Questions from Jesus Devo 1

Flow:

So I have 3 little girls and if you’re a parent you can probably relate but a lot of my time as a parent is spent answering questions

It seems at times that it’s all I ever do

But it’s really not even just parenting

At work I have to answer a lot of questions

My wife, who loves to know every detail of my day, has a lot of questions.

And maybe you guys can relate a little

Maybe at SRI you get a lot of questions throughout your day that you have to answer

Maybe its at home

Maybe your like Austin and can’t figure out how to hit a golf ball straight and so you just have a lot of questions in life

But what I’ve realized is that there are a lot of really important questions that we have to answer in our lives.

And more than likely, you’ve answered them or are answering them whether you recognize it or not.

What I’ve also realized is that I have a lot less answers than I’d like to admit

And the reality is we all do.

And so, when it comes to our faith and what we believe, who better to look at some questions than from Jesus?

Jesus asks over 300 questions throughout His ministry and life

all are with purpose and meaning and important

And so we may not have all of the answers, but are we even asking the right questions?

Great leaders realize they don’t have all of the answers, but they do have a knack for asking the right questions

Because when you ask the right questions you have a better chance of finding a real solution

I remember going to a theme park with my oldest daughter who is about to be 6

We walked up to a ride and we kind of looked at it

She looked at me and asked “what if I’m not tall enough to ride?”

So I said well they have a little chart over here come stand next to it and we will see

So we did. And she was tall enough.

When she realized she was tall enough you could see the panic begin to set in

She sat there for a little while and then asked, “but what if I don’t want to ride?”

to start, she was asking the wrong question. Whether she was tall enough to ride or not was not going to change the fact that she just didn’t want to ride the ride

When it comes to our faith. Are we asking the right questions?

So we are going to spend the next few weeks looking at questions that Jesus asked

Questions he asked his disciples, his friends, those that opposed him, those he came into contact with

Today we are going to look at a question we find in John 20.

And this may be familiar to you because this is the Easter story.

I’m goin to read all of this chapter leading up to the question because it helps us with some context.

But remember before this chapter what has transpired

All of holy week has taken place

Jesus has turned water to wine, healed people, preached to thousands, fed thousands, made dead people come back to life, along with countless others

And so people praised Him for His abilities.

He rides in on a donkey and people worship Him

He prepares for passover with his disciples and institutes the Lord’s supper

But there were some problems. Jesus had also throughout His life made claims to be the very Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the one they had long been awaiting.

And this man born to Mary and Joseph, a carpenters son could not possibly be the one

So He must be accused of His crimes, stopped from His false teachings, killed for His claims

And so that’s what they did.

They hang him on a cross

And He goes to the cross not forced, but willingly.

At any point He could have made it stop but He chose not to

He goes cursed for us

Our sins put on Him

The price we deserved because of the penalty of our sin but one we could not pay He payed for us

And so right before this chapter Jesus is dead and put in a tomb.

John 20:1–18 NIV

1 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. 2 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!” 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. 11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 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.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 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.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). 17 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.’ ” 18 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.

pray

For a moment, put yourself into Mary Magdalene shoes

it’s over 2000 years ago and just 3 days ago they took Jesus, your friend Jesus, and they crucified Him

You watched as they drug him before the high priests and condemned Him, not for lying but for telling the truth.

You were there when the very crowd who praised him just days before is now screaming out “Crucify Him!”

Then began the real horror

You watched as they beat him and whipped him 39 times

You watched as they squeezed the crown of thorns into his brow and around His head

You watched them strike him, spit on him, ridicule him, mock him

And then the cross. You watched as they pierced his hands and feet and nailed him to the cross

You watched as he took his last breath and was put into a tomb

And now at that very tomb someone asks “why are you crying?”

For one, Hope has just died.

It’s recorded in Mark 16:9 that Jesus drove out 7 demons from Mary.

Jesus gave her a new start

A fresh beginning

He to her was hope and now hope is gone

Purpose is gone

Jesus was the one that Mary could just sit at His feet for hours

While her sister, martha, was busy making preparations, Mary knew her purpose, knew her direction, knew where she needed to be

At the feet of Jesus, but now He is gone and so is her purpose

Her relationship lost

Just like Jesus stood outside of your brother, Lazarus’ tomb, and wept, now you stand outside of Jesus’ tomb and weep because He was your friend

And now you can’t even show your respects and visit His tomb because someone has stolen his body

They’ve taken Him and hid Him away somewhere and now there is no closure, no healing, no hope, no purpose, and no advocate.

Jesus is dead and He is gone.

Why are you crying?

What else is she to do? What else does she have? But to cry, to weep, to mourn.

Why are you crying?

But maybe this is a question we should be asking ourselves?

why are you crying?

If I’ve learned anything about being a pastor it’s that everyone hurts

no matter how things don’t seem to bother them

Everyone hurts and everyone cries

maybe for you Mary’s reality in this moment is your reality in this moment.

Maybe for you Hope is dead

I don’t know what you’re going through right now, I don’t know what you’ve been through

But i do know some common themes in us all

You think you’re alone

You think you’re without hope

And often times about the moment you think you may have a handle on things, you can finally take a deep breathe, life throws another thing at you and you just don’t if you can even go another day

Maybe you’re purpose is gone

At some point you’ve looked back on your life and don’t even remember how you got here

You don’t know why you do what you do

And often you struggle with the question of “Am i really even making a difference?”

You’ve lost all purpose and direction

Maybe you’ve lost relationships

We’ve all lost someone

Maybe it was expected and a long process

Maybe it was unexpected and a surprise

Maybe it’s not that someone is really gone it’s just that the relationship is broken and shattered and there’s been great pain and hurt and no hope of restoration

No matter what, it hurts!

And it’s a lingering hurt that always seem to be with you

So why are you crying?

Well because this life keeps throwing things at us.

Tears just seem to be part of being a human being.

So much so that it’s often difficult to find even slivers of joy.

a glimmer of hope, an ounce of purpose, or a good friend

Is this all that life is anymore?

Do we just wake up go through the motions and go to bed only to do it all again the next day?

Is this all there is?

If not, what is the solution? How do we get out of this spiral of tears?

Maybe the answer to that is found in the 2nd question Jesus asks Mary.

Who is it you are looking for?

I would play hide and seek with my girls sometimes. And when it was my turn to hide I would find my spot and peek out and wait for them to go by. When they did and got to a place I knew they couldn’t see me anymore, I would run out around the corner and yell for them and then run back to my spot. they would come look for me where they thought they heard the sound coming from and of course never find me. The next time they would go around the corner I would run out the other direction and yell and then run back to my spot. this time they would go where they thought they heard me and look high and low but never be able to find me.

We look in every spot we know to look.

It’s human nature

We look to material things

We look to jobs

We look to people

None of those things are bad things but we can’t look to something to do something it wasn’t created for.

We look and we look to these things but we never find anything that can sustain us.

Anything that can fill that void

It may satisfy for a moment or a season but it’s all temporary and futile

It’s like my girls looking for me. for a moment they think they have me! but it’s almost as if the false hope makes it even worse

They get frustrated when they can’t find me where they were certain they heard me

We do the same.

So, what is the solution?

What/who is it you are looking for?

You won't find what you’re looking for until you find the one who is looking for you.

Jesus asks Mary “Why are you crying?”

He doesn’t say stop crying, He says why are you crying?

And the answer is obvious. The list is long. Where to even begin.

But then he asks

“who is it you are looking for?”

If she could answer the 2nd question she would answer the first

And it wasn’t until Jesus calls her by her name that all began to make sense again

It was Jesus! Jesus in the flesh, alive before her very eyes!

It was hope, it was purpose, it was her friend

Here he was alive again!

And with his life came life to her

She could breathe again, hope again, she could stop worrying, stop crying

Jesus is Alive!!!!!!

And it was He who she was seeking! And here he was

So let me ask you, who is it you are looking for?

Don’t let the familiarity of this story deter you from the power of it

And the fact that Jesus is alive does not just have a global affect but a personal one

The way that John tells of this account, he is very personal in his details

As much as a global affect the resurrection has, it could not be global if it was not first personal

It could not be global if it was not first personal to Mary and to Peter and to John and to the other disciples and all that were there

Sometimes we look at the resurrection from this 30,000 foot view and we forget that it’s implications deal with out heart.

So the danger is that we breeze through this story and moment in history because it is familiar and miss out on the invitation of it all

Why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?

Because the one who is calling you by name is alive and inviting you to life

Life in Christ!

This day, over 2000 years ago was a day of transformation

and this day, today, could be a day of transformation for you

Jesus took on your sins, your curse, your penalty upon himself

And defeated death so that we can have life

Life here in this moment and life eternally with him.

And there may be pain in this life, there may be moments of tears

But when we answer Jesus’ 2nd question correctly we are promised something

When we begin seeking Jesus and we declare that He is Lord

We are promised

Revelation 21:1–7 NIV

1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

There will be a day when Jesus, the one who defeated death, calls us home and we will spend an eternity with Him where there will be no more crying, no more pain, no more death.

This is our promise!

But what do we do until then? What are we to do?

it’s here we see the first commission before we see the great commission.

After Mary realizes its Jesus she begins to cling to Him

And He says, “you can let go, I’m not going anywhere for a while. It’s not my time to ascend to heaven.”

“Go instead to my brothers and tell them.”

Jesus commissions Mary to go and tell

I am alive, now go and tell everyone!

This is our commission as well

So here is what we see. It is through the resurrection that we are given hope

hope that we have a Savior who is calling our name

we have a messiah who is alive and calling us to life

Hope that there will be a day with no more pain, tears, hurt, death

We are given purpose

Until that day arrives we are to go. go tell the nations! Every tongue, every tribe, every person of the gospel of Jesus Christ

That Jesus went to the cross for the sins of the world and defeated death and is alive and longs to bring us from death to life

a purpose to spread the kingdom of God as we dwell with the King himself

We are given a friend

it’s relationship restored

A friend that sticks closer than a brother.

We are given Jesus because He is alive

The one who our soul longs for is seeking us and He calls us by name

So, Why are you crying?

And who is it you are looking for?

because you won’t find what you’re looking for until you find the one looking for you

and the one looking for you is alive and He’s calling you by name