WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 So, we're going back to one of the four accounts of the resurrection in John's Gospel and it's 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:13.200 obviously our theme for today and it's one you'll not hear much new from me today, but 00:00:13.200 --> 00:00:17.519 I think it's always good to, as Christians, go back to the foundations of our faith and 00:00:17.519 --> 00:00:23.120 remind ourselves of why it is so significant for us. 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:27.480 You know, if you were to think or if you were to ask people what would be the single most 00:00:27.480 --> 00:00:32.359 important truth in your life or maybe in human history, there'd be all kinds of different 00:00:32.359 --> 00:00:33.920 answers for that, wouldn't there? 00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:39.120 Whether it would be personal or kind of more cosmic, if we call it that. 00:00:39.120 --> 00:00:43.480 It might be the most significant thing, well, you marry me. 00:00:43.480 --> 00:00:50.560 It may be it's a girl or you have a clean bill of health. 00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:52.600 I've doubled your salary. 00:00:52.600 --> 00:00:56.000 Dad, I love you. 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:58.600 You've won the holiday of a lifetime. 00:00:58.600 --> 00:01:01.799 Your cancer is not terminal. 00:01:01.799 --> 00:01:04.560 There is a vaccine. 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:07.680 A ceasefire has been announced. 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:09.079 The wall has come down. 00:01:09.079 --> 00:01:11.000 The king is dead. 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:14.640 Global warming has been reversed. 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:16.719 Mars can sustain human life. 00:01:16.719 --> 00:01:22.039 There's all kinds of really significant and important statements that we can make with 00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:27.680 regard to both the world in which we live and also our individual lives. 00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:37.040 And whatever we think, whatever our priorities lie, whatever choice, whether it's individual 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:46.040 or global, either way, there is absolutely no more significant truth universally than 00:01:46.040 --> 00:01:51.920 the gospel claim that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is Son of God. 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:54.600 Son of God is risen from the dead. 00:01:54.600 --> 00:02:02.680 That is the single most, both personal and cosmic claim of the gospel because it implicates 00:02:02.680 --> 00:02:04.719 every single life. 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:12.000 It implicates every single human being because it deals with something that is a reality 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:14.759 in all of our lives. 00:02:14.759 --> 00:02:19.400 If you're not a Christian today and maybe you're watching online for the first time, 00:02:19.400 --> 00:02:24.760 it's Easter Sunday and you've plugged into a church service, at least I'm asking and 00:02:24.760 --> 00:02:33.120 challenge you to at least face up to the claim of Jesus Christ and to face up to this most 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:38.879 significant of facts that we've begun our worship with, He is risen. 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:45.240 And as Christians, we're continually reminded as believers to live in the light of this 00:02:45.240 --> 00:02:46.240 reality. 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:50.920 We should change how you rise from this church building today. 00:02:50.920 --> 00:02:53.280 Should change how you wake up tomorrow morning. 00:02:53.280 --> 00:03:00.040 Should change the reactions and the lives that we live in the world in which we live. 00:03:00.040 --> 00:03:04.920 So the resurrection of Jesus is well worth returning to for a few moments this morning. 00:03:04.920 --> 00:03:09.000 And what we notice in the gospel of John and the account that we've read together, and 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:15.000 indeed the same in all the gospels, it's presented, it's not presented as myth, it's not presented 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:19.879 as a spiritual reality that might encourage us to think about future life. 00:03:19.879 --> 00:03:23.240 It is presented as historical fact. 00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:26.439 That's the significance and importance of the gospel accounts. 00:03:26.439 --> 00:03:31.360 There is physically an empty tomb that they go and check out. 00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:37.360 There is angelic confirmation, which means that there's also a spiritual element to what 00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:38.800 is going on. 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:45.040 And there's a physical Jesus in the account of the resurrection, different undoubtedly, 00:03:45.040 --> 00:03:50.160 certainly, but there's visible scars that he asks people to look at and to touch and 00:03:50.160 --> 00:03:57.720 to see the wound in his side, fresh anew from the just the previous three days. 00:03:57.720 --> 00:04:03.200 And in each instance that he meets with people in this chapter that we read, we're told 00:04:03.200 --> 00:04:05.120 that they have seen him. 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:06.720 There's eyewitnesses. 00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:10.400 They have seen the Lord in verse 18. 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:12.639 We have that when he first sees them. 00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:16.959 He says on that first day, the disciples were for fear of Jesus, Jesus came, stood among 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:19.439 them and said to them, peace be with you. 00:04:19.439 --> 00:04:26.439 And they had, they saw him and they saw his hands and his side. 00:04:26.439 --> 00:04:31.399 And then as well in verse 20, they were glad that they had seen the Lord. 00:04:31.399 --> 00:04:36.680 And in verse 29 again with Thomas, Jesus said, have you believed because you've seen me. 00:04:36.680 --> 00:04:42.280 So there's this very physical factual reality of a risen savior. 00:04:42.280 --> 00:04:43.480 Mary thought it was a gardener. 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:45.639 Now the gardener wasn't a spook gardener. 00:04:45.639 --> 00:04:49.720 Wasn't a, wasn't a ghost gardener was a real person. 00:04:49.720 --> 00:04:53.519 And she thought she'd seen a gardener when it was Jesus. 00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:57.879 When Jesus said her, don't touch me because he wasn't a spirit. 00:04:57.879 --> 00:05:04.040 He was a physical reality that she was discouraged from touching, which we're not going to look 00:05:04.040 --> 00:05:06.519 at that and go into that this morning. 00:05:06.519 --> 00:05:14.199 And these physical factual accounts that we are given are preceded of course by the facts 00:05:14.199 --> 00:05:21.919 of his death, both the torture and the spear and the nails and the embalming and the time 00:05:21.919 --> 00:05:25.279 that he remained in the tomb. 00:05:25.279 --> 00:05:30.839 It's all given as cold, real facts for us. 00:05:30.839 --> 00:05:37.759 And that's important, the facts of the gospel because we and the visibility of that. 00:05:37.759 --> 00:05:43.079 That's important because that's what we see and what we recognize in the reality of death 00:05:43.079 --> 00:05:45.719 and life ourselves. 00:05:45.719 --> 00:05:47.839 There's a visuality about it. 00:05:47.839 --> 00:05:53.519 If that's a real word, there's a visuality and death and the fact of death. 00:05:53.519 --> 00:05:56.679 You know, there's a, there's a cold, lifeless body. 00:05:56.680 --> 00:06:01.800 There's a finality about the grave and about the separation. 00:06:01.800 --> 00:06:03.519 There's the atrophy towards dust. 00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:06.600 There's the, but there's the disintegration even before that. 00:06:06.600 --> 00:06:07.600 There's the illness. 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:09.280 There's the failing eyesight that I have. 00:06:09.280 --> 00:06:11.079 There's the weakening muscles. 00:06:11.079 --> 00:06:12.600 There's the balding head. 00:06:12.600 --> 00:06:13.600 There's going death. 00:06:13.600 --> 00:06:15.079 There's Alzheimer's. 00:06:15.079 --> 00:06:21.699 The decomposition of health and strength and vitality, the separations, the relational 00:06:21.699 --> 00:06:25.759 separations from one another and the friendships that are broken. 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:33.079 There's a, there's a, there's a factual reality in all of these things and in life and death. 00:06:33.079 --> 00:06:39.360 And that spiritually is spoken into in the gospels and into the life of Jesus who says 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:43.199 that there's a spiritual dimension to all of that reality. 00:06:43.199 --> 00:06:49.800 And of course, we know that's not believed universally, but in the, in the reality of 00:06:49.800 --> 00:06:55.560 death, there's a separation of body and soul, the relational separation from the author 00:06:55.560 --> 00:06:59.240 of life, from the author of life of God himself. 00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:07.840 The final outworking of something that's been present from our birth, a relational separation 00:07:07.840 --> 00:07:09.280 from the living God. 00:07:09.280 --> 00:07:13.720 So there's that moral aspect to death that our sins separates us from the living God. 00:07:13.720 --> 00:07:17.199 The judgment on our human condition. 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:24.759 There's that fragility, the confusion and the darkness of our experiences in life that 00:07:24.759 --> 00:07:30.680 are more than just tangible and real, but our spiritual dimension to them. 00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:34.839 Now, that sounds very gloomy and do, you know, there's a lot of love and there's a lot of 00:07:34.839 --> 00:07:40.920 laughter and there's a lot of beauty in the world in which we live as well. 00:07:40.920 --> 00:07:46.240 Reflecting the reality of God's goodness and grace, but it's simply whispers, isn't it? 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:48.439 It's simply fading beauty. 00:07:48.439 --> 00:07:51.319 And each of us, all of us crave these better moments. 00:07:51.319 --> 00:07:53.519 We crave these best moments of life. 00:07:53.519 --> 00:07:59.319 We love them, we cherish them so much, but we know that they never last. 00:07:59.319 --> 00:08:01.000 We are aware of that. 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:05.159 And there's a longing in humanity for something more, isn't there? 00:08:05.159 --> 00:08:08.159 For something more tangible for something that lasts. 00:08:08.159 --> 00:08:13.039 I would argue, and I may be wrong here, but I would argue that maybe even the most stringent 00:08:13.039 --> 00:08:22.879 unbeliever who believes only in what there is in this world senses that need to be good 00:08:22.879 --> 00:08:30.120 enough, senses this longing for vindication and for justice and for beauty to last and 00:08:30.120 --> 00:08:38.399 for beauty to remain and for love not to be broken, and even recognizes that suppression 00:08:38.399 --> 00:08:44.120 of God within all the God to whom one day we're all accountable. 00:08:44.120 --> 00:08:47.559 That's spiritual reality in all of us. 00:08:47.559 --> 00:08:52.959 And I think that's sometimes when you talk about sharing our faith and sometimes it's 00:08:52.959 --> 00:08:57.199 very difficult to do that and we feel guilty maybe about that because people might say 00:08:57.199 --> 00:08:59.759 to us, well, it's good news, it's great news. 00:08:59.759 --> 00:09:02.159 Why are you feel bad about that? 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:07.599 It's, you know, if you have a wedding in the family or a new baby or a new job or something, 00:09:07.599 --> 00:09:09.839 it's good news and you tell everyone and everyone's happy. 00:09:09.839 --> 00:09:11.239 Why is it any different with the gospel? 00:09:11.239 --> 00:09:16.879 Well, the difference with the gospel is because there's this recognition that there's a God 00:09:16.879 --> 00:09:22.000 that we don't want to deal with and when it is brought up, even as good news, we say, 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:23.879 well, we really don't want to deal with that. 00:09:23.879 --> 00:09:33.820 We suppress that knowledge and there's that great sense of God's alienation from God. 00:09:33.820 --> 00:09:42.360 So we have the facts of the death and resurrection of Jesus. 00:09:42.360 --> 00:09:45.559 They are reflected in our lives and in the facts of the life around us. 00:09:45.559 --> 00:09:53.199 And that fact of Jesus' resurrection that's spoken of here as fact is hugely significant, 00:09:53.199 --> 00:10:00.639 is vital because it seals all his life and all his teaching, doesn't it? 00:10:00.639 --> 00:10:06.479 If the fact of the resurrection is true that Jesus rose from the dead on the other side 00:10:06.479 --> 00:10:13.439 of death, then it seals everything that he said before that and it seals his claims to 00:10:13.439 --> 00:10:14.439 us. 00:10:14.440 --> 00:10:19.000 And so ultimately, it's not a question of whether we like it or not. 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:22.080 It's a question of whether he rose or not. 00:10:22.080 --> 00:10:23.400 That is the crucial question. 00:10:23.400 --> 00:10:30.200 That's the crucial reality for us and all his claims that go with that, that there's 00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:36.280 a spiritual reality to death and there's a separation and an enslavement in death that 00:10:36.280 --> 00:10:41.160 he has come to deal with and he has come to put right. 00:10:41.159 --> 00:10:47.000 And his resurrection therefore is not so much at one level, it's not so much about 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:50.919 Jesus, it's about us. 00:10:50.919 --> 00:10:57.039 It's about our problem and our reality and our judgment which Jesus came to deal with 00:10:57.039 --> 00:10:59.559 on the cross. 00:10:59.559 --> 00:11:04.839 An issue that we are powerless to deal with on our own. 00:11:04.840 --> 00:11:12.240 So in many ways Christ is saying in his resurrection, death is not my reality. 00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:14.120 It's not my reality. 00:11:14.120 --> 00:11:17.080 I'm God the Son. 00:11:17.080 --> 00:11:19.920 I have never rejected the Father. 00:11:19.920 --> 00:11:24.720 There is no separation between me and the Father, no sin that would cause estrangement between 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:25.720 me and the Father. 00:11:25.720 --> 00:11:27.680 I and the Father are one. 00:11:27.680 --> 00:11:30.480 We're in this loving relationship together. 00:11:30.480 --> 00:11:32.000 I'm the author of life. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:35.679 Life he says belongs to me. 00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:39.000 Death is not my reality. 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:47.399 But he says I have taken your death and I have taken your place and I have taken your 00:11:47.399 --> 00:11:57.240 sin and I have taken your guilt and I have experienced your death on the cross and I've 00:11:57.240 --> 00:11:59.279 paid the price. 00:11:59.279 --> 00:12:07.120 So that in his resurrection that we might know his life and his forgiveness and his 00:12:07.120 --> 00:12:14.120 hope and his future and he does that he says because I love you. 00:12:14.120 --> 00:12:15.120 It's as simple as that. 00:12:15.120 --> 00:12:18.159 Now have you graduated beyond that? 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:20.279 Are you tired of hearing that? 00:12:20.279 --> 00:12:27.000 Is it a message that no longer sparks within us a sense of awe and wonder and release and 00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:31.360 freedom and hope? 00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:39.080 Christ is reminding us that the power, spiritual power of darkness and death is lost from all 00:12:39.080 --> 00:12:41.799 who will put their trust on him. 00:12:41.799 --> 00:12:47.679 And the facts of that matter that you go back to that and that I go back to that is significant 00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:55.399 and important because it is declared as fact and it is presented as fact that we have a 00:12:55.399 --> 00:13:01.559 resurrected Savior and as we trust in him that we too, even though the Bible says we 00:13:01.559 --> 00:13:04.039 die, we too will live. 00:13:04.039 --> 00:13:11.799 We will know that resurrection bodily, physically and into the new heavens and new earth. 00:13:11.799 --> 00:13:17.039 So the fact of the resurrection is very important and it is accompanied in this chapter by a 00:13:17.039 --> 00:13:20.679 very powerful message. 00:13:20.679 --> 00:13:29.799 So in the resurrection of Jesus 2,000 years ago, it's a doorway for us to find many realities 00:13:29.799 --> 00:13:35.079 in our lives but I'm going to pick out two from this chapter particularly that the fact 00:13:35.079 --> 00:13:44.000 of the resurrection as we entrust our lives to the Christ who is raised makes a difference. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:45.479 And I think they're very significant things. 00:13:45.479 --> 00:13:47.959 The first is peace. 00:13:47.960 --> 00:13:54.600 You notice and I've often said this from here that when the Bible in one place says things 00:13:54.600 --> 00:13:58.960 repeatedly it's important. 00:13:58.960 --> 00:14:03.879 So when God decides that we really, really need to hear something, he'll say it more 00:14:03.879 --> 00:14:04.879 than once. 00:14:04.879 --> 00:14:11.240 And in this short passage that Esther read, three times Jesus in his dealings with the 00:14:11.240 --> 00:14:14.759 disciples and others says, peace with you. 00:14:14.759 --> 00:14:22.639 In verse 19, he says it to them on that day when he came to meet with the disciples in 00:14:22.639 --> 00:14:25.960 the door being locked because they were afraid of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them 00:14:25.960 --> 00:14:30.039 and said, peace be with you. 00:14:30.039 --> 00:14:32.559 And in verse 21 he repeated it. 00:14:32.559 --> 00:14:38.879 Jesus said to them again, he said to them again, peace be with you. 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:45.679 And then in verse 26 when he was dealing with Thomas and Thomas then was in the room with 00:14:45.679 --> 00:14:50.399 the disciples the second time, he says to them all, peace be with you. 00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:52.759 You know, he doesn't just say peace. 00:14:52.759 --> 00:14:54.720 He doesn't say, hey, peace brother. 00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:57.399 He says, peace be on you. 00:14:57.399 --> 00:15:00.559 This is the fruit of the resurrection. 00:15:00.559 --> 00:15:07.320 It's the reality of what Jesus offers to those who are afraid or guilty or lost when they 00:15:07.320 --> 00:15:09.400 put their trust in him. 00:15:09.400 --> 00:15:13.640 God the Son says, peace with you. 00:15:13.640 --> 00:15:15.920 That every believer. 00:15:15.920 --> 00:15:21.720 Now, the word that's used for peace here is a Greek word from which we get the English 00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:23.720 word, ironic. 00:15:23.720 --> 00:15:27.040 It's not a word we use very much today. 00:15:27.040 --> 00:15:28.360 It's a nice word. 00:15:28.360 --> 00:15:31.160 It's a nice sounding word, ironic, I think. 00:15:31.160 --> 00:15:36.280 And if you're an ironic person, you're a conciliatory person. 00:15:36.279 --> 00:15:40.600 You're someone who seeks to make peace. 00:15:40.600 --> 00:15:41.799 It's not a word. 00:15:41.799 --> 00:15:44.879 It's an adjective that's used very often. 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:51.759 But that's, it's about, it really means bringing together something that's been a part. 00:15:51.759 --> 00:16:00.000 It's the peace of restored unity, of relationship, of healing, that ironic. 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:02.600 It's the wholeness that Jesus is speaking about here. 00:16:02.600 --> 00:16:07.399 It's really the same as the Hebrew word that we often speak about, shalom. 00:16:07.399 --> 00:16:11.960 It's not just speaking about the absence of war or such. 00:16:11.960 --> 00:16:13.960 But there's a wholeness about it. 00:16:13.960 --> 00:16:19.440 There's a spiritual dimension to it, as well as a relational dimension. 00:16:19.440 --> 00:16:26.800 And Jesus is saying, my resurrection is the gateway to this experience of peace in your 00:16:26.800 --> 00:16:27.800 life. 00:16:27.799 --> 00:16:34.279 And play that vertical peace with God, so that He can say, peace, be with you, because 00:16:34.279 --> 00:16:40.639 the relationship between God, the fracture between ourselves and God is healed for everyone 00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:45.199 who puts their trust in Jesus, because the cause of that fracture has been dealt with 00:16:45.199 --> 00:16:48.199 by Jesus and the cross. 00:16:48.199 --> 00:16:53.839 Through Christ, through His resurrection, and our trust in Him, we are united with God 00:16:53.839 --> 00:16:56.639 and eternal life. 00:16:56.639 --> 00:16:59.039 Can I just make a practical application? 00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:02.919 Because the spiritual application is easy, and your eyes glaze over because you say, 00:17:02.919 --> 00:17:03.919 yeah, I know that. 00:17:03.919 --> 00:17:04.920 I've heard all that before. 00:17:04.920 --> 00:17:07.279 I'm peace with God through Jesus Christ. 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:13.319 But you know, there's a horizontal aspect as Christians to this peace, as well, is that 00:17:13.319 --> 00:17:26.480 with the life of Christ in our hearts, we have a motivation and a power to enact peace. 00:17:26.480 --> 00:17:29.480 In our relationships. 00:17:29.480 --> 00:17:36.759 And we are to have that focus and motivation as peace lovers in our lives. 00:17:36.759 --> 00:17:42.480 Now, I'm not talking about going in the front line with a white flag. 00:17:42.480 --> 00:17:45.759 I'm talking about with your husband and wife. 00:17:45.759 --> 00:17:48.319 I'm talking about with your children. 00:17:48.319 --> 00:17:56.480 I'm talking about with our colleagues, that we have this sense of peace, that sense of 00:17:56.480 --> 00:17:57.960 bringing people together. 00:17:57.960 --> 00:17:58.960 That's our task. 00:17:58.960 --> 00:17:59.960 It's part of our role. 00:17:59.960 --> 00:18:04.879 It's both to be peacemakers and peace inspires. 00:18:04.879 --> 00:18:06.079 That's what we're to be in the office. 00:18:06.079 --> 00:18:09.119 I know things are different just now with COVID and everything else. 00:18:09.119 --> 00:18:10.839 We're not seeing people as much. 00:18:10.839 --> 00:18:20.319 But when we do and when that comes to being the case, we're to be those who are not at 00:18:20.319 --> 00:18:24.799 the expense of justice and not at the expense of truth, but we're to be those who with hearts 00:18:24.799 --> 00:18:27.959 of grace seek to reconcile. 00:18:27.959 --> 00:18:30.000 We are ironic people. 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:37.319 We are people who are to draw the divisions and the separations that we find sometimes 00:18:37.319 --> 00:18:42.960 in our own lives, sometimes in our own marriages, sometimes in our own families, sometimes in 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:43.960 our own workplaces. 00:18:43.960 --> 00:18:49.359 We're to bring them to the living God in Christ. 00:18:49.359 --> 00:18:54.039 So the powerful message of peace, peace I give to you, he says, it's your gift. 00:18:54.039 --> 00:18:55.039 It's for you. 00:18:55.039 --> 00:18:57.579 And it's the message of the gospel. 00:18:57.579 --> 00:19:01.240 But related to that also is forgiveness. 00:19:01.240 --> 00:19:05.639 Now, the two are not indistinct and they're not separated either. 00:19:05.640 --> 00:19:10.600 But we find there in verse 23, where Jesus is speaking to the disciples. 00:19:10.600 --> 00:19:12.520 He says, receive the Holy Spirit. 00:19:12.520 --> 00:19:15.240 If you forgive the sins of any there, forgive them. 00:19:15.240 --> 00:19:17.680 If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. 00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:25.960 And this embryonic very early revelation of the New Testament church, the founders of 00:19:25.960 --> 00:19:33.000 the New Testament church, Jesus is bestowing on them the significant role of being those 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:38.599 who bring the message of forgiveness and who declare that forgiveness in Jesus' name. 00:19:38.599 --> 00:19:46.079 Now in Matthew 26 verse 28, we have Jesus saying the same thing. 00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:51.759 This is in the context of the Lord's Supper intimately related to remember the Lord's 00:19:51.759 --> 00:19:54.000 Supper is not just about the death of Jesus. 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:56.119 We're not remembering a dead person. 00:19:56.119 --> 00:20:01.440 It's do this in remembrance of me for as often as you can until I come to recognize that 00:20:01.440 --> 00:20:03.080 he's a living Savior. 00:20:03.080 --> 00:20:06.400 But at that time, he said, for this is the blood of my covenant, which is poured out 00:20:06.400 --> 00:20:09.720 for many for the forgiveness of sins. 00:20:09.720 --> 00:20:15.720 And then again in Acts 2, that great Pentecostal sermon that Peter preached, he said to them, 00:20:15.720 --> 00:20:17.440 repent and be baptized. 00:20:17.440 --> 00:20:20.680 Probably many of them who were there were the ones that previously a few days earlier 00:20:20.680 --> 00:20:22.960 had cried, crucify him. 00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:24.519 Crucify him. 00:20:24.519 --> 00:20:28.000 Repent and be baptized everyone in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:33.960 sins and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of your sins. 00:20:33.960 --> 00:20:41.039 So there's this hugely significant reality that comes from the resurrection, the fact 00:20:41.039 --> 00:20:48.119 of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is that he can declare forgiveness on us when we 00:20:48.119 --> 00:20:50.519 put our trust in him and ask him to take away our sins. 00:20:50.519 --> 00:20:51.519 Why? 00:20:51.519 --> 00:20:54.279 Because he's paid the price and because he knows it. 00:20:54.279 --> 00:20:56.799 He knows every single one of them who's paid the price. 00:20:56.799 --> 00:20:59.759 He's borne the weight of them on his own shoulders. 00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:01.000 Justice has been served. 00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:03.079 He can't pay that price again. 00:21:03.079 --> 00:21:05.119 God is pleased with his son. 00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:10.599 He raises him as that seal on his work. 00:21:10.599 --> 00:21:12.639 This is God's divine wish. 00:21:12.639 --> 00:21:16.839 There is no plan B. This is what God has ordained on. 00:21:16.839 --> 00:21:18.960 That is the claim of the gospel. 00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:22.079 That is why the facts of the resurrection matter. 00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:26.680 It's not some kind of woolly thing that just makes us think, oh, I'd be nice just to, yeah, 00:21:26.680 --> 00:21:32.240 Easter time with bunnies and with daffodils and resurrection and Easter time and spring. 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:35.039 It's not just saying that. 00:21:35.039 --> 00:21:43.039 It's saying something far more profound and deeper that's at the heart of the universe. 00:21:43.039 --> 00:21:49.320 That these words he has risen is, are the three words at the heart of the universe. 00:21:49.320 --> 00:21:55.680 And the reality that in this act of Christ alone is forgiveness. 00:21:55.680 --> 00:21:58.200 We all fall short. 00:21:58.200 --> 00:22:01.480 We all die. 00:22:01.480 --> 00:22:09.560 Part of that, all of that has the spiritual reality of separation from life. 00:22:09.560 --> 00:22:14.240 And he says, you're forgiven. 00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:15.480 You're forgiven. 00:22:15.480 --> 00:22:17.519 You're free. 00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:20.320 The weight has been taken off. 00:22:20.320 --> 00:22:24.240 Before the greatest judge of all, you're innocent. 00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:26.720 You're innocent. 00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:29.799 And again, that's a great spiritual truth that we take. 00:22:29.799 --> 00:22:33.400 He can't prove that, can you? 00:22:33.400 --> 00:22:39.400 You don't have a document that says you're forgiven, that you can show to everyone. 00:22:39.400 --> 00:22:44.920 But we believe it by faith and we respond to the claims of the gospel and the facts of 00:22:44.920 --> 00:22:45.920 the resurrection. 00:22:45.920 --> 00:22:55.320 But can I say, you can prove it, not so much with that vertical declaration which we accept 00:22:55.320 --> 00:23:02.039 by faith, but in the way you treat other people and the heart of forgiveness that you have 00:23:02.039 --> 00:23:05.080 and that I have for other people. 00:23:05.080 --> 00:23:13.440 The fact of the resurrection that Jesus says, he is risen, empowers you and indeed gives 00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:21.440 you the responsibility not to be a grudge-bearer, not to be embittered, not to have a long memory 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:27.680 of the failings of others and a short memory at your own. 00:23:27.680 --> 00:23:35.559 Empowers you to deal with the hurt and the pain that causes you grief and division. 00:23:35.559 --> 00:23:43.000 You're empowered to forgive others and to release them from that sense of guilt in their 00:23:43.000 --> 00:23:45.319 relationship with you. 00:23:45.319 --> 00:23:50.960 Forgiveness in, again, the same things, in marriage, in the home, in the workplace, that 00:23:50.960 --> 00:23:55.359 we are known, that we are recognized as people who are forgiving. 00:23:55.359 --> 00:23:59.079 No, that's not cheap. 00:23:59.079 --> 00:24:01.359 That is costly. 00:24:01.359 --> 00:24:03.720 But we're empowered so to do. 00:24:03.720 --> 00:24:09.000 That is the characteristic of this church, it should be, isn't it? 00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:12.240 We should be a peace-loving, forgiving people. 00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:19.839 That is what we should be known as, primarily and almost exclusively. 00:24:19.839 --> 00:24:22.799 These are offered. 00:24:22.799 --> 00:24:25.120 This is the powerful message that Jesus brings. 00:24:25.120 --> 00:24:32.519 And of course, in conclusion, we know that the facts of the resurrection and the purpose 00:24:32.519 --> 00:24:38.799 of Jesus require us to take a step of faith to entrust our lives to Him. 00:24:38.799 --> 00:24:40.920 Now, it's not blind faith. 00:24:40.920 --> 00:24:42.680 That's why we're given facts. 00:24:42.680 --> 00:24:43.680 That's why it's recorded. 00:24:43.680 --> 00:24:45.920 That's why there's all these manuscripts. 00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:54.360 That's why the Gospels focus so much attention on the last week of Jesus' life. 00:24:54.360 --> 00:24:56.240 It's not blind faith. 00:24:56.240 --> 00:25:00.800 We can apply reason to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:25:00.800 --> 00:25:08.000 There's a consciousness that we can recognize, a morality that is offered, an image bearing 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:11.079 that reflects what we're like as people. 00:25:11.079 --> 00:25:14.359 There's reason and there's reality. 00:25:14.359 --> 00:25:17.240 There's reality of looking around us, isn't there? 00:25:17.240 --> 00:25:19.559 You know that something's wrong. 00:25:19.559 --> 00:25:22.359 Everyone knows that something's wrong. 00:25:22.359 --> 00:25:29.640 There's beauty and there's love and there's life, but there's loss and there's fear and 00:25:29.640 --> 00:25:32.160 there's doubt. 00:25:32.160 --> 00:25:37.079 And the facts of the resurrection speak into that reality and into the reason that God has 00:25:37.079 --> 00:25:43.319 given us, the reason as in our mind's reasoning. 00:25:43.319 --> 00:25:49.319 And you've got the fact of the changed lives, transformed lives of millions of people over 00:25:49.319 --> 00:25:54.480 20 centuries. 00:25:54.480 --> 00:25:57.679 And it's important for us to recognize that. 00:25:57.679 --> 00:26:06.519 This morning on the 70s of prayer, which we do twice a year and we do it primarily to 00:26:06.519 --> 00:26:10.599 gather together and pray for the people we know and love who don't know Jesus Christ 00:26:10.599 --> 00:26:12.440 that God will open their hearts. 00:26:12.440 --> 00:26:15.839 And we started that this morning and I really encourage you to say a little bit more at 00:26:15.839 --> 00:26:17.200 the end just to do that. 00:26:17.200 --> 00:26:20.839 But today, each day we're going to have a short testimony of someone who's become a 00:26:20.839 --> 00:26:26.000 Christian because it's just a nice reminder of what we're doing and why we're doing it. 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:30.279 And today was great because today it was the testimony of someone who's been a Christian 00:26:30.279 --> 00:26:37.119 for over 40 years who became a Christian as a 16-year-old here in St. Columbus. 00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:38.119 Okay? 00:26:38.119 --> 00:26:43.240 And then has been away from St. Columbus and other places and other churches for 40 years 00:26:43.240 --> 00:26:50.399 and is now back as one of the core church planters in Winchborough, a plant of St. Columbus 00:26:50.399 --> 00:26:51.879 free church. 00:26:51.879 --> 00:26:57.200 And God was working 40 years ago now, whoever would have tried, whoever, the God's way ahead 00:26:57.200 --> 00:26:58.839 of us in all of these things. 00:26:58.839 --> 00:27:02.679 And that's encouraging, it's encouraging for us to have heard that this morning that God 00:27:02.679 --> 00:27:08.359 knew about the church planning movement that would happen in St. Columbus 40 years after 00:27:08.359 --> 00:27:10.720 Will Start's conversion. 00:27:10.720 --> 00:27:16.359 So we see and we have evidences of God at work in many different ways and we're called 00:27:16.359 --> 00:27:17.359 to believe. 00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:22.959 In verse 29, Jesus says it to Thomas who's doubting, isn't he? 00:27:22.959 --> 00:27:26.559 He says, you know, have you believed because you've seen me? 00:27:26.559 --> 00:27:31.359 Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. 00:27:31.359 --> 00:27:35.000 And also John himself, the whole purpose of the book that he's written, he said, these 00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:36.319 things are written. 00:27:36.319 --> 00:27:38.119 This is why I've written it. 00:27:38.119 --> 00:27:43.720 He says so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing 00:27:43.720 --> 00:27:46.039 you might have life in His name. 00:27:46.039 --> 00:27:54.759 So believing is a critical step in coming to terms with the facts of the resurrection. 00:27:54.759 --> 00:27:58.400 It's not good enough just to be aware of the facts. 00:27:58.400 --> 00:28:05.519 We have to entrust our lives to what these facts demonstrate about the person of Christ. 00:28:05.519 --> 00:28:09.519 And you need, if you're not a Christian as you're watching today, you need a turn to 00:28:09.519 --> 00:28:10.519 God. 00:28:10.519 --> 00:28:11.519 I'm asking you to do that. 00:28:11.519 --> 00:28:16.960 I'm asking you to speak to Him, to entrust yourself to the fact that He's alive, that 00:28:16.960 --> 00:28:18.640 He's ascended. 00:28:18.640 --> 00:28:20.720 Confess your need to Him. 00:28:20.720 --> 00:28:28.920 Put His love and the free offer of eternal life that He gives and recognize that initial 00:28:28.920 --> 00:28:37.160 relationship of peace and forgiveness being restored and live it then from day to day 00:28:37.160 --> 00:28:38.160 in your life. 00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:39.160 It's a gift. 00:28:39.160 --> 00:28:42.000 It's a gift. 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:44.000 We don't need to earn it before Him. 00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:45.160 It's an absolute gift. 00:28:45.160 --> 00:28:51.040 Let's drop all pretense of being good enough on our own because death silences that claim, 00:28:51.040 --> 00:28:53.200 doesn't it? 00:28:53.200 --> 00:28:58.720 And only in Christ is there life that isn't dying. 00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:03.480 So the Bible says we are being renewed day by day. 00:29:03.480 --> 00:29:07.519 So physically there is a deterioration and a death. 00:29:07.519 --> 00:29:17.799 So there's a new and one day there will be a reconstitution marvelously, physically, 00:29:17.799 --> 00:29:18.799 of our bodies. 00:29:18.799 --> 00:29:24.000 So believe and also bring others to believe as well. 00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:26.279 That's the task of the church, isn't it? 00:29:26.279 --> 00:29:32.920 To, I don't mean a church as an institution as such, but I mean us as individuals, as part 00:29:32.920 --> 00:29:35.000 of the church and as communities. 00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:40.960 In verse 21, Jesus says to them, peace be with you, as the Father has sent me so even 00:29:40.960 --> 00:29:42.839 I am sending you. 00:29:42.839 --> 00:29:51.200 So there's like a great kind of partnership with the divine tasks that the Father sent 00:29:51.200 --> 00:29:58.960 the Son and so also Jesus then sends us as believers to bring others to believe. 00:29:58.960 --> 00:30:05.559 Isn't that great that we are ambassadors of Jesus and as Jesus obeyed and being sent 00:30:05.559 --> 00:30:09.160 by the Father so we obey Jesus and being sent by Him. 00:30:09.160 --> 00:30:13.759 And then we send people, where do we send them? 00:30:13.759 --> 00:30:16.000 We send them to Jesus. 00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:17.000 We send them back to Jesus. 00:30:17.000 --> 00:30:20.079 What are we probably, we bring them to Jesus, might be a better word. 00:30:20.079 --> 00:30:22.120 We don't stand here and say, I will go to Jesus. 00:30:22.120 --> 00:30:23.600 We bring them to Jesus. 00:30:23.599 --> 00:30:31.039 We introduce our friends to Jesus and so send our friends to Jesus and introduce them. 00:30:31.039 --> 00:30:34.159 That's the greatest challenge, isn't it? 00:30:34.159 --> 00:30:40.519 The greatest challenge we face, pleading and leading as believers. 00:30:40.519 --> 00:30:43.439 That's our role in evangelism. 00:30:43.439 --> 00:30:46.240 Every one of us, it's pleading and leading. 00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:50.799 That's why we do the seven days of prayer and I hope, I just hope we never get bored 00:30:50.799 --> 00:30:51.799 of doing it. 00:30:51.799 --> 00:30:54.559 That it's the place where we do the pleading. 00:30:54.559 --> 00:30:55.680 Because it has to be, doesn't it? 00:30:55.680 --> 00:31:01.759 Because we need Christ and we need God to work, to bring people to faith and we need 00:31:01.759 --> 00:31:05.039 God to work in people's lives. 00:31:05.039 --> 00:31:07.559 But we're also to be leading. 00:31:07.559 --> 00:31:17.079 We're to be provoking, challenging, forgiving, being peace lovers, sharing, even when that's 00:31:17.079 --> 00:31:22.519 difficult, even when we know sometimes that it's not what people necessarily want to hear. 00:31:22.519 --> 00:31:32.960 But we pray that in love and grace that the barriers that they face to Jesus will be unlocked 00:31:32.960 --> 00:31:38.000 by the love we show and by the power of Christ at work in their hearts. 00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:42.720 So I plead with you to be a pleading people. 00:31:42.720 --> 00:31:43.720 Come along if you can. 00:31:43.720 --> 00:31:47.759 Even if you can only come to one of the seven days of prayer, half seven in the morning, 00:31:47.759 --> 00:31:53.519 there will be a testimony each day and a time just to pray for our friends. 00:31:53.519 --> 00:31:56.360 Where else can we go? 00:31:56.360 --> 00:32:01.600 We have the greatest news in the world that He has risen. 00:32:01.600 --> 00:32:11.400 Has it transformed our lives so that we are people that other people look at and want 00:32:11.400 --> 00:32:13.880 a bit of what we've got? 00:32:13.880 --> 00:32:14.880 Let's pray. 00:32:14.880 --> 00:32:21.480 Father God, help us to be people who look more like you every day and we thank you that 00:32:21.480 --> 00:32:24.360 you forgive us and you don't hold us guilty. 00:32:24.360 --> 00:32:29.320 You don't expect us to be world changers in our own strength or in our own ability. 00:32:29.320 --> 00:32:34.680 But you simply ask us to trust you and to love you and to love others. 00:32:34.680 --> 00:32:40.880 And as we love others with the love of Christ, it will clearly provoke in them questions 00:32:40.880 --> 00:32:47.000 as we are ironic and as we are forgiving. 00:32:47.000 --> 00:32:49.720 That will provoke questions in other people. 00:32:49.720 --> 00:32:55.640 There is no doubt about that because we live in days where there is much tension, much 00:32:55.640 --> 00:33:02.720 separation and division, much heartache and pain and bitterness and division. 00:33:02.720 --> 00:33:06.720 Help us to live out who we are. 00:33:06.720 --> 00:33:16.200 God in our hearts, Lord also in our homes and then in the church and also in our workplaces 00:33:16.200 --> 00:33:23.759 and in our neighborhoods that we might live out the life of Christ wherever we are. 00:33:23.759 --> 00:33:39.079 In Jesus' name, Amen.