Life by the Tomb

I know that many of you have heard this story before but me and my amazing wives 2 year anniversary is coming up so I thought it would be good to share again.

because

because a little over two years ago me and my wife were on our honeymoon and we were extremely blessed where we got to go to Jamaica for our Honey moon.

And it was an amazing trip and it was beautiful.

and one of our favorite things that we did while we were on our honeymoon was we went sailing which both of us have never done but they teach you how

and then they actually trust tourist to go out by themselves and to take these boats out wherever they wanted

So we would go out every day.

and I remember it was our last day in Jamaica and it was a really windy day

but it was our last day so we had to go out and I was a little excited because we could go faster

but I remember we kept going out further and further until at one point my wife told me we were to far away and it is time to head back.

but it was my first week of marriage so I didn’t know that the women was alway right yet

So we kept going out further until my wife told me it was really time to head back

So I looked back and the land was pretty far away where it almost looked foggy and was small.

So I said yeah its time to head back.

and I went to turn the boat around and we got about half way when the wind caught the boat and we kept going further out

and I remember Arika my wife started to worry but I told her not to worry because I just messed up and I tried to turn around again

But the same thing happened where we got about half way and kept going out

And at this point I was freaking out and I turn around and my wife is crying because we don’t think anyone can see us and I remember thinking Ive been married a week and we are lost at sea.

and then

so

But as I think about that moment it was probably one of the most helpless moments of my life.

because I was drifting out to sea, getting knocked around by the waves and there was nothing I could do.

Have you ever had a situation in your life like that where you feel that helpless or hopeless?

where you look at your situation and just think what now?

Where the doctor comes back with the diagnosis

Where your financial situation is not good.

Where you have been trying to get pregnant but just cant

where it seems like your family is falling apart

and the end result is you just feel helpless and hopeless.

and

I want you to capture that feeling with me for a second and for some of us that might not be too hard you are going through something right now.

but capture that feeling because we have all been there before

and today we are going to be looking into a story where really the story looked completely hopeless

and in the middle of that hopelessness there was hope.

And if you have your Bible I am going to invite you to turn to

because this hope in this story has the ability to fix your family

This hope has the ability to get you through this tough situation your going through.

This hope has the ability to change your life

and this hope is why we celebrate Easter

So once again we will be in and it says:

Luke 24:1–12 NIV

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” Then they remembered his words. When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

So in this passage we see this group of women heading to the grave of this man Jesus who was put to death 3 days ago in one of the most painful ways possible.

and now these women are heading to where He was buried to apply perfumes and spices to the body which was met to hide the smell.

and you can almost imagine the the pain of walking there because they believed that Jesus was the Messiah and was this man who was going to save them and they followed Him

and now they are walking to His grave sight to get closure.

and really they are getting ready to lay down their hopes and dreams of who Jesus is.

They were just defeated.

and we see them with that same hopeless feeling we get in our lives except their probably the next level up, because they are broken.

But are you ready for the great news?

because in the middle of this dark time it says that this group of Women get to the tomb where Jesus is buried and there is something off

because the stone that was sealing the tomb was rolled away.

so the women go into the tomb and there are two men standing there and this is where the hope comes in because these two men say the words “He was Risen”

“He is Risen”

and the reason this is such a big deal is because Christ is who He says He is.

and who is Christ?

Christ is the one who gives us hope in our lives.

because lets face it we live in a world where it sometimes seems hard and challenging.

Where is feels like we are living life by the tomb (like this group of women in the story)

and in the middle of our hopelessness Jesus is pursuing us

and what happens is in the middle of

But what happens a lot of times is we allow things to get in the way of Jesus pursuing us.

and this is what happens in this story because this group of women hear this amazing news and they run over to the apostles and these other people who have been following Jesus to tell them this amazing news (which go women because women were the first to proclaim the resurrection)

But looks what happens because the women get there and tell these men this amazing news

but look what the mens response is because the women tell them this amazing news and you think they would be rejoicing,

but the Bible says they think these woman are crazy and are talking about nonsense.

And the reason they are thinking this is because there are things getting in the way of them believing the women.

first off it seemed impossible because people don’t just raise from the dead

But then second off these men lived in a sexist culture so they aren’t going to believe women anyways

But these men let these things get in the way of them believing that Jesus was resurrected.

And really when we look at our lives there are things that keep us away from following Jesus.

whether it be going through a tough situation

whether it be your past mistakes keeping you from following Christ

Whether you have the same idea as the disciples that Jesus is nonsense and your wife dragged you to church this morning.

But these things block us from following Christ

But what I love about this passage is that even when all of these men are coming to the conclusion that these women are crazy

in verse 12 it says “Peter however got up and ran to the tomb”

Even though it is implied that he is in this group of men that thought these women were crazy

but He gets to the tomb and he walks in and all he sees is the linen that was wrapped around Jesus laying there and the passage says that He wondered what had happened.

And really this morning what I want you to get out of this passage is that there are a couple groups that we can choose to be

we can choose to be like the big group of men who let things get in the way of following Christ

and because of this they didn't get to experience Christ until later

Or we can be like Peter who desepite these things blocking him from following Christ he gets up and decides that he wants to check it out for himself

You know this morning there are things that may be blocking you from pursuing Christ

there are hurts, habbits, and hang ups

There are iseas that we have in our head about who God is

There are things that we have done wrong

But in the middle of all these things, in the middle of us not pursuing Christ, He is pursuing you.

You know I remember when me and my wife were stranded on the ocean we kept drifting further and further away and we kept getting knocked around by these waves

but there was another sail boat in the distance that we could barely see and we didn’t even know it was there at first

but once we saw it we realized

but we

but we finally saw it and after trying to get out of the situation on our own we finally realized we couldn’t

so I stood up and started yelling and waiving to this boat in the distance

and this other sailboat came over to us he thought somthing was wrong and was watching us and he got us back to shore.

I want to ask us a question today:

Do you frrl like you have drifted far away from God?

Do you feel like you are getting knocked around by the waives?

because if that is you there is a God that is still right beside you pursuing you.

and all you have to do is cry-out to Him

Me and my wife we tried turning around ourselves in our boat and we couldn’t

And the truth is we can’t save ourselves but we need Christ to save us.

And really that is the message of Easter

That Christ came down because He loved you that much

He died for you (as punishment for your own sins and mistakes and really all of our sins and mistakes)

But He didn’t stop there because He rose from the dead defeating death and what separates us from Him

And because of that we can have a relationship with Him

And Christ is pursuing you today

Even in your mess

He is just waiting for you to say I need you.

You don’t have to live a life by the tomb or grave but you can live a life with Christ.

So this morning we are going to end today just with a time to respond and I am going to ask you to close your eyes

maybe this morning you feel like Peter where you are just wondering about Jesus

You might even be a little unsure or even skeptical of Him, but this morning you realize that there is something special and you want to be like Peter and just it out.

Would you raise your hand?

and I would love to talk with you about this

and maybe this morning you want to take a step past that and you want to commit or recommit your life to Christ and just say I want to accept Christ into my life and follow Him.

Would you raise your hand?

because He is pursuing you even with the distrctions we face in our life.

there is nothing you have to do this morning except say I need you

Amen

Well you can open your eyes and If you raised your hand and you would like prayer or would just like to talk I would be happy to talk with you.

But we are going to end today by receving communion.

And for those of you who dont know what communion is.

the night before Jesus died on the cross He was having a meal with his disciples

and during this meal Jesus brought up how one of them would betray Him

and what Jesus said is the one who betrays me is who I give this piece of bread to.

and He gave it to Judas (who did betray Him and is the reason He died on the cross)

but after that He gave it to every single person in that room.

Because at one point every single person in that room did betray Jesus but in the middle of them betraying Him He still wanted to be in communion with them.

And this morning the same is true with us.

every single one of us has betrayed Christ and messed up but He is extending His grace to us. Saying here is a second chance, a third chance, a 100th chance, whatever chance.

I want to be in communion with you.

I forgive you

So today we receive communion to remember the grace the Christ give us.

and that grace can only come through Christ Alone.

So I am going to invite us during this last song to come to the front and we have communion set up on the Alters and if you would get the bread and the juice and take it back to your seat during this last song we will receive communion as the Body of Christ

Every single person is welcome to receive communion as long as you have accepted Christ in your life.

So we will be doing the song in Christ Alone to finish our time together and it is in Christ alone that you can find this grace so please come forward when you are ready.