APR 9 2023 | Easter: The Empty Tomb

Sea Change Church · APR 9 2023 | Easter: The Empty Tomb
John 20:1-18
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two 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've taken my Lord away, she said, and I don't know where they've put him. At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

He asked her, Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for? Thinking it was the gardener, she said, Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've 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 ascended to the Father.

Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news, I have seen the Lord. And she told them that he had said these things to her. This is the word of the Lord. I have to. I have a. I have. I have. I have. I have. I have. I have. I have. I have. I have.

I have. I have. Right on. Well, hey, welcome to church. If you have your Bible or your notes, you're going to go to John 20, 1 through 18. Before we start, I want to begin by talking about what this book is all about. The Bible is about one thing, and it's encompassed in this message, in this actual passage. My favorite word for passage is pericope, kind of a fun word we learned in seminary.

No one knows what it means, but it's still fun to say pericope. In this pericope, you're going to find what is the heart of the gospel. The heart of the Bible is about relationships. Some people look at this book, and they see a rule book, a bunch of limiting principles. What the Bible is about is about relationship. And this book, the Bible, is about a roadway, a road map back to knowing and understanding God deeply.

People will say, well, the book's about Jesus coming and dying for evil sins, so they won't go to hell. And I would say that's penultimate. It's not the ultimate reason. It's the penultimate reason of the Bible. Yes, that's important. There's actually a belief. I don't know if you saw statistically that belief in hell has gone from 62% since 2016 to 67%.

That's weird, right? You would think it's going to go the opposite way. People are believing less in things like that. But actually, belief on hell has actually gone up 5% since 2016. Maybe because sometimes we feel like we're living in it. But nonetheless, separate of that, you look at this book, and people will say, hey, it's just about Jesus saving people from hell.

And that isn't the reason. Jesus didn't die on the cross to be a cosmic lifeguard. That's not the primary reason. That's a benefit. Jesus came because he loved you, and he wants to restore relationship with you. He wants to know you deeply. And in this passage, we see relationship being restored, radical relationships. I wrote this. The essence of the Bible, and it's found in this passage is why I'm saying this.

The essence of the Bible is about relationship. Relationships that are radical, restorative, redefining, and real. That real part's important. We live in a world of AI right now. Everything's changing. People are spending less time together than ever before. People I read are touching people less than ever before in human history. In a world where you feel there's a lot of touching going on, there's actually less touching going on.

We're becoming less and less human. And to be real means not to be digital. We're not automatons. But we become real. And the relationship with Jesus promises reality. It brings us into realism, and it brings us into reality. And so I entitled this message. Well, first it was called The Empty Tomb. Why did I come up with such a dynamic title as The Empty Tomb, right?

Because I couldn't think of anything. And at the top of the chapter, it said The Empty Tomb. And so I went with it. Last night, I changed it because two words stuck out to me, and it's called Running in the Darkness. Running in the Darkness. Because there's two words that really stuck out to me. There's a few things that are going to stick out in this passage.

This is a powerful passage. The first is the word dark. That's going to be important. Go to verse one. Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark. Circle that word dark. Important. We're going to get to it. And the next was running. If you look, running is mentioned three times. Verse two, Mary goes running to them. The next one we see in verse three, they were both running.

Since the disciples were running, the other disciple outran. Now, there's a bit of a competition going here. John, because he's so humble, doesn't mention that he was the disciple. The book's kind of written after you, John. We know you wrote it, nonetheless. But that he outran Peter. It says that the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, outran Peter.

It's kind of the humble brag, okay? So he actually outruns, and we're going to talk about that. But this part, were they running? So I don't even know. I talked a few weeks ago. I mean, once you get a certain age, you just don't run anymore, you know? There's only a few reasons to run. One, for exercise, if you're a fool. No, I'm just kidding. I ran a lot.

I don't have the needs to do it anymore. One is for exercise, perhaps. The other is for fear. The other is for urgency. Maybe people run for joy. Maybe that's a fourth one. They're running, and they're running to something. It's interesting. Are they running to a tomb? What are they running towards? I want to say that I believe that they're running towards the essence of the Scripture.

Relationship. They're running to a relationship with Jesus. And somebody said to me, we were talking about this passage of the staff. I brought it up to the staff, and I'm like, what do you think? What do you think? Because it's easier for me to preach if I don't have to do the work. I just let the staff do everything. No. And Pastor Harry said, well, Jesus is dead, so they're not running to relationship because Jesus is dead.

And I said, well, I don't know if that's true. Because when my father passed away, I remember the room got empty. I was in there with my dad by himself after he had passed away. And I went and hugged him. It might have been one of the, we weren't a real huggy family. We weren't a real touchy family. You know, just German. He was born in the early 1900s, 1908, I think he was born.

And I just remember hugging my dad and embracing him, and he was dead. But I was running to that relationship in a way. I want to talk about the dearth of relationships that we're seeing and how the scripture and how this passage in particular calls us back to relationships with one another, which is so important, and then also back to a relationship with God who loves you in the form of Jesus.

Jesus came that we might know God. He was the full representation of the Father, the Bible says. But I would say those relationships are radical. Jesus is radical. If Jesus isn't radically changing your life in some areas, I'm going to say you're probably not doing it right. We can help you with some discipleship. But the relationship with Jesus is not stagnant.

It's one that's radical. It's restorative. It'll begin to heal the dark places. It'll turn the ashes into beauty. It's redefining. It's going to redefine who you are. But most of all, it's real. It's absolutely real. We're in a world, like I said, it's becoming less real. And we're having an epidemic, as you probably know, of loneliness. I like being alone.

Loneliness is not something I currently experience much. And I can be alone and not feel lonely. But I read this from Harvard. This came out this week from Harvard. Now, not their theology school. This came out from their psychology department. And this is what they wrote. A report from Harvard suggests that 36% of all Americans, big number, including 61% of young adults, that's a massive number, 51% of mothers with young children feel seriously alone.

Wow. The epidemic of our age and the parallel epidemic of what we just went through, through the disease of COVID and all that, was continuing to separate people in one way or another. 61% of young adults feel alone. As a pastor, I want to say, if I'm passionate about anything, it's helping people reconnect as human beings with their families, with their children, with their coworkers, with their neighbors, but most importantly, with their God.

So what were they running to? They were running to a relationship. They were running to a place, the last place that Jesus was. They were running to a Savior, somebody who had made a difference in their life. You see, Jesus had been radical in their life. He had done something. He had mesmerized them with his presence, with his touch, with his availability, his ability to care.

He had done something that had brought them to him. Harvard ends up their study. I read through the whole study. And at the end, they had an answer. This is Harvard. Okay? Harvard isn't the bastion of Christian thought today. Just FYI. Some friends had gone there. They said this. This is their answer. Their summation of how to return to normalcy of relationships.

We need to return to an idea that was central to our founding. And it's at the heart of many great religious traditions. We have commitments to ourselves, but we also have vital commitments to one another, including those who are vulnerable. Loneliness in America. I thought, wow, that's true. That's what I do. Like, preach. Preach, Harvard. Preach.

That is exactly what we need. And before I just jump into these three relationships, these three characters, these three sub-characters, Jesus is the main character, but these three characters, before we look at each of them individually and quickly we'll look at them, I want to bring up my, when I went yesterday to get my daily $6.25 chocolate mocha with three shots at Starbucks.

$6.25. You get a four shot, we're up to $7.50, $7.75. That's expensive. I apologize, wife. I'll stop doing that every single day. And I was there, and if you've been there, don't put it up. Oh, there it is. If you've been there, they put these little signs up. You've been to certain ones. They have lots of signs up. They put all these signs up. I disagree with 95% of the signs.

I just fully disagree. I don't, on purpose. And this is the one that hit me the most when I was sitting there reading. I took a picture of it. You can see it at Starbucks. They got the vanilla stuff there. It says this. Be you, and the world will adjust. That doesn't work, okay? I don't know if you've thought about that. But if we're all just us, everyone, the world's going to adjust.

Not if we, if we all follow that advice, that doesn't work. You know what that does? It's divisive. It's divisive. It makes you the center of the universe, and it puts your diversity above unity. Let me say, the diversity of who you are needs to be subject to unity. If you have a value system, diversity needs to follow unity because you need to have individual people with some form of commonality about them, or you have no relationships.

Why do you have what's happening with loneliness? Because we have a culture that's telling you the only thing that matters is you. Jesus says the only thing that matters is that you know me. Jesus is calling us to a unity. And so as you look at the people in this scripture, they are identifying with a commonality, a common unity. And what is it?

It is a love for the person of Jesus who they met in a deep and personal, caring way. I want to look at this. Go to verse one. These three main characters. We've got Mary Magdalene, John, and Peter. Mary is named first for a reason, but we're going to save the best for last when we talk about her. At least she's my favorite. Let's talk about darkness.

Verse one. Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, circle dark again, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. Do you know about Mary Magdalene? Seven demons. Said she had seven demons in the scripture and Jesus had released her from seven demons. I think one demon's a lot, right?

Seven is like a house party for demons. Seven demons. She had been set free. Matter of fact, in my studies, I read that she is mentioned more than every other disciple except the big three, Peter, James, and John. Peter and John are in this. She's mentioned more in the Bible. Multiple times, Mary. Mary had this relationship. There's three Marys, actually.

If you look at the other Gospels, there's three Marys that show up to the tomb that day. She is one of the three that shows up. People have said she's a prostitute. That is not really believed. That actually they've done more research. That she wasn't a prostitute. She just had a lot of darkness in her and Jesus healed her of that. And she became desperate for Jesus.

Passionate about Jesus. And we see that in the way that she lived. But it said it was still dark. Mary Magdalene went to the tomb. Talk about her in just a second. We'll get to her. And saw the stone had been removed from the entrance. Before we get to those characters, I just want to say one thing. In the darkness, whether you feel like the culture is dark.

Okay? Or maybe you have some darkness in your life. With 61% of young adults, if there's young adults here, six out of ten of you are going to have that experience of that darkness. You're going to know what I'm talking about. Some of you know what I'm talking about. You know that place of depression that I spoke about. You know that place of anxiety or that place of broken relationship or divorce or whatever's happening in your life right now or has happened recently in that darkness.

This is what I found out from this passage. What you do in the darkness matters. It was dark and she went to the tomb. You see, our life is full of verbs. And your life is oftentimes going to be determined by where you went and where you are going. Those two things will oftentimes define much of your life. Where you went and where you are going.

And in the midst of her darkness, this Jesus who she loves, who she's desperate for, who she cares about, who she has given money to, who she supported, said that she's a rich woman, they believed, and was able to support and do all these things. In the midst of the darkness, she went where? To the place where she knew where Jesus was last. You know, sometimes when I get lost, I'm, you know, I'm always told, look for a new word.

Look for a new scripture. I'm looking for a new truth. Something new, fresh. If you're in the charismatic movement like I've been in for a long time in my life and I was a part of, you're always looking for that fresh, that fresh word. They call it the Rema word. That fresh word that you're going to look for. You know sometimes, I just need to go back to what I know is true.

And she went to the place where she last had seen Jesus. You see, she didn't stay stagnant in her darkness. If you have darkness right now, if you're struggling with something, I want to speak to you. Maybe some of you are doing amazing, right? I've had a pretty good three-week run lately, so I'm okay. I feel good. I've got about three weeks done.

21 days on my belt. Some of you are really struggling with some really heavy stuff. I want to say, don't stop. Don't stop moving forward. Don't give up. There's a suicidal crisis in our world right now as well. People are disconnecting on things like fentanyl. You know all these things that are happening in our culture. I want to say, like it says in Psalm 23, it says, Though, yea, we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

What do we do? Do we lay down in the valley? We walk through the valley. I want to say, where you go, how you live in your darkness matters. And you say back to me, but there's nothing in the darkness. There's nothing good in the darkness. It's dark. Nothing's happened and it's still dark. I'm waiting for the sunrise. Sunday is a coming. You always hear that, right?

Sunday is a coming. Sunday is a coming. Well, it's Tuesday night and it's a long way to Sunday. I just got to tell you. I'm watching it. You know what next thing I realized? Jesus didn't raise at sunrise. I'd never seen this before. Because every time you see a video, the sun comes up. Jesus comes out of the grave. The sun's coming up. She gets there at dark.

He already rose. He rose in the darkness. That is so powerful to me. I'm always like, okay, well, when the sun comes, then everything's going to be good. But in the midst of the darkness, in the midst of her fear, in the midst of her despair, in the midst of all their wondering and uncertainty and unknowing, in the midst of it all, when they weren't looking, he rose.

And when she went there, she was in fear. They were in disbelief. They were in everything that they were in, but he had already risen. You know, sometimes we look around and it's dark and we think God's not doing anything and God has already risen. He's already risen and the power of the resurrection is there. We just fail to understand it for one reason or another and we see that.

But before we say that, Psalm 139, I want to read this to you. It says to God, even in the darkness, it is not dark to you, God. The night is as bright as the day for you, God, because for darkness is as light with you. You see, God doesn't experience darkness. Why? Because God is light. God emanates light. God understands what darkness is, but it even says that light shun in the darkness.

And the darkness has not understood it, comprehended it, cannot hold it down. Nothing can keep the brightness of God. And so in the midst of your darkness, I want to just tell you this, that it is possible that you just missed Jesus in the moment and that the power of God is there. You see Mary here in a second, who does she think Jesus is? She thinks he's a gardener.

I do that all the time. Like, Jesus, you just clear up the heads there. I'll call you when I need you. You know what I'm saying? The power is there. I just was so impacted by that because I've always been told when the sun comes, you'll know. But in my midst of the worst times, and I look back at some, matter of fact, God, this is a little non sequitur.

I got to redeem another spot today. God has allowed me to preach and redeem one of my worst moments ever. So I've had worst moments in San Diego. I had a lot of them. And one was it on the lawn at Valhalla High School, and they asked me to come speak at Valhalla High School. One night I was on LSD, and I went up to the top of Mount Soledad Cross, and I'd been driving through people's yards in La Jolla, in my truck.

So I apologize if any of that was you. And I got up there. I was playing Van Halen. I was playing Van Halen, running with the devil. And I remember I got under, I was gone. And I got up, and I put my hands up, and I thought I was God. And I said to my, I've never told anybody this story. I said, I am God. I thought I was God. And I yelled to the, I yelled to the darkness and the stars that I thought I was God.

And I was having this incredible moment. And I've always looked back at that, and I'm like, he should have put me out at that moment. Just capped me. You know what I'm saying? And today was just a blessing, because he always lets me go back to the places of like my worst first. You ever have a worst first? He takes me back to these places where I have these bad moments, and he lets me redeem it with the word of God.

I just love it. I didn't even think about that until today. But I remember being in that place, and today I preached the word at 630 in the morning and preached the gospel, because he's there in the darkness. And when I was telling him that I was God, and he should have snuffed me out, or when I was doing this, or when I was doing that, God was always there, and he's there now for you.

I want to assure you that he's there for you now, but you might just not see him. Don't mistake him for the gardener. Victor Hugo, who wrote Les Mis, the play, the great playwright, said, What makes night within us may just leave us stars. That which makes night within us may just leave us stars. You see, sometimes we demean the darkness. I'm not saying we want to own the darkness, but it is our darkness, and when we, against the relief of the redemption in our life, that actually has meaning.

I don't want to forget my darkness. I don't want to live in it. I don't want to live in the shame of it. I don't want all that. But I also don't want to say it has no value to me, because that is what keeps me rescued. That is what keeps me rescued. Somebody said to me, I told this a couple weeks ago, somebody said to me, You know, you've got this area in your life, you can go back to that area because God has healed you.

Probably, we were talking about alcohol, then sober, drunk. Said, you can go back to alcohol. If God's healed you, you can drink again. I said, God didn't heal me. God has rescued me. I fell off the ship. He let me back on. I can jump off again if I want. He didn't heal me. I know God has not healed me from that thing. But in the midst of it, God has always been there, and he has been faithful.

What makes night within us sometimes may leave us stars, and God has used that experience to help others. Finally, coming in for a landing, we're going to talk about running. Verse 2 through 4, let's read this. So she came running. Stop. Imagine her running. She's got the headscarf. Got all the garb on. You know, first century. Jewish woman running.

In the middle of the night. To Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. And said, they've taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they've put him. So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running. But the other disciple outran Peter and was the first to the tomb. Here's what's interesting. While each of the three main characters in the passage ran to the tomb, all had a very different experience of knowing Jesus.

This is a personal relationship. It's one of the difference. We're not in a relationship with the universe, not let the good vibes of the universe come and come upon you. Like, that's not what Christianity is about. That's what sets it apart. It's about a personal relationship. I studied recently that if you take a snowflake, there are no two similar snowflakes in the world.

Everyone has a different pattern. There are none that are exactly the same. If you take a snowflake and you melt it into a drop of water and you refreeze it, it will refreeze back into the exact identity of the original snowflake. That is such a powerful thought. And I want to say with you as well, you were made unique. You were made unique in God.

Each of us diverse in who God has made us to be. But he's calling us to know him in a deeper way. And each of these characters are different. And what I want to do is I want to put you in this story. When my kids were small, I would read the Bible to them. And Eugene Peterson said, if you want to make the Bible real to people, you've got to put them in the story.

As you're preaching, I've got to bring you into this story. So I want you to think about who you identify with the most. Maybe it's Peter. Peter runs into the tomb, remember? Ran there. He got there last. Talk about him in a second. Maybe you identify with him. You're the kind of person like me. At least I was like this. Jump out of the plane and say, hey, who brought the parachute?

You know, that's me oftentimes. Or now I kind of identify more with John. Maybe you're that friend that's lost your best friend and you're more of a hesitating. Or maybe like Mary, let's look into each one of these. I want to put you in the story. Let's talk about Peter. Peter got there last. But he went in first. And still left unsure. Remember, it says that John went in, finally.

He hesitated. And then he looked in. And then once he was in, he believed. But it doesn't say that Peter believed. It didn't say that he believed. It said that he got there last. Why did he get there last? Because who got there first? Mary got there first. She was there like 3.30 in the morning making coffee for everybody. She was there early. Then Peter got outrun by John.

Because John, they said, was maybe 20 years younger than him. He got outrun by John. Peter finally gets there and he bursts on in. He bursts on in, looks around, sees the linen cloth, the head cloth that is folded up. And then it says that he goes back home. Why didn't he believe? Why didn't he believe? Wasn't he desperate to believe? There was something in his way that was bigger than the stone that was in front of the tomb of Jesus.

And that was shame. You see, he hadn't betrayed Jesus. There's a big difference between betrayal and denial, right? He hadn't betrayed Jesus, but he had denied Jesus. And he no longer felt worthy. I know a lot of people who don't feel worthy. They actually, they have this thing between them and God. I'm too dirty. I'm too this. He can't forgive me of my sin.

We have this thing that is shame and it is this darkness. It is this self-loathing. If there's anything I see, especially with young people these days, it's self-loathing. Like self-loathing is cool these days. To loathe yourself is cool. I don't know if you see it. You see it. It's just darkness. Kids wear it on themselves. They wear darkness on themselves all the time.

You can see the darkness on certain kids. I'm on the high school campus all the time. Peter was wearing this. He was wearing it like a coat. He was terrified. He was terrified and he needed something different. And so like I said, Jesus is a personal God who understands the difference of every snowflake, who understands the difference of every personality.

He had a moment for Peter. Peter, that moment didn't come that day. It came the next day or maybe a few days later. We're not sure of the exact timeline. When Peter quits, he goes back to fishing. Jesus said, you're not going to fish for fish anymore. Remember? He told him, you're going to fish for men. And he's like, no, I'm over it. I'm done. He goes back and he goes fishing.

He'd given up. And this time at sunrise, Jesus shows up in the next chapter. You want to read it? You can go forward in John chapter 21 tonight after the sermon. And he calls. This time Peter recognizes Jesus. Peter jumps in the water. He swims to Jesus. I swam in the Galilee, the exact same place where this happened. And I've always wondered. I tried to picture as I was swimming in the Galilee.

Swam out. I had a friend who I was carrying around. I had a guy. He was paralyzed from the waist down and he was on my bus. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. And he needed someone to carry him everywhere. So I carried this man. It was awesome. I was the biggest guy there. So all the other guys helped. And then by the third day, they're like, oh, my back, my back.

So I literally spent the whole 10, 12 days I was there just carrying this man around. People were with me. Remember that. And he was a great swimmer. He had, like, from his legs, they couldn't feel anything from his legs down. And we swam out. I thought I was going to die. And he was just out there having a good time and the whole thing. And as I swam back in, I tried to put myself thinking of what Peter was thinking.

Jesus is on the shore and he's desperate to get to Jesus. But he's got all this baggage. Jesus meets him on the shore. You should read the story and see what happened. It's a good story. But I will say Jesus reinstates him. Maybe you need to be reinstated. Maybe you're like Peter. Another thing I think is really, really interesting about Peter, just before we finish with him, is even though he had made all those mistakes, and we're talking about community now, right?

The community with Jesus and then relationship with each other, that John and the other disciples, and Mary in particular here, never gave up on Peter. It would have been easy, right, to say, hey, you denied him. Remember, at the cross, John was there and a bunch of women. Had one dude and a bunch of women. That's how it normally is in church, right?

You got, like, one dude helping. Like, 50 women, right? Not true here, actually. No shade, man. No shade. No shade. And so you have John at the cross, because Jesus talks to him, and Mary and all these other women that are around, and it would have been easy to say, we were at the cross. Where were you? You said you were going to die with Jesus. I thought, what's up with all that?

You're talking all this craziness about how you're going to die with Jesus, and then, you know, a servant girl talks to you, and you deny Jesus, and you run away? But where was he that night? Did they have to go find him? He was probably in John's house. That's heavy, right? I mean, imagine being in that crew. You're in that posse. That's who you roll with.

And somebody does what Peter does, and you're like, hey, come over tonight. I got a bed for you. You see, they didn't give up on Peter. They didn't give up on him, and neither did Jesus. I was with my good friend at Breakfast Republic in Point Loma this week. I was talking about the homeless. He likes to help the homeless and do different things.

And every time I get with him, he always starts with a story of a person. I said that to him. Every time we get together, he's like, oh, my aunt. I got to tell you about my aunt. It's always one person. And I thought, man, that's an amazing talent. I see globally. I think a lot globally. But he's always one person. And so I said, man, what can we do with this homeless thing that I just saw in Point Loma?

Because as a pastor, I'm always trying to figure out, like, how to run a church to give you what you need to raise you up in Christ. But there's a lot going on outside the walls that we want to be relevant in, right? So I really trust this guy in regard to that. I said, what do you do? Where does mercy start? Where does justice start? Where does relationships start?

He says, I don't really think globally. He says, I think about the person in front of me. It always starts with who's in front of me. He goes, if that's my mom, it's my mom. He says, if that's the homeless man in front of me, that's the homeless man in front of me. And he says, it just starts there. And I said, yeah, but at a certain point, right, there's got to be a limiting principle where you say the relationship has got to end.

Like, you've pushed it too far. He says, no, not for me. I said, come on, that doesn't work. He said, well, I'm not saying that I don't give you boundaries, that I don't have boundaries. He says, we do have boundaries. He goes, we took a homeless woman to live into our house recently. This guy's an art professor at Point Loma Nazarene. He said, he's one of my best friends.

He said, we took this homeless woman to live in our house, and we had her there for three months, and then she started threatening my wife. And I was like, oh, okay, that's not great. He said, so I told him, you're out. And he goes, well, I set up a boundary. And I said, okay, so that was a limiting principle. You're done with it. He goes, no, I wasn't done.

I just said you couldn't come back for three months because of what you're doing. Then she started calling. I had to set another boundary. I said, when are you done then? He goes, well, I want you to know, first of all, I protect my family, and we're going to keep setting boundaries and keep pushing the boundaries. But he goes, you know when I'm done with a relationship?

When the person in front of me says they're done with it. He says, I don't finish a relationship. I'm never done with anybody. They tell me when we're done. That doesn't mean I don't put boundaries. That doesn't mean I bring safety for my family. They tell me. And this is what you see here in this passage. They hadn't given up. The second thing I want to say that I think was really key is don't give up.

Don't give up on people. Don't give up on relationships. Marriages and families will save this culture. Let me say that again. Marriages and families will save this culture. Don't give up. Don't give up on your kids. Never give up. I'm not saying you don't make good decisions and say, hey, now's not the time. We need some separation from you. I'm not saying that, but never give up.

It's over when we say it's over. And so you see this community, this deep community where Peter was still allowed to be a part. And I actually love that. John, quick on John. John got there second and then he hesitated. Finally went in and was the first to believe. There's a thing in basketball called the hezi. I love the hezi, okay? You're dribbling.

You get ready to move and then you pull it back and then you go. It's called the hezi. It's a great move. Boom, like that. I know I give a lot of basketball analogies, but my daughter and I were working on the hezi right now. Hezi's good. It gives you a moment, gives the defender a moment to think and then I'm blow by him, right? What John does here is he hesies.

So he gets to the tomb. If you look, it says verse 4, both were running. One outran the other. And then you go to verse 8. Finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, big word in verse 8. Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in. He saw and then believed. We don't allow people to hesitate with Jesus. The 1980s, I was taught, this is important.

I like the 80s. My favorite decade. We didn't break anything in the 80s. My generation didn't break nothing. No wars. We started fixing the Amazon. It was really cool. George Michael. They gave us these tracks and they said, they taught us. I went to this class. You get the track open. You start reading them through the track because you don't know. If you don't get them through that track, they're going to walk outside and they're going to get hit by a car and the blood's on your hands.

I remember that. Or my head. Maybe it was on my head. I don't know where the blood was, but I want it on me. You got it. You got to win them over right now. We don't give time for people to sit and hesitate and to actually relax and know Jesus. The thing that really bothered me is when I looked at the scripture, Jesus didn't always do that. Sometimes he said, follow me now.

But other times he'd heal them, then he'd leave. He's got all the time in the world, right? He's God, right? So he rolls back and then he comes back and he's all, hey, remember when I healed you? What do you think about that? Or come back when you're ready. He gives them time to hesitate. Maybe that's you. Maybe it's time to actually take Jesus seriously and hesitate and think about him for a while.

And I want to encourage you to hesitate and to gaze in and actually take a real look at Jesus. I talked to somebody else recently. It was actually recently, this week, and they were telling me about evangelicals. Evangelicals this. Evangelicals this. Christians that. Evangelicals. And I was like, what's the definition of an evangelical? They can give you some political definition.

Like it has to do with how I vote, I guess, supposedly or something like that. And so they're telling me all this. And I said, okay, well, okay. Even bad evangelicals. Let's put them over here. I said, okay, okay. Over there. I said, now, can you tell me anything that Jesus said that you disagree with? I've done this, no hyperbole, probably five times.

Close to four or five times with people as I've had these conversations. Because it's always all these people this. Christians this. Christians this. Can you tell me anything? There's not been one time where somebody has been able to quote me anything Jesus said. Anything. Once. And the thing I say to them is this. If you don't know anything about Jesus, then how can you say that you shouldn't follow him or that not following me is wrong?

Like sit and take a hezzy and take a look. I want to challenge some of you here. Look, if your life's working, power through, man. Just keep going. Okay? I'm not here to stop you. But if it ain't working, and you're like, I got to look at something else. I want to look into the place that's different than the place that I am. I want to challenge you to look into Jesus.

Like take it seriously. I went two years, it was three years ago. My friend got saved, goes to our church on Easter Sunday two years ago. But two years before that, I gave him that challenge and I went and bought him a Bible. Actually, I asked my mom to buy him a Bible. She wrote him a Bible like that thick. It was funny. So I said, I want you to read this.

My mom, she can't buy you a small Bible. It's got to be a Bible this big. This is the Roman study Bible that has the Jewish text from the third century, whatever it is. So I gave it to him. I want to challenge you. Look into Jesus. Like take a serious look for you. That's the second thing. And then the final thing is this. My favorite person, we're going to close.

Mary. Mary got there first while it was still dark. Went to tell others. Returned. Lingered the longest. And touched Jesus first. Let me say that again. Mary got there first. While it was still dark. Went to tell the others. Returned. Lingered the longest. And eventually touched Jesus. The first one to recognize and to touch Jesus. I love that. You know what I love?

That 3.30 a.m. faith. That hits different. That 3.30 a.m. faith. Like I'm going to go get there. And the fact that she goes in the darkness. She loves Jesus so much. She's not going to wait until the day. She just has to get to Jesus. You can see even later on. She's like grabbing on to him. Grab holding on to Jesus. He's like lady. He didn't say Larry.

He called her Mary. He says let me go. I need to ascend to the Father. She is desperate. And you know what else was amazing? I love this part. Go to verse 15. He asked her. That's Jesus. She thinks he's the gardener. Woman why are you crying? Who is it you were looking for? Thinking he was the gardener. And she said. Sir. If you have carried him away. Tell me where you have put him.

And I will go get him. Let me say that again. Do you understand the reality of what she just did? I don't know how big she is. Something that's that big. Do you see what happened to Jesus? We went and watched it on Wednesday night. It's pretty nasty. Got beat up. His body's just broken and beaten and whatever. And she says. I don't know where they took him.

But you show me where he is. I'm going to go pick him up and bring him back. I'm going to go get him. I got to go get him. That is so heavy. Do you realize how heavy that is? For a woman on her own. Now she had two other women with her. To go say. I want the body of Jesus. I want the body of Jesus. I am desperate for Jesus. In the middle of my darkness.

In the middle of my night. In the middle of my suffering. Let me find his broken body. Because it means so much to me. Don't miss the fact. That where are we now? We're in a garden. And in that garden. There's a woman in a garden. I think I remember that from Genesis chapter 3. And women get a lot of shade. Because right. They're the ones that first. Like you know.

Sin first. It says. And Paul even says that in Romans. Woman sin first. They get all that shade. Right? And as you see that. What does Jesus do? It is not a mistake. That he. The first person. To see Jesus. After raising from the dead. Was a woman. That is not a mistake. And it is not a mistake. That he commissioned her. To be the one. To go tell the men. That Jesus had risen.

That he had risen from the dead. The person who taught the men. Was a woman. Because God. Restored her. And restored womanhood. But he restored all mankind. At that point. I would challenge you. To find a. A religious text. That is more liberating to women. Than the Bible. Problematic at the beginning. Other problematic points. But in regard to women being.

Especially the way Jesus treated them. Women. He is always getting in trouble. Just healing somebody. Freeing them from all types of things. Jesus is so good. I want to tell you. If I want to be like anybody. I want to be like Mary. I want 3.30 a.m. Jesus. I have had that in my day. Kind of a 9.30 guy now. I broke my glasses. I want to close. With this. Had Mary not had the courage.

To explore the darkness. She never would have witnessed. The power of the resurrection. When my wife was going through. The depths of the depression. And if you've had that in your life. And you know anybody that's had that. It's really terrifying. Almost as terrifying for the partner. As it is for the person. I would imagine. I haven't had that particular issue.

And you lose a lot. I mean. Not able to. You miss events. You sleep through things. And there was times where there would be 48 hours. Where she would just be in her room. And figuring it out. I remember I walked in there one day. And she had her eyes open. In bed. It was like. I don't know. 3 in the afternoon. I'm trying to just hold it together. Right.

I'm just trying to keep the kids. From knowing what's going on. And trying to like. Take it away. We're going to McDonald's again today. Is mom coming? No. She's busy. Just you know. Doing that kind of thing. Just trying to survive. You know. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm in the dark. You know. And I said to her. I said. What are you doing right now? And she said to me.

I'll never forget it. She goes. I'm sitting with my darkness. Because if I don't go through it. I'll never get out of it. I thought that. I'll never. Like. Of all the things. I've heard. Of all the things. I've heard people say. It was one of the most profound. Courageous things. It's easy to look at someone. Who's depressed. And they're in their bed. And they're like.

In that spot. And you're like. I can figure it out. Get out of bed. Figure it out. But that person. When they say to you. I'm actually staring into the face. Of the enemy. And I'm going to look at them. And I'm going to walk through. And it was probably 10 years. Until. She was healed. 10 more years of that. If Mary. Had not gone in the darkness. Where you go in your darkness.

Matter. Where did they go. They went to Jesus. All of them. They all had a difference. Some of you. Burst in right now. You got something in your life. You got to take care of some shame. He wants to meet you. Some of you. You need to hezy. You need to chill. Take six months. I'll tell you. Take a year. Just keep coming back. Go figure out who Jesus is. You got to look into Jesus.

Look how much he's done. I mean. Just look at history. If you don't actually look into what he says. I think you're missing out a little bit. He's worth a look. And the final one is. You want to be like Mary. Desperate. Hungry. 3.30 a.m. Courage. Willing to go where no one else has gone. And to linger. Because she was the one. That touched Jesus. Let's stand.

I want to pray for you. We want to bless you. After the service. If you want. Wherever you are in that. Those three people. I want to encourage you. Identify yourself. Maybe that's. None of them are you. But if you want to know more. We want to help you on that journey. That's what we do here. We're trying to create a life-changing community. That changes the city.

Changes the world. And groups people together. If you want to know more. Go to our next steps table. Or come forward for prayer. We want to give you the opportunity to know Jesus. Some of you might want to know Jesus right now. And I want to give you an opportunity to do that. If we close our eyes. Bow our heads. If you're like. Hey. You'll know. If Jesus is speaking to you right now.

You'll know it. Like. You won't be able to deny it. It'll be in there. Like. Things are going to be adding up. Right now. If you're like. I need to follow Jesus. I think I'm. I'm ready to go. Just. Raise your hand. Let me know. I'll see you. I'll see. Yeah. Let's all. I'll see you. Yeah. Anyone else? Well. For those that raise their hand. I want to say. Right now.

You just. All you have to say. Jesus. I want to seek you. That's all you have to say. Jesus. I want to seek you. I believe in you. I believe you died. You rose again. I don't know how I believe it. But I can feel it. Or if I'm struggling with the belief. Lord God. I want to know you deeper. If you made that decision. Go to our next steps table. We want to see you get baptized.

And get connected. So right now. I want to bless you. If you extend your hands. Blessings are powerful. The Bible says. That the words. Have the power of life and death. When you bless people. It supernaturally changes them. The Bible says that. I want to bless you. Lord Jesus. I bless these people. In a world full of curses. I give them blessing. I speak favor over you.

I speak kindness over you. I speak healing over you. I speak wholeness over you. I speak life over you. I speak joy over you. A childlike faith over you. The restoration of your relationships over you. A radical change. A redefinition over you. That God will change your course. And that where you go from here on out. Will not be measured by where you went.

But you'll have an understanding from that place. And that God would send you into new places. That would heal your marriages. Would heal your. Bring the father's heart back to their children. The mother's back to their children. God gave me a word this last month. He's bringing the prodigals home. I just want you to know. I'm going to speak it. He's going to bring the prodigals home.

If you've immersed yourself in the darkness. What's up my little man? If you've immersed yourself in the darkness. We pray a blessing. You're going to bless these people? All right. Love that. We bless you. We send you out. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.