The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 27: If the Tomb is Empty…

Episode Date: October 10, 2021

Jesus meets us in our humanity: in our fears, in our insecurity, in our sorrows, in our doubts, and he offers us faith. Do you believe? Visit coe22.com/john to download the journal, find series resources and more.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, we are here to celebrate today that the tomb is empty. We are here to celebrate the resurrected Jesus Christ. He died on the cross. He was buried in that tomb, and on the third day, the stone was rolled away, and he is alive this very day. And some of him may be asking, why are we celebrating Easter in October? I can tell you why? Because if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. Some of you might be saying, why y'all dressed up all of a sudden?

because we are here to celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ is alive. And in fact, every single time the church gathers together, whether it's on a Thursday or a Sunday, what we are ultimately celebrating is the fact that the tomb is empty. We serve a resurrected Savior. Amen. Amen. If you got your Bibles, I hope you do.

I hope you're ready for today. Grab and go to John chapter 19. That's where we are going to start. And I don't know how you walked in here today, okay? I don't know how you walked in. Maybe you walked in full of doubt, maybe full of fear, maybe anxiety, maybe the circumstances of your life around you feel like they are crumbling. I've got some really good news that Jesus Christ wants to meet you right where you are.

And we're going to see a whole bunch of different people meet Jesus at the empty tomb. And what they bring to that empty tomb is they bring themselves, they bring their insecurity, they bring their anxiety, they bring their humanity. And what Jesus does time and time again is he meets them. right where they are. John chapter 19. We'll pick it up in verse 38. Says this, after these things. And these things are the things we talked about last week. These things are the crucifixion of Jesus, the flogging of Jesus, the death and the burial of Jesus. That Jesus, we found out last week that Jesus died on that cross. And there's a whole

bunch of people that will come along and they have to come up with some kind of reasoning behind how we find ourselves here today because we're going to be. What no one can deny is that something happened on that day 2,000 years ago. How else do you explain billions of Christians all over the world from all different kind of ethnicities and all different kinds of cultures? And we worship this one risen Savior. And so what some people say, well, he wasn't really dead. That he swooned on the cross.

That Jesus, after being flogged, beaten all night, crowned of thorns pushed on his head, crucified to a cross and a spear shoved up into his heart that he didn't die, that he just swooned, that he passed out. And then they wrapped him in 125 pounds of burial cloth and linen, and they put him into a tomb, rolled the stone over it. He was there without medical attention for three days. And then somehow he woke up feeling like he'd stayed in a holiday and express, rolled the tomb the stone away, somehow got away from 600 Roman guards, jogged seven miles to Emmaus. I believe if you think that, you have more faith than I do. Some people say, no, no, no, maybe it was a body double.

Here's how I know it wasn't a body double. There's no evidence that there was a body double. And remember on the cross who Jesus talks to, his mama. You can fool a lot of people. You can't fool your mama, okay? It was him. Some people say, no, no, no, no, no. It wasn't a physical resurrection.

It was a spiritual resurrection. Well, what we're going to find out is Jesus appears to over 500 people. He hugs people. He hugs people. And what we're going to find out next week is he eats, a fish sandwich on the shore. You don't eat fish sandwiches if you're a ghost. That's not how it works. Some people say, no, maybe it was a legend that came up later. It didn't. John will be an eyewitness to these accounts. Peter was an eyewitness to these accounts. Matthew was an eyewitness

to these accounts and Jesus appeared to over 500 people on that day. You see, the foundation of our faith isn't faith. We don't believe in belief. We understand that the foundation of our faith is an event that God became a man, lived the perfect life, died on the cross, and on the third day when everybody showed up expecting to see dead Jesus, they found that the tomb had been rolled away, that the stone had been rolled away, that the tomb was empty, and that Jesus Christ was alive then and is alive right now. After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews.

pay attention to that he was a disciple of jesus so the bible wants you to know he is a jesus follower however up to this point in his life he kind of kept it on the lowdown because he was afraid about what everybody thought so i think there's a couple of things that we could look at here as a church first and foremost you just need to know this it's not how you start but how you finish the matters so if you're a little slow on the whole discipleship thing man no problem okay that's a part of what progressive sanctification means the fact that we say that it is progressive means that we have not not yet arrived. None of us have. There's still a whole lot of work that God wants to do in each and every one of us, but what I do want you to know is that the resurrection of Jesus calls us to

come out of the shadows. Maybe some of you have been following Jesus for a while, but you've kind of been doing it secretly, and I'm telling you, if the tomb is empty, anything is possible, and you can trust him to take steps of faith, to go public with your faith, and proclaim boldly that you are a disciple of Jesus. And so Joseph, of Arimathea, who was kind of on the down low until now, he asked Pilot that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. And so he came and he took away his body. And Nicodemus, also who earlier had come to Jesus by night. Remember that long time ago, chapter three, when we were studying the gospel of John, Nick at night comes and starts to ask a bunch of questions.

And in John chapter three, remember Nicodemus has no idea what's going on. Everything's over his head. He misunderstands it all. Jesus says, unless one is born again, he cannot be right with God. And Nicodemus is like, born again. You mean enter into your mother a second time? And Jesus is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop, stop, stop, stop. But notice, once again, it's not how you start that matters. It's how you finish.

At this point, now both Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus are now followers of Jesus. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myr and aloes, about 75 pounds in weight. And what I need you to understand here is that both of these means, are members of the ruling council. And so what they are about to do, what they are about to demonstrate is that they have put their faith

in this man named Jesus and they no longer put their faith in the religious activity of their day. Because the moment they handle this dead body, they will be uncleaned and unable to not only worship for that weekend there at the Sabbath feast, but also the Passover.

And the reason is because they're not putting their trust any longer in their own activity. They're putting their trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ. And so they took the body of Jesus and they bounded in linen cloths and with spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. So when you add together the spices plus the cloth, it'd probably be 125 pounds worth of burial cloth there. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a grusible. garden and in the garden was a new tomb we'll come back to that underline that that matters one of the things that you're going to notice about the gospel of john really all in the bible there is not one wasted word this is a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid and so because of the jewish day of preparation since

the tomb was close at hand they laid jesus there and then they waited and waited and waited because somehow up to this point the disciples have missed the gospel. I mean, they followed Jesus for three years. They heard all of his sermons. Think about just the number of times that we have studied in the gospel of John where Jesus says over and over and over and over, I am going away where I'm going. You cannot come, but I'm going to come back and get you.

He said that he was going to be handed over to the chief priest. He said that they were going to kill him. He said that he was going to be resurrected on the third day, and somehow the disciples just missed it over and over and over. Can you believe people back in the day at church used to hear the preacher say stuff and not pay attention? And so they waited, verse 20 now, on the first day of the week, that's Sunday. By the way, one piece of evidence that Jesus physically bodily resurrected from the grave

is that all of the early Christians used to worship on Saturday. and they moved their day of worship to Sunday, which was a work day. And the reason that they did that is because it was the Lord's day, and they wanted to worship on the day that Jesus was resurrected. So every time we gather together to worship, it should be like Easter Sunday, because we are gathering to worship the resurrected Christ. Now, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tune while it was still dark. Now the other gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke let us know that Mary Magdalene had some other ladies,

with them. And the reason that these ladies show up, anybody want to take a guess? Here's why. Because you remember who prepared the body for burial? Two men. And anytime two men try to clean up anything, there's always a group of women that come along and pat them on the head and a good tribe, fellas, and they were just going to make it right. But they show up and they are prepared to see dead Jesus. They don't know what they're walking into. Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb while it was still dark and saw that the stormy. had been taken away from the tomb. And so she ran and she went to Simon Peter

and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. Remember who that is? John. Written in the book of, written by... Right. So John wants you to know. He wants all of us to know that he's given himself his own nickname.

And the nickname that he has decided for himself is that he is the one that Jesus likes better than all the rest of us. Okay. And he said to them, she said to them. Now you've got to think, she's saying this like in a panic. they have taken the Lord out of the tomb

and we don't know where they have laid by the way some more evidence that this is an actual event and not a made-up story is in the first century the rights of women were very different than today by the way anywhere the gospel has gone the role of women have been elevated all over the world

and here but in the first century a woman couldn't testify in a court of law and so if you're making the story up the first eyewitness cannot be a woman And not only that, if you're making up the story and you were one of the apostles, then just trust me, you were going to write yourself in here as a hero. And what we see over and over and over is the actual events, make the apostles look like they don't know where they're talking about, or they don't have faith, or they don't trust, or they don't believe.

And the reason that that's written in there is because that's how it actually happened. And she comes to him in a panic. They've taken the Lord out of the tomb. We don't know where they've laid him. and so Peter went out with the other disciple, that's John, and they were going towards the tomb, and both of them were running together. John wants you to know that when Peter left, John left right beside him, that John did not have a head start, that John and Peter were running together. But the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. Is this an important

detail? I don't know. But John wants you to know at least two things. about what is going on here on the greatest miracle of the greatest day in the history of all the cosmos. But yeah, Jesus is alive, but also that he can outrun Peter in a foot race. Okay, you need you to know that, and that Jesus likes him the most. So there are two things that are key here. Now, some commentators are going to say that the reason that John outruns Peter is because Peter is much older. And to all of the older guys in the room, you said, amen, because there's a lot of things that happen to you when you get older, and faster is not one of them.

More flexible is not one of them. The other day I dropped something and nobody was around me, so I thought, not worth it, okay? Just left it. That's what you do when you get older. So maybe Peter is older. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. There are two sites in Israel that people claim to be where Jesus was buried. Okay?

one of them is called the garden tomb. They don't actually know, which is part of the evidence that Jesus is not in the tomb. Every other famous person on the planet, we know where they were buried. We know where Abraham is buried. We know where David's buried. Heck, we know where Bruce Lee and Elvis are buried, right? And what people will do is they will go to famous people's burial site and they'll commemorate them. They'll put down flowers and they'll, you know, leave prayers and that kind of stuff.

Nobody knows where the tomb of Jesus was. Why? Because it wasn't even his tomb. He borrowed the tomb. it for three days and then he gave it back. But there is a tomb in Israel known as the garden tomb. And it has all of the same details that we find in the Gospels about where Jesus was buried. It's not very far from Galgotha, the place of the skull where many believe Jesus was crucified where we talked about last week. It's the tomb of a rich man. There is a garden there. All of those

things are there. And most of the tombs in the first century, if you were a poor person, and the book of Psalms that Jesus would be buried among the rich, and Joseph of Arimathea, he's a rich man, and he has a tomb being prepared, but it's not finished. It's not finished yet, because he thinks he's got more years to live, right? And so if you go to the garden tomb, there's a little opening, and there were three places where you'd put bodies. And because Joseph of Aramathia is a rich guy, he actually has two rooms in that tomb. And one was like a waiting room or a wailing room where you would prepare the body

and family members could go sit and just kind of sit with the dead. And then there were three places where a body could be laid, but the tomb in the garden that you can go visit today, the one that is adjacent to the door is not yet finished and the one perpendicular to the door is not yet finished, but the one across is finished. And so if you were to stoop down and look,

you could see where Jesus would have been laid. and stooping down and looking in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he didn't go in. So John might be fast, but he ain't that brave. He's like, I'm not going in there. I think there's a couple of reasons. One, it's just creepy. I mean, it is creepy, okay? But secondly, is religiously he would be unclean, so he's going to wait.

And then Simon Peter came following him. Why? Because he's not as fast as John. This is now the second time John would have you know that he could outrun Peter. And Peter went into the tomb. Well, because Peter's not afraid of anything. And he saw the linen cloth lying there and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself.

Here is more evident that is an actual event. If robbers robbed the body of Jesus, like if you broke into a house, would you take the valuables or the person? You would take the valuables. There are valuable things here. and I don't know if you've ever stolen anything before. If not, you're probably sitting next to somebody who has. Welcome to the Church of 1122, okay?

Here at our San Pablo campus, which used to be the Walmart, I can't tell you the number of people that walk in and be like, this was Walmart? Uh-huh, it was. I go, I used to rob this place blind. Now I met Jesus here, praise God, all right? We're a movement for all people. Now, when you steal things, when you were robbing something,

you don't take the time to unwrap the guy. You just kind of scoop and score. You were in a hurry. But Jesus was not in a hurry. Jesus never is in a hurry. And so he gets up, and not only does he take off his grave clothes, why? Because he ain't dead, and so he doesn't even grave clothes anymore. But he takes the linen cloth that's on his face, and he folds it up and he puts it on his bed.

This is why my grandma said, you're supposed to make you bed. She said, if Jesus, who was dead for three days, can get up and make his bed, then surely you can make you a bed. To which I said, in my resurrected body, I'll be happy to. Praise God. All right, so. But there's also this Jewish tradition. maybe you've seen pictures of folks eating in the first century.

It's not like the Da Vinci photo, like everybody sat on the same side of the table, like judges at the Olympics. That's how it worked. They would kind of lounge all around, and if you needed to excuse yourself and you were finished, you could take your napkin, basically, just like we do today, very similar to the way we do it today, and you would lay it over your food, and then the servant would know you can take this one up. But if you were coming back, then you would fold up your linen, and you would, lead the folded linen so that the server would know, I'm not here right now, but I'm going to be back.

And so when the Jewish young men stick their head into the tomb, and they see this linen napkin folded up, they see, well, Jesus isn't here, but he is going to return. He is going to be back. And then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first. Okay, okay. Third time, the Apostle John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, writes in our holy scriptures to be preserved for all of humanity. He wants us to know that, okay, Peter walked on water and maybe Peter's the Pope and Jesus is resurrected from the grave, but I can't outrun that guy. What is wrong with him?

It's like he can't get out of his own way. And here's why I bring it up because every single one of us bring us to Jesus. With all of our fears and all of our insecurities and all of our anxieties and all of our, yeah, but what about me? And all of our, let me insert myself into the story and all of our egos and all of our doubts. And the good news is that Jesus meets them right where they are. And what I hope and what I pray for you this day is no matter how you came in here with your doubts and your unbelief and your questions and you feel like your world's falling apart all around you. And I would hope and pray that you would come in here and that you could come

face-to-face with the Almighty resurrected Jesus. So then the other disciple who had reached the tune first also went in and he saw and believed. He saw and believed. Let me ask you this question. Do you believe? Do you believe? You see, he saw and believed. And one of the frustrating things about this word believe in English for me as a pastor is it comes from the Greek word Pestuo.

Say Pistuo. Say Pistuo. One more time. Say Pistuo. Pestuo means, it doesn't just mean believe like we think believe. Because when we hear believe, we think like believe that. And this word Pestuo means to like believe to trust, to commit your whole life into. Trust might be a better word.

The example I love to use is this. I believe that there is a college football team down south in Gainesville. I've heard of this team. I've seen them with my own eyes. I know some of you wear their colors. even some of their heroes attend archers. And I believe that that team exists. But I do not believe in said team.

You're never going to catch me in those matching colors. Nobody would wear those colors anyway, apart from that team. My arms don't do that weird thing. I know how to clap like a grown person. You understand. I don't believe in that team. The team I believe in is the one that God loves because my Bible's written in red and black.

But see the difference. In the men delayed 1800s, there was a man named Charles Blondon. And Charles Blondon was made famous that he'd stretched a tight rope across Niagara Falls. And he would walk across the tightrope. And people would come and they would show up

and they would be on both sides, on the U.S. and Canada, and they would watch this man walk across the tightrope. And he didn't just walk across it. He got so good at it. He rode a bicycle across it one time. He rode a bicycle backwards across it one time. He walked blindfolded on the tight rope one time,

backwards. He did it on stilts. He did it over and over and over. And one of the things that he did one day is he started on the U.S. side, he walks over to the Canada side. He gets a wheelbarrow, blindfold himself, walks backwards with a wheelbarrow all the way across, and then he gets to the other side. And he says, do you believe I can do it again? And the crowd goes, yeah. And he says, do you believe I can do it again?

And the crowd goes, yeah. And he goes, whoever believes, get in the wheelbarrow. And they said, I don't think I'm going to do that. That's belief. That's belief. There's a big old difference. in believing that. Jesus is the Son of God and came and died on the cross

and was resurrected on the third day. There's a difference between that and seeing and putting your faith in, putting your hope in, putting your trust in, saying, I know that there is a gap between me and the almighty God. And the only way I can get from here to there is there's no way in the world that I can make the tightrope walk. I need Jesus to pick me up and take me from here to there. My question is, do you believe?

the disciples saw and believed for as yet they did not understand the scriptures that he must rise from the dead. I got some really, really good news that you don't have to fully understand to fully believe. Do you know what the disciples aren't sure about right here, the foundation of our faith? At this point, as they would do Bible study, they'd scratch their head and they'd say, I don't understand. And what God is looking for is not simply understanders of doctrine, though doctrine matters a whole lot, but he's looking for children of faith that say, I believe that when Christ died on the cross,

it somehow that counted for me. And then the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary, she stood weeping outside of the tomb. And as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain. one at the head and one at the feet, and they said to her, woman, why are you weeping? And I don't think this is like a tender loving question. I don't think they're like, oh, why are you crying?

It's not that at all. I think the angels from their perspective are like, woman, what is wrong with you? How could you be crying? This is like crying on your birthday party. It don't make no sense. Why are you weeping? Did you not pay attention to what he said? We heard what he said.

He told you and he told you and he told you. you and he told you he was going to be arrested, tried, crucified, dead buried, and on the third day, he was going to resurrect from the grave. Well, guess how many days has been? One, two, three. The angels are partying like rock stars up in heaven. Why are you crying? We all thought you guys would be standing outside of the tomb waiting for the sun to rise going, here it comes, here it comes. Three, two, one, move that bus. How did you miss this? How did you miss the most important message of time. And she's crying. Woman, why are you weeping? And she said to them, they've taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they've laid him. Church, please, please, please, when things aren't

going the way that you have expected, please don't get Bible amnesia. Please don't forget the goodness of God. Please don't forget that he's still got the whole world in his hands. Please don't forget that we don't put our faith in our circumstances. We put our faith in a risen Savior who is sovereign over all of the circumstances. You see, she is so hung up on what's going on from her perspective. She can't see pastor knows. She said to them, they've taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they've laid him. And having said this, she turned around and she saw Jesus standing, but she did not know

that it was Jesus. My greatest fear is the pastor of this church, is that you would walk into one of our locations. You would walk into a worship service where we were making much of him. And you could be three feet away from the resurrected Christ and not be able to see past your nose and miss him. These people in the first century, they could smell the breath of God, but they weren't filled with the breath of God because they couldn't see past themselves. So Jesus is standing there. She didn't know it was Jesus. And Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Who are you seeking? him to be the gardener. She said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away.

And Jesus said to her, check this out, Mary, Mary. And she turned and she said to him in Aramaic, Raboni, which means teacher. Literally it means like precious teacher or sweet teacher. You see, it wasn't until Jesus called her name where her eyes open and she could see. Listen, I know for most of the people, whether you're listening online or you're attending one of our campus, most of us aren't going to hear any new information today. But what we need is not new information. What we need is a divine revelation. The day that I surrendered my life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Coach Bulley told me nothing new that I'd ever heard before. I grew up in the South. The only time we ever went to church was Easter, so I only knew one story.

And it was that Christ came, died on the cross for me, and was resurrected on the third. day. But somehow as a teenager sitting at that little camp where I met Jesus, even though I got no new information in a way that's unexplainable, but it's undeniable, I felt God call my name. And when he called my name somehow, I could see past myself and I could see Jesus for who he really was, the resurrected Savior. And it was in that minute that I believed that I surrendered my life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Have you ever heard him call your name? have you ever gotten to the place where you believe, where you trust that when he died on the cross, that counted for you. That's what happens to Mary. And Jesus said to her, don't cling to me,

for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. And Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her. She is the first evangelist. She's the first evangelist. Why do they list her as the first evangelist? Because she was actually the first evangelist. That's why.

Listen, you got to ask the question, what you're going to do about the empty ten? There are times in my life where doubts arise. There are circumstances that happen in my life and in your life, and it makes me look at God and go, what are you doing, God? Why would you do that? In fact, there have been times in my life

where when I describe my faith in Jesus, Honestly, it sounds kind of crazy. I've shared this with you before, but when I was like a junior in high school, we had this foreign exchange student from Germany come over to our high school. And I had felt like when I was very young in my faith, this is very dumb, don't do this, but very young in my faith, I felt like my mission feel was cute girls. Now, it's very dumb, but, because it's easier to become a Christian to become cute. You know what I'm saying?

So anyway. So I asked this girl to go to dinner. I'm sure it was really nice. I'm sure I had like a coupon and whatever. And so I take her out. And my plan is, is to share the gospel with her, all right? I pray at other plans. But you know what I'm saying.

That's what I'm going for. And so we sit down and I start talking about it. And again, man, she grew up in Germany. She had never been inside of a church. She had, I don't think she had ever touched a Bible in her life. She had zero understanding of the story of God's redemptive plan for his people. She had heard of Jesus a little bit. So at one point she goes, okay, all right.

So tell me what you believe. And again, man, I was like, maybe. 16, 17 years old. And I just was like, all right, I'm going to try to tell her the whole meta-narrative of God's redemptive plan for her. And I was like, all right, it kind of went like this. All right, in the beginning, there was nothing. And then God made light, and there's still nothing, but he could see it.

I'm not sure. He made a bunch of stuff. I'm not sure why. And then there's Adam and Eve, and they're naked. And then there was a serpent, and they sin. And so then there were fig leaves, and then Noah and, you know, two by two. And that's why we can deer hunt. And then there was like, like Abraham and Isaac, and he almost killed him, but he didn't.

And then Moses, let my people go. and then there were tabernacles and just dead lambs everywhere, and then a bunch of prophets, and they were super intense. And then Jesus showed up, and his cousin baptized him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And then he walked on water, and he healed people, and he made blind people see, and he fussed at the Pharisees all the time. Then he went to the cross, and he died, and on the third day he was resurrected.

And then he rose up, floated up to heaven. And on the way up, he said, y'all better tell everybody. And then Paul said, all right, and he told everybody, and now here we are. and then one day is coming back on a white horse. And she said, that's what you believe? I remember thinking, I sound like I need medicine. You know what I mean? Like that is.

And I was like, yeah, it is. You want to come with us? So even though sometimes there are these questions, now I think I could describe the meta-narrative of the gospel a little more clearly, but even when I have these times, whether it's circumstances in my life or thoughts in my head, that make me ask all these questions, questions about my faith. The thing, the anchor that I cannot get away from is this. What do you do

with the empty tomb? What do you do with the empty tomb? Because if he's dead, we're all wasting our time anyway. But if he came out of the tomb on the third day, then anything is possible. Not only can I not get away from this that Jesus came out of the grave, and what do you do if a man claims to be God, says he's going to die for the sin of the world, go? Go. And, he's going to die for the of the world, goes to the cross, and then on the third day accomplishes everything. He said he was going to accomplish. And the other thing I can't get away from is simply this. He called my name.

He called my name. And I may not be able to convince you of it, but there's no way in this planet you can convince me that it didn't happen. That I was sitting there as a high school kid after I heard the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Coach Lee said to me, for God so loved you that he sent his only begotten son. and if you would trust in him, you would have eternal life. And I believed in that moment, I felt like God called my name.

My eyes were open, and I saw Jesus for who he really is a savior. Verse 19. And on the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, notice what our heroes of the faith did just after the resurrection. They did not come together with a plan or a strategy of how to reach the world. No, no, no, no. Their only strategy was not how to share eternal life with the world. Their only strategy was how to keep their life intact.

They all run and they hide because they are afraid. Another piece of evidence of the resurrected Christ is this. What happened to the disciples? Explain to me how the disciples go from a bunch of scared misfits that are locked in hiding, in a room and just a few weeks later they're standing in front of the Pharisees and the Sanhedron who have the power to kill them and they say to him hey you do whatever you think you've got to do but we can't stop talking about what we have seen and heard I can tell you what happened as they met the resurrected Christ they were filled with the spirit of God and so on the evening of

that day the first day of the week the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace be with you. Now, I'm going to be honest. I think sometimes, I think sometimes the Bible is, it's kind of underwhelming in its description of the events that are happening. Because think about this, man, Peter, John, Matthew, Bartholomew, Andrew, they're all up there. They're like, what are we going to do? I don't know what we're going to do. Did you lock the door? I locked the door. Matthew, check, make sure. Look, and there's Jesus, and he's just in the room with him. Peace be with you. I think that's Greek for John, change your pants. I think that's what that is.

Last time they saw him, he was dead. Now he's just standing in the room with him. And he says this, of all things, he says, peace be with you. Because I don't know if you know this, but my testimony is when it feels like the whole world is falling apart, we have this invitation that when we bring those things to him, when we're anxious, the Bible tells us, be anxious for nothing, but in prayer and supplication, make all your requests known to God, and the peace of God that transcends understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. You see, these men don't know what's going on. They're afraid. They don't know what to do.

They don't have a leader anymore. Last time they saw him, he was dead. The girls are saying that the tomb is empty, but they're not sure. And now all of a sudden, Jesus is in the room, and he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Peace be with you. You see, peace is not a set of circumstances. Peace is a person. His name is Jesus.

He says, then peace be with you. And I don't know about you, man. But when I met Jesus, I had all kind of defenses up. I had all kind of walls up. Every door into my heart was lock, lock, lock, lock. I had worked really hard on locking all those doors. And it's not that I figured out the combination to get to him. That's not how I worked at all.

And just one day, all of a sudden, just boom, he's all through the doors and all through the walls, standing up in my life saying, peace to you. That's true for you too, man. You can fight it as long as you want to, and you can resist him until he decides that he is irresistible, and then he is just going to roll up into your life. And when he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. And then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

And Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them. And he said to them, received the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any,

they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is with hell. Do you see that word? That he breathed on them. That makes all of us a little nervous these days. We don't know nobody breathing on us. What does this mean?

Jesus just rolls up into the room and breathes on him. You can't run by this. I want you to use your imagination. Not that it's a story. It's an actual event, but it doesn't give us a lot of details. How does Jesus breathe on him? Like, is it a birthday cake style?

Does he get everybody all together and go, is that how it happened? I think it's one at a time. I think he walks up to Matthew. He's like, hey, what's up, Matthew? What's up, Peter? What's up, John? Love you.

I think it's going like that. Now, why? What is he doing? Because I'm just going to tell you, man. I love y'all very much, and I'm happy to shake a hand and hug and all those sorts of things. But you better not breathe in my face.

I mean, that's just the thing, man. If you just rolled up to me and were like, hey, pastor, hadn't seen you in a while, I'd be like, hold up, man, hold up, hold up. How is just going to breathe in a man's face like that? This is crazy. What is he doing? Here's what he's doing. What Jesus is doing is he is showing them once and for all. They have been reconciled unto God through his life, death, and resurrection.

You see, the Bible says this, that God made Him who was without sin to be sin for us, that we would be made the righteousness of God. And that word righteousness does not mean that you just do a bunch of right activity. It means that you have a right standing with God, and that is your identity. And the way that happens is through what Christ did on the cross. You see, I think the reason he is breathing on him is because all the way back, Genesis Chapter 2, God forms together the dust of the earth into this form of a man, but he is not yet a living creature. And then the Bible says that God Almighty goes nostril to nostril with absolutely. Adam and breathes the ruach of life into the very first man. And he opens his eyes and he is

face to face in a perfect love relationship with his creator. And that's what every single one of us were created for. That. That's why this world is so dissatisfying to you. That's why even when you're crushing it and you're checking off all of your goals and all of those boxes, if you don't know Christ, there's still this thing in you where you think, is this it? Because the answer is, no, this ain't it. There's no way the temporary things of this world can ever fulfill what God breath into you, his very breath of life. You were created to be face to face with him. And then, less than a chapter later in the Bible, it all falls apart. Adam and Eve's sin, and sin separates us. It breaks that relationship between us and God. And their sin is judged. They are killed. They are

out of the garden, but God makes a provision. He says, from the very beginning, he says, I'm going to put enmity between your offspring and this enemy, and one day this enemy is going to bruise his heel, but he will crush his head. It's called the proto-evangalion, and Jesus is the fulfillment of that. That Jesus lives the perfect life, that Jesus goes to the cross, that Jesus is the propitiation for our sin. That means the payment that satisfies. That when Jesus is on the cross and he pushes up on his nail-pierced feet and he says,

is finished, what is finished is the payment for our sin has been paid in full. And that moment, when that happened on the cross, an earthquake cracks right through Jerusalem, right through the temple. And there's a big curtain that separates the people of God from the presence of God. And that curtain is torn from the top to the bottom, not the bottom to the top as if man could tear it himself, but from the top to the bottom because God tore apart that very thing that separated him from his people. Before sin was atoned for, if you and I tried to get face to face with God, we would be burn up. See, Exodus chapter 33, Moses.

Pretty holy guy, right? Wrote the first five books of the Bible, wrote down the Ten Commandments. He could do some things. And he says, to God, God, show me your glory. And God's like, bro, if you saw my glory, it would burn you up. And so he hides him in the cleft of the rock, covers his eyes, walks by, and just kind of shows him the afterburners. But in Christ Jesus, now we have been justified. We have been made right with God that you and I get to approach the almighty God, king and judge,

as our heavenly father, because that's who he is. And when we know Jesus, when we surrender our life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, then what happens is we have been reconciled unto God, and that face-to-face relationship is restored. with him, and that's what eternal life is in heaven. Not streets of gold and plenty of food. They got so much gold there, yet they use it like pavement. What makes heaven heaven is that you get God back to that face-to-face relationship.

And so what Jesus is doing in that upper room, when he goes person to person and he breathes on them, he is taking them back all the way to the garden. when God breathed life into the very first human and they were in a right relationship with the Almighty God. Now Thomas, one of the 12, called the twin. He was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we've seen the Lord. But he said to them,

unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side, I will never believe. Any of you have doubts? Any of you hear people like me say, he's called my name, and I've seen him, and I've been to the empty tomb, and you begin to think, well, that's good for you, Pastor, but I'm going to have to experience it for myself. That's who Thomas is. And I want you to see how Jesus and, by the way, the other disciples treat Thomas, eight days later. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again.

So what do you think's happening for those eight days? Let me tell you what didn't happen. The other disciples did not kick Thomas out because he was not at their level. The other disciples make room for Thomas to ask all of his questions, to bring up all of his doubts. And they trust Jesus for the solution.

And eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them, although the doors were locked. And Jesus came and stood among them, and he said, Peace be with you. Again, same thing. And then he said to Thomas, put your finger here.

See my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe. You see, what Jesus does when he shows up to doubting Thomas, he does not chastise him for his doubt. He just proves himself. Hey man, you got an unanswered question? Are you hesitant to put your faith in Jesus because something happened to your life or you can't answer that question?

Okay, no problem. Jesus would show up and just say, believe believe i dare you take all of those questions to jesus take all of those doubts to jesus and for some of you the reason that you don't believe is because of some event in your house because of some event in your past because of the way some church treated you or some person treated you and let me just be honest with you i love you enough to be honest with you if that's the reason that you choose to not put your faith in jesus what's happening is you are buying into the lie of the enemy because the enemy wants you to be defined by your scars that you picked up somewhere in the

past and jesus wants you to be defined by his scars that were inflicted upon him at the cross so that you could believe and so he shows up he says here they are this is what you wanted to see here they are and thomas answered him my lord my god this is his render my lord my god And Jesus said to him, have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. This could be you right now. This could be you right now. And then John goes on to say these words.

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. So my question is this, do you believe? And you may say, listen, I got doubts, okay? You may say I have fears, I have insecurities, I got an ego, whatever it is. Here's the point. Here's what we see here.

Jesus meets us in our humanity, in our fears, and in our insecurity, and in our sorrows, and in our doubts. And in those places, he offers faith. So my question is, do you believe? Do you trust that when Jesus Christ died on the cross and he said, it is finished that somehow that counted for you. And not simply do you believe that, but do you believe in? In the image, I want you to get in your mind right now.

I want you to imagine it's 1859. That's when that crazy man walked on the tightrope. And you were standing on this side of Niagara Falls and you know that true life is on that other side. and coming across the tightrope right into your life, calling you by name, he walks right up to you and says, do you believe? And because you see the scars on his hands and his feet, because you see the scar on his side, because you see the scar on his side, because you recognize the prince of the crown of thorns in his head, you know who he is. And you want to believe. If you want to believe, you want to believe.

But up to this point, you may believe that he is who he says he is. And his imitation is, come on, get in the willbarrow. And the place where this analogy falls apart is it is not a perilous walk back. Somehow what happened in the gospel is, as Jesus is walking across the tightrope, he just grabbed the other side and brought it along here with him. You can't make the step on your own, but if and when you will trust him and get in that wheelbarrow, I promise you, he will take you to eternal life. What happened is this guy's, this guy had like an agent, the tight road walker guy. And about three years after the wheelbarrow

trick thing, where nobody got in, his agent hopped on this guy's back as he was on a bicycle and he took him across the tightrope. That guy believed. What about you? Have you ever come to the place in your life? Were you admitted? I'm a sinner in need of a savior. where I believe that when Jesus died on the cross, somehow, somehow, somehow that counted for me. And in this moment right now, no matter where you are, or even when this is, that right now you would confess him as the risen Savior and Lord of your life. Would you bow your head? Would you close your eyes? And I would just ask you, if that's you, if you were ready to put your faith in our risen Savior for the very first time. If you were ready to admit it, I'm a sinner in need of a Savior, if you believe, if in a way, it may be unexplainable, but it's undeniable.

Today, you heard him call your name, and today you were ready to confess him as your Lord and your Savior, then I want you to lift your hand right where you are as high as you can, and I want you to say, Father, here I am, I admit it, I'm a sinner. I believe in Christ died on the cross. It counted for me, and I confessed Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Our good and grace is Heavenly Father God. We love you more than anything because you. first loved us. Jesus, I thank you that you came. You died. You were put in the tomb, but three

days later, the stone was rolled away, and you walked out of the grave, and if you can walk out of that grave, if you can put death to death, then we can walk out because we put our faith in you. God, I thank you, and I praise you. That this day, that this day, that salvation comes to anyone who would believe. We pray this. In the good, strong name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and all God's people said, amen. And would you please stand to your feet as we respond? We respond every week. It matters a bunch.

Maybe the most important thing that we do here is this response. And each week we invite you to come and pray. And the reason that we can invite you to come and pray and be in the very presence of God is because the curtain has been torn. That we are invited to the king's chamber, and the king just happens to be our dad. So whatever you're going through, won't you bring it to them? And we bring, we bring our tithes and offerings as an act of sacrifice and worship, saying, God, you are worth it.

We bring you our first and our best because you first loved us by giving us your best in Jesus Christ, and we sing. And I've asked the band at all of our locations to sing this song. And the reason is because the first time I ever heard it, I was in Israel years ago. And one of God's great graces in my life is some of the men. that I get to work with are also some of my very best friends on the planet. And so I am standing at that garden tomb that I was mentioning earlier. And we had just had communion together. And Pastor Ben saying, how great thou art, that one gets me every time.

And then we went over to Galgotha to see where Jesus was crucified. And then we made a very short walk over to what's now called the garden tomb. And I had seen pictures of this a hundred times in preparation. for this trip. And I'm standing there looking at it, kind of freaking out. Here I am. And Pastor Ben and Pastor Britt walk up behind me and they say, hey, have you heard this song? Oh, praise the name. And I don't know any new songs. I'm still like, listen to Johnny Cash. You know what I mean? I don't know new songs. And I'm like, no, I don't know what you're talking about. And then they just pop some earphones on me. And these words, I cast my mind to Calvary, where Jesus bled and died

for me. And I'm sitting there and I'm looking and I'm thinking, well, Calvary's right over there. It says, I see his wounds, his hands and his feet, my Savior, on that cursed tree. And then the next verse says, his body bound and drenched in tears. And they laid him down in Joseph's tomb, which could be the thing I'm standing in front of right now. We are not talking about faith and faith. We are talking about belief for belief sake. We were talking about an actual event. The song goes on to say, the entrance sealed by heavy stone, Messiah still, and all alone. And then the part we celebrate. Then on the third, at break of dawn, the son of heaven rose again.

O trampled death, where is your sting? The angels roar for Christ the king. And then we are going to sing, oh, praise the name. And when we get to that part, if you have put your faith in Jesus and you put some ruach behind your voice, and let's take the roof off of this place to praise his name. Let us pray, let us bring, let us sing, let's respond.