Stories of Defiance

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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©2021 Living Streams Christian Church, Phoenix, AZ

Scripture is taken from Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

You Don't Have to Stay in That Pit

Series: John

John 21 - David Stockton

John was written by John. I figured that out all by myself. John was a human. John was writing toward the end of his life. So John was a guy who spent time with Jesus in the flesh. He was there three years. He spent time with Jesus in the flesh every day. Then after that, Jesus ascended into heaven. And John spent the next sixty years of his life hanging out with Jesus in the Spirit. To some of you, that might sound crazy or whatever. But we’ll explain more about that. But for those three years in the flesh he got to be with Jesus.

After spending sixty years being with Jesus in the Spirit, he’s about ninety years old or so, and he decides it’s time for him to write about his experiences for those three years with Jesus in the flesh. That’s what he’s doing. 

In the book of John he doesn’t use his name, he just says that he’s the one that Jesus loved. Not saying that he’s the only one that Jesus loved. But that’s what he really felt. He really felt Jesus’ love. He’s the one that leaned against Jesus chest at at the last supper.

John is the only male disciple of Jesus who was there when Jesus was on the cross. At one point we know Jesus had about one hundred and twenty people who called themselves disciples. At one point there were seventy and he sent them out. At one point he said, “Eat my body and drink my blood,” and then he only had twelve. That was kind of an eliminator there. That’s funny, right? 

Then he had twelve. But even those twelve didn’t all pan out quite right. But John was the only one out of all of those who was at the cross. There were some women because they figured things out better than men, but John was the only male disciple at the cross.

John has written all of these, he told us, so that we would believe in Jesus. So if you get to John 21 and you haven’t been encouraged to believe in Jesus, you didn’t believe it right. Maybe I didn’t teach it right.

He wants you to believe in Jesus. And when John says the word believe it’s different than Paul. Paul kind of uses the word belief or faith as kind of a pledge of allegiance. John uses it more as trust over time. He is basically telling us the story how one day he met this guy named Jesus and he began to trust him a little bit. And Jesus proved himself trustworthy so he began to trust him more. Jesus proved himself trustworthy so he began to him more.

At one point he turned water into wine and John said at this point the disciples began to believe in him, they began to trust more in him. Then they saw him heal people from diseases that couldn’t be healed and they trusted him a little more. They saw him walk on water, saw him feed five thousand, all these different things. They heard some of the things he said and they began to trust him a little bit more. 

So John, at the end of Jesus’ life on earth, at the end of his life, he’s just saying he completely trusts in Jesus. And as he writes, what is happening is that we’ll begin to trust more and more in Jesus, so that we’ll begin to sing out songs of faith from the places that used to be so full of despair, fear, pain and doubt. We’ll sing that old song, “Jesus, Jesus, how I trust you. How I’ve proved you over and over.” If you’re going to kind of say what hymn you would attach to what apostle - it’s a weird Christian game that no one’s ever played before. I just made it up. But whatever. I think that would be the song that John would love to sing. “Jesus, Jesus, how I trust you. How I’ve proved you over and over.”

So, in John 21:1. You ready? Man, there is like nobody here today. But there are so many people here. Who’s ready? We’re in church, man. There’s a lot of people here. It should be fun!

1 After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. 3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

A lot of events have transpired. A lot of stuff is going on in the disciples lives. And Peter is just like, “Forget it man. I’m going fishing.”

4 Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” 6 He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. 7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. 8 The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

9 When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place… 

Because, you know, grilling with propane is not really grilling. They’re going to keep coming, you know? So you might as well just get used to it. 

…with fish laid out on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Awesome story. Jesus shows up on the shore. His guys are out in the boat. Peter, that’s where he found Peter the first time was on the boat. He said, “Cast your net on the other side.” Peter was like, “Psh. You’re some like rabbi guy. I’m a fisherman. Don’t tell me what to do. All right.  Whatever. I’ll do it.” He catches a bunch of fish.

So Jesus is there once again on the shore. John and Peter and the other disciples are in the boat. They caught nothing. They’re frustrated because they caught nothing. They’re frustrated because they’re totally confused. They’re frustrated because Jesus is not there in the flesh anymore. They’re confused about all the stories they’re hearing. Jesus has shown up to them twice already, mind you. This is the third time. And they see this guy on the shore. He’s made  a fire and he calls out to them, “Cast your net on the other side.” There’s probably something inside them that says, “Maybe.”

They cast the net on the other side and catch all the fish. And they’re like, “Maybe?”  And John was like, ‘Yeah. It’s the Lord.” So Peter jumps in and runs over there. And they have this little time with Jesus around the fire. 

There are a couple of things I want us to draw out of this chapter. The third one is the most important. We’ll spend the most time there.

I want us to understand resurrected life. It’s a very, very important thing. This is one of the tenants of the Christian faith. We believe in the resurrection life. And resurrection life is not kind of like life that you get back. So Lazarus, when he rose from the dead, did not get resurrection life. He resurrected to normal life. He didn’t resurrect to resurrection life. Which means that he died again. It’s not like a cat, you get nine lives. You keep dying, or like re-spawning in a video game or whatever.

Resurrection life is different than that. Jesus is the first fruits of resurrection life. He is the first one to enter into resurrection life. It’s life that is not limited anymore. Not limited by the laws of nature. Not limited by sin and the battle there. Not limited by the curse that sin has brought. Not limited by death. It’s not that, if you die again you rise again. No. It’s that you don’t die anymore.

So we get to see this little glimpse into what that’s like for us. It’s little and it’s small, for sure. But Jesus, when he rose from the dead, his body was not in the tomb. His physical body was somehow part of his glorified state. So much so that these people, when they see him, they see him as human. They’re not like, “Is that an alien on the shore?” They see him and see it’s a person, but they don’t recognize that it’s Jesus until they recognize that it’s Jesus. Do you get how confusing this is?

There’s something so unique about this resurrection state. First of all, freedom from all the limitations, which is so awesome. But then also there’s this uniqueness to it where, you’re still recognizable as you do the things you do or say the things you say, but you’re not really recognizable because you look different.

So you have the disciples sitting there with Jesus around the fire. They just caught the fish. They know it’s him. John says it’s him. And they’re all sitting there going, “Somebody needs to ask. Is it him? Is it really him?”

I don’t know if that’s more that they’re so challenged with the reality that Jesus died and how he can be sitting here with fish? It’s just so hard for their mind to get around that. Or if Jesus just actually looked different enough that they’re like, “I think it’s him. But I don’t know it’s him.”

So they’re just sitting there like the disciples always did, thinking among themselves, It’s got to be him. Is it him? No, we shouldn’t ask. We should ask. Is it okay to ask? I don’t know if it’s okay. That’s what they’re doing because that’s the state. 

But one of the things that is also important about resurrected life—and this is one of my favorite things about it—is that every time you see Jesus, he’s eating. Right? That’s good news. So the eating game will continue past this. You can eat fish. You can still catch fish. I like fishing, so those are big deals for me. It’s usually fish and bread, so I’m hoping that that’s just all they had. That’s not all we will have. But whatever. I’m sure it will taste good at that point.

The next thing. So that’s resurrected life, glorified life, something to look forward to. It’s a hope that we have. It’s beautiful. It’s awesome. I love songs that sing about it as well.

So the other thing we have is a transitioning between the covenants. So here, for the Bible students in the room, if you love this type of stuff, basically we have the old covenant, Old Testament. We have the new covenant, New Testament. They are all the same covenant. It’s all God wanting to bring salvation to people through justification by faith. So the Old Testament, basically what they were supposed to do was believe that God would provide a sacrifice for sin, that God himself would provide a sacrifice for sin. It’s actually words that Abraham spoke to his own son. So they believed that God would. Now, the new covenant, we just believe the same thing. We just believe that God has, if that makes sense. It’s the same. 

I actually wrote an essay in seminary, in bible college. I called it the Covenant Mountain. It’s all the same substance. It’s all the same mountain - justification by faith. Same God, same people, same problems, all of that. And the same solution is Jesus. It’s always Jesus. It always will be Jesus. He’s the solution.

Now here’s the trick. When does the covenant reach its pinnacle of the old and begin the new? That’s not such an easy question. You think the cross, right? Jesus purchased the new covenant. He purchased with his blood the new covenant, he said. So you think the cross is where that happens, we’re beginning a new covenant. But without the resurrection, the cross really is meaningless. It’s just another guy dying. So then he resurrection becomes super significant, so maybe it’s the resurrection. But without the resurrection, Jesus said there was something else so important, when the Spirit would come.

So in Acts 2, the Spirit comes. And when the Spirit comes, that’s the guarantee of the new covenant. Now we have proof that the new covenant has come. Some of you are like, “What is he talking about?” That’s fine. Don’t worry. This is extra credit stuff. It won’t be on the test.

But basically what we’re experiencing in John 20 and 21 all the way through to Acts 2, we’re experiencing these 40 days of plateau on top of the mountain. I didn’t say this in my paper because I didn’t know this yet, but if I was going to rewrite the paper I’d write it this way. I don’t remember what I said, I was trying to fill up space so I could get enough words or something like that. But anyway, the top of this mountain is like this forty day plateau from when Jesus died on the cross to when he ascended and the Spirit came. It’s basically this transition between the covenants. It’s the time between the times. 

And Jesus is showing up not in the flesh, he’s showing up in the resurrected state in between the time where he was in the flesh and the Spirit comes. So it’s just interesting, fascinating thing. Not a lot to draw out there, just want you to be ahead of that. Basically the Father gave the Son, and the Son gives the Spirit, and then the Spirit gives us the love that we need and the power that we need to love God and people the way we’re supposed to.

So the last thing I want to emphasize is the redemption of Peter, the restoration of Peter, the reinstating of Peter. We get this in this next chunk, starting with verse 15:

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” 

Another good question for bible students is what is the word these? What’s he referring to? Is he talking about the other disciples? Is he talking about the fish? Is he talking about, “Do you love me more than these other disciples love me?”

He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” 

Because Peter, real fresh in his mind is that in John 19, Peter denied Jesus three times at Jesus’ real moment of truth.

and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

The very first words that he said to Peter. “Follow me and I will make you a fisher of men.” It’s a really important moment that John makes sure. The other gospel writers didn’t include this. John is saying, ‘Hey you’ve got to know about this story.” The story where Jesus showed up to Peter. 

What he gave us in chapter 20—I loved what Ryan shared last week on chapter 20. But basically Jesus shows up to Mary and Mary was locked up in this frustration and anger at injustice. Mary basically was so upset she was distraught. Because they had taken the body of Jesus and she was yelling at the gardener and yelling, “Who took him? Where have you taken him?”

She was once again stung with that pain of powerful men and what they have taken from her. We don’t know all the details of her story, but we know that she ended up being a prostitute. And how you get to that point, and Ryan talked a little bit about that. How powerful men had stolen from her enough to where now she found herself as a prostitute and even demon-possessed. And then the most powerful man comes along, Jesus, and he calls out to her and saves her. And healing has begun. And yet, now powerful men have killed Jesus and not only that, but they have taken his body. And she’s so distraught because it once again reopens all of that wound.

Yet there, in that moment, she sees the gardener, not knowing, not recognizing that it’s Jesus, and she says, “Where have you taken him?” And the garden, Jesus, says, “Mary!” And she hears that same voice. That same name spoken in his tone and, all of a sudden, she’s undone once again. The healing gets a little deeper into her soul.

Then the very next thing John tells us is don’t forget about when he showed up the first time to the disciples. It literally says they were shut up in fear. They were locked up in a room. They were locked up in fear. And Jesus meets them in that space and says, “Do not fear.” And he actually breathes on them. He does something so personal, so tangible. And that would be weird if I breathed on you. I won’t do that. Don’t worry about that. But if Jesus does it it’s super cool. He breathed on them and they received some peace.

Then shortly after that he shows up again to the disciples, because Thomas wasn’t in that group. And Thomas was saying, “Yeah, that’s great. I’m glad you guys all had this experience. But I’ve always thought you guys were a little weird. So I’m not taking your word for it. I need to see his wounds. I need to touch him. I need to put my hand into his side if I’m going to believe.” 

So Jesus shows up a second time to the disciples and Thomas is in the room. He looks around and he says, “Hey, Thomas.” Thomas is like, “Me?” And he’s like, “Yeah, Thomas, you. Come here.” So Thomas comes up and he says, “Go ahead. Go ahead, Thomas.”

And Jesus is giving them something so supernatural, but so natural. He’s meeting them right where they are, locked up in these things. Thomas is locked up in doubt and confusion and Jesus comes in and he gives him something tangible, something practical, something in the natural to help him get released and unlocked.

Now we have this story where Jesus is doing the same thing. But now he’s calling out Peter. And John doesn’t want us to miss it.  So Jesus calls out to him and says, “Peter, do you love me?”

In the Greek there’s a little trick in here. Basically it’s, “Peter do you agape me?” It’s, “Do you sacrificially love me? Do you unconditionally love me?” And Peter, knowing what he had just done, still feeling the shame now of sitting with Jesus after he denied him and heard that rooster crow, he says, “I phileo you.” He doesn’t say, “I agape you.” He says, “I love you like a friend, like a brother, and it’s very conditional and I’m sorry.” 

Then he says, “But Peter, that’s good enough for me. Will you feed my sheep?” Then Jesus says to him, “Do you agape me?” And Peter says, “You know that I love you. You know that I phileo you.” And Jesus says, “Then feed my sheep.” Then the last time, a third time, Jesus says to Peter, “Peter do you phileo me?”

 And Peter is hurt. All that shame of what he had just done, of how often he had failed in all of his life is weighing so heavy upon him as Jesus asks him a third time, “Peter do you love me?” Peter says, “Lord, you know everything. You know I phileo you.” And Jesus says, “That’s good enough for me, Peter. Feed my sheep.” Then he begins to tell Peter all of the hard, hard things he’s going to go through. Basically, “Peter, if you thought that was hard, it’s now your turn to go to the cross. And all I’m asking is that you k eep following me because I’m the one who’s going to make you a fisher of men. Will you follow me?”

And Peter’s response is so beautiful.

20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” 

Jesus is having this moment. He’s drawing Peter in. He’s saying, “Peter, we can do this. Take my hand. Follow me. Feed my sheep. I’ve got a massive calling for you. And if you let shame take it away from you right now you’re going to miss everything. But I’m here Peter and I’m praying for you. The devil desires to sift you like wheat. But I’m praying for you. And Peter, I’m here giving you fish!” Saying, “I want you to do something for me, Peter. I want you to represent me, Peter. I’m going to give all the people, on you I’m going to build the church. All of the little lambs are going to need you, Peter. I want you to fight for them. I want you to care for them. I want you to tend them.”

Peter’s like, “Well, what about John? What about John?”

Then John kind of inserts a little bit of his own thing:

22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” 23 So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”

24 This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.

25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

So John is here just kind of putting his seal, his signature on the end of this thing, saying that this is what it said. And John is now maybe wondering that, Did Jesus mean that I would be alive, that I wouldn’t die? But now he’s ninety years old and he’s going, “Nah. I’m pretty sure I’m going to die. Pretty sure I’m going to die and that’s okay, because that’s not really what Jesus said,”

But in this moment I want us to really pay attention to what Jesus is doing here. And what John is wanting us to see. That Jesus was meeting with all of these people individually, in a very practical way. He was giving them something to hold on to. He was reinstating them. He was reconnecting with them. He was doing it in a very supernaturally natural way—not in a supernatural wild way. But in a supernatural way that made perfect sense to them personally.

Honestly, that’s what I think the Lord wants to do right now for each of us. We had a really. Neat time first service. We had a lot of people come forward for prayer and get to hear a rhema word—a word from heaven about their earthly situation.

What I sensed as I was preparing this message was that this message was just a setup. It wasn’t really something to stand alone. It was just to set up what we’re going to do right now. We’re going to have a time of waiting on the Lord to see if he would meet us who are locked up in despair, anger at all of the injustice and disappointments. He wants to meet us who are locked up in fear after a year of constant uncertainty, where we can feel our feet begin to slip, and our relationship with the Lord begin to waver. To free those who are locked up in doubt and confusion, who just can’t seem to get their mind around why God would allow certain things to happen. What they really need to do is to touch his scars and feel his heart.

We’re going to spend some time praying for those who might have become so identified with all of their weakness and shame that they don’t even know what God is calling them to. Or maybe they’ve forgotten what God has called them to. Or maybe they’ve stopped really believing that God could be calling them to anything, and they’ve disqualified themselves like Peter. 

Those things are not supposed to go with you from this room. Those chains, those things that are binding you up. 

As Jesus is talking to Peter it reminds me of this song that a guy named Jon Foreman wrote. This song hit me the first time I was listening to it because I was in Dangriga, Belize, because I was working with a bunch of kids with my wife. And these kids all came from real broken homes, real troubled situations. 

I remember we were trying to do church one night, and a fight broke out, which was not that uncommon.  It was an interesting church time we were having. And these two kids, they were probably twelve years old and they were going at each other. I didn’t know what was going to happen. My default move in that regard was to go, “Oh, look how much they love each other!” Then it usually is enough of a little embarrassment that they go, “I don’t love him!” And they stop fighting. So that’s kind of my trick. 

So it worked and I was like, “Oh and he loves me, too!” And I just kind of hugged one of them, which was again, just trying to get them out of the situation and kind of deflect some of the anger of the moment. I was hugging this kid and he was hugging me and I didn’t want to embarrass him, so I started to release. And when I started to release, he grabbed me so much tighter. And then I looked down and he was just weeping. He was totally weeping and I was thinking about these words and how this kid doesn’t want to be like this. 

The more I got to know this kid, he was sweet and he was kind. But he had been taught that this was the way he had to go, this is the way he had to live, this was the only thing he could do when he was in those situation. These words so powerful at that time. It says this:

We learn to wear these masks so young
Like a prison that keeps joy from gettin’ through
And an angry silence grips our tongues
These weapons and our walls become our tombs
Yes, we’re the kids who’ve seen the darkness
Always looking for the light
You fall in love and then the rains come down
And only part of you survives
Come surrender your hidden scars
Leave your weapons where they are
You’ve been hiding
But I know your wounded heart
And you don’t know how beautiful you are

–by Jon Foreman, from “You Don’t Know How Beautiful You Are” (Switchfoot)

And then this guy, Galway Kinnell was writing about St. Francis of Assisi and what he was able to do with the people around him. 

Sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
and retell it in words and in touch it is lovely
until it flowers again from within

–by Galway Kinnell, from “Saint Francis and the Sow

And this is what Jesus is trying to do. And I don’t know your stories, I don’t know your situation. I don’t. And I don’t really care that much because I know what God is telling me, what your Father in heaven is telling me he wants to do for you right now. If we’re faithful to do our part—just surrender and show up—he’ll be faithful to do his part.

Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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The Counterconspiracy of Heaven

Series: John

John 20 - Ryan Romeo

We’re wrapping up our series in John and so, last week, if you were with us, David was in John 19. So last Sunday we had Good Friday on Sunday. We talked about the crucifixion. This Sunday we get to talk about the resurrection. So it’s Easter for Christmas. I know it’s very confusing, but we promise we’re going to be right back to the birth of Jesus in a couple of weeks. We’ll be right on time. It’s going to come full circle. After the resurrection we’ll come right back to the birth.

If you were here and you know David’s heart, last week he really unpacked the crucifixion. I think those of us in kind of pop Christian culture, we kind of gloss over that. The message of the cross, so powerful. But David talked about the reality of the cross. It wasn’t just that it was really hard and Jesus had a hard time going through it. It was a brutal, brutal thing that he went through. It was humiliating. It was something unlike any of us have ever really experienced. And he brought that to life. It was a little bit heavy. 

But it should be heavy. Because what Jesus carried for us was not light. What Jesus paid on the cross was not a light price. He paid a very heavy price on the cross. And before we dive into the crucifixion, or to the resurrection, we have to understand the power of the crucifixion, that God loved us so much that he went through what he went through for us—for you and I.

And the resurrection without the death on the cross is not a good story. And the death on the cross is not a good story without the resurrection. They really n need each other. So we’re going to dive back in. 

In the context of John 20, the disciples, Mary—none of them know about the resurrection yet. They are still living under the shadow of the crucifixion that had just happened. So let’s pick it up in verse one, chapter twenty:

1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 So Peter went out with the other disciple, 

The other disciple, by the way, is John. He’s writing in t he third person.

 So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

Which John feels like is a really good tidbit for us to know, that he beat Peter to the tomb.

5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 

So they’re coming in and they’re going, “This doesn’t look right. Something about this does not seem right. Everything seems too perfect. And Jesus’ body is gone.” And they’re starting to realize as they’re paying attention to details.

8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, 

In case we had forgotten by this point.

also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 

We have to go back to what the disciples were experiencing at this point. As a disciple of Jesus, all of them left friends and family to follow him. They probably had a lot of friends and family go, “are you sure? Are yo sure you want to leave your business? Are you sure you want to leave your family to go follow Jesus? This guy seems a little ‘off.’” And there were plenty of times in the Bible when people came and the them and was like, “You know what? I think Jesus is losing it a little bit here.”

The disciples gave up everything to follow this man, Jesus, whom they believed was a the Messiah. The Messiah who was going to come and restore Israel. The Messiah who was going to bring political power back to Israel. They had in their mind what they could see with their eyes, and this was what they imagined Jesus bringing. 

So all along the way, when Jesus’ teaching got a little squirrely, like, “You have to eat the body and drink my blood,” and when everybody abandoned Jesus, his inner circle stayed with him. And they’re going, “One of these days…” You’ve got to imagine these disciples were thinking, “One of these days all of our friends and family are going to realize, once Jesus gets into power and we’re sitting at his right hand, that we made the right call.” You’ve got to imagine they were wrapping their whole life and the future of what they believe God is doing into Jesus. 

And they’re not hearing things ten chapters before this. You know, Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd and I lay down my life for my sheep. And if I lay down my life then I can pick it back up again.” Jesus has been intimating very clearly that there is a serious curve ball getting thrown their way—that a death and resurrection is about to happen. And they just can’t wrap their heads around it. They’re seeing with their eyes, but they’re not seeing with their hearts. They’re not seeing what God’s doing in the season.

At this point, they just went through the horrific death of their friend. They just saw him humiliated and bloodied. They’ve got to be so incredibly sad at this point in what happened to their friend, knowing that he didn’t deserve it. Knowing that he was a part of a victim of a conspiracy that was going on, from political leaders to religious leaders, down to people in Jesus’ inner circle—who turned their back on Jesus and turned him in and whipped up the crowds to the point that they started saying, “Crucify him. Crucify him. Give us Barabbas. We don’t care. Give us that guy. We don’t care. This is not about justice. Right now we want blood and we want Jesus dead.” And this is what the disciples experienced.

The main player, especially in the beginning of this chapter, is Mary. So, if you notice, Mary runs to the tomb and she notices things are amiss and she runs and gets John and Peter, who is a little slower than John. She brings them back to t he tomb. And Mary says this thing that is really telling. She says, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”

You could see her going, “We just saw this whole conspiracy that was going on behind the scenes start to turn into this full blown thing that killed Jesus, that brought this injustice into my life, and now it’s continuing. Whoever they are, I don’t know who it is, but it’s somebody that’s in charge that came and took Jesus’ body and I don’t know why they did that.”

And Mary—this is most likely Mary Magdalene—if you remember, Jesus delivered her from demons when she was younger, earlier on in the story. She was a prostitute. And that’s not a job that you just waltz into. That is on the back of her probably going through some very heavy things the were outside of her control and being desperate enough to find herself in that red light district of Jerusalem. She is used to men taking advantage, men of power getting away with big things. She sees men, political leaders coming in and out of the red light district and nobody has any idea. And she sees men of power getting away with things left and right. Injustice is happening all over the place.

Then she meets Jesus. She meets this men that looks at her in a pure way, in a way that she’s never seen anyone look at her. She sees this man who loves her without any agenda. He sees her. Sees who she is through any of the outward things that she was involved in at the time. 

Beyond that, Jesus was somebody who stuck up for her. You remember when all the religious leaders were going to stone Mary, Jesus comes to Mary’s aid and says, “Stop.” And she sees a man who loves her with purity, who stands up for her when she needs it the most. And she starts to have those knots in her heart, those knots of injustice, those knots of, “I guess nothing’s going to change,” start to slowly be undone by Jesus. And she starts to have hope and again and goes, “Man, this guy Jesus, maybe he is the Messiah. There’s something different about him. He makes me feel different.”

And then the crucifixion happens. And you have to imagine Mary went through everything all over again. Going, “See? Here it is. Here’s the men of power getting away with things like they always do. Jesus being crucified for absolutely no reason. This man who loved me, who I’ve wrapped so much of my future in, who just brought life and light to a dark life that I’ve had up until this point. And now that light is snuffed out.”

You feel that emotion in verse 11. Let’s pick it up there:

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, 

I just have to pause here. Like, you’ve got to imagine even for her. This desperation. She’s outside of the tomb. She is crying. She hasn’t seen Jesus. You could just see this desperation. “Let me at least go take care of his body and serve Jesus one last time before I don’t see his face anymore.” She is desperate at this point. 

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”
Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 

She’s in this frenzy. She’s like, “I don’t know where Jesus is at.” She turns around She sees Jesus abut she doesn’t recognize Jesus. And how many times in our darkest moment do we see Jesus but we don’t recognize him?

And maybe she has tears in her eyes. Maybe it’s blurry. Maybe she can’t tell. But Jesus does something that stops her right in her tracks. He says her name. He says, “Mary.” And she knew that voice. She knew nobody said her own name like Jesus did. She was like, “Teacher. I see you. I see you.”

In that moment, all that injustice that had been stirring up in her again, all that hopelessness that she had was washed away; because she saw that, though the enemy had a scheme going on that seemed insurmountable, God had defeated it. Because, God, that’s what he does. The enemy has a scheme going on. He always has a conspiracy going on. Since Genesis chapter 3, he has been trying to separate the created from the Creator. He’s been trying to bring a separation between the Father, the Holy Father that loves us so much, and the rest of his children. And we see right here that, though the enemy was fighting really hard, though he was thrashing around, trying as hard as he could to kill Jesus, God did it again. He turned what was meant for evil into something good. Beyond what Mary could ever imagine.

A lot of us have that sense, when we’re up against something hopeless, when we’re up against something dark, 2020 has been that year. I mean, we’re all seeing the darkness in the world. We’re all feeling it. Maybe different than we’ve ever felt it before. It’s really easy, maybe you’re a little bit better of a Christian than I am. But I don’t lay awake thinking about all the good things that God is doing. I lay awake at night thinking about all the bad things that are going on. I very quickly allow what I see in front of my eyes to dictate what I am experiencing in my heart. The things that I’m seeing in culture really dictate how I feel about the truth that I know is not moved by culture. When those seasons of injustice and darkness come upon us, it’s really hard to see through it. Jesus could be standing right in front of us and we don’t see him.

I remember the first time I had ever experienced that sort of darkness and injustice. I was eighteen and I had just graduated. I didn’t know what to do with my life. So I decided to go on the mission field. This was about the year 2000. I felt like the Lord was calling me to Cambodia. So I worked with an organization called YWAM and went to Cambodia. During this time they had just finished a civil war. I think that was happening in ’99 or’98, something like that. 

So Cambodia, it’s a pretty dark place anyway, but it was extra lawless and extra dark in this season. We showed up and the pastor that we were living with in Phnom Penh was a great guy was just an amazing guy. He had lived through the Khmer Rouge. He told us some very eye opening stories. The fact that he stayed in Cambodia was an amazing testament to the grace of the Lord.

One of the very first things he wanted to do was drive us through the red light district of Cambodia. I don’t know what I imagined it would be like and I think back on it. If you’ve done any missions work, just being in a third world country is shock enough, you know? Nothing smells normal. Everything’s loud. Everything’s different. The culture is completely different. But I remember they drove us through the red light district in Phenom Penh. I had never seen that sort of injustice to children before in my whole life. I remember driving through, hearing kids say things that you would never want to hear kids say. And I remember just feeling so overwhelmed. It was likethe people that see that sort of thing and they’re like, “I need to engage this injustice and talk to somebody, work it out, tell people about Jesus.” But I shut down. I didn’t know how to handle it. I retreated into the fetal position in my mind, just going, “Lord, this is far beyond what I thought the darkness of the world was. This is a little bit shocking to me and I can’t actually even function right now.”

I came home, came back to Tucson, that’s where I lived and grew up. I got married, my wife Blake and I got married. We decided that the Lord was calling us back on the mission field. So we went back on staff at YWAM. One night we were having a worship night. I was on my knees, going, “Lord, where do you want me to go?” And I felt him so clearly say, “Cambodia.” I thought, “Oh, no! Lord, I survived a mission trip to Cambodia. I didn’t feel like I thrived there,” like, “This seems like a bit of a mistake.”

So I told Blake and she said, “Yeah. I kind of feel like the Lord’s calling us back to Cambodia. So we get a team together, go back to Cambodia. We were there another three months. We showed up during Chinese New Year. 

Now Chinese New Year is not like American New Year, where it’s like maybe for a few days before and a couple of days after we shut down. No. Chinese New Year happens, like all of Asia shuts down for over a month. 

We show up in Phenom Penh. We’re all ready. We have all these plans to do ministry. And the pastor we were staying with—the same pastor we stayed with the first time—he’s like, “Hey, we’re so glad you guys are here. It’s Chinese New Year so nobody’s in the city. Maybe we’ll start doing ministry in about a month or so.” And we were like, “We’re here for three months?” 

So we did what any mission trip leader would do. We started doing a lot of prayer walks. If you don’t know what a prayer walk is, go on a mission trip with some leaders who don’t know what they’re doing. They’re going to take you on a lot of prayer walks around the city.

So we were doing a bunch of prayer walks, praying over Phenom Penh. We met another missionary family that was just about to leave. They said, “We have this orphanage that we’ve been working with. They’re not shut down for Chinese New Year. The kids just live in this house. Why don’t you go check that out?”

So we got on a boat. It was about an hour from Phenom Penh, down the Mekong River. We showed up on this island and we walked in. There were all these kids. All of them were under the age of fifteen. We walked in while they were worshiping. I had been a worship leader, and I knew what it looked like to be in a room full of people worshiping. I had never seen the kind of passion that these kids had when I walked in that room. There was a little boy, probably thirteen years old, had a guitar with five strings because they probably broke one a couple of months before and didn’t have the money to get a new one. And they were singing their hearts out to Jesus unlike I had ever seen anybody worshiping Jesus.

A lot of these kids had come out of that red light district in Cambodia. A lot of these kids had been abandoned by their parents on the door step of an orphanage that could hardly feed them. You could see right through the floors. It was not like an air-conditioned, nice building. Yet these kids had so much joy in Jesus because they saw Jesus. They met Jesus on the back side of such injustice in their life. They saw the light of Jesus brighter, I think, than a lot of us have ever seen the brightness of Jesus. 

There was one boy in particular who was worship, he had scars all over his face. We asked the guy who was running the ministry, “What happened to that little boy?”

He said, “The mom had AIDS and she had this child who also had AIDS and he was dying. She basically left him on our doorstep one night.” 

This couple that had taken over this ministry took him in. Every night they prayed for him. The baby kept them up every minute of the night. This baby was basically dying. They thought, “Well, we’re going to pray over him and really do the best we can to show some love before that happens.” 

One day they were praying and the baby started to fall asleep when he hadn’t slept in days. The next day he slept a little bit better. They noticed the sores that were all over his face had started to kind of diminish. Over the course of weeks they realized he didn’t have AIDS anymore. This little boy—nobody knows his name. Nobody’s going to see his story on the national news. But Jesus knows his name. Jesus knows his story. Jesus brought something to that little boy, brought redemption to him. When he sang worship to him, it was on the backside of injustice that he had lived and grown into. He saw Jesus for who he was, which was the only person who genuinely loved him in all of his life.

That is what Mary is experiencing. Mary turns around and she sees Jesus, who she thought was dead. We have the luxury of knowing the end of the story. She didn’t know the end of the story. She thought, This is the end of the line. This is injustice coming back around. And Jesus comes and shows her resurrected life. And it’s such a powerful thing.

I love later on, as he starts to meet with different people, the different disciples and everything. He starts to go to them and starts to meet with them one on one. Thomas, he shows the scars on his hands and reveals himself in kind of a unique way to everybody. But at a the end of the day, what Jesus did on the cross was something that God had been planning for a long time. Genesis chapter 3 didn’t take God by surprise. He knew the fall of man was happening, and he had this planned from the beginning of time, where he would connect the children of God back to a loving Father. And there’s this huge story that’s happening. You know, the schemes of the enemy are big and they seem so overwhelming until you see Jesus. 

I started to read this. And I started looking and there’s this parallel started coming. It’s not just the big story that God’s passionate about. Yes, he’s passionate about what resurrection means in terms of how he fulfilled the law. Jesus didn’t come to do away with the law, he came to fulfill the law. There’s so much that goes into this big story of redemption for people. But there’s this intimacy. There’s this infinite nature to God, but there’s this intimate nature with God.  

I love the disciples, later on in John 20, they locked the door in this upper room because they were afraid. They were locked up in fear. I think there are a lot of us in this room that have been there. They’re locked in this room, they’re afraid, and Jesus shows up and says, “Peace.” He says it a second time, “Peace,” because I think they really needed some peace in this season. He reveals himself to them. And he does something that I think is so beautiful. He breathed the Holy Spirit into the disciples. It says that he breathed it. 

As I was studying this week, I started praying and I felt like the Lord nudged me. It was like, “Do you remember when else God breathed on his people?” And I thought all the way back, not Genesis chapter 3, but Genesis chapter 2, when the Garden of Eden was there. When everything was perfect. When God is this perfect garden tender. And he pulls up the dust from the ground with his bare hands, and it says he breathes life into Adam. Because the Father is very intimate with his people. He loves all people. But he loves you and he knows you. He knows your story. He knows everything imperfect about you. And yet, as a good Father, he comes and breathes life and breath into our lungs. 

I thought back on when Mary saw Jesus and was like, “I thought that was the gardener.” I thought, He is the Gardener. He is the gardener from Genesis chapter 2. She saw correctly. He was restoring this pre-fall position of mankind. Not because of what we did, but because of what he did. He is the Gardener in Eden, as we return to that. 

I think the most powerful thing is something that I skipped over pretty quick when I first started studying John 20. But I’m going to pick it back up on verse 1:

1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple…

who is John

…the one whom Jesus loved…

When I first read that I thought it was the competitive John who was telling us so many times how he beat Peter to the tomb and going, “Jesus loved me a lot, too.” And I realized, no. The Holy Spirit really spoke to me and it was like, “This is what people feel when they’re around me.”

John wrote John 3:16. He knows that God so loved the world. He knows that there was this thing that was happening from the beginning of time. He knows the grandeur of creation and the whole process of bringing us to this point of death and resurrection. John knows it better than anybody. But when he says this, “The disciple whom Jesus loved,” he’s saying, “The way that Jesus looked at me, I knew that he loved me. He saw me.”

None of us in our life have people that truly see us. Maybe they get close. Maybe spouses get close. There is nobody like Jesus who sees you for who you are and still loves you. There’s nobody that sees in you the things you don’t see in yourself like Jesus. There is nobody like Jesus when you’re locking eyes with him and knowing that he sees you. There is nothing like that.

And this is the good news of the gospel. This is the good news of the resurrection. That, yes, God spoke creation into being. Yes, he is so strong and so powerful. Yes, this is the plan that happened from the beginning of time. And yet, in all of that, he looks at you this morning and says, “I see you. I know you. I love you. I want to be with you.”

This is the Jesus we serve. Jesus is alive today. He resurrected from the dead. He didn’t die again. He is alive today and he is coming back for his people. The story is not completely over. But right now Jesus gives you access to him, just like John had access to him. And we get to say, “Jesus loves me. He sees me. He knows me.”

Let’s pray:

Jesus, we thank you that you laid down all the powers that you have. That you are a God who spoke galaxies into existence. You spoke every star in existence. In a moment, it all appeared because of the power of your voice. Yet, you chose death on a cross to reconcile us with you. Jesus, we are humbled this morning as we remember that. Thank you that you see us. Thank you that you know us. Thank you that there isn’t one person in this room that you don’t see. You don’t see the imperfections. You don’t see the things that are lacking. When we come to you your blood covers it all. You see a different us than we see. 

I pray that we would be a people that would live out of resurrection. That we wouldn’t just talk about it once a year. But God, we live out of the power of resurrection. The joy of knowing that you went to that cross for the joy set before you to reconcile us with you. 

So, God, how much more can we give and serve you? We love you. We worship you. In Jesus’ name.

Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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