Bible with you. I'd like to invite you to open
it to Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24.
This week I popped open my text messages and I had a message
there. Craig, would you like to go see
David Suzuki? And I was like, of course I want
to. That would be rain.
And I was so excited. And so later I said, so do I
meet you there or you just going to send?
How do how do I have a ticket? And she sent the ticket.
And then Tuesday afternoon, I was so excited about seeing
David Suzuki. And I was at an art show that my
daughter was doing. And then I said, I have to rush
out of here and head to campus for this event with David
Suzuki. I got to campus, I parked out, I
hiked into campus. I came across and as I'm coming
down to the Sears building, I'm thinking there are not a lot of
people here. What's going on?
Where is everybody? I got to the door and the door
was locked and every, the whole lobby was empty.
I was like, either the rapture has happened or I got the wrong
day. And so I popped open my phone,
looked closely at the ticket. Oh, it's Wednesday, it's
Tuesday, I'll come back tomorrow.
I was really disappointed, but I was so glad that I had missed
out. Do you know Easter morning was
like that for the Marys? They went to the tomb not
excited, but dreading the fulfillment of their
responsibilities to Jesus, who had died on the cross on Friday.
And they went to the tomb expecting that they would find
Jesus there. But he was not.
And so in their heart, they didn't know how to make sense of
this. They were as confused as I was
standing in front of the Sears building looking in, going,
Where is everybody? They're looking at an empty
tomb, going, Where's Jesus? Where is Jesus?
And so the story of Easter is the experience of this great
transition of mind to a new reality, to the new reality that
God has made. And we don't want you to miss
it. In fact, all those who recorded
this message did so, so that those who came after would not
miss Jesus the resurrected, but they would actually find in Him
that He is the ticket to new life, new purpose, new meaning,
New Hope. And so this is recorded for us
so that we also might go on that journey of transformation.
Let's follow along in the story of the first Easter day.
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the
women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.
They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they
entered they did not find the body of Jesus.
While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in
clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.
In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the
ground. But the men said to them, Why do
you look for the living among the dead?
He is not here, He is risen. Remember how He told you while
he was still with you in Galilee.
The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be
crucified, and on the third day be raised again.
Then they remembered His words when they came back from the
tomb. They told all these things to
the 11 and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna,
Mary the Mother of James, and the others with them, who told
this to the apostles, but they did not believe the women,
because their words seemed like nonsense.
Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb.
Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves,
and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
Now, that same day, two of them were going to the village called
Emmaus, about 7 miles from Jerusalem.
It's quite a walk, 7 miles. Someone told me this week they
don't like to walk even 15 minutes.
This was a long walk. They were talking with each
other about everything that had happened, and as they talked and
discussed these things with each other, Jesus came up and walked
along with them, but they were kept from recognizing him.
He asked them, What are you discussing together as you walk
along? They stood still, their faces
downcast. One of them named Cleopas asked
him, Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not
know these things that have happened there in these days?
What things? He asked about Jesus of
Nazareth, they replied. He was a prophet, powerful in
Word and deed before God and all the people, the chief priests
and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and
they crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the
one who was going to redeem Israel.
And what is more, it is the third day since all this took
place. In addition, some of our women
amazed us. They went to the tomb early this
morning but didn't find his body.
They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who
said he was alive. Then some of our companions went
to the tomb and found it, just as the women had said, But they
did not see Jesus. He said to them, How foolish you
are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things, and then
enter his glory? And beginning with Moses and all
the prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the
Scriptures concerning himself. As they approached the village
to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if as if He was
going farther, but they urged him strongly.
Stay with us, for it is nearly evening, the day is almost over.
So we went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with
them, he took bread and gave thanks, broke it and began to
give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and
they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.
They asked each other, will not our hearts burning within us,
while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures
to us. They got up and returned it once
to Jerusalem. There they found the 11 and
those with them assembled together and saying it is true,
the Lord has risen and he has appeared to Simon.
Then the two told what had happened on the way and how
Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
I have sympathy for those who find moments in their lives when
they hope there is someone for them.
They hope there is something on their side and in their search
to describe this kind of grace, they say something like this.
Well, I hope the universe is for me.
I hope the universe will be on my side.
Have you ever heard someone say such a thing?
I love looking at the stars at night.
Difficult to do in Vancouver, but if you get out where the
light pollution is less and you look up into the stars, into the
heavens, you see light, you see the far reaches of the universe.
Is it for you or is it against you?
Is the universe friendly and on your side or is it impersonal?
Is there anyone out there who is for you?
We see the light of those stars, the far reaches of the universe,
and none of us have been there yet.
I guess there's hope that we might get to Mars because some
people are going to make it to the moon this week.
Did you all know that? But who has come from the far
reaches of the universe in order to show that He is for us only
God, the Creator of the heavens and earth, the Alpha and the
Omega? Only God has come to show us
that He is for us. And He is not impersonal, He is
so personal and He is for us. But in looking at the cross, we
would not imagine that the cross, the picture of a man
dying between two thieves, would actually be the picture of God
loving us. Because just taken as it was, it
was the picture of a man who had done good things, who was deemed
to be a prophet, a great preacher, a worker of some
powerful deeds, who died on a cross and perhaps was just a
tragedy, A tragic ending. And so he died, and it was over
without the resurrection of Jesus.
The cross itself is really confusing.
The cross itself is really ugly. It is the picture of Roman
power, the power of empire in the state, being exacted on an
individual and a people in order to show them who's really in
charge. It was a terrible death of
violence, where a body was broken and blood poured out and
ultimately all the air drained out of a person.
And this would have been a terrible ending except for the
resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus
transforms that moment. In fact, it illuminates that
moment so that now we can see the meaning of his suffering, we
can see the truth of his message, and we can experience
the abiding communion of his Commission with us.
So first is suffering. Jesus himself shows that the
resurrection illuminates his suffering and gives it meaning.
He says the Scripture says that He opened their minds so they
could understand the scriptures. He told them this is what is
written. The Messiah will suffer and rise
from the dead on the third day. They could not imagine that
God's appointed and anointed one would suffer such terrible
things and die. They could not imagine that God
would rather love his enemies than kill them until he died on
the cross according to the Scriptures and what had been
said. But it's the resurrection that
illuminates it. Without Resurrection Sunday, we
would not even remember Crucifixion Friday.
It's the resurrection of Jesus that shines a light backwards
and says that historical moment changed the whole world, changed
the cosmos. Here's Jesus on his cross.
Jesus said this. He said this on the occasion
that some Greeks came and said we want to see Jesus and the
disciples were wanting to protect Jesus from this moment
and from these Greek fellows. But Jesus says no, Now is the
time for judgement on this world.
Now the Prince of this world will be driven out, and I, when
I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.
He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
Jesus says that the cross was going to do three things.
It was going to judge the world. He says the cross is going to
actually drive out Satan. He says that the cross will then
drag people. That word draw is drag.
It's going to drag people to himself that it's going to have.
It's like an attractional force. It's like a tractor beam that
draws people in. It was only after the
resurrection of Jesus that these words began to make sense, that
the cross actually has great meaning.
We've been singing about it all morning.
We've been singing about it because of Resurrection Sunday.
In fact, every Sunday after this is a celebration of the
resurrection of Jesus, and it's a remembrance of his death on
the cross, that he was accomplishing something there
for you and for me, that his suffering actually had great
meaning. Paul said it this way about the
suffering of Jesus. It's a great reversal.
Having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which
stood against us and condemned us, he has taken it away,
nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers
and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them,
triumphing over them by the cross.
Do you know Roman execution was so humiliating?
In fact, 1 was stripped of your clothes.
When we go into some churches, you will find a cross there, and
most often Jesus is clothed on the cross.
We're fairly modest people, but when Jesus was crucified, he was
actually stripped of his clothes and nailed to the cross.
When Jesus died on the cross, there was a sign above his head
that said Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.
What kind of king is this that Rome exerts such power over and
humiliates completely? Who's completely powerless to do
anything yet Jesus said of his own moment in this.
No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own
accord and I have authority to take it back up.
It's the resurrection that shines a light on that moment, a
great reversal, Jesus. Paul says here that the cross
actually strips away the thin veneer of respect and nobility
that the authorities in this world carry themselves in
because they believe that their power, their ability to kill,
their ability to exact violence on others is actually a sign of
their great strength, their great personhood, their great
power. But Jesus says no, I'm going to
show them for who they really are, with my cross and with my
life given out, with my death given on their behalf, and then
with my resurrection, I will show them.
I will make a spectacle of them. Pilate and the authorities had
more trust in Jesus's words and suspicion about Jesus than the
disciples did. Did you know that when they
buried Jesus in a borrowed tomb given by Joseph of Arimathea,
Pilate ordered that the stone be put there, the stone be sealed,
and then have soldiers surround it.
And so, since Friday night, the soldiers had been standing guard
at this tomb. Why?
Because they had heard there was some rumor, perhaps that Jesus.
Would be raised from the dead and the disciples seem to have
forgotten in their grief, in their trauma, they forgot and
God did the very thing he promised.
Now this also illuminates his message for us.
This great reversal is a change for us.
Even while Jesus was on the cross, he said, Father, forgive
them. But its meaning for us is this,
that repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be
preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
I want you to think for a moment for the thing that you wish no
one knew about you. I want you to think for a moment
of the thing for which you have most regret.
I want you to think for a moment of the thing that you know would
embarrass your family. And it's for all this that Jesus
died. For all of those things, the
guilt we fill, the shame we experience, the fear that fills
us, it's for all of that, that Jesus died, that it might be
transformed and changed in our lives, that it might be
forgiven, that it might be dropped.
That if God looked at us and said, I have an issue with you.
But now, because of Christ Jesus, his death on the cross
and his resurrection, I'm going to drop it.
Imagine that God had an account of your life and all the things
for which there is guilt that you have, and all the things for
which there is shame that you have, and all the things that
fill you with fear. And he looks at that and says,
oh, what a terrible wait in their lives this is to bear.
I will bear it myself. It shall be nailed to the cross
with Jesus so that now I can forgive them.
I can drop it, for that is what the word forgiveness means.
God looks at us and those who receive him in faith and say I
receive you, Lord Jesus, as Lord God says all of that that might
be held against you. I drop it, I forgive it.
Jesus did this at the cross and he does it for everyone to this
day. It says that the cross, two
other men, both criminals were also let out with Jesus to be
executed. And when they came to the place
called the skull, they crucified him there along with the
criminals, one on his right, the other on his left.
And Jesus said, Father forgive them for they do not know what
they are doing. And they divided up his clothes
by casting lots. When God comes to visit, when
God is treated shamefully as if he is guilty, he is not filled
with fear. He's filled with forgiveness and
looking out from the cross. Jesus says, Father, forgive
them. They don't know what they're
doing. This echoes the very teaching of
Jesus. Forgive your enemies.
Forgive those who persecute you and hate you and treat you
badly. Forgive them, pray for them,
love them, do good for them. Bless them and here at his life,
he end of his life, he embodies the teaching and he shows us
what is coming. Forgiveness.
And now the message of the church is to be forgiveness.
Now, the message and move of every disciple of Jesus is to be
the power to forgive your enemies, the power to forgive
those who have been filled with fear, shame, and guilt, and they
don't know what they're doing, but to forgive them.
What a transformation of life. It's the resurrection that
illuminates this, but it's also the resurrection that makes it
possible. Because how many of us want to
volunteer for an assignment that says, I want you to go out into
the world on Monday and you're going to find that you have
enemies and I want you to forgive them?
Anybody volunteering for that one?
It's just reality. It's just the experience of
living that if you go through this life, you will actually
find that you carry within yourself grudges and resentment
and hurts and pain, not just towards people but perhaps also
towards God. What a misunderstanding we have.
So how is it possible that we could actually take a message of
forgiveness and repentance to the world unless God is actually
with us and in US? Notice Jesus says you are
witnesses of these things, and I'm going to send you what my
Father has promised. But stay in the city until you
have been clothed with power from on high.
You're going to be clothed with power on on, on high.
I wonder if in that moment they remembered Jesus naked on the
cross, stripped in all appearances of power, but in
that moment he was actually clothed with power from on high
'cause he could say, Father forgive them what power
demonstrated in weakness. And this is our Commission, that
we would be witnesses of these things and that we would be
clothed with power from on high. I'm not sure what you think is
going to make you a powerful person.
Is it your degree? Does that make you a powerful
person? Does it command respect?
A little bit, yes. I give you hope for your
studies. Yes, it does.
Maybe it's your culture. Does your culture create power
for you? Maybe a little bit.
But cultures and societies come and go and change and and we
actually become hybrids. We become morphs of our cultural
legacies. Is it your maleness or your
femaleness? Is your great power, your
intellect and your brain? Is your great power your ability
to collect wealth and money? Or is your great power the very
presence of God in your life? Because this is the power, the
clothing that God wants to provide.
This is how Jesus described it. He said, I will not leave you as
orphans. So an orphan you might imagine
is is one who doesn't have a family, doesn't have a heritage,
who's lost track of all of that. And they might not even have
shoes. Their clothes may not indicate
that they have any greatness about them.
But he says I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.
Before long the world will not see me anymore.
But you will see me because I live.
You also will live. On that day you will realize
that I am in my Father and that you are in me and that I am in
you. This is the power that Jesus
wants to grant us, that by His Spirit, the gift sent from the
Father, He would clothed you with the presence of God in your
life so that you are not alone in this world.
You are not the only one in charge of your destiny, but you
have God on your side. The invitation then in our lives
is to actually let the resurrection shine this way into
our life. Not just back on the cross, but
let the resurrection of Jesus shine towards our lives so that
there is meaning granted to our suffering.
And the story we tell about the sufferings in our lives is
transformed because we say God showed up and brought healing in
my life, that God transformed the messages that we have
beforehand. Our messages in life may have
been around our own petty differences with others or with
our experience of difficulty of our experience of broken
relationships. But now in Christ, our message
becomes God forgave me. God's transforming my
relationships. In fact, He's giving me more
Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness,
faithfulness, and self-control. He forgave me.
I do not carry the weight of my guilt or shame.
I am not filled with fear anymore.
And then we have a new mission. And our new mission is to live
in the presence of God for the rest of our lives.
And the resurrection shines a light towards us, towards you,
and says, hey, this is possible. FIFA is coming to town and
they're going to play the beautiful game, aren't they?
That's our idealism about soccer, football, That is the
beautiful game. But I I wonder if in your own
life you realize that you are intended to live a beautiful
life, that there is a beauty that's meant to inhabit and take
shape from your life. Our fear is that our life is
just a series of terrible crosses to bear, terrible
disappointments, terrible pain. But the Scripture says that
anyone who sets their heart in Christ Jesus goes on pilgrimage
so that they transform those places of pain into places of
incredible beauty. This is our destiny as
Christians today, if God can take a cross and turn it into a
beautiful thing such that we would actually take the Roman
cross and wear it as jewelry. Do you have a cross on today
that we would actually have it as a tattoo on our bodies?
Anybody have a cross tattoo? Do you want to confess that we
would actually have great art made over the last 2000 years
that shows a cross? And we look at that picture and
we go, wow, that's sort of beautiful.
How did the cross become a thing of beauty?
It's because it doesn't just show the ugly side of life, it
shows the beautiful side of the creative power of God to
transform our lives. And so then I know if God can
make a cross beautiful, he can make my life beautiful.
If God can make a cross of Jesus beautiful, he can make your
lives beautiful. Do you want that?
Do you want a beautiful life? It starts with saying yes to
Jesus and saying I've had lots of fear and pain and shame and
guilt in my life. I have stories that I don't know
how to tell. Oh Lord Jesus, come and start
your work of transformation. This is how it starts with you
saying yes to Jesus. Heavenly Father, we pray that
you would transform our lives so that in your time you would make
all things beautiful as we come to your table and remember the
body of Jesus broken for us and your blood poured out for us.
We pray that you would even now transform our lives so that we
might live a resurrection life, that we might live a life in
which you dwell in US. Lord, we pray make all things
beautiful in your time. Let's stand together.