Transcription
All right, let's jump in. Uh, how many of you know that some words are like more important than other words? A lot of what people say doesn't really matter, but some stuff you really want to like lean in for that, right?
Uh, so, for example, parents really care about someone's first words, right? Like that's a big deal to a parent. I have four kids. They're a little older now, but I remember uh caring very much about those first words, right? Sitting down, coaching them through it, trying to get them uh to say those first words. Ironically, now I spend a ton of time trying to get him to say less words. Seems to just kind of flip on its head.
Uh, but I actually have a video of my youngest son saying his first word. Not like the first time he said it, but he said this first word a hundred times and million times. Uh, but it's one of my favorite videos ever. And I I want to share it with you.
Papa. Mama. M. Mama. >> Daddy. >> Mama. >> Mama. >> Da.
I know it's not fair. Moms. You carried your kid for 9 months. He went through labor and delivery and they just come out saying da da. That's not and you know dads were almost a part of none of that, right? Very small, short fun part of that that they were a part of and the rest of it just just doesn't make any sense. I guess I and I looked it up. I guess like 80% of babies dad as their first word, not mama. Silly. Very silly.
But we do care, right? We care about those first words. They're they're they're like more important than other words. Uh it's important to the parents, important to the baby. The baby's saying something important to them. And those words carry weight.
Uh, also last words are important, right? We care about last words. A, it's a cliche in bad movies. Any last words, right? Right before the bad guys plan falls apart. Uh, famous last words, another cliche, usually something that you say right before you do something that you regret. Right? But real last words, like when we are experiencing someone's final words, those are really important, right? We we place a great emphasis on that. Usually uh jam-packed with meaning. They're distillation of love and life and and purpose. We lean in for that as well.
Uh so today I want to look at some first and last words that Jesus said to his disciples. Um now in true Jesus fashion, uh he kind of flips things. So his first words uh come last and his last words come first uh because we're going to look at his last words before he goes to the cross and then his last or his first words after he rises from the dead. So first becomes last and last becomes first. That's generally what Jesus does anyways.
Um so last words uh the last time Jesus spent time with his disciples uh you've probably heard this before. It's called the last supper. It's a big deal. You've seen the painting right? Da Vinci painted the painting. Jesus in the middle. All his disciples are kind of on either side of them strangely all sitting on the same side of a table. It's kind of a weird thing, but they're they're doing that.
Uh, so, um Jesus spent a lot of time with them and uh in this upper room where they're having this last meal, Jesus says a lot of stuff. Actually, if you read the book of John, it's it's chapters long. It's called the final discourse. And what we're going to do today is we're going to spend the next three hours reading the entire thing. I'm just kidding. Uh, cancel the egg hunt, kids. Read the whole the whole Bible.
Um, now we're just gonna, some of you are like, "This is my first time here. I don't know. Will he do that?" And I will not. I want to look at one verse, one verse in this discourse that really is one of the most important pieces of it. John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give as the world gives. Don't let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."
So in his last words to his disciples, Jesus talks about peace. He wants his followers to have peace. And not just any kind of peace, right? He wasn't saying like not like the world gives. He's saying he's got a different kind of a piece, a Jesus branded piece, a a vintage Jesus kind of a piece. It's unique.
Now, you have to keep in mind what's about to happen. Jesus says this and and and this he's spending these final moments talking about peace and he's about to be betrayed and arrested, wrongly convicted, tortured and and brutally killed. And he knows this. So in these final moments before that, he's talking about peace. That should make our ears perk up a little bit. It's easy to talk about peace when times are peaceful, but when you're about to experience chaos and pain, talking about peace, wait, what now? That's important.
And you know the story, right? Stark contrast peace from what he's about to experience. They break brine or they break some bread and they drink some wine. They leave that room and they go out to a garden to pray. And that's where Jesus gets arrested. Uh he's convicted. He's beaten. He's crucified and he dies.
Now what I want you to do is try to imagine that from the disciples perspective. The Bible doesn't record a lot of what's going on with them while that's happening. The spotlight is obviously on Jesus in these moments in the Bible. We don't get a ton of what it's like for the disciples, but you have to imagine and and if you've ever lost a loved one, you you you know what it's like emotionally, right? Especially if you ever lost somebody unexpectedly. That's like a bomb going off. Very disorienting, right? Head spinning, ears ringing, eyes won't focus. They're walking around in a haze, shell shocked. Jesus was was their mentor, their their teacher, their friend, their Messiah, their God. Now he's dead. This is just devastating. And then the part that they have to deal with that we never have to deal with is the people who killed Jesus likely would have killed them. So on top of their grief and all of that, they also have fear.
So So this is just a horrible time for them. Horrible time for them. They have Friday and then they have Saturday and then Sunday three days later. I don't know what they were doing. Again, if you've ever lost somebody, you know those days are just kind of you're just kind of listless. You're just kind of aimlessly living. It's just existing. And some of them are in a room together just hanging out and the doors burst open. And some of the ladies who also follow Jesus come running into the room and they say that the grave is empty.
Now again, you know what happens, but you have to imagine what that would be like for them because they don't know what they don't know anything. If they heard the grave was empty, I imagine their first response would be anger. Like what? The grave's empty? What happened? And then the women start talking about an angel and something where the angel said something about why are you looking for the living one dead? Like what are you guys even talking about? It's just like this just all this noise and all this energy and they're all out of breath. And then Mary kind of pushes her way through the ladies and she steps forward with tears and fire in her eyes and she says, "I saw him. He's alive."
What a moment. Cuz that would be the first time that those words had ever been spoken. Now, I wonder how they responded. Again, you have to try and imagine what this be would be like if somebody walked up to you and told you that the loved one you watched die is now alive. Like, that would be a hard thing. I was trying to think like how would they respond.
Do you remember the movie uh the Endgame movie? The Marvel movie, the last Marvel movie that actually kind of mattered that one, you know. Um so there's this obscure part um where it's the reason I think it's more than a superhero movie, by the way. This is so deep. So Nat is trying to go find Clint because they figured out a way to bring everybody back. And uh Clint, he lost his whole family. His whole family. and he's been in a rage for 5 years just taking his anger out on the world. And she finds him cuz they're friends and and it's this moves me every time I see it. She grabs his hand and she goes, "I think we think we found a way to bring him back." And he says with like this cracking voice, "Don't do that. Don't give me hope."
And I and I love that part because uh how many of you know like there are certain situations where hope is actually harder? It's easier to give up. It's easier to like rage against the world and and hope is just that's like uphill, man. And I wonder if if when Mary says, "No, I he's alive." If some of the disciples didn't say back to her, don't do that. Don't give me hope because that that's that's way harder to hope for something like that.
So now they've got this day. What a day Sunday must have been. They were already in the process of going through those cycling through the the stages of grief. You know, you just go from one to the other to the other. And now you've got this mixed in of what do we do with this? These ladies are saying he's alive. We watched him die. And they get to that evening. And it happens in John 20:19. That Sunday evening, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly Jesus was standing there among them. Peace be with you. He said again.
You have to imagine the scene. They're in this room uh you know just sitting there weird tangle of emotions probably dimly lit. Doors are still locked cuz they're afraid, sad, confused, maybe allowing themselves a sliver of hope. And then suddenly there he is. Their formerly dead rabbi standing in their midst very much alive. The bad thing has become untrue. Death has been swallowed up in the source of life. The king is crownless no more. And he stands with the scars of victory on his hands and feet in their midst. What a moment.
Now, many of the theologians I read this week actually said that likely this is the same room where they had their last meal together. So, because this is Jerusalem, where else would they have been? They didn't have anywhere else to go. So, this is probably that same room. And did you see what Jesus said? Peace be with you. Shalom, Elohim. Maybe sitting standing in the same spot that he was standing before he died on the cross. He says almost the same thing talking about peace. How important is that if you're a follower of Jesus to say that hey the one of the last things he told his disciples before he died and one of the first things he says when he comes back from the dead is peace. That must mean that this is not some secondary thing. This isn't some bonus in your life. This is like the reason Jesus came is to give you peace.
Now, maybe you're sitting here and uh maybe you don't believe the story I just talked about. You know, maybe you think it's cute that I think Jesus rose from the dead. And I get it. Uh if you don't buy it, that's a hard thing to believe. But I do want to ask you a question. Whether you believe or not, do you have peace? Like for real. And not like don't you don't tell me admit it. Talk to yourself. Do you have peace? Peace in your life? Peace in your relationships? Peace in your mind, peace in your soul. Do you have peace?
Because regardless of whether or not you believe that Jesus rose from the dead, this is a really important question, right? A question that maybe you don't even want to ask because you're afraid of the answer. You don't want to admit the answer. Because my my bet is when I say, "Hey, do you have peace?" You can't just say, "Yeah, I got it. I I doubt that's where you're at. You might say, "Hey, I've got moments of peace. I've got pockets of peace. Day or two here or there where it's pretty peaceful, but but my guess is you can't say yes to this because you know that even on those days where everything's kind of calm and there's kind of peace on the outside, you still don't have it in here. You still don't have it here. There's still a storm raging on the inside. Even if there isn't on the outside, there's an angst, a discontent, a restlessness.
So even if you don't believe that Jesus rose from the dead, you have to be a little curious about this. That he's offering a solution to what I would call YOUR BIGGEST PROBLEM. THAT YOU'RE LIVING YOUR life without peace. I I believe that's our society's biggest problem. That that our our whole culture at this point is living a very peaceless existence. And Jesus is offering a solution to this.
So again, got to lean in here. Well, what kind of peace is he offering? Because remember specifically he said I'm not offering peace like the world offers. I'm offering something else. Now uh the way the world thinks about peace and the way we think about peace is usually that peace is the absence of something. Right? Don't we isn't that kind of normally like peace is when something isn't present in our life. For me uh peace is the absence of my kids being present. Like I don't know about you, this is how I feel. Um what it's true, but that's how we define it, right? If I asked you to try and define peace, you're probably going to talk about things that aren't present, right? Maybe you define peace as the absence of stress in your life. Maybe you define peace as the absence of money problems in your life. Maybe you define peace as the absence of fighting with your spouse or uh the absence of your health problems. But I want you to know Jesus doesn't define peace that way. Jesus does not define peace as the absence of something. It's different with Jesus.
So, uh, this one time, if you rewind back into Jesus life, this one time him and his disciples were going across a lake in a boat and, uh, keep in mind the disciples are, many of them are fishermen, so they're they're used to the water and stuff and a storm hits and they should be used to that, but evidently this storm was something because they freak out. All of disciples are like losing their minds. Full panic. So, so they have a storm on the outside and a storm on the inside. They've they've got their their their insides match the chaos on the outside. And that's important. That's important. So, they've they've got a storm out and a storm in.
Uh and Jesus, the whole time the storm is happening, he's asleep in the back of the boat. He's going through his REM cycle, you know, like and and they're all freaking out. So they go over and they they wake him up and uh they say something silly. It's something that we say sometimes when we're freaking out to God. They say to Jesus, "Don't you care? Don't you care that we're going to drown?" And we say stuff like that to God sometimes, too, when we're in in that mode.
So Jesus wakes up and and Jesus is like the exact opposite vibe of them. You know, they they they've got chaos going on on the outside, chaos going on on the inside. Jesus, while he's seeing the storm on the outside, he has no storm in here. Jesus is completely in control. Uh he's he's uh slow, deliberate, not in a hurry, not in a panic. In Mark 4:39, and he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace, be still." And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
So when Jesus speaks peace, the storm recoils away from him. That's that's unique, right? So listen, this is so important again because of the way we think about peace. You think, hey, when this storm passes in my life, then I'll have peace. Or sometimes you talk about, you know, the calm before the storm. Those are the times we talk about peace. That the storm has to be over and then peace can come. But that's not what just happened, right? A massive, intense, chaotic storm comes onto the scene and a massive, intense, powerful peace rises up to meet it. And instead of the storm destroying the peace, the peace destroys the storm. That's different. That's a different kind of peace.
So what Jesus is offering is that you don't have to wait for the storms on the outside to stop for you to have peace on the inside. That's what Jesus is offering you. It's not when the storm's over, then I can have peace. When this chaotic season's over, when this stops, when this is gone, then I can have peace. No, that's not what Jesus is saying. A peace that is active and alive on the inside, even when there's storms on the outside. that a that a storm on the outside doesn't have to get inside of you. You can have peace in your mind and in your soul despite a chaos raging around you.
I want that. I I I would say you you probably want that. How awesome would it be to walk through your life even when everything goes crazy on the outside for you to have a peace on the inside? for you to be able to walk into those situations almost like you're bringing peace with you and and instead of the storm putting you at its mercy, it's as if the peace is just as powerful, more powerful than the storm and it can rise up to meet the chaos in your life. Man, even if you're not into this whole church thing, that's got to be appealing, right? that you have chaos in your life and peace in your soul.
Which leads to another question. Okay. All right. Well, how can I get that? How can I get that? That's a good question. I can tell you where it starts and give you a starting place. This comes from a a deep belief that I have uh but but here here it is. This is really important. You can't have the peace of God until you have peace with God. You you can't have this supernatural active storm ceasing peace until you have peace with God. Peace on the inside of you starts when you have peace with your creator. Has something to do with the way your soul's created.
This is what I believe that that when God created you, he created your soul to be connected to him. And if it isn't connected to him, something's off. There's a disconnect. It's it's it's cracked. It's not it's not working the way it's supposed to work. So, when you're not connected to God, your soul isn't at rest. There's an angst. There's a there's a discontent. You need to be connected to God. So, in order to have the peace of God, you need to have peace with God.
Well, how do you have peace with God? Well, when Jesus uh bursts into this room and says, "Peace be with you." Uh the very next thing that he does is in verse 20 as he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hand and in his side. So I believe that peace has something to do with that. That he makes this offer of peace, goes out, dies on the cross, rises again, and then makes the offer of peace. That peace has to do with what happens between these two offers. that he died on a cross and rose to life again and offers this peace.
I believe what he's doing in this verse is he's showing them the cost of peace that he's saying, "Hey, I I did it. I paid for that peace." And see, that's if you're thinking about peace with God. A lot of times what people think is, "Oh, I better get it together." You know, I better I better I got some stuff that I got to do in order to have peace with God. I got some stuff I got to stop doing and I got some stuff I got to start doing and I got to get it together, you know, in here and in here and in my life. And once I do that, then I got to have peace with God. But that's not what Jesus is saying here.
Jesus is saying, "Hey, I paid for that piece. I I paid for all of it." And that's that's what this means. Do you realize that? That Jesus paid for your screw-ups? That he paid for your mistakes? He paid for your bad days? He paid for your worst day. that he paid for your sins. All those unintentional ones that you do that you don't even know that you do. The intentional ones that you see coming from a mile away and you still do them. He paid for your worst one. Whichever one pops into your mind when I say that, he paid for that one, too. That when he says peace before the cross and after the resurrection, he's actually saying, "Hey, uh, I took care of the thing that's between you and God." that that your soul needs to be connected to its creator and I I took care of the thing that was preventing you from getting to him. That there was a barrier between you and him. It was your sin. It was your guilt. It was that judgment that you feel and Jesus is like, "No, I paid for it." He made peace with God possible.
So when he's standing in this room and he says, "Shalom, Elohim," and he shows them the scars on his hands, he's not talking like some motivational speaker like, "Hey, you can have peace." No, no. He's saying, "I DID THE THING NECESSARY FOR you to have it. I have I have won that victory. The barrier between you and God has been removed. He took it."
So CS Lewis says it this way. Man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement. That's not you. He is a rebel who must lay down his arms. laying down your arms, surrendering, realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor. That is the only way out of your hole. This process of surrender is what Christians call repentance. You want peace with God so that you can have the peace of God. The way to do it is to surrender. Peace with God starts with surrendering to God, giving him your life, accepting that forgiveness that he bought and paid for on the cross.
Now, I don't I don't know why you're here today. We make jokes like the weeks before Easter that uh I I mean, I tell I tell if people call Mosaic Home, I tell them to bribe people to come. I we even talk about kidnapping a little bit. So, like you may be here against your will. Like, blink twice if you're I get it. I get it. There's all kinds of reasons you could be here and not all of them are because you wanted to be. Uh you could you could have been coerced. So, like I I get that. But here's the thing. What I believe is that everybody's here for a reason that maybe they didn't even know that actually really God kind of orchestrated some things for you to be here.
So, so I want to take a moment here and invite you if you've never crossed the line of faith to take that step today because I actually think God's trying to get your attention that you sitting here is like evidence of that. And maybe you can think back in your life here recently. Maybe God's been doing some things, up to some things, pushing you along. Maybe even it feels like he's chasing you a little bit. He does, by the way. So I want to invite you to to surrender to him today to come to him with the hands open and and to surrender your life to him to ask him for forgiveness. And you can pray a very simple prayer to do that. You could just say right now in your head, "Jesus, I give you my life." You could you could do that right here, right now. Or you could pray, "Jesus, I need your forgiveness. Jesus, I I need you. I can't do this on my own." The theme of the prayer is surrender. you're giving up. You are laying down your arms and saying, "I can't. I need you." And I believe that Jesus paid for all of your sin on that cross. And that when you do that, the barrier is removed and your soul can now connect with the one who created it. And that's the beginning of peace in your life that your soul can finally go because it's connected to the one that created it. So I I wouldn't man do it right now. Don't leave here without doing that. And if and if you do, man, let me know. I'm going to be right up by the front door. Don't leave here without telling somebody cuz we want to celebrate with you. It's the most important thing that you can do.
Now, here's the thing. You might be sitting here going, "Wait, wait, wait, wait. I am a Christian. I done did all that. I gave Jesus my life. I believe he paid for my sins. I I did all that, and I still don't have this piece you're talking about, pastor. or what's up? That's a good question.
So, can I point out a detail in the story? Did you notice uh that in the room that they were in, the doors were locked from the inside, right? Yeah, the doors locked cuz they were afraid. By the way, that's hilarious to me because it's Rome that they're hiding from. Rome conquered the known world, but they're like, "Click, we're safe." All right. I don't know if that's going to do what you think it's going to do, guys, but here they are in a in a locked room and JESUS SHOWS UP, RIGHT? HE INVADES this thing and there he is. Peace be with you. He shows him the scars and and and he then next thing he does is he breathes on him and it's this whole thing. But if you keep reading, and you should a week later, a week after Jesus appears to them, they're in the same room and the doors are still locked. And that's interesting. She's like, "Wait a minute. Jesus shows up, shows him the holes in his hands, and like the whole thing happens, and a week later they're in the same spot. Yeah. Yeah.
So, that shows us a couple of things. One, obviously, this isn't like a switch doesn't just get flipped, right? It's it's the beginning of something, not the end of something. But the other thing that this shows us, and this is really important if you're a Christian who's sitting there going, I don't think I have this piece. What this tells us, and you already know this, is that just because you have access to something doesn't mean you have it. Right? Just because you have access to something doesn't mean you have it. Just because you have Wi-Fi available doesn't mean you're connected. Just because you have a gym membership doesn't mean you're in shape, right? Like just because you have like the GPS on doesn't mean you're making all the right turns. Like this. We understand this that just because you have access to something doesn't mean you have it. And this is true here in in your spiritual life as well. Just because you started a relationship with Jesus doesn't mean you're close to him right now. It's possible to belong to Jesus and to kind of live shut down, shut off from that. And I don't know what caused it, but but you're here now. It's possible to be forgiven and still hiding. It's possible to be loved and still distant. It's possible to have access to a storm conquering peace and still choose fear and anxiety and bitterness and control. It's possible. I think a lot of Christians live like that. Not because Jesus left, but because you closed yourself off. And I just want to invite you, maybe today's the day to recommmit. Today's the day to jump back in, to run back to God, to unlock the door, to to open yourself back up to his love and his forgiveness. Crack that Bible back open. Get back into church. Re-engage with this God who you believe in. That's what today is about. A fresh start, a new beginning, new life is what today is about.
So listen, I believe this really happened. You know that that Jesus really did rise from the dead. I don't think this is just an idea, a cruel story to make us feel better about ourselves. I believe 2,000 years ago, Rome tried to kill him and 3 days later he conquered our greatest enemy, death, and left it in that tomb. and that he now is alive and active. And I want you to know like I have access to this peace. And I don't always perfectly have a hold of it, but I can tell you so many times in my life when I'm encountering something, I'm like, "How am I not freaking out right now?" I'm like, "Oh, that's right. There he is. >> The storm isn't in here. It's out here. And it doesn't get to come in here anymore." >> And I love that. I love that.
So, if you would, would you stand up on your feet with me right now? We believe in a Jesus who who gives us access to this peace. This peace that doesn't go away with a storm, but rises up to meet a storm. We believe in a Jesus who walked in walked out of a grave >> and that you can have a relationship with him. So today is about resurrection and new life and fresh starts. And I want to invite you into that. Pray with me. Jesus, thank you for not giving up on us. Thank you for not being impatient with us. Thank you for meeting us right where we are. Lord, we we love this story that you walked in out of a grave and that you can calm any storm in our life. Lord, this is it. Resurrection Sunday in Jesus name I pray. Amen.