Easter 2018 | He is Risen!

Message

These three words have the power to change a life forever: “I love you.” One “I love you” in particular changed mine.

Long before we married, I caught myself falling hard for a young, beautiful brunette named Stacy Tschirhart.

One day, after a long afternoon on the beach, sharing life together, laughing and enjoying one another, we both sensed love budding between us.

You know that moment, right guys? When you feel the wires connecting? Your stomach churning? And you begin to wonder, "Should I tell her?”

I felt all of that and more! I knew - probably earlier than she did - that I wanted her by my side everyday, which called forth the courage from me to say, “Stacy, I love you.”

I felt every one of those syllables leave my mouth, and I meant every one of them.

Then I waited - probably only a couple seconds, but they felt like days. Did she feel the same way? Is she feeling what I'm feeling? Was this too premature?

You know those movies when the clock ticks in slow motion: tick... tock... tick... tock...

But then she cracked a smile, looked at me with her Disney Princess eyes, and whispered back, “I love you, too.”

I felt like I could leap tall buildings in a single bound! I felt faster than a speeding bullet!

Wow, do those words have tangible power?! Hidden inside these three words, a person says to another:

I see you.

I know you.

I believe in you.

I trust you.

I am for you.

I am with you.

I can rely on you.

I am committing to you.

I accept you.

These three words can change a life forever, and more than ever, our world needs to hear these three words spoken in their truest form and see them in action.

Stacy expresses her love for me through action. She sees my needs and desires and responds to them, as she says, “I love you.”

So many of our friends, family members, colleagues, and the people of our city need to hear someone say, truly:

I see you.

I know you.

I believe in you.

I trust you.

I am for you.

I am with you.

I can rely on you.

I am committing to you.

I accept you.

How many people do you know need to hear these promises spoken over them? Who need to experience these promises done for them?

We all need to hear some bit of good news, for someone to say, “I see you, and I accept you just as you are."

A few years ago, a young man made a fateful decision to end his life by jumping off the Golden Gate bridge. He didn’t leave a note. He simply boarded a bus with tears streaming down his face, hoping for just one stranger to ask: Are you ok?

He needed someone to do for him what he could not do for himself.

A while later, he arrived at the bridge, walked to the center span, and stood there for about 40 minutes... longing for just one person to walk by and acknowledge him.

At one point a foreign tourist stopped and asked if he could take their picture. He agreed, but they left without so much as a single word of ‘thank you’ to the distraught man.

Afterward, he thought to himself, “I am more worthless now than ever," so he decided to jump.

He hit the water at 75 miles per hour and shattered nearly every bone in his body… but miraculously, he survived. He couldn’t swim due to his injuries, but he stayed afloat with the help of a sea lion who came to his rescue.

Upon reflection of this whole situation, he says now, “A smile would have most definitely helped in my case. That could well have saved a life."

This survivor now travels the world speaking about suicide prevention and the power of a smile. He bears the image of God, as he lives out his purpose helping others.

A smile says, ‘I see you. You have dignity.’

All of us share this same basic fundamental need to hear someone say: “I see you. I accept you.”

For some of you today, hearing someone say these words to you, and actually mean it, would be good news enough for you.

But would you believe that the God of the Universe says to you right now, “I see you, and I accept here in this moment just as you are.”

Truly, the good news about Jesus Christ and what our faith believes says that in Jesus, God gave every single human being in this world the biggest, “I love you” ever!

In Christ, God says to you, “I see you, and I accept you.”

I see your brokenness.

I see your hope.

I see your beauty.

I see your pain.

I see every part of you.

And I accept you here and now just as you are.

I forgive you.

I love you.

In Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection three days later, Jesus stretched his arms wide to the world and proclaimed his “I love you” for every ear to hear, validating every act he did and word he spoke during his life and ministry.

Jesus is God’s love story. It’s the greatest love story ever told.And Easter is the greatest ‘I love you’ ever stated. Easter is more than just baskets and brunches. Those are fun. But Easter is so much more! It’s the greatest expression of God’s love for the world, and the anchor to our faith. It is the day when we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead!

But it’s also the biggest doubt that people make about Jesus.

And I totally get why...

Because as a general rule of thumb, people who die, typically stay dead. This breaks my heart, and it’s THE MOST painful reality about our lives. I think if we’re honest with ourselves, a lot of us in here carry that doubt, as well.

And so if the resurrection didn’t happen, then does this great ‘I love you’ mean anything?

That’s the million dollar question.

The biggest block that often prevents people from hearing God’s “I love you” for them is “Did the resurrection really happen?”

Is the resurrection true?

Death is certain. It’s final. There’s no coming back from it. Yet, central to our faith, we have very strong reasons to believe that Jesus actually didn’t stay dead, but in fact, conquered death by raising again.

My goal today is very simple: I want you to leave hear today feeling like you can believe it. I don’t want you to leave here today with an expectation that all of your questions will be answered because undoubtedly, other questions concerning Jesus’ resurrection will arise for you.

Rather, I just want you to leave hear today feeling like you can believe it.

Because if you can, then you will be on your way to hearing God whisper those three most powerful words that all of us need to hear: "I love you.”

Then, you will come to discover that the resurrection, in fact, isn’t the end of the story. It’s actually the lift off point for God’s redemptive work in the world through this very moment now.

The cross matters.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.” John 3:16

On the cross:

God forgave our sins by making the greatest sacrifice once and for all.

God paid our ransom from the evil one. Sin no longer has any power over our lives.

God redeemed us from our eternal death and destruction.

God reconciled our relationship with him (vertical) and with one another (horizontal)

Jesus took our sin and exchanged it for freedom, but what is sin?

Sin is the mingling of ‘pride and cruelty’ churning in our hearts. Your pride elevates you about God, and cruelty inflicts pain and suffering on others.

This is everybody. This is the human experience, right?

C’mon, all of us have thought we’re better than someone, and all of us have inflicted pain upon someone else.

Not all of the time, of course, but we live within this tension of sin.

We believe that God didn’t create us for sin. Rather, sin has crept into our hearts like an infection and distorts our affections from goodness to destruction.

And though we still carry sin with us and we live with this strange paradox of brokenness and goodness, the good news about Jesus defeated the power of sin altogether and forgives of it.

Jesus accomplished this on the cross.

But the resurrection matters, too, because it validates Jesus’ work on the cross. Without the resurrection, Jesus’ life and death would have been meaningless, and no doubt, history would’ve forgotten about him.

The resurrection birthed new life and the firm establishment of God’s kingdom on earth here and now. Though we may only see glimpses of it on this side of heaven, the good news of salvation by grace through faith in Christ comes by way of a new established kingdom on earth through which all power and glory flow!

The resurrection wasn’t an after show party. It is the party! And it’s ongoing until the day that Christ comes again.

Thus why your belief in the resurrection matters. Our faith is founded upon it, and we have very strong reason to believe that it actually occurred through the historical eyewitnesses accounts of those who experienced it.

Eight days after the resurrection, the Gospel-writer, John, recorded that the resurrected Jesus found the 11 disciples (minus Judas because he had killed himself after betraying Jesus) shut up in a locked room for fear of their own torture and crucifixion as Jesus’ closest followers.

And here’s all John records Jesus saying, “Peace be with you, as the father has sent me, now I am sending you.”

After that, we don’t know what happened.

But we can assume that these guys probably didn’t understand what they had just witnessed... Because when Jesus confronted them some time later, they had returned to their old day jobs as fisherman.

Now, does that sound like a group of guys sent out to continue Jesus’ mission? Does that sound like the start of a movement to you?

Or does that sound like the fear of men who believed their dead leader would stay dead?

Jesus’ closest compadres left everything Jesus taught and returned to their old lives before they met had Jesus.

These guys weren’t revolutionaries. They were dirty fisherman.

But then something happened. On the boats that night, they saw Jesus as real as you and me. They saw his wounds, some even touched them, and they spoke to him.

Jesus stayed with them for a period of 40 days and then ascended into heaven, during which hundreds of other eyewitnesses reported seeing Jesus alive, speaking with him, and touching his wounds.

Hundreds of eyewitnesses testified to seeing and doing the very same thing. They all told the same story.

Then, 10 days after Jesus ascended into heaven, God gave the Holy Spirit to build Christ’s church.

And who led it?

None other than those same 11 men who once feared for their lives and returned to their old day jobs as fisherman.

50 days after the resurrection, they were leading the movement called the Way, which grew into the very same movement in which you and I are sitting today: the movement of the local church!

What else would have renewed the hearts of these dejected 11 men? It was the reality and meaning of the resurrection.

Around this same time, a young Jewish Pharisee leader named Saul, who sought to keep the purity of the Jewish law, rose to prominence among the Jewish leaders by doing violence against and arresting those Jewish betrayers who called Jesus their Savior.

This lasted for at least a few years, because 5 years post-resurrection in 37 AD, Saul underwent a radical conversion. He was blinded by a great light, Jesus himself, who asked Saul, “Why do you persecute me?”

After this event, Jesus changed Saul’s name to Paul, and from then on, Paul made his life about sharing this good news of Jesus’ salvation called the Gospel through starting new churches, rather than destroying them.

All because he believed the reality of the resurrection.

From his letter to the church in Galatia, Paul documented his first meeting with Jesus’ chief disciple Peter, saying:

Thenafter three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with [Peter] and stayed with him fifteen days. (Fact check me, Paul says.) I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. Gal 1:18-20

Three years after Paul’s conversion in 40 AD, 10 years post-resurrection, Paul traveled to meet with Peter because he wanted to hear from Jesus’ closest follower and leader of the movement, which by now, consisted of thousands.

Within the context of history, eyewitnesses, especially of any significance, still prove extremely credible and reliable even after 10 years removed from a particular event.

Case in point: as of today, we’re 16 years and 7 months passed 9/11, and I don’t know about you, but this event still feels just as fresh for me as if it happened a year ago. I still remember my Debate coach running into the room and yelling, “a plane just hit one of the twin towers.” Even as of now, I can still recall so vividly how the day unfolded hour by hour.

In this passage, Paul even assures the early church before God that his dates and conversations are true! Fact check him, he says.

Then in 53 AD, in his first letter to the church plant in Corinth, he reminded the followers there of what he taught them the previous year in 52 AD when he stayed with them, saying:

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved...

He’s saying, pay attention, because what I am about to tell you is the meat and potatoes of everything we believe. Paul doesn’t mince words. What he is about to define as the Gospel is the absolute foundation on which our faith is built. He says,

Forwhat I received (From Jesus himself and his visit with Peter)I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

This is the Gospel. This is the good news.

If you could sum up everything we believe into 3 sentences, then this is it:

Christ died for our sins. Christ was buried. Christ rose again on the third day.

Some scholars even believe these three statements were the beginnings of an ancient creed circulating among the early churches in order to help others keep the foundation of the faith.

“Jesus died for our sins and was buried.

He was raised again and was seen.”

It even has a rhythm to it.

Then Paul goes onto verify his claim to the resurrection, saying:

Andthat he appeared to [Peter], and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 1 Corinthians 15:1-7 NIV

These eyewitnesses, Paul writes, are still living, so fact check me.

In fact, Paul uses a phrase popular among the early believers, describing those who had died as ‘falling asleep.’ The phrase itself points to the resurrection in that those who fall asleep, do what? They wake up!

The belief within the early Christian movement, as we believe now, was that those who died would be raised again with Jesus.

This testifies to just how deeply rooted resurrection theology had permeated into the earliest beliefs of the Christian faith.

These followers didn’t stake their life on a set of behaviors, morals, or politics. No! The movement began when a man raised from the dead, who was supposed to stay dead.

Paul’s letters prove 2 major facts:

1. Ourbeliefs about Jesus were not a product of centuries of oral traditions passed down the generations, losing the truth of reality along the way. Rather, Paul got his information from named eyewitnesses, and then documented his conversations and learnings within just a few years.

2. Paul’s letters also prove that beliefin the resurrection was documented during the lifetimes of the eyewitnesses.Paul got his stories straight from the primary sources. And not just one or two, but hundreds of them.

All of this matters because as Paul planted these churches and wrote letters of encouragement and belief to them, these churches also faced undeniable and unfathomable levels of persecution under the same government that crucified both its King, and eventually, Paul himself.

Paul said of his own sufferings:

“Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.” 2 Corinthians 11:24-27 NIV

Paul’s not about advancing ‘alternative facts’ toward his own agenda. His life was much easier and successful when he was busy killing other Christians and persecuting the church.

Following Jesus was devastating to his health and well-being. But even so, he had experienced something in his conversion, as recorded in Acts 9, so profound and compelling that he gave up everything and found a rare kind of joy that Jesus promises to his followers.

What else could provide for such courage in the face of such pain and certain death other than the power and reality of the resurrection?!?!

1st Century historian, Josephus, who documented Roman history during the time in which Jesus was killed said,

“He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him.” Flavius Josephus Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 3, 3

Even Rome’s historian himself, the same Rome who killed Jesus, wrote about the resurrection.

For 300 more years after Paul, the church endured violence and oppression of all kinds. Long after the primary eyewitnesses died, Jesus followers still gave up their lives and faced great torture because they believed:

Jesus died for their sins was buried and raised from the dead three days later.

Even to this very day, Christians still face these same consequences for believing this scandalous truth. In 2016, 1,986 years after the resurrection, the United States, European Union, and Great Britain each voted unanimously to call the ISIS killings against Christians a genocide.

Why else would people make such a great sacrifice other than their belief and hope in the resurrection?

Listen, though you may leave here still with questions and needing further explanation about what you heard today, I hope that at the very least, you can leave here today feeling like you can believe this.

For if you do, you may just realize what all of these other men and women discovered throughout the centuries, including some of you and including me... that in Christ’s death and resurrection, the very reason why we celebrate Easter, God have his greatest “I love you.” Ever.

In Christ, God says to you, “I see you, and I accept you.”

At the heart of our faith, we believe God resurrects dead things:

- Dead lives

- Dead faith

- Dead marriages

- Dead ends

One songwriter once wrote: “I am a living, breathing hell, come on and resurrect me!” Jon Foreman

May that be our prayer tonight…