Empty

Empty

CCCAG, Easter 2022

Scripture: John 20:1-10

Intro-

This week, we lost a fairly famous author named Jack Higgens. He authored a best selling novel called “The Eagle has Landed” about a Nazi attempt to assassinate Winston Churchill.

In an interview, when he was asked about his career in being a successful author, he said he could summarize his feelings about it in one word-

Empty.

I thought that was very interesting- a man who has climbed to the pinnacle of success in his field- being on the NY Times best seller list for weeks, described his feelings about it as being empty.

Isn’t that interesting?

I was thinking about this and realized- I sometimes feel the same way.

For 3 years, I had my attention focused on a single moment in time- the pinning ceremony for nursing- that moment in time when you can officially call yourself a registered nurse. All the studying, all the clinicals, all the sleepless nights and long hours traveling and working for free doing clinical time were all going to culminate in that ceremony.

December 12th came and I stood on the stage with one of my best friends who is also a nurse reaching down on the table and taking the box with my name on it, removing it and attaching it to my shirt declaring I was now an RN.

Do you know how I felt afterward- not much. I felt grateful that school was over with, but other than that, it was not a mountain top experience for me.

There is a quote by Sir Edmund Hillary- the first man to ever climb Mt Everest. For years, he had dreamed of the moment he would stand on the highest peak in the world.

He planned for it

Trained for it

Practiced survival and advanced mountaineering.

Finally. he stood where his dreams had led him, and inn an interview after he had accomplished what no one had done before He said, “I got to the top, to the very peak, and found there was nothing there”

He felt empty.

This morning, I want to talk to you about being empty.

This is a subject that I believe will resonate with many people here.

Many people come into and out of church every week hiding the sense of emptiness inside of themselves.

Many of us might be placing our hope and sense of self in the wrong thing, and on this Easter Sunday, I’d love for Jesus to get ahold of our hearts and fix this condition within us.

Let’s read the scripture-

John 20:1-20

20 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.

2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.

4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.

6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.

8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.

9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

Prayer

This morning, I want to ask a few pointed questions-

I. What are we filled with?

What are we hungry for?

The answers to those two questions will tell us how and why some people may feel empty this morning.

The person in this story that most exemplifies the idea of feeling empty on the inside is Simon Peter.

Why do I think that?

Think about the week he has had-

Was instrumental in the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

Has seen miracle after miracle happen.

At the Last Supper, Peter proclaims his love for Jesus, only to have Jesus tell him that he- Peter the Rock, will betray him

Then Jesus is arrested-

Peter is, within about 10 seconds, guilty, then innocent of attempted murder.

He, along with the rest of the disciples run away

Peter then comes back, and watches as Jesus is beaten and flogged.

As we watches, three different times, he denies he knows Jesus to the onlookers, and the last time as Luke Records