WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.740 Please turn back with me to Matthew chapter 28, a well-known passage to us, a very important 00:00:08.740 --> 00:00:11.160 and significant one. 00:00:11.160 --> 00:00:16.820 But if we think, can you just think back to the last three Sundays to the passages we 00:00:16.820 --> 00:00:25.039 read, the triumphal entry, the crucifixion and now the resurrection. 00:00:25.039 --> 00:00:33.119 There's actually an unexpected common denominator in all of the stories. 00:00:33.119 --> 00:00:39.640 And it's that the whole Easter story is saturated with fear. 00:00:39.640 --> 00:00:46.799 There's fear that is integral to this whole story that we have. 00:00:46.799 --> 00:00:52.439 There's the religious leaders who are afraid of Jesus and his popularity. 00:00:52.439 --> 00:00:58.559 There's the disciples who are afraid of moving up into Jerusalem because they know that 00:00:58.559 --> 00:01:00.560 the opposition they'll face there. 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:04.280 And then there's fear as Jesus is arrested. 00:01:04.280 --> 00:01:07.439 And then there's denial of him. 00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:13.519 And then there's fear in the upper room after his death, before and after his crucifixion. 00:01:13.519 --> 00:01:19.039 And then the crucifixion event itself is soaked in fear. 00:01:19.039 --> 00:01:27.920 There's just the palpable sense of death there and the unnatural darkness that descends, 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:35.920 the earthquake, the resurrections, the soldiers' experiences, the authorities who, even after 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:44.120 Jesus' death, are afraid that someone will come and steal his body and perpetuate this 00:01:44.120 --> 00:01:47.680 message of a Messiah, of a risen Savior. 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:53.799 And it all surrounds this atmosphere of death that there is at the crucifixion. 00:01:53.799 --> 00:01:57.719 And we know that, don't we, that these two are often bedfellows. 00:01:57.719 --> 00:02:07.159 Fear and death often share the same bed, and it's a living reality that is within this 00:02:07.159 --> 00:02:08.439 story. 00:02:08.439 --> 00:02:15.919 And I think that's something that immediately attracts the story to our own lives and to 00:02:15.919 --> 00:02:17.599 our own circumstances. 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:24.759 I think probably today we live surrounded with a sophisticated fear. 00:02:24.759 --> 00:02:32.319 And in many ways we've eradicated much of the raw, crude fear in our comfortable first 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:33.599 world lives. 00:02:33.599 --> 00:02:41.120 The fear that is attached to the lives of many people today, life threatening poverty, 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:46.799 our starvation, a war, imprisonment for our faith. 00:02:46.799 --> 00:02:52.680 These kind of fears we don't know about, and we sometimes think that maybe we've moved 00:02:52.680 --> 00:02:54.000 beyond them. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:59.759 And yet for all of us, I'm sure, to a greater or lesser degree, we are facing subtle fears 00:02:59.759 --> 00:03:02.919 at a daily basis in our lives. 00:03:02.919 --> 00:03:05.759 Fear about our image. 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:08.960 Fear about how we are perceived by people. 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:11.719 Fear about being unpopular. 00:03:11.719 --> 00:03:18.960 The great fear of failure academically, or in our careers, in our relationships. 00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:25.840 Fear of illness, fear of growing old, all kinds of fear that are there. 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:30.040 They may be more hidden than 11 more. 00:03:30.040 --> 00:03:34.520 Sophisticated, maybe, sophisticated is not the right word, but they are there. 00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:39.560 And of course then there's the unmentionable fear, the fear of death. 00:03:39.560 --> 00:03:43.040 Now we simply can't talk about death today. 00:03:43.040 --> 00:03:47.200 It is that subject that no one is willing to address and speak about. 00:03:47.199 --> 00:03:57.479 We can dress it up, we can ignore it, we can mask it, we can move on to a different subject. 00:03:57.479 --> 00:04:05.519 But it's that deep-seated, personal fear that death ushers into our lives. 00:04:05.519 --> 00:04:16.560 As we stop and think about it, the finality of it, the end that it ushers in, the separation 00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:20.879 from life and from our loves. 00:04:20.879 --> 00:04:29.199 And the terrible loneliness of it, that whatever happens in life, that this is something we 00:04:29.199 --> 00:04:31.160 face on our own. 00:04:31.160 --> 00:04:37.720 For some of us, even as believers, the process of dying may be not death itself, but the 00:04:37.720 --> 00:04:42.079 process of dying may be something that causes great fear. 00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:45.800 And it is the antithesis of everything that we are, isn't it? 00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:51.120 Everything that we do, everything that we touch, everything that we are engaged in is 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:55.840 towards life and towards action and towards empowerment. 00:04:55.840 --> 00:05:07.000 And yet death is what leaves us utterly powerless, naked, dust. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:15.639 At all levels we find it the most uncomfortable of truth, because nobody ever avoids it sooner. 00:05:15.639 --> 00:05:16.639 Or later. 00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:20.959 That great absurdity is something we all face. 00:05:20.959 --> 00:05:27.560 Nobody at any time, at any place, of any power, of any authority or dignity or significance 00:05:27.560 --> 00:05:34.079 or influence has avoided facing that great reality of death. 00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:38.319 So it's a very uncomfortable fear, unmentionable fear rather. 00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:43.759 But there is also an uncomfortable fear, looking at these three different fears, that comes 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:50.480 from many people, from God's truth, from the Bible, as Corrie preached brilliantly last 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:57.719 week on the crucifixion of Christ, and spoke about the absurdity, the foolishness of the 00:05:57.719 --> 00:06:00.439 cross. 00:06:00.439 --> 00:06:07.480 The way that it leaves people so uncomfortable, the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ on the 00:06:07.480 --> 00:06:17.759 cross, and all that he claims, the claims of beauty, of goodness and love that we possess 00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:23.200 as our own, he says are his gifts, the creation that we live in, that we enjoy. 00:06:23.200 --> 00:06:27.240 Its source is a source outside of ourselves. 00:06:27.240 --> 00:06:33.520 But it ushers in for us that spiritual reality that in that beauty everything is not okay, 00:06:33.520 --> 00:06:34.520 everything is not right. 00:06:34.519 --> 00:06:43.120 There is chaos, there is turmoil, we are a people, a humanity steeped in guilt and evil. 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:48.279 And sometimes if we are honest enough with ourselves, we are aware that it reaches into 00:06:48.279 --> 00:06:49.779 our own hearts. 00:06:49.779 --> 00:06:57.799 And as a people we are guilty as those who have betrayed our Maker, betrayed God's law 00:06:57.799 --> 00:06:58.799 of love. 00:06:58.800 --> 00:07:07.120 His laws of love to him and to one another, we have fallen short of his standard, we are 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:09.720 justly condemned by him. 00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:16.680 We have ridiculed and rejected his claims to accountability of our lives, we have suppressed 00:07:16.680 --> 00:07:20.840 him and as a humanity we have even thrown ourselves. 00:07:20.840 --> 00:07:26.080 So we are very uncomfortable and fearful in many ways of his truth. 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:32.000 You will find that, won't you, in any conversation you have with friends who maybe ask about 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:37.879 your faith or who you have the opportunity to speak about the gospel to, how quickly 00:07:37.879 --> 00:07:41.279 you sense they are uncomfortable with that. 00:07:41.279 --> 00:07:45.279 You know we talk about sharing the good news and jumping from the rooftops and telling 00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:48.079 them about the gospel and of course that is great. 00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:52.079 But it is not like the birth of a new baby which everyone loves to hear about. 00:07:52.079 --> 00:07:58.039 The good news of the gospel is always soaked in and saturated in this recognition of our 00:07:58.039 --> 00:08:01.079 own need and of our own guilt before God. 00:08:01.079 --> 00:08:08.959 That it brings good news but leaves us uncomfortably needing to move from our position of independence 00:08:08.959 --> 00:08:11.000 before God. 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:17.360 The ultimate cost of that betrayal is of course separation from God and from life and from 00:08:17.360 --> 00:08:26.080 love and from beauty and from goodness eternally, consciously, so that death with all the fear 00:08:26.080 --> 00:08:33.759 that it engenders in us is not the end but it remains a frighteningly bleak prospect. 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:39.320 So it is important I think for us on this resurrection morning, it is good for us to 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:46.080 consider being willing to face yourself in the mirror and admit fear. 00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:53.360 Because fear is a real and palpable reality for many of us and often we suppress it but 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:59.320 it is good to face up to our fears and be honest about them and then hear the word of 00:08:59.320 --> 00:09:04.720 God into our circumstances and into our lives. 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:10.800 Because what comes across in the fear of the passion story and the events of the crucifix 00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:16.559 and the resurrection is the voice of Jesus Christ, the voice from heaven, the voice from 00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:20.559 God, the voice that is for us. 00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:22.240 And what does it say? 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:26.159 It says, do not fear. 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:30.599 That's the message that comes from the angel and it comes from Jesus. 00:09:30.599 --> 00:09:34.199 So we have repeated and we always know that when things are repeated in a short space 00:09:34.200 --> 00:09:41.040 of time in Scripture that that is significant and important, that the women at the tomb, 00:09:41.040 --> 00:09:48.680 they are fearful, they've lost their Messiah, they are going to embalm a lifeless corpse, 00:09:48.680 --> 00:09:52.080 fear in the presence of death itself. 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:58.600 Then there's an earthquake and the guards are stupefied, it seems like they are dead. 00:09:58.600 --> 00:10:05.519 And so they have fear not just directly because of the events but because of all this happened 00:10:05.519 --> 00:10:12.720 in the last few days and the angels speak to them and say, do not fear. 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:20.440 And then they go and meet with Jesus and He says, do not be afraid. 00:10:20.440 --> 00:10:30.080 God, the gospel, Christ and the resurrection is the antidote to all our fears, all the 00:10:30.080 --> 00:10:37.160 fears we've spoken about, it is the antidote to all of these things that are so great and 00:10:37.160 --> 00:10:44.200 so opposing and frightening in our lives. 00:10:44.200 --> 00:10:48.040 The resurrection speaks of light in darkness. 00:10:48.039 --> 00:10:51.719 It speaks of love where there is hate. 00:10:51.719 --> 00:10:54.879 It is goodness overcoming evil. 00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:58.000 It is truth renouncing lies. 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:01.799 It is knowledge to enlighten our ignorance. 00:11:01.799 --> 00:11:09.319 It is life where there is death and it is hope rather than despair. 00:11:09.319 --> 00:11:16.480 So the gospel message and the resurrection is a great message of hope and a great, because 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:23.840 when the angel and when Jesus says, do not fear, it encapsulates the whole hope of the 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:30.600 gospel and what it means for us to believe and what the resurrection means for us. 00:11:30.600 --> 00:11:35.440 It is hope and life and it is hope to be shared. 00:11:35.440 --> 00:11:41.399 And that's the two things that I just want to go on and speak about in opposition to 00:11:41.399 --> 00:11:49.480 the fear that so often guides and guards and paralyzes our life. 00:11:49.480 --> 00:11:51.399 Easter Sunday is about anything. 00:11:51.399 --> 00:11:53.799 It is about hope and about life. 00:11:53.799 --> 00:12:01.319 First Peter chapter 1 and verse 3 says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 00:12:01.319 --> 00:12:07.000 according to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:10.960 the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 00:12:10.960 --> 00:12:14.519 Now if you've got a concordance, I don't know what people have concordances these days, 00:12:14.519 --> 00:12:19.160 but you can get them online, they're easy to use online, just get an online concordance 00:12:19.160 --> 00:12:21.160 and look up hope. 00:12:21.160 --> 00:12:24.000 Look up all the New Testament references to hope. 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:26.480 It's just peppered throughout the New Testament. 00:12:26.480 --> 00:12:32.960 It's a central theme of the New Testament and it's not that kind of vague ethereal wishful 00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:36.600 thinking that sometimes we use to define that word hope. 00:12:36.600 --> 00:12:42.680 It is this great living, solid, real, meaningful hope. 00:12:42.680 --> 00:12:51.200 There's actually been some tremendous articles and messages on social media over these last 00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:54.320 few days, particularly yesterday and today about the resurrection. 00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:59.840 Now let's pray that there's a lot, what was moaning about social media? 00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:06.480 I was saying that we should get out and enjoy life and close our iPads and not look up Facebook. 00:13:06.480 --> 00:13:08.519 And that's true, there's a lot of rubbish on it. 00:13:08.519 --> 00:13:09.960 But there's also a lot of good things. 00:13:09.960 --> 00:13:16.560 So let's pray that the great message of the resurrection and the powerful message that 00:13:16.560 --> 00:13:23.080 gets across in many of these media gets to a huge amount of people and that the Holy Spirit 00:13:23.080 --> 00:13:31.360 uses these means and preaching and our lives and everything to live that hope and to share 00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:38.159 that hope and to enable people to see this living hope that is ours through the resurrection 00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:39.159 of Jesus Christ. 00:13:39.159 --> 00:13:40.159 It's a living hope. 00:13:40.159 --> 00:13:44.759 You see, that's very important for us. 00:13:44.759 --> 00:13:48.639 And this account reminds us of the factual nature. 00:13:48.639 --> 00:13:54.480 There's been a lot of good things written recently and in the last decade and centuries 00:13:54.480 --> 00:13:58.080 about the factual reality of the resurrection. 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:04.639 We have four gospels that give us narrative historical accounts with a specific day of 00:14:04.639 --> 00:14:10.920 the week, the first day of the week where the stone is rolled away, not for the benefit 00:14:10.920 --> 00:14:12.920 of Jesus to get out. 00:14:12.920 --> 00:14:15.720 Jesus didn't need the angels to roll the stone away to get out. 00:14:15.720 --> 00:14:19.840 It was for the women to look in and see that Jesus Christ wasn't there. 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:21.440 It was for our benefit. 00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:22.720 It was for fact. 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:27.040 It was for proof that we see the stone rolled away. 00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:33.079 It's the culmination of centuries of history and of prophecy from the Old Testament that 00:14:33.079 --> 00:14:35.199 we've been looking at in the mission of God. 00:14:35.199 --> 00:14:37.000 It was God's purpose. 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:43.279 It was Christ's will willingly as you heard last week and freely to die in the cross, 00:14:43.279 --> 00:14:48.879 to give His life and to take up on the third day. 00:14:48.879 --> 00:14:56.079 As the angel said there, just as he said, do not fear, for I know that you seek Jesus. 00:14:56.080 --> 00:14:57.080 He was crucified. 00:14:57.080 --> 00:14:58.280 He is not here. 00:14:58.280 --> 00:14:59.759 He is not here. 00:14:59.759 --> 00:15:05.759 He is risen just as he said. 00:15:05.759 --> 00:15:12.000 So in Matthew 26, just a couple of chapters earlier, verse 32, Jesus says that, but after 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:16.280 I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee. 00:15:16.280 --> 00:15:23.960 That's what the angels remind Mary to tell the disciples to go to Galilee, because this 00:15:23.960 --> 00:15:29.400 is what he has predicted, this is what he has said, he is not here. 00:15:29.400 --> 00:15:34.560 They are very powerful factual words he has risen. 00:15:34.560 --> 00:15:42.960 And our belief is based on historical, verifiable facts of our risen. 00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:43.960 It's not mystical. 00:15:43.960 --> 00:15:46.040 It's not spiritual. 00:15:46.040 --> 00:15:51.480 It's not make-believe. 00:15:51.480 --> 00:15:59.519 If there are so many things, isn't there, if in these early days those who had opposed 00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:05.759 Jesus Christ in the resurrection, heard of the resurrection, surely they would have done 00:16:05.759 --> 00:16:12.200 all in their power to present a body, to deny the claims. 00:16:12.200 --> 00:16:14.480 It simply couldn't be denied. 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:15.480 It is truth. 00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:20.879 There is a great quote, one of the quotes I did read on social media this week, from 00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:28.159 Charles Colson, who when I was young was called Chuck Colson, and he was one of the 12 who 00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:33.200 were indicted and imprisoned for the Watergate scandal in America and became a Christian in 00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:34.200 prison. 00:16:34.200 --> 00:16:38.600 His first book was very influential in my life called Born Again. 00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:44.120 And he says, I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. 00:16:44.120 --> 00:16:45.120 How? 00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:49.600 Because 12 men testified that they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, that then they 00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:54.080 proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. 00:16:54.080 --> 00:16:57.759 Everyone was beaten, tortured, stoned, put in prison. 00:16:57.759 --> 00:17:00.440 They would not have endured that if it weren't true. 00:17:00.440 --> 00:17:04.559 Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world. 00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:07.360 They couldn't keep alive for three weeks. 00:17:07.360 --> 00:17:11.920 You're telling me 12 apostles could keep alive for 40 years? 00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:16.680 Absolutely impossible. 00:17:16.680 --> 00:17:22.120 And that brings us to the impossibility of the resurrection. 00:17:22.120 --> 00:17:30.000 God in the flesh, the author of life, gave himself over to death, took his life up on 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:33.880 the third day. 00:17:33.880 --> 00:17:37.960 God was pleased with him. 00:17:37.960 --> 00:17:42.080 The work was finished, it had been done. 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:50.480 Sometimes impossible, does it not, that he would rise from the dead on the other side 00:17:50.480 --> 00:17:53.119 of death? 00:17:53.119 --> 00:17:56.119 We need to think what kind of God is this. 00:17:56.119 --> 00:17:58.159 We do. 00:17:58.159 --> 00:17:59.159 Think back. 00:17:59.159 --> 00:18:01.359 Listen again to Corey Sherman last week. 00:18:01.359 --> 00:18:02.839 Go back to it. 00:18:02.839 --> 00:18:05.799 Think what kind of God is this? 00:18:05.799 --> 00:18:08.519 What kind of God is nailed to a tree? 00:18:08.519 --> 00:18:15.480 What kind of God is victorious and can be raised from the dead on the third day? 00:18:15.480 --> 00:18:27.639 Clearly planned, clearly as part of His purpose, clearly for us. 00:18:27.639 --> 00:18:34.160 It's impossible, but we recognize that Jesus on the cross takes our betrayal, takes our 00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:40.800 place in the dock, takes that mysterious separation, ultimate separation from the Father, death 00:18:40.800 --> 00:18:50.600 and hell to defeat our greatest fears, whatever they may be, particularly our fear of death 00:18:50.600 --> 00:18:54.040 and judgment and hell. 00:18:54.040 --> 00:18:56.400 Pay the price. 00:18:56.400 --> 00:18:59.000 Victorious over all of that. 00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:05.880 And it is significant that we remember as Christians that our life of faith is a life 00:19:05.880 --> 00:19:12.519 which believes in the impossible, at least in the impossible, in a worldly sense to that. 00:19:12.519 --> 00:19:19.200 By faith we see and we know and we have experienced the risen Savior. 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:20.839 Can you testify to that? 00:19:20.839 --> 00:19:22.680 On what is your testimony based? 00:19:22.680 --> 00:19:26.839 Is it based on a kind of series of facts that you've learned and know, or is it that 00:19:26.839 --> 00:19:32.599 you've met with the risen Savior and He's touched your heart and soul and life, and 00:19:32.599 --> 00:19:38.839 that you know by faith that He is alive, and you've experienced your heart being turned 00:19:38.839 --> 00:19:46.839 from being a hardened, disinterested, ungrateful heart towards one that is warmed to Christ, 00:19:46.839 --> 00:19:49.480 that loves Him and His Word. 00:19:49.480 --> 00:19:54.559 And we are a people who can say death is not the end and that our guilt is being atoned 00:19:54.559 --> 00:19:59.319 for, it's being paid and that we can live in the freedom of that. 00:19:59.319 --> 00:20:03.559 However impossible that seems to be, Christ is real. 00:20:03.559 --> 00:20:07.039 He keeps us, He will transform us. 00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:11.480 He will answer our prayers His way. 00:20:11.480 --> 00:20:18.839 And He will save those who we think impossible to save. 00:20:18.839 --> 00:20:25.119 As we pray for them and as we witness to them and as we gracefully live our lives among 00:20:25.119 --> 00:20:28.519 them and plead for them, He can change this city. 00:20:28.519 --> 00:20:32.279 He can heal its brokenness and our brokenness in the world in which we live. 00:20:32.279 --> 00:20:34.959 He has taken this thing out of our death. 00:20:34.959 --> 00:20:45.959 We are to be a people who believe in spiritual impossibilities in this day of spiritual decline 00:20:45.960 --> 00:20:51.480 and a belief only in the purely rational. 00:20:51.480 --> 00:20:55.519 This is not irrational truth, it is beyond reason. 00:20:55.519 --> 00:20:57.559 It is above reason. 00:20:57.559 --> 00:21:00.200 It is spiritual and it is glorious. 00:21:00.200 --> 00:21:07.200 This is a hope that is a living hope and it's a hope to be shared. 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:11.600 We recognize that again from both what the angels say and what Jesus says, do not be 00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:18.119 afraid, then go quickly, tell the disciples that He has risen from the dead and behold, 00:21:18.119 --> 00:21:20.399 He is going before you into Galilee. 00:21:20.399 --> 00:21:22.199 And then Jesus almost repeats. 00:21:22.199 --> 00:21:29.199 Now it is interesting that the angels necessarily repeat what Jesus says but Jesus almost identically 00:21:29.199 --> 00:21:34.159 repeats what the angels say, the messages from heaven, the messages from above. 00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:42.360 And Jesus, there are slight changes, do not be afraid, go and tell my brothers to go to 00:21:42.360 --> 00:21:45.840 Galilee, there they will see me. 00:21:45.840 --> 00:21:52.440 The first words of the risen Savior, the first words from heaven, they are not rebuke, they 00:21:52.440 --> 00:21:59.200 are not, well I told you so, they are not, why on earth did you abandon me at the fireplace? 00:21:59.200 --> 00:22:05.759 It wasn't moralistic advice, it wasn't some great deep theological truth. 00:22:05.759 --> 00:22:13.559 It was, I hope it, this isn't a reverence, can you imagine Jesus saying it? 00:22:13.559 --> 00:22:19.160 Can you, He is saying something great, He is saying something to His friends, He is 00:22:19.160 --> 00:22:24.360 saying something that they know, can you imagine, is it wrong to imagine His face? 00:22:24.360 --> 00:22:26.080 I am not sure. 00:22:26.079 --> 00:22:30.960 Can you imagine Him saying, don't be afraid, go tell my brothers. 00:22:30.960 --> 00:22:33.559 I am sure He was smiling when He said it. 00:22:33.559 --> 00:22:39.759 It was good news, it was something gentle and yet something absolutely powerful. 00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:44.919 Go and tell them, this is the news they absolutely need to hear. 00:22:44.919 --> 00:22:50.480 Go and tell them, I am here, there they will see me. 00:22:50.480 --> 00:23:00.360 It's the glorious, beautiful message of good news that He brings, a prodigal message, it's 00:23:00.360 --> 00:23:06.360 kind of prodigal father's message from the Son to the family. 00:23:06.360 --> 00:23:13.360 It's a message of love, it's the vocalization of John 3.16 again, isn't it? 00:23:13.360 --> 00:23:15.160 For God's sake, I love the world. 00:23:15.160 --> 00:23:17.559 I gave, it's the only begotten Son. 00:23:17.559 --> 00:23:27.279 His perfect love, that message is for us that He has risen alive, empowered to forgive, empowered 00:23:27.279 --> 00:23:34.440 to give us spiritual life, empowered to bring us into a relationship with Him again. 00:23:34.440 --> 00:23:36.879 And it's a love which casts out our fears. 00:23:36.879 --> 00:23:43.960 One John 4 verse 18, it's not great verse that there's no fear in love, but perfect 00:23:43.960 --> 00:23:48.120 love casts out fear for fear is to do with punishment. 00:23:48.120 --> 00:23:54.160 Is your relationship with God one of fear because you sense punishment from Him? 00:23:54.160 --> 00:23:56.440 Is He an oppressive father? 00:23:56.440 --> 00:24:00.400 Is He a guilt ridden father for you? 00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:02.640 You're scared of Him? 00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:10.039 There's a reverential law, but not a cold fear because fear is to do with punishment. 00:24:10.039 --> 00:24:16.639 Christ could say, do not fear because He had received the punishment. 00:24:16.639 --> 00:24:24.720 He had taken it so that He can say, do not fear in love for us as our Redeemer and our 00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:25.720 Savior. 00:24:25.720 --> 00:24:28.960 Yes, judgment, punishment is real. 00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:34.759 We can't just soft soap it, we can't just deny it, we can't just rub it away and pretend 00:24:34.759 --> 00:24:38.399 it doesn't amuse Jesus, it's nice and loving and He would never do that. 00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:43.480 That isn't the justice and the character and the revelation and the nature of God we see. 00:24:43.480 --> 00:24:49.160 Not is it the reality that is tangible because of death, which is the separation from God 00:24:49.160 --> 00:24:51.160 and from life. 00:24:51.160 --> 00:24:57.080 There is judgment, there is judgment for every single one of us, but in Christ the judgment 00:24:57.080 --> 00:25:00.160 has been that He has taken our place. 00:25:00.160 --> 00:25:06.440 All who believe and trust in Him can know His love because the punishment has been dealt 00:25:06.440 --> 00:25:08.640 with by Him. 00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:14.519 If you sit here today without Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I'm not saying that 00:25:14.519 --> 00:25:20.480 you don't believe in His historicity, you don't think of Him as a good moral person or whatever 00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:26.080 it might be, but if you haven't taken Him as your Lord and Savior and are living in His 00:25:26.080 --> 00:25:36.080 shadow with a changed and a transforming heart, if you are without Christ, there is much reason 00:25:36.079 --> 00:25:38.359 to fear today. 00:25:38.359 --> 00:25:47.679 And that's not scaremongering, seek to do that. 00:25:47.679 --> 00:25:54.679 It is the reality, there is much in this world to be afraid of, physically but also spiritually 00:25:54.679 --> 00:25:59.519 because there is no other remedy. 00:25:59.519 --> 00:26:02.599 This is the only way to the Father. 00:26:02.599 --> 00:26:07.639 There is no other remedy and He has made that plain and clear. 00:26:07.639 --> 00:26:14.639 It's a message of great love that He has taken our punishment and it's a message of great 00:26:14.639 --> 00:26:22.439 love which we share and it's a message of belonging that we live and share. 00:26:22.439 --> 00:26:29.240 Go and tell my brothers and tell my family. 00:26:29.240 --> 00:26:38.240 Jesus Christ reminds us that in His salvation He satisfies the core of our every longing. 00:26:38.240 --> 00:26:40.440 What is our every longing? 00:26:40.440 --> 00:26:48.039 However it's anticipated or outworked, every action, every emotion, every sinew, every decision, 00:26:48.039 --> 00:26:50.599 what is it? 00:26:50.599 --> 00:26:53.440 It's to belong. 00:26:53.440 --> 00:26:57.640 It's to be alive and to belong and beloved. 00:26:57.640 --> 00:27:00.200 That is the core of our being. 00:27:00.200 --> 00:27:01.560 That's what we were created for. 00:27:01.560 --> 00:27:09.080 We might try and deny it, we might try and be independent but we were created to belong, 00:27:09.080 --> 00:27:16.160 to be alive, to be part of a family, to be loved. 00:27:16.160 --> 00:27:22.400 Primarily in relationship with God as our Father and also in relationship with one another. 00:27:22.400 --> 00:27:25.080 Sin is destroyed. 00:27:25.079 --> 00:27:29.679 Christ came to restore so that we belong. 00:27:29.679 --> 00:27:34.240 We belong with Him as the curtain is ripped into as we saw two weeks ago. 00:27:34.240 --> 00:27:40.519 We belong because He has paid the price and He has defeated the power of death. 00:27:40.519 --> 00:27:44.720 We belong because He came for us. 00:27:44.720 --> 00:27:46.199 You were reminded of that last week. 00:27:46.199 --> 00:27:48.519 He came for us. 00:27:48.519 --> 00:27:50.799 Now that's worth facing. 00:27:50.799 --> 00:27:57.240 That's worth accepting and trusting and it's worth living and sharing. 00:27:57.240 --> 00:28:02.720 So you rise from here and I rise from here and we don't then deny it for another week 00:28:02.720 --> 00:28:06.079 or ignore it or just submerge it. 00:28:06.079 --> 00:28:08.559 We live it and we share it. 00:28:08.559 --> 00:28:10.279 We share that message of hope. 00:28:10.279 --> 00:28:16.079 We have to somehow get that message across to our friends. 00:28:16.079 --> 00:28:17.440 We have to know them. 00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:18.440 We have to love them. 00:28:18.440 --> 00:28:25.720 We live out Christ likeness with them and we need somehow to be able to say to them 00:28:25.720 --> 00:28:31.320 through Christ, do not be afraid. 00:28:31.320 --> 00:28:33.200 Go and tell my brothers. 00:28:33.200 --> 00:28:36.759 Go and share that message with the gospel. 00:28:36.759 --> 00:28:44.880 It should be for us a new hope and a new confidence that we have if this message of Easter penetrates 00:28:44.880 --> 00:28:47.160 beyond our skin. 00:28:47.160 --> 00:28:53.360 If it penetrates beyond the few minutes that we're here and to our very souls and our beings, 00:28:53.360 --> 00:29:01.240 that we have this risen ascended Savior who is to be our friend. 00:29:01.240 --> 00:29:03.640 And we know that there is judgment. 00:29:03.640 --> 00:29:09.600 We recognize that there is an unpalatable reality that people must face about their guilt, 00:29:09.600 --> 00:29:17.000 but it's guilt that can be assuaged across and guilt that is taken by the only innocent 00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:18.799 thing on our behalf. 00:29:18.799 --> 00:29:20.519 It's a great message. 00:29:20.519 --> 00:29:25.640 It is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it's the wisdom of God which we seek to 00:29:25.640 --> 00:29:30.000 live and share with others. 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:35.400 Let's pray and give thanks to God for His gift. 00:29:35.400 --> 00:29:40.640 Heavenly Father, we thank You for who You are and we thank You for what You have done. 00:29:40.640 --> 00:29:46.279 We thank You that that work is finished and that the price has been paid, that we are 00:29:46.279 --> 00:29:54.559 no longer in that place of judgment, in that place of failure and guilt, but we are those 00:29:54.559 --> 00:30:03.720 who do not stand condemned in Christ as believers because we have accepted our need of You, 00:30:03.720 --> 00:30:08.399 our need of a substitute, our need of someone who could do what we couldn't do and yet 00:30:08.400 --> 00:30:19.840 who took what we deserved and who took that cost and that judgment and that wrath and who 00:30:19.840 --> 00:30:28.560 showed His power and victory and satisfaction for justice and love in His resurrection. 00:30:28.560 --> 00:30:30.440 May we live that love. 00:30:30.440 --> 00:30:37.759 May it be primary in our lives as we so often fill our lives with things that are of dubious 00:30:37.759 --> 00:30:43.599 importance and dubious significance, things that are not going to last, things that will 00:30:43.599 --> 00:30:50.879 be like dust soon, even if they remain, soon we will be like dust. 00:30:50.879 --> 00:30:59.160 So give us that perspective, Lord, and that trust in Your impossible power and the impossible 00:30:59.160 --> 00:31:04.559 goodness of Your message and the glory of what You've done and may we live it and may 00:31:04.559 --> 00:31:14.200 we serve You as humble children, knowing Christ as our elder brother and God as our 00:31:14.200 --> 00:31:18.519 Father, the Holy Spirit in our lives. 00:31:18.519 --> 00:31:25.399 Enable us so to do and grant us a great sense of the risen Savior today in our lives and 00:31:25.399 --> 00:31:26.399 in our hearts. 00:31:26.399 --> 00:31:31.000 We pray for any who have been convicted, whose conscience have been pricked by the message 00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:38.640 today, may they not submerge that message or suppress it, but may they cry out to the 00:31:38.640 --> 00:31:46.160 living God for forgiveness and hope and renewal and a future which is great and eternal in 00:31:46.160 --> 00:31:47.160 Him. 00:31:47.160 --> 00:31:49.160 We pray these things in Jesus' name. 00:31:49.160 --> 00:32:01.360 Amen.