Easter Monday. Here in Australia where I am, at least it’s a public holiday. Not bad really for a nation in which even though 70% say they believe in God, you’d have to say we’re a pretty secular lot. Add Good Friday to that and hey presto, you have a four day long weekend with good chocolate mixed in. Whoa fantastic. Not a bad deal.

And pretty much, you know, anyone who kind of takes Easter seriously, well we’ve been to Church once or twice and today’s pretty much an excuse for a long weekend and a rest. We kind of behave as though this whole Easter thing was confined to a single weekend and today we’re pretty much over it and we’re ready to have a rest before we get back to the business of living life tomorrow.

But on that first Easter 2,000 odd years ago this week was a pretty eventful week. For starters Jesus body was missing and that was a worry. It was a worry for the disciples and it was a worry for the authorities because the authorities knew that if this body had gone missing then those pesky disciples of Jesus would claim that He’d risen from the dead the way He’d been saying all along.

And they, they wanted Jesus dead and buried right? At least the religious leaders did. They wanted this annoying so called king of the Jews out of the road so they could get back to the way things were before He’d burst on the scene, three, three and half years ago. They’d all seen Him dead with their own eyes. Now it was time to let sleeping dogs lie. So, John chapter 19, verse 38:

“After these things Joseph of Arimathea who was a disciple of Jesus though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission so he came and removed his body. Nicodemus who had at first come to Jesus by night also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about a hundred pounds.

“They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with spices in linen cloths according to the burial custom of the Jews. There was a garden in the place where He was crucified and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid and so because it was a Jewish day of preparation and the tomb was nearby they laid Jesus there.”

It had been a gruesome death but what they did now was pretty much routine. Had to get things out of the road before the Sabbath so they whipped Him into a tomb. But not just any tomb, the problem was with this whole disciple’s thing. What if they stole the body and claimed Jesus had been raised from the dead the way He’d been saying He would be?

So as Matthew tells us in his account:

“The Chief Priests and the Pharisee’s gathered before Pilate and said, ‘Sir, we remember what this impostor said while He was still alive. After three days I will rise again. Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise His disciples may go and steal Him away and tell people He’s been raised from the dead and the last deception would be worse than the first’.

“Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard of soldiers, go make it as secure as you can’. So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing it with a stone.”

There you are, pretty much have it. The jealousy of the religious leaders had them seal the tomb and post guards on it. And this, this pretty much makes it impossible for the disciples to have stolen the body. Of course many today will still claim that they did but how could they have? A sealed tomb, a guard of Roman soldiers in front of the tomb.

It was posted and in any case at this point the disciples were still in great fear for their lives. I mean Jesus, the one whom they thought was the Son of God had just been crucified. They were identified as His followers. They were weak, distraught, in fear, hiding so as not to be captured and crucified themselves. It was time to keep a low profile right?

And since they themselves never really understood this whole prediction that Jesus would rise again, it just doesn’t seem plausible to me that they would go and steal His body. But in fact Matthew tells us this is what happened when the two Mary’s went down to the tomb. They saw an angel who had come to roll the stone away. Matthew chapter 28, verses 3 and 4.

“His appearance was like lightening and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.”

And while these two Mary’s raced off and encountered this risen Jesus, we’ll look at that tomorrow, and told the other disciples what had happened, the guards had to head off and explain to the authorities what was going on. Again Matthew fills us in on the facts. Matthew chapter 28 beginning at verse 11:

“While they were going off some of the guard went into the city and told the Chief Priests everything that had happened. After the Priests had assembled with the elders they devised a plan to give a large sum of money to these soldiers telling them, ‘you must say His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we’re asleep’.”

“If this comes to the governors ears we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So they took the money and did as they were directed and this story is still told among the Jews to this day.”

Seems pretty clear to me but then the reality is I’m bias, really I am. I believe in Jesus, I follow Jesus the best I can each day of my life even though I stumble sometimes. So the last person you’d hire as an impartial judge to assess the facts would be me. I tell other people about Jesus for a living. I have, at least on the surface of things, a conflict of interests.

How could you possibly trust me to tell you the impartial truth? And that’s a fair summary so let me tell you what I’ve experienced of this risen Jesus because as strong as the facts seem to be for me of those events 2,000 years ago, the present reality of Jesus in my life is all the evidence that I need to believe that He rose from the dead.

And is so often the case the Apostle Paul explains it better than just about anyone, Romans chapter 6 beginning at verse 3:

“Don’t you know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death. Therefore we have been buried with Him by baptism into death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His we will certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.”

Jesus died and rose again and we put our trust in Him. We die to the sinful self when we do that and we’re given a new life in His resurrection. We get a new life through His resurrection:

“If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through His Spirit that dwells in you.”

And it’s this newness of life that the Spirit of God brings that I hold as my primary evidence of Jesus resurrection. As I look back on the first 36 years of my life, as much as I thought back then before I’d met the risen Jesus, I was living life to the full, I was okay.

Frankly I was dead but when Jesus came for me, when He sought me out, when I gave my life to Him, well since that moment at about a quarter past eleven on the 15th of October, 1995 I have had a new life, a rich life, an abundant life, a life that words simply alone can’t describe. Yeah a life with ups and downs, successes and failures, good days and bad days but through all of that a knowledge I’m completely forgiven by what Jesus did for me on a cross.

Seems to me the only real way to know that Jesus rose again is to live it out, this newness of life that His resurrection brings. For me it’s all the evidence I need.

Every now and then God does the unexpected; in fact it’s more than every now and then. When we walk through life trusting in this miracle working God what we discover is that He’s doing miracles, big ones and little ones, all along the way pretty much most of the time.

Often we don’t see them because we don’t expect Him to be at work in our lives and so often the miracles come disguised as threats because when God does something powerful it’s often, in fact almost always something completely unexpected.

Just about every time an angel appears to someone in the Bible what’s the first thing the angel says to the person? Do not be afraid. Why? Because when one of Gods angels shows up it’s unexpected and our first instinct is to be afraid.

How many of us enjoy the unexpected? Not many I have to tell you. No we’d rather have a nice and safe and comfortable and predictable life. Most of us aren’t bungee jumping, adrenaline rush kind of people. So put yourself, if you will, in the sandals of those disciples following the crucifixion and the burial of Jesus. Lets just walk their journey with them for a bit and try to understand a little better the fear and the threat going on in their lives right about now.

Jesus has just been nailed to a cross and buried. Are they next? What does the future hold for me? Arrest, trial, crucifixion? At best failure and despair. That’s what’s going on here for the disciples right about now. John chapter 20 beginning at verse 1:

“Early on the first day of the week while it was still dark Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they’ve laid Him’.

“Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. The two were running together but the other disciple out ran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there but he didn’t go in.

“Then Simon Peter came following him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there and the cloth that have been on Jesus head not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.

“Then the other disciple who reached the tomb first also went in and he saw and he believed for as yet they didn’t understand the Scripture that He must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes but Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept she bent over to look into the tomb and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head the other at the feet.

“They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They’ve taken away my Lord, I don’t know where they’ve laid Him’. When she said this she turned around and she saw Jesus standing there but she didn’t know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?’

“Supposing him to be the gardener she said to him, ‘Sir, if you’ve carried Him away tell me where you’ve laid Him and I’ll take Him away’.”

Confusion would be the best way to sum it all up. Mary thinks the body’s been stolen. Peter and John go racing down to the tomb early in the morning and these two disciples believed. Mary on the other hand, she didn’t understand. She stood outside the tomb weeping. She sees two angels, Matthew tells us she only saw one angel and that having then seen the risen Jesus she goes back and tells the other disciples.

So even the accounts in the Bible don’t seem to be quite the same. If you read of this account of the discovery of the empty tomb in Matthew chapter 28 it’s pretty much impossible to reconcile Matthew’s account with Johns. And they said the word of God was supposed to be infallible. Well a plain reading of these two accounts shows they simply don’t marry up.

Then finally, according to John, here in this passage we just read Mary encounters Jesus, the risen Jesus and wait for this, she mistakes Him as the gardener. What a complete and utter shambles. Can this really be the way it all happened? Surely all this confusion casts significant doubt over the whole claim that Jesus was who He said He was and the claim of the disciples and the Bible, that He rose again from the dead.

Interestingly when police are investigating a crime one of the things that makes them very, very suspicious is when the independent testimonies of different witnesses all line up in the minutest detail. Why? Because it’s normal that people’s recollection of events are going to differ, that’s the normal thing. And it’s even more the case when people are under pressure or when they’re afraid. The more pressure, the more fear the more our recollection of events is going to vary. That’s normal.

So if Matthew, Mark, Luke and John’s account of these eventful days married up in every detail we’d have to be pretty concerned. The fact that they don’t in reality attests to their authenticity. So does that mean that the Bible isn’t perfect, it’s not the inerrant word of God? Is that what we’d assume?

Not at all. See I trust God more than enough to believe that He can choose to speak to us through a Bible written by imperfect people. People who saw things from different vantage points. People who had slightly different recollections and points of view. Life’s confusing, events don’t always make sense and that was particularly so for these disciples who’s whole world had just come crashing down with the arrest and the trial and the beating and the crucifixion of Jesus.

Everything they had believed in, everything they’d hoped for seemed to have been destroyed. They were gutted, they were tired, they were afraid and despite all that, despite the tumult and the turmoil and the fear and the threats and the confusion and the mistaken identities. The gardener, I was the first person to meet the risen Jesus and I mistook Him for the gardener, boy that would have taken a while to live down hey.

Despite all this mayhem Jesus rose from the grave. He did what He came to do. He died so our sins could be forgiven, He rose again to give us an abundant new life. As Paul writes decades later, Romans chapter 8, verse 11:

“If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through His Spirit that dwells in you.”

And at the point that I received this new life, this resurrection life, can I tell you something? It was no less confusing to me than the events of those hours and days surrounding that empty tomb. Why? A couple of reasons. Things weren’t going so well in my life at that point. In fact things were a complete mess on multiple fronts and without going into the details now, it was a good many years ago, the thing that made it even worse for me is that I’m Mr Super Organised, get the things done, have everything going well kind of guy.

So life was a mess, I was hurting, it was confusing, things didn’t make sense and in the middle of all that this risen Jesus came into my life to offer me forgiveness and a new life. That’s the first reason and the second was simply this. The last thing I ever expected in that mess was a resurrection, an empty tomb, a new life for me. You just don’t expect that when things are falling around you in a heap.

Because we imagine somehow that in order to invite Jesus into our lives we have to clean up all the mess first and make it all perfect. Then and only then will this Jesus ever be able to come in. I mean we have to get ourselves organised, in some worthy state before we can show it all to Jesus.

See how confused we are. Just like Mary, just like the disciples, they couldn’t imagine that something good could possibly come out of this mess. At least they couldn’t agree on it but Jesus did what He came to do. Despite the circumstances, despite the inadequate expectations of His disciples who by the way had spent the last three and a half years on the road with Him. Hello

If you’ve been able to join me on the program during this week you’ll recall that we’re taking a close look at the events in the hours and days following the discovery of that empty tomb. The fear, the confusion, the different perspectives on what happened. And there’s a reason for that.

As I shared with you yesterday on the program encountering this risen Jesus isn’t always a straight forward thing. We see our own circumstances, busy, confusing, a mess in this area or that and we think to ourselves, ‘couldn’t possibly be that this Jesus would walk into my life. No, I have to clean the mess up first before I can invite Him in’.

As though somehow it’s all up to us which is completely so not the point when it comes to the cross. Jesus died for you and He died for me despite our mess and because of our mess and He rose again despite the fact that no one expected Him to, to bring a new life to you and to me.

So continuing with our approach of just, I guess, putting ourselves in the sandals of the disciples in those fearful and startling times. Today we’re going to try to come to grips with what it must have been like for them to meet this risen Jesus for the first time because my hunch is that in doing that we’re going to discover what it means to meet this risen Jesus in our lives today. So, if you’re up for it let’s go and take a look.

So far what’s happened is that a few of the disciples went kind of racing down to the tomb where Jesus had been buried on reports that it was empty and the body was missing. And they saw an angel, or two, we’re not quite certain, Matthew and John give us slightly different accounts here. And the rumour is that Jesus has risen.

He’s been spotted by one or two of them, Mary’s claiming to have seen Him, Peter and John are claiming He’s risen. What if I’m one of the disciples hiding from the authorities, hoping like crazy they won’t notice me, they won’t come for me, I won’t be arrested and tried and crucified too? I have to tell you something, in my fear I am seriously sceptical of these claims.

You’ve got to be kidding me, I mean I know I heard Jesus with my own ears telling me He had to die and on the third day He’d rise again. Yep, that’s a great story, it’s a great idea but people it is time to face the facts. He’s dead. He’s buried. We saw it all happen with our own eyes. He’s gone. It’s over. The best we can hope for is to get away with our own lives if we’re really, really lucky.

So there we are huddled together in a room, doors locked, hoping, praying the same won’t happen to us. John chapter 20 beginning at verse 19:

“When it was evening on the first day, the first day of the week and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you’. After He said this He showed them His hands and His side, then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

“Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you as the Father has sent me so I send you’. When He had said this He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

So with all our fears and misconceptions and scepticism huddled behind closed doors, there we are knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt how dire our predicament is and all of a sudden there He is. Jesus in our midst. And of all the things He could possibly think to say He says, ‘Shalom, peace be with you’.

Let me ask you, how are you feeling? What are you thinking? Can you believe this is actually happening? Me, I’m in shock. I mean I am reeling from this apparition. I simply can’t believe my eyes. But He understands that does our Jesus. He knows us better than we know ourselves so He shows us His hands and His side just so that we can see the scars and know it’s him.

The crucified Jesus, the scarred hands and feet and side. Not quite the Jesus of before, risen again from the dead and all of a sudden despair and disbelief turn into complete euphoria. It is Him. Unbelievable. Jesus risen from the dead just like He said He would. That completely changes everything. My minds racing, what now? What does this mean? What’s going to happen to me? What’s Jesus going to do?

“And Jesus said to them again; ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me so I send you. When He’d said this He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Friend this is exactly what happens when we encounter the risen Jesus. It completely blows us off our feet. See so often when people give their lives to Jesus things are a mess in their lives, they certainly were in my life and if not everything then at least there’s a spot here and a blemish there and, well you know the rest.

And so whatever our motivation is, whatever the Spirit of God has done in our hearts and however He’s opened the eyes of our soul we somehow give our lives to Jesus. But frankly the last thing, absolutely the last thing I ever expected was an encounter with this risen Jesus. Maybe I thought about it but when we meet this risen Jesus He breathes on us and He pours His Holy Spirit into us and that brings the new life that He gained for us when He rose again from the dead. A new life in Jesus. Romans chapter 8, verse 11:

“If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through His Spirit that dwells in you.”

And friend that is precisely what’s meant to happen. I was shocked, I was surprised, I didn’t know what it meant but it was the most powerful encounter for me with this God who sent His Son to die for me and rise again from the grave. And the moment I received His Spirit, sitting as I was under a large gum tree, a eucalypt, at the time in the bright sun something changed in me, something happened and I wanted to go and tell the world about Jesus.

I know now that that something was the Spirit of Jesus bringing to pass exactly the same call, that sending that came to pass on His disciples that night and Jesus said to them again:

‘Shalom. Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me so now I send you.’ When He had said this He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.”

He sent them to go and to proclaim the good news of a risen Saviour to the rest of the world. Of course we all have different gifts and motivations, we’re all different and Jesus means to use us just as we are as He sends us into this world to tell people of Him. To be Christ in a lost and hurting world. To bind up the broken hearted. To heal the sick. To bring good news to the poor. Release to the captives.

A new life is the last thing we expect but its the thing that Jesus came to give us. To set us free from the power of our old sinful selves, free to live the abundant life He came to give us. Dead to the old man, dead to the old woman, alive at last in Christ. A fresh, new, abundant, eternal life. That’s what Easter’s all about.

What a terrible tragedy that so many people brush past Easter without ever giving it too much of a thought. What a terrible, terrible tragedy that so many people ignore a gift so wondrous that mere words can’t describe. What a tragedy.

They say that seeing is believing and frankly these days there are so many outrageous claims and tricks and illusions and deceptions. You’d have to say, ‘yeah, if it sounds too good to be true then probably it is’. And if it’s one of those outrageous claims then I want to see inside and behind and through before I’ll believe it.

I remember a famous illusionist who would do things like make the statue of liberty disappear on television. Amazing until you see how it’s done. He plays with your whole frame of reference and uses the deception that that medium of television offers to leave you wondering, how did he do that?

And I suspect had I been one of these disciples who’d watched Jesus nailed to the cross, who’d seen His body carted off and laid in a tomb, I suspect that I would find this whole resurrection thing just a bit too hard to believe. The notion that a man could rise from the dead after this public execution, after His obvious death, I know it would be a bridge too far from my faith.

You see sitting here 2,000 years on the whole thing is so distant, well it’s a whole bunch easier to believe. But if someone claimed that someone you and I both knew, someone who we’d seen die, that this person was now alive, here and now, well you know I suspect that’s something we’d both struggle with, right? So we shouldn’t be surprised if these disciples struggled with this too. Particularly this guy called Thomas.

Now by the time Thomas finds out that this Jesus of his is allegedly alive, Jesus has already appeared to just about all the other disciples in the inner circle. Their despair has turned into joy, euphoria’s probably a better description and you can just imagine the discussion round the dinner table. Wow, what does that mean? Are we going to continue like before? If He can do this imagine what comes next.

They’re chattering away all excited but one amongst their number, poor old Thomas, Thomas wasn’t there the night before when Jesus appeared in their midst behind the locked door. Not surprisingly Thomas is kind of struggling with it all. He’s a down to earth guy and before he’s going to be taken in by this fanciful story that Jesus is alive Tom wants some evidence. John chapter 20, verse 24:

“But Thomas who was also called The Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus had come. So the other disciples told him, ‘We’ve seen the Lord’. But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in His hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and hand in His side I will not believe.’

“A week later His disciples were again in the house and Thomas was with them. All though the doors were shut Jesus came and stood amongst them and said, ‘Peace be with you’. Then He said to Thomas, ‘Put your fingers here and see my hands. Reach out with your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’

“And Thomas answered Him ‘My Lord and my God’. Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’”

And for this poor old Thomas has been branded as doubting Thomas for the last 2,000 years. It’s a bit unfair since I really relate to what he was going through. There are many people who still today want evidence that this Jesus is alive. And for a whole week Tom had to wait before Jesus showed Himself again to His disciples. They say a weeks a long time in politics and my hunch is that that week was an excruciatingly long time for Thomas as well.

All the other disciples had seen Jesus. They were euphoric except poor old Thomas. It would have been easier for him to feel like a lesser disciple than the rest having missed out on what, by all reports, was an amazing experience of meeting this risen Jesus for the very first time.

Let me ask you something, why is it that Jesus did this? Why was is so arranged that Thomas missed out the first time around and had to wait for a week? My hunch is because there’s a little doubting Thomas in each one of us. There’s a bit of that rational man, that thinking man, that evidence based man Thomas in you and me. And this account of Thomas’ struggle to believe was put there for you and me:

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in His hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and hand in His side I won’t believe.”

So, what are we to learn? What’s the take away for you and for me here from Tom’s story?

“A week later His disciples were again in the house and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut Jesus came and stood among them again and said, ‘Peace be with you’. He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand, put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’”

Well the first thing, first Thomas’ doubting didn’t stop Jesus from showing up. In fact quite to the contrary, Jesus showed up miraculously just as before, appearing in their midst despite the fact all the doors were locked tight. Seems that even though Jesus had appeared to them a week before it wasn’t enough for His word of peace to take hold in their hearts. It wasn’t enough for them to fling open the doors and shout the good news out to the rest of the world.

Nevertheless, in spite of all that and Thomas’ doubt Jesus shows up again. Again He tells them ‘Shalom, my peace be with you’. And without skipping a beat He turns to Thomas and He says, ‘Here look, touch my hands, look at the scars, put your fist in my side, feel the scars for yourself. I want you now not to doubt but I want you to believe’.

Jesus showed up eventually and gave Thomas the opportunity to see the forensic evidence to speak with Jesus and to know beyond any shadow of any doubt that Jesus had risen from the dead because when Thomas had checked out the evidence for himself Thomas answered Him:

“My Lord and my God.”

Thomas is awestruck. His Saviour is risen and Jesus responds:

“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

You know what I think is happening here? It’s almost as though Thomas is a proxy for you and me. He gets to doubt on our behalf, he gets to check out the physical evidence on our behalf, he gets to conclude, ‘My Lord and My God’ on our behalf, on my behalf on your behalf.

And friend if you’ve struggled to believe then let me encourage you to read Thomas’ story again and hear what Jesus has to say to you because of Thomas, almost through Thomas’ doubt as it were:

“Have you believed because you’ve seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Friend He’s talking about us. This is our opportunity to believe and through this story, through this historical and factual account of a Thomas who wouldn’t believe until he saw the evidence, I truly believe that Jesus is coming today to us and offering us the opportunity to do just that. To believe.

Remember He doesn’t hide from Thomas, He came to him, He offered him the proof he so desired. And today I believe He’s offering us the proof of coming to us through His Spirit, through His word and I know, I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that there are those listening today, perhaps you’re one of them, who have heard His voice, His call, seen His proof through this plain, simple and beautiful story of Thomas.

May your life be touched and transformed as you let the Lord our God take this story and put it to work in your heart because the plan of God, the reason Jesus came is to reveal Himself to you today so that you may have life in all its abundance.

Well here we are at the end of four weeks, 20 messages taking a look at this whole Easter story from a different perspective. If you’ve been able to join me on and off over the last few weeks you’ll know we’ve been putting ourselves in the shoes, or at least the sandals, of the disciples. Experiencing the lead up to that first Easter, the crucifixion, the empty tomb and its aftermath.

And I have to tell you as we’ve done that together over these past weeks the thing that’s really hit me between the eyes is that these disciples simply didn’t have an easy time of it. Yes Jesus had predicted His own death and crucifixion. Yes He had predicted His resurrection and His glory. But as the disciples travelled these difficult and dangerous roads they were dejected, they were afraid. So afraid in fact in fear for their lives that they locked themselves away in a house with the doors bolted shut.

And when Jesus appeared to them He had to do so miraculously because the doors were locked. Amazing isn’t it? Despite His predictions, despite what they knew of Him having been on the road with Him for three and a half years, despite Him giving them instructions and saying these things to them to give them peace, it was still a fearful, dangerous and confusing time.

I wonder, I wonder if you relate to that in your life because I certainly do.

I was just reading an email from a listener in the UK who was sharing how he’d stepped out in faith in his life and fallen flat on his face and it kind of appeared that God had deserted him. That’s how he felt. And I wonder if that isn’t what the disciples felt after Jesus’ death. It’s certainly something that you or I can experience because, well God doesn’t always do things the way we would do them.

This familiar Easter story, had you been God would you have done things that way? Not me. Absolutely not. I would not have let Jesus die such a brutal death on the cross but then I don’t have the love in my heart for you that God does. I don’t have the sacrificial, never-ending, faithful, gentle, powerful, unfailing love for each member of the human race that God has.

And so He sends us His own Son so that we would know just how much He loves us. Romans chapter 5, verse 8:

“God proves His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

And so through all this mayhem surrounding that very first Easter we see Jesus resolute, heading towards the cross, showing us who God is and what He’s about and how much He loves us. In fact let me encourage you to do this, as we’ve journeyed through this account, just one account of Easter in John’s Gospel over these last few weeks, we’ve seen who God is.

What if you were to take some time in this coming week and just read these few chapters again from John chapter 13 through to chapter 20? Not a very long read and as you’re reading ask yourself, ‘What does this tell my about my God?’ Well the one thing that stands out for me is how single minded He was about saving me at the cost of His own Son.

Nothing, not one thing, not the misunderstandings, the false accusations, the beatings, the ridicule, the crowd that turned against Him, the plots by those religious leaders, nothing stopped Jesus from heading to that cross for me. Not even each and every one of His disciples, His friends deserting Him, nothing.

And take it beyond that, look at the whole of His public ministry. He was constantly misunderstood, he was constantly rejected, the religious leaders were constantly trying to trap Him. John chapter 6 verse 66, we’re told that lots of people turned away from Jesus because they didn’t like what He was saying.

It didn’t stop Him, He continued to be God in our midst, Emmanuel. He continued to tell the truth. He continued to expose hypocrisy, shine His light in our hearts that we might have life. The crowds were fickle, the religious hierarchy was dangerous, the pay was, well lousy and then the end was horrific but nothing held Him back.

This is my God, this is my Jesus. Nothing was too much for Him when it came to saving my soul. Nothing. So why did He come? Why did John the Apostle bother writing down this whole account of Jesus ministry, His death, His resurrection? Well right at the end of the Easter story John tells us why. He tells us what the whole point of his message, John’s Gospel, is and here it is. It’s short and it’s sweet. John chapter 20 beginning at verse 30:

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book but these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and that through believing you may have life in His name.”

As far as John was concerned all the many miracles that Jesus performed of which John only relates a handful in his Gospel, they weren’t just miracles, they were signs. What’s a sign? It’s something short and sweet and important that points to something else. And these signs that Jesus performed pointed to who He was and is and who it was that sent Him.

Jesus, the Son of God sent by who? By God the Father, Dad, to bring you and me home, to give us life. How do we know that? Well look at the signs. Turning water into wine, the healings, even raising Lazarus from the dead. Who else could have done something like that? Who else but the Son of God? But the greatest sign of all was the cross.

Still visible on Church buildings, in paintings, even in jewellery today. In fact when you think about it wearing a cross on a gold chain is a bit like wearing a gallows or an electric chair. The sign of the cross, the love of God, the sign of an empty tomb pointing to the risen Jesus who brings us a new life.

And the reason, the reason John writes them all down is that we may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, He is the Son of God and that through believing you and I may have life, life in Jesus name. The whole point of Easter is that you and I may have life from Jesus, a new life in His name.

Now heres the sad thing, the terribly sad thing. I know many, many people who have been believing in Jesus for a long time. I know many, many people who’ve been faithfully going to Church even serving God in this capacity or that, some of them for a life time and yet many of these people haven’t begun to live the new life that Jesus brings.

They’re still dead in their old lives. They’re dead in religion because, wait for this, they’ve believed in Jesus for eternal life but they haven’t believed in Him for a new life here and now. The point of believing in Jesus is that we may have life in His name.

Here’s my encouragement to you today. That as we wind up this series of message on Easter Jesus came to give, not just me a new life, He came to give you a new life. A rich life. An abundant life. Albeit with trials and sacrifices with downs as well as ups. A new life. He died to give it to you and He died to give it to me, this new life.

I encourage you today, don’t settle for anything less. Don’t settle for the poor impostor of a rule based religion, of doing dead works because that’s not where it is.

Father,
I pray, I pray for each one of us right now that this new life that Jesus came to give us would come alive in our lives today. Breathe your Spirit upon us afresh today that we may live this new life that was purchased for us at such a great price. Free from the old self, free from the tyranny of sin, free from condemnation, free from death eternal, free to be your servant, your hands and your feet on this earth for your glory in Jesus name we pray. Amen.