Easter Sunday - Life

Good morning.

Happy Easter.

That uh that song, Hosanna, the word is a uh it's actually a short Hebrew prayer, and it simply means save me.

And uh he did, and so that's why we get to be together this morning.

Uh it's great for us all to be together.

I love almost everything about Easter.

I say almost because there was that time that I had to dress up in a bunny outfit and uh play the Easter bunny at the mall because Susan was managing the thing, and the regular Easter bunnies were uh were both sick.

But I'm close to getting that behind me, hopefully soon.

I want to remind you the next Sunday is Baptism Sunday.

Um it's a great day here.

We'll do our regular things starting at 10.

We'll we'll be done about 1115.

Then at 11:30, anyone that who wants to stay and and be part of it, and everyone that that wants to be baptized um will do that then.

It is not a boring ritual.

It is the exciting statement that uh I'm all in.

You know, and it's uh it's such a cool thing because we get to literally do what Jesus did as he was baptized, and then in a symbolic, supernatural way that we get to be buried and then in the water and then raised.

But the important thing is that we're raised to a whole new life, and it's really an exciting time.

You know, we cheer, and God's presence is so strong.

So uh, if you'd like to be baptized uh next Sunday, you can sign up.

There'll be a table in the lobby on the in the back, and you get a lot more information there about that as well.

If you'd like to give this morning, we don't ever pass a play.

We've got four places in the back that that uh that you can help that way.

And so thank you for that.

Let's pray.

Father God, we just uh praise you.

We thank you for adopting us as your very own children.

Holy Spirit, we thank you for being our our teacher and our counselor.

We just ask that you would teach us this morning that we could all walk away with something that we know was from you for us.

And Jesus, we love you.

We thank you for saving us.

Every day is your day, but especially today.

We're here because of you.

So we praise you, we love you.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.

So we're doing things a little different this morning.

Um we kind of divided the worship in half, and so we're gonna uh at the end experience three more songs uh together than I get to share here in the middle.

And we're gonna start with the Lord's Supper.

We have a banner out front that says, Jesus, not religion.

And the Lord's Supper may be the perfect example of how religion screws up what Jesus came to do.

The Lord's Supper is a meal with Jesus.

It was the last meal he had before he was crucified.

Jesus told his close followers, just keep doing this so you won't forget about me.

It was such a perfect thing for Jesus to ask, you know, because uh one of the things that he did most often was eat with people.

Simply sit down and have a meal with people, all kinds of people.

In fact, the super religious people of the day, the Pharisees, were constantly on Jesus' back because Jesus wanted to eat with everyone.

In Matthew 9, it says, Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew's house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them.

When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit and they lit into Jesus' followers.

What kind of example is this from your teacher?

Acting cozy with crooks and riffraff.

Jesus, overhearing, shot back.

Who needs a doctor, the healthy or the sick?

Go figure out what this scripture means.

I'm after mercy, not religion.

I'm here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.

And that was pretty much an everyday conversation for Jesus.

You know, the hyper-religious blasting him for hanging out with people that they thought didn't measure up.

You might know the story of Zacchaeus.

He was probably probably the most uh renowned uh sinner of his day.

Jesus is walking through town and he spots Zacchaeus and he says, Zacchaeus, tonight I'm eating with you.

The religious people didn't get it, they couldn't stand it.

Jesus was eating at one of their houses in Luke 7.

When a certain immoral woman from that city, it's to be a prostitute, don't know how her uh the events of her life, but but they led to a point in her life where she's a prostitute.

It says, When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume.

Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping.

Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair.

Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him.

She's a sinner.

Basically, throughout Jesus' entire adult life, people were constantly saying, Stay away from him, stay away from him.

You're not good enough.

Women, children, people that had suffered tough times in their life, people that had made big mistakes in their life.

Just stay away.

They had it all wrong.

Jesus said, Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

So we're going to take the Lord's Supper in a minute.

It reminds us of Jesus' great sacrifice, and then we're going to finish later with his promise of a whole new life.

Here's what I hope you understand that everyone is invited to a meal with Jesus.

If you've been raised in a church, you might be thinking, yeah, but isn't there a verse that says something about taking the Lord's Supper in an unworthy way?

But what we miss is what that unworthy way was.

It was excluding people.

In 1 Corinthians 11 says, when you meet together, you are not really interested in the Lord's Supper, for some of you hurry to eat your own meal without sharing with others.

Religion says others are not good enough.

They're not worth it.

Jesus says, you are exactly the type of person that I want to have a meal with.

Now it might be deeply meaningful to you because of your relationship with Jesus.

It might be one of those, Jesus, if you're real, please show me conversations that many of us have had.

Either way, Jesus wants to share a meal with all of us.

When Jesus ate the meal that first time, it was a whole dinner.

But he specifically mentioned a couple parts of the dinner.

And those are the two parts that we take part of each week.

It's juice and it's bread.

We're going to do that here in a sec.

And on the side of the rooms, on the setup, places with juice and bread.

There's a lot of us, so it could be interesting.

If you're a couple, maybe one of you could go and get a couple of uh cups of juice and pieces of bread.

But uh I don't want you to feel any pressure.

And I definitely don't want you to feel compelled in any way, but I just want you to know what Jesus wants you to know, and that is that you're welcome, that he would love to share a meal with you, that everyone is welcome to join in.

And so we'll take a second now, if you would, uh go and get uh the bread and the juice, and we'll come back and we'll take that together.

That was uh that was pretty good.

Only saw one fight over there, and uh they got broken up really quick, so the uh we'll give everybody a chance to get settled.

The bread, Jesus said, it represented his body, and the real importance of that is that Jesus came as a real person, you know, with a physical body, flesh and bone, and he experienced the same things that we do.

He suffered uh in many of the same ways, and so he gets it.

He gets it.

Whatever you're going through today, he understands.

He has compassion and he has love, and he experienced so much.

And he gets where we're at, he gets what we need, he gets our fears, he gets our loneliness or sadness.

He gets it.

And so, Jesus, we thank you for not just coming, but for God, for you to humble yourself and and come as a man.

We just praise you for the love that showed.

We we praise you for for how you suffered.

Not just on the cross, but really your entire life.

You didn't have to live here, but you did.

And so we praise you and we thank you.

Amen.

Do you need the bread?

This is where I can't talk because I can't swallow the bread.

Once we get to the juice, it'll be fun.

The uh the juice, you know, it was actually wine.

But Jesus said that the juice reminds us that he shed his blood for us.

You know, that Jesus willingly sacrificed.

And he did that because there's a mercy, I mean, there's a justice side of God, and that took care of all that.

But really, what it allowed was the much greater side of God, the mercy and love side of God.

And so through through his blood, uh we we can have that bold relationship with God our Father, where we can really crawl in his lap as our dad without shame, without fear.

It's because of Jesus and because of that sacrifice.

And so, Jesus, we thank you that you would willingly do that to sacrifice for us.

That we could have a relationship with our Father, with you, with the Holy Spirit.

We praise you and thank you.

Amen.

It was about two thousand years ago.

A real person, just like you and I, died.

A real person with skin and bones, with parents, with feelings.

It was senseless, hadn't hurt anyone, already loved by many.

And it wasn't the death that was the thing.

It was the miraculous resurrection.

It was a little girl.

We read about it in Mark 5.

Then a leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jaris, arrived.

When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, pleading fervently with him.

My little daughter is dying, he said.

Please come and lay your hands on her.

Heal her so she can live.

Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him.

On the way, in the crowd, Jesus heals a woman.

You may know that story.

And the story this little girl picks up in verse 35.

While he was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue.

They told him, Your daughter is dead.

There's no use troubling the teacher now.

But Jesus overheard them and said to Jarrus, Don't be afraid.

Just have faith.

Then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn't let anyone go with him except Peter, James, and John.

When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw how much commotion and weeping and wailing.

He went inside and asked, Why all this commotion and weeping?

The child isn't dead.

She's only asleep.

The crowd laughed at him.

But he made them all leave.

And he took the girl's father and mother and his three disciples into the room where the girl was lying, holding her hand.

He said, Talatha com.

Which means, little girl, get up.

And the girl, who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around.

They were overwhelmed and totally amazed.

A resurrection.

Jesus bringing someone back to life.

This is what Jesus did.

It's what he came to do, and it's what he does today, is he gives life.

In Luke 7, soon afterward, Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Nain, and a large crowd followed him.

A funeral procession was coming out as he approached the village gate.

The young man who had died was a widow's only son, and a large crowd from the village was with her.

When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion.

Don't cry, he said.

Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped.

Young man, he said, I tell you, get up.

Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk.

And Jesus gave him back to his mother.

A resurrection.

Jesus bringing someone back to life.

In John 11, Martha said, Master, if you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died.

Even now I know that whatever you ask, God, he will give you.

Jesus said, Your brother will be raised up.

Martha replied, I know that he will be raised up in the resurrection at the end of time.

You don't have to wait for the end.

I am right now resurrection and life.

The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live.

And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all.

Do you believe this?

It was only minutes later that Martha was hugging and crying and laughing with her brother Lazarus.

A resurrection.

Jesus giving life.

Jesus did not come to earth to deliver a moral code or a new set of rules and regulations.

Jesus came wanting to bring everyone back to life.

When talking about the Lord's Supper, we read about the prostitute that came to dinner with Jesus.

The religious people were upset that she was there.

You know, and you can picture her there, weeping next to Jesus.

Then he spoke to her.

That set the dinner guests talking behind his back.

Who does he think he is forgiving sins?

He ignored them and he said to the woman, Your faith has saved you.

Go in peace.

A resurrection.

Another person in a different way brought back to life.

Jesus said, I came so they can have real and eternal life.

More and better life than they ever dreamed of.

The little girl, his friend Lazarus, the mom and her boy, the prostitute that everybody had written off.

He loved them.

He had great compassion for them.

And he loves you.

And he loves you.

We're not here this morning to dress up and play church.

We're here to celebrate the truth.

That Jesus loves you.

And not just Jesus, but God the Father too.

He is not mad at you.

He has not given up on you.

He loves you.

And life with him is real life, an absolute adventure.

And in his presence is a joy that is better than anything we can experience on earth.

That is the miracle of Easter Sunday.

Not that righteous people can be okay with God, but that every day normal people with all of our junk can have a whole new life.

We can be raised.

Just like Jesus.

Thank God it's not some complicated formula.

There's not an aisle you have to walk.

You don't have to listen to just as I am one more time.

But we in our own way, in our own words, we just turn to Jesus.

We say, I need you.

Help me.

Best as I can.

I'm going to trust you.

I'm going to try and follow your lead.

And then he takes over and brings us to life.

Our spirit comes alive, he fills us, he strengthens us, and he begins changing us from the inside out.

If you haven't already, you can do that anytime, anywhere.

It's what Jesus is offering you.

It's what he offers all of us.

Not a clear conscience, not just a fresh start, but life.

He came to give us life where we wake up every day wondering, man, what is this day going to bring?

We see God's beauty everywhere.

We enjoy our family and our friends.

All the stuff that weighs us down.

The pain, the bad attitudes, the fear, the heartbreak.

It all starts just falling away.

And not only that, but we can stop worrying about dying.

We can just stop worrying about it.

Because we're going to live forever.

We're going to live forever with Jesus.

We're going to live forever with each other and with those that we love.

Life, real life, more and better life than any of us could ever dream of.

Paul put it this way.

It stands to reason, doesn't it?

That if the alive and present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself.

When God lives and breathes in you and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus, you are delivered from that dead life.

With his spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ.

That's the good news.

We don't deserve it.

We don't have to try to earn it.

We can't be good enough.

Jesus did it.

And it's him.

He changes us from the inside out.

He gives us life.

That plan, it all came together in a garden outside of Jerusalem when Jesus folded his graveclothes, set them aside, and he walked out into a brand new morning.

This morning, Easter morning, we're not just excited about what he did, we're excited about who he is and what he does.

He gives life, more and better life than we could ever dream of.

So if the worship team wants to come back up, Peter put it this way.

What a God we have.

And how fortunate we are to have him, this father of our Master Jesus.

Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand new life, and we have everything to live for, including a future in heaven.

And the future starts now.

Let's stand and we'll uh we'll get ready for these last three songs.

I was gonna say we sing them together, but but actually we'll probably kind of experience them together because these songs encapsulate that weekend.

The pain, the death, the victory, and the life.

Forever, forever with Jesus.

That weekend started with lies and suffering.

It ended the single greatest day ever.

Life.

Jesus, we thank you.

We praise you.

We thank you for coming, for showing us what God is really like, for showing us how to live, for saving us.

Jesus, please fill us and give us your life.

We praise you, we love you.

It's in your great name we pray.

Amen.