I'm Jimmy Seibert and I'm the senior pastor here for the Antioch community and family. You guys already know me but for those that are guests here, I'm so glad that you would choose to celebrate this weekend with us. This weekend is what we call Easter but is simply celebrating the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And today there are literally hundreds of millions of people across the world celebrating that truth. Whether it is within the refugee camps of the Middle East, persecuted house churches in china, homeless shelters throughout the western world, cathedrals and churches people are gathered by the hundreds of millions to celebrate that Jesus is alive. And we are in good company to be a part of that journey.
There is one scripture that I think captures the essence of who Jesus is and what he wants to be to us today and that is John 11:25 and 26. Jesus said to Mary, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies and everyone who believes in me will never die. Jesus is the resurrection and the hope for eternal life. He is also the hope in the midst of our broken lives. There is another day...there may be weeping in the night but there will be rejoicing the morning because Jesus lives. He will carry us through.
My question this morning is "are you connected to this truth? Are you connected to Jesus? Or are you on the outside looking in? As I've shared in the past, I grew up going to church mainly on Christmas and Easter. My memories of Easter are more about getting new cool clothes, candy in the baskets, and the thick chocolate bunnies that hopefully were one of those solid ones and not one of those that break in the middle. The highlight of the day was to go to church and go to Luby's cafeteria. I just want to say that I unapologetically love Luby's cafeteria. Luby's was a big deal because we didn't go out to eat much. But somehow I had missed that the centerpiece of the day was supposed to be church, talking about Jesus...but, it just went right by me. I was on the outside looking in. As I've read the bible I realize that even Jesus disciples were on the outside looking in on Easter weekend. They should have understood it but they were a little disconnected, they weren't putting all the pieces together. So, I want to tell the story through the eyes of those disconnected disciples. For you see, it wasn't always that way, they weren't always disconnected. They were right in the middle of everything in the ministry of Jesus. Each one of them had been selected by Jesus, hand-picked. I mean Jesus had literally walked up to different ones and said, "Peter follow me", "Andrew follow me." "Matthew, follow me". Can you imagine how special they felt? How unique of all the people in the world, Jesus chose me to follow him. Maybe you've had that experience every once in a while were you were chosen, it was an exciting time. I remember the first time that became clear in my mind. It was little league baseball back in the 1970s. So in our little league baseball it had age graded leagues that you were in but then when you were 11 years old, you had the chance to make the Majors. And, if you didn't get selected then you were in the minor leagues. Then when you were 12, you were in the Majors. So, it was a big deal at 11 years old you were hoping to make the major league. How they used to do it you set in the stands and the coaches would do the draft and call your name over a loud speaker and you would run out on to the field and stand next to your new team. And, whoever was left in the stands didn't make the majors that year. So it's a big deal. I'm sitting there, we had already done the tryouts and I'm sweating it a little bit. I'm hoping I made one of the major league teams at 11 years old. And all of the sudden a guy comes on the microphone and says "the Weston Cardinals and coaches choose in the 6th round...Jimmy Seibert!" I jumped out of the stands, I ran on the field and I was feeling big. Then tripped over first base! I think that was a prophetic picture of my LL career to come. But, I was selected. That day I felt great about myself, who I was. I had been selected or chosen. I can't imagine what it was like to be a disciple. "He chose me. I'm with Jesus. I'm on the inside track." Well, for three years, they would live with Jesus. Travel with Jesus. And they saw some amazing things. They saw the power of God. Really some cool stuff. One time they were in a boat and were going from one side of the lake to the other and a storm popped up. Jesus was asleep in the boat. And they got a little nervous. They were fishermen...but, water was coming over the side. And they thought, we're going to capsize, we're not going to make it. They woke Jesus up. Jesus got up, shook his head thinking "We're going to make it. I'm in the boat, dude." We're going to make it to the other side. But he got up and he demonstrated his power. He spoke to the wind and it stopped. He spoke to the waves and it stopped. He spoke to the rain and it stopped in a moment. Whoa! They exclaimed, "You must be the son of God. No man can do this."
Another cool miracle they got to be a part of was when Jesus was preaching and teaching. He was healing the sick and it was an awesome time. They ran out of food. The people had been there three days. They had not eaten. And, they came to Jesus and said, "You've got to let the people go. They're hungry." Jesus said, "You feed them." We don't have anything. So, they look around and find this little boy and he has two fish and five loaves. Jesus said, "Well, I'm going to bless this. Then I want you guys to go hand it out until we run out. Could you imagine the disciples laughing and saying "well, this is going to be a short-lived deal." And they begin to hand out fish, and a fish reappears. Or they hand out bread, and bread reappears. Can you imagine, as they go on "This is cool, this is awesome." They're laughing, dancing by the time it's all said and done, there was 12 basketfuls leftover, blown away. Five thousand people fed with two fish and five loaves. They not only got to be front row, they got to be the hands that saw it happen.
The other cool things that would have happened would be healing in people's lives. They saw miraculous healings happen. One particular time they are walking down the road with Jesus and this guy is on the side of the road, a blind beggar that had been passed by for years. He begins to cry out, "Son of David!" He's crying out to Jesus. "Have mercy on me! Have mercy on me!" The disciples are saying, "Be quiet! Leave him alone. We've got things to do." And Jesus stops; He parts the disciples out of the way. He leans down, He prays for this guy. And the guy can see. The disciples are like, "Whoa! Jesus can heal the blind!" They got to be a front row seat to the power of God and they were amazed and awestruck.
But I think actually, what was even better for them was not just being able to see the power of God, but seeing the forgiveness of God. There was a guy named Matthew, he was a thief. Literally he took taxes meant for the government and he would take money for himself. He would over charge the people and he would steal from the government also. He saw Jesus, and was so struck with his sin, he said, "Jesus, would you have me? Can I follow You? I will give everything back to who I stole from and I will make it all right." And Jesus said, "You are forgiven. Come join us."
They thought, "Wow! What kind of forgiveness is that?" The most powerful point of forgiveness was when there was a woman who was caught in the actual act of adultery. In the Old Testament if someone was caught in the act of adultery, they were to be stoned or killed. The rulers of the day, the Jews, threw this woman at Jesus' feet, seeing what He would do. They wanted to see if He was a holy man or not. As she was at His feet, He leaned down and I think Jesus leaned down just to get it together so He wouldn't sin. You know, He never sinned, but He was a little ticked, I'm sure. He's down there, and He's thinking about it. He stands up, and He said, "Let him who has no sin, throw the first stone."
They're stunned, and they kind of drift away one by one, and He is just left with this lady. He kneels back down, and He lifts her face up, and He says. "Woman, who condemns you?" In tears, she says, "No one sir." She looks around, and says, "No one, sir." He says, "Neither do I. You go and sin no more."
Wow! A woman caught in adultery, and He forgave her! He set her free and He gave her hope for the future. Isn't it amazing that Jesus didn't come to destroy the world; He came to save the world! He's mission couldn't have been clearer. So they saw His power and saw His love and forgiveness. But I think really what they valued most in their front row seat of walking with Jesus, was His unconditional love.
To be with Him was to be loved thoroughly. It was not to be judged. Oh, He got on their case at times. He was correcting them consistently on stupid stuff they were doing, but they always knew it was for their good. They knew it would never breach the relationship. See, that is what good parenting is all about. We want to love our kids in such a way that they know they are a part of this family, but we need to help them along the way. Unconditional love is what actually keeps us family together, and it is what kept the disciples close to Jesus.
The purity of His love, the love we've always longed for. All of us in this room want to know, "Will somebody really love me no matter what?" And the answer is "YES!" And His name is Jesus. There is a friend, the Bible says, who sticks closer than a brother. And He has a name, and His name is Jesus. His power, His forgiveness, His unconditional love - it was so real and so right. He even told them about what was going to happen on this particular weekend we call Easter. He told them ahead of time, "Look, I'm going to be betrayed. I'm going to be crucified, but take heart. I will rise again!" He told them ahead of time what was going to happen, but somehow when it all went down, they missed it. They didn't see it.
You know, a lot of times in life, we know that something might be challenging. If we are a good leader, or a good friend or a good parent, we will say, "Now look, we are going to try to accomplish this goal, but it is going to be difficult. We are going to train hard, and there is going to be a difficult time, but if you will just hang with it, you will make it out the other side, right?" We've seen it throughout life, that there are difficulties sometimes in the middle, but you are going to make it out the other side. Jesus was trying to tell His disciples just that.
Each of my kids, we've tried to help them be healthy physically. To do that, we have tried to challenge them with little events along the way. We have done triathlons with the kids, and little races with the kids. Usually around seven or eight years old is when their big first event comes up. So Daniel was about 7 or 8 and we had his first big event, and it was going to be a 5K. We were going to run the zoo run, it was going to be a fun run with people out there and hanging out at the zoo, the whole deal. We trained for it, and it came to race day. I told him, "Hey, now on race day, we don't want to start out too fast. We trained a little bit, but it will still be challenging. In the middle of the race it may get a little tough. But I am right here by your side. No big deal, we are going to make it through. Just hang with me, and we will get through to the other side. You'll get the trophy and we'll have fun the rest of the day."
So here we go, we start off and he's starting a little too fast, but I just hang with him. We get to the middle part of the race, about 2 miles into this 3.1 mile run, and we are away from the crowds on the back side of Cameron Park. And I hear his little voice, "Daddy, why are you making me do this? I'm tired Daddy, why are we out here? It hurts." And I hear him hyper-ventilating a little. But he started to ask, "Why?" and I say, "Dude, I told you this before." I hear, "Daddy, I don't care, I want to stop. I want to go home." I'm like, "C'mon dude. We are going to make it. You just stay with me. Look, there is no option. We are finishing, stay with me. We will slow down, but we will not stop."
He's with me and we come around, and about 2.5 miles, the crowd starts picking up again and he begins to get it together. He waves to a couple people here and there, and then as we get closer and closer, we see mom and siblings saying, "C'mon Daniel! You can make it!" All of a sudden, he says, "Ya, I got it." He cruises across the finish line, and he does great. Someone asked, "How was the race?" "It was awesome!" On my back, it was awesome.
It's true with a lot of life. Sometimes we know that something will be difficult to accomplish, but the middle part is the hardest, not to lose focus of get distracted. The disciples will see eventually they got distracted in the middle. What happened was, after three years of all this and Jesus telling them it would happen, it did happen. On a Thursday night, He gathered them together for a Passover meal. This time it was a little different, He gave them some bread and He said, "This is my body broken for you, and every time you take it remember me." He said, "This wine we drink to celebrate the Passover, this is now my blood, shed for you. One of you is going to betray me." They are laid back, and they say, "Well, who is going to betray you?" He says, "The one who sticks the bread in the cup." Judas sticks the bread in the cup, and He looks at him and said, "Do what you must do." Judas takes off, and you would think they would start clueing in. This is a big night, but they are like, "Whatever, oh, where did Judas go?"
He says, "Look I am grieved of heart for what is coming. Come with me to the garden and pray." "Sure, Jesus, we'll go to the garden and pray." So they go to the prayer meeting, and they fall asleep. He comes over and wakes them up. "Oh, ya, ya we are just praying, Lord." He came back and woke them up again. Finally, a third time Judas had showed up and betrayed Him to the Roman soldiers. He had lied about Jesus and He was falsely accused. Mayhem breaks out, and the soldiers are taking Jesus away. People are screaming and shouting, "What's going on?" The majority of the disciples immediately just scattered. Fear for their own lives took over. They weren't putting the pieces together that this is what was spoken about. Jesus had already promised them, but they were distracted and scattered in a hundred directions. A couple of them stayed close, they wanted to find out what was going on.
One of those was Peter. Peter followed, but he followed at a distance, because he wasn't sure. What happened was, someone asked him, "Hey, are you with Jesus? I thought I saw you with those guys." He said, "No, I had nothing to do with him. That wasn't me. I wasn't a part of it." A little girl comes up to him and says, "Aren't you one of those disciples of Jesus?" "No, I had nothing to do with Him." Again, it happens a third time. They said, "Aren't you one of those followers of Jesus." In some versions it talks about, literally he cursed and said, "No way, I am not a part of Him at all. That's not me."
About that time, the rooster crowed and Jesus looked over at Peter. He looked over at him, as He's being taken away to ultimately be crucified, and Peter goes away and weeps bitterly. Here's the scene: Jesus had told Peter, "You are going to deny Me, but don't worry, there's another side, we are going to restore you." But Peter is not even connecting to all the things Jesus said. He is caught up in the emotion of the moment. He is fearing for his own life. He literally betrays Jesus. Can you imagine, Jesus looking across at him once it had all been done? I used to think that Jesus looked at him with such disappointment, and in some way condemnation, "I can't believe you Peter." But you know, that's not what the Bible says. Jesus knew it was going to happen. I believe Jesus looked at Peter in his failure and said, "Peter, you are going to make it. Because I have already promised that you would. Keep the faith, son. Keep trusting. You are gonna make it." In the midst of Jesus' pain, in the midst of Peter's failure, He looked at him and said, "You are going to make it." That is the power of Jesus. That is the power of the resurrection, the hop of the message of Easter.
We've got now the disciples are scattered, and Jesus is taken, He's arrested and beaten mercilessly. He is condemned to death, death on a cross. It's Friday, and He has to carry His own cross, but He is so wiped out from the beatings He had, someone else has to help get that cross up the hill. He is literally crucified between two other criminals. I love how the Bible communicates who was there. Who was there with Jesus after His disciples had scattered? Actually, one of them was there, it was John, the one that John would often say in the Book of John, the one whom Jesus loved. John was there, Mary, Jesus' mother, was there, and Mary, whom He had healed and restored from a very broken life. It was those who understood the love of Jesus who were willing to go to death with Jesus. There is a Scripture in Song of Solomon that says, "Love is as strong as death." They were willing to go, literally to death with Jesus and be identified with Him because love had so struck their hearts.
Do you know that God wants you to know that you are so love that whatever comes your way that you would stay by His side? It is love that keeps you, not perfection, not success or lack thereof. It is love ultimately in the hard that keeps us connected to the Savior of the world, to Jesus. They had a front row seat to the cross, to literally, what was prophesied seven hundred years earlier -- that Jesus would go to the cross for your sin and for my sin.
Isaiah 53, 700 years earlier had prophesied this, as Jesus hung on the cross, "Surely our griefs, He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken; smitten of God and afflicted. But He [Jesus] was pierced through for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities. The chasing for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him."
John, the one who loved Him with all of his heart, his mom, Mary, they were there, experiencing this face to face. They heard those words of Jesus, when He spoke out, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do." He is literally on a cross, being crucified; He is unjustly bearing the weight and the sin of the world, a man who had never sinned, becoming a sacrifice on our behalf, so that we could have entrance to God because we could not make it on our own. He is bearing the weight of sin. He looks out and says, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they do." Then he said the famous phrase we sung about earlier, "It is finished." He cried out and it reverberated and He took His last breath. Then, all of a sudden, the sky grew dark, the earth began to shake, the rocks split in two. They would find out later on, that literally in the temple courts of the Jewish temple, they had a veil that separated God from man called the Holy of Holies. Literally, when Jesus breathed His last breath, that veil was rent from top to bottom. It was broken wide open, signifying that now entrance in to a relationship with God was available because Jesus had died and become a sacrifice for all. Wow!
John and Mary and Mary are experiencing it firsthand. They were convinced. You know how I know that? Because the Roman soldiers, who definitely had nothing to do with Jesus, when they saw this event and experience the power of the cross right before their eyes, they proclaimed this, "This surely must be the Son of God!" Wow.
If the Roman soldiers got it, then of course His own got it. It was enough, they realized it was true. He had become a sacrifice. Somewhere, I know they began to believe there has got to be a resurrection coming. But for the rest of the disciples, who had scattered, it is now Saturday. They heard word Jesus had died, and that's all they knew. They were disheartened and wondering which way is up. "We know He was a prophet, we felt that He might be the promised One, but He's dead. What do we do?" I'd say first of all, His disciples were grieving the loss of their friend. They were people, just like you and me, and that friendship, that love, kindness, forgiveness and they thought, "It is gone in our life."
I read an article yesterday about a husband and wife that had been married over fifty years, and the wife years. Fifteen hours later, the husband died. He just didn't want to live on, the one whom he loved and the one who loved him was gone, and immediately he was gone too. It happens all over the world, that love-bond that happens because the love-sickness, the loss, this is what is going on with the disciples. "What's going on? What is our future hold? We have given three years of our lives to Jesus and He is gone." He was everything, and now He was gone. They were in the grief process.
They were also overwhelmed with a sense of guilt and failure. Jesus had spoken promises over them. He had told Peter, "On your rock of revelation of who I am, I am going to build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." He had even told Peter, "Peter, you are going to deny me, but take heart I am going to restore you on the other side." Each of the disciples had these great promises, but somewhere in the midst of their failure, they thought it was over. Their failure and the pain of their failure had blinded them from the promises of God.
Have you ever had that? Have you ever failed so much you thought God doesn't have another chance for me? Well, they failed and they're dumb, so they're done. That is a common human emotion, but because our lives are not relegated to human emotion, but we have hope in the person of Jesus Christ, we never have to end as a failure.
There is always hope, there is always a resurrection. There is always a Jesus willing to step into your world and take that failure and put fire on it, and bring a resurrection. Most of you are familiar, in 2010, with what has become known as the Chilean miner accident. The Chilean miners, there were 33 of them trapped two thousand feet below the surface, and were there for 69 days. Miraculously, everyone survived. The back story on it is told by Jose Enriquez, which they called the pastor of the group. Jose's grandmother had a sense that something difficult was going to happen. She came to Jose and his mother on two occasions and said, "Something difficult is about to happen, I am concerned for Jose's life. But God has warned me that if I will pray, he will make it." So she knew ahead of time a difficulty was coming. When the collapse happened, and they were there in that little space, 33 of them, Jose began to tell the guys, "God's able to sustain us, to pull us through." There were all kinds of in-fighting going on and Jose would share the Word of God on forgiveness and teach about restoration. He held them together because he had hope of a promise, of his grandmother praying. He would tell them devotions twice a day, eventually 20 of the 33 would give their lives to Jesus. The others would re-dedicate their lives to Jesus from a faith that had grown stale in their lives.
All of a sudden, I think it was after 15 days, they began to have breakthrough from the known world. They said, "We know you are there." They began to have hope, 69 days later every one of them made it out. Jose would proclaim that it was the promise of God that had carried through the pain of failure. Down there in their little cell, they said, "Did we fail? Did the mining company fail?" It honestly doesn't matter who failed, it's who is the Resurrection, and can carry you through?
They decided not to dwell on failure, but to dwell on promise, to dwell on the person of Jesus. They came out with no life lost, every man had a few knicks and cuts, but the amazing miracle of their lives was because Jesus had been at the center, and not just their failure.
We've got our disciples here, that are wondering which way is up and having lost sight of their promises. But, the resurrection is about to change everything.
Matthew 28:1-7 "Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning and his clothing as white as snow. The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you."
The resurrection changed everything! He's not here, He has risen, just as He said. He promised that He would have to become a sacrifice, but that hope would always be alive, because He would rise again. Jesus did, then, appear to them. There were a couple of the disciples walking alng the road. He kind of disguised Himself, and began to walk with them and proclaim the promises of God. As He was talking they became awakened, and had hope in their heart, then all of a sudden, their eyes were opened and they said, "It's You, Lord!" Then, He was gone.
They said, "Did not our hearts burn within us when He talked with us?" On another occasion, the disciples were still in a place hiding in a room. All of a sudden, Jesus shows up in the room, and He says appropriately, "Peace, be still!" If Jesus walked in a room, through the wall, I would want to know there is peace as well.
But, one of His main interactions was with Peter. Why did He signify that you needed to go find Peter? Because Peter was the biggest failure. The biggest failure needed the most attention. Jesus goes to the seashore where Peter is fishing with a couple of the other disciples and they are not seeing any fruit. They are throwing out their nets and they are getting no fish. Jesus walks up and says, "What's going on guys?" They still don't recognize Him, and He says, "Throw the net on the other side." They throw their nets on the other side, and their nets are bursting with fish. They look up and one of them says. "It's the Lord!" Peter throws off his garments and he dives in the water to swim to the shore. A funny part of the story is the other disciples just rowed in and got there at the same time Peter did.
It was his passion. Peter said, "Alright, I have failed the Lord. I don't know which way is up, but it's the Lord! Maybe He'll forgive me." Instead of in the pain of his failure, pulling away from God, he dove in the water and ran toward God with everything in him. I can just see him running up to the beach and tackling Jesus and just sobbing and saying, "Will you forgive me? Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me."
After allthe emotion, Jesus says. "Oh, Peter, I already have. I love you. I knew this was going to happen. I want to restore you." The dialogue goes on and they talk back and forth about his love for Jesus and His love for Peter. He restores Peter's life to such an extent that eventually Jesus descends to the Father and sends the Holy Spirit. As He sends Him to Jerusalem, the power of the Holy Spirit is poured out. Peter jumps up in the midst of this outpouring of the Holy Spirit and said, "This is that which was prophesied by Joel, that all men might be saved. Come to the Lord!" And 3,000 people are saved in a day. The big failure, the one who had denied Jesus three times in one day becomes the mouthpiece of Jesus to birth the Church. Now, hundreds of millions of people, maybe even a billion people around the world have come to believe through the centuries this church has gone on and on and on. It was started with a guy who was an absolute failure.
But because of the resurrection, he became a man on fire.
I don't know where you are today in your own journey. God wants to meet you in your failure. Wherever you are today, the resurrection today should connect the dots. You are no longer on the outside looking in. It connects the dots, because of the Resurrection Jesus is not just a Prophet and a King, He is Lord of All. He is Victor over sin and death and hell and He is the only way to the Father. If we come to Him, He receives you gladly. Because of the resurrection there is now power in the midst of our failure. There is always hope no matter what the darkest situation of life, because Jesus is the Resurrection. He always has another plan in life if we look His way.
