Inland Empire: Riverside
Abundant Life 3 - Audio
It's Easter everybody's looking so pretty this morning. Raise your hand if you got something new on this morning. Something new. Get it up I'd be proud. I got a new tie I got it from my birthday in January but you know when it's got about four feet of snow in Nebraska and the skies are usually dark most of the time yellow just doesn't seem to work. So here in sunny Southern California on Easter it's time to break out the yellow tie, amen. You know you guys need to just be praising God you live in Southern California. I had to buy a snow blower this year. The snow was starting to defeat me, I was starting to get discouraged and maybe even a little bit bitter that I was living here and Mike's living here where you are. And yet I got that snow blower from the hardware store and I got a little bummed out that winter ended because I loved going out there and blowing away that snow. So you can be happy wherever God puts you as long as you have the right equipment. Torro's my friend Easter. It's the most sacred holiday for us as Christians. This should not just be another day. This should be one of the most memorable time marking events. One of the most significant moments in time for your life. I've been looking forward to this sermon all weekend because this is the great news, not just the good news but the great news of Jesus Christ. They're afraid I'm going to step on that and get that thing out of my way. Thank you, Jake. I love you. It's the most sacred holiday. It's really why I'm a Christian. When I was a freshman in college at Cara School of Mines, I had a philosophy class and we studied all different philosophies and all different religions and I thought maybe I had been indoctrinated as a young man to be a Christian and I was rethinking that. I was just exploring all avenues and all opportunities in my life and I decided that Christianity really is different. There is one fact that really makes it stand apart and that is that Jesus, unlike all the other teachers and philosophies, says I came from heaven the place you want to go. I came to earth, I gave you my teaching, I lived a perfect life and then I did something no one else has ever done for you. In good Friday, I died for you, I sacrificed myself, my life, my future, I risked everything to take on your sins and to go to hell, to see who would win, good or evil, God or Satan. I was willing to trust my father to experience that death for the world, for my father's creation and the darkness came over all the land. The curtain in the temple split, the earth shook and before the temple was cracked and before a couple of days, everyone in the world knew something had changed. Things weren't stable, there was chaos again, things weren't right. Some of us experienced the same thing in our lives, certain societies at different times have experienced the same thing when it didn't seem like good was winning out but evil was winning out. The Cambodian under the Khmer Rouge people fought something spiritually wrong when children, when teenagers are running the country and killing everyone. People felt that way in Russia, when Lenin came to power and just wiped out millions and millions and millions of people. People felt that way in Nazi Germany and especially the other parts of Europe when Hitler had taken over and people were in fear, living in fear. When evil is getting the upper hand, something's not right in the world. And for that, a couple of days when the Lord was in the grave, battling evil, everyone wondered with anticipation, would things be set right again? Would the sun come up in the morning? The little orphan Annie thinks it always does. But without the resurrection, the sun wouldn't have come up this morning, there would still be darkness over the land. Without the resurrection, evil would dominate. How would you like here in LA to be under gang control all the time? There'd be no order, there'd be no peace, there'd be no right and wrong, but how would you like for gangs to run every community? How would you like for evil to have the day? Praise God for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Praise God for the passion of Christ and that the Lord is alive this morning, amen? So we can wear our yellow ties and pretty bonnets and pink ribbons, amen, that the sun would come up and we can sing with little orphan Annie, amen? Awesome. You know, without the Lord, there's entropy in the world. The sides of entropy in your life, meaning things aren't right in your life, our attendancy towards being superficial and that means people that are superficial, what you need to see is below that surface, there's pain so they can't go deep because all that comes out then is pain. Unresolved relationship, kitchen and a person makes people pull back. Anybody that you know that's distant this morning, that can't connect, can't get close. There's relationship conflict that they have never resolved. Sometimes it's towards a parent, sometimes it's towards someone that abused them while they were growing up but they're just distant people, they got to resolve that conflict. If there's an inability to celebrate, if you can't be happy this morning, if you just are a sad, sour, sullen, sober person, then it means to me that you have that inability to celebrate because you don't really know joy. If there's a lack of gratitude, if you just gave this morning, but grudgingly, if you don't like accountability for gratitude, then if you just are a discontent person and you're critical, God help your family, God help your neighbors, God help your Bible study group, God help your boss and your coworkers, but it's a lack of gratitude. If there's chronic guilt, and I see this so much, people just, they're just plagued with it. They don't know that they can be forgiven, well this, this morning as we talk about the resurrection, I want those of you with chronic guilt to get healed, amen. We're going to have a healing this morning, all right? You brought in the cornhusker, the husker from Nebraska, and I help you to be healed this morning, okay? We're going to heal you, talk to me church, all right? Work with me, the guys that put so much pressure on me, you know, one of the college kids comes up, you know, you're going to have a lot bigger crowd this morning, I hope you don't blow it, you know? You know, my best friend, one of my best friends my last night says, you know, it's been pretty good, but I really hope it's better tomorrow, you know? That's why you just can't care about what anybody thinks but the Lord, you know? When you don't even, your best friends just are barely supporting you, you know, they're sitting down here praying Lord Jesus, please be with him, Lord Jesus. This morning we're going to look at John chapter 20, the outline of the book, and see I got to give you this road map in case we don't get all the way there, okay? You know where you can end up, okay? He is risen, we're looking at the empty tomb this morning, that's why we're Christians because of the empty tomb that Jesus is resurrected. We're going to look at verses 10 through 18 that he appeared to Mary, and there's lots of Mary's in the audience this morning, and you're going to enjoy that part of the story, and then he appeared his disciples and gave them purpose and meaning the Great Commission, and then he appeared to Thomas, and oh, there's lots of Thomas this morning, and we're going to connect and relate and appreciate Thomas this morning because he's like you and me. What are the resurrection series? You know, they're amazing because there's an empty tomb. If you haven't read this book, if you don't have a rock solid conviction that Jesus is alive, and that is the foundation that you can live your life on, that's the hope that you can have. Then when you die, you can go somewhere else. I work in a hospital one night a week, and all I do is go to a trauma's, accidents in the emergency room, and to deaths, and so I've seen a lot of deaths in the last three years, and I've seen a lot of pain, a lot of heartache, and a lot of suffering, and it's so amazing to me, people that have faith in the resurrection, that have hope for the future, they can die, and they can die peaceful deaths. And the ones that don't hang on, and hang on, and hang on, and nobody can understand why they don't just let go, it's because they're so afraid they have no hope. You and I, brothers and sisters, we have hope. The Lord is alive. The Lord has gone before us. He's the firstborn from the dead. He's resurrected, and he's proven to us. It's a fact that we're going to go where he is, amen? It's a fact. When all else fails in your life, when life is just tough, just play this tape, at least I'm going to heaven. At least the next life is going to be better than this one. It's going to be, and it's going to be a lot longer. The resurrection theories is that he didn't really die. You know, do you believe that? The Romans just couldn't kill him, they're just not very good killers. They conquered the world, they killed, you know, anybody they wanted to, all across the known world at that time, but they weren't able to kill this surrendered, non-defensive, non-combatant Jew, you know? Well, you know those carpenters, they're pretty tough dudes. When they have their hammer, the swoon theory that he wasn't really dead. He got beaten all night, he got scourged, which kills most people before they're crucified. He's put on a cross to affix it for his chest cavity to fill up with fluid so that his lungs are constricted so he cannot breathe, so he drowns in his own fluid, and so he's hanging so he can't lift himself up to be able to take a breath, and so he suffocates and he drowns. The Romans knew how to really torture somebody to death. This was not a pretty death. This was not an easy death or a short death. This was a long, slow, agonizing, terror-stricken death. And then to make sure he was dead, they stabbed him in the heart, right through the side. That fluid was all that liquid and the blood of the heart of Jesus Christ. He didn't swim. Well did the Romans steal the body just to sort of undermine the teaching of the Christians and to desecrate the body, people desecrate bodies all the time? Did the Romans take the body? Well if they would have, they then would have drug him out in public later whenever the Christians were preaching resurrection to show that it was all just a lie. Now they didn't have the body. They would have used that body later on. Did the Jews fill the body? No, for the same reason. Sure they might have wanted to desecrate Jesus. They were so angry they had him crucified. They were so bitter towards Jesus for threatening their power and position that they had him killed. But if they had the body, they would have brought him forth too. Did the disciples steal the body just so that they could claim he was resurrected? Just so they could claim that and preach and change the world that the Lord is alive. You know, no, these weren't false people. These were fearful people were going to see. That doesn't make sense either. The only one that makes sense is the resurrection of Jesus. Read the book by Morrison who moved the stone. I read that in college and I decided to be a disciple of Jesus Christ who moved the stone. God moved that several ton stone away and the Lord is alive and we're going to see what John said about it. John chapter 20 verse 1, "Open up your Bible, look at the words, realize that I'm just not making it up. It's all true." Early on the first day of the week while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So as she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple of one, Jesus loved and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb. We don't know where they put him." You know, why was Mary the first one there? When you've been forgiven much, you love much. Mary had been so sinful, a prostitute, probably because she'd been maybe abused, raped, scarred and no person would take her so she had to live, she had to survive, so she began to sell herself. And then the Bible says that she became demon-possessed. And you start opening yourself up to the dark side to evil, to wickedness, Satan, and slaves and over tanks. Jesus came along and he drove out those demons, he forgave her of her sin, she had been forgiven much, she had changed radically, she had changed more probably than most of us in here. Some of you maybe have changed as much, some people thought you were demon-possessed before you're Christian, I don't know, you know, that's up for debate. You're laughing, because you're one of those people I'm talking about, aren't you? I am too. Ask Mike McDaniel, all right? He grew up with me. Mike tells a story, I hate for him to tell this story, so I'm going to tell it on myself so he can't talk behind my back anymore, all right? Mike and I went to high school, he said, "Yeah, Greg, you used to just lean up against a drop of cases, stare at us as we all look by, make fun of different people." And you had this look in your eye, it just was a blazing fire of anger and hatred. And then you went off to college, and I was a couple years behind you and I came to college and that look was gone. And you asked me to go to church and I about faith in you, and you asked me to stay there in your Bible, and all there is is ideas, because I was curious that something had changed in you. See, I had been pretty demon possessed by the demon of anger and hatred, and the Lord took it away. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is going to describe that power for each and every one of you. Oh, Mary Magdalene, don't you love her? She was the first to the tomb, were you the first to church this morning? We've got to just make everything personal, bring it home, all right? Let's keep re-eating, okay? Verse 3, "So Peter and the other disciples started for the tomb, both were running, but the other disciples outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked at the stripes of the linen lion, but did not go in. Why? He's afraid of caves, huh? How come he didn't go in and see if Jesus was in there? Why run if you don't want to go in?" A lot of curious questions, well you're the doctor, answer the question, nope, I just raised the question, verse 6, "When Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb, he saw the stripes of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head, the cloth was folded up by itself separated from the linen Finally, the other disciples, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside, he saw and what does it say, believed, he believed, they still did not understand for scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. Why does John want to include all this information about this linen and that the clothes that Jesus has been buried in, because he wants you and I to know that Jesus was not in those ways. The Jesus had been in that tomb, but he wasn't anymore, the tomb was empty. He wants to give us evidence, he wants us to give us proof that the Lord was resurrected on Easter morning, amen? I believe it, I probably haven't convinced you completely yet, so let's keep going, amen? All right, let's keep reading, it's good stuff, verse 10, "Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood around outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb." Now, let's just not gloss over that, sometimes we read the Bible too quick, we're worried about getting to lunch, and so we don't savor these morsels. This is Mary stood outside crying, "You know, you only cry when your heart's been torn, and you've suffered loss." She just can't imagine a world without Jesus. She can't imagine how she's going to go forward, she's in grief. She loved the Lord, the Lord made her whole, the Lord gave her hope that she was the first one there, because she needed what Jesus gave her, even if he was dead, she's going to do vigil outside that tomb, because that's going to give her strength, and she's got to work through her grief, and she's outside crying, verse 12, and saw two angels in white seated where Jesus' body had been. See, sometimes it's good to seek the Lord. Some of us, we sort of got to get pulled to the Lord, driven to the Lord, all right? But others, we seek the Lord, that's the way to do it. She was seeking the Lord, and so she got to see two angels, one at the head and the other at the foot, verse 13. They ask her, "Woman, why are you crying?" Dumb question, but angels, they don't understand how we think sometimes, all right? They have taken my Lord away, she doesn't believe he's resurrected yet, they just think the body's stolen, and I don't know where they have put him, and at this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, isn't that who she came to see? She came to see him, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. When you're in grief, when you're hurting, when you're in pain, you're disoriented, you're confused, and you don't see the world properly, and when you got tears in your eyes, things are a little blurred. But really, when your mind doesn't believe in resurrection, then if Jesus were standing here this morning right in front of you, you wouldn't believe it. When you're struggling with the significance and the power of the resurrection, because your mind is blocked, you've never seen anybody raise from the dead, you weren't there when Lazarus was raised, and so you just really do struggle with supernatural things happening with spiritual events occurring. You're so indoctrinated with some things, well, have you ever been to a birth? You've been there when someone was born, that was sure supernatural. First, there was one life with a really big tummy, and then all of a sudden, there's two lives. When my kids were born, I started believing in miracles, you know? I started believing in miracles. It wasn't just, I mean, how did that person, all of a sudden, become unique? Wow. And I just told little Mandy, Mandy came a month early, I barely made it back for her birth. I was off speaking somewhere. I got interrupted right in the middle of the speech just like this, and they said, "You got to go to the hospital. Your wife's having the baby." I said, "Okay, I'm almost done." I said, "No, you got to go right now." I said, "Okay, well, I'll leave the notes, somebody take over and I walk down." So if I walk out this morning, I guess I'm having another baby, all right? No, it's not going to happen. Not at my age. No, no. Well, of course, that would be a miracle, I better not say nothing, it won't happen. But I used to hold her, and she fit right here, she was a little bit of a preemie. She just fit right there. I don't think it was quite as big as then as it is now, that was 25 years ago. But I just would hold her in amazing life, life, life, new life. That's what God offers, new life, spiritual, new life, over foolish not to take advantage of it. Stay with me here. Verse 13. All right? No. Verse 50. "Woman," that's how Jesus talked, you know. "Woman," he said, "why are you crying?" Ooh, I shouldn't have said that was a dumb question those angels ask. Who is it that you're looking for? "Thank you." He was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will give him." Jesus said to her, "Mary, Mary," she turned toward him, and she cried out and air him like, "Robonai, teacher!" And Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have yet not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them I am returning 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." And she told them that he had said these things to her. Have you heard the Lord say your name? Greg? The blinders fall off when the Lord says your name. Mandy, Libby, Angela, the Lord called you. He calls everyone. He promises that promise to every single person. He knows your name. Maritski is a hard one, used to play football, they had announced it to the whole city. "Maritski, Maritski, it's not that hard." Maritski almost took the rut out once, thought about changing my name if I ever got somewhere. To just Maritski take the rut out of it. Greg, you have two G's on the M. I stuttered as a child, stop laughing. The Lord knows our name. He says our name over and over and over and over until we hear him. Samuel, Samuel, Samuel, you know that story. Mary, Mary, Mary, and she was sawing and she put the hug on him, the vise on him. It wasn't the side Christian hug, it was the hug. He's like, he's getting squeezed, he's married, I've got to go to the father. Let go! I've got something else to do. It's starting to get uncomfortable. We've hugged for a while now, Mary. Go tell me the sidefills, I'm alive, all right? She goes and tells them and then what happens, oh don't you love the Easter story, just keep going. Verse 19, "On the evening of that first day of the week when the disciples were together with the doors locked for what, fear, why are the disciples afraid the Lord's alive? They haven't seen it, they still have that blockage in their mind like some of us. For fear of the Jews, when Jesus came and stood among them, he said to them, "Peace, peace be with you." And after he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. His disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord again, Jesus said, "Peace be with you." As the father had sent me, I'm sending you. And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit if you forgive anyone, theirs is sinned, they are forgiven, and if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." Guys, what the resurrection tells me is you and I have a problem. Now don't get defensive on me, all right? We like getting defensive towards preachers, so I'm going to calm my voice and talk very gently like a counselor now, all right? We've got a problem, it's a lack of peace. We're always so anxious, anxiety, just runs through our veins, worry, stress, burdens, we're not a peace. Oh, I'm not accusing you, I've got the same problem. I grew up in school chewing my pencils. I was a weird kid, because dad was so mad at home and every time he'd come home we were afraid. He'd find something wrong, he might even hit somebody. So I stuttered, and I chewed my pencil, praise God for the new plastic, big pencils, you know what I mean? I wouldn't have quite such issues. We like peace, but this morning I'm telling you where you can find it. Focus on that empty hollow tomb, the Lord's alive. In this world I may never totally settle out. I try. The older I get, it seems like you're in the day, I can be peaceful, but then it comes back at night sometimes. I used to sleep through the night, wear myself out there in the day, sleep through the night. Now three o'clock in the morning, boy, I've got to do this, I've got to do this, I've got to pay my daughter's student loans. Wonder who they're going to marry. I hope I like them. I used to beat people up, I wonder if I'm going to get angry at those boys. God have mercy on them, that's probably why they can't get a boyfriend, you know, my reputation precedes me, you know. I love to hear the Lord say to me, "Peace be with you, Craig," and the Lord's saying it to each one of us this morning. Go from Easter service at peace, stop yelling at your kids, stop yelling at your wives. Stop being mad at your neighbors. Find peace in Jesus, the resurrected Lord, amen. And then he commissioned some, "Peace be with you, I'm sending you, receive the Holy Spirit if you forgive sins, they're forgiven if you don't forgive them, they won't be forgiven." We have some responsibility because we believe in resurrection. We need to go and bless other people, peace be with you. We're called and we're being sent because of the resurrection. But we're empowered, we got the Holy Spirit, we're pretty awesome, you know. Christ in you, the Bible says, "The hope of glory, you got power," ooh, the force is with me. And the force is strong in this one right there. The force is strong in that one. The force is strong in this room. The good force, not that made up force, right? And what is that force to do to go say your sins are forgiven? Everyone, somehow we just need to bless each other and say, "Brother, you're feeling guilty, you're looking like you still have shame, your sins are forgiven. Pray with me right now, let's go, Lord, let's get rid of that guilt, let's get rid of that shame. You're pure." I don't care what's happened before, you've been baptized in the blood of the land and now your sins are forgiven, live like it. God lifted you back up from the mud and the mire and you're up on this pedestal, you're up on this throne, brother, sister, live like it, amen. Anybody got any scars this morning? You've been living such lives that you don't ever bump into anything, you don't have any scars. I got all kinds of scars. I got this one right here on the knee from the Swin Stingray accident over at Broadway School. Oh, we had a great jump going and you had to jump, but then you had to land right before you hit the front door of the building, you had to hit your brakes, then you had to turn off to the left or you're just going to splat. And boy, we had it down in our little stingray. One day I splatted, about 15 stitches right there. That's a good scar. There's another one a little more embarrassing, it's not quite as cool a story a cow scared me. I fell off a barbed wire fence, got this big old hole in my leg, had about 40 stitches, but it's sort of hard to, you know, I wasn't shot in the war, you know. People look, "What is that on the back of your leg?" That's a scar. And I like to tell how I got that one. Got one right here between my, next to my ring, threw a board, had a bad attitude towards my dad and made me tear down this fort. I thought it was a beautiful fort, I thought it was a part you really added to the landscape of our house, I thought, you know, maybe tear down on my birthday of all days. It's not an attitude, it's throwing the boards, tearing them down, throwing the boards, tearing them up, throwing the boards. One board fought back, ripped the biggest hole, I got this cool scar down. Got this one right here and that was a hangover scar. No one's for not going to church Sunday morning. I worked Sunday morning at the grocery store, stocking the beer shelves, because you got paid time and a half, and that beer reminded me of the night before, oh, it was nauseating, so I'm cutting the boxes. So I looked at that scar and say, go to church, Greg. Jesus used his scars, good thing about scars they tell a story, they tell a story, and they're wounds that are no longer wounds, they're wounds that have healed. Brace your scars this morning, some of you were inflicted with a lot of wounds through life. Talked to a young man at the University of Missouri last week, told me his childhood, it broke my heart, some people shouldn't be parrots, and this kid just telling me, it's hard for me to overcome my past, I'm so scarred, I mean, just beating them, drugs and abuse and neglect, and he finally ran away when he was 12, he says, you know, he loves God, he loves people, but he says, you know, I just got all these scars, I don't know how to deal with them, Greg. So hopefully I helped a little bit, but embrace them. I said, there's scars, you're not wounded anymore, you're gone from that situation. You got scars, but they just tell what a strong person you are now. Listen to Jesus describe his scars. Verse 24, now Thomas called Dittamas one of the 12, it was not with the disciples when Jesus came, so the other disciples told him, we've seen the Lord, but he said to them, unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my fingers where the nails were, I, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it. I'm not going to believe in resurrection, I believe the whole story, I swallowed the whole thing before, I was a zealot, they called me Thomas the zealot, and I gave my whole heart and soul, and I believed in the dream, I believed we would evangelize the world in our generation, and it all hasn't happened, and my dreams have been shattered and I'm discouraged, and I thought I would marry a good Christian, whatever your dreams are, you're like Thomas this morning, if you haven't healed, and you need to embrace the scars of Jesus. A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them, though the doors were locked, Jesus came, and he stood among them, and he said the same thing, peace, the first hippie, peace. It's a good thing, I was a hippie, I didn't turn to drugs, I didn't turn to sex, I turned to Jesus, I'm a child of the 60s, I believe the only way to change the world, not politics, you know, and not sexual revolution, not drugs, not escape, you know, on LSD, to change people with Jesus, peace, baby, all right, peace, that's what that symbol of the cross means, it means peace, victory, say whatever you want, all right, verse 27, then he said to Thomas, put your finger here, see my hands, reach out your hand and put it in my side, stop, stop, stop doubting, and believe that Thomas felt his knees and said, my Lord, my God, when you stop doubting, you worship, when you stop doubting, you stop being defensive, you stop being superficial, you stop being cold and sober and hard, and you bow down, and you worship, you lay down, say Jesus is Lord, my Lord, my God, it's because of the scars of Jesus. You and I have scars from the past, but we've been healed by the resurrection to blood the lamb that we can move forward, amen. It's okay to say you have scars, because it means you don't have open wounds anymore, you've been healed, and those scars are evidence of your healing, amen. Stop doubting and believe, and just told him, because you've seen me, you believe, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe, and then talk, John sums up his book again, Jesus did many other miraculous signs of the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors, believe in Jesus this morning, believe so you can have life, whole life, full life, abundant life, eternal life, believe. Stop doubting, that's why we hold back, that's why we're not passionate, that's why we're not, we're maybe we need to be or want to be. Let Easter mark the time from this day forward that you don't stay crippled, wounded, discouraged, but completely restored. I promised I'd share all of the book of John with you, and so I'll share very quickly chapter 21. It's about the effect of the resurrection on Peter, they even though they heard Thomas get admonished and rebuked, there still was some doubt, so they went back to their old life, Peter went back to fishy, and yet when you go back, God always makes it empty, they didn't catch a thing, they didn't catch a thing. When you go back to the world, the world doesn't want you anymore, they've moved on, they don't trust you, and God still loves you, so he's going to make it tough to leave him. So Peter and the guys, they fished and they didn't catch anything, Jesus comes to him from the shore and says, "Fished the right side!" and they're saying, "We fished the right, the left, the front, the back, we fished every side all my long." He said, "You haven't fished the right side, they've fished the right side, they catch a hundred and fifty-three fish." How do you know that, they counted them, and they weren't little minnows, they're big old fish, it's a fish story, big old fish, alright? They caught all these fish and they're all fired up because fish meant wealth, God was blessed them, alright? And so they come in, Jesus says, "Come have breakfast, bring some of that fish, let's eat some breakfast." And you know it's one of those awkward moments, he really is alive, and he's just sitting here and we're just eating fish. Wow, this is surreal, he was killed the other day and he died and we went to his funeral and now he's alive. Wow, this is wild, this is blowing my mind, alright? But pass me a little more fish, this is good, alright? He had this awesome fish fry, and then they start walking along and Peter's feeling guilty because he's not really believed and he denies the Lord and your past always catches up to you. And so he's walking along, he's a little sheepish and he's sort of beside the Lord and the Lord says, "Peter, do you love me?" Yes, Lord, do you know I love you? Jesus says, "Feed my sheep." And they're walking some more, and Jesus says, "Peter, do you sure you love me?" Yes, Lord, you know I love you, feed my sheep. And then I walk along a little further and then Jesus says to him, "Peter, do you even like me?" That's what it literally means in the Greek. Do you even like me? Do you like me? Sometimes words are cheap, I love you. But you sure don't act like it, you act like you're mad at me and you don't even like me. I love the Lord. But you're really consistent coming to church and sharing your faith and doing things. I believe in the resurrection. I love you, Lord. But, boy, I sure don't like other Christians. Do you like me? Jesus says, "Feed my sheep." Peter got defensive there. Lord, you're making it tough on me here. What about him points to John. Jesus, don't worry about him. We're talking about you right now. You're on the hot seat. I'm discipling you right now. I'll disciple him later. Poor John got discipled later. He got bold and old. He got discipled. Peter is restored. And the last thing is Jesus says to him, "Follow me." That's what we do with the resurrection this morning. Brothers and sisters, we follow Jesus. Why? Because he's alive. That's why we follow Jesus. Because he's not dead. He's not in the tomb. It's not just some ancient story. He's resurrected this morning. And you and I need to renew our vows of discipleship. Before you follow Jesus this morning, all the way. People will do crazy things. I'm maybe asking you to really go crazy this morning and asking you to be as fired up as you've ever been for the Lord. Chicago radio station, K-W-O-W, had a contest. We'll give $100,000 whoever comes up with the most outrageous thing for that $100,000. A guy promised to eat a nine foot spruce tree. And so they decided to give him the $100,000 if he didn't. So they laid out this tree on a table. He wore a tux. He came all dressed up and he ate the whole tree. He went into the hospital for weeks after that. Because the bark is worse than the bite. What would you do for $100,000? More importantly this morning, what would you just do for the promise of peace? What would you do for the promise of eternal life? Will you claim Jesus is Lord? Will you live for him? Will you serve him? If you will, take a communion in a moment and renew your vows to the Lord and save your Jesus Christ. I'll pray for the blessing of the Lord's Supper. God and Father, we bow before you now. And we want to commune with you. You've invited us to your table. You've invited us all. You've said our name and said come eat of my body. Come drink of my blood. Come get renewed in your salvation. Come eat the sacred meal and leave here as if you'd never sinned before. You've here one with me and one with each other, united in Jesus Christ with purpose to forgive sins. Father, we pray that as we take communion this morning, we would commune. We would connect with you. Thank you for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thank you for life. Thank you for new life. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]
The 1st of three parts of Session 2 in a lesson given by Gregg Marutzky; Easter 2010...