Happy Resurrection Day! And Happy 5th Birthday to Cross Church this morning! In fact, let’s all say, “Happy Birthday, Cross Church” together on the count of three.
This one-day set aside to center in on the resurrection is an unusual happy day. We celebrate it with pastel colors and feature opportunities for children to play. Everything around this holiday is built to celebrate and communicate hope, joy, and happiness. But you have to really search for it because you have move beyond the barnacles that have grown around the day of eggs, bunnies, and chocolate to find the granite behind for lasting happiness.
Since the year 325, Easter has been observed on the first Sunday after the full moon following when the time when the sun crosses the equator. Many early Christians observed Easter on the 14th day of Nisan (April 19, 2019) regardless of what day of the week it fell on. Regardless of WHEN it is observed, Easter is and will always be a special day for believers for WHY it is observed. Jesus rose from the grave is designed to eternally secure your peace, your joy, and your relationship to God. Some of you even accepted Christ on Easter – making this day extra special!
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a game-changer. But to experience the game-changing effects of Jesus’ resurrection, you must believe in a miracle.
I want everyone to have the “Communication Card” near you. You’ll find some in the pew in front of you or on your chair for Cross Church. I’ll share important instructions with you at the end of the message.
I invite you to find John 16 (page 1148 in your pew Bibles). This morning I want to speak you about “Three Gifts of the Resurrection.”
Today’s Scripture
19 Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. 21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. 23 In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. 24 Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
25 I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; 27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” … 31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 32 Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. 33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:19–29, 31-33).
When you think of your last minute instructions you give to those closest to you, what kind of things would you share? Whether it’s before a big trip or perhaps you’re going under the knife for surgery, what’s on your mind when tell those closest to you the important matters of life? If you knew you were dying tomorrow, you probably would say something really significant, right? We drop in to eavesdrop on the last minute instructions Jesus gives His Disciples only hours away from His crucifixion. Jesus speaks to the Twelve at length right around the event of the Last Supper. He’s concerned to give them these last minute instructions but He also wants to give them emotional security and stability. These words of Jesus still offer His followers emotional security and stability. God secured all of this through the cross and the empty tomb. God designed the resurrection of Jesus to secure your an enduring hope, eternal happiness and for you to share in God’s love rather than what we deserve.
I want to share with you Three Gifts of the Resurrection.
1. The Resurrection Offers Enduring Hope
Jesus repeatedly told His Disciples He was going to die and raise to life but they didn’t understand Him: “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me” (John 16:16). When Jesus says “a little while” here, He meant it would only be a few hours before He yielded Himself to arrest, a mockery of a trial, and crucifixion. But the Twelve didn’t comprehend it: “So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about” (John 16:18). Jesus knows what they want to ask Him but they are afraid to do so (John 16:20). Imagine if I tried to explain how a television would work to our nation’s first President, George Washington. “Well, Mr. President, people sit in their homes in front of a box that lights up and pictures move. It’s very entertaining.” If you can imagine our first President’s face, then you’d have a pretty good idea at what Jesus is up against with the Disciples.
Miracles
Up until this time, no one could fathom someone being raised to life except at the end of time, much less God dying. Easter is based on a miracle of a dead man coming back to life. Back in 1992, a letter came from the Health and Human Services department to a resident of Greenville County in South Carolina. It read: “Your food stamps will be stopped at the end of March, because we received notice that you passed away. May God you bless you. You may reapply if your circumstances change.” We find that humorous because we all know that death is fixed and death is final. It’s easy to understand why everyone doesn’t believe in miracles.
Thomas Edison wrote: “My guide must be my reason, and at the thought of miracles my reason is rebellious. Personally, I do not believe that Christ laid claim to doing miracles, or asserted that he had miraculous power . . . There is no supernatural.” I wonder if you believe in miracles like the resurrection? For some people, the idea of believing a dead man came back to life is tantamount to believing an extraterrestrial being leaves crop circles in a farmer’s field in western Kansas. After all, many religious people around the United States and the world, do not believe Jesus rose from the dead including Jews and Muslims.
Interestingly, half of US adults (51 percent) say they believe that the miracles of the Bible happened as they were described. As you comb through the data, people with college educations and high incomes express even more skepticism about miracles. Yet, a 2004 survey of 1,100 medical doctors reported that these doctors believe miracles can occur. Plus, six out of ten physicians report praying for their patients individually. And there’s no bigger miracle than Jesus’ resurrection where the dead Messiah came back to life.
At the height of his success, the Beatles John Lennon wrote a personal letter. After quoting a line from a Beatles song, Money Can’t Buy Me Love, he wrote this: “It’s true. The point is this, I want happiness. I don’t want to keep on with drugs. . . . Explain to me what Christianity can do for me. Is it phony? Can He love me? I want out of hell.” Jesus’ resurrection does offer this; an empty tomb speaks to the very essence of hope in this life.
Because Jesus is alive, there is no obstacle in front of God’s people that He hasn’t overcome: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Not one obstacle – no addiction, no relationally pain, and not even death: “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:18–19).
1. The Resurrection Offers Enduring Hope
2. The Resurrection Produces Lasting Happiness
At least times, Jesus means joy in in His last minute instructions to the Twelve in (John 16:19–29, 31-33). Think of it, hours from experiencing tremendous spiritual, emotional, and physical agony, Jesus is concerned about us and our joy. Did you know someone releases a World Happiness Report where 156 countries are ranked? And most of you live in the 19th happiest nation on earth! I looked for Disney here but couldn’t find – “the happiest place on earth.” The number one happiest nation was Finland according to the latest rankings. They base their findings over health care quality and the distribution of wealth in a nation among other factors.
A lot of us think, “I’ll be happy when … I get a girlfriend/boyfriend, get married, when I graduate, when I land a great job, or when I retire, or when I am on the beach somewhere.” But research indicates that “there is little correlation between the circumstance of people’s lives and how happy they are.”
Google’s search engine is the modern priest because we tell it everything. Christopher Ingraham plotted a full year’s worth of daily search that he calls “The Google Misery Index.” When we search for items related to depression, anxiety, pain, stress, and fatigue, Google tells the happiest day of the year is Christmas with New Year’s Day not far behind. It’s no surprise that we are happier on weekends than we are on weekdays. As recently as 2014, the most miserable time of the year was the middle of the week in April.
Jesus based His followers’ happiness on the events of Easter – let me show you.
2.1 You Will Grieve
“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice” (John 16:20a). Jesus says in effect, “I will go away and grief will rapidly descend upon you. You’ll sob and be torn apart by grief. You are going to be miserable for a little while.” Though, they didn’t get it yet, they were within just hours they would experience the death of Jesus. They would sit around in misery wishing they would have stood up for Him. Peter would sulk hearing the sounds of a rooster crowing in his mind all the while wishing he hadn’t denied Jesus. No, His mother could not get the horrid image out of her mind of her Son so badly beaten and bruised. The death of Jesus was a hopeless, total tragedy and they could not see anyway around it. And their misery would only be compounded by the fact that Christ’s enemies would gloat. No doubt, His followers rehearsed every one of the jeers they heard the priests hurl at Jesus on the cross between Friday and early Sunday. It’s one thing to feel the pain of falling and hurting yourself but it’s another thing altogether to fall and hurt yourself in the school playground when everyone else gathers around to laugh at you. But most crushing was to hear Jesus’ question, “Father, where are you? Why have you abandoned me?” Jesus knows the Twelve’s actions when He is arrested: “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone” (John 16:32a).
2.1 You Will Grieve
2.2 You Will Be Happy
But your sorrow will eventually turn into joy: “So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:22). If sorrow was a city and joy was also a city, Jesus says, “You are going to sorrow for a short stay, but you are going to live in the city of massive joy.” He even offers a common metaphor of a women going through tremendous pain of childbirth (John 16:21). Carol Burnett said, “Giving birth is like taking your lower lip and forcing it over your head.”
Jesus is promising His followers a joy that is so intense no sorrow can match it. We all want to be happy and every illicit compromise to temptation promises fun and happiness. But you’ve learned that sin’s temptations lure you into joy but quickly turn to sorrow. God Will Flip Your Sorrow. It’s not simply that your sorrow is replace by your joy but you’re the source of your sorrow will become the very source of your joy. But eventually Friday and Saturday will turn into Sunday and all your sadness will transform into an invincible joy. It’s was if Jesus were a doctor and placed His hand on our bodies to say, “The place here that is causing you tremendous hurt and pain will shortly become the very location of your greatest joy.” Your deepest sorrow will become your source of greatest joy. And you will have a permanent joy: “and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:22b).
Think with me of His agony, His scourging, the spitting, the shame, the hounding through the streets, the piercing of His hands and His feet, the mockery, the vinegar, the gall, and His words “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me” and all the other horrors and terrors that gathered around the cross. It one sense, we wish we could strike these from existence. We wish that they might never have happened; and yet the fact that they did happen brings to us an unspeakable happiness. It is our greatest joy to know that Jesus bled and died upon the tree; how else could our sin be put away? How else could we, who are God’s enemies, be reconciled and brought near to him?
“Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24). When Jesus says “that your joy may be full,” you can think of this as being completely happy. And this is a secure, invincible joy where no one will take your happiness away. And that’s exactly what happened on the first Easter because the first people who realized Jesus was alive were women. Matthew describes their reaction this way: “So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples” (Matthew 28:8).
So many people are depressed and our nation is seeing 130 people die every day by overdosing on opioids. Yet, there is a joy that is avaialbe that is unable to be suppressed. And the source of this joy is the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus said to Martha at the tomb of Lazarus, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25–26). When Jesus is your source of joy, your joy will never die because He will never die – He is immortal.
Second, those who have Jesus as the source of their joy will never die.
1. The Resurrection Offers Enduring Hope
2. The Resurrection Produces Lasting Happiness
3. The Resurrection Presents a Loving Father
There are many things in you life that we learn but we don’t need to know. My youngest son, Matthew, will ask me to help him with some homework and I’ll say, “Thirty years ago I could have helped you, but I’ve have forgotten how to do this. But make sure you know it because you’ll need to know this.” It’s funny but isn’t that the truth? I recently discovered a list of some things that I didn’t know, I didn’t need to know, and after learning these facts, I don’t still care if I know.
• The electric chair was invented by a dentist;
• Peanuts can be one of the ingredients that make up dynamite;
• A snail can sleep for three years;
• A cockroach can live for nine days without its head;
• The microwave was invented by a researcher who walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket;
Despite all these useless I don’t need to know… …here’s one bedrock truth I always need to know no matter my lifestage: God the Father loves me: “for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God” (John 16:27). Jesus says, “Your relationship with God the Father will change because of the cross and resurrection.” The resurrection was game changer for your relationship with God. The resurrection lifted your relationship with God on a whole new plane. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Yet, there are some here today that are outside the love of the Father until your change the direction of your life by embracing the cross of Jesus by faith and doing “U-turn” away from your sinful ways. “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
Conclusion
The essence of Christianity is personal pronouns. If you are here this morning saying, “The Son of God was born, He died, He was raised, He ascended, and He’s coming again, that doesn’t make you a Christian. But if you say, “The Son of God was born for me, He died for me, He was raised for me, He was ascended to the right hand of the Father for me, and He’s going to come again for me,” that’s what it means to be a Christian.
Do you want to stand before the Judge of the world one day and introduce yourself to Him? “Hey Jesus, do you remember me? It’s Phillip.” Jesus asks, “Have we met before?” “Jesus … it’s me, Philip. I went to church on Easter and Christmas!” Does any of us want to hear Jesus ask, “Do I know you?”
Let’s pray:
Father, you are great in ways that are beyond my imagination – Who is a God like you? Where else would I go for comfort and happiness but you? You are better than new cars, new electronic toys, and great achievements. You are better than children or even grandchildren.
Now, Lord, help those here today know you and your love. Send your Spirit to turn many people away from a life of independence from you to living a life of dependence on you. We need you in our lives more than we need air. So come to us, Father, and make your presence known to us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Take your communication card in your hand again, will you? If you have already committed your life to Christ prior to this service write down the letter “A.” If you say “Scott, I haven't made that decision yet but I’m considering it, and I want you to know that I am considering it, write down the letter ‘B.’” If you feel you don't ever intend to commit your life to Christ, I’d appreciate your honestly by writing down the letter “C” on your card. If today you are ridding yourself of self-sufficiency and trusting in Christ write down the letter “D.”
Preview of Upcoming Series: God is Bigger Than… bracelet. Pick this up as you exit – they’re free – and they’re a reminder of capacity of God to handle your problems. I hope you’ll join us again next Sunday.
