God is Bigger: Hope Has a Name

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We exist to awaken this generation to new life in Christ.

Thanks for tuning in to find out more at awakeningchurch.com.

Happy Easter Awakening Church.

Welcome.

My name's Ryan, and I'm so thrilled that you're tuning in with us today.

Who in the world would have imagined, think about this, at the very beginning of 2020, that we wouldn't be able to gather in person on Easter Sunday and the entire world would be in a collective quarantine.

I mean, it's just kind of mind-blowing what's happened in the last four plus weeks.

And yet, here's what I think is just so incredible.

Even though we're not able to gather in person, we're still able to gather collectively digitally.

Like Easter hasn't stopped, just like Nass said, it's just changed the way we gather, but the message hasn't changed.

I love that.

And so uh I if you're watching us on your phone in your apartment, or if you're watching, you know, uh maybe in your bed on your uh computer, or maybe you're gathering around with your family and you're watching uh on the TV.

I just want to say welcome.

We're thrilled that you're streaming maybe on our church online platform or our YouTube or Facebook platform.

Here's what we want to do to have a sense that we're all together, even though we're not together in person.

Would you take a picture, especially those of you that got dressed up in your Sundays best, and just hashtag awakening church2020, not awakening church, what is it?

Easter at awakening or awakening Easter 2020.

There you go.

I got it right.

Finally, Awakening Easter 2020, and then just tag us awakening SV, and then that way, in a virtual way, we'll kind of be all together and get to see everybody tuning in.

It'll be awesome.

Really looking forward to that.

Now, on Easter, down through the centuries, uh, churches, when we gather together, we have a call and response.

We say, He is risen, and then uh the responder says, He is risen indeed.

And since we're not in the same room and we can't hear one another, I want to try something and hang in with me.

And would you try it?

Uh, here's what I want to try.

I want to say he is risen, and then I would love for you to actually go to your front door, open it up, and yell, he's risen indeed.

And uh some of you might just find out that you have a neighbors that go to awakening church and you had no idea.

You yell it out, and someone else is yelling out, you're like, hey, neighbor, that's awesome.

All right, so you're ready?

Will you do this with me?

He is risen.

Now go yell.

Okay.

So the rest of you that didn't move, I see you, by the way.

Um, the rest of you that didn't move, would you do this in the chat?

Would you just write, he is risen indeed, and where you're streaming from?

We would love just to have a moment where we just get to say hi and be together.

Today we're talking about hope.

I don't know of anything more needed in our world today than that of hope.

Every time we turn on the news, it just is more bad news.

And our world is hoping for a cure.

Our world is hoping for relief.

Our world is hoping, hoping that you know, a great economic depression won't uh be coming.

Our world is hoping that this pandemic will end soon.

And each one of us has been confronted by this question: Where do you find hope in a hopelessly broken world?

Like, where do we find that?

And how do you hold on to hope when it looks like all hope is lost?

Well, at the very center of Easter is hope.

In fact, even in the midst of a pandemic, followers of Jesus are to be the most hope-filled people on the planet because of the resurrection.

Like, like we're to be carriers of hope to people who do not have any hope.

Why?

Because Easter reminds us that God is bigger than the problems of our world, the cross is greater than this virus and this pandemic, death has been defeated because Jesus is alive.

And that is really good news.

And that's why actually the Apostle Peter would write these words.

He had pinned them to a people that was being persecuted, where their lives and their livelihoods were being stripped and taken away from them.

And he writes this to them: he says, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give you a reason for the hope that you have.

Like, always be ready, always be prepared to give an answer, to give a response to everyone who asks.

Like, like as followers of Jesus, we're to be so hope-filled that others who are going through the same thing are like scratching their head, going, like, how in the world do you have hope?

And he says, Be ready for it.

Be ready for people to ask you to give a reason.

Like, why do you have hope in the middle of this?

And so, this Easter, here's what I want to do.

As a follower of Jesus, I want to remind and refocus your heart on the hope we have in Christ.

I want to bring the hope that is the sure anchor of our soul into clear focus.

And then for those of you who have yet to become a follower of Jesus, I want to tell you how you can experience true hope personally in the midst of a hopelessly broken world.

Today, I want to tell you a resurrection story, but it's not the resurrection story you're thinking of.

In fact, it's the resurrection story that ultimately led to Jesus' crucifixion.

And it's here that we discover that when all hope is lost, there's an altogether new hope to be found.

But before we do that, we need to talk about this idea, this word hope.

You see, when we talk about hope in our day, uh it's often synonymous with wishing, isn't it?

We use the word hope this way.

It's a wish, it's a longing, it's it's a desire.

Um, we say, you know, I hope we find a cure, I hope my marriage makes it, I hope I get a job, I hope I win the lottery.

And what we mean by that is I wish these things will happen, but I'm not really sure if they will happen.

And so we say things like this.

I just don't want to get my hopes up, right?

I just gotta be careful.

I don't want to get my hopes up, and yet Easter, think about this, Easter beckons us to get our hopes up.

Why?

Because hope isn't wishing.

And hope isn't even optimism.

It's not just seeing the glass half full or the silver lining in things.

Hope is much sturdier than that.

You see, hope, hope is the confident expectation that a better tomorrow awaits.

That there's this confidence, and you're expecting it, that a better tomorrow awaits.

Hope is what a mother in the middle of childbirth holds on to.

In the midst of excruciating pain, she holds on to the hope and the reality that through this pain is gonna come a moment where she gets to hold her baby and all that pain will be eclipsed by joy in that moment.

That's hope.

And isn't it amazing what one can endure when one can go through when they're confident that a better tomorrow awaits them?

And so, where do we find that confidence?

How do we discover that confidence that a better tomorrow awaits?

Well, hope is fundamentally built on a promise.

It's the picture that best suits it is the picture of one getting engaged.

And in the engagement promise uh process, you make a commitment in the present about a future life you're gonna build together.

And it's so serious, and you're committing that promise is so sure that you're gonna signify it with a really expensive ring saying, we're gonna build a life together.

And here's what's interesting that hope doesn't even die in the midst of COVID.

In fact, I know there's many um uh engaged people in our church who've had to adjust and change their wedding day and their plans.

And but they haven't had to adjust, and they didn't say, Well, we're not getting married.

No, that hope of a life together is sure, even though they're having to make adjust adjustments.

And so, hope being the fundamentally built on a promise, then, is only as strong as the one who is making the promise.

See, it depends on the character of the one making the promise or the promise maker.

And this is where we run into the problem of hope.

Where we run into it and it begins to disappoint.

See, hope disappoints us when the person or thing our expectations are centered on let us down.

Hope disappoints us when the person who made the promise fails to keep that promise.

And then our expectations are broken and let us down.

And this is what the world has experienced over the last month, isn't it?

The things we put our confidence in to ensure a better tomorrow have collapsed all around us.

You see, where you put your hope or what you place your hope in is of principal importance.

And so, and so, where do you find hope that can withstand the ever turbulent world we're living in?

How can you be confident that a better tomorrow awaits?

This is what brings us to Jesus, the hope of Easter and the resurrection that led to Jesus' crucifixion.

We pick it up in John chapter 11, verse 1.

John 11:1

If you got your Bibles, if you would open it up, and in fact, uh, in your if you're watching on church online, you can uh there's a little tab Bible there, and you can search for John chapter 11 and just follow along there, or it's in the notes section as well, right there.

John 11 · chapter mention

We'd love for you to follow along.

We pick it up, John chapter 11, verse 1.

John 11:1

It begins this way It says, Now a man named Lazarus was sick.

He was from Bethany, the village of Mary, and her sister Martha.

So the sisters sent word to Jesus, Lord, the one you love is sick.

These were close friends of Jesus.

They were ministry partners.

In fact, when Jesus and his disciples were in the Judean area, their home would often be home base for them and they would operate out of.

It goes on, it says, when Jesus heard this, he said, the sickness will not end in death.

No, it is for God's glory, so that God's Son may be glorified through it.

This sickness, it won't end in death.

And death, yeah, death is the ultimate hope killer, isn't it?

This is why hope has been so shaky in this pandemic.

When someone's sick, there's still hope that there could be a better tomorrow, but when someone dies, hope is gone.

Death is final, death is undefeated.

Death seems to win out every time.

And goes on.

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, and what we'd expect to see the next line to be is he dropped everything and he went immediately.

But that's not what it says.

It says, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

And then he said to his disciples, let us go back to the Judea.

And to put that in context, those two days, the people had to travel to Jesus.

That was at least a day.

And then Jesus and his disciples would have to travel back.

And so we're talking about those two days were more like four to maybe even six total days.

And he says, those two days, the delay, he didn't respond immediately.

And I think this is why some have lost hope in God.

Because you prayed for a miracle.

You prayed for the healing and for your health, or you prayed for your marriage and that relationship.

You prayed, you prayed for that job, and instead of a miracle, it was the deafening silence of God.

And it was the delay, it was the two days where you said, God, where are you?

What's going on?

And you were just sitting there.

And the text goes on.

And it says, After two days, he says, Let's go back.

And and Jesus' disciples, by the way, didn't even want to go back.

They Jesus in that area had become public enemy number one of the religious leaders.

In fact, the last time he was there, they tried to stone him.

And so his disciples respond this way, but Rabbi, a short while ago, the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you're going back?

And so Jesus, he had to explain, okay, here's why I need to go back, here's what's going on.

And notice what he says.

It's so powerful and gives us a new understanding and reality about uh life and death.

He says, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep.

But I'm going there to wake him up.

It's interesting.

Don't miss this.

What's interesting is just how casually Jesus speaks about death.

He talks about death as falling asleep.

He doesn't talk about death as it being final.

He talks about it as falling asleep and that he's going to go and just wake him up.

He spoke about it so casually that his followers, the disciples, didn't even understand that he was speaking about death.

That's why his disciples replied, Lord, if he sleeps, he'll get better.

In fact, if he's sick, sleep's the best thing for him.

Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

So then he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead, and for your sake, I'm glad I was not there, so that you may believe.

But let us go to him.

You see, for Jesus, death was not the end of the story.

Death didn't have the final say, it was just asleep.

Death.

You know, even though it was not a hope killer.

See, people who are asleep wake up.

And this became how the early followers of Jesus referred to death, because in the presence of Jesus, death is not final, it's merely being asleep.

And so on Jesus' arrival, they found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

And this note is important because there was this superstition that was going around on the time, this myth that the body would hover, or the soul rather, would hover around the body for three days in case it might be able to come back to life.

But after three days, it would depart.

And even among the most superstitious, all hope was gone in this moment.

It had been four days.

And so when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him.

But Mary stayed at home.

Lord, Martha said to Jesus, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

But I know that even now, God will give you what you ask.

I love Martha's approach to Jesus.

She comes just filled with grief and heartache and pain and brings herself as she is.

God, if you had been here, like if you had shown up, we would be having a celebration and not a funeral.

And I think it's important to remind you that you can bring all of you, the real you to God.

And just go, God, this is where I'm at.

This is what I'm struggling with.

This is the real stuff.

God, that delay, I don't understand.

And if you had been here, and then I love the next line.

So powerful.

Because as she brought all of her pain and grief to Jesus, she also coupled that with a declaration of faith.

Well, remember what she said.

But I know that even now, God will give you whatever you ask.

Martha understood that the presence of Jesus meant that what looks like impossible is no longer impossible.

That like Jesus changes everything.

And so, even though all hope is lost, even though death is final, it's even now, in that moment, God will give you whatever you ask.

Even now, in this dark hour.

And so Jesus said to her, Your brother will rise again.

And then Martha responds as she's going back to things that she had been taught as a child growing up.

She said, I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

Now, when Jesus is responding here, I want us to know this.

He wasn't being trite, he wasn't being glib.

He was reminding Martha.

He was reorienting Martha to a deep and wonderful truth when she was completely disoriented by grief.

And he's leaning in and reminding her that now is not all there is.

That we are created for eternity, and that death ultimately does not get the final say.

And I gotta imagine there's a group of mourners all around them, right?

And I gotta imagine as Jesus is pastoring Martha in this moment, the mourners would have nodded their head, and they may have given an amen rabbi in that moment.

But then Jesus says something that's so staggering, is still staggering to this day, and it would have stunned the audience there that was listening in.

Listen to what Jesus says next.

He says, I am the resurrection and the life.

In the midst of your pain, in the midst of the grief, in the midst of this, what I want to let you know is I don't just provide resurrection.

I am resurrection.

I don't just have the ability to bring life, I am the very source of life.

Like resurrection showed up here, life showed up here.

I am resurrection in the body.

And people would have gone, like, whoa, and he wasn't finished.

He said, The one who believes in me will live.

The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.

And whoever lives by believing in me will never die.

The one who believes or place their trust in me never need be afraid of death.

Because with me, death never has the final say.

Like when you put your trust in me, you will experience life now and forevermore.

I have the final say because I am life and Resurrection.

And I think it's important.

Jesus didn't just tell people to follow his teachings.

He called people to believe in him and who he was.

And this is why he asked this question to Martha.

Do you believe this?

And that's the question we're confronted with today.

That's the question that Easter calls us to ask.

Do you believe this, follower of Jesus?

Do you believe that Jesus isn't just an addition to your life?

Jesus isn't just somehow to make your life better, but Jesus, Jesus is ultimately the source of life.

Do you believe this?

Do you believe that that now is not all there is, that there's more to this life than just here, that you are created for eternity?

Do you believe this?

See, Jesus was not just a good man, a great teacher, or even a miracle maker.

His promises or his claims didn't leave that up to question.

You see, Jesus made staggering promises.

Promises that are so staggering and so shocking that unless he rose again from the grave, you cannot take Jesus seriously.

I am resurrection, I am life, and if you believe in me, you too will have life.

See, he didn't leave it up to us.

If Jesus, though, indeed did rise from the dead, you can be confident that his promises are true and trustworthy.

Well, eventually Martha, or rather, Mary, made her way out to Jesus.

And she had the same response that Martha did.

Jesus, if you'd just been here, if you'd just shown up, my brother would still be alive.

And Jesus looking around and seeing the grief and the pain and seeing the heartache of the mourners around and the sisters that he he loved and cared for.

He was overwhelmed with emotion.

And the next verse, it's known as the shortest verse in the Bible, but it is so powerful and gives us an understanding of God.

It simply says, Jesus wept.

See, you have a God that meets you right where you're at.

In the person of Jesus, you have a God who's present with you in your pain, who hurts with you, who weeps with you.

He doesn't say, I'm the resurrection and the life, and so you know what?

It's gonna be okay.

Don't be sad.

I mean, when Jesus engages in this moment, he knew moments later he was gonna raise Lazarus from the dead, and the joy, the mourning was gonna be turned into joy and rejoicing.

And yet he engages in the moment of exactly right where we are and where they were, and he hurt and he weeped with them.

And so it says, Jesus once more, deeply moved, came to the tomb.

It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.

He says, Take away the stone.

There was a little bit of argument because Lazarus' been dead a while and is gonna smell, but eventually they did what Jesus said.

And then Jesus called in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.

The dead man came out, his hands and his feet wrapped with strips of linen and cloth around his face.

In the middle of a funeral, hope sprang to life because resurrection life showed up.

And you gotta imagine Judea, just a mile or so, or Bethlehem, just mile or so outside of Jerusalem, in the heart of the religious center, words spread fast.

What had Jesus had done?

Now it wasn't just what Jesus had done, but it was what Jesus had said, the claims and the promises he made.

You see, from that point forward, the religious leaders set out to kill Jesus because he had made claims that only God could make.

This is why it went on long to say that uh the after the from that day on, the religious leaders plotted to take his life.

And this was the resurrection that led to Jesus' crucifixion.

And about a week later, the religious leaders saw an opportunity, they seized it, and on Friday, the miracle maker was nailed to a cross, and resurrection was put in a grave.

And it looked like death had won the final victory over life.

All hope was lost.

Well, it was Sunday morning, and a few women got up early to go to the tomb to finish preparing Jesus' body for burial.

Why?

Because a couple of guys did it and they were confident they did a terrible job and they needed to come back and make sure it was done right.

One of those women, women, there you go, was Mary Magdalene, Lazarus' sister.

Now it's important to note that it's that the gospel records that women were the first to see and testify to the resurrection of Jesus.

You see, in the ancient day, a woman's word was not deemed valid or credible or even amissible in the court of law.

And so when we look at the early accounts of this, um this did not help the believability of the resurrection of Jesus.

In fact, one of the things, if they were to make this a more credible account, is they would have just switched it up and said, No, no, no, it wasn't women who first saw the resurrection, it was men, and they would have written it in there.

And you know why they say in the gospel accounts that women were the first to see Jesus raised from the life back from the dead, because that's exactly what happened.

And so Mary and others showed up.

The tomb was empty, and then an angel showed up.

An angel appeared to them and he said, He is risen, he is not here, he he is risen just as he said.

Now there better be some whooping and hollering just as I said that.

You see, at the resurrection, hope then moved from a promise then to a person.

Because Jesus fulfilled the ultimate promise.

You see, this Easter, the reason you can have hope is hope's not wishing or just optimism.

Hope has a name.

Hope is Jesus, the resurrected savior of the world.

Hope has a name because Jesus defeated the grave.

The problem, the problem with hope has always been that death has gotten the final say.

Death no longer gets the final say.

Jesus dead.

Jesus defeated death.

And that's why we can talk about it to this day.

Death's not final, it's just being asleep.

When you're asleep, you wake back up.

Jesus gets the final say.

The uncertainty of our world does not have the final say.

The resurrection of Jesus changes everything.

So, where do you find hope in a hopelessly broken world?

You find hope in the name of Jesus.

Jesus is the hope of the world.

This is not a trite answer, but I want to remind you of a deep and wonderful truth.

See, Jesus declared, I am the resurrection and the life.

And then he backed it up.

At Easter, we celebrate God is bigger, the cross is greater, death is defeated, and Jesus is alive.

So hope has a name, and you can have a confident, confident expectation that a better tomorrow waits because Jesus is alive.

So, how do you experience hope personally?

Well, Jesus said, the one who believes in me will live, even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.

When we put our faith, our confidence in the person of Jesus, he says that you then have life now and forevermore.

See, if you have Jesus, you have hope.

If you have Jesus, you have life.

If you have Jesus, you have resurrection.

And the question today is, do you believe this?

Do you believe?

I realize I never told you Martha's response to Jesus' question, do you believe?

Martha responded this way.

She said, Yes, Lord, I believe.

I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is come into the world.

Think about it.

This was before Lazarus was raised from the dead.

Her response was, Yes, Lord, I believe.

Even though she couldn't see exactly how it all worked out, yes, Lord, I believe in this moment.

And I believe you're the Son of God who has come into the world.

God has come into the world.

And I think we wrestle with this.

Like, I'm searching, how do I find hope?

The question isn't how do you find hope?

You don't have to find hope.

Hope has come to find you in the person of Jesus.

In fact, hope is pursuing you right now in this moment.

Hope is calling you, saying, I have defeated the grave.

I want to give you life.

Do you believe this?

Would you say yes, Lord?

See, how do we experience hope personally?

We just simply respond the way Martha responded.

Yes, Lord, I believe.

Yes, Lord, I need you.

In a moment, we're gonna sing a song called Graves into Gardens.

And I love the opening lines of this.

It begins this way: I searched the world, but it couldn't fill me.

Men's empty praise and treasures that fade are never enough.

Then you came along and put me back together, and every desire is now satisfied.

That's the hope of Jesus because of the resurrection of Jesus.

And if this morning or today, rather, you would like to experience hope personally.

If you'd like to step into new life and have a personal relationship, would you just pray with me?

Would you have a conversation with your Heavenly Father?

Would you bring your heart to Him and your prayer is just simply a conversation with God?

And right now, maybe you're alone and you can pray it out loud, and maybe you just want to pray in the quietness of your heart.

Either way, God still hears.

But pray after me this.

Yes, Jesus, I believe that you are the hope of the world, the resurrection and the life.

I believe you died on the cross for me, for my brokenness, for my sin, and you are raised to life, defeating death.

That all who put their trust in you will have true life now and forevermore.

So today I confess my need for you.

Will you forgive me and come into my life and make me new?

I place the full weight of my life in your hands.

Thank you for loving me, for pursuing me, for giving me new life, for being my hope.

In the mighty name of Jesus.

Amen.

And if in this moment you just gave your life to Jesus, I want you to right now, as we sing this song, click the connection card and let us know.

Would you click the response card and or the prayer button and ask for prayer?

We want to know and join with you and celebrate.

This is a wonderful celebration.

This is a moment where angels are just freaking out in heaven, honestly.

And this is a moment where hope has arrived because you've experienced the person and the presence of Jesus in your life, new life.

Would you let us know?

Click the connection card.

And would you join with us as Taylor and the team lead us in graves into gardens?