Encountering Jesus in Our Fear and Faith.

We're going to start today by reading from Matthew chapter 28. Feel free, grab your coffee, grab your pastries. I'm going to be reading from Matthew chapter 28 today.

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here. He has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples. He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. Now I have told you." So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee. There they will see me."

Matthew 28:1-10

Happy Easter everyone. I'm so excited to be here on this Sunday morning. As gloomy as it is, there is still hope in Jesus. And today we're going to be looking at the story of Jesus' resurrection. What I love about this is that we see real people encountering Jesus. And whenever we talk about scriptures like this and stories, I think it's always important for us to pause and remember that these were real people. That these were people that had questions. These were people that came with their grief. They came to the tomb and they were met with Jesus. And we read these encounters of like their real reactions and their real responses to Jesus, and to when they were meeting him.

And I think it's important for us this Easter to remember that. They too were coming with all sorts of questions. The women went to look at the tomb that day. And it says there was a violent earthquake. It says the guards became like dead men because they were so afraid of what had happened. And then they see that the stone was rolled away.

At this point it would have been common for the women to go and to check on the bodies after they had been buried. Because this is happening in a Jewish culture, they would not have been able to go on Saturday, which was the Sabbath. So this is why we're seeing them come on the third day, on Sunday, we're seeing them come early in the morning to go and to check on the body. And they show up and it's gone.

Jesus sees you

Does anyone here play hide and seek? Maybe some of you a little more recently than others in the room that really like hide and seek. I see a lot of hands going up there. Hide and seek. If you've ever played, and it sounds like we've all played and we know the game, right? Somebody counts and everybody else hides. And then I don't know where this came from. And I didn't even try Googling it. But you always go, okay, ready or not, here I come. And then you go and find people.

And it really is that like ready or not. And if you've ever played, you know, sometimes when you're not ready, then you're frantically like, oh my goodness, or you see them appear to you and you're like, I wasn't ready, I wasn't ready. I almost think of this like that's what's happening to the women, where they're like, oh my goodness, and Jesus is appearing, and it's this like ready or not moment. I'm coming back.

But not everybody was ready, because not everybody was expecting that he was actually going to do what he said he was going to do. We read in the accounts of other gospels, and I'm going to talk about this little bit later, but we see the account of the resurrection happen in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and all different ways they record the accounts of what happened at the resurrection. In some of the other gospels that are not recorded in Matthew, it talks about some of them went back to work. They went back to fishing. Some of them just went on with their lives. The women went to look for him in the tomb, but it was this ready or not moment. Jesus came and he appeared.

And what I want us to think about today is, are we ready for Jesus to continue to appear to us and to reveal himself to us in new ways, ways that we aren't expecting? And are we willing to welcome him in and to see him as who he is in our lives? I want to start today by talking about Jesus' encounter with these women and this idea that Jesus sees you. That Jesus sees you.

The good news that we're celebrating today is that Jesus didn't just die on the cross to pay the price for our sins, but he rose back, defeating death. It says that the veil was torn, that there's now nothing that can separate us from the love of God that is found in Christ Jesus. He appeared to us. He made a way, like we sang, for us to spend eternity with him through his death and resurrection. Jesus doesn't just see us now in this moment but he wants to see us for all of eternity.

But what I love is that sometimes we can be the ones that are so afraid to let Jesus see us that we forget that we can bring all of who we are to him. The women. It says that they had this moment of fear themselves. They had this moment where they were afraid. And Jesus, he assures them. The first thing that he says to them is, greetings, do not be afraid. I want us to walk away from this today is seeing that Jesus sees us, however we approach him, however we respond to him. And that he's not afraid of us, which seems like a funny thing to say. But as I was reading this scripture, I noticed that there's several times that this phrase is used. Do not be afraid. We're going to read about it when it talks about the guards, when it talks about the women. But he continues to go back and to tell them, do not be afraid.

The first words that he spoke to them in person after he came back from the grave was greetings. Do not be afraid. We see here, like he knew that some of the women were going to be a little afraid. But that didn't stop him from letting them come and see. And this is showing us like Jesus is not afraid of us. He's not afraid of our fears.

Yet we recognize that many of us, we carry a lot of different fears. I want to talk about it today because there's not only that it's mentioned four different times, but this phrase, do not be afraid or fear not. It is guessed to have been quoted, Old Testament to New Testament, roughly around 360 something times. Where it's almost perfectly in translation to every single day, there's a verse that we find in the Bible that says, do not be afraid or fear not. This is significant because it's us again seeing, before we can even speak to Jesus, before the women could even say anything, he's like, hey, don't be afraid. He saw the things that they didn't even want him to see. And he saw more than that. He says, do not be afraid, and then empowers them to go and tell other people about what they saw.

You see, when Jesus looks at us, he doesn't just see where we're at, but he sees who he created us to be. He doesn't just see us as hurt, but he sees us as already healed and wants to heal the hurt inside of us. He doesn't just see us in our brokenness and our fears, but he sees us as beautiful and made whole. And he wants us to bring those, all of the pieces to him so that he can put them back together again. Jesus sees us and Jesus is not afraid of the things that we bring with us when we approach him.

Fear and faith

Yet still, we are filled with so many fears. I want you to take a minute and think. I did some research on the most common fear that there is. The most common fear that people have. I want you to think in your head like what you think it could be. According to my internet research, 77% of people are afraid of public speaking. Public speaking is what people are most afraid of.

But with any type of fear, we all know there's something deeper going on. Right? What happens when you go and you speak in front of people? Well, you're all looking at me right now. You see me. So it's less about just like not only am I in front of people but now I'm aware like everybody's watching me and once I say something like I can't really take it back. So then you might judge me. What if I say something you don't like? Now I'm starting to get nervous.

But if I say something you don't like, it all comes down to these core things of what if you're not going to like me? What if you're not going to love me? What if you're going to reject me? And if you reject me, that means I'm all alone. Even these surface fears of a spider, of a small space. There's this little creature crawling towards me that I can't control. This fear of the small space is like, what if I don't get out and I'm stuck? There's always these root things that go beyond.

And sometimes I feel like we're so afraid to let Jesus see us because we're afraid that he's going to see what's really happening deep down inside of us. But the reality is not only does he see that, he's not afraid of that. But he came to heal that. And he came to be the answer to those things and to help us overcome those very fears. We will never be alone when we have relationship with Jesus, but we will spend all of eternity with him. And so even these things that we start on the surface of like public speaking and what if I'm rejected? Well, we don't have to fear that when we follow Jesus because he literally made a way and gave himself on the cross to show us like I am for you and I love you and I'm not rejecting you.

And I love this because Jesus, when he meets the woman and his first words are like, do not be afraid. What I see is like, he's not afraid to name what's really happening here. He's just going to call it out. He's like, hey, it's okay. Like you don't have to have shame about your fears or your questions or your doubts. And then, but I love because the angel, when the angel appears, the angel says, come and see. Come and see. And then Jesus says to them, go and tell.

It says verse 8. So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy and ran to tell the disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, greetings. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go and tell.

So he sees the thing that they're afraid of, the thing that maybe they're ashamed to even tell him like, this is a little scary. But it says they approached him with fear yet joy. And then Jesus says, go and tell. There's this invitation to come and see and to go and tell. Two things. I love that the tomb was empty. The stone was rolled away. And I often like, you look at the details of this and I'm like, I'm sure Jesus could have gotten out like other ways. Like it's Jesus or like Jesus could have, angels could have rolled the stone back in place. But I love that they're like no. It's going to stay open so you can come in and you can see where the body was. That it is no longer. And then when Jesus comes along and he's telling them, not just what not to do. He's not saying don't be afraid. But he's telling them what to do instead. Go and in faith tell people about this. Go and make disciples. Go and continue to preach the good news that I came. I defeated death. I came back again.

Go and tell people. What I love about this here is that Jesus is not, again, telling them what not to do, but telling them what to do. And in a way, he's assuring them like, hey, the things that you might think it's going to stop you from having a relationship with me is going to stop you from playing a part and helping spread my hope and my love to the world. I'm not afraid of that either.

They were able to approach him with their fears and with joy, both at the same time. How often are we stuck because we are so afraid to approach Jesus with our questions, with our fears, with our doubts? And that shame keeps us stuck from actually giving it to him so he can heal it, he can restore it, he can meet us in the middle of it.

Worshiping in the middle of the process

I love a Friday night we were stuffing some of the Easter eggs for the Easter egg hunt and my three-year-old niece, she came up to me and she just totally unashamed just holds open the egg and she can't figure out how to close it and it's so simple. But she just goes up and is like, Abbie, I don't know how to do this and just hands me the egg and it's like, help. And it was such a small moment. But I thought, man, how often it's like, as we grow older, we no longer feel permission to just ask for help. All of a sudden it becomes shameful if we don't know the answer to something.

But what I believe that Jesus wants us to remember in the way that he let the women approach him and the way that he responded to them is we don't have to hide anything from Jesus. He wants us to come before him with all that we are. He welcomes all of who we are. You notice here, as we keep reading of the guards report of all the different people that responded to Jesus, and the thing that they have in common is that they were all somewhat afraid.

Yet, they had the opportunity to choose their own adventure and how they responded to their fears. If they were willing to let Jesus see them. I want to keep reading here in verse 11.

While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, "You are to say, 'His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were sleeping.' If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

Matthew 28:11-15

Okay, so we're seeing here that when the women responded, there was a little fear. They approached him with fear, yet joy, and they continued to worship. They worshiped Jesus, and they went and they told people. Then we're looking here, the chief priests and the elders, their response is to devise a plan, is to come up with a way to say there's no way that this could happen. And what I love again is both were afraid and both had options to choose how they respond. And we today still have that same choice in how we'll respond to the resurrection of Jesus. Will we choose to worship and to come and approach Jesus with joy, even if we're still a little afraid? Or will we get stuck in trying to explain away what is happening because we're too ashamed to bring all that we are to Jesus?

The other thing that I love is that we see here in the Great Commission, the disciples' response in verse 16. It says:

Then the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me."

Matthew 28:16-18

We see here it says they worshiped and some doubted. Everyone had a different response. All involved fear, all involved being afraid, all involved being seen. Jesus saw all of it, but everyone got to choose. Would they see Jesus? Would they allow themselves to be welcomed into his presence? How would they respond?

We see twice in this passage that two things are existing. The women that were filled with fear yet joy and now the disciples who they, it says plural, they all worshiped yet some of them doubted. And so when I read that it kind of gives us the picture that like some of them they worshiped and doubted both at the same time.

This word here for worship is really interesting. It's called proskuneo. Proskuneo is the Greek word that's used here in the text for worship. And when they translated Old Testament, New Testament from Hebrew and from Aramaic and Greek and all the translations, every single word was associated with a number. And so you can do these word studies and figure out like what was this word? Where else is it used in scripture?

One of the first times we see that word used in scripture, this word for worship is in Matthew 2:11. And it's when Jesus was born. And it says this:

After they came into the house, they saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented to him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Matthew 2:11

When the wise men met Jesus, some of the first people that met Jesus as a baby, they bowed down and they worshiped him. And now resurrected Jesus, appearing as king, as savior, as risen Messiah, one of the first things that we see is that people worshiped him in the same way. They bowed and they worshiped.

But what I love about this word for worship, and there's different words for worship and different definitions that were used in Hebrew translations. But what I love about this word for worship is it literally, if you look at the definition, it talks about worshiping in a way where you are bowing down and it says to kiss the hand as a sign of submission and honor. To kiss the hand as a sign of submission and honor.

This was a specific type of worship that was about surrendering and submitting to a higher power. But I love this idea of kissing the hand. Jesus' nail-pierced hands. I feel this invitation that God reminds us through this text, that we all might respond differently when we hear about the power of the resurrection. And for some of us, there might still be doubts as we bow down and worship. But believing that as we allow ourselves to be welcomed by Jesus, to be seen by Jesus, that when we get close enough to bow and to see his hands, we will see a king who died on the cross and came back for us. And we'll see a king that welcomes us in all of our brokenness to come close.

We'll see the power of his blood that was shed, the scars that are still there and his body that made way for us to know him. I wonder, did some of the disciples need to worship in this way because they needed to see the scars? Did some of them need to kiss his hands and worship that close to him? They worshiped even though they still had doubts and they were afraid.

Encountering Jesus

And so this Easter Sunday, as we reflect on this passage, what does it look like for us to see Jesus? What does it look like for us to be willing to come close with all that we are and worship? What I love here is we see that like Jesus is saying like I'm not afraid of your honesty. I'm not afraid of your process. I'm not afraid of the things that you're still wrestling with. I want you to come close.

He gives them what we call the Great Commission. Which is like his final, here's my mission. Here's what I want you to do. As he empowers the disciples, these people that were walking so close with him for these three years of ministry. And he says to go and make disciples. He gives this to them before they have it all figured out. He gives this to them before answering all of their questions, before like making sure they felt 100 percent. They're worshiping and he's empowering them by faith, not waiting for them to figure it out. He meets them in the middle of their process. He meets them on the way. He meets them right in the middle of their fear and of their faith.

And Jesus still meets us in that place today. Romans 5:8 says:

But God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

Christ did not die for a perfect people who were worthy, but for a people who could never earn what he did on the cross. And that's the point of the gospel. Is that we need Jesus. That it's with Jesus that we're enough. And that's good news to us because it means that we don't have to have it all figured out. But we can walk in faith and surrender and submission and trusting his finished work on the cross.

He gives the Great Commission before they have it figured out and they followed before they had it all figured out. I want you to think about the passage that we read. This began early in the morning in the darkness. Before the sun came up, before the light was shining, before it was warm, before they knew what was going to happen. After the Sabbath at dawn on the first day of the week. These two women, they walk up to the tomb. They weren't looking for resurrection, but instead they showed up and they're carrying their grief. They're coming to mourn the death of Jesus. They didn't come with answers, but instead they came with questions. They weren't walking there with this celebration yet because they didn't know what had happened. But they're coming with their sorrow.

And I wonder how many of us today, even as we approach Easter, we feel a mix of this. That there's still questions. That there's still maybe darkness that you're walking through. There's still these wonderings of what's going to happen next. But here is the good news. The resurrection of Jesus does not wait for perfect faith. Does not wait for us to figure it out. But the resurrection meets us right in the middle of our doubts, in the middle of our fears, in the middle of wherever you are walking in your story today. Jesus comes. He is appearing to you. He is revealing himself to you. I believe even in these moments in a new way.

And so the question that we get to answer is like, will we receive Jesus? Will we see Jesus? Will we choose to let him see our fears and see our questions and see our doubts? And will we come and see him as king?

What I love about reading the four different gospels and the four different accounts of Jesus is they're written by his disciples, people that followed him, were close to him. And they all wrote about this in a different way. And I'd encourage you, if you haven't read them, to read it. We have copies at the welcome table of all four of the gospels and all the stories of Jesus, which is a great place to start. But I love how differently they're all written. Each gospel and each writer experienced Jesus in a different way. They did not see him the same.

Matthew, if you read Matthew, you're going to see that there's a lot about the genealogy. You have to get through the whole first chapter. It's just a bunch of names and a bunch of names and a bunch of names. And he's so into like the nitpicky details of everything. It's so calculated in the way that he writes.

And then we have Mark where he's kind of just like straight and to the point. Straight shooter. Mark's like, here's what happened. This was it. It's the shortest one. Tends to be a lot of people's favorites because they're like, get to the point and then like, let's go, right? Mark is short in that way. Mark, though, also focuses a lot on the power of miracles. We're going to see a lot of that.

Then you see Luke. Luke was written to the Gentile Christians, not to the Jewish Christians. Luke was a historian. Luke was a doctor. And so there's a lot of like art to the words of Luke.

And then we see John and John is like this love letter in the way that he writes. John is comparing a lot of the Old Testament to the New Testament. He's very personal and deep and reflective in the way that he writes.

And why do I bring this up today? Why does this matter? Because we all encounter Jesus differently. Some of us, we're going to meet him in the miracles. Some of us, you're going to just like hear the gospel message and you're like, I believe. I have faith. And that's enough. Some of us, we meet Jesus in our questions and in our doubts. Some of us, we meet Jesus when we're breaking bread and we're in community with one another. Some of us, we need Jesus to like literally come alongside us and call us by name.

We all meet Jesus differently. We encounter Jesus differently. But what we do share is that he sees us. He welcomes us. And he's inviting each and every one of us to come and see and to join him in his mission of going and telling the world.

I want to share this because I think especially on Sundays like Easter, it can be so easy to think, do I have to feel this certain way? Do I have to respond this certain way? And what if I'm not hearing from God the way the person next to me is? Does that mean I don't hear God? We are made in the image of God. The way that he speaks to you may not be the way that he speaks to the person next to you. But he wants to speak to you. He wants you to come and see in the way that you need to come and see. And you need to come and encounter him.

And so I wanted to read some scriptures today of who is Jesus? Who is this king? In Revelation 17:14, it says:

They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

Revelation 17:14

Some of us today, we need to receive Jesus again as King. The one that will triumph over everything.

Matthew 28:6 says:

He's not here. He's risen, just like He said.

Matthew 28:6

Jesus is a risen Savior. Jesus is a Savior that does what He says He's going to do. God's son came. He died and he came back again like he said.

1 Corinthians 15:57 says:

But thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:57

Jesus is victorious. He himself. Ephesians 2:14 says:

He himself is our peace.

Ephesians 2:14

John 11:25 says:

I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.

John 11:25

We have a resurrection life in Jesus. So all the fears, all the things that we're afraid of, the rejection, the death, the loneliness, we don't have to fear that anymore because of Jesus. Jesus is provision. My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19 says Jesus is light.

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness.

John 8:12

John 15:15 says:

I have called you friends. Not everything that I learned from the Father I have made known to you.

John 15:15

Jesus calls us friends. That's the type of relationship he wants from us.

If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9.

Encountering Jesus in our fear and faith

I just believe that today that there is an invitation for all of us to believe in our hearts and to declare with our mouths that Jesus is Lord. To remember today that the tomb was empty so that we could come and see. But Jesus did not leave us empty. God did not forget about us. But Jesus ascended into heaven and left with us his Holy Spirit so that today we can talk to God. We can encounter his presence. So although we may still be afraid, we have the Holy Spirit. And although we still might have questions, we can ask God. We can bring all of who we are because Jesus sees you. Jesus is not afraid of you. Jesus welcomes you. And he wants you to come and see.

So will we see Jesus this Easter and will we respond in worship and joy even if we're still a little afraid? Will we respond and surrender and submission and get close enough to like see the scars on his hand and to kiss the hands of our risen savior even if we still have some questions and it doesn't quite make sense? I want us to hear this today that following Jesus is so much less about figuring it all out and so much more about having faith and choosing to worship in the midst and to meet Jesus and encounter him in the process.

So I invite you to just close your eyes if you're comfortable and just even invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you now. To remember that you can talk to Jesus like a friend. If you have questions, you can ask. You can worship. We can come and see. We can come and ask. We can come and worship, and we can tell of his goodness. And so we're going to close in this time of worship today. And I just invite you to just say, Lord, like, how do I need to see you? And would you just allow the Lord to see you and surrender to him in these moments?

God, I thank you that you love us today, no matter how we feel. That you want to be with us forever. God, we thank you today for the power that is in your death and your resurrection that made a way for us to have life with you for all of eternity. And so God, today we come to you with our questions. We come to you with our fears. We come to you with all that we are, knowing that you welcome us.

And so we thank you for the reminders of your word that while we were still sinners, before we figured it out, you died for us. We thank you for that, Jesus. That it had nothing to do with who we are, who we would become, but everything to do with you and the power that is found, Jesus, only in your blood.

And so God, I just pray right now. Would you remind us of that? And would you help us to see you as king? To see you as lord? To see you as friend? To see you as savior? To see you as the risen king that did not come back to leave us alone but to fill us and to remind us over and over again?

Ephesians 2 says:

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ. Even when we were dead in transgressions, it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show his incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace that we have been saved through faith. And this not from yourself, it is a gift of God. Not by works so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance.

Ephesians 2:1-10

God, we thank you for this today. That it is all by grace. So Holy Spirit, we just worship you in this place. Right in the middle of our process. We worship you in faith. Not because we figured it out. But that you are worthy. Thank you, Jesus. We worship you in this place.