Series; Easter

April 4, 2021 - David Stockton

Yes, Jesus, we praise you. We thank you. We turn our eyes toward you. And Lord, we just really want you to be lifted high. We want you to be honored in this place. Let’s shout it out one more time. Jesus! Jesus!
Lord, we need you now more than ever. We know that you are alive and we know that the grave has no victory and death has no sting anymore. We want to be able to live in the truth that to live is Christ and to die is gain. Lord, we need your help. We need your Spirit to come and help our fear give way to faith and our heartbreak give way to hope.
And so we look to you, because there is no one else who can do it. You alone can turn graves into gardens, Lord. You alone are the rescuer, the redeemer. And so we do, we run to you. We leave everything else. We even leave our own pride, independence, self-centeredness. Lord we leave all that behind and we run to you.
Jesus, we do pray that this would be a great morning. Lord, I thank you for those who are getting baptized today. I pray that they would just really sense your Spirit and you would seal their hearts for you. Give them the strength that they need for the journey. I pray that there might be some others that would be willing to just surrender their lives to you this morning. That they would feel you knocking on the door of their hearts and they would say yes to you, and they would get to know what it means to have your hope, your defiant hope, your defiant joy and your defiant love. Thank you, Lord Jesus. I pray all these things in your name.

And everybody said ‘Amen.” You can have a seat. Make yourself comfortable. If you’re online at home, make yourself comfortable. It’s great to have you. Thanks to al the Living Streams family that are here. Thanks for coming at 8 o’clock and not 9:30. Been through that before. Thanks for all the visitors who here. Thanks for coming out and joining us, whether that’s online or in person. It’s great to have you. You’re welcome in this place. It’s a good day to be here.

We had a service last night, which was like a pretend Easter service. I mean, it was like full on Easter service, but it was just on a Saturday. We had Good Friday services, and some interesting times, but really good times. It’s been awesome.

I love this church. This is a great place. I love what the Lord’s doing here. And I’ve just been so encouraged because I really do think there is a turning away from Jesus that is happening in our society, whether it’s post-Christian, secularization, whatever you want to call it. I do see that and you hear about that. But there is also a great turning toward the Lord. There is a great hunger that is being stirred up within the Bride of Christ, within the Church, but there is also a great hunger being stirred up with people who are just kind of sick and tired of what the world has to offer. And they are hungry for Jesus.

So don’t miss them, you know, getting caught up in all the people turning away. Just look, because the Lord is bringing people right to you that are just ready to receive what he has for them. That’s what we want to do today is receive what he has for us.

Easter is a great time to party. Easter Sunday service should be like a party. It should be fun. Everybody’s dressed up. Everybody is gathered together. It is a little early in the morning, so it is weird in that regard, like an early morning party. But it’s a great time to party. There are other great times to party, whenever you’ve conquered something, you’ve finished something, you’ve overcome something, it’s a great time to party.

I think of graduation. Anybody going to graduate soon? Yeah? Nice! Very nice. You’ve kind of thrown off. You’re like, “Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone,” kind of deal. You’ve overcome. There’s no more testing. You just can throw that thing off. Throw it behind you and move forward.

Retirement I think is another one of those things. Anybody retired? Yeah! You show-offs! Yeah. Retirement. I just image that being a time when you’ve conquered this journey. You’re at this place and you can kind of say to everyone, “Take this job and shove it. I ain’t working here no more.” The old song.

Then I also think of when Baylor is going to win the championship tomorrow. I mean, Gonzaga is going to win the championship tomorrow. You’ve conquered all the teams. There’s no one left to conquer. You’ve beat everybody and it’s all behind you. It’s good time to celebrate.

But there is no time like Easter to party. Because this is the time where the two foes of humanity, sin and death, who have never been defeated, our greatest champion, Adam, succumbed to it all. And we’ve been living under the curse. And the devil and the flesh and the world have been in authority from that day on.

Yet, Jesus came as the second Adam. He came as our Champion. And he came to take on sin and death. And he took on sin every single moment of his life, as he was tempted in every way that we are, yet never succumbing. Ultimately the world, the devil and the flesh threw everything they could at him on the cross. And all of man’s evil and wickedness, all summoned together and they fired their guns as the same time. And man’s unrighteousness was on its fullest display.

Yet, Jesus rose from the dead, proving forevermore that the unrighteousness of man is not more powerful than the righteousness of God. And that is such great hope for us. Because all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory. But the righteousness of God is enough to bring cleansing, forgiveness and redemption to even us. And sin and death, they have no claim. They have no authority on the people of God anymore. It’s a great, great day to party.

Luke 24 is the story of the first Easter and the party that was thrown in honor of what Jesus did and all that he accomplished. It wasn’t a great party, by the way.

1 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. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 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? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they remembered his words.

So here we have the beginnings of the party. Mary and some of the other women have gathered the spices and they’re going to the tomb where Jeuss has been buried. Now Jesus has already told them, “I’m going to die at the hands of sinful men, but then I’m going to rise. It’s going to be awesome.”

So they’re coming to the tomb with the expectation that Jesus is going to be risen, because he told them that. No. False statement. Not true at all. They knew what Jesus was going to do. He had told them. And when he said things that happened, he had never given them any reason to mistrust what he said. So when they come to the tomb with the spices to mourn and to grieve, and when they’re met with a stone rolled away, which was a miracle, and they’re met with the body not being there, which is a miracle, what it says is they were troubled and then they’re met with these men, angels, whose clothes look like lightning, and they’re going, “What are you doing here? Why are you looking for the living among the dead? Remember? Jesus told you what was going to happen. This is why you come to the party?”

And it says that they were very frightened by these guys. “Oh, this is even worse.” And he says “Don’t you remember? Jesus told you this, that this was going to be the greatest day in history. He told you all about it.” And then they remembered his words. That’s the summation of that part of the party. But maybe it gets better. At least you know, the disciples will get this right.

9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven …

Judas wasn’t there. He had taken his life.

…and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.

So these are Jesus’ guys. They’re ready to party. They know what Jesus said.

11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.

Jesus had told them. In fact, Jesus had been so clear on this fact that, actually, when Jesus went through all the different courts where he stood before all the different people, before going to the cross, as they were trying to figure out something wrong with him, as they were trying to pin crimes against him, one of the things they brought up is that he counted to talk about how, if you destroy the temple of his body that in three days he was gong to rebuild the temple. It was troubling. Even they knew what he was claiming to do. And here the eleven hear what these women have to say, they hear the message, the gospel being preached for the first time, and they’re like, “These women are crazy. These women don’t know what they’re talkinga about. They’re troubled. They’re blubbering, crying all the time.” I don’t know what they’re saying.

12 Peter, however,…

Come on now! Peter. He gets it right all the time.

… got up and ran to the tomb.

He was so moved. He’s like, “Let’s go to the party!”

Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

That’s what he must have done. And we know by their actions what the disciples did. They went into hiding. They were like, “This is not good. People are going to think we stole the body and they’re going to come after us. And they’re going to do to us what they did to Jesus.” And they hid. They were scared. They ran away.

When I read this and I think about today and what we’re supposed to do. It’s Easter. We’re celebrating that Jesus conquered sin and death. We’re celebrating that the gates of heaven got flung open wide to pieces of junk like you and me. All of our sin and all of our failing — what the resurrection was is Jesus saying, “I want all of you.” And the gates of heaven were flung wide open to you and me. No matter what we’ve done, no matter what we’re going to do, his righteousness can overcome all of our unrighteousness if we let him. This is a great day and we’re supposed to celebrate.

Like these disciples, we have the same problem. We are conditioned in this life against faith, against hope, and against joy. The heartbreaks that we experience in this life have caused our hearts to be so hardened. Sometimes we can even miss Jesus. Sometimes we can miss what he wants to do. Like I said, our fear does not give way to faith, it just stays as fear. And our heartbreak does not find its way to hope, it just remains heartbreak. Even with all the evidence that they saw, even though they were face to face with an empty tomb, they were face to face with angels declaring this, reminding them of what Jesus had already told them, they still had so much trouble believing.

I’ve been thinking about some images that came to mind as we were preparing for our Easter weekend, you know, some months ago. Trying to figure out what the Lord was wanting us to say and how to frame it all. One of the images that came to mind when we were thinking about it was I was remembering going with my family to QT one time. We were going to get some health food and stuff. It was by our house. We were walking down the sidewalk by Greenway. It was a busy street. It was summertime and it was hot. It was this concrete and asphalt everywhere.

As we were walking, I remember seeing through this tiny little crack there was this flower that had come up. Like, in the midst of the summer heat, so oppressive, in the midst of this concrete jungle and asphalt laid over everything, this flower was like, “What’s up?” And it was in full bloom. We have an image, and obviously this is more beautiful than the one that I saw. There was no filter on the one I saw.

I just was looking at it and it struck me like, “What a defiant little flower!” We did our best to just say, “You will not grow here.” And we laid out our concrete and asphalt just to make sure no life, nothing could get in the way. Yet this flower just had the audacity to just believe that what God had made it to do could happen in the midst of whatever situation it found itself in. And it just popped right up. And it was shining bright and it was beautiful.

God used that little flower to give me a little hope, that no matter what kind of hardness, no matter what I feel buried under, with Christ all things are possible. And the resurrection declares that it does not matter what the world, the devil and the flesh throw at me. What God has put in me can come into full bloom.

That’s the message for you. I don’t know what you’re buried under. Addiction, debt, heartbreak. If you allow Jesus in, he will come and you will experience this defiant hope rise up. This defiant faith in the midst of fear. A defiant joy at times.

There was another image that came to mind as I was thinking about this. I remember making a decision in my life that really just kind of ruined everything. I thought I was doing the right thing. I had done something and it really put me in a place where I was about to lose everything that I held dear. It was very heavy. I remember I was in a seminary class. I should have been listening but I didn’t listen that much in those classes. And I just started drawing this tree. I was so troubled, I just felt like all I could do was draw this tree. I drew this tree and making it as barren and dead looking as possible. Like, “This is how my soul feels.” As I was doing this, the one thing that I did learn in seminary is to hear God’s voice. I felt as I was drawing this tree with no leaves, I was making sure there wasn’t a leaf on it I kept hearing the Spirit of God saying, “:ut a leaf on that tree.” And I was like, “No. I’m not putting a leaf on this tree. I’m not feeling good about anything right now.” I was feeling the, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And it was real. It was like, “Put a leaf on it” I was like “No.” I was fighting with God . In the end, I was like, “Oh man.” And I had to put a leaf on. It was true. Even though outwardly and inwardly I was feeling crushed and so unsure and so uncertain and so insecure, I just still had this defiant drop of hope that I could not quite shake. It’s weird that I was even trying to. But I just could not shake it

I found this image later on. This is not what I drew. My tree was really lame looking. But I have this in my office to remember that moment where God wouldn’t let me give in. What is cool is I love this bird in this tree too, because it was like the Holy Spirit saying, “Put a leaf on that tree.” I had to wrestle with God but are enough, you know, hanging onto Jesus and allowing his hope to grow, that decision I made has actually turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. And God knew that. I did not. But he knew what was on the other side.

Then, even just more recently I was thinking at the beginning of this year, we had gotten through 2020. Whew. There’s a little celebration right there. 2020 you can’t come back (I don’t think). And 2021, we kicked it off and did our fasting season where we were just trying to get a hunger and a vision for the righteousness of God.

By the way, next week we’re starting a whole sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount. We’re going to hear from Jesus what he thinks justice and beauty is. So, if you aren’t going to a church somewhere, it’s time to get in here and get the word of God into you. And, oh, it’s going to be good.

I got done with that kickoff of the year and I remember going home, and, I’m always wiped out after Sunday mornings. And I usually about Monday afternoon start to bounce back. But this time, Monday afternoon came and went and there was no bounce. Then Tuesday, then Wednesday, then Thursday, and I was like, “Huh. This is different.” I was numb. Even in m prayer life there was no passion, no excitement. Thinking about preaching another message felt like death. I was just kind of stuck.

I had a picture. You know that bottle cap, once it’s pressed down, it stays down. I was depressed. I was like pressed down and couldn’t find any bounce back. It just kept going. Then what was crazy was, at some point, I thought, What if I never bounce back? And I know some of you who deal with depression, that’s kind of the cycle. Then once you get to that point where, Maybe I’ll never bounce back, there’s kind of a new level of depression that sets in.

It continued on for a few weeks. All I knew to do was to keep hanging on to Jesus. Then sure enough, I did bounce back. But I know some of you have been in that spot for a long time. But the resurrection’s message is there will always be a bounce back. There will always be a leaf on the tree. It doesn’t matter what kind of a thing you are buried under, Jesus can always bring out beauty and flowers.

That’s kind of been a little bit of a theme for our whole church. My daughter Bella, who’s had to overcome a lot of adversity, she was praying about this year 2021, and she said she still felt there was a lot of adversity, but there were flowers everywhere. So that’s been something we’ve continued to talk about. We’re looking for the flowers in the midst of the pain.

That’s that defiant hope, that defiant faith, that defiant joy that show up. And, sure enough, for the apostles, as they continued, they didn’t get it right away. They didn’t come to the party very well prepared. But Jesus showed up to them multiple times. Eventually they allowed their faith to overcome their fear. They allowed that hope to once gain come into that place where disappointment reigned. They allowed his joy to come and be his strength. And these men and women, because of that fact, not only were the now fearless, not only were they walking in triumph and victory in a very adverse situation, but their lives even became evidence to the resurrection.

Those that got to be around them and discipled by them, they followed suit, and their lives became evidence that Jesus is alive. And on and on and on and further and wider, until the gospel, the message that Jesus was alive had spread over the entire Roman Empire And there have been saints that have come throughout every generation from all over this world that have witnessed for themselves the evidence that Jesus is alive. And they have received it into themselves, experiencing a defiant hope and joy and love and peace that he brings. And one and on until today.

I’m just one person who can tell you stories of when my dad took his life and how the hope of God held like an anchor in my soul. And when my mom died of cancer way too young, and how the presence of God and the peace of God came. And how over time my heartbreak has turned into hope. It’s given way. And as the challenges continue to come, the presence of Christ in my life, the living Christ that I walk with day after day, that I carry my burdens to, that I receive from, it has given me what I need to continue to overcome in my battle with sin and temptation, to continue to overcome when fear comes banging down the door .

Last year it was so awesome to see all the people in this fellowship who were unwavered by all of the disruption and uncertainty that came upon us. So the offering is to you today. If you don't know Jesus, today is a great day to look at the evidence and to receive him, to allow your fear to give way to faith, to allow your pride to give way to surrender, so that he can come in and he can lead you on that path of the just that shines every brighter to the perfect day. And then, ultimately, the greatest joy of all is that one day, because of what Jesus did, we will die but that will only be giving us access to resurrection life.

Death no longer ends man’s story. But death is actually something that helps us get to fullness of life that Christ is preparing for us even now. And all of that can be yours. If you hear Jesus knocking on your heart, you can let him in and receive all that he has.

Let’s do that now. Let’s pray. If you’re on line or if you’re in person, I’m going to say a quick prayer and you can repeat it after me if you’re ready to say, “Jesus I need you. Jesus take control. Just repeat these words after me:

Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me. Thank you for dying for me. Thank you for rising from the dead for me. Please come and wash away all my sins. Please come and fill me with your Spirit. And help my heartbreak turn to hope. And help my fear turn to faith. And help my pride turn to holy surrender. And when I die, Jesus, please take me to be with you. Amen.

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