Easter with Risen Church and Salt Church

Hey everybody, welcome. Easter Sunday. We're so glad you're with us today. My goodness. Happy Easter.

I'm here with John from Risen Church. John, why don't you introduce yourself real quick? Hey, I'm John. I am the pastor of Risen Church here in Virginia Beach. We actually meet over here at the water table on the oceanfront.

I am excited to be doing this together. This is going to be great. It's super awesome. And if you don't know me, I'm Leon Dunning from Salt Church. We meet here in the same general area.

We're getting ready to launch in MoCA whenever we come back together. So we're kind of homeless right now. So we're all on camera. And, but it's exciting because isn't this a beautiful display of God's church? God's church that we're able to come together as a family.

Yeah, I love it. It's a, it's really important. I think in this time, especially just for two churches, two churches to come together as one family, two sort of local covenant families coming together, united, sort of like a strong united front in our city on this, especially just sort of like this little, I guess, small town oceanfront feel, but yeah, very much. Yeah. I love our signs.

Sometimes the signs are right beside each other. Yeah. Yeah. You roll down the road. You'll see salt churches sign.

You'll see risen churches sign side by side almost, you know, and it's so funny. I called up John one day. I said, I hope you know that we're not invading on your territory. We're just putting up signs. So let's put them side by side if we, if we need to, because, uh, and both of us were kind of on the same page with that.

I love it. I love it. Every time I see that, I'm like, yes, let's go. Let's do this. So, you know, what's also interesting about John.

So I met John, John has been around for a while. I, I heard John's name, you know, around in circles. Uh, but I first met John last year on good Friday. Yeah. We were, we were sharing together at, uh, the oceanfront and a little, uh, uh, uh, good Friday service.

Yeah. Good Friday service. And, uh, we were connecting and we realized that we have very similar stories and similar, uh, our, our childhood was in a, in pretty close to each other. Yeah. Yeah.

Uh, I'm, I'm from, uh, I was born in Goldsboro, North Carolina, which is about 40 minutes from his birthplace in Greenville, North Carolina. Uh, we went to the same university together at the same time. Appalachian State. Appalachian State University. And it's Appalachian is not Appalachian for all of you out there that are trying to correct us right now.

You will get beat down if you say Appalachian. Okay. They actually taught us in our freshman class that the way you remember to say Appalachian State is if you don't say, if you say Appalachian again, I'm going to throw my Appalachia. Right. Did they tell you that too?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was thinking that's really corny and yet no one's ever going to forget that. Yeah, yeah. So, so, yeah. And, uh, we were even talking like during 9-11, uh, I'm over in the Walker School of Business.

I first hear about it while I'm in a classroom and he's literally, you know, right in the next building. Yeah, yeah. And the student union, the student union is where all the students are at. So, we were like literally all of our lives pretty much. We were close to each other but didn't really know each other.

And also both, both of us, uh, were at Regent University. So, we moved here, called the ministry, moved here, did our, uh, uh, uh, our grad degree. And now we're both church planters in the same area on the oceanfront. So, it's kind of a really cool thing, you know? Yeah.

Northeastern North Carolina, Appalachian State, Regent, church planting, and we both love Duke University. That is untrue. We're both huge Duke fans. I am a huge Star Heel fan. So, so, if you, uh, if you know where that joke's coming from, the biggest rival in college basketball, which this year really wasn't, it doesn't count.

Now, we didn't even do the NCAA tournament. So, you know, let's X out this year and let's start again next year. No, I see because Duke won it last year. So, basically, we're still the national champions for 2020 as well. Oh, okay.

There you go. He didn't know I was going to do this. Yeah. Yeah, this is all random, guys. And this is the first time we've actually done this together.

So, hopefully, you're enjoying this. But it is a thrill to be together today, for sure. And I feel like I've known you forever, John. I've just known you over a year, but it feels like we have a lifetime friendship here. And I look forward to doing more things together as churches.

And the beauty of the church coming together, it's just a wonderful thing. Yeah, I agree. I think there's been so much stuff that's happened. And, you know, even right before this whole thing hit, Leon called me and was like, hey, what are you thinking? What are you feeling?

How are things going on? That's one of the things that I actually love about Virginia Beach, that there's a strong unity within the churches and the pastors in this city. And I think just we're all kind of, you know, you hear this whole, like, we're all in this thing together. And that's really true. And I think that just absolutely focusing on Christ in the midst of this and working together and unified, I think that's what this is all about.

I want to say thank you also to all the teams, the volunteers that are pulling this thing off, pulling this thing together, our leadership teams that are, there's so much shifting that's happened. And worship was amazing. I loved seeing all of that. We've only gotten glimpses of it, but what we've seen has been phenomenal. And I just, I loved that.

And I know our kids, you know, kids have gotten gifts. Yeah, yeah. So you should have received a gift from our kids. Both of our churches have been doing this, delivering gifts to your kids at your door so you can have Easter at home. And we just want to let you know, families, that we love you and we're with you and we love your kids.

And hopefully they're getting as much out of this experience. And you saw your kids on the camera here if you were able to turn in a video. It's just really, really cool that we're able to do this together. This is a family event. Easter is a family event.

And just to piggyback off of what John said, we're all going through this together. And as churches, we're going through this. So we were all calling each other in the background. Some of you were probably like, oh, I wonder how Pastor Leon or I wonder how Pastor John is handling this, you know, by themselves. They aren't handling it by themselves because we're all in the same boat.

We're having conversations because all of us are in this time of uncertainty. It's a time of darkness. We're all challenged in some ways. As ministry, ministry is not like it has been, you know. We're thinking differently.

We're having to think differently. Here we are on camera right now. We're online right now. And we're doing things differently. But the glory of it, John, is that it doesn't matter if we're together in a physical place or we're together right here on Sunday morning from our living rooms.

God's power is very present. And that's the power of God, the resurrection, the church. All of us come together around this one idea. And that's this Easter season we can celebrate together on the goodness of God and His glory. Yeah, I love it.

I love it. It's been such a shifting season. Everybody's been so flexible and helpful and sort of a last-minute scramble on some things to make it all happen. I know you guys did even a Good Friday communion service last night. We also did a Zoom prayer night for Good Friday.

And everything's so different. And yet, at the same time, the one thing that remains the same, the one thing that matters the most is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And here we are celebrating that. It is Easter Sunday. He is risen, and it changes everything.

It really does. It changes absolutely everything. It changes your life even in the midst of what we're dealing with right now. I know a lot of you are very anxious. I know a lot of you have bills you need to pay, and you're waiting to hear from your employer whether you can go back to work.

You're seeing your retirement dwindle. Your life savings is going away. We're uncertain about the economy. A lot is going on. We're all feeling that.

But one thing we can put our hope in is this very day where we come together and celebrate the greatest feat that ever happened. Yep. Yep. And that's Jesus Christ. Yeah, that's so good.

There's a Proverbs, chapter 12, verse 25. It starts out by saying, Anxieties in a man's heart weigh him down. And that's really true. And I think that in this season, we're really feeling it. I mean, already, you know, people already in society feel the weight of anxiety.

I think now more than ever, this is an issue. People already are feeling anxiety around their kids, around bills, around marriage. I mean, maybe your marriage has felt like it was already very heavy and one more thing could cause it to break. And then the pandemic hits and now you're locked in your home and you're trying to have to work out all these things with all this uncertainty and anxiety that's, you know, just swirling around us, the economy and all these things. And then the second part of this proverb, though, says, But a good word makes him glad.

So anxieties weigh a man's heart down, but a good word makes him glad. And so this morning, I'm excited to just celebrate, to unite with you guys, to celebrate the ultimate good word, which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yeah. John, why don't you start off with a prayer for us before we go into our scripture? We're going to share from John 20 and it's going to be an amazing, powerful word for you today.

I believe that God has ordained this word for you today during this time. We can always look at the word of God and see, you know, things are revealed to us. It's so applicable. It's just amazing. But John, if you could open us up in prayer and then we'll roll right into this scripture.

I'd love to. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the opportunity to gather together before you. Father, we invite you into this place. Fill this room with your spirit.

Father, we pray that where everyone is right now in their living rooms, even if they're listening to this, driving in their cars later, Lord, we pray that you would meet them there. Soften our hearts. Give us ears to hear what your spirit is saying. Give us eyes to see you in your word and in our midst. We thank you that the resurrection changes absolutely everything.

Everything. Now, as we decrease, we pray that you would increase within us. Lord, we pray that you would speak even prophetically through us this morning and right into the hearts of the people around us and transform us, Lord. And we pray that if there's anyone that's joining us this morning that does not know you as Lord and Savior, that they would not end their time with us this morning without having fully surrendered to you as their king, as their risen Lord. God, we thank you.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. In this message today, we're going to deal with the subject from death to life, resurrection.

It's the central message of the entire Bible, really. And we look at the Gospel of John. There's many Gospels that deal with this, but the Gospel of John is just beautiful. What I like about John, what I like about John is that he really focuses heavy on the deity of Christ. Everything he does is almost like he's trying to prove.

He says, I am a witness of these things. Every religion in the world gathers around an idea, right? An idea, maybe a person, a philosopher, a thinker, someone who has something good for someone to hear. But what distinguishes Christianity from any other religion in the world is the fact that there is resurrection. That a god came down to earth and brought himself to life.

That distinguishes us from any other religion in the world. And John was willing to hang his life on that very subject, resurrection. He was willing to put it all on the line. In fact, just to bring context to this particular passage in John 20, before he even gets there in John 19, he says, He who saw it and borne witness. He says, I am a witness to what has happened.

And then in John 21, 24, he says, This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. And we know that this testimony is true. And here's the thing. Today, as Christians, John, we hear about resurrection and we hear about Jesus rose from the dead. And like, yeah, I know Christians believe that.

So what? For some of you who may not be believers. For us who are believers, it just makes sense to us, right? But in that day, it was a very shocking statement to say that somebody rose from the dead. In fact, it was a death warrant for these people.

So John is being bold and writing these things down. And I am a testimony of these things. I saw it happen. And he was putting his life on the line. Yeah.

Yeah, I love it. I mean, I definitely we recently did a series on this in first John and just talking about it was called beloved and really dove into the context of who he is and who he was. I personally really connect with him. And so, you know, I'm just going to read John 20 here and I'm just going to look at the first two verses here. We're going to dive in John 20 verse one through 18 is where we're going to be.

And so I'm just going to kick us off here with the first two verses. It says this early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved and said, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have put him. And so, you know, Leon, you were talking about how you felt like John chose Mary Magdalene here to kind of speak to her perspective of this for a reason. Yeah, it's interesting.

OK, so Mary Magdalene was specifically chosen in the other Gospels. We see multiple women here that are arriving to the grave. For some reason, John chose Mary Magdalene specifically in this context. And the reason I believe that he did this is there was something special about Mary. There was a unique relationship there that he wanted to identify.

And so she comes to the grave and you'll see this throughout the story. In fact, John, you were even sharing. It looks like this this story is mostly about Mary. Yeah, because we have three characters in this story. We have John.

We have Peter. We have Mary. And it looks like he really focuses a lot. John focuses on Mary. What we know about Mary is that she was a wayward person, a very wayward person before she met Jesus.

In fact, she had seven demons. Some people would suppose that she was probably a prostitute based on the area that she was from. We don't know that for sure. But we know that she had seven demons. She was a sinful woman and she experienced the forgiveness of a savior.

Yeah. Just heavy forgiveness of a savior. So we see this woman presented to us through John because John wants us to see. And this is where I see this scripture taking us that John wants us to see the forgiveness where much is sin happens. Much more is forgiven.

Yeah. Yeah. That's so good. I think, you know, you talk about Mary Magdalene. She had seven demons.

Jesus delivered her of those seven demons. This is a woman who was very broken, a woman who was very lost in society. She didn't have a place. And so we know that she probably came to this tomb this morning to actually finish the burial rites. She was looking to Jesus.

She was still loyal. It had been a crazy week for her. She witnessed Jesus crucified on the cross. It would have been traumatic for her. And so she's very broken in this point.

And so she's come to complete the burial and she's confused and she's broken. the only one. One that she really placed in her hope and trust in has died. This would have been a really dark place for her. And so she goes and she gets Simon Peter and she sees that someone's taken it.

She's distraught. She sees that she's thinking someone has taken the body. She doesn't know what's going on. She goes and tells Simon Peter and the other disciple, which the one Jesus loved, who is John. That's who it is, the guy that's writing this.

And it's just a state of confusion here. Right, right. And Mary wasn't a gullible person. Here's what I want you to know. She was a bit of a skeptic, actually, because I think it's interesting that she arrives to the grave and the first thing she says, where have they taken the body?

Who's taken the body? There was a lot going on. She was broken. There was stuff going on all around her. But she arrives at the tomb and she says, where in the world have they taken the body?

And Jesus told them over and over again what was going to happen, right John? He said, I'm going to rise. I'm going to die and I'm going to rise. I'm going to die and I'm going to rise. I'm going to die and I'm going to rise.

He told them over and over again. And skepticism came in. And we see that with the other disciples in a minute. We'll see some of that as well. But I think it's interesting.

How does this relate to us? Well, we tend to be skeptics. Yeah. In fact, we're in a skeptic generation. We're in a cynical generation.

We're very cynical ourselves. We don't trust government. We don't trust the things we hear. Sometimes we trust the things we don't need to hear and we don't trust the truth. So we don't even really know what truth is.

I think about this COVID crisis we're in right now and all the information that's going everywhere. You guys are reading information. I am. A lot of it isn't true. And some of you buy into it.

Some of you don't. And when truth comes, it's really hard to see the truth, man, when all the confusion is around you. Mary was dealing with a lot of stuff. Man, she lost the person she gave her life to. She loved Jesus.

They had a relationship like no other. It was a beautiful thing. And now here he is. He said he was the son of God. He came.

He came to this this this world to take it over. You know, they and the Jewish culture, they were thinking a king was coming. Right. Yeah. They thought that this triumphant king was coming and he came as a humble servant.

He came from Nazareth of all places. And now he's dead. Yeah. And now his body's gone. What are we to think at that moment?

We know what's going to happen because we see the end of the story. But they are where we are right now in the covid crisis. Yeah. They don't know. They are uncertain.

Yeah. They are uncertain what's going to happen. They haven't seen the risen savior yet. Been a long week. Been a very long week.

Yeah. So you want to do verse three? Yes. Yes. So let me read moving down to John 20, verse three through seven.

And it says, so Peter and the other disciples started for the tomb. Both were running. But the other disciple outran Peter. OK. And reach the tomb first.

Yeah. That's so funny. Yeah. I love the Bible because they got in a foot race. And the disciple whom Jesus loved had to communicate.

Yeah. That you know what? I beat him in the foot race. OK. Peter was kind of lagging behind.

And then he bent over and looked at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in. And Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. And he saw the strips of linen lying there. He emphasizes that once again. And as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus's head.

And the cloth was lying in its place separate from the linen. And that's a good excuse to get your kids to fold up their clothes, right? Well, Jesus even folded up his clothes after he resurrected, right? Yeah. Some of you are going to be able to be using that here from from this from this message on.

You're going to using that for your kids. But there's a few observations I just want to make in this. See, John's a brilliant writer. And the way he's writing this is to help communicate the gospel. See, the Jewish leaders in this day would have done anything, if not everything, to take Jesus's body out of the tomb and parade it through the streets so that everybody would know that this guy is not God.

They would have done anything and everything. But the empty tomb, listen, guys, the empty tomb was a loud witness, a loud witness to what was to this bodily resurrection that took place. I want us to observe the linens for a second. I mean, whenever something is repeated over and over in scriptures, it's important to take a look at this. And they look into the grave.

They see the linens laying there. Now, linens in that day, when somebody was buried, they would use a gooey substance with spices, a heavy type of goo that would be placed over the bandages. And the bandages would somewhat harden, kind of like a mummy or whatever you want to call it that. And so if anybody, first of all, some people, there's this thing called the swoon theory. Have you heard of the swoon theory where perhaps Jesus was like in some type of altered state and everybody thought he was dead.

And when he was in the tomb, he kind of woke up. And there was this Jesus seminar and others kind of presented this idea. But this doesn't make sense, according to John, because when he walked in, he saw the linens, the linens, they were laying there in place. If someone were to wake up and see linens on them, they would be ripping themselves out of them, trying to get off of them. They would be all over the place.

But it says it was neatly in place. Other scriptures also indicate this. It was as if the body was just gone. Yeah. So it just kind of went down and it was there.

And not only that, he took the wrapping. He took the wrapping off his head and he laid it over. Now, if somebody were to want to leave or if a grave robber had come and stole the body, as some suppose happened as well. This would have not been the case. I mean, they would have gotten them out of there as soon as they can.

It wouldn't have taken their time to take off the linens and put it in place and all that. So it doesn't really make sense. And John does this purposefully to communicate this. And I also think it's very, very interesting that when we look at Lazarus, go back to chapter 11, what happens? Jesus shows up.

His best friend Lazarus is dead. Martha said, if he would have been there, he wouldn't have died. He says, if you believe, you'll see the glory of God. And he says, I am the resurrection life. And he goes up to the tomb and he says, come forth.

You know, Lazarus, come forth. What does he do? He comes out of the tomb. What's the last statement he makes? He says, unbind him from his linens.

Yeah. He unbinds him because Lazarus couldn't get out on his own. Yeah. So Lazarus was bodily resurrected. But something happened different here.

See, in this scripture, what John's trying to communicate here, John, John and John, what he's trying to. Yeah. Great name, by the way. What John's trying to communicate here is that this was a different type of resurrection. Right.

This wasn't the same type of bodily resurrection that perhaps the young girl that was resurrected, that Jesus resurrected, or even Elijah resurrected in the Old Testament, or those who were resurrected throughout the body. These were bodily resurrections. But his not only was a bodily resurrection, which is important to know, but there was something different happening there. It was some kind of glorified state. And later on in scripture, we even see that Jesus is manipulating walls and locked houses, and he's manipulating the linens here, you know, because he came out of the linens, and bodily he's resurrected.

But there's more. There's more going on here. Yeah. And it's a great picture of resurrection. Yeah.

And there's also something else, and maybe you want to share this about the linen cloths on the head. Yeah, it's so good. I think, you know, the whole thing here with the picture of... The difference between, you know, comparing it to Lazarus and comparing it to the difference in how he was bodily resurrected, which he was bodily resurrected, but the way that Jesus was bodily resurrected was into a glorified body. So this is the body that we're going to have for eternity.

And so scripture talks about Jesus being the firstborn from the dead. And I was always kind of confused at that. I was like, well, he wasn't really the firstborn because, you know, Lazarus and the little girl and there's other resurrections. But this is a different type of body. Like you said, he's moving through walls and all these different things.

And here's the big difference is that Lazarus died again, that every one of those people who were resurrected from the grave, they all went back to the grave. In fact, every eye that was opened, every blind eye, every lame man that was healed, every single miracle that Jesus performed and that we see happening and we do believe, and I do believe that these things do happen today. But unless Jesus comes back, they're all going to go lame again. They're all going to go blind again. We're all going to die at some point.

Right. But this is a picture of a new creation. We've been in a series called the seven days of recreation. And this is the first day of the new creation. He has recreated things and his body is a picture of the glorified body.

It's a beautiful picture that speaks to the realities of heaven. And so what we see here, you know, it speaks to things like healing even, and that God does break through into our current situation. That's right. That's right. And yet...

The kingdom is here, but not yet. Yeah. Right? Yeah. It's here, but not yet.

So even when we do receive miraculous healings, those are not to be the end in and of themselves. They are to be the kingdom breaking through to point us to that ultimate kingdom that is coming on earth as it is in heaven. And it's just a picture here that this is what we're celebrating on Easter. It's such a picture of light in the dark. It's a beautiful thing.

And so... Yeah, and there's another statement there that I thought was very interesting. When Jesus took off the headpiece and laid it on, and he folded it neatly and laid it to the side, that was purposeful. John knew what he was doing there when he laid that down. See, in Jewish custom, when you went to someone's house and you had a meal with somebody...

Yeah, yeah. The custom was you would take the rag or the towel or the handkerchief or whatever you want to call it, and after you ate, if you enjoyed and it was hospitable and you wanted to come back or whatever, you would just wrinkle up the towel, throw it back on the table, and then leave, and it would be an honorary to do that, right? But in his case, he laid it and he folded it. Now, in Jewish custom, if you didn't have a good time, if you weren't planning on being back, if there was somebody said something rude at the table, perhaps, and you're just like, you just folded the towel, thank you for the meal, but I probably won't be back. Jesus was saying here, I'm not going to be back.

I'm gone from this tomb. I've been bodily resurrected. I've been glorified. And guess what? I'm not going back.

Death is no longer a part of this God right now. So I thought that was really, really, really beautiful. And that's so significant because everything is about that very thing, resurrection. I mean, Paul's scriptures, his central theme was resurrection. And just like Jesus's body, we can have hope of that, too.

Yeah. An imperishable, immortal body. Yeah. It's exciting. So let's, verse 8 here, John 20, verse 8.

This is finally the other disciple, who was John, who had reached the tomb first. Again, he's like, I'm faster. Right. He also went inside. He saw and believed.

So remember, he's run. He's run the foot race. And we see kind of the personalities of Peter and John here, I think. You know, John beats him there. And yet he kind of pulls up.

And he's kind of like, whoa, what's going on? Peter bull rushes, man. Peter, the fisherman, he's just like, he goes in. I almost kind of picture him going into that tomb, like, ready to fight. Like, who took the body?

What's going on? I wouldn't want to mess with Peter, bro. That's right, man. So he kind of walks in there. Now he's like, okay, he sees it.

And you almost see this, the dawning on him. And verse 9, it says, right before verse 9, it says, he saw and believed. And then they still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. But I think what you get here is that it's kind of hitting him. Right?

Like, it's kind of like this spark of belief is starting to ignite in his heart. Like a seed. Like some kind of seed starts happening there. Yeah, and I think that is the seed that eventually turns into the consuming fire in his life of belief. Like, if you think about this, this is a pivotal moment, man.

This is that moment where he's like, wait a minute. This is all happening. Could it be? Right? Yeah, yeah.

So verse 10, do you want to? Yeah, well, there's another thought. Yeah, yeah, go for it. Yeah, just the 8 and 9, he saw and believed. I think that's very interesting that Peter didn't believe.

Mary didn't believe. Not yet, anyway. But he saw and believed. But what did he see? He didn't see a body there, but he believed.

And I think it's interesting because if we go to verse 25, we see Thomas, you know, and all of y'all know about doubting Thomas and how he, you know, I won't believe him until I can put my finger in his side and I can touch his hand and blah, blah, blah. Well, I love Jesus because he's so funny. He shows up. First of all, he manipulates the walls and shows up at the house with the disciples, right? And they're like, whoa, what's Jesus doing here, you know?

And then Thomas is like, oh, my God, you know, who are you, you know? And he looks at Thomas. He says, hey, how about touching my hand? You know, the side, you know, the thing you were questioning, you know, remember, I'm a prophet. So, you know, I know what you said and I know what you were thinking.

So, you know, do that. He's like, my Lord, my God, you know? And then he answers after that. He says, you believe because you saw, but blessed are those who see, who don't see, excuse me, and do believe. Who don't see and do believe.

That's us. That's us. And I think that really signifies that. It's a beautiful thing. It is beautiful.

Let's move on to verse 10. It says, and then the disciples went back to where they were staying. Now, Mary stood outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white. Some of the other scriptures say men, and we even see after this, she really doesn't see the resurrection yet, even in this. But she probably sees two men, thinks they're the gardeners, you know, or help or whatever.

And she's probably not even seeing them as angels, but they were in white. And they were seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. Now, you were making an observation here in this scripture about something in this. Yeah. Well, I think we were both talking about the mercy seat here.

Yeah. Yeah. This is a beautiful picture. I think that there's a, so when you look at the Ark of the Covenant, there's a picture of two angels, and there's sort of like in between where the altar would be. And so one at the head and one at the foot.

And so what we see is almost an altar of sacrifice and the mercy seat that's there where Jesus had been. And there's just so much imagery in this. Right, right. It's packed. Like, I feel like we're just going to talk all day on this.

So it may be up to the production team to edit this thing out, but it's cool. I'm looking at the clock right now. I mean, there's just so much stuff that we can share here. But yeah, it's just a beautiful picture. Yeah.

The Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant.

The angels on each side and the priests would make the sacrifice, the blood sacrifice, the innocent lamb or the oxen or whatever it was, and they would lay it and they would sprinkle it on the altar. The mercy seat of God. So when we talk about the mercy seat of God, that's what we see here. We see the angel on the right, the angel on the left, Jesus in the middle. He's the sacrificial lamb.

His blood was probably still stained on that tomb where he laid. And you see the mercy seat. And it's just a beautiful, beautiful imagery and picture of God. See, John's just brilliant how he shows us this. You're so good, man.

He's talking about the Bible. No, I'm talking about you, man. Thanks, Leon. You too. So I think there's so much here.

There's just so much beauty. And I think, again, like this scene pans over to Mary. I think, you know, the other disciples have gone back and then Mary here is having this encounter and she's standing outside the tomb crying. She's weeping here. She's encountering angels.

She doesn't know that they're angels. And then verse 13, it says they asked her, meaning these angels that she doesn't recognize. I said, woman, why are you crying? And she says, they have taken my Lord away, she said. And I almost kind of picture her kind of like they've taken him away.

She's upset and kind of like, where is he? And she says, and I don't know where they've put him. She's distraught. Verse 14 says that this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. And he asked her, woman, why are you crying?

Who is it you're looking for? Man, this, you know, you talk about a pivotal moment. This is so powerful. I mean, not just for Mary Magdalene, but I believe for all of humanity, this moment of despair, of confusion, of darkness, the fog of life has kind of just cluttered her to where she can't see anything but death. She's here looking for a rotting corpse, not a risen Lord.

She's her heart is broken. She's been through so much. She's come to this grave again because she's loyal to Jesus. She doesn't understand that all of it's going on. All she knows is that Jesus was her all in all.

He was the one that delivered her. He was the one who set her free. When other people rejected her, he accepted her. He gave her identity and security. He brought her wholeness.

And so she and John and Jesus's mother, they would have watched the traumatic, gruesome event of the one they loved more than anything crucified. Right, right. I mean, the trauma there. Yeah. And the despair.

Yeah, and there's a lot of reasons. What really stuck out to me, too, is she didn't realize, you know, and I think a lot of that was because of that moment. Yeah. You know, just dealing with all the pain and hurt and sorrow that she was feeling at the time. Yeah.

And, you know, I also find this interesting observation that I kind of noticed, and it goes back to resurrection once again. And I think there's John just brilliant. You're just brilliant, man, when it comes to this. So it is that she didn't realize. Yeah.

She didn't realize. She didn't know what was Jesus like, you know? He was in this glorified state. So do we realize, she didn't realize. And this right here is probably the closest description that we have of a resurrected body that we will experience one day.

Yeah. I mean, nowhere else in Scripture do you see that. You see risen people, but they're not raised immortally and perishable. They weren't raised in the way that Jesus rose here. Yeah.

So we're getting a good glimpse. In 1 Corinthians it says, He was sown perishably but raised imperishably. Sown in dishonor but raised in glory. He was sown in weakness and raised in power. While we don't have a definitive look at what that is like, they did.

And I think that's a beautiful picture of God revealing Himself to her and what it's going to be like for us today. Us who believe, we who believe, we have a body waiting for us that is something like that. And that's a beautiful thing. It's exciting. Yeah.

It's exciting. And I think, you know, at this point, you know, they're seeing these things and they don't see it at all. Again, you know, Mary Magdalene, and I think there's a picture even of the other disciples with all that they've been through. They weren't expecting this. They didn't see this coming.

They were looking for a revolution. And yet, this is exactly what God had in mind all along. In fact, this scene calls to mind the scene in Revelation 5. If you guys are familiar with this, there's a scene where John, the guy who wrote this, he is in the spirit. And it says this.

I'm just going to read from Revelation 5 real quick. It says, Yes. And so no one in heaven, though, in this image, no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. And John says, I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, Weep no more.

Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll and the seven seals. And so they sang then, you see it fast forward, they're singing a new song saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God and from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign on the earth. And then I looked around and heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

Nobody was able to open the scroll. That just preaches itself, doesn't it? It's crazy. You can just end right there and just say, wow. I know.

Hallelujah, he is risen. This scroll again, this is the redemptive plan. He is weeping. I think when John is there weeping and he's like, you know, he's expressing the same thing Mary Magdalene is. I mean, every time we cry and deal with that place of grieving and mourning and pain and despair and frustration and confusion and anxiety and stress, that is the cry that echoes all that's in here.

And then the angels then are singing, is anyone worthy? Like this is this echo throughout eternity. Is anyone worthy to break the seal and open the scroll? And then Mary, just like John in Revelation, has a stranger lift her eyes to the Lion of Judah, who is worthy to break the seal and open the scroll. A slain lamb who is also a lion, but even in this moment.

Is anyone worthy to祝福 hair. Everything for her, it's okay. She doesn't realize it. That everything's better than okay but she doesn't get it yet. It's a moment here where Jesus has won the victory and yet she doesn't have eyes to see it.

The battle's won. Jesus has conquered the grave, broken the seal, and opened the scroll just like He rolled away the stone and opened the tomb. There's a beautiful picture here. But Mary doesn't get it. She's looking for a rotting corpse instead of her risen Savior.

She's looking for a corpse instead of a Savior. That's really what it comes down to. How many of us are looking for a corpse instead of a Savior? We have a Savior right there ready to reveal Himself to us. I love how John, and we're coming to the close here, so hang on with us.

Just stay with us for a few more minutes. So John 20, verse 16, it says, Jesus said, Jesus said to her, and I love this. This is great. He says, Mary. She turned toward Him and cried out in Aramaic, Rabbani, which means teacher.

That's an intimate phrase that she recognized in Mary. Mary. And Jesus said, Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father and my God and your God. Mary.

Mary. That one word changed everything for her. Yeah. The voice of God. I just can picture, He could have said anything, but she heard Mary, and she heard Jesus' voice.

Perhaps Jesus is crying out to you. Jim, John, Jane, Leon. There's an intimate tone to the way that God speaks to us. He has something. He wants to share intimacy with you.

Yeah. And she recognized that voice. It was about the way He spoke. And what I love, it kind of connects with Romans 10, where it says, faith comes by hearing the Word. Faith comes by hearing the Word, not by just seeing.

Yeah. And God's voice is speaking to us. Perhaps even now, God's voice is speaking to us, but we can't hear because we're too focused on the here and now and the things that we see in front of us. And God's trying. And we got all the noise around us and all the things in this world around us.

And we're just so focused on everything. And He's calling out with that intimate tone that He was calling out to Mary. He's like, He's calling your name. My child. My child, can you hear me?

My sister, my brother. Yeah. Can you hear me? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. John 10, 27 says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I think, you know, when you, when you see this here, you know, even the, she thinks he's the gardener, right? I don't think that's a coincidence. Like the, the gardener, think about that.

This is hearkening back to the garden of Eden. Like she thinks, I don't think it's necessarily a mistake. No. Like he is the gardener. In fact, he's cultivating the kingdom of heaven in our midst.

Right. He is the gardener. Right. He's restoring the garden of Eden. Whether you realize it or not, he is, this is his doing.

This is, I love the Bible. It's so good. And the Aramaic, like you said, is so intimate. Like he's just speaking to her, her name. And it speaks so powerfully.

Like every time you look in scripture, every time Aramaic is used and the gospels go out of their way to use Aramaic, you see it when Jesus refers to God as Abba, he's using his native tongue, his, his mother language, so to speak. Like it's that, it always reveals intimacy. Abba means Papa or Daddy. He uses it to raise the little girl we talked about, Talitha, Kumi, which is sort of like a pet name. It says, little lamb, rise.

And then, and then on the cross, he speaks from a deep place of heartfelt emotions saying, like that means my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? There's this place, this intimate speaking. It's not just a scholarly distance or, or even a formality. It's just heartfelt things. So when she sees Jesus, she says Rabboni and just throws her arms around him.

I could just imagine her just ripping Jesus and pouring her, her eyes just pouring with tears. Just this is, this is Jesus. You're here. Jesus, you're here. And she, and she realizes at that point, right?

I mean, it's like, she'd never realized up until that point. So you heard her savior's voice. Yeah. That's just, that's just amazing to me. And it's so important.

And I think that this is so important for us. And it's a challenge and encouragement. I think to me and myself and like our whole churches that how important it is to familiarize yourself with your name on Jesus's lips, the sound of his voice, to tune into his spirit, to know what that means, to cultivate in the light, to cultivate that familiarity and relationship with him. So that in the confusion, in the fog of life, in the darkness, when he cries out to you, you recognize it. Cause it's when he says Mary and she's like, Oh, and the lights come on and she is immediately.

Right. It's, and then she goes full throttle soldier returning from war status. Like, you know, like, yeah. I also find it interesting that, that, that he, he says, go and tell my brothers. Yeah.

And this is the first time in scripture we see brother. Go and tell my brothers, go and tell the other disciples, my brothers, he called them servants. He called them friends. He called them all these things, but he said servant in this particular passage, because what he had done, what he had accomplished by dying on the cross and rising from the dead is he put us that counts them and us in a place where now he can call us brothers and sisters. So you are now grafted into the family by the blood of the lamb.

You are made like him. I love it. It's so good. Let's hit verse, let's hit, let's hit verse 18 here. Yeah.

If you don't mind. I'm like, I'm like, I'm already like, this is just, yeah, we could stay on this, but we realize we've got limited time. We're already past our time at this point, John. I know. So this is up to the editing team.

So, okay. Yeah. He's back there like, no, that ain't going to happen. So, um, yeah, I think this is such a beautiful thing that just the power of that, that she's seen the Lord, the encounter of the very real encounter, um, that she's not just associating with any particular religion or acquiescing to a set of rules or doctrine. She has experienced the risen Lord.

I have seen him. I know him. I know my name on his lips. It's a beautiful thing. The resurrection has changed her and it's a beautiful, it's just amazing.

So, uh, verse 18, she's squeezing him tight. Right. And she's, and he's saying, don't cling to me. Right. Um, he's saying it's better.

It's better. I don't want to lose this. We got to grab this because it's such an important thing. He tells her, don't cling to me. Like, don't hold onto me because he's saying here, um, I, I have to ascend to heaven.

You see later that he will say, uh, it's better for me to go that the spirit might come. That's it's better. I, one of my, uh, a pastor always shared with me. Um, he, he, he puts it like this. It's better to have the spirit inside of you than Jesus beside of you.

Like lean into that, man. I like, that's such an important thing to realize that we have access to his spirit now. Yeah. There's a picture of that there. So, um, yeah, I'll read 18.

I'm like, I'm supposed to read 18. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's okay.

I'll share. How about I do it? Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news and, and she said, I have seen the Lord, which you were pretty much, you know, right. Right. Yeah.

Speaking to. And she told them that, that he had. He said these things to her. So, I have seen the Lord. See, this is really what brings it all together in closing here, okay?

So, she didn't believe. They didn't believe. But at the very end, everything changed because she witnessed. She knew at that point she had seen the Lord. She had witnessed the resurrection.

This is the life-changing message that we're talking about, that He, that, that, that, that through it, that for us, it's, it's, it, it might be a process. It might be time. But there is a point in our lives where things we realize. She didn't realize. She didn't realize.

She didn't realize. But we realize. We realize. And she sees, sees the Lord. And I thought it was interesting how you pointed out, as we were talking and discussing our message here, how that one word changed everything, Mary.

And she saw the Lord. And she went and told everything. everybody else about it, everybody else about it because she was so excited about it. But these three characters in this story, they all had different personality quirks, right? I mean, we had Peter who, who was ashamed of himself because he kept denying Jesus.

He kept doing things. But the cause of resurrection. Yeah. He all of a sudden knew that he was forgiven and he was, he was a child of God. And he had, and then we have John who, insecurities, insecurities.

Yeah. He had all kinds of insecurities about himself, you know. He was, he was the son of thunder. Right. Right.

So we see John's progression throughout life is that he was a son of thunder, kind of ready to call down fire on the villages that had rejected Jesus. And he's like, slow down. You know, he's like, this guy was trying to cast out demons in your name, but he's not one of us. And I told him, stop. Jesus is going, what are you, like, calm down.

You're missing it. He's, he's arguing with the other disciples who's the greatest. And Jesus is like, you need to be like a child. I mean, he's trying to beat Peter in the foot race for crying out loud. Right, right.

So, you know, there was a lot of humility issues there, you know, and, but, but, but he found his identity in Christ. Maybe you're that person out there that needs, needs an, your, your identity is in everything else. You connect with everything else. Guess what? Jesus is ready to receive you and give you the identity you were intended to have in the very beginning.

That's what resurrection. He wants to take those graves. She was looking for a corpse instead of a savior. But guess what? At the end of the story, she finds a savior.

The corpse is no longer an issue. And then we, and then we have her and her broken heart, you know? I mean, just the brokenness she shared with us, you know, as she was crying out to God. And at that moment when she realized, she found that her broken heart was healed. Yeah.

And she rejoiced. Yeah. It really is true with Peter, whether it's shame or insecurity and identity, or whether it's just a broken heart. I mean, the reality is that in this circumstance, these people really were nothing without Jesus. And so when he was resurrected and he came back and now through the Holy Spirit, we have access to him closer than he is to our own skin.

This is a powerful picture. The resurrection really does change everything. The resurrection changes everything. The resurrection changes everything. You heard the song in our worship set from gardens into graves.

Graves into gardens. Excuse me. Graves into gardens. Thank you. The cameraman's back there.

Switch it around. Switch it around. Graves into gardens. So we moved from graves into gardens. You looked.

She was looking for a corpse. She found the Savior. God wants to blossom a garden in your life. He wants a full, thriving garden in your life today. And you can have him and you can know him because without the resurrection, the cross is meaningless.

The cross is beautiful, but if God did not rise from the dead, Peter said, If he did not rise from the dead, then we eat, drink, be merry. Tomorrow we die, right? So today you can know a resurrected Savior. You can have life. He is resurrecting your life as we speak.

Maybe he's communicating to you even at this moment here as we close. Maybe he's sharing with, maybe he's speaking to you. Maybe his voice is going out. That soft voice is going out. And he's speaking to you.

He's speaking to you right now. It says, He who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. In Romans, you can call on the name. You realize that you're far from him now. And there's something in you.

There's this guilt that weighs over you. I know I was there. I was there. When I confessed my guilt, my sin to God, I had this weight on me. It just wouldn't come off.

God wants to take that weight off of you. That's the reason Jesus is here, to take that weight off of you. He says, My yoke is easy and my burden is light. And if you submit your life to Him, He will forgive you of your sin, the sin that keeps you from becoming who God originally intended you to be. He took that away from you.

He lifts that off of you. And He gives you life. So if you would join me in prayer right now, today is the day, perhaps the Spirit is convicting you right now, where you are, on your couch, or wherever you are right now, resurrection is available for you. Resurrection is available. If you will pray with me, you must admit that you're a sinner.

Yep. Submit to Him. Submit to His blood. Believe in the name of the Lord and you will be saved. Pray that with me.

Father, we believe that You are the Son of God. I believe right now that You are the Son of God. And I see in Your Word that You died on the cross for my sin. But not only that, You resurrected, proving that You were God to accomplish the greatest feat ever known in history. So today, I receive You into my heart.

I receive You into my life. Change me and transform me from the inside out. I commit my life to You today. I walk with You from this day forward. In Your name.

Amen. Let's celebrate that. If you gave your life to the Lord today, we want to celebrate you. Connect with one of our churches. We would love to get you connected to a family of God today.

You have been changed. You have been transformed. God is going to start doing some amazing things in your life. And you're going to experience the resurrection that we all experience, even in your heart now. And we do look forward to the day that we're all together transformed in imperfect.

I mean, in these imperfect bodies become perfect. And you know what? No matter what happens in this pandemic, this is the beauty of the gospel. This is the beauty of the resurrection. This is Easter.

And no matter what the circumstances look like, the victory has been won. This is the reality of knowing Christ Jesus. That no matter what the circumstances are, no matter what happens to you, it doesn't matter about happiness. We have the joy of Christ. Because joy goes way beyond.

This is an eternal reality. So thanks, guys, for being with us today. It was a joy to be with you. Yeah. You are commissioned.

Go with your risen Lord. Go and make a difference. Because salt always makes a difference. And a little bit of salt goes a long way. God bless you guys.

Happy Easter. We love you. God bless. Hey, everybody. Thank you so much.

I hope the message blessed you. And thank you for your generosity. I know it's a hard season to give, but God is just amazing. And the more you do and the more you step up, God's going to do so much more. Yeah.

Yeah. We believe that faith is the currency of heaven. And so, yeah, there's multiple ways that you can give. I know that with us, you can give at risenchurchvb.com forward slash give.

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We've got multiple formats of giving. But we are just so blessed for those of you who are giving and we're able to do more. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you.