Trust the Story

Part I

Everyone is searching for something. Maybe it's wealth, power, prestige, significance, success, relationship, approval, fame, the next best thing, the next high, a solution to your problems, searching for answers … searching for love, peace, happiness, a break … searching to make a name, to make a difference … we could go on, because everyone is searching for something. Not that everything we search for is bad or wrong, but when you put 9 billion people together on the same planet who are all searching for something it will create chaos and noise … it will create good and tragedy - it will create confusion, complexity, turmoil, suspicion …. And sometimes in our effort to find what we're searching for we can forget the power of simplicity - we can forget the simplicity of the Gospel. The gospel simply means good news. So this morning let us get away from the chaos and from the noise and listen to the simplicity of the most beautiful and wonderful story ever told - the gospel of Jesus Christ.

For some of you, you've heard this 100 times, and for others this may be your first. Regardless, listen to the story and allow the story to do what the story is supposed to do. Trust the story. You know sometimes we Christians make the story too complicated, and we feel as if we have try to explain everything that people don't understand. There's a time and a place for that, but too often we're trying to answer all the questions, or we don’t say anything because we have forgotten to trust the story – forgotten to trust the Gospel. The story that's a grave is empty and that Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God is alive.

Trust the Story

Until recent years, the year of Jesus’ death was a guess - between 30 and 33 AD. But now we know with nearly 100% certainty that Jesus Christ died at precisely the right time and day, which was April 3, 33 AD. How do we know this and why is it important? Because of modern technology based upon Kepler’s Law of Planetary Motion, we can go back in time and see where the planets and stars were on any given day in history.

Now between 30 and 33AD, there were three Passover festivals that Jesus could have died on, but according to Kepler and modern technology, only one of those Passover festivals had a Lunar eclipse over Jerusalem. Trust the story.

Luke 23:44–46 NIV

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.

Romans 5:6–8 ESV

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Chad - Trust the Story.

Part II

John 20:1–18 NIV

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

Part III

John 20:19–31 NIV

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Trust the Story