Lord Jesus, I want to thank you so much that you are here in
this place. Lord Jesus, that that you have
met with us as we've, we've been chatting, as we've sung your
praises, Lord God. And I pray, Lord God, that as,
as we talk through this Easter story, Lord God, as we talk
through the amazing events that happened that first Easter
morning, as you appeared to Mary and then to the disciples, Lord
Jesus, I pray, Lord God, that you would speak to us, that you
challenge us. Lord God, I pray for, for the
kids out there as they're, as they're playing games, as
they're reading scriptures, Lord Jesus, I pray, Lord God, that
you would speak to them as well. Lord Jesus, Lord God, I ask you,
Lord God, we invite you in this place.
Amen. Amen.
Right. So I'm going to read from John's
Gospel chapter 20 to read the first few lines it'll come up
with up on there. But if you want to follow along
in your own Bibles, you're more than welcome to.
Otherwise, I'm just going to read So it says early.
On the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary
Madeleine went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been
removed from the entrance. So she ran to Simon Peter and
the other disciple, the one Jesus loved.
She said they have taken the Lord out of the tomb.
We don't know where they have put him.
I'm just going to pause it there.
And so it says early, early on the first day of the week that
for you and I that's Sunday morning.
Sunday was their first day of the week.
And it says that that Mary, before the sun has even risen,
she is on her way to the tomb of Jesus Christ.
See, the last few days for Mary have a been a complete
whirlwind. She's been in complete turmoil.
It's been been a complete roller coaster.
See, Thursday night they were celebrating, They were
celebrating one of the biggest holidays in the Jewish calendar.
They were having fun, they were laughing.
And then all of a sudden, Jesus betrayed.
Not just not betrayed by just anyone, but by one of his
friends. And they've come.
The Jewish priests, they come, they take him.
They they, they take him, they question him.
And surely Mary throughout this time is thinking, surely it'll
end. Surely the Romans will step in.
Surely they'll find that there's nothing wrong with him.
But but it doesn't. He gets passed to the Roman
authorities, the Romans. Surely the Romans will see
sense. Surely the Romans won't do
anything horrendous to him. And then all of a sudden, see,
Pilot, he says, I'm washing my hands of this person.
But what? Don't wash your hands.
Free him, let him out. Pilate brings says.
It's the festival, it's a holiday, so therefore I'll
release 11 prisoner. Surely everyone wants Jesus to
be released. No?
They pick Barabbas. And then she sees in disbelief
as he is, as he is beaten, as he is mocked, as he is forced to
wear this piece of wood on his back and take it up a hill where
he is then nailed hands and feet to a cross and lifted up.
She's watching in complete disbelief as as as the one who
she's followed for the last few years.
Her Lord, her saviour is there breathing his last as life
drains out from his body, all the while thinking surely
someone's got to step in and stop this.
This cannot be happening until he breathes his very last.
She sees that spear thrust into his sight.
She sees as lifeless body pulled down upon the cross, wrapped in
linen and then taken to this very tomb.
She's watching her Lord, her teacher, her friend, her
Saviour, He. He has saved others, but no one
dared stepped in to save Him. When she was around Jesus,
everything seemed possible. There was nothing impossible for
Jesus, but even he didn't seem to be able to stop his own
execution. I wonder if you've ever been in
that situation where you've been watching your life unravel
before you. You've watched the unthinkable
happen all the time, thinking, praying, hoping, longing, just
just something happen, something changed this.
Maybe it's the it's the loss of a dream.
Maybe it's a relationship that dies.
Maybe it's a, it's a friend who who you lose.
Maybe you get passed over for promotion again and again.
You just realise this job isn't going to work.
You see, Mary, she doesn't know what to do with herself.
She, she's broken. There's a void that's in her now
that nothing seems to be able to ever fill.
And so she, she, she leaves that that tomb that Friday night and
she heads home. She probably doesn't sleep.
Saturday is a public holiday. Everyone in the city is
celebrating. There's, there's chat, there's
cheers, there's, there's eating. But not for Mary.
She's probably just curled up in her bed, tears streaming down
her face. I can't imagine that she
probably slept much in that time.
Maybe if she did drift off to sleep, she would have awoke with
that horrible feeling. Surely it was just a dream.
I just imagined that it didn't really happen, only to be hit by
the reality that everything she remembered really did happen.
You see. So as she, as she walks, that
first Sunday morning, as she goes to the tomb and it's dark,
it's not just dark outside because the sun hasn't risen
yet. It's dark in her life.
Her life feels dark. It feels black, and all she
wants to do is be near Jesus. She knows he's dead because dead
people stay dead. That's what they do.
So, so she decides it. The only way to feel the
brokenness, the only way to to to to find some sort of healing
in her life is to be at the place where she last saw her
Lord and Saviour. So she heads over to the tomb.
But as she gets nearer and nearer, she realises there's no
guards there. I remember there were guards
here when Jesus was laid to rest the the tomb, it was sealed by a
stone. That stone has been removed.
And then she gets to the the entrance and she looks in and
horror upon horrors, the tomb is empty.
At this point she breaks, she is hysterical, she runs back to her
friends, she goes and tells the other.
She goes and tells Peter and John he's gone, he's gone,
they've taken him. How could they do that?
All I wanted to do is be near him.
And then we read on. What happens?
It says so Peter and the other disciple that's John started for
the tomb. Both were running, but the other
disciples disciple outrun ran Peter and reached the tomb
first. He bent over and looked in at
the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in.
Then Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb.
He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that
had been wrapped around Jesus heads.
The cloth was still lying in its place, separated from the linen.
Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also
went inside. He saw and believed.
They still did not understand from the scriptures that Jesus
had to raise, rise from the dead.
Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
So Mary comes back, she's hysterical.
Peter and John, they, they, they don't know what to believe.
So they decide they're going to run to the tomb.
And I love this, right? I love this.
This shows you that, that real people wrote scripture.
Because I can imagine, OK, John's Gospel, we know that from
history. John's Gospel was the last of
the four gospels to be written. And I can imagine John, right?
He's there. He, he's received the letter
that Matthew has written and he reads through it.
He he, he likes it, but it's missing something.
Then he gets Mark's gospel and he reads that.
He likes that too. He's a bit shorter puncture, but
it's missing something as well. Then he reads Luke.
Now Luke was the guy. He wasn't an eyewitness, but he
went round and talked to everyone who was there and did
and got an account from everyone.
So Luke must have put in the really important stuff that
John's looking for. So John reads through Luke's and
Luke doesn't have it in there either, you see.
So therefore, John, this isn't true, by the way, but I like to
imagine this. This is the way I think of
Scripture that John, he then he then starts read, then he's
decides, right, I'm going to write my own gospel.
And in my gospel I'm going to make sure I include, yes, that
Jesus is the risen Lord and Saviour, but also I need to make
sure the whole world knows that I am faster than Peter.
I'm sure he doesn't. He says, I mean, writes that
just just just just putting it in there.
On the day Jesus was resurrected from the grave, I was faster
than Peter. I mean, if Peter was to respond
to that, he probably would have written something along the
lines of, yeah, but you're an absolute coward.
You wouldn't go into the tomb before I did.
But he gets this as he gets there.
He waits, but you know, it's it's he, he runs the tomb.
They run. And I, I love that about it.
And and and then it says that Mary, we're going to read that
Mary. She goes the tomb and she is so
struck by guilt as struck by sorrow, she just lies there and
stays there in the tomb and it says it says.
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying.
As she wept she bent over to look into the tomb.
She saw 2 angels in white sealed where seated where Jesus body
had been, one at the head and one at the foot.
They asked her woman, why are you crying?
They have taken my Lord, she said, and I don't know where
they have put him. See, Mary, she obviously, I
mean, John didn't write this, but obviously Mary arrives there
afterwards. But she, she's there and she's,
she's hysterical, she's weeping. She's so full of grief.
I don't know whether you've ever been there where you've been so,
so down, so full of sorrow, so full of grief that you don't
really recognise what's going on around you.
I mean, it says that she is there weeping.
And then 2 angels of the pier. Now every other time we read in
scripture that angels appear, angels are messengers from God
and what what basically met, they come with a message to tell
someone. But every time in scripture,
before they can tell someone their message, they need to go.
Don't be scared. They need to let you get the
impression that they have to pick this person who this, this,
this Angel who's kind of mighty, who's, who's glowing, who's
who's very intimidating figure. They arrive on the scene and
then before they can tell someone what the message is,
that person's kind of collapsed on the floor, is shaking.
And they're like, don't be scared.
They kind of kind of work them up.
They pick them up off the ground.
This is you're all right. I'm not going to hurt you.
Right, OK, now I'm going to tell you what Jesus has to say to
you. So how it goes, They're here, 2
Angel, 2 angels, not just one, two angels appear.
And Mary's just like she just doesn't care.
She doesn't break stride. She just continues to cry.
And she's just like, where is Jesus?
Where have you put him? And it continues and it says at
this, at this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there,
but she did not realise that it was Jesus.
He asked her woman, why are you crying?
Who is it you are looking for? Thinking he was the gardener,
she said, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where
you have put him and I will get him.
See. So she's there.
The 2 angels are in the tomb. She's unfazed by that.
And then out the corner of her eyes she sees someone else.
So she looks to them and she goes, she goes, she goes have do
you know where Jesus is? Do you know where he is?
You see, it says here that she didn't know yet that it was
Jesus. And you can think, how can she
not know it was Jesus? Jesus.
Jesus is standing right in front of her.
How could she not know what it says?
Actually, she doesn't even look. But also, why would she think it
was Jesus? Dead people stay dead.
Why would she imagine that it was possible for Jesus to be
standing in front of her, talking to her?
Is it? And that might be somewhere some
of you are at today. You may have come here today.
You may have heard people talk about Jesus.
You may have heard people say about going to church.
And your impression of that is that's nice for them.
But honestly, it's a dead religion.
People are worshipping a dead God.
So therefore when when we come and you see people singing and
people singing as if he's really alive, that colour takes you
back a bit because you weren't expecting that because Jesus
isn't dead. Sorry.
Jesus isn't alive. He's dead.
He died. We know he died.
And if that's where you're at, if that's where you're, you
don't expect today to meet with Jesus because, well, he's dead.
Well there's a gardener in this story that has two questions. 2
questions he'd love you to be able to answer.
The first one is he says, he says to Mary.
He says why are you crying? Why are you crying?
Is he? He doesn't say stop crying.
He says why are you crying? He, he validates the fact that
she is in pain, that she is hurting, that she is broken.
And maybe you can identify with that.
You, you know that, that you feel pain.
You know that deep down that you are broken.
And the good news of the gospel, the good news about Easter is
that the gospel meets us in our brokenness.
It meets you in our, in your brokenness.
So what is the source of your pain?
What's causing you pain? Let's be honest, even if you're
at this moment thinking life's pretty good, I don't have much
to complain about, there is something.
There is something in your life reminding you that this world is
broken. Things that people have done to
you, people think. Things people have said to you.
Things that people should have done for you but they didn't.
All a sign that this world is broken, that we live in a broken
nation, in a broken world. And you can blame all sorts of
things. You can blame the government,
you can blame the past government, you can blame the
last generation, you can blame blame the next generation, you
can blame the system. But honestly we are all broken
people making broken choices every single day.
And now when you get to a certain age you start to
remember things slightly differently and some of you may
start harking back to the good old days.
OK the world is broken today, but let me take you back a few
years. And it was good.
The reality is it wasn't. You just look through the you
just looking through rose tinted glasses.
It doesn't matter how far you go back, however old you are, at
whatever era you want to pick, it was not the good old days.
There is only actually one time that we had the good old days,
and you need to go a lot further back than any of us were ever
alive. You have to actually go right
back to the beginning of humanity.
You see, right at the beginning of humanity, a long time ago,
after this gardener had just finished creating all things
because he is a gardener, he planted a garden.
And it says in Scripture, this garden was a perfect place, a
place where there's No Fear, no guilt, no shame, there was no
suffering, no one was causing anyone any pain.
It was perfect. In fact, actually, people and
God lived together in perfect harmony, enjoying one another's
presence. But that didn't last too long.
Actually, we read in Scripture that this thing called sin
enters the world, basically an action born out of a belief that
we don't need God, that God isn't king on the throne, that
he's not real, that we don't need him.
And from that moment, death enters into the world.
And we all know this. We all have a limited amount of
time on this earth. We all are broken.
We live in a broken world and we have a limited amount of time
upon it. And honestly, we're all trying
to do the best, trying to make the best of our time in the
broken world that we live in with the limited time that we've
been given. So that being true, what are you
looking for to make your life a bit more bearable, to give your
life joy? What are you placing your hope
in? To give yourself peace, to give
yourself meaning. Maybe you believe that there's
there really is a God and there's an afterlife.
So what are you putting your hope in that you're going to go
to the good place and not the bad place when you die?
What are you looking for? And that's where the next
question comes in, because the gardener, actually, he doesn't
say what he says. Who are you looking for?
You see, Mary, she arrives that Easter morning looking for a
what? She looks for an object of her
grief. She looks for something that is
going to be able to fill the void inside, something that is
going to help mend the brokenness that she feels.
What are you placing your hope in?
What are you looking to satisfy you?
What are you looking to give meaning to your life, to give
you hope, to give you peace, to give you joy?
So the gardener says it's not about what, it's about who.
Because ultimately there is nothing in this world that you
can receive. There is nothing that you can
get. There's nothing that is of this
world that can give you what your soul needs.
There is nothing that can fill the void inside you, that can
feel that deep longing, that can mend the brokenness that we all
feel. There is no act of charity, no
good deed that you can do that can work your way into God's
good books. So you deserve to go to the good
place when you die. See the answer to your problems,
the answer to the world's problems, to your my brokenness,
the void that we feel. It's not about trying harder,
it's not about being better. The answer is Jesus Christ, John
316 says. For God so loved the world that
he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him
shall not perish. That have eternal life.
You see, the reason why we are broken, the reason why we feel
broken is that we were designed to have a relationship, to find
fulfilment, to find the mending of that void inside us.
We meant to find that through relationship with God.
But through our sin, through our disobedience, through US living
as if God wasn't the most important thing in the universe,
we've broken that. We've broken that relationship
and there's nothing that we can do to fix that, and that's why
Jesus Christ came. Jesus Christ came so that all
who believe in him, not all who do really good, all who believe
in Him will have that relationship fixed and be able
to come to the Father. John 1010 says I have come that
you may have life and have it to the full sea.
Life with Christ isn't boring, It isn't dull.
It isn't isn't it isn't something even that starts when
you die. It is something that starts the
moment that you put your faith in Jesus Christ that you get
life with him. You get life to the full.
You get peace. You get yet security, You get
that void filled beyond any understanding.
That doesn't mean that bad things don't happen to you.
It means even through sickness, even through illness, even
through trials. Placing your faith in Christ
Jesus gives you something that no one else has unless they have
Him. John 14 Jesus said I am the way
the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through me. You see believing when Jesus
says believe in me, he's not talking about just believe.
Do you believe that Jesus was a real person who lived 2000 years
ago, was from Nazareth and died on the Roman cross?
That's not what he's talking about.
Actually, that takes no faith whatsoever.
We know from history that the fact that Jesus died and he
sorry, the fact that Jesus lived and he died of 2000 years ago
was from Nazareth, Diamond Roman cross.
We know that to be proven. That is true.
Actually, we have more evidence of the life and works of Jesus
Christ than we do of of such historical figures like
Hannibal, Budoka, Homer, Socrates, Caesar, and there's a
massive list longer than that, but I haven't got all day to
read it. He, he, we have more evidence
than any of those people in anything that they did.
And you see, all roads do not lead to happiness.
All roads do not lead to heaven, all roads do not lead to
fulfilment. There is one road and one Rd
only and that road goes through Christ Jesus.
He is the one who satisfies. He is the one who mends the
void. He is the one who mends our
brokenness and church. He is calling your name.
He is calling you. You see, Mary, she is in the
garden. She's bawling her eyes out.
She needs healing. She needs her brokenness
mending. She she's talking to this guy
who she's not even looked at. And then all of a sudden after
the questions, one word changes everything, Jesus said to her,
Mary, she turned towards him and cried out an Aramaic Rabboni,
which means teacher. Jesus said, do not hold on to
me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, and go instead to
my brothers and tell them, I'm ascending to my Father and your
father to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went to the
disciples with the news. I have seen the Lord, she said.
She I've seen the Lord, and she told them that he had said these
things to her. So the gardener, he responds as
she's crying, as she's saying, I just want to see Jesus.
Where's his body? The gardener responds.
Mary and that gentle sound of his voice at her name being
called. The scales fall from her eyes,
and she sees who is speaking to her.
It's the one who spoke all things into being.
It is the one who spoke all creation.
It is the voice that the wind, the sky, the seas of Bay.
It was the one who had commanded with His very voice to lame to
be healed, told demons to go, who spoke blind eyes to see, who
opened the ears with a word and fed the multitudes.
It was the voice that many years before had called her name out
of darkness, had told her to follow Him.
It was the voice of Jesus, not dead, but the risen King and at
his voice calling her name, her tears of pain, her tears of
sorrow, her tears of brokenness instantly turn to tears of joy
as she wraps her arms around him so tightly.
Jesus like Mary, you're going to have to let me breathe.
You know you need to go on, you know, be almost says, you know,
Mary, if you keep holding onto me, I'm not going to be able to
float up to heaven. You're holding me so tightly.
He's he, he, she wraps her arms around him so tightly and and
because she he called her name. And for the last 2000 plus
years, Jesus has been calling names as we have been running
away from him, as we've been living our own life.
Jesus had been saying, come follow me, come follow me.
He has called many of your names in here.
And he says if we listen, if we respond to him, then we are
free. Then we are free.
He says, for those who are looking to find satisfaction,
Jesus says I am the answer, come.
And he says your name, follow me and you will find what will
fills you. He says For those who are
broken, he says, Jesus says, he answers.
He says come follow me. He says your name, follow me and
I will make you whole. For those who are looking for
purpose, for meaning in their life, Jesus says, I am the
answer, Come follow me and I will give you life and life to
the full that never ever, ever ends.
You see, you may be sitting there and thinking I don't need
Jesus. Or maybe you're even sitting
there and thinking, oh Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, too good for me.
He'd never accept me if he knew what I did.
The truth is that no one is good enough for Christ, not a single
one of us. But we all need him.
And the good news is that no one is too far gone for him.
So that's why Jesus came not to tell us a load of rules and how
to live. He came to live the perfect life
and die the death that we should have died.
He took the consequences of our sin upon Himself, so that in
faith, if we believe in Him, our dross, our sin, our disobedience
is placed on Christ at the cross and His perfect life is placed
upon us. So we get to have a relationship
with the Father. So our brokenness gets to be
mended so that void gets to be filled.
I see we can all come to Christ through faith in Him.
I see Jesus. He walked this earth.
That's just a fact. He did many miraculous signs and
wonders. He healed many people.
He said he he he feared thousands upon thousands of
people. But all of that was useless and
pointless if after being crucified, he stayed dead.
But he didn't. He didn't.
He rose again, first appearing to Mary.
He called Mary's name and she she didn't believe it because
dead people don't rise from the dead.
Dead people stay dead. So she didn't believe it.
She didn't see it. But in a call of her name, she
looked and she saw and she believed, and her life was
changed forever. She runs back to the disciples.
She runs back to Peter, James, John and the others.
She tells them they don't believe her.
I don't believe her because dead people stay dead.
She's just a crazy woman in their eyes.
Until Jesus appears to them and says their names.
And they looked and they saw and they followed.
Thomas wasn't there. You read on Thomas wasn't there.
They're all of them. There's there's Mary, there's,
there's the other other disciples.
There's there's two others who've just met Jesus on the
road to Emmaus. They're all they're saying Jesus
is alive, he's risen and Thomas is going not a chance.
You're all crazy. Dead people stay dead until
Jesus appears to Thomas and he says Thomas, Thomas.
And Thomas looks, he sees, he puts his fingers in the hands
and the side and he bows down. He says, my Lord, my God, my
Saviour. And he follows Jesus for the
rest of his life. All of them, all of them.
They give up everything to follow Jesus because he really
did raise from the deads. They go around the local city
and the surrounding towns starting telling people about
Jesus, that he was once dead. But he rose again, so much so
that all the Jewish people, they start getting all angry because
dead people stay dead. And if you keep telling people
that dead people raise from the dead, the Romans are going to
think we're crazy. And so one guy called Saul of
Tarshish, who we know is Paul, he decides he's going to kill
anyone who says that Jesus is a alive.
And so he goes around, he starts imprisoning people, killing
people until Jesus speaks his name.
So so he turns, he sees the risen Lord Jesus, and he
follows. He gives his life for Jesus.
All of them gave their life for Jesus because he did not stay
dead. But he is risen.
He has risen. And the fact that Jesus has
risen changes everything. The fact that Jesus said nice
things doesn't change anything. The fact that Jesus chose to
heal a few people, that doesn't change anything for you and I,
the fact that Jesus rose from the dead changes everything.
It changes everything. And guys, every single one of
you, He is calling your name. He is saying your name because
He wants you. He loves you.
He is for you. Stop telling yourself no.
But if he knew, he does. He's God, He knows everything.
He loves you, He wants you. He is calling you.
Can you hear him call you? Can you feel him saying, I love
you and I want to, I want to end and by just praying for us and
what we're going to do is we're going to pray and I want to pray
for a few of you. If you want to for the first
time, say Jesus, I want to follow you.
I want to pray. I want to pray for you.
Maybe you did many years ago. You said Jesus, I want to follow
you. But you know really you've not
lived for him. You've been ignoring his voice.
I want to pray. It's Easter, new start, the Rep,
the past is gone. He wants to start again with you
today. If you want to recommit
yourself, I want to pray. And then as we say Amen, as you
feel ready, I'm going to ask everyone who feels comfortable.
We're going to come forward and we're going to take bread and
wine together. And bread and wine is a symbol
of the fact that Jesus blood and his body wasn't just broken on a
cross. It was broken for you.
It was broken for us so that we can have a relationship with
him. So I want you to bow your heads
and I want you to not just let my words wash over you, but pray
them along. And like I said, if this is for
the first time, that's amazing. Maybe you've prayed to God
before, but you've never prayed that he would save you, that you
would follow him. And we're going to do that right
now. So Lord Jesus, God, I thank you
that you are here in this place. Jesus, I want to thank you that
you didn't stay in heaven, but you came, you were born as a
baby, you lived, you grew, you were perfect.
Lord Jesus, you're the only perfect 1 Lord God.
And you died on a Roman cross for the for my sin, for
everyone's sin, so that all who would believe in you, all that
would follow, you would find forgiveness, would find
satisfaction, would find wholeness.
Lord Jesus, I just want to pray for those in here who don't know
you, Lord Jesus. And then if that's you, maybe
you want to just pray along with me now.
So Lord Jesus, I am I'm sorry for living a life without you.
Lord Jesus, sin, I thank you that you forgive me because of
your death on the cross. You forgive me, Lord Jesus, and
I want to follow you from this day on.
Lord Jesus, I hear you calling my name and I want to give the
rest of my life for you. Lord Jesus, for those who have
gone away and want to start again, I thank you that you
offer a fresh start. And so, Lord Jesus, I just want
to thank you. I thank you, God, that for, for,
for those who have have turned away.
Lord Jesus, there is always a second chance.
Lord God, Lord Jesus, I pray come fill us right now.
Fill us with your presence. Amen.
We read, read in this passage
that for those of us who Jesus has saved, who have said I'm
following him, what does Mary do?
She goes and tells people about him.
So my encouragement to you is if you have prayed, if you have
said Jesus, I want to follow you.
Tell someone, tell someone, tell someone here, and then go and
tell people out there.