Easter at Access – Gardens

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason Burns and Access Church in Lakeland, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

I love his story.

Happy Easter, everybody.

Today we celebrate the facts.

We join with billions of believers around the world to celebrate the fact that death no longer has the final word, that Jesus is alive.

I love it.

And here's what I love is the resurrection is an event that happened, but it keeps happening.

You heard it in Zach's story that Jesus brings dead people back to life.

And I don't know what you came in with today, but I just really do believe that today could be the day for you when your soul comes to life the way God intended it to be.

Well, welcome to you.

We've had an incredible Easter season.

You're the seventh in the best service we've had so far.

Shocked.

I thought nobody was coming to this one.

I thought you'd be getting some Easter ham at lunchtime, but you showed up, my people.

Honored you're with us.

Will you do me a favor and put your hands together and welcome those who are joining us at Church Online?

So glad you're with us.

Well, listen, Easter is the time of year when everybody shows up.

And because you all showed up today, I want to ask you a favor.

Inside of your worship guide that you got when you came in, there is an Easter edition connection card.

If you do me a favor, pull that out.

Here's the reason.

Every Sunday we have a connection card if you want to fill it out.

This Sunday is an all skate.

This Sunday I'm asking every single person to fill it out.

Give us whatever information you're comfortable with.

But I want to draw your attention to two questions that matter to me.

The first one is this.

Towards the bottom of the card, there's a line that says, I'd love to hear a series about.

And if there's something on your heart, if there's some questions you've been wrestling with about God or relationships or money or mental wellness, or you pick the topic, we'd love to talk about the stuff that matters to you.

And as I pray, this just gives us good information as we pray about what to talk about.

That's number one.

Second thing is this.

Um, anybody need some good news?

Could anybody use some good news today?

All right, you're gonna have to do better than that for me.

Anybody need some good news today?

Okay, that's what I'm talking about.

Uh earlier this year, we said this as our church continues to grow in size and influence, we need to continue to increase our capacity to reach more and more people for Jesus.

Right now, on a Sunday, we have three services that are full.

We gotta figure out how to make space for people.

And when we looked at where people are driving to us from, we realized there are lots and lots of people who come to our church from the foreign land of North Lakeland, everybody.

And so here's what this means.

I said it would be incredible if God opened the doors for us.

We would love to open a location in North Lakeland, and I've got some news for you if that's okay.

Uh, a couple months ago, we placed an offer on a building, and for a couple months we got radio silence.

And then Thursday, the day before Good Friday, we had a good Thursday because they sent us a letter of intent.

We got a building, everybody.

It's coming.

It's coming.

Now there's still details to work out, and I'm not telling you where it is until we get it all figured out, but it's coming, and the reason I'm telling you is this with all these people here, I need some people who either live in North Lakeland or who feel called to be a missionary to North Lakeland to help us launch that campus.

So at the bottom of your connection card, there's a little box that says, I'm interested in joining the North Lakeland campus launch team.

If you're interested, please check that.

The operative word is interested.

Here's what it means.

If you are willing to go to be sent there, it'll do two things.

Number one is it'll help us launch that campus incredibly well.

I'd love to send three, four, five hundred people there.

And number two, it'll create three to five hundred more open seats that I believe we'll just fill right back up again over and over and over again.

But our heart is to reach people.

And if you're on mission with our church and you want to be a part of that, let us know.

You'll be the first one to know information before it comes out.

But over the next few weeks and months, we'll have lots of news and information coming your way, but it's gonna be special.

Something special is happening here.

I'm excited to be a part of it.

All right, let's do this.

Let's pray, then let's get to work today for this Easter Sunday.

Jesus, we love you.

We honor you today.

Thank you that you came.

Thank you that you died for us.

What amazing love.

But today we celebrate the fact that death no longer has the final word.

That when you rose again from the dead, it proved that if you have power over life and death, you have power to change us.

So, God, today we invite you to do just that.

Change us, speak to us, call us into the life you have for us.

And God, on the authority of your word and by the power of your spirit, we want to leave changed.

We thank you for it, God, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Hey, have you ever had a day that didn't pan out the way you expected it to go?

Don't be honest about this.

Have you ever had a day you thought it was gonna go one way and it went a different way?

A couple years ago, I had a day where it was gonna be about a 24-hour quick trip to San Francisco, California.

I was literally flying there.

I had to go to a meeting, and then the next day I was flying right back.

And so um, here's what you need to know about me.

I like to be the most generous person I've ever met.

And what that means is if I go with my wife somewhere or if one of the guys on our staff goes with me somewhere, I try to do it nice, try to bless people.

But when I go by myself, I am cheap.

I am, I am really cheap.

I'll book the cheapest flight, unless it's Spirit Airlines, because I do love myself.

I will book the cheapest flight, I will book the cheapest rental car, I will book the cheapest hotel.

I just don't care.

And so I flew to San Francisco on this cheap airline ticket, got there.

I thought everything was going my way.

I went to my rental car agency, the guy punched in the button, he goes, Oh man, bad news.

We're out of the car that you rented.

He goes, Hang on, he pushed the button again.

He goes, actually, great news.

We got an upgrade for you.

And I said, Talk dirty to me.

What do you mean, an upgrade?

He's like, How does a Mercedes coupe sound?

I said, I will kiss you on the mouth right now.

How does that sound?

So they upgrade me to this car, and I had this thought flash through my mind, this is my day.

And if this were a movie of me, there would be a voice off stage, off camera, that said, He thought it was his day, but he was sorely mistaken.

Because from that moment on, everything in my day fell apart.

I get the car, I go to the Golden Gate Bridge, I go see the house from Full House, and then I go to my hotel.

Now, I told you I'm cheap.

I got the cheapest hotel I could find.

It was a$49 deal, and it wasn't at some little like mom and pop's hotel, it was at a chain.

It was a$49 night at a Ramada.

And I thought this is gonna be good.

This will get the job done for me.

It had a wonderful rating of one and a half stars.

I thought I got this.

I'm a full-grown man, I can handle this.

So I go to the hotel, I go to the front lobby to check in, and there's no one at the front desk.

So I wait because I'm patient, and I wait, and no one comes out.

And then I notice there's a little bell that says ring for service.

So I did one polite ding, and no one came out.

So I ding-dinged it, and no one came out.

After three or four minutes, I played it like a drum.

Ding-d-d-ding-d-ding-d-ding-ding.

And out from back comes a man who has obviously been sleeping.

His hair is disheveled, he's got sleep lines on his face, and drool coming down his mouth.

And he comes out front and he goes, What can I do for you?

I said, Well, you can check me in.

And so he uses the computer, finds me, and he goes, Good news, you got our last room.

Once again, I thought, oh, my day is good.

I've got this.

And he hands me the key to the room.

Now, I want you to get this.

If you ever stay at a hotel, every hotel gives you a credit card key that can be reprogrammed.

But this man handed me an actual physical key.

Like the kind of key that can be taken to Home Depot and copied for$2.

He hands me a key.

And I thought to myself, I have watched way too many episodes of Dateline in 2020 for this, right?

He was a pastor in Lakeland, Florida.

That's how it feels like it's gonna start.

I get my key, I go to my room, open the door, take one step into the room, and the carpet underneath me goes squish.

That's another strike.

And um, it's fine.

I'm a full-grown man, can handle this.

I look up over the bed, and on the wall behind the bed is smeared some sort of fluid.

Exactly.

I don't know what it is, I have no idea what it is.

I'm just telling myself, all right, have faith.

It's probably coffee, could be coffee.

Just please don't be blood.

I have no idea what it is, but whatever.

I thought to myself, if I'll just close my eyes and go to sleep, I won't even see the wall.

So I get in my bed.

I lay in the bed, turn the lights off, and not more than 30 seconds later, I don't know if it was real or in my mind, but I start itching all over my body.

Have you ever had this experience?

Finally, I thought, you can do this, it's the last room, just push through.

I fall asleep, I wake up several hours later, and I need to use the restroom.

But again, I have this thought flash through my mind.

Nothing's been going my way, and it is a one and a half star hotel.

I should probably turn the lights in the bathroom on.

So I turned the lights in the bathroom on and unintentionally disrupted a cockroach family reunion because they scattered everywhere.

Now at this point, sleep is hopeless for me.

I'm never going back to sleep, I'm never staying at a Ramada again.

That's a renata for me.

I'm out of this place.

And then it gets worse.

I think to myself, if I can just take a shower, I can start my day, I can get up out of this hell hole, I can leave.

So I turn the water on, and the shower curtain was pushed all the way to one side.

So I turn the water on, the shower comes on, and I pull the shower curtain closed.

I kid you not, the moment I pull the shower curtain closed, this gigantic pair of black polka dotted women's underwear comes falling from the top of the shower curtain, does a triple axle, and sticks the landing on my shoulder.

You get a tetanus shot for this.

I don't know what you do with this.

And that wasn't even the worst part.

The worst part was the fear thinking, this is the moment I die, because this is the moment my wife calls me on FaceTime and I have to explain whatever this is.

Okay.

You ever had a day that didn't go your way?

Come on, let's be honest.

All of us have had a bad day.

You ever had a bad week?

You ever had a bad season?

All of us have been disappointed with life.

Let me ask you another question.

Have you ever been disappointed in someone?

Has someone ever betrayed you, let you down, walked out on you?

It always hurts, and with maturity, you think to yourself, well, they're flawed people.

We all make mistakes.

I'm sure I've hurt someone too.

You ever felt like God's let you down?

You ever been disappointed with him?

Have you ever felt like you prayed your guts out and he was asleep at the wheel?

Have you ever thought to yourself, God, I thought I'd be married by now.

I thought I'd have children by now.

God, I thought for sure that I'd still be married by now.

God, I thought my career would be a certain place.

I thought my finances would be in a certain place.

I thought that investment that I risked everything for would be better, but it just hasn't panned out the way I thought it should.

If you've ever experienced that or thought that, the Easter story is for you.

And today to help us understand it, I want to frame all of our conversation around the context of gardens.

You see, the Bible is a story of gardens.

It starts in a garden, it ends in a garden.

Towards the middle of the Bible, there are two gardens intricately connected to the Easter story.

There's the Garden of Gethsemane, and then there is the garden tomb.

And today I want to start talking about disappointment.

Let's start in the book of Genesis.

Genesis chapter one.

In the beginning, God speaks the world into existence.

With his voice, he hangs the sun, the moon, and the stars.

He litters the solar systems with galaxies and planets farther than science will ever get.

He creates earth, and in it, he creates the sky and seas.

He fills the sky with birds and fish in the seas.

He even made those real creepy ones at the bottom of the ocean.

He made all of it.

He filled the land with every kind of land, animal, every fruit, every vegetable, all of it.

And as he creates every single day, his creation gets more beautiful and more intricate.

It reveals his master artisanship.

And as he creates, he says it's good, and he creates and he says it's good.

And then at the end of his creation, he pushes some dirt together, and it says that he breathes into the nostrils of this dirt, the breath of life.

That ancient Hebrew phrase breath of life, we would translate to mean soul.

Here's what this means: your soul from God is actually borrowed breath from him.

Let me explain it to you like this.

I think this is so interesting.

This is the reason that when you come to church and you sing the songs that we're singing that are worship to God, you feel something in your heart that you can't explain.

You've always thought maybe it's just something about being at church.

It's not something about being at church.

It's about using your borrowed breath, your soul, and returning it back to the one who gave it to you in the first place.

As a side note, this is the reason that at Access we do worship in such a big way.

Some people are like, why do we need the lights?

And why do we need the screens?

We don't need any of it.

We just think that if we're returning our souls back to its creator, we should do it with excellence and with everything that we've got.

That's why we do it.

So God breathes into this man the breath of life, and he becomes a living being.

And it says that he's placed in a garden.

It's the first garden in Scripture.

It's called the Garden of Eden.

Eden is an interesting word.

It's an ancient Hebrew word, which literally means pleasure and delight.

I don't know what you think about when you think of the Garden of Eden, but this was always God's hope for humanity that it would be a place of pleasure and a place of delight, where joy would run rampant, where happiness would be the norm.

God's intention for humanity was this.

And God places humanity in this garden, and his goal was so obvious.

It's literally woven throughout the beginning of Scripture.

God's goal was closeness with us.

This is the reason in Genesis 2 and in Genesis 3, the authors illustratively say that God would walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day.

This was something that they looked forward to, they longed for, and it also reveals God's heart because he also longed for it too.

God's heart was always closeness.

So Genesis 2, God puts Adam and Eve in this garden.

And then at the end of Genesis chapter 2, there's this really weird verse.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

I'm gonna be honest about this.

It's very strange.

But I believe it actually reveals God's heart for humanity.

This is what God's goal for you and for me was.

It says this, Genesis 2, verse 25.

Genesis 2:25

It says, Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Some of the men in the room are like, I've been looking for a life verse.

Finally got one.

It's not this one.

Um, here's the point.

It means Adam and his wife were both naked.

They weren't wearing clothes, but it's so much deeper than that.

It's that they were fully known, fully vulnerable, fully exposed, and fully loved.

Why does this matter?

It matters because a person can only be loved to the extent that they are known.

So what you gotta get is they were naked and they knew no shame.

Well, what does shame do?

Shame mars us.

It becomes the scarlet letter we wear on our soul.

Shame causes us to hide because there is this fear underneath shame that says, if you really knew me, you couldn't possibly love me.

I need you to get this.

Adam and his wife were both naked and they knew no shame.

If you get nothing else, if you fall asleep, please get this.

Shame never comes from God.

Period.

Shame is never from God.

The most popular verse in the Bible, John 3.16, literally the verse after it should be just as popular.

John 3.17 says, For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that through him the world might be saved.

God's heart is that you would live a life free from shame.

So you can be the person he always intended you to be.

Genesis 2.25 says that Adam and his wife were both naked and they knew no shame.

And then literally the next verse is Genesis 3.1.

And I want you to see this because all of the sudden shame enters the narrative.

It becomes the undercurrent of the story of creation.

And I want to point out three questions of shame found in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Question one is this Did God really say?

Did God really say?

Let me show it to you in Scripture.

He, being Satan, said to the woman, Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?

Now I want you to pause here for just a moment.

I want you to see how the enemy of your soul works.

He will take the words of God and twist the words of God, because if he can get you to not trust the words of God, you'll also not trust his heart, his character, and his goodness.

Did God really say you must not?

Let me show you what God actually said.

Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

Here's God's word.

The Lord God commanded the man, not you must not.

His command is you are free.

God's command is always freedom.

You're free to eat from any tree in the garden.

Leave this up for me for just a moment.

I think a lot of people have this misconception.

We've misconstrued the words of Genesis 2.

God places Adam and Eve in this garden, the Garden of Eden.

And before he ever gives restrictions, he gives permission.

Before he ever gives boundaries, he gives his blessing.

He says, all the trees are full of food that is pleasing to the eye and good to the taste.

Eat from any of the trees.

Thousands of options.

It's as if God were in heaven, God saying, Adam, watch this.

You're ready?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

A thousand more yeses and one no.

People read this and they're like, oh, kind of dictator is God.

Do you miss all of it?

If Satan can twist the words of God, he'll cause you to question the goodness in the heart of God.

You need to know what God really said.

Question two is God shows up to Adam and Eve and He says, Where are you?

Because once they sin, sin causes them to hide, and God asks a question, Where are you?

Now let's be clear.

This was not some cosmic game of hide and go seek.

God was really in control.

He knew where they physically were.

He's asking a much more profound question.

Where is the you that I intended you to be?

Where's the you that's not hiding?

Where's the you that's not riddled with shame?

Where's the real you?

Here's the verses.

It says this, Genesis 3.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, something they used to love, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Why would they hide?

Because of shame.

But the Lord God called to the man, Where are you?

And look at Adam's response.

He replied, I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked.

So I hid.

This leads to the third question in Genesis 3, the third question of shame.

God asked him this question, and I think we should ask ourselves.

God says, Who told you that you were naked?

Who hurt you?

Who allowed shame to enter your story?

Who lied to you?

Who abused you?

Who hurt you?

Who accused you?

Who betrayed you?

Who put you in this position where shame has entered your story?

The next verse after the one we literally just read, and he being God said, Who told you that you were naked?

Who told you this?

You were never intended to know this.

Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?

The tree that they ate from, God calls the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

I just want to submit something to you.

The human heart was never intended to know all the evil in the world.

This is the reason why your heart feels so heavy when you watch the news.

This is the reason your heart feels so heavy when you hear stories of gunmen running into schools and shooting kids.

This is the reason your heart breaks when you hear of countries invading other countries and innocent civilians dying.

This is the reason when you see evil, it does something to your heart.

It was never intended to be that way.

This was never God's intention.

So Genesis 3, verse 23, God takes Adam and Eve and He banishes them.

Genesis 3:23

He sends them out of the garden.

And this, in my opinion, is the genesis of disappointment.

What do you mean?

Adam and Eve had been in the garden, in paradise with God, living God's best, his blessed life for them.

They've experienced perfection.

But now they're on the outside looking in and they're in the shadow of perfection.

What it means is they know what it could be, but they're not experiencing it for themselves.

I think a lot of us live this way.

If you've ever thought to yourself, this can't be the way my life turns out.

This can't be the way my story goes.

It shouldn't be this way.

If you've ever experienced that before, I believe you're living in the shadow of perfection because your soul longs for what God intended, but you're feeling something that you can't ever begin to explain.

There's a psychological and kind of a medical term.

It's a condition.

It's called phantom pain.

Phantom pain is when a person loses a limb, like they lose an arm or they lose a leg, and months or years go by and they start to feel pain as if the arm was there the whole time and the arm isn't there.

And I think a lot of us live with a spiritual version of phantom pain.

It's like we live with this belief that I know that this isn't all that there is, but I've never really I don't have anything to compare it to because I've never.

Ever gotten to experience perfection.

It's a phantom kind of pain.

If you feel this in any way, shape, or form, I want you to know you're not alone.

If disappointment feels like the undercurrent of a part of your story, I want you to know that the Easter story is for you.

If you fast forward into the Bible, Jesus enters another garden.

It's called the Garden of Gethsemane.

I was there just a few years ago.

The Garden of Gethsemane sits in the foothills of the Mount of Olives on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

It is this beautiful, serene garden.

There are thousand-plus-year-old olive trees there today.

Says this, Mark chapter 14.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

They, Jesus and his disciples, went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, You sit here while I pray.

He took Peter, James, and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled.

He says, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, he said.

Stay here and keep watch.

Going on a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him, and then listen to Jesus' prayer.

Jesus says, Abba, Father.

Abba is an ancient Aramaic word which literally means dad or daddy, but it's like the most beautiful, precious, intimate way that a child can speak to their father.

When my daughter Ella was little, she called me dada, and I loved it.

Then she got a little older and now it's daddy.

This would be like the closest we can get to understanding this word.

And Jesus calls his father Abba, he said.

Everything is possible for you, so here's what I want you to do.

You take this cup from me.

Like I don't want to do what I'm gonna have to do.

I want you to get this.

Yet.

One of the most consequential conjunctions in all of Scripture, one of the most singly seminal words in all of Scripture.

Yet.

Like I don't want to do this.

If you want to take this from me, you have my blessing.

Yet, not what I will, but what you will.

Jesus is in the garden called the Garden of Gethsemane.

Remember that Eden means pleasure and delight.

Gethsemane in its original language means pressed.

It's probably called pressed because there were so many olive trees there, and the olives would be pressed for their oil.

But I don't think it's accidental or coincidental that Jesus is in this garden of pressing and he feels pressed by the weight of the world in this moment.

He feels overwhelmed.

What is he facing in this moment?

Well, he knows that crucifixion is right around the corner from him.

Like if you knew when you would die and how you would die.

Specifically, if you knew that you would die like tomorrow and you knew it was going to be excruciating the way that a crucifixion was, can you imagine how you would feel in this moment?

All of this pressing on him.

And all of a sudden they just snap.

And for no reason, out of them comes this disgusting anger or this vicious violence, just comes out of their mouth, and then they kind of snap out of it and they say, Oh, I am so sorry.

I have no idea where that came from.

I know where it came from.

You know where it came from.

It came from within you.

It's because the only thing that can come out of you is the stuff that is inside of you.

If I took an orange, sliced it open, and I squeezed it, you would be shocked if oil or gasoline or lemon juice came out of it.

But if orange juice came out of the orange, you'd be like, of course, because that's what's inside of it.

Okay.

When pressed with the weight of the world, knowing that in hours, he would be betrayed, falsely accused, beaten within an inch of his life, stripped naked, humiliated, nailed to a tree.

Wouldn't you feel the weight of the world too?

Luke, one of the other gospel writers, adds this interesting detail.

He says, in being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

There is a medical condition, it's rare.

It's called hematidrosis.

Hematidrosis is when the capillaries in your skin, in your head, are under such intense pressure that they literally burst, and when they burst, blood slowly trickles out of your skin the way sweat does when a person is exercising.

And Jesus is under such intense pressure that his sweat turns to blood.

You need to get this.

This is such a powerful moment.

Because the Garden of Gethsemane, this moment for Jesus, is one of the pivotal moments.

One of the pivotal moments of decision in the course of human history.

Why?

It's because everything that was done in the Garden of Eden is being undone because of the Garden of Gethsemane.

You say, what does it even mean?

Because of the sin of one person, shame enters the world.

Because of the obedience of another, shame has no place in your life anymore.

Because of what happens at a tree, sin enters the world.

Because of what happens on a tree on a hill called Calvary, sin is forever defeated.

Jesus has this moment that all of us have to face.

How incredible would it be if all of us just made this decision that when it comes to our disappointment, when we don't understand, even when I don't understand, I can trust that my God is still good and he's still working on my behalf.

Alright, let me end with this.

If anyone would understand disappointment, certainly it was the disciples.

These 11 or 12 guys that were with Jesus everywhere he went.

They saw the miracles, they heard the teaching, they saw him turn water to wine, and they saw him walk on water.

They saw him raise people from dead, they saw him open blind eyes, they saw the miracles, they heard his teaching, they believed he was who he claimed to be, and they sold everything to follow him.

They left businesses, they left family, they left security, and they follow him.

They thought he was their ticket out of the oppression of the Roman government, and yet they also stood in the shadows as he was nailed to a cross and as his head fell in death.

We now call that Friday Good Friday.

I don't know if you've ever stopped to think about why we call it Good Friday.

It's certainly anything but good for Jesus.

But it was so good for you and for me.

He dies to pay the price of the sins of the world.

You need to get this.

All of this happened so fast that no one had time to prepare.

There was no tomb, there was no gravesite for Jesus.

So when he dies on Friday, they quickly take his body off of the cross and they place it in the tomb of a man named Joseph of Arimathea.

He was just a rich man who just said, sure, you can have this place.

They lay his body in there and then Saturday happens, but remember they're Jewish.

Because they're Jewish, it means that they take Saturday as a Sabbath and they do nothing.

Now, typically in Jesus' day, when a person died, family and friends would take oil and spices and they would mix it together and they would do what's called anointing a body for burial.

We think of anointing like a spiritual word.

This wasn't spiritual.

This was just to help the decaying process and to help with different smells.

But because it all happened so quickly from Friday to Saturday, they put him in the tomb, but there was no time to anoint his body.

And then Saturday happened.

Think about how desolate, how dark, how embarrassing Saturday felt to the disciples.

Think about how lonely they must have felt.

They pushed all the chips to the center of the table.

They were all in on Jesus.

And now he's dead and he's lying in a tomb.

But you need to get this.

Some people call Saturday silent Saturday.

I want you to get this point.

Just because God's silent doesn't mean he's inactive.

Just because you can't see what he's doing doesn't mean he's not actively at work on your behalf.

Saturday comes and then comes Sunday, Resurrection Sunday.

Now we know it is a resurrection Sunday because we've like read the story, we've heard the story.

For them it was just Sunday, and I want you to see this.

John chapter 20 says this.

John 20 · chapter mention

Early on the first day of the week, Sunday, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and she saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.

So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and she said, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb.

We don't know where they've put him.

Why would she say this?

Because her experience is the same as mine.

When people die, they typically stay dead.

And Jesus had made all these claims and all these promises that he would rise again from the dead.

But how do we know that they didn't believe him?

Because no one was sitting outside of the tomb waiting.

There was no person with the snare drum doing a drum roll waiting for the tomb to open.

There was no one with the microphone counting down everybody.

Ten.

Nine.

Eight, none of these things happened.

Nobody expected there to be nobody in the tomb.

And they show up looking for him.

And Mary Magdalene is the first one there, and she doesn't see his body.

She gets the disciples, they come and they look.

And what is their assumption?

Their assumption is that he has been taken away.

We know from the book of Mark, chapter 16, that Mary and some other ladies had come with the oil and the spices to anoint his body because they had run out of time on Friday.

Mark 16 · chapter mention

They came with the oil and spices because they expected him to be there and to be dead.

And with his death buried all of their hopes and all of their dreams.

Mary's crying in the garden a few verses down.

Jesus, who is alive at this point, shows up and asks what's going on, and she says, They have taken my Lord away, she said, and I don't know where they've put him.

At this, she turned around and she saw Jesus standing there, but she didn't realize that it was Jesus.

And so he asked her, Woman, why are you crying?

Who is it you're looking for?

Thinking he was the gardener, they're in what's called the garden tomb.

She said, Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've put him and I'll get him.

Stop playing with my emotions.

She doesn't realize she's talking to the one who her heart longs for.

And then Jesus said one word to her.

Jesus said to her, Mary.

Psychologists will tell you the most beautiful sound to a human's ears is your name spoken in love by someone who loves you.

Jesus, who created her, who loves her, speaks her name and when she hears it, imagine this moment in her soul.

Imagine all of the despair, all of the disappointment, all the disillusionment, all the stuff that she's navigated emotionally in the last 48 hours.

Imagine all of this crescendoing to a moment where hope somehow floods out all of those other negative emotions.

Imagine how her soul feels in this moment when all of a sudden she realizes that Jesus is who he's always claimed to be.

Imagine how she feels in this moment when she realizes that the resurrection is true.

If we had an hour, I'd love to sit around and talk about the evidence of the rev, the resurrection.

I could tell you the fact that Jesus shows up to Mary Magdalene first is one of many evidences.

Jesus showed up to over 500 people, many of whom wrote about their encounters where they saw and touched him with their eyes and with their hands.

I could give you, maybe my favorite personal example is of the disciples.

There's like 11 of them left at this point, and they all saw him.

And this is what you need to know.

All of these disciples were later maliciously martyred for their stories and for their belief.

Here's the point people don't die to protect a lie.

People will die for an ideology, people will die to protect a dream, but no one dies to save a lie.

And they all were maliciously, atrociously murdered.

But that's not the best evidence.

The greatest evidence of the resurrection is a changed life.

The greatest evidence of a resurrection is your life going from darkness to light.

The greatest evidence of the resurrection is when you realize that you were once lost in your sin, but God in his infinite love sent his perfect son for you.

So now you have a choice.

Will you be like the people in the Garden of Eden and hold on to control?

Or will you model your life after Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane where you hold on to surrender?

Just let go.

Say, Jesus, I trust you.

What if for you this Easter hope was on the other side of surrender?

And what if for you this Easter it moved from being a holiday that you celebrate to an experience that changes everything for you?

And what if this Easter was different for you because it wasn't just something you did where you checked the church box and checked the God box, but instead this Easter you realize that the God who came back to life is bringing dead things back to life, and he invites you to experience that changed life as well.

Here's how I want to end today, and this is different than I ever end.

Inside of your worship guide, will you pull that connection card out one more time?

I want to end today by asking you to do what I would call an audit of your soul.

All I mean by this is I want you to be honest.

Has the resurrection of Jesus changed you?

Like have you allowed him to bring you back to life again?

So here's the audit.

At the very bottom of that card, there's the letters A, B, C, and D.

I want you to check which one applies to you.

Some of you would check A.

You may say, Jason, I'm already in a relationship with Jesus.

Check A.

For others of you, today is the most important day of your life.

Because today, letter B, you might say, I want to begin a relationship with Jesus.

If this is you, we're gonna throw a party in your honor in just a moment.

Some of you need to select letter C because you're not quite there yet.

You've still got some questions and you're kicking the tires of faith, but you're considering following Jesus.

Just be honest.

Others of you might be honest, you might say, The only reason I came to church today is because I was promised brunch afterwards.

But letter D, I don't intend on making that decision.

Would you take a moment and be honest?

And let's all do this, everyone in the room.

And I want you to be honest about where you are spiritually.

And then when you're done checking that box, would you bow your head and close your eyes all across this room?

I want to pray for you now.

Jesus, thank you that Easter wasn't only meant to be celebrated, it was meant to be experienced.

And God, for so many of us, the truth is that we've relegated the resurrection and Easter Sunday to just one more thing we do on this busy weekend.

I pray that we'll experience the hope that Jesus offers.

The hope that dead things can come back to life again, which means no matter how dead our souls feel, no matter how far our souls feel from you, in a moment, in an encounter with you, you can literally change everything.

So, Jesus, thank you that the resurrection happened, but I thank you that it's still happening.

With your head still bowed and your eyes still closed, maybe you check box B.

And maybe you know that you're not in right standing with God.

You feel far from him, lost, separated from him.

But today you want to begin a relationship with him.

Let me say this to you.

This is the most important decision you can ever make.

I want to pray with you.

You don't have to pray out loud, you don't have to raise your hand, we're not gonna make you come forward.

But if this is you, would you just pray this prayer with me?

Praying a prayer doesn't change anything unless you mean it with your heart.

Would you say today, Jesus, I make this decision.

I invite you to be the Lord of my life.

I believe you are the Son of God.

I believe you came into this world to die on a cross in my place.

And because of your sacrifice on that good Friday, I believe my sins can be forgiven.

But Jesus, because you rose again from the dead, I also believe that if you have power over life and death, you have power to make my life new.

So, Jesus, I surrender my life to you.

I invite you to be in control.

From this day on, I'll follow you.

I love you and I give you my life.

And it's in your name I pray.

Amen.

Church, not just now, but this whole weekend, we've had lots of people make that decision.

Come on, let's celebrate like it matters.

I love it.