WEBVTT 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:19.839 Is risen indeed. 00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:21.600 Hallelujah, hallelujah. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:22.960 Welcome to you. 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:25.359 If you're new or visiting with us, my name is Mark. 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:27.199 I'm one of the leaders here at the church. 00:00:27.359 --> 00:00:34.640 It is great to have you with us on this Easter day as we remember the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. 00:00:34.799 --> 00:00:44.640 The resurrection from the dead of the Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest event that has ever happened in all of human history. 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:51.920 It is God's great yes to his sacrifice upon the cross for us. 00:00:52.240 --> 00:01:00.320 Jesus says in this passage that Clay read for us, he says, I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. 00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:13.359 And he said similar things back in John 3, just after that great verse that uh that God sent his one and only Son because he loved the world, that all who believed in him would not perish but have eternal life. 00:01:13.519 --> 00:01:20.560 And in verse 19 it says, For I did not come to condemn the world, but to save the world through me. 00:01:20.959 --> 00:01:26.560 Jesus, who we celebrate today, is the savior of the world. 00:01:26.719 --> 00:01:39.519 And the empty tomb and the resurrection of Jesus is God's great confirmation and yes, an Amen, that Jesus is in fact the savior of the world. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:48.319 We as Christians do not believe that the resurrection is a metaphor or an image or an idea. 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:57.840 We believe that it is an historic literal event that happened in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago. 00:01:58.079 --> 00:02:01.680 No one disputed at the time that the tomb was empty. 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:08.400 There was much disagreement about how it came to be empty, but nobody disputed how that it was empty. 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:14.159 The disciples, the first followers of Jesus, they preached the resurrection in Jerusalem. 00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:20.080 That if he was dead and cold in a tomb, everybody could go, yeah, but hold on a second, there's a corpse there. 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:23.120 They preached it publicly in Jerusalem. 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:26.639 They didn't go to some far-off land and make up a story. 00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:31.680 They preached it in the place where it could be debunked and disputed. 00:02:32.639 --> 00:02:40.879 Not only that, but those same disciples and all who had come after gave their lives for this reality. 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:48.879 It is the most consequential event ever to take place on the stage of human history. 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:52.400 It means that we are not alone in the universe. 00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:57.439 It means that we are not alone in our lives, in our grief. 00:02:57.759 --> 00:03:02.879 It means that death is not the final word over our lives. 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:10.479 It means that we are and can be loved fully, eternally, unwaveringly. 00:03:10.719 --> 00:03:14.479 Every person here in this room longs for two things. 00:03:14.719 --> 00:03:17.840 You long to be fully known and you long to be fully loved. 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:22.560 To be fully known, warts and all, and not fully loved is terrifying. 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:27.439 But to be fully loved but never really known, well, it's just sentimental, isn't it? 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:35.360 But the resurrection says that God fully knows you, warts and all, sins and all, and fully loves you. 00:03:35.919 --> 00:03:39.120 And the empty tomb is proof of that. 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:44.000 Jesus says in this passage, I am the savior of the world. 00:03:44.319 --> 00:03:46.000 But what does he mean by that? 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:52.240 What does the resurrection show us that Jesus saves us from, saves us to? 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:54.080 Let me give you three ideas. 00:03:55.039 --> 00:04:02.800 Jesus saves us from darkness and brings us into the light. 00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:13.039 Verse 46, I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:20.800 Darkness all the way through John's gospel has been equated with a kind of a spiritual blindness. 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:29.360 It's not really physical darkness, it's it's more moral darkness, the darkness of ignorance and sin and hostility to God. 00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:35.839 And into that darkness of the world, the light of the world comes to shine. 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:39.199 We read that in the very first chapter of John's gospel. 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:44.560 The light has come into the world, and the darkness has not overcome the light. 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:53.759 Darkness is not just ignorance, but it is it is that which stands in opposition to the light. 00:04:56.160 --> 00:05:06.480 But as I said, we know that the darkness cannot overcome and has not overcome the light, and that is supremely demonstrated for us at Easter time. 00:05:07.199 --> 00:05:14.800 On Good Friday, it looks for all the world, like the darkness is engulfing the light of the world. 00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:23.600 But on Easter Sunday, the sun rose and the light shone never to be extinguished again. 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:32.639 In the resurrection of Jesus, light conquers darkness, forgiveness conquers sin. 00:05:33.279 --> 00:05:36.639 Grace conquers your shame. 00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:39.920 Righteousness conquers injustice. 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:46.160 Trust conquers, and truth conquers lies. 00:05:47.519 --> 00:05:51.040 Love conquers hostility and hatred. 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:56.639 That is what the resurrection of Jesus means for our world. 00:05:57.439 --> 00:06:04.399 That love and truth and justice and life and light and goodness are ultimately triumph. 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:06.959 That's such good news. 00:06:08.319 --> 00:06:17.519 The second thing that Jesus saves us from is he saves us from death and brings us into life. 00:06:18.079 --> 00:06:22.399 Jesus in this passage uses the idea of judgment. 00:06:23.040 --> 00:06:27.920 He speaks of judgment, and judgment in the Bible's mind is synonymous with death. 00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:29.680 Death is a consequence. 00:06:29.839 --> 00:06:34.160 It is how it is that humanity faces judgment. 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:39.279 Death is part of the curse for our turning from God. 00:06:39.439 --> 00:06:40.639 You can think about it this way. 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:48.240 If God is the source of life and we turn from him, we face the judgment of death. 00:06:49.920 --> 00:07:04.560 God rightly, because he is concerned for justice and righteousness, he rightly judges our divine treason, our de-goding of God, our harming of others. 00:07:05.680 --> 00:07:13.040 And that judgment is death, not just physical, but an eternal separation from the God who made us. 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:25.279 But the wonderful news of Easter Sunday, the news of the cross and the resurrection, is that in the gospel, Jesus has conquered death. 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:25.759 How? 00:07:27.199 --> 00:07:35.680 By absorbing it into himself, by taking it upon himself, by taking upon himself that judgment that we all deserve. 00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:43.519 And he plunged it down into hell and rose victorious on Easter Day. 00:07:57.040 --> 00:08:01.519 But he did it so that you might never have to say those words. 00:08:13.279 --> 00:08:16.720 There is a way out of death, and it is through me. 00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:21.360 I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. 00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:52.799 Just as it did not have the final word on Good Friday. 00:08:53.279 --> 00:08:58.639 For all who trust in Jesus, death will not have the final word over your life. 00:08:58.879 --> 00:09:05.600 That is the great hope of resurrection and reunion and renewal at the end for all who trust in Jesus. 00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:12.159 And so we can even face grief with hope, with the hope of resurrection existence. 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:18.240 We can face death with the hope of renewal and resurrection. 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:25.279 That is the hope that Jesus offers on Easter Sunday. 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:32.080 And so the third point is this that Jesus saves us from despair and gives us hope. 00:09:32.960 --> 00:09:36.240 Jesus saves us from despair and gives us hope. 00:09:45.679 --> 00:10:00.159 There's so much hopelessness in the world, so much hopelessness in our city, so much pain and anguish and grief and tragedy, as uh Philippo was praying for. 00:10:04.559 --> 00:10:10.559 You don't even have to look on the news, you look in our streets to see people wandering, hopeless. 00:10:13.759 --> 00:10:19.759 They are in need of the hope that Easter Sunday represents. 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:42.960 Not only them, but we ourselves, as we as we wrestle with who am I and all of the anxieties and the tragedies and the griefs that befall us when we uh feel like we are losing hope, grasping for meaning and significance and satisfaction in all those places that disappoint, and we're looking for something solid. 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:45.600 Easter Sunday has something for you. 00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:50.559 The empty tomb offers you something permanent. 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:56.399 Because hope for the Christian is not some airy, fairy, fly by night aspiration. 00:10:56.639 --> 00:11:01.360 It's not a it's not a kind of, I hope it won't rain during our Easter egg hunt later on. 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:03.200 Well, good luck with that. 00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:13.600 No, hope for the Christian is sure and certain, it is solid, it's concrete, it's take it to the bank sort of hope. 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:14.559 Why? 00:11:14.960 --> 00:11:23.440 Because Jesus actually literally rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, and our hope is attached to him. 00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:27.120 You see, hope's like a rope. 00:11:27.679 --> 00:11:30.080 It matters very much what you attach it to. 00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:37.120 You attach it to circumstance, and those change, and your rope fractures, and where's your hope then? 00:11:37.519 --> 00:11:46.960 You attach it to Jesus, who is alive and who is in heaven, physically, bodily, ruling and reigning over everyone and everything and all time and all places. 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:52.799 You attach it to him, it means you can go through anything and still have hope. 00:11:53.679 --> 00:11:57.600 It means you can have any tragedy befall you and still have hope. 00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:08.639 It means that you can pursue all of the excellence that you wish to pursue in your life and not let it crush you or define you because you still have a hope that's greater than it. 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:13.759 Jesus delivers us from despair and gives us hope. 00:12:19.039 --> 00:12:25.440 The resurrection of Jesus says that none of the tragedies or anxieties of this world will be final. 00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:32.559 And in this passage, he talks about something that maybe looks kind of slightly oblique. 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:34.960 He talks about the Father's commandment. 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:36.559 They remind you of verse 49. 00:12:36.720 --> 00:12:43.519 For I have not spoken of my own authority, but the Father who has sent me has given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak. 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:48.159 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. 00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:53.120 What I say, therefore, as I say, the Father has told me. 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:58.080 What is the Father's commandment that leads to eternal life? 00:12:58.240 --> 00:12:58.799 Do you see? 00:12:59.039 --> 00:13:05.360 And because what this is what he says, and I know that his commandment is eternal life. 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:11.279 So Jesus is obedient to something that leads to eternal life. 00:13:11.440 --> 00:13:19.039 There's a command that the Father has given the Son that leads to life eternally for us. 00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:20.720 What does he mean? 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:30.639 Well, I think probably what he means is he's talking about the Father's, the Father's mission, the Father's sending of the Son into the world. 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:43.840 The Son goes in obedience to his father, he takes on flesh, he lives our life, and he dies our death in obedience to his heavenly father. 00:13:44.080 --> 00:13:57.840 It was the father's will that the son would go, and the son went not under duress, but voluntarily, willingly, out of love for his father and out of love for us. 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:03.120 He was obedient to that commandment and he walked that road for us. 00:14:03.600 --> 00:14:14.000 And so the cross, the command to go and to lay down your life as a sacrifice is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:21.360 The cross is that means the fulfillment of that commandment that leads to eternal life. 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:33.039 It is Jesus' obedience on our behalf that leads us, that gifts us eternal life. 00:14:36.879 --> 00:14:38.559 He is the better Adam. 00:14:39.519 --> 00:14:50.399 Adam stood in that garden all those millennia ago and said, Not your will, but mine be done. 00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:56.320 But another Adam stood in another garden and said not mine. 00:14:56.799 --> 00:14:59.919 Not my will, but yours be done. 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:13.120 And so on Easter Sunday, he walked from that garden to and offers eternal life to all who would trust in him. 00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:21.360 The cross is the means by which all who would trust in Jesus are given eternal life. 00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:23.759 And that is a life that begins now. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:30.159 Don't think that uh that if I become a Christian, that it's just my it's just my ticket to heaven when I die. 00:15:30.480 --> 00:15:34.320 That that's when that's when I get my delivery of eternal life. 00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:35.039 No, no. 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:39.840 For the Christian, the person who is trusting in Jesus, your eternal life begins today. 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:45.919 If you become a Christian, today, or began the day when you first trusted in Jesus. 00:15:46.879 --> 00:16:05.440 And that eternal life changes you now, every part of you, your mind, your love, your desires, your values, transforms your relationships and transforms how you view your work, transforms your identity and what it is that you put your hope in. 00:16:06.320 --> 00:16:12.000 Eternal life starts now, achieved for us by the cross and gifted to us. 00:16:13.519 --> 00:16:18.799 And so we have a hope for the future because of the resurrection. 00:16:19.360 --> 00:16:27.200 A sure and certain hope that every injustice that has befallen you will finally one day be answered. 00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:44.000 A hope that all of our sufferings now are not in vain, but are in every part purposeful and meaningful and significant and used by God to bring good through that difficulty. 00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:51.120 It is a hope that one day all that is sad will come untrue. 00:16:51.919 --> 00:17:02.399 It is a hope that all of the besetting sins which we all struggle with, you know, you have that you have that sin that you keep on going to God with me again. 00:17:02.559 --> 00:17:03.919 Yes, it's the same sin. 00:17:04.079 --> 00:17:06.880 Yes, I need forgiveness again, yes, I'm sorry again. 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:08.559 You feel wearied by it. 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:10.960 The resurrection offers you hope. 00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:15.680 Well, that you have a father who is never discouraged by that prayer. 00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:24.640 But the resurrection also offers you hope that all of those besetting sins which discourage and plague us now will one day be gone. 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:26.880 You can scarcely imagine it, can you? 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:37.680 It is a hope that one day every precious tear that we have shed will one day be wiped away. 00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:43.759 That is the significance of the resurrection for you today. 00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:48.559 And all of this is only true if Jesus rose from the dead. 00:17:48.640 --> 00:17:49.839 I mean it quite seriously. 00:17:50.079 --> 00:17:54.319 I said it on Friday, I say it again, Christians are by nature supernaturalists. 00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:56.960 We don't believe that this is a metaphor. 00:17:59.200 --> 00:18:28.880 The um uh the the Archbishop of Perth in Australia was asked uh once uh by a journalist, and he said, if if the if archaeologists did excavating in Jerusalem and they find the tomb of Jesus, and by carbon dating and DNA evidence they were able to establish uh that that this really was the the body of Jesus of Nazareth, would it affect your faith, Archbishop? 00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:34.240 The archbishop thought for a second and he responded and he said, No. 00:18:36.319 --> 00:18:38.960 Because he has risen in my heart. 00:18:39.759 --> 00:18:41.359 It's lovely that, isn't it? 00:18:45.119 --> 00:18:45.279 C. 00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:45.519 S. 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:50.880 Lewis once said that theological nonsense is still nonsense. 00:18:53.920 --> 00:18:56.799 If it's a metaphor, we're done. 00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:01.680 If it's a metaphor, we all go home. 00:19:03.119 --> 00:19:04.400 But it's not. 00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:06.559 It happened. 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:09.920 It's true, and it changes everything. 00:19:13.039 --> 00:19:15.359 That is what we celebrate today. 00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:25.680 It is this news that is changing the world, this news that Christ has died for sin and rose again in victory. 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:31.759 It's been changing lives all the way through the last two millennia. 00:19:31.839 --> 00:19:33.440 It's really quite remarkable. 00:19:33.759 --> 00:19:50.640 One of the, it's actually one of the proofs for the resurrection that how could this small Galilean sect explode in such a way, in such a way that no other, say it's not like Jesus was the first one claiming messianic pretensions. 00:19:50.799 --> 00:20:04.559 And yet this truth, this Messiah, this risen Savior has changed the entire world, changed the game completely, in ways that you don't even realize. 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:14.880 All of our Western society has been shaped and transformed by his message, by what he said and what he has done. 00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:24.960 And by his spirit, he is continuing to change people now, breaking in that kingdom of God one heart at a time. 00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:29.519 It continues to the day. 00:20:37.039 --> 00:20:38.160 Change everything about you. 00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:41.599 You'll see with new eyes. 00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:46.960 You see, because if you're not a Christian here this morning, you couldn't have picked a better day to come. 00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:50.160 But you're still in the grave. 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:56.400 You're still in the grave, you're still in darkness, you're still in despair. 00:20:57.759 --> 00:20:58.559 You know what? 00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:00.880 It's time to rise. 00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:07.200 It's time to hear the voice of the Son of God and live. 00:21:08.640 --> 00:21:17.839 It's time to rise, to hear his call on your life, to trust him and to live. 00:21:29.599 --> 00:21:31.200 But it doesn't end there. 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:37.759 It begins at an empty tomb and it ends around a throne. 00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:52.960 And in the meantime, as we follow him until that day when we gather around that celestial throne, we take this news as the most significant news that anyone can ever bear and know. 00:21:53.119 --> 00:21:59.279 We take this news to a world in darkness, to a world in death, to a world in despair. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:06.240 Take it to them as the only answer to darkness, death, and despair. 00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:07.920 Politics won't answer it. 00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:10.000 Economics won't answer it. 00:22:10.319 --> 00:22:12.720 Moral change won't answer it. 00:22:12.960 --> 00:22:24.319 Only the gospel of the risen Lord Jesus can move people from darkness to light, from death to life, from despair to hope. 00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:31.039 This is why we exist. 00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:34.799 This is why we exist as a church. 00:22:35.359 --> 00:22:37.359 It is good to remember that. 00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:39.920 And in a sense, we pledge ourselves. 00:22:40.079 --> 00:22:41.920 Yes, every Sunday, every Sunday. 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:45.680 That's why we gather on Sundays, because every Sunday is like a little mini Easter. 00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:57.440 But on Easter Day, again, we remember why we are here, why we exist in this city, in this time, in this place for these people. 00:22:58.319 --> 00:23:00.000 Because Jesus is alive. 00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:02.960 Because he is ruling and he is reigning. 00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:09.839 This is why we seek to grow and develop and mature as a church. 00:23:09.920 --> 00:23:12.079 This is why we want to connect people to Jesus. 00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:14.559 This is why we want to grow them to spiritual maturity. 00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:18.000 This is why we want to serve one another in the community. 00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:20.480 And this is why we go to the nations. 00:23:20.799 --> 00:23:22.640 Why do we plant churches? 00:23:22.799 --> 00:23:30.240 Why are we sending out Redeemer, which Lord willing will have their first service this Easter day in a year's time? 00:23:31.759 --> 00:23:33.200 Why do we do it? 00:23:34.160 --> 00:23:36.880 Because we believe that Jesus is alive. 00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:47.920 We believe that we have the only message that can bring people from darkness into light, from death to life, from despair to hope. 00:23:49.119 --> 00:23:50.480 This is why we do what we do. 00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:54.799 This is why we will continue to do what we do. 00:23:55.279 --> 00:24:01.759 This is why every one of you serves because of the conviction that Jesus is alive. 00:24:02.319 --> 00:24:08.160 This is why we raise our voices in worship and teaching one another. 00:24:09.519 --> 00:24:11.920 Because we believe that Jesus is alive. 00:24:13.759 --> 00:24:19.359 And we do it all to the glory of God the Father.