Easter 2018

And that's with an epic sports story. So I was bowling last week. Hey, don't be intimidated being in the presence of such a great athlete. So, now I was in my bowling league and,

and I and I and go up to I throw the ball and it goes down there and and the ball got stuck. It's called stuck in the pit. It's back there. It's just spinning around. It won't come into the ball return. I'm like, my ball sticks. I go, I tell the guy it's stuck and I'm waiting and then then apparently someone else next guy gets up and he bowls. I'm like, hey, my ball was stuck on and then I see his ball come back. So I'm like, guess the ball's back, and then I go sit down, and I'm doing some stuff. I don't bowl for like ten more minutes. And when I go to bowl my next time, I go up and I look, and my bowling ball's not there.

And I'm like, where did my bowling ball go? And I'm like, it was stuck,

but it couldn't still be stuck, could it? Because other bowling balls came back and that's physically impossible with how the machinery works. So but and I still looked down the lane. Do I still see it down there? No. It's not there. I look. I look. I look. I look. I look. I'm like, alright,

where could it have gone? And do you ever have those moments where something just went awry, but you're

more confused than anything else? You're like, what is happening? Why is my bowling ball not sitting here? What could have possibly happened? And when you get in those moments that you can't understand what happened, that is when we turn into tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorists. Did you know that? That's always what happens. We always end up making up, I gotta have an answer, so my bowling ball didn't just disappear, did it? So what I started to think is someone stole my bowling ball. They took my bowling ball. Where is it? And I'm thinking, is it the mechanic in the back? Was he impressed with my one fifty five game or something like that? Did did he wanna wanna take it? I was like, no, he didn't take it. So then I I the most logical conclusion to me is someone on my team or the other team, because I know all these guys, is just messing with me, and they took my bowling ball. So I get frustrated. I turn. Alright, guys. My bowling ball didn't come back. Yours did. I know it's not back there. Who took my bowling ball? Who took my bowling ball? I started looking at him like, come on, just tell me. Who's got it? It isn't funny anymore. I want my bowling ball. And finally, I got on my team, he goes, Bill. I go, what? He goes, and he points.

And we have couches right up next to the lanes. I'm standing right next to the couch, and I looked down and right there, sitting on the couch, is my bowling ball. I had been standing there yelling, who stole my bowling ball? I can't find it. And it was it was so close.

All I had to do was this, and I touched it. I'm a little teapot. That's all I had to do. There you go. Boom. I'm touching the bowling ball. Boom. I'm touching the ball. And I was yelling at everybody,

convinced someone took it and it was right there and I missed it. I didn't even see it. Now why did I tell this epic sports story? Because that's the Easter story we're gonna look at today.

You're like, what? You'll see. Just let's just look. If you open up to the book of John chapter 20.

It says in verse one, early on Sunday morning while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb. So Mary shows up. Who's this Mary Magdalene? We know a few things about her. She's very she has a great amount of devotion

to to Jesus. We know this one because Jesus cast some demons out of her and when she was at a really tough time in her life, she was really messed up. So she became very devoted to him. We also know she had a high level devotion because she came from a family with some wealth and she was one of the people that supported Jesus and his disciples during his ministry. So she was financially

invested. And the biggest reason we know she's devoted is all the disciples, everyone got really confused when Jesus died. Even though he told them I'm gonna die. Even though he said, I'll be back. You know, they they they didn't get it. And I think they didn't get it because it just sounded impossible.

And so they didn't really understand. So they're all in confusion. And amidst this confusion and this emotion of of of their Lord dying, she still shows up early in the morning to anoint his body. And and the disciples, none of them are there. She's she's there. She's devoted.

So it says she comes and it says, and she found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, which is I think John wrote this and he always describes himself as the other disciple. You would think maybe it's because of of of humility,

but then he says the next thing, the one whom Jesus loved. Like saying to your brothers or sisters, you know, I'm the other kid, mom and dad's favorite. She said they have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb and we don't know where they have put him. See, right there, tenfold conspiracy theory.

She already made up an answer. She's confused. She sees the body's gone and she jumps right to they took the body. You ever who's they? Don't we always thought they, they did this. Those people, them, they. It's always not us, they did it. But but she'll so she thinks that someone stole the body. That's her theory.

And and so she goes and and and and she told him. So then verse three says, Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter.

And he reached the tomb first.

He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn't go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had been covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrapping. So they're noticing that if someone's gonna steal a body, you're not gonna take the time to unwrap it.

And if you if even if it didn't wrap, who's gonna fold the stuff up and set it down nicely? And and so that's kinda interesting.

Says, then the disciple who had reached the tomb first, as if you hadn't forgot that John already told us in the last sentence that he beat Peter in a foot race. He just, he saw and he believed. And that word for believe there means he's probably the first one that's putting two and two together. He's like, wait, I think I get it. He said he was gonna come back. This is all fold up. I think he came back from the dead.

And it says, for until then they still hadn't understood the scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead.

So then these two guys that are trying to figure this out, John's like, I think he rose from the dead. Peter's like, I don't know what to think, but I I kinda betrayed him a few times the other day. So if he's alive, I hope we're cool, know? And he's worried. And so then they're all seeing this incredible thing. They're wondering about it. And then they do this powerful thing in verse 10, then they went home.

Now that doesn't sound odd to me for a couple of guys that got woken up out of their sleep and they ran over there. They're like, yeah, that's amazing. What do you think? I don't know, I'm going back to bed. And then they started walking and then John's like, you wanna race? You know? And they left,

but Mary didn't. Verse 11 says, Mary was standing outside the tomb crying and as she wept.

Now now English, this was written in Greek and Greek has has a better choice of words for this. When you're weep, that sounds more than crying. But the best the the word used here for weeping is the best way we could describe in English would be like ugly tears. Like like this is like wailing.

She's lost it. She's just completely

lost it. Her her devotion has been overtaken by emotion now. I mean, crying to the point that you're probably dehydrated because there's so much tears coming. I mean, you ever cry like that? You cry so much that your eyes swell up and you look like you just fought Rocky Balboa and and

and and can't see straight. When I cry like that, I get a headache, you know, and and so it's it's something like that. It's just really, really emotionally just broken. So then she saw two white robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying.

Verse 13, dear woman, why are you crying? The angels asked her. Which just proves that even two angels don't know what to do with a crying woman.

They were like, Jesus didn't tell us we were gonna have to do this. How long do we have to stay here? I don't know. Back away and don't get direct eye contact. I heard they can sense movement. No, that's not why it happened. Sorry. She answers. She goes, because they have taken away my Lord, she replied,

and I didn't know where they have put him. See, she's still fixated on this idea that the body has been stolen. She's actually arrested by this idea. You've heard the word arrest you've heard the word arrested. Some of you have talked to your parole officers about it. But

but not that kind of arrested. This is the arrested is like a it to mean seized, to be stopped. She is seized, stopped, locked up with this idea that the body's gone. And and I'm crying and I'm distraught, I want to find the body. It's like she can't get past that.

Matter of fact, look what happens next. She is so stuck on this idea. It says in verse 14, she turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn't recognize him. She didn't even recognize him. Now now now you would think that's like maybe Jesus did something supernatural.

People try to say he did like a Jedi mind trick. I'm not the Jesus you're looking for or something like that, but I don't think that's true. It said it was early in the morning, it was still dark. She just cried herself to wealthy high and you don't see clear, you're emotionally distraught,

you're convinced, you've you're you're you're arrested by this death. You're arrested by death. Her mind is in a the tomb being empty because there's a dead body that's been dragged away. So if someone walked up in the dark and you couldn't really see straight and and they came up to you, would you assume that's the dead body you're looking for?

Not unless you've been watching the walking dead for far too long. So he walks up and she doesn't recognize him. He says, dear woman, why are you crying? And they asked, who are you looking for? She it says she thought he was the gardener.

And so she goes, sir, she said, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him and I will go and get him. You know how bizarre that conversation is she just had? She just told Jesus, I wanna know where Jesus' body is. Can you tell me where you are so I can go grab you back and pull you back over here?

She had no idea she was talking to Jesus.

Why? Because she was arrested with this death idea. She was stuck in this moment. She couldn't see the possibility. In other words, here here's what what she did. She had a devotion that was overtaken by emotion, and she got stuck with a notion. I just doctor Seussed that all to pieces, didn't I? She was stuck on this notion

that this was the end. She was mistaking a beginning for an ending. She was arrested by the idea that it's over. She couldn't get past it. How about you? Are you stuck with a notion that something in your life is is this is the end. This is hopeless. I don't know how my life's gonna work. I don't know why this is happening.

Or maybe apply that to to maybe what you think about God. Cause I don't know why all of you are here. Some of you are always here. I recognize you. You're the ones that come in late. No. But but some of you are here, you're visiting.

Some of you occasionally go to church. And there's a few of you here that you only came because the person who brought you said no ham if you don't come. And that's why you're here. But but when you think about your life and you think about God,

do you do you do you struggle with this? Are you arrested by this thought that I I I I life seems hopeless right now. And I don't see how it's gonna work. And and and maybe you're you're you're stuck. And as you think about God, you might even come from two perspectives here. You might say, okay, I believe in God,

but I'm not sure if he has enough power for this situation. Because it just seems like it's done. It's over. I'm not sure about God's power. Or maybe you don't believe God has power because you just like, this is why I don't believe there's a God. Because if there was a God that's so powerful, then why did he allow blank?

Why am I in this situation? Why did that have to happen? Why doesn't this happen? You know, you fill in the blanks. Or maybe like, no, no, I there there's a God I believe there's He's powerful,

but I think the problem is His presence isn't here. Meaning He just doesn't wanna bring His power into my life. He's leaving me out. And so you think it's an issue of Jesus isn't present or Jesus isn't powerful. And Mary

doesn't think Jesus is there and she obviously doesn't believe he has the power to come back from the dead because she's assuming he's dead. And you realize that wasn't the problem. The problem with Mary in that situation wasn't about Jesus' power. It wasn't even about his presence. Her problem was her perspective.

Her perspective was she couldn't see what God had just done. She couldn't see Jesus. And you know what? The very first Easter, she almost missed Jesus. You know what's sad is? Tons of people, you're here. And my fear is some of us are gonna walk out this door when we're done here. And you sat right here on Easter,

and you're gonna miss Jesus because of your perspective. You're arrested by something. You are stuck and arrested by the death of something. A life that has death in it. A life that that that that that's not it's just not going anywhere. How do you get past that?

How do I go from from from seeing something that seems like an ending and realizing it's a beginning. How can I see that that no matter what you're going through right now, Jesus is there? You just aren't seeing him. How does the perspective change? How do I how do I not miss Jesus in this moment?

Well, here's what Jesus did for Mary. It says here, she thought he was the gardener. Sir, if you're saying will you go get him? And then it goes in verse 16. He just says, Mary, Jesus said. He called her name. And he said in a forceful way, he said in a way that she she clearly realized now this is Jesus.

So she heard Jesus call her name and she recognized him. And look what she does. She says, Jesus said, she turned to him and cried out, Rabboni, which means teacher. But look what Jesus says in verse 17. Don't cling to me, Jesus said. That's typical guy, I guess. Hey, hey,

I died for you. I came back to life, but give me some give Jesus some space.

No. That's not why he said that. That's not why he said it. Look, says this. He goes he goes, for I haven't yet ascended to the father, but go find my brothers and tell them I'm ascending to my father and to your father, to my God and your God. So Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, I've seen the Lord. Then she gave them his message. Now you're like, I've not ascended yet. I'm like, that sounds like a lot of weird words you don't understand. You know what he was really saying is?

Don't hang on to me in this moment. We got work to do. We we're not done yet. You gotta go tell the others. This is just getting started. What you thought was an ending was actually a beginning. And she wanted to cling in that moment because she thought it was an ending. First, she thought it was a sad ending. When she showed up there in the dark, she thought the ending was sad. I'm just saying goodbye to my friend Jesus, who I thought was the Lord, but I guess he died. Then she found out he's alive. Now she rejoices that he's alive. But wanting to cling to him, she still thinks it's an ending. She just thinks instead of the ending with her crying and the credits roll, the ending is she rejoices and hugs Jesus, and then the credits roll in this movie. But Jesus say, no. No. No. No. No. No time for that right now. You gotta go tell the others because what I just did is not the end of the story. This is the beginning of the story. You see, you have been arrested by death, and I came, I am the Lord, I just arrested death.

I killed death, I stopped it. That's what he's saying.

Do you believe that?

Has Jesus arrested death in your life? It doesn't matter how many times you come to church. Have you heard him call your name? Have you put your faith in Jesus? Because it says really clearly in scripture, there's one way to have death arrested. It's through Jesus. Studies have shown that 100 of people that are born die.

At least up until this point, one hundred percent. Jesus came back. And he said, I'm the way, the truth, and life. No one comes to the father but by me.

So you might be sitting here going, you know, church thing's not bad, but I believe all religions are basically the same. We might say some of the same stuff. Don't kill people. Be nice. Hate the Seahawks. You know, we all all super spiritual people have some sort of consistent beliefs.

Even on Easter, yeah, sorry.

But they're not the same.

Jesus came and said, there's one way. There's one way to the father. There's one way to get away from death. There's one way to have life and that's through putting your faith in what I just did, in me. Putting your faith in Jesus. Matter of fact, he prayed about it the night before he died. He even said, hey, dad,

if there's another way to do this, we should look at that. But there's no other way to be reconciled to God except through faith in Jesus. There is no other way. You have to put your faith in what happened on Easter, is that Jesus faced death and stopped it. He arrested it

so it can stop arresting us and our new life can begin. And that's what we need to accept. But some of us, you might miss it. You might miss it like Mary was about to miss it. And one of the reasons you think that just seems weird. Doesn't that? That seems impossible. You know why? Because you never seen it before.

Life doesn't usually work that way. We've only seen the death side of stuff. But you know what? Lots of people have missed stuff that actually happened even though it seemed impossible to them at the time.

That happens all the time. One of my favorite history stories in it is love it. Everybody heard of Wilbur Orville and Wilbur Wright? Not Redenbacher, Wright. Not popcorn guys. What did they do? First

ones to build a plane that worked and fly. Right? You realize when they did that, even engineers of the day said it was physically impossible for men to build a device so they can fly. Preachers of the time, some of the preachers would preach against even trying to do it. Because they said if God wanted us to fly, he would have given us wings, you know, and

all that kind of stuff. And so people thought it was impossible, But they did it. And when they did it, they sent a telegram back home. I got a picture of the telegram. They sent this telegram back home.

Says here, success, four flights Thursday morning, all against 21 mile wind. Started from level with engine power alone, average speed through the air, 31 miles an hour. What were they in a school zone? But but the longest it says fifty seven seconds. So they flew four times, the longest was for almost a minute.

And then last line says, informed press, home for Christmas. So this so I think it was their sister took it to the local little newspaper in the town, showed it to editor and he goes, this is great. I'm gonna put it in tomorrow's paper. Pick up the paper the next day. Guess what the headline said?

The Wright boys will be home for Christmas. That's it. Didn't say anything about them flying. The rest of the country's newspapers got ahold of the fact that they flew and this guy got scooped even though they got the first word on it. Why did he miss it? Because in his mind, flight isn't possible.

I can't even same way that Mary didn't recognize that was Jesus. She wasn't looking for him because she assumed he was dead. So this guy assumes you can't fly. He never would have thought that all that stuff before is talking about flying.

We think that's stupid. How can you be that dumb to miss it? But think about it. If you didn't think it was possible, you never heard of it, you read those words and they probably just sound like the parents on Charlie Brown cartoons. That's all it sounded like. And because of that, he missed this miraculous moment.

Because it was too hard for him to understand.

Don't miss the greatest moment of all time, as Billy Graham said. The greatest moment of history.

Is Jesus, the God man came and he loved you and me so much that he knew we were separated from God and there was only one hope we had. He needed to face death. He needed to live that perfect life. He needed to die for you and me and then get up three days later and say, I

am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. Don't miss it. So I wanna give you an opportunity right now to not miss that. Would you just close your eyes?

You know, sit here with your eyes closed, just think for a minute. Have you maybe been missing Jesus through your life?

Through those tough moments, through those things that don't make sense. Maybe you're just trying to make life work your own way. Maybe you come to church here and there, but but the reality is you're still just living life your way, and your power, and your strength,

and you're just trying to get everything you can out of life. But like I said, it's just gonna end. You're gonna be arrested by death at some point.

Well, how do I not miss that? How do I not miss Jesus? Well, it says in the Bible, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. So right now, you just need to hear Jesus call your name and snap you out of it.

And you need to confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that he did what he said he's done. You need to put your faith in him, not you. Not in something else, but in him. So I wanna pray with some of you that I think are ready for this. I think you hear Jesus calling your name right now.

I think some of you wanna join the over 280 people this weekend that have already done this. And I wanna pray with you so you can put your faith in Jesus. It's gonna be a simple prayer. It's gotta be your own words and your own heart. I'll lead you through it, but you just need to you just need to to choose

to turn from you and turn to Jesus. But before I do that, I'm gonna ask you to do something a little bit bold. No one else is looking around, just me and a couple of guys in the band. But

but if you know you don't wanna miss Jesus anymore and you've never put your faith in him before and you want to right now with me and pray with you, just put your hand in the air. Hold up in the air. Just have that boldness. I see the hands. They're going up. Yeah. Keep it going. Hold them up nice and high. Don't be afraid. It's

dark in here. I wanna see. Amen.

That's right. That kid knows. Holy Spirit's doing something right now. Wow. There's a lot of hands in here. That is so cool. Thank you, Lord, for those hands. Well, you got your hand up or even if you if you didn't raise it yet, you can still pray. It's okay. God sees your heart.

Just pray with me something like this. Dear Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you that you came and you arrested death when you died on the cross for me and then you came back to life. I know that seems impossible, but you are the God of the impossible. So right now, in the best way I know how, I wanna turn from myself.

Turn from how I've tried to go make life work my own way and work around you and miss you over and over and over again, which your word says is sin. And the best way I know how, I'm turning to you right now. And I'm saying, I believe that you died for me and I believe that you rose from the dead for me.

And I'm putting my faith in that to make me right with you, God. So thank you. And Lord, help me to go from here and see you more and more in every day of my life. Help me to understand more and more what it means to have death arrested and have this new life begin. Thank you. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Life begins with you.

It's your endless love pouring down us.

Chains, I'm a prisoner no more. My shame was ransom, he faithfully bore. He canceled my debt and he

It's your endless love pouring down us. You have made us new. Now Life begins with you.

Our savior displayed on a criminal's cross.

Of all the redeemed. Yes, we're free. Free forever. Amen. When death was arrested and my life began. Oh,

I finally timed that right. Man, new favorite song. I lost my voice not preaching this weekend. I was singing that song eight times, 10 including the run throughs, and I sang my voice out of me now. So hey, that is amazing. You know what? We went over 300 people can say on this weekend

that death was arrested and their life began. And if you are one of them, even if you didn't raise your hand, still counts, We would love for you to fill out one of the cards in the back of the chairs that says, I said yes to God.

And you can fill out that information, tear it off, put it in our offering boxes, and we're gonna put you on a spam email list, and we're gonna rob your identity, and we're gonna sell your information. No. No. None of that. All that is is there's a prayer team that wants to pray for you. Who doesn't want a prayer team to pray for you? So if you'd let us know, that would that would be great. And speaking of prayer, if you need to talk to someone or pray with someone some more, you're going through something, you can come up to the front here as everybody kind of meanders out of here. And you can have them pray for you. And then also, please, I hope to see you back next week. Next week for our new series more. Love to see you here. Come on back. Enjoy it. We have a lot of fun here at Rock Point. And with that said and done, as you go, just don't forget your kids.

Because otherwise, we're going to give them a double shot latte and a kitten. So there you go. God bless you. Happy Easter.