Sermon Transcript
Well, it’s that time of year when flowers and trees are blooming, and some of us love that and others of us hate that because of the hay fever and whatever else, you know, the allergy time of year. But it’s a special time of year because there’s just so much beauty around us. Now, we live in a home where we actually have a number of flowers and plants. They were there. We live in one of the church homes.
And so they— I don’t know, various people over the years added all these flowers, and they’re gorgeous. And we’re hoping to have more flowers this year than we had last year. Last year we would have had a good amount of flowers and wildflowers except that the gardener came in and he weed whacked all of the wildflowers. Now these are actually some flowers that Bernice had added. She planted And so this guy came in not knowing.
To him it looked like weeds. To Bernice, of course, they looked like flowers, wildflowers. And so she decided after that that she needed to educate the gardener. So she painted a sign and she put it up, and it’s on our fence right now. It says, these are not weeds, they are wildflowers.
And she has planted again wildflowers, and they’re just beginning to come up right now. And so recently, a couple weeks ago, she had a conversation with the gardener and said, look it, when you look at these that are right here in this dirt patch, these are not weeds, okay? These are wildflowers. Which is interesting because we can see the same thing but not see the same thing. Have you noticed that?
That people can see the same thing but not see the same thing? It really depends upon what they see when they see. When it comes to, you know, flower beds, do they see weeds? Do they see wildflowers? Well, today what we’re gonna be looking at is the first Easter account, and this is a great example of how people see things differently.
How some people will see meaning in something and other people not see meaning. We can see the same thing but not see the same thing. And so we’re gonna look at this account this morning and see what it is they saw, hopefully benefit by that so that we can in the same ways, be people who connect with God in deeper ways than we are right now. So take out your Bible. We’re gonna look at John chapter 20 today.
If you brought your Bible, find your way over to John 20, or you can use the Bible in the pew in front of you or pull out the message note sheet. I went ahead and put the whole passage there. We’re not gonna actually detail the passage. You’re gonna kinda get the big view of the passage this morning. But as we look at this passage, and I’m gonna read it right now just to kinda give us the overview, As I read it, I would encourage you to note the word saw or seen or looked, look, those kinds of words that you’re going to see in this passage, because it will help you begin to see that we can see the same thing but not see the same thing.
So here’s what the passage says, John chapter 20, verse 1 and following: 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 she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him. So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. You know, if you ever wonder if there’s, like, humor in the Bible anywhere, that would be a place right there.
Where she— he— the other disciple is John. And I just have to wonder, you know, at what point did John read— or Peter read this account? Peter’s the slow guy, John the fast guy, you know, and he saw that for all everybody to see that he wanted to just make that notation. Anyway, I think it’s a little dig, but whatever. So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.
Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter, reached the tomb first, and he bent over and he looked in at the strips of linen lying there. But did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb, and he saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally, the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside.
He saw and believed. And then you get this parenthetical thought from John the writer: They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw 2 angels in white seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, Woman, why are you crying?
They have taken my Lord away, she said, and I don’t know where they have put him. At this she turned around and she saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. Woman, he said, why are you crying? Who is it that 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.
Jesus said to her, Mary! She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher. Jesus said, do not hold on to me, for I have 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’ve seen the Lord, and she told them that he had said these things to her.
Now, what do you see in this passage? Well, there are a lot of things you can see, but I want you just to see it through the looking perspective. We first have 3 lookers, okay? We’re gonna call them 3 lookers. There’s Mary.
She’s the first looker. She comes early in the morning before sunrise to the tomb and she sees that the stone has been taken away. So she comes up with the conclusion, just seeing the stone’s been taken away, she concludes that the body of Jesus has been taken away to an unknown location. So seeing that, she runs off, finds Peter and John, and she tells them what it is that she had seen. John then, in turn, verse 4, runs faster back to the tomb.
And when he gets to the tomb, John then stoops down and he looks into the tomb. So he’s the second looker. He looks into the tomb and he sees, verse 5, the linen cloths that were on Jesus’ body. They’re wrapped in— they’re lying— the wrappings are lying there in the tomb. And then you get the third looker.
Peter finally gets to the tomb. John notes that. He finally gets to the tomb and he enters the tomb and he sees, verses 6 and 7, The linen cloths up close and personal lying there, and the handkerchief that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head, it’s folded up and it’s in a separate place. Then after that, you get a 4th look here, but it comes from John. He takes a 2nd look in verse 8.
He gets a closer look. So now instead of waiting outside the tomb or looking from outside the tomb in, he comes actually into the tomb, and what he sees causes him, verse 8, to believe. And he doesn’t believe because the Scriptures told him he should believe. It wasn’t connected to the Scriptures and what they revealed, we’re told in verse 9, but it was due to what he saw and what he had experienced with Jesus and what Jesus had taught. And so, having all of that context, he sees and he believes that Jesus has risen from the dead.
Then we’re told that Mary decides she’s going to have another look, verse 11. So she looks in and she’s going to get the experience of a lifetime. So what you have here are 3 lookers. That’s the first thing that you can note. There is Mary, there is John, and then there is Peter.
Why are they looking? Because they want to know what’s happened at the tomb of Jesus. One of them comes very early in the morning. She’s anxious. She’s excited to know.
She’s anxious to get there. Maybe to take care of some things that had not yet been done for the body of Jesus, whatever she could do. She’s excited to get to the tomb, and she sees something that caught her by surprise. And then the other 2 decide they’ve got to go and hear what it was Mary had reported to them, and so they sprint, they sprint to the tomb. Now, some of us here this morning can identify with this account because we can look in our lives and think about the times where we have sat down and taken the time to truly look at the resurrection account, to take some time and look into it.
Because if you had that desire, it was because you wanted to know. You wanted to know, did this thing actually happen? You wanted to connect with it in some way. And maybe for some of you this morning, the reason that you’re here today is because You just had this sense that, you know, Easter is about more than just eggs and bunnies and that sort of thing, but it’s about this resurrection thing, and you decided you’re gonna come and you’re just gonna look into this account. I think that’s a fantastic thing for any one of us to do, to be lookers, to decide that we’re gonna investigate this resurrection thing closely.
I’m meeting right now with a guy that actually I met a few months ago here at this church. Church. I was wandering around between services. It was on a Sunday where I wasn’t teaching, so I get to wander around more on those kinds of Sundays. And I met this guy in the lobby, and I just asked him, you know, how long you’ve been coming?
That’s my favorite question to ask, by the way. If I ask you that question, that can possibly take me off the hook. But now that I’m talking about it, it probably won’t take me off the hook anymore, because I probably should know how long you’ve been coming. But it’s a safe question for me to ask. It doesn’t dig a ditch for me right away.
And so I said, so, How long you been coming? And he said, well, actually it’s my first day. And I said, that’s fantastic, how did you decide to come? He said, well, I’m actually investigating faith. And we were doing the faith series, and he said, so I was just, I’m really here to just kinda figure out my faith.
I don’t really have faith, and so I’m interested in knowing more about faith. And so we had a conversation and we ended up connecting after that, and we’ve met now 3 times at an early morning hour 8 AM because he works at Google and that’s early. But anyway, so some of you, some of you understand this, you know. I mean, actually, when we moved to this area, I started planning some meetings like at 7, 7:30 in the morning, and I was sent the memo that said, listen, Silicon Valley, we don’t do meetings at an early hour, okay? That just does not happen around here.
It’s gonna have to be later than 9. 10 would be preferable. You know, that sort of thing. And so it really is kind of a miracle in some ways that we’re meeting at 8 AM. And we’ve had a few meetings now, and part of this has just been building a friendship and talking about relationships, but part of this has just been talking about Jesus.
‘Cause he’s really looking and he’s very interested in Jesus because when he was at Stanford, he was an atheist. And now he would say, I’m an agnostic. And I’m just trying to figure out where I fit in this, or if faith is really a real thing, and if Jesus is really a real thing. And I gotta tell you, I admire that, don’t you? The desire to know.
See, the reason these guys had come back to the tomb was because they had a desire to know. Is that you? Do you identify with that at all? If you don’t identify with that, that would be something seriously good for you to consider. I mean, even to engage in a conversation about spiritual things with somebody about Jesus, maybe it could be somebody that you know here at this church.
We as pastors would love to engage in conversations with you about that kind of thing. So you have 3 lookers and they come back to the tomb. Now what’s interesting about this is that how they looked was different. And really that’s a key part of looking, isn’t it? If you’re gonna engage the full resurrection experience, you’ve gotta pay attention to not just looking, but you gotta pay attention to how you look at what it is that you are looking at.
And what you have here are basically 5 different looks. It’s fascinating. In the original languages, we have 4 different words that are used here to describe look or see or saw. There are 4 different Greek words, and they all have this sense of nuance or this difference about them. So they’re really trying to focus on the differences in how they looked at this resurrection account, at the tomb.
You first of all have Mary’s look. Mary took a quick look, verse 1, didn’t she? It was a quick look that led her to the wrong conclusion. She made an assumption having seen the stone rolled away. She made an assumption that somebody came in and they took the body of Jesus.
That was her assumption because of the quick look that she took. And sometimes we can make that same kind of mistake, especially when it comes to spiritual things. We kind of of, you know, from a distance see it, take a quick look, and then form an opinion, and that then becomes the opinion that we live with. I’ve talked to people before about the Bible. I say, you know, they’re down on the Bible.
I say, well, have you read it? Well, no. Well, how did you form that opinion? Well, I just heard other people talking about it. But they haven’t actually, you know, even looked at it.
If they have, it was just a very brief look and not really explored. It’s kind of like how some of us look at that restaurant bill. Maybe you’re gonna go out for lunch today for Easter lunch, and you get that restaurant bill, at the end of the whole thing, or maybe when you go grocery shopping or whatever, how do we look at the bill? I mean, if you’re like me, you hardly look at it, right? You get it and you say, well, looks about right, sign it, you know, and then that’s kind of the end of it.
But if you pass it off to the detailed person in your family, sometimes what happens is they find out that your assumptions are wrong and that actually there’s some problems on the bill that need to be straightened out. But it would not have been found had somebody not taken a longer look. So, there’s the quick look. There’s a hesitant look. This is John.
John, in verses 4 and 5, is hesitant. He’s hesitant enough that he stands back, and the idea is that he’s cautious at this point. Maybe he’s fearful. We’re not really told. Maybe he has a grave aversion, a grave aversion.
Do you have a grave aversion? Do you hate going to graveyards? You don’t even wanna go anywhere near anything like that. John, possibly at this point, is thinking, I gotta, you know, I’m not going in there. I’m just gonna kinda look at it from out here.
And so he looks at it from out here, which possibly then is to miss out on what there is to see. And again, this is how some people look at Christianity or how some people look at Christ. They don’t wanna get too close because if you get too close, you might see something that is different than what we believe, and so they keep this safe distance from it. And then there is the analytical look, verses 6 and 7. This is Peter.
It’s a whole ‘nother word. The idea here is a close examination, an inspection kind of examination. And so he goes into the tomb and he sees the linen strips and he’s, you know, analyzing this whole thing. And he sees the head cloth and he’s analyzing the handkerchief that is there. So he’s the kind of guy that’s going to probe and ask questions at this point, wondering, what does all of this mean?
Putting 2 and 2 together, that kind of thing. This is some of you, some of you men who are going to be a part of Man Day. We’re going to hear about Man Day in a couple minutes. But you love at Man Day going to the escape the room activity. Why do you like escape the room?
Because it gives you a chance to apply your analytical mind. You know, you just get in there and think all of it out and figure it out and figure out a way to get out of the room before, you know, the time runs out. Some of us other ones, you know, we’re more into, I don’t even want to think. I just want to go shoot something. So we’ll do the target practice, you know, kind of thing.
So I think in some ways this analytical mindset right here can fit our culture here in the Silicon Valley, a kind of a— these are people who just look at it and say, hmm, I wonder what that means. And then there’s a convincing look. Verse 8, this is John the second time. So John gets up the courage after Peter has looked, and maybe that was part of the reason why he decided he better get into that tomb and see what’s going on in there. But John got up the courage and he went in and he started examining the linen wrappings and he examined the handkerchief.
And as a result of what he saw, it was enough— listen, it was enough evidence to cause him to believe. Not based upon Scripture, but based upon, and the word here is oida. It’s a word that speaks about knowledge that comes from information and knowledge that comes from experience. And so here he is, he’s gathering this information. He’s already got information that Jesus has given him in the 3 and a half years they spent together.
That’s all coming together, and it’s all coming together in light of this experience that he’s now having, in the tomb. Now, some people, if they looked at this account, they want us to understand that it’s very possible that what he saw just in and of itself was enough of evidence to cause him to believe. They talk about in John chapter 19, verse 39, it says that Jesus’ body was prepared according to the Jewish customs, the burial customs, which meant that the linens would be wrapped up the body so that they would start down at the feet and they would wrap all the way up to the armpits, and then they’d pull the arms down, and then they would wrap from the tip of the fingers all the way up to the net— neck, not net— up to the neck, and they would apply the spices, and they would apply this sticky substance. They would apply it to the wrapping so that literally what happened was that the body would be encased in a cocoon, a cocoon. And as some have examined this account, they’re saying that very possibly What Peter and what John now sees is the cocoon, the linen wrappings that are still in a cocoon shape, but there’s no body there.
You say, can I believe something like that? I think so, because we know that Jesus’ body, his resurrected body, walked through walls, and it walked through doors without opening the doors. And so this could be easily done. He could have— his body could have easily passed through the linen cloths. But what he also saw was he saw that the head cloth, the, the— a little hand towel size, some of them were hooded, that was pulled over the head and over, over the face.
But, but this, this, this face cloth was separate. It says it was separate from the linen wrappings, and then there’s this special note that you find there where it says it was actually folded or rolled up. Why? Why was it separate? Why was it folded and rolled up?
Interesting question to ask. I mean, was Jesus trying to make a statement about how important it is to keep your room clean? How important you should— you know, you need to just pick up after yourself. That’s what you need to do. You need to make sure everything is folded and neat and orderly perspective, and he knew he wanted to get that message across on Easter, and so You know, that’s why it was there folded up and off to the side?
No, I don’t think so. I think this is just part of the circumstantial evidence that a person was given in order to help them believe that Jesus in fact rose from the dead. There’s so much circumstantial evidence. I mean, circumstantial evidence has helped a lot of people. We’re not talking about scientific evidence.
Scientific evidence is repeatable and measurable, so you’re not gonna get scientific evidence here in order to come to believe something that’s repeatable and measurable. The resurrection experience is not going to be repeatable and measurable. But there is what we can, you know, use in a court of law. There’s circumstantial evidence, and this evidence that they see are the linen wrappings, and they see the face cloth, and it is enough for John at that point to believe. And you can look way past that to not only that, but the tombstone itself, the 1.5, 2-ton stone that’s been moved.
How did that get moved? The guard that was there that was guarding the whole thing. You can look at the testimonies of the people and the appearances. So much information. John came to believe.
But then there’s one final look. It’s a lingering look. It comes from Mary. It’s a whole other word. And the idea here is that she remains, she lingers, so that she can now take a firsthand look an investigative look at what was really going on inside that tomb.
So she stays. I think it’s fascinating that she stayed because Peter and John now have left. It says that they went back to their homes. She wasn’t ready to leave. You know, I’ve been at funerals where people are not ready to leave after the funeral.
They wanted to be there with the body of their loved one. I’ve seen people go up to the casket, not want to let go of the casket. And you almost get that kind of feeling at this point where Mary’s just trying to figure this whole thing out. Jesus has had a tremendous impact on her life. This is Mary, the Mary that Jesus cast 7 demons out of.
So she’s had a personal experience with Jesus. Jesus has touched her. He’s changed her life, and she doesn’t— she doesn’t want to leave. She’s just trying to understand what in the world is going on here. So she lingers, and in her lingering, she experiences a life-changing experience.
First, it happens with a couple of angels. Verse 12, a couple angels are now in the tomb. And they positioned themselves like cherubim in the holy temple at both ends of where Jesus’ body lay. That’s fascinating because you could go back to the temple and you could talk about the Ark of the Covenant and the cherubim that were surrounding the Ark of the Covenant, and we could talk about the very presence of God that was there. It’s fascinating that they’re sitting there and they ask Mary why she was weeping, and she told them because Her Lord Jesus, the one that she loved, was, was gone.
Somebody, verse 13, had taken his body away to an unknown location. But then Jesus appears. Now Mary doesn’t recognize him, verse 14 tells us. And Jesus asked Mary 2 questions: Why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?
She hears the questions, doesn’t really answer the question. She has a question of her own because she’s thinking this guy who’s just appeared is the gardener. And so she basically is saying, well, where did you put him? Where did you put Jesus’ body? And Jesus then speaks to Mary one word.
One word changed everything. He just said, Mary. And that one word was all it took for her to have her eyes open to see that standing in front of her was Rabbi, Rabboni, Jesus, the teacher, the Messiah. And in seeing him, she does what you would expect at this point in time. She just embraces him, and the picture in verse 17 is that she just clung to him and she was not going to let go.
She was just gonna hang on in this moment, and he has to say to her, Mary, Mary, you gotta understand something. I’ve got some other things to do, okay? I’m not gonna be able to stay here right now. I gotta get going. In fact, I haven’t even yet ascended back to heaven to the place where God is, to the God that you worship, to my God and your God.
And so she lets him go, and she then takes off, verse 18. She tracks down the disciples, and she tells them that she has seen the Lord. Now, if you ask me, those 5 looks typify how oftentimes we look at this resurrection account. You can look at it quickly. You can look at it with hesitance.
You can look at it in an analytical way. You can look at it in a convincing way. You can linger long over this. But here’s what I know: how we see what we see can make a huge difference in what we see. Wouldn’t you agree?
How we see what we see can make a huge difference in what we see, and not just in what we see, but then what we do. A week ago, Bernice and I were over in Waco, Texas. We went over there to kind of look around at Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Market. If you’re not familiar with the Gaines, they are featured in the popular HGTV Fixer Upper series. We had a great visit.
It was really a lot of fun just kind of wandering around. But the thing that I thought back on was, you know, Joanna just has this ability to see value in something that we would pass by as junk. Seriously. She is able to see value in something that we would pass by as junk. She’s able to see that something that is there, something that is worth something.
So they have purchased homes that, you know, probably none of us would purchase, like this example here. And they said, you know, we’re going to fix this thing up. And they did, and it became the Afterwind there. They had on display in the market center there a bicycle. And we walked by this bicycle.
I remember thinking, you know, that’s the kind of bike that I would see and get rid of, you know, throw it out at the junkyard or something like that. But she had it on display as— and it was adding in the marketplace there, it was adding decorative value, because of its beauty. She has just such an uncanny ability to see things for all of their worth. And really, that’s what we need when we come to the resurrection account. We need to be able to see this account for all that it is worth.
And really, there’s a question that begs to be asked when you look at this account, and it’s very just this simple question: Are you looking? Are you looking to see what can be seen in the resurrection account? In fact, there’s a corollary question, and that is simply this: What do you see? Are you looking, and what do you see? Are you a person that’s just taken a, you know, quick look at this account?
Maybe no look, a hesitant look. What kind of look have you taken at this account, and what is it that you see? You know, as I was looking at this passage again, I’ve studied this passage for years now, but in new ways this passage came alive for me. I began to think again about the love of God. I mean, what do I see here?
I see the love of God enough that God would send Jesus, his Son, his only Son, into the world so that Jesus would give his life so that we could have life with him. I mean, that’s an incredible thought, isn’t it? God didn’t have to do that. He could have just said, you know what, enough is enough. But he wants a relationship with every one of us, every one of us, now and forever.
And so he sent his Son Jesus to do for us what we could not do for ourselves, to die on the cross for our sins. You see, our sin separates us from God, and Christ is the way to heaven. Christ is the one who is able to forgive our sins. In Christ, there’s forgiveness for our sins. And when you come to understand that, you come to a whole different look at God, a whole different perspective on God and the love that he has for us.
And when I look at this account, I think about the depth of Jesus’ love. I mean, beginning with who he appeared to first. Think about this. I mean, if you were planning your resurrection appearances, you know, your post-resurrection appearances, who would you pick to appear to first? You might pick, you know, I’m gonna appear to Pilate.
That’s what I’m gonna do. That guy that did this to me, I’m gonna appear to him. I’m gonna show him. I’m gonna show him I’m alive. But Jesus decides that he’s going to stop off and see Mary first.
Why Mary? Weeping, hurting Mary. Oh, because it was in his plan. I don’t know. You know, I can’t completely answer that.
All I know is that she was low on hope. She needed comfort. She’s in a garden. Isn’t this fascinating? She’s in a garden and she needs hope in this garden that she is in.
In fact, it’s this garden in a way that kind of reminds us of the first garden where hope was lost. And here in this garden, hope is regained. And so softly and tenderly and personally, Jesus is going to minister to Mary, to this hurting, hopeless person, just like he will minister to any one of us. He quietly comes to this grieving woman and he wants her to hear his voice, he wants her to see his face, and he wants her to feel his presence. And he does the same thing for us if we’re willing to see, if we’re willing to look, And when I see this account, I see the primary expression of our love for God, it’s belief.
You know, it’s not being reserved on this thing any longer. It’s not doubting God any longer. It’s coming to the place of saying, I believe. I believe that there is sufficient evidence. When I look at these appearance accounts, I believe that there is plenty here for me to believe so that I might have this connection to God now.
And for all eternity. And when that happens, what happens? Well, you begin to change just as they began to change. Mary went from a weeping person to a witnessing person. I mean, the next thing that happens for her isn’t that she’s, you know, lost hope.
She’s a person— or living without hope. She’s a person now who’s spreading the hope around. The first thing that she does is she takes off and tells the others what it is that she’s experienced. And when you’ve experienced belief in Jesus Christ and his work in your life, you’ll go from John, like John did, from hesitating to proclaiming. In fact, he wrote this epistle, the Epistle of John.
You know why he wrote it? He told us. He said, I write these things so that you might know that Jesus is the Christ and so that you might believe in his name.
You’ll find that no longer will you be hesitating when it comes to relationship with Jesus. You’ll be connecting in wonderful ways, and you’ll become a spokesperson for him. And you not only see that in John, but you see it in Peter. Actually, Peter goes from denying to discipling. He was, during Jesus’ trial, denying Jesus, but now all of a sudden, this experience and others that follow this, he moves into position of discipling.
He becomes one of the foremost disciplers in the early church. And so when you look at this account, life is filled with these looking and learning opportunities, but of all the looking and learning opportunities, this is one that we don’t want to miss. The fact is, is that many things in life are missed because we fail to look. Isn’t that true? We could go out of here today, we could miss so much that’s around us just because we fail to look.
And it’s possible for people to miss what it is that God has done for us because we fail to look. As I was reflecting on this, I had to think back to the time where I actually changed my view on Bernice. We were friends. We still are friends, but we were just friends. We were just friends.
We were friends that went to the same church, We were friends that went to the same high school, Hoover High School in Fresno, California. Great place to be from, but anyway. And so we were just friends. That was it. We had friends who knew each other, and we were in the same Algebra 2 class.
That was a gift to me because she helped me pass that class. We were that close, at least in our friendship. But she had a boyfriend, I had a girlfriend, so we really weren’t interested in each other in a serious way. But in my first year of college, I had an epiphany, and the epiphany came near the end of that year where basically that year I just felt this sense that I needed to just stay away from girls and just, you know, not date girls, but just work on my relationship with God. I’m not telling you you gotta do this, okay?
I’m just saying that that’s what happened to me that year. And later in that year, I still remember this, I still remember thinking, you know what? Bernice is a really special person. She’s cute, I mean, she’s really cute actually, and she’s this very godly girl, and she’s brilliant, and she laughs at my jokes, and not very many people do that, and, you know, she’s just the kind of person that I would hope to marry someday.
Hmm. And I remember thinking, but I wonder if I got serious in wanting to get to know her, would she ever get serious in wanting to get to know me? Well, it happened. But it began with a different look. It began with a different look.
And it’s very possible that for you this morning, one of the best things that you could do would be to make a commitment, a life commitment, to take a different look at Jesus, to take a different look at the resurrection account than you’ve taken up to this point in time, to see Jesus for all that he is, is worth.
And if you already have taken a deep look at Jesus, don’t stop looking. Don’t stop looking. There’s so much for us to see that can transform our lives every day, every day, every way, for God’s glory and for our good. Let’s pray.
Lord, help us to have eyes to see who you truly are, Father, we thank you that you sent your Son into the world to make it possible for us to have a relationship with him, and we ask that you would open up our eyes so that we see who you are and who your Son is, and we truly come to be changed by the work that you can perform in our lives. Give us minds to think that through, to understand, and a will to choose. May we see and believe Jesus for who he is today, and not just today, but tomorrow, and not just tomorrow, but every day.
And let me just pause just for a moment and just ask you, where are you at right now in your relationship with God? Where are you at in your faith journey? Are you a person that is willing to look into this? That’s a great place to be, to ask questions, to get on a spiritual search.
If you’re not on that kind of search, God would hear a prayer like, Lord, if this is true, would you show it to me? He’ll hear that prayer. He’ll answer that prayer. And I encourage you to pray that kind of a prayer. Perhaps you’re getting closer to this Lord that loves you and cares about you and has given his life for you.
Ask God to continue to show you what more you need in order to come to embrace him as a personal Savior, as the personal Savior. And if today you’re here and you’ve heard enough, it wasn’t just today, but it’s in days leading up to this day. For some reason you’re here today, and God wanted you to be here because he wants this to be a defining moment day for you, a day where you receive the gift of life out of Jesus. And if that’s where you are, then don’t let this moment pass by. Ask God to save you from your sins.
Ask him to forgive you for living your life up to this point in time like you were God. Like you are in charge of your life.
And ask him to change your whole focus in life and to come in and give you a brand new life and give you a whole different focus and begin to change you from the inside out. God hears those kinds of prayers. And if you came here today and you’ve been looking at God and Jesus for a long time, you have a close relationship with him, then let this be an encouragement to you just to a strong affirmation to your faith, encouragement to be a person who tells others what it is that you’ve seen, to allow God to transform you every day in every way. And so, Lord, we thank you for your love, and we thank you that when we look at you, we are people who see the God who loves us. And may our lives be changed, may they be transformed, may May our lives be like flowers that bloom so that your beauty is seen in us and through us in the world around us.
For we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
