Beacon Easter Service: March 31th 2024

Your bea holy and here with us. Let every heart declare that you are glory, Lord. You are glory, Shepherd and King forever you're weary, holy and here with us. Let every heart declare that you are glory.

Amen. He is glorious, and we have a living hope in Christ because He has risen. He's not a dead Savior, and He is alive today, and He has risen and defeated sin and death on our behalf. So may we just sing out that truth today, how great the chasm that lay between us, how high the mountain I could not climb in desperation. I turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night, then through the darkness, your loving kindness, tore through the shadows of my soul, the work is finished, the end is written Jesus Christ, my living home.

Sit together, who could imagine? Who could imagine so great a mercy?

Such boundless grace. Only God, the God of ages, step down glory to wear my sin and bear my shame. The cross has broken. I am forgiven.

There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living. Came the morning, then came the morning that sealed the promise. Your buried body began to breathe out of the silence the roaring declare the grave has no claim. Then came, then came the morning that sealed the promise, your buried began to breathe out of the silence, the roaring liar declare the brave has no claim on me.

Jesus, Jesus yours. Oh highly praise the one who sent me free highly death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my live. Oh God, you're my living. This morning we will confess our faith using the Heidelberg Catechism. In this question and answer, we will confess how Christ's resurrection benefits us.

Here's the question. How does Christ's resurrection benefit us? And together, first by his resurrection, he has overcome death, so that he might make us share in the righteousness he won for us by his death. Second, by his power, we too are already now resurrected to a new life. Third, Christ's resurrection is a guarantee of our glorious resurrection. Amen. What a great truth we have proclaimed this morning. Let's uh continue this time of worship and just proclaim him as our Lord and as our rock and redeemer.

Greatest treasure of my longing soul, my God like you there is no love, truly light is found in you alone, your grace, your grace well to deep to fathom, your love exceeds the heavens refined a perfect wisdom, my eyes good, and my empty Lord my rock, oh Lord my rock and my retailer, strong defender of my weary, my sword to fight the cruel deceiver.

And my shield against faithful. My soul when in me surround me. My home tides of sorrow. My joy.

Your faithfulness.

Oh Lord in my redeemer. Gracious savior of my ruin. My guilt and cross laid on your shoulders in my place.

You rose.

And shame. You rose. You rose with grave and death our conquer. You broke bonds of sin and shame. Oh Lord, my rod in my redeemer. May all my days bring glory to your name.

He's risen. At this time, we're going to have a corporate confession of sin. This is a time where we, as people of the Lord, understand our faults and the sorrows that we have every day. So we are going to share these words that we're about to read together. And it's something that we in unison are just declaring to our Lord. Afterwards, we're going to have a private time of confession of sin to our Lord. So together, O God, we know our transgressions, and our sin is ever before us. Against you, you only have we sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, we were brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did our mothers conceive us, purge us with hyssop, and we shall be clean.

Wash us, and we shall be whiter than snow. Amen. Please be seated. Let us now take in a time of private confession of sin.

Here's your assurance of pardon. If we can set confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The blood of the Lamb cleanses us and makes us white as snow. Amen. Today's prayer request is one for the mission field. Today is a day that shows that God's work was complete on the cross. Not only did He promise a savior, a Savior that was going to be sacrificed, he proved to us in the world that death was not to be defeated, that he could conquer it and rise again and allow us to be with him in heaven. So let's pray for the missionaries, not just overseas, the ones that we know of, the ones that we support, but even in yourselves as missionaries here, that the work of the Lord is a daily sacrifice.

It's a daily devotion for us as Christians to go and share the gospel, share the good news. So let's pray that today of all days that God's work is being done and that his glory is being revealed to those who do not know him.

Lord, we we ask that the missionaries that we support that we know, and even the ones that are just doing your work that we do not know of, Lord, that your kingdom will be glorified today. We pray, Father, for the local mission field for us in the city and even in our country, Lord. We just pray that everywhere people will be saved. Not by our own work, not by our own hands, but by the work of the Spirit and by your will, according to your desire, Lord, we just pray that people will be lifted up and raised so that we might be one big family today. So we thank you for today. We pray that you are pleased with our worship and the way that we lift you on high. In Jesus, children, you're dismissed for Sunday school.

Please follow Teacher Tiffany, Teacher Lily out. As the kids are being sent out to the classroom, I'm just going to go over just a couple of announcements. The first one that's not up there is that today, as being Easter Sunday, we're going to have a special lunch, uh fellowship lunch after service. So please don't leave.

Uh, and then we're gonna set up some tables and have uh lunch here. It's just gonna be sandwiches and and drinks and snacks. So please, please stay afterwards. If you are a guest, do not feel obligated to give, but if you're a member, please uh see our offering options, which are Zell, Venmo, Cash and Check. Pastor Masson. It is to uh share the word of God with you. Um, have you ever um uh come across somebody that's really famous? That all of a sudden you saw them and say, Oh, wow, hey, I'm really close there. Um our son uh works for the Beverly Hills Police Department. And so he's he's kept a list because uh every now and then you run across uh you know important people in Verbell Hills, and and so he kept a list of them, and of course the presidents come through and other people come through, and and they they want your picture taken, uh you know, the police officers and the president or the first lady, and so it's not kind of becomes a big deal.

But um let me just uh talk this morning.

What people encountered uh when Jesus came back back to life. But let me uh put this on the screen. Do you know this guy? Uh he does the uh the amazing race. Um I'm I'm not uh an amazing race kind of uh guy. My wife has liked it in the past. Uh well we haven't watched it. I I said to her this week, is is this guy st still on? Yeah, yeah. And so we kind of just uh turned it on and said, Oh yeah, he's he's still on there. And the amazing race is they run around the world, and you know, and and whoever gets there first. Um this guy was going to be coming through Indiana. And I'm a buddy that's uh a friend in Indiana, he's a pastor there, and his wife watches the amazing race. And when she heard that Phil was coming through town, she said to her husband, hey, let's let's go and meet him.

And and her husband said, Nah, you you you go ahead, you know. I'm not I'm not really interested in in meeting this guy. So she talked one of her sons into heading out, and they went over to they had the mapped out place where Phil was gonna come by. So she does a sign up, you know, that is she can hold up there is and and what was Phil doing there on this particular trip, Phil uh does a bicycle marathon kind of thing uh to raise money for uh to fight MS multiple sclerosis, and so he was gonna be coming by, she's there with a sign, her son is there, and it's raining. Uh it's just downpour. I I would say it's raining cats and dogs, but sometimes uh people don't know what I mean by that. It's just really bad.

It's raining down. He sees her there with a sign. He's soaked because he's riding his bike. He pulls over, he says, would it be okay if we got in your car? And she's going, unbelievable. My husband is never going to believe this. He could have been here, but he's not. And so Phil gets in the car with him, and then he says, You don't have anything to eat, do you? And she she said the only thing she had uh was a uh a stale pastrami sandwich. And she's thinking, oh no, I gotta I gotta give this guy, this important guy, this encounter that I'm having, this sandwich, and but but he ate it, and then as the rain let up, she got her picture with him and and said, My husband won't believe it unless unless he sees it.

And she thought, oh, this is really cool. This is an encounter. Uh let me give you another funny one just for a second. This guy is really kind of a um the only word I can think of is hillbilly, you know. See a guy that's way back in no man's land. His name is Rojo, you know, the last I mean uh I don't think anybody here is named Rojo, but his name was Rojo, and he talks with this literally s uh hillbelly accent. And so he's out on on the highway, and it's just rained and an area's washed out, and his car has got to cross this area where the waters come down. And well, here's here's the his encounter. I I didn't get a chance to get like numbers. I gave him one of my cards, Joe. I didn't do that.

Roho was headed home from Ardmore when he reached a river that was once a road. There's a car on the other side pulled up. Here he went in it. And I thought, hmm. Yeah, I thought, well. I believe I might get too. He didn't make it. Soon he and another passerby were pushing his stalled truck up a hill. He said, Don't slip down. And I said, I'm not in it. It was a slow move to start with, but we still died with it. That is, until a dodge pulled up. With a handy toe rope and a familiar face. And the guy said, Are you ready? And that looks like Black Shelton. That's exactly what I thought.

Can you imagine? I mean, when you're he's back in no man's land, and the way he's talking, you know, that looks like Blake Shelton. Sure. Oh, yeah, that sure was. You know. He goes on. Because now something else is going to occur. And I said, Yeah, I'm ready. Soon the truck was safe up the hill, but Rojo was far from home. And I said, Hey, could you give me a ride home? And he said, uh, were you lay up? And I said, uh, just right over yonder. And this unlikely duo was off as Rojo Ward of the Heartless. My wife called me. I said, uh, Black Shelton pulled me out, and uh uh he's gonna go ahead and bring me on home. I said, uh, you better uh you better slick up and uh you know, we'll be there in just a minute.

I I'm not sure I could ever get away with that to say to my wife, you better slick up because Blake Shelton's coming by. But you know, what I want you to see there by those two things, are uh, you know, we're kind of impressed when we see people that that we feel are important, or wow, I can't believe I ran into them. But can you imagine what it would be like to run into Jesus Christ after he has been crucified and buried, and you expect him to be dead. I mean, this is the guy that fed five thousand people. This is a guy that walked on the water. This is a guy that gave sight to the blind. You know, we're talking about miracles. Well, you know, it's it's not, you know, I had a headache and he healed me, you know, kind of thing, because yeah, headaches go away anyway.

But when you're blind, you're blind, and he can give sight to the blind, and when you're dead, you're dead, and he could resurrect somebody from the dead after that guy had been dead four days. Matter of fact, when the guy had been dead four days, uh the people said, Oh Lord, what are you gonna do by this time? You know what the the the word that they use, by this time he stinks because he's been buried and he's been dead for four days. So these are the things that I uh that I want you to really kind of see there. I want you to understand, we're gonna go through John chapter 20, and I want you to see four people that encountered Jesus after his resurrection, and what it did to make a difference for them.

And let me give you these four right from the start. Uh Peter and John, uh disciples of the Lord, and they're uh and this is John chapter 20. There are four books of the Bible that that cover the life of Christ: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Every one of them, when it talks about the resurrection, it's the last chapter of that book, with the exception of John. It's the next of the last chapter. So when you open it up, if you want to know what's going on, this chapter is Peter and John now are coming and seeing Christ after he's been resurrected from the dead. The next person I want you to see is Mary uh Magdalene. It's not putting it on the screen, it's on the screen back there if you want.

Mary Magdalene. And Mary Magdalene uh was one of the women that came to the tomb. Then the disciples uh showed up, and they f and you know, they they all departed except John at the at the cross. They ran away. They ran we're gonna be killed if we if we hang here. And then the last one is Thomas. Have you ever heard of Thomas? We call him doubting Thomas. Have you ever heard that? And so Thomas is who who I want you to see. So let me uh just zero in on Peter and John. At least you can see uh some of it there on the screen. Peter and John. Peter was the one that denied the Lord. I mean, he said, I don't even know the Lord. And when he's confronted a second time, he said, No, I I I don't know him.

And when he was confronted a third time, he cursed it. I don't even know. No, I don't know him. He denied the Lord three times. And now he's going to hear about the Lord. So here it is in John chapter 20. Verse 1. On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark. She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran to Simon Peter and to the other disciple. I want you to kind of look at as she ran to Simon Peter, okay.

But that just that goes to show you that God is always in the business of working with us even when we fail him. As long as I'm alive, there's the hope of forgiveness. And so here's Peter. And then it says, She ran to Simon Peter and to the other disciple. What's interesting about this is the guy that wrote this was the other disciple. Only he doesn't want to mention himself by name. And a little bit he's going to even say something else about himself, but it says this. And she said to them, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him. She ran to Simon Peter, and what's the issue? We don't know where they put him. At that, Peter and the other disciple went out heading for the tomb.

The two were running together. But the other disciple outran Peter. Can you who's the other disciple? I John, the one that just wrote this book. And he's not going to say, uh, hey, by the way by the way, I outran him. You know. He just leaves himself buried in the background that he outran him. But the other disciple outran Peter and got to the tomb first. Stooping down. Now, who's who was he talking about? John, the guy that got there first. Stooping down, he saw the linen clothes lying there, clothes lying there, yet he did not go in. Then following him, Simon Peter came also. He entered the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there. The wrapping that had been on Jesus' head was not lying with the linen clothes, but was folded up in a separate place by itself.

The other disciple who had reached the tomb first, then entered the tomb, saw and believed.

Three times what gets mentioned that he saw and saw they saw. I don't know if you knew this, but the New Testament was written in Greek. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. The New Testament in Greek, there are six Greek words for seeing or saw. I saw, I saw. And he uses three different Greek words here. But wait a minute. English, how do we translate it? Matter of fact, in Greek, there are different words for love. You know, and but we we love our car, we love our dog, we love our wives. And we'd say, you know, what is it there? But for them, they they would have, you know, an agape love, a philato love, a different eros love, uh, eros love is where we get our word erotic from. So they use, they have different types of words for love.

But here they are, and they go to the tomb. Who gets there first? John. We're talking about Peter and John, and their encounter with this written Christ. And what's going on? So they saw. Let me do this. The Greek word that's used for the first saw is, I'm gonna put on the screen here, is blepo. Blepo. You can almost can I remind you that our English alphabet is based on the Greek alphabet. They have 24 letters. We have 26 letters. Their first two letters are alpha beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, alpha, beta. And that's where we get our English word, alpha, bet. Right from their Greek language. So this the letter on the screen there, the first letter is a beta. The second letter is a lambda.

So the B and the L. We'll talk about that in a second. Let me put another word up here. Therat O is the Greek word for the second saw. John blepo. Peter went in and the last one is Aden. So let me just slide him over here and let you understand what's going on in scripture. Blepo, we get our English word letter for letter, virtually from this word. So if the first one is a beta, beta, what English letter are we going to put there? It's going to be a B. Beta. The second letter is a lambda. And that's the L. The third letter is an epsilon, and we replace it, an epsilon would be an E, and we replace it with an I. The next letter is the pi, you know, for pi r squared.

And what's the word? Blip. And how do we use it in English? So John ran to the tomb. And he took a quick look. It was just a blip. Just a blip on the screen. We talk about it in the in the church that I the pastor for 34 years. We have four three or four air traffic controllers. And on their screen, the with the radar screen. Well, as it is the radar zooms across the country to pick up the planes, those planes are just a one on the screen. Just a blip on the screen. It swoops by, and you see it. Blip, blip, and they can tell where to go. They're not, they're not just focusing there. They're just seeing this blip. Where it is for a moment. John shows up, and he just goes, What?

He just a quick look. What I'm concerned about today is that you begin to take not just uh blip at Christ, but that you stop and look. And begin to see what does God say about my life here? So blip means this. I'll put it on the screen, just to glance in. Just a quick glance in. What? What? What happened? Where's the Lord? How did they get the stone rolled away? It was just a blip. Next, the next Greek word is an English word as well. They the first, that circle with a line through it, we call it a theta, a theta. And the theta makes our English letter T H. Theta. Then the epsilon that looks like an E there, becomes our letter E.

But what looks like a W on the screen? It's the last letter in the Greek alphabet. He said, I am the alpha. That's the first letter. And the omega, that's the last letter. I'm the beginning, and I'm the end. That's what the Lord says. So the letters so far are T-H E and Omega. What letter do you think that's gonna make? The O. So T-H E O. The next letter looks like R P. But it's the Greek letter Rho. R. That's how they make their R. So T-H E O R.

And then we add the letter Y, and it becomes this. A theory. We're gonna make. So now, who came? John came and took a blip. Quick look. Move and moves on. Peter comes, though, he gets there later. John doesn't even go in at first. Peter says, hey, I want to go in. And he starts to theorize. What on earth has happened here? I know they killed him. They they put nails into his hands and feet, they put a spear into his side, they put thorns on his head. He's dead. And he's trying to make a theory of what has really happened. The last uh Greek word is Aden, and it means to perceive with understanding.

We don't have an English word. Apparently, Americans don't understand much. We don't perceive with understanding. We we theorize. As a matter of fact, what's interesting about our country? Uh when something is a theory, it is not a fact. You know, we talk about different theories. What's amazing in America though? You know, if I if I let this go the first time and it drops, and I go, wow, I wonder, let's have a theory. My theory is every time I let this go, now if I can do it, and every single time, every single time it does the same thing, it moves from a theory to a what? A law of gravity. What's interesting in our society when it comes to theories, what do we say about evolution? What do Americans confess that evolution is?

It's a theory.

In order for something to become a law, it has to be repeatable. And they can't repeat it, but it's their way of getting rid of God creating you, and God creating this world, because now they can just say, you know, it's a theory that you know, and however they want to make it, but let's just be honest. We're not asking them to throw their minds away, we're not throwing our minds away. Just be honest. Let's call it a theory. That's what it is. Even the scientists will say it's a theory, but they don't treat it like a theory. They treat it so that they can re remove God from the equation. So the other disciple who reached the tomb first, then entered and saw. And what did his encounter do to him?

Man. He was he was the only disciple at the cross. Did you know that? All the other disciples had taken off. Of course, Judas had already killed himself, and the other ten had left. But John was there, and Jesus even said to John, uh, take, you know, take care of my mother. Woman, you know, here he is. He saw and believed. Let me get back to where were we on the sermon. If somebody said to you today, what did Pastor Madison talk about? Here's what I talked about. Just one sentence. In John chapter 20, you see four encounters that people had with Jesus after his resurrection, and their lives were changed. John saw him killed right in front of him. Do you realize this? Every single disciple died, a martyr's death.

They were all, they all ran away from Jesus at the cross. What changed them where they were no longer fearful? After they after they saw him come alive, after that, they said, hey, do whatever you want, because we're going to tell you, he's alive. He was dead, and now he's alive. He gave sight to the blind, he fed the 5,000, he walked on the water, and he came back to life. The difference between Jesus and every other religious leader in the world is every other religious leader has a place where they're dead. Jesus has an empty tomb. Nobody else has an empty tomb. So Peter and John, well, their lives were changed. How about Mary Magdalene? Okay? Let's go to the text. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four gospels I told you that have the life of Christ.

Women were the first to show up to the tomb. Which is really interesting, especially in our society when they try to, when they try to say that, you know, women should be put down. Jesus elevated women. He let them be the first at the tomb. Did you know that that in that society women weren't even counted as witnesses? If you're gonna have somebody witness, it had to be, you know, a guy there, you know, maybe two women, you know, would count as one, but they were they were lower class, but not in Jesus. Jesus elevated them. And so in Matthew 28, last chapter of Matthew, Mark 16, last chapter of Mark, Luke 24, last chapter of Luke, it's all about the resurrection. John chapter 20 is the next to the last chapter.

Look at what's interesting in scripture. Sometimes when people open up scripture, they get so confused because with these four gospels, some of these guys share things that the other guy doesn't share. So in Matthew chapter 28, Mary Magdalene and Mary, Jesus' mother, were at the tomb. In Mark 16, it includes Salome and not Joanna. In Luke 24, it includes Joanna, but not Salome. Or Salome, if you say it that way. And in John chapter 20, it mentions Mary Magdalene and doesn't mention her and any of the others. And then unbelieving people, when they open up the word of God, they go, Oh my goodness, see? The Bible has airs in it. You know, because they had this and this one was here, and this one was there.

Listen, when's the last time? These are four different people that are writing this story. And as they write it, when's the last time when you were at some big group of people, there are times that I say to my wife, hey, I didn't see so-and-so there. Oh, yeah, they were there, I saw them, but I didn't see them. So if I'm gonna write about it, do I write about it? The person I didn't see? No, we we write about different people that you may might spend time talking with somebody else, and I didn't get a chance to get a chance to talk to him. So, all these women, there were at least uh Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother Jesus, Salome, Joanna, and Mary Magdalene. At the tomb. On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark.

She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. Let me just circle on the screen. Let me just circle. She saw there. This is the Greek word blepe. From blepo, the blip. She just, it was just a quick, what? The stone has been rolled away? This was a large stone. They wanted to make sure that Jesus wasn't gonna get out. They even put guards there to be there all night so that the disciples couldn't say they the disciples couldn't come and steal the body and say he's he's alive. She saw just a quick glance. So she went running to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken our Lord out of the tomb.

What did it say? Who came to the tomb? Mary Magdalene. Right? Okay. But look at the last line here. They've taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they put him. So John, even though he's only mentioning Mary, is saying there are more people there. There were more women that showed up. And we don't, we don't know where they put him. The text goes on. Early on the first day of the week, after he had risen, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven what? Seven demons. You know, in our world. And you know we've certainly I've certainly dealt with it in the church that I planted up in the Palmdale area. We had one woman that uh when she was just a small child.

Her parents were uh part of a uh coven, a witch coven. And they would sacrifice on special days. Animals and matter of fact, I used to be when I started the church in Palmdale, I was uh the chaplain for the coroner's department. So my job was to my job. I I volunteered to do that. The reason I volunteered to do that is I wanted to be there to help people when they lost a loved one. And as a pastor, I wanted to have contact with people that were hurting. So I just volunteered to do that. And they gave us a list. The coroner's department gave me a list of special days in the year. This is the L.A. County uh coroner's department, a whole list of special days in the year for us to look out for when animals were missing, and kids might be sacrificed.

That one gal in our church, when she came to know Christ as a 12-year-old. Her parents had her have a baby, and her parents sacrificed that baby. Kill that baby on the altar. You see, demonic activity. And so here's a woman that had demonic activity in her life. But when she encountered the Lord, what happened? Change. A difference took place. Then the disciples went home again, but Mary stood outside facing the tomb, and what was she doing? Let me just highlight she was crying. She saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet, where Jesus' body had been lying. She said to the she, the angel, the angel said to her, they said to her, Woman, why are you crying? You know, you want to know how my mind thinks?

This God's word doesn't always say everything. But you know, for me, how my mind thinks, it's kind of almost a joke. Angels, uh, there's they're not male or female, right? Angels in heaven. There's no male or female in heaven, right? But if there was, these angels would have been men. Why do I say that? Because what do they say to the woman? What do they say to the woman? Why are you crying? What do men say? Why are you crying? If if the angel had been a woman, what would she have said? Oh, sweetheart. Come here. You know, can I can I can I help you? Now that's just my side ideas to that. But they said, Why are you crying? Why did the angels say that to her? Let me put this on the screen. The angels ask a rhetorical question.

They didn't expect an answer. But why are you weeping? They knew Mary had cause only for what? Rejoicing. If she really understood the truth. She was crying because she, this man had delivered her from demonic activity. She loved what he had done to change her life. And she had seen him crucified on the cross. And now they've stolen his body. You know, if you're if your parents passed away, and you went back and it was and they were buried, and you went back, and the grave had been dug open, and your parents' body had been stolen. Wouldn't you be a little concerned? What happened? Oh my goodness. Grave robbers.

And I look at what she says there. Because they have taken away my Lord. This is what she says to the angels. Earlier, she said, we don't know where they put him. And now what does she say? And I don't know where they put him. Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and encounter with this risen Christ. This man who is dead is now alive. She saw Jesus standing there, though she did not know it was Jesus. Woman, Jesus said to her, Why are you crying? Who is it that you're looking for? Supposing he was the gardener of that cemetery area. Supposing he was the gardener, she replied, Sir, if you've removed him, tell me where you've put him, and I will take him away. Jesus said, Mary.

Turning around, she said to him in Hebrew, Rabunai, which means teach her. Don't cling to me, Jesus told her. As a matter of fact, in this text right here, don't cling to me, for I have yet to ascend to my father, but go to my brothers and tell them that I have ascended to my father and your father. To my God and to your God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord. And she told them what he had said to her. Let me highlight this.

Don't cling to me. Go and tell. What was she doing? Crying. Weeping. And when she encountered Christ, she went, she did exactly what he told her to do. She stopped crying and she ran out and immediately told the disciples.

She went from weeping to witnessing what had happened there. That encounter changed her life. And I want to say to you, have you seen the Lord? Have you for life? Had an encounter with him. This is the Greek word, which means to discern clearly.

But she, I've seen the Lord. Peter and John hadn't seen the Lord on the words I gave you. They just got into the tomb and it was empty. She saw Jesus. And what happened? It changed her life. She wasn't weeping anymore. Look, there are four encounters in John 20. Peter and John first, then Mary Magdalene, and then all the disciples. I mean, they don't know yet that Jesus is alive. Here's what the text says. As far as the disciples could see, oh, this isn't the text. This is uh our Kent Hughes. Here's what he says. As far as the disciples, I've got it back there. As far as the disciples could see, it was all over. They had come against a blank wall. I would have said a block wall. You know, they had a block wall.

Uh they had not believed it would end like this. They had not yet grasped the truth of Jesus' prophecies about his resurrection. There was nothing left except a recurring sense of utter helplessness and the shame of their denials and desertions. They deserted the Lord. The disciples did not know they were soon going to experience the great a greater joy than that they'd ever known. John 20 is the story of that joy. In the evening, on the first day of the week, okay, the first day is what day? Well, on our calendars, when you look at your calendar, what day is on the first day of your calendar on the week? Sunday. It goes Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then the first day is always what?

Sunday. In the evening on the first day of the week, the first day of the week is the day Jesus resurrected from the dead. The disciples haven't seen him yet. So in the evening, he resurrected from the dead in the morning. In the evening on the first day of the week, the disciples were gathered together with the doors locked. Look at the screen. With the doors locked, because why? Because of their fear of the Jews. Now, let me be clear. We have nothing against Jewish people. Jesus was a Jew. Okay? For people to say, oh, well, Jesus is just for, you know, these kind of people, and not the Jewish people or not the Islamic people, or not the Asian people. No, Jesus was a Jewish person. They were afraid because the Jewish people wanted to do them in because they were following Jesus.

People were going to follow Jesus by the hundreds, by the thousands. And they were leaving the Jewish leaders. Then Jesus came, stood among them, and said to them, peace to you. Shalom. Peace. Peace to you. Having said this, he showed them his hands and his side. So the disciples did what? Listen to me about their encounter. When Jesus came to them, they had the doors locked. Why? For what? Fear of the Jews. And they went from fear to what? Joy. I mean, they've seen the Lord. I want you to understand there are times in your life you're going to be fearful. But if you understand that if you give it God the responsibility of your life, if you've been your life to Christ, then you can entrust him with your tomorrows because he's already seen your tomorrows.

He's God. He knows all your tomorrows. Jesus said to them again, peace to you, as the Father has sent me. I'm going to send you out to tell others. So you got four encounters. Peter and John, Mary Magdalene, the disciples. Let me give you one more in John 20 in this one chapter. And it's Thomas. And Thomas is the one that said, Ah, I he wasn't. Can I tell you this? He wasn't there that Sunday night. Jesus resurrected from the dead on Sunday morning. On Sunday night, everybody was there but Thomas. But one of the twelve called Thomas. Thomas called twin. In the Greek, it's Didymus. Didymus. Can I say this to you? Thomas has a lot of twins. I hope you're not one of them.

A doubter. Oh, I just doubt. He was a doubter. He was a twin. But one of the twelve, Thomas, called twin, was one of them when Jesus came. Was not with them when Jesus came. So that's what I've said to you. That first Sunday night, he wasn't there. Everybody else, all the other disciples had seen the Lord. Their lives were changed. They were joyful now. But he wasn't there. The text goes on in verse 25. So the other disciples kept telling him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, if I don't see the mark of the nails in his hands, put my finger into the marks of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will never believe. After eight days, his disciples were indoors again. And Thomas was with them.

Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, peace to you. Then he said to Thomas, listen to me. I'm going to break in scripture right here. Jesus is never afraid of your doubts. It's not like he says, Oh man, don't ask me that. I don't have any answer to that. Jesus has the answers to everything. And he, hey, bring your doubts to me. I'll prove myself to you, is what Jesus is saying. Then Jesus, then he said to Thomas, put your finger here. Observe my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Don't be an unbeliever, but a believer.

And my God. He knew him. He recognized him. I mean, he'd been with him for three years. But he didn't believe, was it really him? He was dead. He was in the grave. And he's alive. Jesus said to him, Because you have seen me, you have believed. Those who believe without seeing are blessed. Did you catch that? Who is he talking about? He's talking about us. Have I seen Jesus to put my hands into his side? No. He said, look, let me give you these four encounters and put it this way on the screen. John went from walk by sight to walking by faith. He saw, remember?

He aidened. Remember that Greek word, Aiden? He saw and believed. But it was because he what? He saw.

If I see something, and you say, hey, have faith. It's a real dollar bill, and I see it, I think, okay, it's already, yeah, I've checked it out. It's real dollar bill. Because I did it by sight. Let me give you John. Once he was had that encounter, he said, Wow, I can trust. If I can, if he can come back from the dead, then whatever else he says, I can trust. Got that? Let me give you the next one. The disciples. They went from fear to joy. They were there fearful about what's going to happen. Now they're rejoicing. How about Mary Magdalene? She went from weeping to witnessing. Let me tell you, I've seen the Lord. Let me give you the last one. Thomas went from doubting to believing. Do you understand?

Encounters. Encounters with God will change your life. And the question I have for you is this. Have you had an encounter with the living Lord? And we're not just talking about, oh yeah, there's somebody up there, and you know, he's a you know, the God who I can't see and can't experience. No, God wants to live, he's alive. And he wants to come and live in your life. That's always, let me say it this way. He's always wanted to live with people. He created Adam and Eve, and he lived with them in the garden. And Adam and Eve sinned, and he said, Oh, and that ruined that relationship. And then he had a small tabernacle in the wilderness where his presence was.

And that was just too confining. They said, let's build a big temple in Jerusalem. And that, you know, the Lord says, hey, you know, where I want to be is with people. I don't want to be in a temple. And that's why he ended up saying in God's word, you are God's temple. And he wants to live in you. And if you invite him to live in your life, he said, I will never leave you. Never forsake you. But he has to be invited in.

If you invite him in, he said, if you trust me, you'll spend eternity within heaven. If you say, I'm not having him in my life, he's going to change my life. Because he changed those people, didn't he? Everyone I'm at a count in encounter with him, he changed. You don't have to change yourself. He'll change you. And he'll give you a hope, and he'll give you a peace, and he'll give you love, joy, peace, gentleness, self-control, patience. But you have to invite him in.

Heavenly Father, we are going to pause in these moments. We've looked at your word. We've asked what it would mean. And we've seen the changes that you've done in the lives of people who had an encounter with you. While your heads are bowed, while your eyes are closed. Let me ask you this.

When people had an encounter with the Lord.

Can you tell him right now this prayer? Lord Jesus.

That you died on the cross for me, but you didn't stay dead. You resurrected, and that's why we celebrate today. And I know you're alive. And I'm going to ask you to come and live in my life. Thank you that you died for my sin. And that you are willing to forgive all my sin. And save me today.

And trust you right now as my Savior and Lord.

We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. You know, if you've done that, if you invited Christ into your life today, share that with somebody that you know. You never know when you're gonna die. The hardest sermons for me to preach are funerals. And I don't know whether they trusted Christ or not. I got a note at 7.55 this morning. And when my friends had passed away, 7.55 this morning. And I said, you know, what a what a thrill. He knew the Lord. He was in his 70s. Uh cancer. He was gone within three weeks after going to the hospital. Send him home, put him in hospice. Gone. You don't know when you're gonna be gone. But I said to his wife this morning, you know what's thrilling is on this resurrection Sunday.

Jim is gonna be in the presence of our resurrected Lord. When Jim knew he was gonna die just three weeks ago, my son-in-law went over to his house and he says, How you doing? And Jim, Jim in his 70s. He said, I'm gonna see Jesus. There wasn't any sorrow, any panic. This guy loved his wife, cared for her, I mean he's but he knew he was gonna do it the Lord. That's the hope I want you to have as well. How are you? Thank you, Pastor Madison. Let's all rise and respond in worship and just sing and proclaim that Christ is the risen Lord. How can it be? How can it be the one who died as born our sin through sacrifice to conquer every sting of death?

Sing, sing hallelujah. Joy awakes, or joy awakes as dawning when Christ is disciples lift their eyes. Alive he stands there, friend and king. Christ, Christ he is risen. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Oh, sing hallelujah. Join the chorusing with the redeemed. Christ is risen, he is risen. We're down, where doubt and darkness once had been. They saw him and their hearts feel lead. But blessed are those who have not seen yet.

It's bound by fear. Once bound by fear, now bold in faith. They preach the truth and power of grace. And bring out their lives, they gave life. Life everlasted. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Oh, sing Hallelujah. Join the chorus with the redeemed. Christ is risen. He is risen.

The power. The power that raised him from the grave. Now works in us to powerfully save. He frees our hearts to live his grace. Go sell of his good. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. No sing Hallelujah. Join the chorus. Sing with the redeemed. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. No sing hallelujah. Join the chorus. Sing with the redeem. Christ is risen. He is risen.

And I hope that I I know it penetrated your hearts today. And I and I hope that you'll be able to stay and have lunch with us. But next Sunday, we're gonna go back to the book of James. And next Sunday I'm gonna be talking about uh the temptations that sometimes you face to do wrong. So uh if you can uh be here next week for that. Let's just close in prayer. Heavenly Father, I just want to raise my hands over these people and ask that you would pour out your blessing on them. Use what was given today from your word. Don't let uh the enemy, don't let Satan snatch it from their lives. Use it this week to just keep speaking to their hearts and their lives that they can have an encounter with you that will last for eternity.

So, Father, I pray your blessing on them now, and even your blessing. Father, we want to just pray even now for the lunch and the food that we'll have. Plus our time of fellowship in Jesus' name. Amen. Have a great week. We'll hopefully see you here at the lunch.