Easter 2022 (Matt 28:1-10)

We're in Matthew chapter 28, so let's all stand for the reading of God's word.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

We'll be reading Matthew 28, verses 1 through 10.

Matthew 28:1–10

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.

He rolled back the stone and was sitting on it.

His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow.

The guards were so shaken by fear of him that they became like dead men.

The angel told the woman, 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.

And indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee.

You will see him there.

Listen, I have told you.

So departing quickly from the tomb, with fear and great joy, they ran to tell the disciples the news.

Just then Jesus met them and said, Greetings.

They came up, took hold of his feet, and worshipped him.

Then Jesus told them, Do not be afraid.

Go and tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.

Let's pray.

Lord, this is what it's all about.

This is why we're here this morning.

This is why we gather to celebrate your resurrection every year.

Lord, this means, this passage right here means so much.

Lord, I pray that we would leave here with a deeper understanding of exactly what you did for us and why you did it for us.

Lord, we pray that you are celebrated, that your name is exalted and lifted high in our hearts here this morning.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So now that you're in the book of Matthew, I want you to turn to 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 3 and 4.

1 Peter 1:3

It's almost to the end of your Bibles.

It's after Hebrews and James, and then you'll find Peter right there.

We're going to be 1 Peter chapter 1, and I want to read to you verses 3 and 4.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

And this is really the text that we're going to be talking mostly about here this morning.

And as you're turning there, I want to talk a little bit about the word hope.

And right now I want you to take note of what's the first thing that pops into your mind when you hear the word hope.

Take note of that and hold on to it, because we're going to talk about that at the end.

The word hope is used 32 times in the Old Testament, so that first chunk of our Bible.

And it's used 54 times in the New Testament.

So in the second part of our Bible that starts when Jesus comes on the scene.

And it's a major theme that we come across again and again as we read through Scripture in its entirety.

And this morning I want to talk specifically about Jesus being our living hope.

And why he had to raise from the dead and why that's so important.

And why we set aside this day every year to celebrate our living hope.

So look at 1 Peter chapter 1.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

We'll read verses 3 and 4 together.

It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because of his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

And we're really going to focus here this morning on the second half of verse 3, and we're actually going to break the second half of verse 3 into four different parts.

And I have some slides that'll kind of highlight the parts that we're going to be highlighting here in these verses.

So the second half of verse 3, starting with, because of his great mercy.

So because of God's, the Father's great mercy.

So I'm going to put the definition of mercy up behind me so that you can see it.

We'll just leave it up there for a little bit so you can see what that really means.

It means kindness or goodwill towards the miserable and the afflicted joined with a desire to help them.

Without Jesus in our life, that's how God sees us as miserable and afflicted.

But look at the end of that definition that's behind me.

He desires to help us.

So with that, my question's this what is it that God sees in us that makes us miserable and afflicted?

So much so that he wants to help us.

And the answer to that is it's our sin, it's our rebellion against him.

You know, we've been going through the book of Romans as a church for the last couple months.

We've been talking about God's law that he's given us.

And he gave us that law in the Old Testament.

Everything that's everything that's in our Bible pre-Jesus, we've been talking about that law that God gave to his people Israel.

We've been talking about how that law was to set boundaries for God's people for their own protection and for their own benefit.

It wasn't rules for the sake of having rules.

It wasn't God trying to ruin the Israelites' fun.

It was guidelines for his people for their own protection.

And when we go against what God's told us is best for us, that's called sin.

It's pure pride when we look at God and say, I know you said that this is good for me, but I know better.

I know, for example, like getting drunk isn't good for me, and you said not to, but I know better.

Or I know you said sex outside of marriage isn't good for me and is against your plan, but I know better.

Or I know you said not to place any other gods before you, but there are so many other things in my life that I'm giving more of my time and attention to than you because I think I know better.

Sin always comes down to pride in our life, every single time.

And the attitude that I know better leads us to destroying our lives because of our own consequences from the decisions that we make.

And we've ignored God so much that He sees this misery that we've brought upon ourselves, and he sees our affliction from the sin that we have committed, and actually has mercy on us as he desires to help us get out of that state.

That's what God's mercy is.

That's God's mercy shown to us.

That's what we're looking at here at 1 Peter.

Let's look at the next chunk.

It says, Because of his great mercy, he has given us new birth.

So through Jesus, God's offering us a new spiritual birth.

Because we've messed ourselves up so much thinking that we know better than God, God is offering us this new spiritual birth.

One where he forgets all of our past offenses and our failures and sins against him and forgives us of those things and gives us a new start.

Gives us, as it says right here, a new birth, a clean slate.

And God says, not only will he give you a clean slate, God says he will give you his righteousness.

2 Corinthians, we have a slide for that as well.

2 Corinthians 5, 20 through 21 says, We plead on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

And that's what new birth looks like with God.

That's what he's offering to us.

Jesus even said in John 3, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

And this isn't just a new birth that Christ is offering us, that God is offering us.

It's not a new birth into nothing, it's a new birth into God's family.

Where we are God the Father's sons and daughters.

And get this?

We become co-heirs with Jesus Christ.

We get to share in Jesus' inheritance.

He not only gave his life for us, he gave his inheritance to us as well.

That's how much he loves us.

That's how much he desires to spend eternity with us.

That he gave us all of that.

Let's keep going.

Verse 3.

Because of his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope, as we just sang about.

And I think the question is, okay, what does living hope really mean in this context of this scripture?

It means Jesus.

Before Jesus, we had no hope.

We were floundering around, trying to do things on our own, trying to make sense of this world and being very unsuccessful, being miserable and afflicted with our own sin.

And our one hope didn't die on a cross, and that was it.

He came out of the tomb and is living in the present tense.

So often we think of hope as this emotion that we feel towards some positive future outcome.

But our hope as followers of Jesus is not a feeling.

And that's why we're here today to celebrate.

Because our hope didn't die forever on a cross.

Our hope was resurrected and is alive and well and waiting for us in glory.

That is our living, present tense hope that we have.

Let's keep going.

Because of his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

So all of this that we've talked about so far, God's mercy, new birth, Jesus being our living hope, all of it is possible because of the resurrection.

All of this is possible, as it says right here in verse 3, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

If Jesus just died on the cross and never rose from the grave, you know where our hope would be?

I hope that guy was right.

I hope he was who he said he was.

I hope he was really God, and I hope that my sins really are forgiven.

That doesn't sound like real hope, does it?

Jesus' resurrection proved that he was God.

Proved that we could believe every word that he said, that death had no power over him, and therefore no longer has power over us for those that have faith in Jesus Christ.

And our sin was paid for in full on the cross.

Scripture tells us the wages of sin, the payment that we owed was death.

Not just physical death, but spiritual death as well.

And Jesus said, I will take your place.

Our place.

He will take our place in death.

And Jesus said, I will rise again to prove that I defeated death, sin, and the grave.

And Jesus says, and I will give you new life.

Instead of death, Jesus is offering us a new birth.

And all of this is marked and proven through Jesus' resurrection.

Our living hope is present tense, Jesus Christ.

Now let's look at verses three and four in their entirety.

Okay, I'm gonna reread those once again because we can't read the scripture enough, I don't think.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because of his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

Jesus said before he ascended into heaven that he was going to prepare a place for us, for those that have faith in him.

He's preparing a glorious heavenly home for us.

A place that we can really, really look forward to.

Not a place where we're floating around on clouds playing harps and there's little babies with wings and all that kind of stuff.

It's not that kind of heaven.

Scripture talks of a place that's much like this earth, but without the corruption, and without the hurt, and without the pain.

Where we'll have things to do that we enjoy, and we can't wait to do those things.

And there'll be no more toil in our work, which I'm really looking forward to.

I always think of plumbing when I think of no more toil in the work.

Because every time I do plumbing, there's five trips to Home Depot.

And in heaven, I don't know if there's plumbing or not, but we're not gonna have to make five trips to Home Depot.

I know that.

There's no more toil in our work.

We'll be feasting and we're gonna be enjoying things, and we're gonna be enjoying each other to the fullest.

In perfect relationship with God and in perfect relationship with each other.

And we'll be enjoying the physical presence of God.

The God that loves us so deeply and so perfectly that He sent His Son Jesus for us.

And it's there in heaven that we will get to share in Jesus' inheritance.

That according to verse 4, right here that we just read, does not go away.

It can't be spent away, it can't be squandered.

Our present tense living hope is giving us a future hope as well, of something to look forward to beyond just Himself, but the glory that we're going to get to experience and the inheritance that is waiting for us in heaven.

If our rebirth spirit is absent from the body, it's present with the Lord in glory.

I don't know about you, but for me, that is hope in a future.

You know, there's an old story about a school system in this large city that had a program to help children to keep them up to speed in school if they had long hospital visits.

And I just want to read it to you.

It says one day a teacher who was assigned to the program received a routine call asking her to visit a particular child.

She took the child's name and room number and talked briefly with the child's regular class teacher.

We're studying nouns and adverbs in the class now, the regular teacher said.

And I'd be grateful if you could help this boy understand them so he doesn't fall too far behind in class.

The hospital program teacher went to see the boy that afternoon.

Nobody had mentioned to her, though, that the boy had been badly burned and was in great pain and not responding to treatment.

Upset at the sight of the boy, she stammered as she told him, I've been sent from your school to help you with nouns and adverbs.

When she left, she felt she hadn't accomplished much.

But the next day when she returned, a nurse asked her, What did you do to that boy?

The teacher felt she must have done something wrong and began to apologize.

No, no, said the nurse, you don't know what I mean.

We've been worried about that little boy.

But ever since yesterday when he saw you, his whole attitude has changed.

He's fighting back.

He's responding to treatment.

It's as though he's decided to live.

Two weeks later, the boy explained that he had completely given up hope until the teacher arrived.

Everything changed when she came to a simple, when he came to a simple realization.

And he expressed it this way.

He said, they wouldn't send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?

We were that little boy.

Until Jesus came to us one day in whatever our hospital looked like.

And he gave us hope for today, and he gave us hope for eternity.

Where he's waiting for our arrival and he's preparing that place for us.

We, as followers of Jesus Christ, we have something to look forward to.

And in a world that's lost all hope, our hope is alive and he's waiting for us.

I want to end with this.

At the beginning, I asked you what the first thing is that you think of when you hear the word hope.

My prayer for all of us is that when we think of the word hope, or we think about what hope is, that our first thought would be Jesus.

That those words, hope and Jesus, would really go hand in hand together in our thinking.

Romans 15, 13 says this.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

May we overflow with hope.

So much hope that people can't help but notice and be affected by the hope that we have because it's overflowing out of us.

Have you ever seen a little kid trying to carry a bucket filled with water, like all the way to the brim?

And it's just getting everywhere.

I think that's how God wants us to carry hope.

In that same way, where it's just overflowing and splashing and getting on everything that we're walking by and coming close to.

And please hear me in this.

I'm not talking about having a conversation about current events that are devastating and acting like we're happy about them.

That's not what we're talking about.

I'm talking about a hope that sees current events in light of eternity, in light of Jesus Christ.

Where no matter how hard things get here, it does not take our eyes off of Jesus and it doesn't steal our joy.

That, if we're able to do that, that is going to make us stand out in a crowd.

Now, if you want to blend in, I think we'd be hopeless.

We just go about our days complaining, getting caught up in the despair of the things that are going on around us.

But if you want to shine the light of Jesus, have hope and let it overflow and just splash out of you.

So that 1 Peter 3.15 will actually happen where it says to have so much hope that people ask about the hope that lies within you.

Now I want to revisit 2 Corinthians 5, 20 through 21.

Because if you do not have the hope of Jesus that we've been talking about today, but you know right now that you need that hope that only Jesus can give.

And it's 2 Corinthians 5, 20 through 21.

It says, We plead on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

God loves us so deeply, and he so deeply wants what's best for us.

More than we even know.

More than we even want what's best for us.

And he desires to guide us in what's best for us.

He wants to welcome you, if you haven't made that decision, into his family through your spirit being reborn and made new right here today.

And Jesus couldn't have made it any easier.

Jesus did all of the work for us.

And all you have to do is believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you will be saved.

And you can do that right where you are, right now, in your seat.

All of your sins forgiven.

An absolute clean slate to start from.

Born into the family of God.

And then there will be a big welcome into the family of God.

If that's you after service, will you just let me know?

You know, I'd love to hear if you've made that decision.

I'd love to give you some next steps in your walk with our living hope with Jesus Christ.

Let's pray.

Jesus, you have given us everything.

Lord, we have hope when we can't find it anywhere else in this world.

We have something that so many people need.

Lord, I pray that they would see it in us because our eyes are fixed on you, and we're not getting bogged down by current events.

But Lord, we're keeping our eyes fixed on you, and we're seeing current events in light of eternity, in light of you, in light of your love and all that you've done for us.

And we're here today to celebrate all that you've done, to thank you for your death, your burial, your resurrection, to thank you for forgiving us of our heinous sins against you and against each other.

Lord, we thank you for that new birth that you offer.

Lord, and I pray that we would live in that daily, just in that celebration, that understanding of who you are and all you've done.

God, you are so good to us and you've shown your love over and over and over in so many ways.

I pray we would never get calloused to it, that we would never take it for granted, but we would have hearts of gratitude for you daily, hearts of thanksgiving that are overflowing with living hope.

Jesus, you are so good.

We love you so much.

In Jesus' name.