Easter Weekend

The book of Exodus says, the Lord is my banner. That is his name. The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed. Amen. And I just want to say what a joyful day it is to reaffirm that most incredible of all promises that we too can share in eternal life. Let's thank the teams for their great job in leading us today. Thank you so much everybody. God bless you all. Let me pray for us. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this moment when we can come and present ourselves to you and open our hearts to hear what you would say to us on this Easter Sunday morning. Lord, recognizing that we see but in a mirror darkly, but one day we will see you face to face and know you for who you really are. Lord, I pray today that just where we need to hear your voice, to whatever issue, to whatever circumstance, you would speak and that we would listen. And we give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Hey, we're seated together. Isn't it awesome to know just as I'm preaching right now, down in Oakland, the heart of our city, a service is going on simultaneously right now. The only unfortunate part was it was supposed to be a video service and, you know, technology is not perfect like people. Well, that's not really true either, is it? But they had a bit of a technological glitch and so Pastor JR had to get in the car right after the 8.30 service and race down there and bring that message to that crowd that's gathered at Oakland. But we're sharing together. You know, I was just thinking in 33 years of being here in Pittsburgh in ministry, this is the second time I can remember there being snow. And Easter Sunday and the first time was in the 70s. I remember that it was dark. It was before we changed the clocks. That's how rare this is. So if you're here visiting a family member from Florida and you say, this is terrible. I mean, this is just like, really, I knew. How many of you knew in January when it was 60 something that we get it? You just knew. It's just like it's just God just evens it all out. But you know what? You all look awesome. I've never seen this church look like they like dressed up. What's up with this? You know, this is it's just part of this presenting our best at Easter time. Well, you know, just recently there was an ad that I saw on television, which kind of I'm always just intrigued by the auto ads and the way they go. And this new ad was about an SUV. And when you see the ad come on, you see it. The car's somewhat broken up from what I would call a moderate accident. You know, the hood's crumpled and the bumper's hanging down and another vehicle's smashed in the side. And there's some shrubs are knocked over and so on. And, you know, it's nothing. It doesn't look like anyone was seriously hurt or whatever. But it was a bit of a trauma, I'm sure, to the people. And the announcer comes on and he says in that voice that's two octaves lower than any other normal voice, you know, the best accidents are the ones that never happen. And then for the next 15 or 18 seconds, you see all these people scurrying on and off the stage, bringing new parts and placing them on the car and replacing the shrubs and moving the other car off. And suddenly at the very end, he comes back on and he says, like it never happened at all. And there's, you know, there's this car. And, of course, just touting the safety features of the car that would prevent the accident. And I thought, you know, wouldn't it be cool if we could have reversible auto accidents? How many of you would have a much lower insurance premium if you could have reversible auto accidents? Or, you know, how about reversible speeding tickets? I don't want to talk about that. But, you know, where you got, you could just rewind the clock and, nah, it didn't happen. It didn't happen that way at all. The reality of life, however, is that we all know from actions to words to commitments to expressions, most of what we do in life seems irreversible. When was the last time, and notice I didn't say did you ever, but when was the last time something was going out of your mouth in a conversation towards somebody and before it even hit them, you knew, uh-oh, I shouldn't have said that. And you wished, you wished with everything in you, you could pull the words back in. You ever have that? You know, like, Carol, did you finish the cake? I said that not long ago. It wasn't exactly the right thing to say. And I just wish I could take the words back, but that's just not the way life is, you know. You don't, it's just, it just seems that things are rather permanent. The core of Easter, however, the thing that we're here to affirm and celebrate and for some of us to really come to grips with for the first time, is the reality that Jesus Christ introduces into our lives the very real power to reverse the irreversible, to literally have life again, to infuse in every one of us a hope that we are not bound by our past. There's a wonderful scripture that talks about the fact that even death could not keep Jesus. And up on the screen, you'll see it's in John chapter 1. Here's what it says. I like this little candle. It says, In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. Go on, please. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. And I like the translation that says, The darkness could not extinguish it. Even death, what is seemingly irreversible to us, could not extinguish the life of Jesus. And so I want us to look briefly in this Easter morning at three separate individuals who in the natural had no reason to hope, whose actions toward the Lord in their life seemed to be irreversible, who like many of us had all but given up on getting it right. And I'm going to ask just to lift the house lights a bit so everyone can see their outlines, please. And take your outline out of your North Way notes with me, and let's just look at a few scriptures, a few characters, if you will, that I believe we can relate to. Now, if you're here today and you're one of those people... Can we bring the house lights up, please, just a bit, folks? If you're one of those people that life's just going great for, I'm glad for you. And I believe that life is supposed to, for the most part, go well. But you know what? All of us have times when things don't go just the way we'd hope they would. What do we do then? So the first person we want to look at and really examine is found in John chapter 20. And we're going to look here at the character of Mary Magdalene. And, you know, it's an interesting story. John 20, 21 is following the crucifixion and the resurrection. And here's how the story begins in verse 10. Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. And as she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white seated there where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. Here's this woman called Mary Magdalene. Now the Bible tells us not a lot about her except that she had serious problems. In Luke chapter 8, verse 2, the Bible says that she had been delivered from demons. All we know is that she had been plagued with problems. She had trouble in her life. She was confused. She was hurt. Some commentators even think she'd slipped into compromising her body into prostitution. All we know is that she was a very troubled woman. Loved ones, listen. We live in a world, don't we, where what we see flashed before us all the time on video screens and television sets are people that seem to have everything together. Both the husband and wife have great paying jobs. All the kids are just doing great in school and sports and arts and all the rest. Everyone seems to have life just sort of packaged neatly together. But you know what? That's not been my experience. And to be honest, if you hang around North Way very long, you'll come to realize that it's not been the experience of most of us. Life just doesn't always come out perfectly. And in the life of Mary Magdalene, that's the way it's been. Don't you know that just one or two things can happen? Just one bad decision can turn your life in a direction that causes you pain. Just one thing that you do that you didn't expect could cause things to go suddenly in a direction that causes you heartache. A failed relationship. A marriage that falls apart. An emotional problem that no one seems to understand. Or just something that really happens out of the blue. You might recall the story just a couple years ago of a woman by the name of Ashley Smith from Atlanta, Georgia. This is an incredible story of a single mom who had some issues, some problems in her life. Wasn't clear about some things, trying to sort life out. And, well, if you don't remember this story, watch this little video clip about what happened with Ashley Smith. Here it is. 9.30 a.m., Atlanta, Georgia was thrown into a state of panic. Everybody off the sidewalk! Mr. Nichols is considered armed and extremely dangerous and should not be approached. It began during a criminal trial. The defendant, Brian Nichols, stood accused of raping his ex-girlfriend. Sheriff's deputy, Cynthia Hall, was escorting Nichols into the Fulton County Courthouse. As the 51-year-old grandmother removed his handcuffs, police say Nichols overpowered her, beat her unconscious, and took her gun. According to authorities, he then went to the courtroom where he was being tried and shot Superior Court Judge Roland Barnes and court reporter Julie Brandau. In escaping, Brian Nichols allegedly gunned down another man, Sheriff's deputy, Hoyt Teasley. Now wanted for three murders in addition to rape charges, Nichols was at large. When I got out of the car, and as soon as I got out of my car, I heard his door close behind me. And I thought to myself, this is not good. I knew that if I screamed or if I did make a sudden move, then he definitely was going to hurt me, and I just wasn't going to take that chance. Seven hours of terror. A single mom held captive by the accused Atlanta spree killer. I thought I was going to die, really. Details you have not heard. What did he tell you to do? Tied up, terrified, for shocking admission. Immediately I thought, what have you just done? Ashley Smith, the first in-depth interview. Next. Now the reason we showed you that video is because, if you know the story, Ashley Smith, while held captive, took what little she knew of the gospel that we talked about last week on Good Friday and shared it with her captor and led him back to Christ through the Bible and the Purpose Driven Life book. And here's the most important part. Next weekend, Ashley Smith is going to be here at North Way to tell her story at all services. I hope you'll come back and hear the remarkable way that God took a woman whose life was in disarray and seemed to do the impossible and restored hope to her life. Again, please bring the lights up so we can look at our outlines. Verse 14, it says this. As she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, she did not realize that it was Jesus. Verse 15. Woman, he said, why are you crying? Who is it that you're looking for? Thinking he was the gardener, she said, Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've put him and I will get him. Apparently Mary, I think overcome by grief, just didn't see clearly who it was, you know. I mean, this was a very emotional moment. She probably had her head down and didn't expect it to be Jesus until this. Look at the next verse, verse 18. 16, rather. Jesus said to her, or she just said, Mary. And he spoke her name. What a powerful moment that was. Because it's when Mary heard Jesus say her name. She turned to him, the Bible says, and cried out in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher. She now recognized him. You see, friends, there's something very powerful about the name. Throughout the Bible, throughout our lives, names mean everything. It's just as simple as this. The name Jesus Christ, the Bible says, is above every other name. One day, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, the Bible says. And a moment must come in your life when you hear Jesus speak your name, saying to you in your heart, not audibly, but to your heart, saying, I love you. Your name, your name. Isaiah 43.1, the Bible says, that I have redeemed you. I call you by name. Child, you are mine. Do you know that Jesus thought so much about names that he changed the name of Simon the fisherman to Peter? The name of Levi, the tax collector, to Matthew? He changed the name of Saul, the Pharisee, the persecutor, to Paul. So names are important because they pinpoint how personal all of this has to become. All this despair, all the hopelessness that we bear. Friends, when Jesus speaks your name, he gives you the power to reverse what seems to be irreversible. And friends, this church is full of people for a long time had not known any name but their own name. Had never heard God call their name. And when they heard him say their name, John, Susie, Kathy, Brian, whatever their name, and they responded by faith, a new chapter was started. The things of life that seemed hopeless, God infused new promise and new hope and new power into them. Now there's a second person that we encounter in this passage. And much like many of us, this person had doubts. This person was a skeptic. This person was an apostle. He was one of the followers of Jesus. His name was Thomas. Now, what happened to Thomas? Well, all we know is this. Look up. All we know is this. Thomas was not there when Jesus first appeared to him. And even though his friend said, the Lord appeared to us, Thomas, like some of us, was kind of gutsy and said, hey, look, I'm not going to believe it until I can put my hand into the holes in His hand. I'm not going to believe it until I can touch the place in His side. I'm just not going to believe it. I'm what's called an agnostic, a skeptic, if you would. And so Thomas sort of held the line there. And I want to say this about that part of our culture. Do you know today in America that's the fastest growing segment of people? It's the agnostics. It's the people who kind of choose to not believe. And you know what I believe that is? It's a function of the mass sort of distribution that we have in our culture of information. Just this week, almost every major, and there's so many of them, news outlets, Anderson Cooper did a two-night series on who are the Christians. Fox had several Who's the Real Jesus specials. The Discovery Channel had a special. I mean, you could probably have seen 20 or 30 different programs sort of debating who's the real Jesus. And though I think all of this searching and seeking and so on and dialogue is fine, it does create a sense, doesn't it, that everyone has an opinion about who the real Jesus is. Burger King kind of coined the phrase have it your way at Burger King. And you know what? That's the way it's becoming with Jesus in many places in America. Have Him your way. Have Jesus your way. And what does this sort of huge vacuum of uncertainty create? It creates doubt in people. Like, well, I'm not sure really. And you know what the moral high ground has become in America? It's become tolerance. It's become, well, there's not really an absolute about Jesus, is there? I mean, you have your sort of way of looking at it, and I have my sort of way of looking at it. And it's all just so, you know, it sounds so right. It sounds so accepting. It sounds so Oprah. People aren't really anti-God. They're just skeptics. They just hold all their options open. I was having lunch with a guy just recently, and I was talking about the Jesus of the Bible. And I was sharing with him how it broke the heart of Jesus, like I did last week, when people reject His offer to eternal life. And I was just, you know, honestly sharing what the Bible says about the fact that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God, the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus. And you know what he said to me? Have you ever heard this? He said, he said, oh, my God wouldn't send anybody to hell. And he wanted to say, my God wouldn't have that kind of anger about something. And I said, well, can you tell me some more about your God? And you know what, friends? In a nutshell, His God was the God of divine mush. Someone out there with no, you know, no absolutes, no sense of real direction, nothing that He could describe historically, nothing that had any veracity that He could anyway sort of prove or demonstrate. No group of followers who would lay down their lives for His God. No church that has existed for two millennia as a result of His God. No real evidence other than it's the God that He had created in His mind. That's the God of the skeptic, the God of the doubter. Today, I want you to hear, it's okay to have doubts. In fact, it's natural. But if you doubt that Jesus was at all and you doubt that there's any hope for you, then hear me say today what Jesus did for Thomas. Let's look and see. Here's exactly what it says. Let's look at verse 26. A week later, His disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. And then He said to Thomas, Put your finger here. See my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe. Loved ones, today, maybe just one of you, maybe a hundred of you need to hear me say, hear the Lord say to you, by name, stop doubting and believe. And Thomas responded, My Lord and my God. And Jesus has the power, the power of His love to take a doubter and a skeptic and to reverse the irreversible of a life of doubt and skepticism and to breathe hope into the life of a doubter. If you're here today and that's where you struggle, be encouraged, loved ones. There's hope for you today. I pressed that guy so hard at lunch, I want to go back and tell you. I said, Well, why should I believe in this mush God of yours? And he said, Well, at least there's no hypocrites in the God that I follow. And that's the most common criticism I hear of the church today. It's full of hypocrites, full of hypocrites. Well, you know what? There are many of us who struggle with living consistently. And I want to talk finally about the third person who is literally a hypocrite. That is to say, he didn't really live what he claimed. His name was Peter. And you know, the word hypocrite or hypocrites in Greek comes from the word that was used in Greek drama where the players took a mask, you know, and held a mask with a little hand in front of their face. And so they could act out a part even though it didn't represent who they really were. And that's what a hypocrite does. They put on a certain face but inside their heart they believe completely differently. Peter had been, and I think for many of us, the one that we sort of most admired for his boldness and courage. You know, he was the one that walked in water toward Jesus. He was the one that tried to stand up and defend Jesus and so on. But he was also the one, listen, he was also the one who made promises to Jesus that he couldn't keep. He was the one that said to Jesus, If everyone else leaves you, Master, I won't leave you. Yet, was he not the one who when Jesus was about to be taken away denied him three times publicly and then the rooster crowed just as Jesus had prophesied. Imagine the heart of Peter in that moment when he realized that he was a hypocrite. He said one thing, he did another. I just have a question for a couple of you today. How many of you have made a promise along the way to God? You know, God, I'm going to try to live a little better and then you've slipped back to your old life. God, I'm going to read my Bible from now on because I know it's important and that lasted a week or two. You've read Genesis 50 times. Lord, I'm going to pray more. And suddenly you get busy and you don't have time to really stop and pray. You've got to get in the car. You've got to get to work. Lord, I'm going to go to church and that lasts for a week or two and then it's not convenient or the weather's nice and I've got things to do. Lord, I'm going to serve others. Lord, I'm going to give of my... You know, when we make all these promises and loved ones, you know what? There's not a person hearing me today who hasn't made a promise to God and found themselves incapable of fulfilling it. And I want to just speak to you as a pastor for a moment and on behalf of the pastors tell you of the enormous sense of responsibility that we feel to shepherd your souls and hearts and tell you the times that I know I have felt, Lord, I've wanted to do so much better and I've failed and I live with that and I'm just so grateful today that we serve a second chance Jesus who says, if you come and just acknowledge, just acknowledge that you can't do it on your own strength. You know what he does? He says to those of us who maybe have had problems with hypocrisy, who've said one thing and done another, he said, you know what? If you come to me, I'll let you experience life that you don't deserve. I'll let you have another chance at living wholeheartedly for me. On this Easter, be honest with Jesus. Just tell him what you struggle with. You know, whether it's hopelessness like Mary or doubt like Thomas or the sense of not being able to live up to whatever it is that you want to be like Peter and just say, Lord, that's me. And hear Jesus say to you, do you love me? As it says in our final passage, three times the Lord asked Peter, do you love me? And three times Peter said, Lord, you know I love you. The third time, by the way, he moves from the word agape, which is God's unconditional love, to phileo, which is the word for human love. And Peter says, Lord, I love you the best that I can. And loved ones, listen. If you come to God today and say, Lord, I'm not able to love you perfectly. I'm not able to love you without fault. But I love you the best that I can. I want you to know, God lights up your life with the promise of His presence and His forgiveness. And loved ones, as wonderful and as encouraging as all of this was to me as I was thinking about it, because I've had moments of despair and hopelessness. I've had moments of doubt. And I've certainly had struggles with hypocrisy. It's so wonderful to know, Anissa, isn't it, that all of those things can be forgiven. And all of those things, Jesus says, I'll swallow up in the power of my resurrection. But you know what? If that's the only reason that we believe, listen to Paul, the great apostle, as he writes in 1 Corinthians 15, 19. And I hope we can put this up in the screens. Here's what he says. Here's what he says. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. I want you just to let that soak in. Because we're not just here to talk about living life better. As much as that happens, we are talking about eternity. And if Easter means anything at all, it's got to mean that there's an answer to what happens on that day that's going to come. As far as I know, the mortality rate in America has not changed. It's still 100%. And on that day, what are you counting on to carry you over into eternity? I'm counting on the power that Jesus demonstrated on the cross. The Bible says the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us to lift us up so that we will never die. Spiritually speaking, we will never die. We'll never be separated from God. It's Jesus who said, I've come that you might have life and have it eternally. For the last couple of weeks, we've been telling you about a young man by the name of Stevie Dorn. Stevie Dorn, I've known ever since he was a little boy. His family grew up in this church. And his liver is failing. And we asked you for the last couple of weeks, we said, church, please give some blood. Please give some blood. Here's a picture of Steve working on one of the mission trips. He's a great young guy. Been all over different parts of the world serving the Lord best that he can. There he is in the group at one of those studies on a mission trip. Last two weeks, you as a church have donated over 175 pints of blood. And as a result, Stevie Dorn is now on the top of the list to receive a new liver. And we believe that he'll have another chance at this life. Loved ones, as wonderful as that is, it pales in comparison to the reality that today Jesus says, listen.