Easter Sunday.

When you watch this, have you ever seen the "Are you still watching?" pop up on the screen? Anybody else feel a little bit of shame when that comes on? It's like, oh no, I've been watching this so long that it's asking me with no movement. It's really asking you: did you fall asleep? Is anyone still here? Are you still interested? Or have you given up on what's happening?

For me, it's been a little bit of both. Sometimes I'm definitely still here and I just need to continue. Other times I've gotten bored, left the room, and come back hours later to find it still on the screen and realize I'm definitely not here anymore.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Today we are talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the story that has been told for hundreds and thousands of years about Jesus coming back to life. But it started with Jesus first coming and dying on the cross. Many people stopped watching at that point. Jesus was the Son of God who came and lived a sinless, perfect life. He died on the cross to pay the price for our sins and to bring us into relationship with God the Father for all of eternity.

Matthew 27:45 tells us:

At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o'clock. At about three o'clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, Lema Shabbatani," which means "My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?" Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah. One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him with a stick so he could drink. But the rest said, "Wait, let's see whether Elijah comes to save him." Then Jesus shouted out again and he released his spirit. At that moment, the curtain in the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. They left the cemetery after Jesus' resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people.

Matthew 27:45-53

The Roman officer and other soldiers at the crucifixion were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened. They said, "This man truly was the Son of God." Many women who had come from Galilee with Jesus to care for him were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee.

For many people, they thought it was over. They thought that was the end. They stopped watching. But we know as we continue to read in scripture that there is more to this story. It did not end there. We pick up in Matthew 28 the story of the resurrection:

Early on Sunday morning as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. Suddenly there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. His face shone like lightning and his clothes were as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him and they fell into a dead faint. The angel spoke to the women: "Don't be afraid. I know you were looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He is risen from the dead just as he said it would happen. Come and see where the body lay."

Matthew 28:1-6

If there's one thing you should get out of today as you're sitting here, it's to walk away knowing that Christ is risen. He is no longer dead, but he is raised back to life.

We get to choose how we respond to the resurrection. The guards, when they saw that Jesus was not dead but was raised back to life, fainted. That would be a fair thing to do. When someone who was dead comes back to life, that's not a normal thing. It was just too much for them to handle.

The angel says to the women: "Go quickly. Tell the disciples, those who were following Jesus, that he is risen from the dead and that he's going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you."

So these women ran quickly from the tomb. The scripture says they were frightened but also filled with great joy. They rushed to give the disciples the angel's message. As they went, Jesus met them and greeted them. When they ran into Jesus, the scriptures tell us that they worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Don't be afraid. But keep going. Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee and they will see me there."

It says that as the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and told the leading priests what had happened. A meeting with the elders was called and they decided to give the soldiers a large bribe. They told them: "You must say Jesus' disciples came the night while we were sleeping and they stole his body. If the governor hears about it, we'll stand up for you so you won't get in trouble."

So the guards accepted the bribe and said they were told what to say. Their story spread widely among the Jews and they still tell it today.

The guards fainted when Jesus was raised back to life. The women were frightened, but they were also filled with great joy. But there's this invitation we see from the angels to say: come and see. Come and see him up close.

Easter: The Greatest Event

Easter, when we talk about Easter, is this invitation for us to continue to come today and see Christ, the resurrected Son of God. Easter is either the greatest hoax or it's the greatest event in human history. Many people still to this day believe many different things.

Charles Spurgeon says: "If Jesus rose, then he is what the gospel professes him to be. If he rose not from the dead, then is it all deceit and delusion." But if Jesus, in fact, rose from the dead, then this changes everything for us.

I want to talk about this today, just a little bit about this idea of Jesus being raised back to life. This idea of deceit. We read in scripture that after he was raised back to life, already different people started to make up stories and lies to cover it up.

One of the most popular beliefs is this idea that Jesus didn't really die. That he just fell asleep, that he was never really dead, so he was never really raised back to life. But here's one of the reasons why we don't think that this could have happened. Before Jesus was crucified, he would have been flogged. This happened in front of hundreds of people who would have been eyewitnesses to him being flogged. Historically, when it's talking about Roman persecution at that time, being flogged would have been about the same as if somebody shot you directly in the back right now.

So this idea that Jesus was completely flogged, beaten, and everybody saw that happen. Then he was placed in this tomb, and the burial procedures at that time would have had 75 pounds of incense, perfumes, and dressings poured on his body. Even if he wasn't really dead, it would still be a complete miracle that he was able to get up and roll the stone away and walk out. There was no human way possible that he would have been able to just be sleeping in that moment.

Some people think it's a delusion. We have to ask: is it just a delusion? There are stories of people saying they didn't really see Jesus come back to life, that it was just a hallucination. But the thing about hallucinations is that people don't all have the same hallucination at the same time and then have it for all these other encounters.

No matter what we decide, whether it's deceit or delusion, we can see today that Christ was a miracle. He was raised back to life. No matter what your response is today, know that Jesus welcomes it. Some people were frightened. Some people fainted. Some people were terrified. Others worshipped him. He made room for all of them to come and see.

This tells us so much about who Jesus was. Not only was Jesus the Son of God who left heaven to come be here on earth. He came to be human in the flesh so that he could relate to us in all things and he could have close, personal relationships with real humans in real time. But then he died on the cross to pay the price for our sins. When he's raised back to life, he has that invitation again of saying: come close, see me. He wants us to come close and see him.

If you were trying to fake being raised back to life, you probably wouldn't want people to come close and see. You probably would run away. But know today that no matter how you respond to Jesus, he welcomes it.

Why Jesus Came

We're talking about the resurrection, but why did Jesus come to begin with? Let me read some scriptures to remind us that he didn't just come to pay the price for our sins and to be raised back to life so that we can never interact with him again. He desires a close, personal relationship with us for all of eternity, and that can start right here today.

I have come into the world as light so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

John 12:46

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

John 6:51

Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.

Luke 2:10

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Luke 4:18-19

Jesus said: "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well. For I was sent for this purpose."

For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

Matthew 5:17

He came to reveal God's love for all people.

God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

Even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Mark 10:45

He came for me. He came for you. We have to decide: are we going to continue watching? Are we going to stay tuned to what's happening?

If you're here today and you have felt at some point that you are lost, Jesus came to bring you home. If you have felt like you are oppressed, that you are stuck in darkness, Jesus came to set you free and to give you hope for a future. He came to save you. He came to serve you. He came to set you free. He came to know you, to have relationship with you.

Jesus came not only to have that personal relationship but also to give you incredible purpose. He came here to seek and to save the lost. After he was raised back to life, before he ascended into heaven, the disciples, this group of people that followed him closely while he was teaching them, received this commission before he left:

Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped. Jesus came and told his disciples: "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Matthew 28:16-20

He came for you and he came to empower you to respond to his resurrection by continuing his mission of giving hope, of giving peace, to be light in this dark world. Christ's resurrection was fulfillment of the prophecy in the Old Testament. His resurrection was on purpose. There were no mistakes in this.

It gave us purpose to continue in a relationship with him and continue on his mission. We are invited to come and see Jesus, the Son of God, the King of the world, to see him up close and personal. Then we are invited to share in his mission and to go and tell others. Wherever you are at in this story, there is an invitation for you to respond by coming to see Jesus, receiving Jesus, and then going and being a part of his mission.

A couple weeks ago I was meeting someone at a coffee shop. I sat down at a table and realized I didn't have this person's number. I only had their email and I had no idea what they looked like. I arrived about ten minutes early and I watched so many people that could have potentially been this person walk into this coffee shop and sit down. I kept thinking surely they know that I'm waiting for someone, so I tried to look like I was waiting for someone.

About forty-five minutes finally went by. I had even emailed him: "Hi, I'm here at this table." He finally saw the email, and the man sitting at the table who was already there when I walked in ten minutes early says, "Oh, are you Abbie?" We were sitting next to each other the whole time, but we didn't see it.

For many of us, this is our life with Jesus. He has been there the whole time waiting for us. We're saying, "Where are you?" And he's right there, but we just don't see it.

Do you want to see Jesus? Do you want to see the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the one who gives hope, the one who gives peace? We're going to have to respond by coming to see him, by choosing to have eyes to see him.

You and I were created to live in relationship with God. Until we find that relationship, there's always going to be something missing in our lives. Oftentimes we can feel it. We have this longing that there has to be more, but we can't really name it.

We long to have someone or something that's fully committed to us, that will never let us down. We want someone to guide us, to help us make decisions. We long for close relationships, to be seen, to be known. We try to fill this emptiness in many ways. Sometimes with money, but that doesn't satisfy.

One of the richest men in the world was quoted saying that at the end of his life, although he had billions of dollars, he said millions and billions do not always add up to what man really needs in life. If you ask some of the richest people in the world, they will tell you money is not enough. Yet we look to those things that look good and can be good to bring us instant gratification, yet we still feel empty and we long for more.

We try to work hard. We turn to things like music or sports to seek success. There may be nothing wrong with those things in themselves, but they do not satisfy that hunger deep inside every one of us as human beings. We try to work harder. We try to attain success, and instead of purpose we find burnout.

But Jesus tells us that his burden is light, his yoke is easy. Following Jesus, relationship with him, doesn't lead to us being empty.

We long to feel intimacy, so we share our lives with the wrong people. We keep searching for someone to finally accept us, someone who will finally fully accept us for who we are and who we will become. Yet instead of intimacy we're faced with rejection because no human is capable of loving us the way that only Jesus can.

Even the closest human relationships, as wonderful as they are, do not in themselves satisfy the way that Jesus can.

We long to feel safe and secure, so we try to set up these fail-proof lives. For years I thought that if only I had a certain amount in savings in my emergency fund, I would never have to worry about where rent was going to come from for the next month. But life is unpredictable. We're never going to be able to prepare for all of its uncertainties. The only thing that will make us feel truly secure is found in Jesus.

I talk to people who are single and they think that if they only get married, then they will be fulfilled and they will have someone that can fully satisfy their needs. Then I talk to those who get married and they share about realizing at some point in their marriage that no person is ever going to fully satisfy them or fulfill all their needs. That's because no relationship on earth was created to do that.

If you've tried it all and you still find yourself longing for more, you are not alone. The reality is that nothing is ever going to fulfill you except for the relationship with God that you were created for. The one that you are looking for is Jesus. The freedom you're looking for is found in Jesus.

The reason that you long for that relationship is because you were created for it. The good news that I get to share with you is that because of Jesus' death and resurrection, you can have it. The resurrection did more than just save us from death. It gave us life and life eternal. Hope, peace, an invitation to change and to be free.

When we choose to follow the ways of Jesus, death is not the end for us. Death is not the end when we choose to follow Jesus. Rather, death is a gateway to heaven where we will be free from even the presence of sin and temptation and things that separate us from God. When Jesus set us free from the fear of death, he also set us free from all other fears.

But he didn't just set us free from death. He set us free for life so that we can have life and have it to the fullest. He set us free to change and to be transformed into his likeness.

Sometimes I hear things said like, "You can't change. You are who you are. You're always going to be that way." But the good news is that with the help of the Holy Spirit, you can change. The Holy Spirit gives us the freedom to live the sort of life that deep down we always have desired and always have wanted to live.

I love looking at some of the people who responded to the resurrection of Jesus. Mary Magdalene, one of the women who found him, had formerly been demon-possessed. She was a demon-possessed woman that nobody wanted to be around, that nobody wanted to have anything to do with. She would have been rejected, looked down upon, and would have had no influence.

Yet, even with no social status, she was the one that got to come and see Jesus. She was the one that he said: "Go share my gospel. Share my good news." Jesus chose to love her. Her story was not over when Jesus died. Her story was not over when he was raised back to life. Rather, she was in the process of receiving that change, receiving that new life, being freed from death and brokenness and being freed for a purpose. To share the hope and the good news of Jesus.

Do you feel like right now you're in a place where maybe you're saying I don't really have influence where I'm at? Maybe you feel like you don't have the social status. You don't feel like you have the things that people are looking for. Can I tell you today that your story is not over? Keep watching. Keep looking to see and to find Jesus and let him change you.

Peter was one of the disciples that Jesus was close to. But Peter denied Christ. He was someone that was close to Christ, and then he turned his back on him. He lied and said that he was not following Jesus. Peter was the one that later, if you continue to read in scripture, God poured his spirit out on at what we recall the day of Pentecost and he used him to start the church as we know it today. Someone that made mistakes, someone that was broken, was who God chose to use to spread hope and to spread good news.

So if you're here today and maybe you feel like you've made too many mistakes, maybe you feel like you have run too far away from God, I want to tell you today that your story isn't over. Your story isn't over. You can change. You can keep watching. You can keep leaning in to say: God, what are you going to do next?

Many people in life feel stuck and feel like they can't change. But I want you to hear today that the very thing that you are looking for, the thing that your life longs for, is found in Jesus and no one else.

One of the craziest things that I've ever read about is the reality that there are many people, millions actually, that have won the lottery but have never claimed their prize. Billions of people have these lottery tickets with numbers that they have never come to claim their prize. They won the jackpot and they haven't claimed their prize.

In 2006, there was a ticket that won the lottery for thirty-one million dollars that nobody came back and claimed. They know it was sold to someone, but they never claimed their prize. So many people don't come and collect the prize, the money that could change everything for them.

The same is true about our relationship with Jesus. There's so many of us, so many people, that walk around not recognizing that the greatest prize, the greatest gift, the thing that's going to change everything in their lives is found in Jesus. All they have to do is come and see. Come and receive relationship with him.

We have been set free from darkness and set free for relationship with Jesus and purpose with Jesus. You can have peace in chaos because Christ came and he was raised back to life. You can have light in your dark situations because Christ is light. You can have joy in sorrow because Christ is joy. You can have intimacy in relationship. You can have commitment. You can see justice and mercy and honesty. You can learn to trust again because he is trustworthy.

You can have everything that your soul longs for in Jesus. You can have life with him and nothing else will ever compare.

The Response

Christ didn't stay dead. He was raised back to life not just to have a cool story to tell everybody, but so that you could have eternal life with him.

I want to invite you to stand with me. I want to invite you into two ways to respond today. First, recognize the reality that because Christ was raised back to life, your pain has purpose now. Evil did not win. There's more to your story.

The first response is to come and see. Maybe you just need to say: "Jesus, I want to see you. Will you come reveal yourself to me?" You need to receive that hope, that change, that relationship.

Then maybe there's others of you where the response is saying: "I need to radically center my life around going and telling people about Jesus. Because if I believe in Jesus and I believe that he's the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who died on the cross and was raised back to life, then who am I to not share this with other people? The hope that can really change."

The New Testament and the Gospels make it very clear that we do have to do something to receive Jesus, to see him fully and to be known by him. And this is an act of faith for us.

John in his Gospel writes:

God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

Believing in God does take an act of faith. But based on everything that we know about Jesus, both historically and in scripture, it's not a blind faith. It's putting our trust in a person. In some ways, it's like a step of faith. In the same way that a bride or a bridegroom comes and says "I do" on their wedding day.

If you're here today and you're saying, "I think I want to try what this looks like. To follow the ways of Jesus. To receive him. To see him," know that it doesn't mean you're going to wake up tomorrow and everything's going to change around you. These disciples, the people whose lives were changed by Jesus, spent a long time with him. They were spending time with him as they became like him and started to see their lives change.

But it's more of acknowledging him as king and recognizing his presence around you. What we see in scripture is really simple. We just say sorry. We apologize to God and ask him to come and forgive the things that we've done wrong, the things that have led us farther from him. A fancy way to put this is repentance.

The next is we just say thank you. We believe that Jesus died on the cross and we thank him for doing that. We say: "Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross and paying the price for my sins."

And then the third is we just say please. "Will you come? Will you come into my life? Will your spirit come live within me?"

Today, the prize is yours. You can have relationship with Jesus. The invitation is to go and to tell.

I want to pray for you, but first I want to give you a moment to close your eyes. If you're here today and you're in a place where you know that you have not yet come to see Jesus and you want to come to see what this is all about, you want to receive relationship with him, you want to receive that hope and that peace. We're all going to pray a prayer together in a moment. I just want to know that I'm praying for you.

So if you're here today and you want to receive Jesus, would you just raise your hand as a sign of surrender to say: "God, I'm ready to receive relationship with you." Everyone with me, we're going to say this together.

The prayer is on the screen. Know that you are not saying this alone. We are all confessing once again today together, reminding our flesh, reminding our lives that it's all about Jesus and seeing him.

Thank you that you died on the cross for me so that I could be forgiven and set free. Thank you for offering me forgiveness and the gift of your spirit. I now receive that gift. Please come into my life by your Holy Spirit to be with me forever. I receive you as King and I receive the mission of your kingdom.

Lord, we thank you so much that your Son Jesus came and died on the cross, and that the story was not over. But as we keep reading, we keep watching, you came back to life. Your Holy Spirit is with us now.

I pray for everybody here that prayed that prayer: God, would you begin to show yourself to them, up close and personal? Show them that hope. Show them that peace. Draw near to them, Jesus. We ask this in your name.