Easter Sunday

Matthew 28:1-15- Kirk Rupprecht 

Commonplace Church exists to glorify God, equip disciples & share the Good News of Jesus. Learn more at commonplacechurch.org

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SPEAKER_00 0:31

Good morning. How's everybody? Good to be with you guys. Welcome to Commonplace Church. My name is Kirk. I'm the pastor here, and we're just excited to have just us gathering today together. Like I said, if you're visiting with us, so glad you're here. What a great morning to come out and then check out this service. And uh, what I want to do this morning is uh we'll first recognize the way that we celebrate uh holidays here at Commonplace Church, and we do so as a full family, okay? Meaning, as you'll see, there's some youngsters with us today. And we love that because if you have a family holiday, typically you don't just separate and the young kids go celebrate someplace else, right? You kind of celebrate together. And I think about Jesus, right? When he uh is instructed that that the children are his presence, right? He doesn't say, like, hey, Peter John, go start a kids' ministry, right? While I go do this over here. No, he says, hey, join me, right? I want I want the little children to come see me and hear and learn. And now we do have an amazing kids' ministry. Uh, but at this point today, we just felt like, hey, let's celebrate today as a church family with everybody here. Parents are like, thanks a lot for this. Great. Um, but kids, I will share. I'm not gonna be too cringy today. I'll give you like one six seven, a skibbity, and then I'll say he is risen, okay? And that's it. That's it. Okay, here's what I want to share with us today, though. Uh I we're going through a series that were called Where Do We Stand? And we've been looking at some tough topics. And it's been really, I think it's been encouraging, challenging, all those things. But I want to have one final kind of uh question here, one final stance. It's this where do we stand when it comes to the reality of the resurrection?

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Right?

SPEAKER_00 2:13

We're not looking at some sort of uh, you know, current uh I would say, like controversy, things like that today. We're just looking at the reality of the truth of the resurrection. And where do we stand? Because here's the thing when it comes to this historical event, right, there there is required a response. If you think about just different historical events that have happened over time, and most recently, just even think back to uh just this is the tragic 9-11 happenings, right? And and just from if you remember back, as those events happened, the the question wasn't like, you know, uh, where do we stand when it comes to, I don't know, uh, the philosophy of terrorism, or where do we stand when it comes to a political worldview, right? No, the question was, well, where do we stand? What do we do now, right? Where do we stand in response to this event? Because the reality for those who experience that event, we're left with, where do we stand in response to it? Right? Those who are impacted, right, there's some sort of response. And the same is true for any historic event that's experienced in life. It does this, it demands something. It demands from us a response. Because the truth is, right, you don't experience something significant and just stay neutral. It's just not how it works. You don't witness something life-altering, life-changing, and just walk away unchanged. And maybe maybe a great way to put it is every action, right, demands a reaction. And so if that's true, then the resurrection of Jesus, a real historic event, here's what it does. It demands from each one of us a response. A response to what has taken place. So the question is, well, what are the responses that we see take place in this account? And then well, what what should our responses be? How might we respond? So let's uh let's jump in and let's look at uh this chat this passage that Walter just read for us, Matthew chapter 8. And let's look at this first response to the resurrection that we see here. It says this, Matt uh verse 20, uh sorry, verse 4. It says, For fear of him, the guards trembled, became like dead men. So what's the first response to the resurrection? Well, here it is, it's fear. It's fear. Now listen, this um isn't just like a any kind of fear we see here. With these men, what they experienced was this holy, reverent fear. Because these guards just witnessed something that I would say broke every sort of intellectual and rational category that they they had, right? They watched a man die, and now the man is alive again. I I don't know about you guys, I've never experienced that. A once dead man breathing again. If you have, come talk to me after service. I'd love to hear about it. But uh for them, this fear, it makes sense. Now, here's the thing for us, okay? We we sit from a different vantage point today. That that that's a true, that's a true statement, right? However, I do think for many of us today, when the resurrection of Jesus is declared, I do think it's possible. Fear, fear still tends to be a response. Now, let me let me explain that. I think for us today, I think fear it might just present, it might present differently. I I think the fear is isn't the presence of the resurrection. I think it's this. I think it's the premise of the resurrection. Not necessarily viewing the resurrection firsthand because none of us were there for that, but what the resurrection viewed accurately, what that actually demands. Because here's what the resurrection, here's what it declares. If Jesus truly rose from the grave, right, then he truly is who he said he is. He is the Son of God, he is the Messiah, which means Jesus isn't just some random dude who came back to life, right? He's so much more. By putting death to death, here's what happened. Jesus, he did what no person ever could do. He declared what has plagued man since sin's curse, death, and he declared it powerless. Through that declaration, he also does this. He makes his rightful claim as Lord over all. Lord over all of our lives, my life, your life. Meaning he claims the rightful standing as Lord for us. Now, for some, listen, that's really good news, right? That's what we see in the gospel. That's exciting news that on the cross, right? That Jesus through the empty tune, he conquered our sin. He took what we fear most, death, and he put it to death. He buried it in the ground, right? To be dealt with no more. And that's the good news that we have in the gospel, right? Forgiveness of sins, shame removed, freedom offer, and an invitation to follow him as Lord towards abundant life and ultimately Lord for eternal life. Yeah, here's the thing for others. Here's where the fear comes in. If Jesus, if he becomes Lord of my life, what does my life look like in response? If Jesus is Lord and He's calling us to follow His Lordship, well, what now? Because Jesus is pretty clear, he doesn't share his role. And the resurrection response of following him, it means this. It actually means surrendering. It actually means aligning our lives to look more like him. It means calling us to step down from the throne of our own lives and then placing Jesus right where he truly belongs. And I think for some of us, I don't know, I think that's where fear shows up. Maybe not fear that he was once dead and now alive, maybe, like, but but rather fear of surrendering the way that things currently are in our lives. Fear of losing control. Fear of how we might be received by those around us, right? Who they once knew us one way, but before Jesus was Lord, but how they might view us now, right? If we were to allow Jesus to take his rightful place, that this idea of giving up what we currently know and and surrendering to might be uncertain, right? That's what faith is. Faith calls us out. And to understand what it means to follow him. And this fear of giving up our will ultimately to uh to his. This idea, right? That's where fear lives, this idea of giving up. Because here's the thing, it's true. I'll be up front. Following Jesus will come with a cost. Jesus, he makes that incredibly clear when he invites people to follow him. And that may mean letting go of certain lifestyles that we were used to, comfortable in. It might mean surrendering those things we've cling so closely to in our lives for security, to step into a life that he calls us into, that he invites us into. It's this call that may call us to loosen our grip on things that maybe we even spend our whole lives chasing after, right? The perfect house, the perfect car, the relationship, the position at work, right? It's giving those things up. Now, not because those things are inherently bad, right? But because those things so easily become what we serve. Things that we sacrifice for. We even devote our lives to, the things that quietly, quietly sit on the thrones of our lives. And the fear is this what happens if we have to give that up? And and unless I share this with from a space of just, you know, not shame, but but even from personal experience, from my own story, I'll just share with you. For years, for me, uh, it was uh music, the dream of becoming a professional musician. That wasn't just a passion, it became Lord of my life. Music it shaped my decisions, it consumed my focus, it dictated my direction. Here's though what I didn't realize at the time that Lord that never was gonna actually give me power to fully live. Here's what that Lord had, it only had the power to keep me in bondage. Why is that? Because it could never do what Jesus can. It could never offer me what I truly needed in my life. See, see, the Lord I placed of music, it couldn't provide me this, it could never conquer my ultimate need, it couldn't conquer sin, it couldn't defeat death, it couldn't free me from what I needed most. Only, only Jesus resurrected could do that. And so I just want to offer just a quick truth for us. It says, the only one who walked out of the grave is the only one who can truly lead us to life. And so maybe for you, when you hear about the resurrected Jesus, your fear, your responses may be fear, fear of what you might lose, right? Loss if you surrender what's currently sitting on the throne of your life. And listen, if that's you, I just want to give you some encouragement. Don't just focus on what you might lose, examine what you will gain. Because in Jesus, eternal life is offered, abundant life is offered, forgiveness of sin, restoration to the whole our heavenly Father. Sure, there's a cost, but it would be short-sighted of me to not share that in surrendering and offering response to Jesus in our lives, there is a greater gain, a greater gain than we could ever imagine. It's an eternal gain. And it's a gain that only Jesus can offer us. So that's the first response to resurrection fear. Here's the second response in this passage: Fabrication. It says this while they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. When they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, Tell people his disciples came by night and stole them away from while we were asleep. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. Now, now catch this, right? For some of this account, yes, fear that that was the response, right? But but for others, fear wasn't the core response. Because here's the thing, they knew what had happened. Right? The guards gave a truthful report. They said, Hey, Jesus was dead, and well, now he's alive. Right? But the problem wasn't the evidence of the resurrection, it was this. The problem is the implication of the resurrection. That's the problem for their lives. Because if the resurrection is true, here's the thing: everything changes for these men, especially. The positions that they had, their authority changes, right? Their lifestyles change. So instead of surrendering the truth, here's what they decided to do they fabricated a different story, right? A different version of reality. They created a story, like, hey, tell them the disciples stole the body. Now, listen, if you're familiar with the scriptures and the work of the disciples, let's be honest, that's a stretch, right? Because if you read the Gospels, the disciples, they weren't forming some sort of like recon plan, like they were hiding. They were afraid, they were scattered. Peter, right, one of the most outspoken, uh he he denied even knowing Jesus. Not once, not twice, but three times, and not to a soldier, but to a little girl, right? So to think that these, and no, no, no, no, shame on Peter. Peter's great. Sorry about that. Sorry, Peter. Remember at the gates. No, um, just kidding. Um, but here's what's important to recognize is that um all of a sudden, like these guys didn't become bold strategists. They just didn't. They didn't overpower Roman guards, right? It's a fabrication. Here's what we recognize, though. A fabricated Jesus, I think, is still a response that exists today. It's the recognition of Jesus, but it does this. It's withholding, I say, the reality and the importance of the resurrection. Now, I'll be honest, I don't think many are kind of their fabrication comes from saying, well, you know, disciples stole the body. I don't think that's what we where we find ourselves. Here's where I think we find ourselves. I think the fabricated response to Jesus is found in more statements like this. Well, Jesus was a good teacher. Jesus is just a good moral example example. Jesus was was was he did some nice things for people. And listen, those statements aren't inherently false, right? But here's what they are instead. They're just incomplete. It kind of reminds me of a fabricated story I had in my younger years. This is uh kind of Easter related, maybe spring-related, but my mom decided she was gonna risk her life and mine by taking us to um the wild world of Shea Stadium, home of the New York Mets back in the day. And uh, if you've ever been there, you know that's a challenge. But so as we're there, my mom offered to purchase me a souvenir from my favorite player at the time, Gary Carter, souvenir baseball. That was really kind of her. Now, fast forward post-game, back to school. We had show and tell, because that's the age I was at, right? And of course, I decided to bring that shiny baseball in. And then though, I told the class that I caught this ball off of the bat of Gary Carter. So, real quick, now listen. Was it a Gary Carter baseball? True, technically. Was my story a fabrication of the truth? Absolutely, right? And so I share this embarrassing instance because so often this is what happens when people acknowledge Jesus, but they fabricate it, they leave out the reality of the resurrection. Because when you remove the resurrection, here's the thing: you don't just simply, you don't just simplify Jesus, you change him, you reduce him, you just turn him into like another uh humanitarian, another voice in history. You place them alongside names like Gandhi or Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., right? All incredible figures, right? But they're all just still human. And here's the reality: none of those great figures, as great as they were, none of them walked out of the grave. Only Jesus did. And and listen, if Jesus didn't rise, if he didn't, if this whole thing's made up, right, then Easter is just this. Easter is just uh another funeral honoring a dead man. And Paul he says this about this, about that thought. It says in 1 Corinthians, if in Christ that if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. If in Christ you have hope in this life only, we are all people to be pitied. So Paul says this if there's no resurrection, like this whole thing falls apart. Our faith is empty, our sin remains. And honestly, we're just wasting our time here this morning. Because that's the deeper issue, is this, right? It's it's it's if it's without without this uh evidence, right? Then we're just going off some sort of fabricated story. If it doesn't happen, the resurrection isn't real. And here's the thing about fabrication it's it's not typically just a lack of evidence. I think it's this it's for those who struggle with this and regards the resurrection, it's a resistance, maybe a resistance to change. Because just like the leaders at that time, if we acknowledge the truth of the resurrection, then we have to acknowledge that it calls something from us, it calls us to change how we live, it calls us to surrender control. It once again calls us to step off our throne. And so for many, I think it's just easier to reshape Jesus than to surrender to him. And so maybe today, I don't know, the question maybe isn't like, do I have enough evidence? Maybe the question is more like, am I willing to respond to the truth? And here's just a truth for us today. Sometimes we don't reject the resurrection because it's unbelievable. We reject it because it's life-altering. And so listen, if you find yourself with a version of Jesus that doesn't include a resurrection, it might just be worth asking like, am I dismissing reality or am I just trying to protect my current reality? And now here's the thing listen, if you're generally um struggling to believe the credibility of the resurrection, that that's that's okay. I if that's you, like I just want to invite you to explore, right? But but from this space of just like pastoral care and love, don't just dismiss the resurrection. Don't do that casually. Lean into it, examine it. There's accounts that you see in scripture, sure, right? Those are great, but you can also find accounts outside of it, right? There is real historical weight to this event. Just a helpful resource, maybe you want to check out. It's a book by Lee Stroll, it's called The Case for Christ. And he says this if you can establish that Jesus died and later appeared to people, you've made your case, because dead people don't normally do that. It's pretty good, pretty good quote. Okay, here's the final response: Forward movement, movement because of the resurrection. Look what it says Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He's not here, he is risen, as he said. Then go quickly and tell his disciples. So they did this. They departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and they ran to tell his disciples. So these these women they came to mourn a dead savior, and what did they found? They found a risen king. They came with expectations of death and they encountered life. He wasn't in the grave. He did exactly what he said he would do. He rose. And what was their response? I love this. They moved, they ran, they told others they moved towards Jesus and they moved towards people. Right? That's been part of our vision all year long is this movement towards others, movement towards Jesus. And so my prayer for this morning for us is that we would be moved as well. That we wouldn't walk out of here and saying, Oh, that was nice, like the songs, pastor talked a little too long, people were dressed up real sharp, some good Easter drip, right? Uh, but those aren't wrong thoughts, but they they're not responses to the resurrection because the resurrection, it doesn't just call us to acknowledge an event, it does, but it calls us to be moved by a reality, moved by the truth that what was once dead, hey, it's now alive. And that this risen Jesus, I love this, he does this, he invites us, he invites us to come alive too, to be made new, to be born again, to have our sin put to death, so that when our sin is put to death, we can also experience resurrection. We might be able to truly live. That's what salvation is. It's it's Jesus, He came to rescue sinners, He came to save us from the penalty of sin, He came to give us life. And here's the beauty of it this offer, here's the thing, it's not based on how you showed up today. Okay? Like maybe you walked in, you're feeling broken. Maybe you're walked in carrying sin that you can't shake. Maybe you walked in shameful, thinking like, I haven't been here in a while, I don't belong here. Like, listen, listen to me. That does not disqualify you because Jesus didn't come for the put together, he came for the broken, he came to forgive, he came to heal, he came to restore, he came to redeem, he came to pour out grace, mercy, and love. And if you want to know how serious Jesus is about it, just look at the cross, just look at the empty tomb. That's how far he's willing to go to bring you life. And in response, he invites us not to just believe something once, but to follow him as a good Lord now and forever. To do this, to be moved to worship, to be moved to obedience, to be moved to go out and share the good news with the world around us. So here's the Question, I won't leave us this this morning. Does the resurrection move you? Does it move you towards Jesus? Does it move you towards others? Does it move you to share the gospel? Right? My prayer is today is not, oh, that you know, we're just moved by the sermon, we're moved by the music, but that you're moved by the message of the gospel, moved by the reality of resurrection. So what will your response be? Fear? Fabrication or movement? My prayer is that the resurrection moves each one of us towards Christ, towards one another, and out towards a world that desperately needs him. That's the beauty of resurrection. It's life. I want to pray and I want us just to sing. I want us to respond. So let's pray. Jesus, thank you. Thank you that today we come to celebrate life. Lord, this isn't a some sort of memorial service, Lord. This is a uh just a recognition and acknowledgement and excitement that you are alive. Lord, and through your resurrected life, God, you invite each one of us to also experience life. Lord, life that is in abundance as we follow you, as we abide in you, as we live from obedience in you, Lord, but also life eternal, Lord, as we will exist forever in your presence, worshiping you, Lord. And so I just pray this morning for anyone just seeking that or just wondering, Lord, you are so good and you love us, each one of us. You created us in your image, Lord, and you desire to restore us back to that once uh perfect image, Lord. And so we just we just ask, God, that you would just be so present this morning as we sing out, Lord, as we declare just the news of just the resurrected Jesus, the resurrected King, the one who's reigning and ruling on high. Lord, fill our hearts with gratitude, our hearts with joy, our hearts with hope, God. I just pray for anyone, Lord, who's just here this morning, just feeling beat down, broken. God, would you just bring encouragement? Would you bring peace? Would you bring comfort, God? Would you bring just restored life into our, into our bodies, into our minds, into our hearts this morning? And pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.