Easter 2019 09 30

The big idea

When all seems hopeless, hope walks through the door—and that hope has a name, Jesus Christ.

Jesus is not just a future event or a feeling but a living person who walks through our locked doors of hopelessness, just as He did for Thomas. What looks like a setback in our lives is really God's setup to draw us to see and embrace the living hope of the risen Jesus.

Point 1 of 7

Pastor Bill tells the story of his high school baseball career, complete with college scholarships and scout interest, being ended in an instant by a catastrophic knee injury while chasing a line drive. Waking from eight and a half hours of surgery, he was told he would never play baseball again, and in that moment his hope died.

Point 2 of 7

Pastor Bill explains that the disciples had pinned all their hope on Jesus establishing an earthly kingdom, and when He died on the cross, their hope died with Him. They hid behind locked doors in fear, unable to imagine what Easter would actually bring.

Point 3 of 7

This is the big idea Pastor Bill returns to throughout: Jesus walked out of the tomb alive and later appeared inside a locked room without opening the door, showing that He shows up even when we've shut Him out.

Point 4 of 7

Pastor Bill walks through John 20:24-29, noting Thomas was absent when Jesus first appeared, likely because his brokenness made him withdraw from the other disciples. Because he isolated himself, he missed out on hope walking through the door and refused to believe until he could see and touch Jesus' wounds.

Point 5 of 7

Jesus specifically invited Thomas to touch His wounds, showing He knew what Thomas had said even though He wasn't physically present to hear it. Thomas responded, my Lord and my God, becoming the first disciple to explicitly declare Jesus as God.

Point 6 of 7

Pastor Bill unpacks Jesus' words to Thomas and then Peter's letter written decades later to suffering believers, showing that hope is not a future event or a possession but the living person of Jesus Christ, an imperishable inheritance that never fades like earthly blessings do.

Point 7 of 7

Pastor Bill returns to his hospital story, describing how in fury he threw his Bible out of his room, only to have a nurse who knew Jesus quietly bring it back and whisper that he would need it. That moment became his setup to surrender to Jesus, and he later spent decades as a youth pastor walking other broken young people through the same kind of setback into hope.

Take it into your week

Pastor Bill's charge is to stop pushing back against God and instead embrace the setup He is using to bring you the living hope.