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Hey, everybody. Happy Easter Sunday. Welcome to Prairie Lakes Church. I'm really, really glad that you are here. Hey, uh, we don't, obviously, you may have already figured this out, okay?

We don't do a lot that's like traditional around here, alright? Um, but, but one of the traditions that we do have on Easter Sunday, and maybe this was the case for you, uh, if you grew up going to church, even if it was just on Easter, okay?

One of the traditions we have is a little bit of a call and response, okay? On, on Easter Sunday. And so here's how it's gonna work, and it's gonna work even over video, I promise you. Okay? But I'm gonna say he is risen, okay?

And you all are gonna say he is risen. Indeed. Okay, so guys ready? Here we go. Here's our Easter tradition. He is risen. He is risen indeed. That's, that's pretty good. Okay, we got one more. We got one more chance with all you got One more time.

He has risen. He is risen. Yes. That's really good. Really good. Okay. Good job. Hey, um, I want to reiterate a couple of things that you have already heard today, but I just wanna say 'em again, okay? Um, the first thing is this.

Uh, this might be a little bit different than what you expected or what you're used to, okay? It might be a little bit different. In fact, I just talked to a guy last week, came over to my house, quoted us some landscaping stuff, grew up Catholic, started going to church again.

It's a different kind of church. And he's like, that's good, but it's just, it's just different. Okay? So that might be the case for you. It might be just a little bit different, not good, not different, good, not different, bad, just, just different.

But here's, here's what we know, okay? And I think this is true for most of us. It's especially true for those of us who are Iowans, uh, when something is different than what we expect. Just make us feel a little like, I don't know, a little uncomfortable, okay?

So lemme just encourage you, lemme just encourage you. Give yourself permission to just not worry about it. Just don't, don't worry about it. There's not a, there's not a way to do it, right? There's not a way to do it wrong. You know, you're here, you're here, and, uh, and that's what matters the most.

Okay? So that's the first thing. Uh, the second is this, um, here at Prairie Lakes, and we say this every weekend, we say that we're a no matter church, alright? We're a no matter church. Um, here's what that means. You might be here and you might feel like you're in a great spot with God.

And, and Easter is like, it's like one of your favorite services. You're just looking forward to it. You might be here and you might feel like you're in a horrible spot with God. Um, you, you might be here, you might feel like I'm somewhere in between.

You might be here and you're kind of numb to it all because you kind of are here, because you have to be here. You know? Um, you, you might have significant questions or skepticisms about some of what we're doing, about all of what we're doing. Um, you, you might even have a history, okay?

And it might be the kind of history, even though it was a recent history where if everybody knew, if anybody knew, you'd go like, yeah, I don't know that you let me in. All right? Um, here's the thing. We're a no matter church, which, which means that any of that might be true, uh, for you.

All of that might be true for you. Um, but that's okay because no matter what, you can look for God here, I mean, really, you really can. Um, you can hop on the train with us for the next, you can hop on the crazy train with us for the next few minutes because God meets us like right where we're at.

I mean, he really does. He really does. So don't be surprised if he does that with you this Easter. Okay? Well, we're just really glad that you are here. All right? Okay. So let's gonna keep this inclusive vibe going, uh, this weekend. And I'm gonna ask you to participate again across video.

It's totally gonna work. Um, participate in a poll with me. And I know, I know we are getting texts about polls all the time. You know, I'm, I'm really sick of it, but, but this one's gonna be super easy. Okay? Um, and it, and just heads up, it's gonna be one of those where I'm gonna ask you to like, raise your hand and keep 'em raised.

Alright? Um, so, so here's the poll question. And it's Easter. So I thought, let's make it an Easter poll question, and I'm gonna give it to you on the screen, and then we'll do the hand raising thing. Okay? But here's the question. On average. On average, okay?

How many times in one day, in one day on average, do you think about Jesus' resurrection? Okay? Just on average. And we're gonna start small. Okay? Start small. How many of us keep your hands up, raise 'em up. If it's five times a day, okay, nobody, right?

Okay, that was a horrible poll question. Yes. Every, we all agree. Yes. That was a horrible poll question. It was a Easter poll question, right? But who thinks about the resurrection five times a day? But, but you know, like, I don't know. Um, if anybody did raise their hands, maybe they do need to think about the resurrection a little bit more because they're lying and need some more Jesus.

But, but even if I, even if I worked my way down, okay, four times a day, you know, two times a day, one time a day, you know, whatever, right? Nobody's hands are going up. Mine included. Okay? We just, it just doesn't, like, we don't wake up every day thinking about Jesus rose from the dead.

You know? Um, you know what I do think about every day? Um, I think about like my kids every day. Um, I think about, um, my health, uh, I think about my my kids. I think about my health. I think about my wife. I think about our future.

Um, I think about the results of Garrett Cole's, MRI and the impact it's gonna have on the Yankee season, right? I, i, I was thinking about, I was thinking about when should I start cultivating bare spots in my front yard? You know, because I need to plant some grass and then, you know, snow, right?

Um, so, so, so there are all the things that are on our minds all the time, right? Like every single day, if I'm asking a question about what you think about every single day, Jesus resurrection doesn't really make it to the top of the list. But it's Easter, right? It's Easter.

Jesus needs a little love today. Yeah. I mean, like, good job raising from the dead. You know? Um, here's, here's the thing, okay? Here's the thing. Um, it is difficult to see. It just is, and this is the honest to God truth, difficult truth.

But it's difficult to see. It's difficult to see how Jesus' resurrection impacts my everyday life. And, and I know that's a bummer of a way to start the Easter message, right? I mean, fake it till you make it turn that round upside down, you know?

But it's, it's, it's true. It, it just, it just is. It's, it's absolutely true. And, and, and listen, even on the day it actually happened, even on the day it actually happened to the people, to the people who knew Jesus personally, it was the same way.

It was the same way. Okay? Take, take, take a look at, uh, mark 16, okay? Because it, it is difficult for us to see, it was difficult for them to see as well. Um, he, here's, here's kind of the first, first people in the whole world to kind of realize that Jesus had been raised from the dead.

When the Sabbath was over. Mary Magdalene married the mother of James. Uh, and ome brought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. And very early on in the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb.

And then they asked each other, who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb. But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. And as they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side.

And they were alarmed, okay? For obvious reasons. Well, don't be alarmed. He said, you're looking for Jesus the Nazarene. And I love that by the way. You, you're looking for Jesus. And just so we were, we're sure that we're talking about the same guy.

It's like he's the one from Nazareth, right? And then even further, um, he's the one who's been crucified, right? You're looking for that Jesus. He has risen. He's not here. See the place where they laid him. See, he's not there, okay?

But go tell his disciples in Peter. He's going ahead of you into Galilee. And there you will see him just as he told you. And that's exactly what they did. They did it right there immediately. In fact, they sat and they wrote tracks out, and they went, we need to put these tracks on different people's donkeys.

You know? I don't know. Right? That's what they did. And then they sang a hymn and, oh, no, no trembling and bewildered. The women went out and fled from the tomb, and they said nothing to anyone. 'cause they were afraid, right?

I mean, this was their initial reaction that was weird and also kind of terrifying. Uh, let's get outta here. You know, not, um, not, uh, up from the grave rose with the money you drawing for, right? Like, they didn't do that. They didn't take selfies in front of the empty tomb that day, right?

Right. Like their first, like, their first reaction was fear, and then it was silence. And then let's get outta here. Let's get outta here. Now we know from some of the other gospel accounts that they eventually were able to kind of get it together. And then they did exactly what the angel told them to do.

Um, they went and they, they told Jesus' disciples, and that didn't go great either. Turns out. So Luke 24 says this, when they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the 11 and to all the others. And it was Mary Magdalene, and it was Joanna, and it was Mary, the mother of James and all the others with them who told all of this to disciples.

But they did not believe the women because their words seemed to them like nonsense. And every woman who's married goes like, yeah, right? Okay. Peter, however, got up and he ran to the tomb and bending over, he saw the strip of wind line by themselves.

And then he went away and planted churches. He planted churches. And he said, you know what, Jesus told us this, and this is exactly what he said. And his faith grew immediately. And he went and he raised a bunch of other people from the dead.

No, he went away wondering to himself what had happened. Okay? Strike two, right? First witnesses were afraid. And now the people who were closest to Jesus, who Jesus predicted his death and resurrection to, they don't believe. They don't believe. So what? Right?

Well, maybe just, maybe Jesus just needs to like appear to people, right? Like, maybe it just needs to appear to them directly and say direct. Like I and some of us, I'm sure we've even like, thought this or prayed this.

God, if you're real rip open the flipping skies and just say, Nope, here, I'm, you know, right. Maybe Jesus just needs to do that. Well, turns out the risen Jesus does, he does exactly that. He appears to his disciples personally, directly in plain sight.

But one of them wasn't there, okay? Tom, Tom wasn't in the room with everybody else, you know? And when they told him that Jesus was alive and that Jesus really did appear to them, here's Tom's response. John 20 says this, now Thomas, now Thomas also known as did Heus, t Diddy to his friends.

Very good. Yes, I made that up. That's original. Okay. Thomas, one of the 12, he was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord. 11 guys, 10 guys, 10 guys. That's math, 10 guys. But here's what Thomas said to them.

Okay, here's what he said. He says, unless I see the nail marks in his hands, and unless I put my finger where the nails were, and unless I put my hand into his side, you are nuts. I will not, I will not believe I love these kind of stories.

I just, I love them so much. I am so grateful that God went put those in the Bible so that everybody forever knows, right? I love them because this is like how real people, this is like how real people would react to that story, to the news.

Like real rational people would go, um, I don't, I don't think, like if I was there, I, I think this is how I would react. You know, it was, if it was hard for them to see that the resurrection even happened, much less understand the significance of it.

And they were literally the first people to hear about it. And they were the people who witnessed Jesus say and, and do everything He did for it was so hard for them. Of course, it's gonna be hard for us. Of course. It's, I mean, here we are, we're sitting 2000 Easters in the rear view mirror now, 2000.

I mean, Easter is old news to us. But my point is this, even when it wasn't, even, when it wasn't the news of Jesus' resurrection was met with more confusion than it was celebration, it was because why?

Because Jesus's resurrection, like completely redefined his death and his life. It com it complete like every script that these people thought that they had down of why Jesus came, why Jesus lived, how Jesus died. Every, all of it was completely upended and completely redefined in that moment.

Jesus' friends thought they knew, they thought they knew, but the resurrection completely upended everything that they thought they knew. So let's unpack this. Okay, we're just gonna unpack this a little bit. You know, how, how did Jesus's resurrection completely redefine his life and his death?

All right, well, let's start with his life. 'cause here's what, here's what Jesus' friends thought. They, they knew, they knew that Jesus lived miraculously, okay? They knew that they witnessed it. I mean, this is what Jesus does in life.

He gives sight to the blind. He, he gives people their legs back. You know, he, he, he feeds thousands with just a little bit of of food. He, he raises people from the dead. I mean, it's, they knew, they knew that he had this power, he had access to this power.

They witnessed it. In fact, John says that there's not enough books in the whole world to capture all of the miracles that Jesus did during those three years of his ministry. You know? So they knew, they knew that Jesus lived miraculously, and they knew that Jesus loved indiscriminately.

He lived miraculously, and he loves indiscriminately. You know, this is the same Jesus who says, let the little children don't, don't push those kids away. The, these are the types of people that the kingdom, kingdom of God belongs to. And, and to the woman caught in adultery, he says, I don't condemn you.

Go, go and sin no more. You know? And to the, to the corporate cheat, the guy that was extorting his own people with the Roman empire at his back, Zacchaeus to him, he says, I'm gonna hang out at your house today. Invite your buddies to the sinful woman who poured perfume on Jesus' feet, who has this horrible reputation.

He looks at her and he says, she's doing a beautiful thing. And her story's gonna be told for generations to come. Jesus goes to the leper colony. He goes to the centurion's home, he goes to the woman at the well. He talks to all of the people that the rest of his contemporaries write off.

And, and, and his friends just, they listen. They watch him, and they listen to him say all of these things, just loving people right where they were at. They, they knew. They knew that Jesus lived. Miraculously, they, they knew that he loved indiscriminately, but the resurrection redefines Why?

They knew that. But they didn't know. Why. Why did Jesus say those things? Why did Jesus perform in these miracles? Why did Jesus love people for right, for who they are, right? Right where they're at. Why did Jesus live the kind of life that he lived?

Why? Well before Jesus was crucified and then raised again three days later before any of that, Jesus, early on, probably before they could really fully grasp it, but he tells them so plainly why he was gonna live the life that he lived.

John 5 36 says this the works that the father has given me to finish. So, so how I'm gonna love people, the miracles that I'm, I'm gonna perform, the messages that I'm gonna preach, the works that the Father God has given me to finish the very works that I'm doing.

Here's why I'm doing them. I'm doing them so that they will testify, that they'll testify that the Father has sent me. See, he, he lives miraculously, he loves indiscriminately. Why? So that You and I might believe that God sent him purposefully.

He sent him purposefully, the miraculous works, the acts of kindness, the preaching, the signs, Like, Like all of it. Jesus says that he does all of it. Why? So that you might know that God sent me on purpose.

There's a reason. Here's what Jesus knew. Uh, Jesus knew that we live in the real world. We live in the real world with real people, real problems, real pain, real tragedies, real, the real world. Um, people are physically and permanently disabled, uh, in the real world.

Moms lose their kids. And the real world, people go hungry in the real world. People get ostracized and rejected and labeled. Jesus lived in the real world with real people and real problems, but he lives miraculously and he loves and discriminately.

So he does these really amazing things with real people in the real world, with real problems to demonstrate that he has power over these problems. Even. But why, why? Just because it's a kind thing to do it.

It is a kind thing to do, but he's not doing it just to be kind. And because it's a loving thing to do. Yeah. Yeah, it is. I mean, and love and to be loving is a very, it's a very good thing. But he is not doing it for the sake of love.

He didn't solve very real problems for very real people in the very real world, just because it was a good and kind and loving thing to do. He does it. He does it so that you might know. So you might see him and know the gut in him. So the question we need to ask is why, again, Why, Why did God send Jesus?

Well, here's the purpose. Here's how John says it. This is from First John. Now, four 14 says, and we have seen and testify that the father has sent his son. Why? Well, to be the savior of the world, To Be the savior of the world.

Um, you know, I was putting this together, I was putting this message together, and I, you know, I I, I grew up in the church and so, and I even grew up in a church tradition where memorization of scripture was, was really important. So, so I'm not good enough to kind of like have the reference, but I'm good enough to remember the verse.

And so I'm like putting this together and I'm like, oh, I wanna talk about this verse and this verse. And all of a sudden I'm, I'm going like and know John wrote all of these. John wrote, John wrote almost every single one of these, right?

Uh, John was one of the original 12 disciples, okay? Um, and in fact, scripture tells us that, that he was one of one of Jesus's closest three. And just to give you a picture of how close Jesus and John were, when Jesus is hanging on the cross, um, John brings, uh, Jesus's mom up to say her final goodbyes.

And Jesus looks at his mom and he goes, this is your son now. And then he looks at John and he goes, and this is your mom. Now, You know, like, like you take care of her. And this the same John that church tradition tells us, lived the longest of any of the 12.

He lives probably into his nineties, and he kind of sees the early church kind of form as the message about Jesus travels, okay? And it's this John who documents the miracles that, that, that Jesus did. And it's this John who tells us the reason Jesus gave for performing all of these things and preaching all of these things.

And it's this same John. It's the same John who tells us why God sent him in the first place. Jesus lives miraculously He loves and discriminately so that you might believe that God sent him purposely why?

To save the world completely, to save the world completely. This is how, this is how the resurrection completely redefines Jesus' life. What it hasn't answered for us yet though, is how did Jesus save the world completely?

And that's what we need to talk about next, because Jesus's resurrection doesn't only redefine Jesus' life, but it redefines, it redefines his death and what he did for you and me at the cross, which is what we wanna talk about next, okay?

And we're gonna talk about it live in the room. So let me do this, okay? And let's, let's all just kinda join in some prayer. But lemme let me just pray over you as we move into this next part of our service, okay? Let's, let's pray. Father in heaven, let's thank you so much for Easter.

Thank you for These eyewitness testimonies that we are able to read even 2000 years later, this, this, this clear call and explanation, Jesus, for why he came. And God, as we move, as we move, and we talk about Jesus, the death that you died, and God, what you did for all of us to save us completely.

I just pray. I just pray for clarity. God, I pray for openness. God, would you protect us from any confusion and God in this moment? And these next few moments, would you, by the power of your Holy Spirit, would you reveal just how much you love us?

And would you reveal everything you have done to get everything out of the way that stood between you and us? And finally, God, would you move us by granting us the faith that we need to respond? Jesus, I pray all of this in your risen name.

Amen.