JESUS' RESURRECTION: THE COMPLETION AND THE BEGINNING - Sermon Notes 3

wOW it's been two years since I wrote a part of this series...that's...really...sad...

Since the Easter Weekend is wrapping up, I thought I really ought to revisit this series and share more of the messages and stories my pastors have been teaching me for like, all my life. We got a new pastor near the beginning of the year-ish, and I think he's still trying to get adjusted and find his speaking style. I was going through a lot of the motions last summer because both my pastors were leaving and it was sort of hard to take...but the middle school pastor actually came back and getting to know this new pastor has been pretty cool! I dunno though, I guess I never really got over it. I kind of felt like everyone I trusted was just...leaving. Church has been a part of my life for forever and the teachers and pastors always had such a big influence on my life. I don't have any friends there - it's something I'm trying to stop whining about because heck, it's my fault for being a quiet, disagreeable person. It still hurts sitting alone week after week though. We never have anything in common.

And yet, things recently started turning around. A family friend's daughter joined the tech team and now there's someone to get to know better and sit next to during the services. I dunno, I'm always so hung up on the bad parts of everything, but just sitting down and thinking about what's gone well reveals a whole nother side to be grateful for.

Anywho, back to the notebook. Here goes another sad attempt to try to explain what my pastor said yesterday. 3, 2, 1, go!

What do you feel when you think about Christ's resurrection? I dunno, maybe a difficult question to answer, but bear with me. Is it...happiness? Joy? Or indifference? A restated and rehashed fact that's just been busted into your brain? Maybe this Easter just decided to come and go without much thought to you this year.

But why would we let it go so fast? Shouldn't this make us excited? Make us get up and dance? It was the ultimate victory, the ultimate triumph. Death to death. But maybe that's it - if Jesus dying didn't mean anything to us in the first place, neither does his resurrection. If we don't feel the joy of his life, then we've never known what it was like to be crucified with him.

It's the morning of the resurrection. A woman is going to visit the tomb of a man who was once her friend, a beloved teacher, a wise instructor. The man they believed was going to liberate Israel from the Roman Empire and take back the throne. But he's dead. He has been for three days. And going down to his tomb, she might have felt anxious. Terrified. Still grieving. His corpse was there the other day, why was there any reason to believe today would be any different?

And yet it was. There was no body. The grave clothes were nice and folded, and an freaking glowing angel man is there. Running back to tell the disciples, the dead man walking meets her himself.

Between Jesus' arrest and this day, there were no records of what the disciples were doing, or where they were. Besides Peter's three denials and John's self-insert remarks, after they fled and abandoned their teacher, they weren't heard from again. And here they are, after Jesus' resurrection, gathered in a room, terrified for their lives because when Jesus was there, they got cocky, they thought themselves untouchable. They were best buds with the guy they thought was going to save all their people, I guess it was understandable. But then he was arrested. Then he was killed. And they had to watch it happen in secret because now they were wanted men too.

It was like, say you were a super hardcore BTS fan for like the past three years. You invested so much time watching their videos, spent so much money to see them in concert. You praised them to your friends and listened to their music non-stop. But then one day in the news you hear that they're being pegged as criminals and have been arrested. (My pastor literally made this analogy and my mom supports it). The members of BTS are literally being praised like angels, it's difficult for anyone to believe they could go wrong. But my sister was shocked and hurt when this happened with Big Bang. Oof, ok, I dunno where this comparison is going, anywaysss. Still though, it's that kind of pain, that kind of feeling. Or losing something important to you. For the disciples it was their whole livelihood. Gone.

But here the disciples were, fearing for their lives now that Jesus was gone. Where did their boldness, their courage go? It used to be in abundance but now it's all but gone. And that's right where Jesus came back to them - in the midst of that pain, hurt, and fear.

Everyone's afraid of things. There's no guarantee we get the good things we hope for in life. For those men in that room it was the fear that came when Jesus left. It shook everything and left them scared and lost. But it was exactly where Jesus made his entrance, in the midst of their fear. The only solution to the fear was Jesus' resurrection. Without the resurrection, Jesus' death didn't mean anything. It was just another funeral, another tomb.

Jesus makes seven I am statements in the book of John. He could write a poem:

- I am the bread of life

- I am the light of the world

- I am the door

- I am the good shepherd

- I am the truth and the life

- I am the vine

- I am the resurrection and the life

With the resurrection, Jesus restores two things:

1. Peace.

'Peace be with you'

This is the true peace, the everlasting peace. Not the one we think of when we go somewhere relaxing or are driving in a car while it rains. It's the peace that keeps you calm and OK in the most disastrous, tumultuous situations, that lets you know everything will turn out alright. This is something a lot of us need to be restored to us. It's what God wants for us, we have to remember. How are we expected to do anything if our hearts are a mess and this close to falling a part, and if any situation we find ourselves in will rock our foundations? This is what he wanted to give us when he set out to Golgotha that day.

2. Purpose.

'As the Father sent me, even so I am sending you.'

One of the natural outcomes of someone who experiences the resurrection for themselves is an overwhelming need to tell the good news to others. And once we have the promised peace, this is our Great Commission.

That's it. Two-step plan to the ultimate god-breathed life. It's definitely not easy. Peace might be one of the most difficult things to master, to even get a grip of. Kung Fu Panda taught me that much. But it's important to remember we don't work to earn the peace, we work because we already have it.

Are you feeling peaceful? Eh, I'd be surprised. I'm hardly feeling peaceful I have so much regret I wrote this instead of doing my math homework ahhhh....

I once had this faith that things would always turn out OK and I would always but my 100% into everything. Now I've been getting by by doing about 12% of what I should be and my world is only kind of falling apart. If faith is blind this is going a bit too far. But uh, I guess, like everything, I gotta find that balance, the in-between. And not give up. Because until we give up, nothing's really over. We have to keep fighting. Even if we fall flat on our faces. Even then. Especially then. So as the sunset falls through the window and shines miniature rainbows onto my keyboard, I'll keep going, keep walking towards that promise.

Cause when everything else is gone, it's all I'll have left.

Aight, I REALLY gotta go now. asdfghjkl bye!

#sermonnotes