angels continue here in their discussion with the with the women at the tomb, verse 6, it says that he is not here, but he is risen.

Right?

That should probably have some like underlines and stars and exclamation points, like kind of written in the margins of your Bible for sure.

He is risen.

And then he says that it says this, remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and on the third day rise.

And I love this.

And they remembered his words.

They remembered his words.

So in that moment, all of Jesus' words, you know, to them in the past leading up to his death, kind of came flooding back into their minds.

And they they remembered again that he said he would die, and that he said on the third day he would rise again.

And again, just picture that moment for them, right?

The the fear vanishes, you know, the the the doubts evaporate, sorrow, you know, turns to joy.

All of that right there, as they're just like, aha, it's like it's the light bulb moment, and they realize it for themselves because the realization sets in that all of this was God's plan all along.

Awesome.

Later in verse 27, Jesus actually appears to his disciples, and uh it says there that beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

And so what he does is he gets his crew back together and he's like, guys, I did rise from the dead, and remember I have said that all of this was gonna happen, and hey, let me show you.

Let's open up the scriptures together, and let's look at this, and I'll point out all the different ways that the scriptures pointed this for years and years and years that a Messiah was coming, that he would die, and that he would raise again.

And hey, guess what?

I did it.

And listen, he would have pointed them probably to Psalm 22.

Psalm 22, it says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And they would have they would have heard it, they would have remembered the accounts, they would have seen from a distance.

That's what he said on the cross.

Right?

It says there, it says that they have pierced my hands and feet.

Again, this is Psalm 22.

I can count all my bones.

Remember, his legs weren't broken.

They stare and gloat over me, they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

He's like, hey guys, does this sound familiar?

This actually happened and I fulfilled it, even though this was written a thousand years before it actually came true and was fulfilled in me.

And so he's walking them through all these different texts that would have again filled them with such confidence that this is the Savior of the world.

Let's look at another one, Psalm 16.

What does it say there?

It says that for you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.

What was this saying?

It was saying that Jesus, it was pointing to the fact that Jesus was sinless, he was spotless, he never, he never erred, he never made a mistake, he never did anything wrong, he was holy.

It said again that he would he would not be abandoned to Sheol, he would rise again.

I'm sure he would have taken them all the way back to Genesis chapter 3 in verse 15, right after you know Adam and Eve had sinned and God is pronouncing judgment on them and on Satan, and I'm sure he would have pointed this verse out.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

You know, I will put enmity between you and the woman, he's talking to Satan now, and between your offspring and her offspring, pointing to Jesus.

Jesus would ultimately come.

He says, He, that's that's speaking of Jesus, shall bruise your head, and you, talking to Satan, you shall bruise his heel.

Other translations say that, yeah, Satan is going to bruise Jesus' heel.

He is going to kill him, he is going to inflict some damage for sure, but what is Jesus going to do to Satan in the end?

Crush him.

And so what is this?

This verse is the what they call the proto-evangelium.

It's the very first gospel proclamation that we have recorded in the scriptures, all the way back at the beginning, where God is saying, Yes, I know that you and Adam and Eve.

I know that you guys blew it horribly, and I know now that there is a barrier between me and you, and sin is now in the way.

But you know what?

I'm coming for you.

I'm gonna rescue you from sin.

I'm gonna send my own son.

I am going to come and do it myself, since you can't do it.

I'm gonna crush Satan, I'm gonna exalt myself, all of it is gonna be taken care of.

This is coming, just wait for it.

Can you imagine as Jesus is pointing this out to the disciples?

They would have been like, right?

Amazing! They would have been blown away by this.

They would have realized it was God's plan all along to save his sinful creation, to die on the cross and not to be held, not to be bound by it, he would rise again.

Look, the the the cross, it didn't catch God off guard.

God wasn't like, oh no, look what they did, right?

They led him away and they they crucified him, and I can't, my own people, I'm shocked.

Right?

That wasn't his reaction.

Right?

Little did they realize in this moment they were playing right into his hands.

This was the plan.

This was the way, the only way, that we would be able to be drawn close to God.

It was fulfillment.

It was the fulfillment of God's plan.

Satan no longer has any real lasting power.

Does he trip us up?

Does he plague us from time to time now?

Absolutely, he does.

But ultimately, what is he?

He's a toothless lion.

Right?

He can't, he can't affect our he can't affect our eternity for those of us who are in Jesus Christ.

We know that in the end, God Jesus is gonna come back, and he's gonna bring his church to him.

We're gonna reign gloriously with him in heaven forever, and Satan is once and for all gonna be done.

Done.

And Jesus is saying, hey, listen, I planned this from the beginning, and I am the one who is fulfilling it.

He did it so that we could go free.

Do you realize that?

Do you know that?

He did all of this for us.

And so, what's our what's our response?

What's our reaction to all of this?

This is that is such a huge question.

Every individual sitting here right now needs to grapple with this for themselves.

What is your response to what Jesus has done?

Well, that's really the last thing here.

Okay, Jesus is risen for us, amen.

And in response, I will marvel.

I will marvel.

Verse 9, take a look.

Okay, verse 9 says, and returning from the tomb, this is the ladies now, they told all these things to the eleven, that's the remaining disciples, and to all the rest.

Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary, the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles.

But these words, interesting, seemed to them an idle tale.

They're like, Yeah, right.

This couldn't have happened, right?

And it says that they did not believe them.

But Peter, love this.

Good old Peter.

Right?

He rose and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in.

He saw the linen cloths by themselves, and he went home.

What's that word?

Marveling.

Marveling at what had happened.

Listen, that you and I would consider that Jesus has risen from the grave, and then in response, marvel to that is the intended reaction.

That's it.

That's what God is going for here when he did this.

Okay, Christ.

Christ didn't die and then rise again so that a bunch of people in Newmarket could sit in a cafeteria, you know, in the year 2017 and go, hmm, interesting story, I guess.

Right?

That's not what it is.

Right?

He did it to blow our minds.

He did it to show us that he is God and we are not and we need him.

He wants us to marvel.

He wants us to marvel.

We're to be moved.

We are to be forever changed as we come face to face with that truth.

We're to respond to the story of Easter with nothing less than awe and worship.

That is it.

No, this is the the greatest act of love that anyone has ever done ever, period.

Nothing comes comes close to this.

And again, who is it for?

It was for us.

It was for us.

Listen, if you have never trusted in Jesus Christ personally, and you have never responded by by handing over your sin, confessing your sin to him, do it.

Do it now.

This is why Christ came to gather unrepentant sinners to him, to show us that we need him so badly, so that we would be humbled, that we would realize that our sin is blocking the way to having a relationship with God.

Would you trust him today?

Would you realize that this is what Jesus has done?

It was for you.

Would you bow your heart?

Would you humble yourself?

Would you realize that every sin that you have ever done, every mistake, it is against God.

No more, no more glossing over it, no more treating it like it's not a big deal, no more stuck in blindness.

Open your eyes.

Jesus did this for you.

He did it.

Receive him today.

Receive him.

Listen, if you know Christ, if you know him, and I would imagine many of us do here today, what's your response?

Is your response to marvel?

Is your response to say, wow, like Peter did?

Is your response to you know be shaken by by awe?

Is your response humility and and wow, God, you're amazing?

Is your response worship?

Not out of compulsion, because again, we happen to be gathered here today, or because you know the pastor's getting kind of animated, and I need to throw him a bone, I guess.

No, it's not because of that, but it's because Jesus is awesome and he's worthy of your worship.

Right?

That is what we are going to do.

If not today, then when?

When would you worship?

Right?

This is the biggest day of the year for the church.

Let's celebrate this, let's get excited about this.

We are a church that believes, right?

We believe we want to worship Jesus Christ.

We want to lift high his name in worship.

It's unashamed worship.

This is this is what our church is all about.

It's one of our main pillars here.

Unashamed adoration.

You know, any excuses that that you and I might bring to the table at this point, where, you know, I don't really feel like it, or or that's not really me, or you know, I'm not really in the mood, lame.

Right?

None of that holds water.

None of it does.

Jesus is worthy of our worship.

He is worthy of having us marvel.

So what are we gonna do?

Just that.

We are going to worship.

Right?

I'm not gonna say a lot more about it, trusting that I don't need to.

Just trusting and believing that the Holy Spirit is moving and working and stirring us up into a place where we are going to just give him all the praise, not holding back, doing it with shouts of joy, doing it with with energy, doing it sincerely.

So the worship team's gonna come up now.

I know what you're thinking.

You're like, just get to it already, man.

All right, so I'm gonna do that.

We're gonna pray, we're gonna get to worship.

Let's pray.

God, thank you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the cross.

Lord, thank you that the cross is empty.

Thank you that you are alive, you are seated at the right hand of God.

We thank you that through the cross, you are now our bridge to knowing you.

You are a bridge.

Thank you that you took the punishment that we deserved on yourself.

We don't have to have our record of sin held against us, accounted to us.

Lord, if we would trust you as Savior, our record of sin gets transferred to you.

Your record of perfection and holiness gets transferred to us.

So when God the Father looks at us, he sees Jesus, he sees what Jesus did.

And so, God, again, I pray that if there are anyone who's like, nope, I'm not, I don't want to do this.

I'm gonna reject this, Lord.

I pray that you would soften.

I pray that you would obliterate the hard heart.

Lord, I pray that you would bring them to salvation now.

Because listen, at every at some point in the end, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Lord, will we do that today, not when it's too late?

So, God, continue to move.

Lord, as your church sings now, Lord, be exalted, Lord, be be made much of.

Lord, at you we marvel.

We pray this in your name.

Amen.