You can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep. So that begs the question then, what company did Jesus keep and what does it tell us about Him?

Calling Fishermen

Well, it’s great to be with you again at the beginning of a new series and I really hope you have had a good week. It’s amazing how the year is already slipping by and here we are; well we are heading toward Easter. Can you believe it? And it feels as though we only just had Christmas.

I was thinking about the whole Easter thing and how to approach it this year. I was wondering whether, together, we couldn‘t start earlier this year? I mean the Easter bunnies and the whole chocolate eggs thing aside, it seems to me that the central question of Easter is – who is Jesus; exactly, who is He? What’s He like? If He were to walk into my life or into your life right now, what would He be like? What would it be like to be around Him?

It’s so easy to take someone who lived, well, two thousand years ago and turn Him into a kind of a stained glass window. But if He is going to be relevant; if He’s going to make a difference, well, what’s He like?

So that’s why we are beginning a new series this week called, “Who is Jesus?” And over these next four weeks, as we head towards Easter, we are simply going to take a look at some snap shots – almost like going to a photograph album and looking at pictures of Jesus – but instead of going to a photo album we are going to go to the Bible; God’s Word. So if you have it, grab it and open it up. We are going to begin in Matthew chapter 4 and look at the first snap shot of Jesus.

Where I live – just a few minutes drive from my home – is a wonderful fish market. And early in the morning when you go down there, it’s pretty quiet, later it gets a bit of a bustle. And there’s a huge array of fish and oysters and mussels and shell fish – you wonder where it all comes from. And at Christmastime there are so many prawns or shrimps, if you like, by the truckload. It’s a fantastic place. It’s a place of commerce and food and flavour and you can have a seafood meal down there and it all started on a boat out on the water there.

And when I walk into the fish market where I live, there’s a man just on the left hand side shelling oysters – he’s an older man and I’m pretty sure he’s Greek – big hairy arms and he wears these big thick rubber gloves and there are piles and piles of unshelled oysters. Now I love fish and I love the bustle of the fish market and the people and the characters and the feel and the buzz – I really enjoy that, but here’s a question.

If you or I were God; if you or I were Jesus and we were thinking, “Well, I want to start a church. Something that is not going to be perfect but I want it to be strong; I want it to last for a few thousand years and I need some people.” Is that where we’d start? Is that where we’d go?

Well, Jesus … Jesus was a carpenter and He began His public ministry sometime in His late twenties or early thirties, perhaps, and it lasted for around three and a half years. And He wasn’t one of the recognised religious leaders; He wasn’t wealthy; He wasn’t a king, He was a carpenter and He was walking down by the Sea of Galilee one day and He picks some fishermen to be His followers. Let’s read it. If you’ve got your Bible open it up. We are going to Matthew chapter 4, beginning at verse 18:

As Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee He saw two brothers – Simon, who was called Peter and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea, because they were fisherman. And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me and I will make you fish for people,” and immediately they left their nets and they followed Him. And as He went from there, He saw two other brothers; James, the son of Zebedee and his brother, John, in the boat with their dad, Zebedee, mending their nets and He called them and immediately they left the boat and their father and they followed Jesus.

See, as we begin to look at who this Jesus is, today we are going to look as some of the people that He spent His time with. You can actually tell a lot about someone by the people they choose to hang around. And here is Jesus, the Son of God and He comes from Galilee. Now, Galilee wasn’t exactly the nicest part of Israel.

I mean, the religious and political centre was Jerusalem, up in Judah but He was up in the north and there He was in Galilee; the slums and the pits and He’s a carpenter. He made, I don’t know, chairs and coffins and houses, I guess and when the time comes to begin His public ministry, He goes down to the fish market; down to the Sea of Galilee. It’s almost like me going down to my fish market and seeing the Greek guy there with the hairy arms, shelling the oysters.

Jesus goes down to the fish market – this carpenter who made chairs and coffins – and He calls simple fishermen. Now see, the Rabbis in Israel; the teachers, they were the elite and actually if you wanted to be one of their students and one of their followers, you had to go to them and apply and ask and you had to be good enough. But here, Jesus goes out, instead of people coming to Him, Jesus goes out and chooses people and calls people – not theologians.

He didn’t go to the most prodigious Bible school in Jerusalem and pick the top graduates, He goes to the fish market, not elite businessmen, just uneducated fishermen, rough, tough, hard lives – they were into boats and nets and stench and fish and … it was a morning like any other and Jesus was out there walking by the Sea of Galilee and He knows deep in His heart that He’s the Son of God and He’s come for a purpose. These last thirty years of growing and waiting and learning, of walking in sandals and crunching in the gravel – He felt this calling; this beating in His heart.

And He looks out and He goes there to the Sea of Galilee with a tear in His eye, with excitement and trepidation, the time has come for the carpenter to go down to the fish market. Now, in an earthly sense, the odds are stacked against Him and He calls four rough, uneducated bumpkins – Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John. Pete, Andy, Jim and Johno.

Now, that does something for you and me. As we look at who Jesus is and we look at Him from our here and now, we can look at Him and say, “You know, He’s not a stained glass window; He’s not a religion. He’s real; He’s alive; He’s relevant, here and now.” He goes to the fish market to find people to follow Him. Does Jesus still have a purpose today? Does Jesus still want to find fishers of people today?

Instead of the Sea of Galilee, He’s going to go the local fish market or the hair dressing salon or the office building or the shopping centre or the factory with that same – that same dream burning in His heart. Looking for a Pete or an Andy or a Jim or a Johno or a Sue or a Melissa or a Jenny or a Helen to come and follow Him.

Cleansing the Leper

Well, let’s have a look at another story. I remember when I was growing up, I was kind of looking at this whole church and religion thing and it all seemed so weird to me. I mean, men in funny gowns and bishops in funny hats and incense every now and then and songs that didn’t make sense to me and sermons that bored me, people in pews that didn’t seem to be enjoying the experience or their own lives, for that matter. Does it sound vaguely familiar? And I remember thinking, “If I were ever to sign up to something like that, it would have to be real. It has to make my heart sing – it has to rock me to the core. It has to be real.”

I’m a baby boomer – we don’t much like authority and institutions and stained glass windows and rituals and shams. We want to experience reality and now so many in my generation are still pulling on their Levi’s, hoping to find that reality. But you know what I mean? Don’t give me some trite ritualistic religiosity that doesn’t make a difference. I want something that works.

I was talking to a man recently – in his forties – he married young – many of us baby boomers did. He was divorced and remarried and his wife fell pregnant and they lost the baby. They had been going to church on and off – it was a hang over from their upbringing – but it didn‘t really work for them. Who knows why we do the things we do but they went anyway. So they went to see their minister after their last baby and they were gutted. The response? The response from the minister, “This is God’s punishment for divorce and remarriage. You and your wife should now live together as brother and sister.”

Now I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t work for me. There is one of three options. The first option is that is what Jesus would have said, lump it or leave it. The second option is that church doesn’t much care about Jesus – it’s about religion and rules, not about Jesus. Or third – Jesus, Jesus would have had a different angle. These people were treated by the church like lepers.

Well, let’s go and visit some lepers in the first century, in Israel. Back then leprosy had no cure; the lepers were ostracised, they were thought to be highly infectious. So lepers were religious and social outcasts. They lived in shanty towns, often outside the city walls – so they lived outside the protection of the community. They were kind of like ‘non people’. They were incurable, infectious and from a religious perspective, they were unclean.

When they came into the city, they had to maintain a distance of so many paces between themselves and any one who wasn’t a leper. And if someone who wasn’t a leper came close they had to shout out “Unclean, unclean”. If they wanted to worship in the synagogue, they had to arrive much earlier than everyone else and sit out back in a room on their own and they had to leave after everyone else had left. They really couldn’t participate in the life of their synagogue or their community. So these lepers were just outcasts. And a leper comes to Jesus and he is desperate. You can read this in Mark chapter 1, beginning at verse 40 and he says:

Lord, if You are willing You can make me clean.

Here is this leper who is segregated through the Old Testament law. He’s emotionally and spiritually and physically sick. What will Jesus do? This person is a leper. This person is unclean – to the religious institution, we shouldn’t go anywhere near him.

A bit like my friend who had lost the baby, after divorce and remarriage. This religious institution said, “You are unclean.” So what will Jesus do? This is what it says:

Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched the leper and He said “I am willing, be made clean. And the leper was healed.”

See, because of his circumstances, religious law made him an outcast and yet, Jesus comes along and reaches out with compassion in His heart and touches the leper. It was against the law for Him to touch the leper. Touching the leper made Him unclean – touching the leper exposed Him, potentially to the disease.

And then Jesus says, “Look, don’t tell anyone – just go and tell the religious leaders.” Yea, right! This guy told the whole world; he was over the moon. The crowds flocked to see Jesus who had cleansed this leper. So much so, He couldn’t enter the towns and cities – He had to teach out on the hill-tops and in the fields.

WOW – that’s a surprise! It’s called “grace” – people are attracted to grace. It’s something, by and large, you don’t find in religion. But then Jesus isn’t a religion. My hunch is that religion is something that people invent. No, no, Jesus is the Son of God and it says:

When the leper came to Him, He was moved with compassion and He stretched out His hand and touched the leper and said, “I am willing.”

What does that tell you about God?

Dinner with a Sinner

Well, today on the programme, we are looking just at different stories; different pictures; almost going through a photo album, looking at Jesus. Maybe even going through Jesus’ own “face book” page or “youtube” page or “my space” page – just having a look at Him. It’s great to be doing that because we are starting a series today called ’Who is Jesus?’ and we’re just answering that by looking at these little vignettes; these little stories of who Jesus is.

One of the things I really hate doing each year is my tax return. It’s not that I begrudge the Government it’s taxes and most times I get a refund from the Tax man, it’s just the effort of working through my affairs – I don’t know – it’s just not something that I really enjoy doing.

Now we live in a system in this twenty first century which by and large, well, it’s a fair tax system. We may argue that we pay too much tax or that the balance across society isn’t quite equitable, but at least it’s applied even – handedly and consistently. So as much as tax may or may not be your favourite part of life, we live with it.

But how would you feel if the people collecting the tax were dishonest? I mean if they were able to just increase tax and we had no recourse – if they took bribes to reduce our tax or if they applied one standard to you and another to me – my hunch is, we wouldn’t be very happy with that sort of a system at all.

Well, let’s go back and have a look at a tax collector in the first century. See, in the first century in Israel, the Romans occupied Israel – they occupied most of the known world – they were the dominant world power. And Israel, these chosen people of God, were, I guess, slaves and captives to the Roman Empire – to Caesar. And they had a brutal army and they ruled with an iron fist. And so, the Jews had to put up with the excesses and the armies of the Roman Empire.

The Jews, of course, well, they weren’t exactly enamoured with this – they didn’t really enjoy this. And the Romans appointed Jewish tax collectors – they were almost like franchise operators – they owned the local MacDonald’s franchise or they owned the local Gloria Jean’s Coffee franchise.

But unlike those franchisees, they were dishonest. And they would sit at toll gates and as people passed through with their trade; they would collect tax on whatever was being shipped through. But by and large, these Jewish tax collectors who were appointed by the Roman occupying force were a corrupt bunch. They were betraying their own people.

See, firstly they were enforcing Roman rule and taking money from the Jews; from God’s chosen people and giving it to the Roman Empire – that’s the first thing. And the second thing is they were lining their own pockets. You see, they would put commission on top of the tax and often they were very corrupt and they would put very high commissions on top of the tax. So, have you got the picture? These people, as far as God’s chosen people, the Israelites were concerned; these Jewish tax collectors were the scum of the earth.

Jesus, on the other hand – Jesus is wandering around healing people. And He’s like a rock star – He is like Bono or any of the stars you would like to think – you see, because He is healing lepers and blind people and He’s preaching with power and authority – not like the religious leaders – He’s up there and crowds are flocking to Him – thousands of people.

Remember, their cities weren’t big like our cities are and so when five or ten thousand people turned up there was a substantial proportion of the population. Jesus; this Rabbi; this teacher, calls some fishermen to be His disciples but then, then He does something that no one would have predicted or imagined in their wildest dreams – He calls a tax collector, a man by the name of Levi. Come with me in the Bible to Matthew chapter 9, beginning at verse 9:

As Jesus was walking along He saw a man called Matthew or Levi sitting at the tax booth and He said to him “Follow me” and the guy got up and followed Him. And as He sat at the dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Him and His disciples. When the religious leaders, the Pharisees saw this, they said to Jesus disciples “Why is it that your teacher eats with tax collectors and sinners?” But when Jesus heard this, He said “Those who are well have no need of a physician, those who are sick do. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy not sacrifice for I have, come not to call the righteous but to call the sinners.”

Uh, uh! So here’s Jesus coming into a town; He’s walking along; He’s being followed by crowds and He sees this tax collector in his tax booth and He says to this guy, “Come and follow Me”. And then He goes and has dinner at Levi’s house with lots of other tax collectors; lots of other ‘scums of the earth’. This is the Son of God; this is the Messiah; this is the guy that healed all those people; this is the Man whom God sent – God’s own Son – to die on a cross for you and me and rise again.

Jesus was hanging out with tax collectors – not the good; not the righteous; not the religious leaders – the tax collectors. And so the religious leaders started a smear campaign. They called Him a glutton and a drunkard and ultimately, they crucified Him because of what He did. How does Jesus respond to what they say – to these religious leaders? He says, “I haven’t come for all those who have got it right. I have come for people just like this.”

See, these religious leaders would demonise the tax collectors and perpetuate this stereo-type of this “scum of the earth” tax collector.

Those who are well, don’t need a doctor”, said Jesus. But those who are sick, well they do. I have come exactly for these people.

See, religion is about throwing stones; religion is about criticising – Jesus was about building bridges and touching lives and … oh, WOW.

He never watered down what was wrong – He didn’t say it was ok. He dealt with those things directly and honestly when He had to. But He reached out to them – He touched them.

I want to cry sometimes when church throws rocks at people. Is that what Jesus is like? Is that what Jesus did to these tax collectors? It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t about issues and dogma and doctrine – it was about people and lives.

I love that about Jesus. That’s who Jesus is.

As He was walking along He saw Matthew, the tax collector, in his tax booth and said “Follow Me,” and then He went and sat down and had dinner with all the tax collectors.

Who is this Jesus? Is He some religious icon? Is He some stained glass window? Is He some rule book? Or is He the Son of God who would sit down with the lowliest of lowly – with the scum of the earth – with the tax collectors, with the prostitutes – and just be their God.

Who is Jesus?

So let me ask you, is Jesus still relevant today?  I mean, look it’s all well and good that we’re going to celebrate Easter shortly, but is this Jesus of whom we read in the Bible, capable of making a difference in your life and mine – here and now?  Does He still impact people in this day and age?

Healer of Women

As you look back through history there is no larger single group of people who have been more oppressed and appalling treated than that group in our society known as women. They have been treated like chattels and decorations; they have been beaten and raped and killed – all through the physical reality that men are physically stronger than women.

The official statistics say that each year over one million women are trafficked as sex slaves across the international borders – one million. And the reality is that it is much, much higher than that. Add to that the psychological and physical abuse of women in the home, right through to the clear reality that women today are still paid less than men and are clearly under-represented in the ranks of senior management and politicians and professionals. And as much as we might want to deny it, it’s a pretty bleak global picture, if you are a woman.

This is the second programme in a series that I’ve called “Who is Jesus?” Because it’s a great question to ask as we head towards Easter. Last week we looked at just a few of the things that Jesus did and the people that He hung around with because you can tell so much about who someone is by the people he spends his time with.

Today I’d like to look at just a few people whose lives Jesus impacted. This is kind of like flipping through a photo album or a story book of Jesus – just looking at little stories and pictures and vignettes of what Jesus did because I believe that as we see how Jesus treated people and what impact He had on their lives, well, it tells us something about who Jesus is and what He means to us today.

Back in the first century women had almost no rights. They were chattels – they couldn’t own land, they couldn’t inherit things, if you became a widow you were destitute, if you were unattractive you would starve, if you came from a poor family you would end up all alone because they couldn’t afford to pay the dowry for you to marry. It was a tough world, especially for women.

So, how did Jesus treat women? That’s a good question – in a tough patriarchal society that treated them like chattels – how did He treat them? If you have a Bible, I want you to open it at Mark chapter 5 – we are going to begin at verse 21. It is a story of three people – Jairus, the leader of the synagogue, a man, and a woman and we are going to look through her story.

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered. One of the leaders of the synagogue, named Jairus, came and when he saw Jesus, fell at His feet and begged Jesus repeatedly, “My little daughter is at that point of death, come lay Your hands on her so that she might be made well and live.” So Jesus went with him, with a large crowd following Him, they pressed in on Him.

Now there was this one woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured so much under so many physicians, spent all that she had and she was no better – but in fact she grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and she came up behind Him in the crowd and touched His cloak. She thought to herself, “If I can just touch His clothes I’ll be made well.” Immediately her haemorrhage stopped and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

Immediately aware that power had gone out from Him, Jesus turned around in the crowd and said “Who touched My clothes?” His disciples said to Him, “Go on, the crowd was pressing in on You, how can you say “Who touched My clothes?” He looked all around to see who had done it but the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease.”

See, this woman was haemorrhaging and the Old Testament Law – you can read it in the Book of Leviticus – said that she was unclean; she was an outcast. She was just unclean and so if she touched anyone they were unclean, which means that they couldn’t go to the temple or the synagogue to worship. And here’s Jesus – Jairus, the leader of the synagogue, comes to Him and says, “My daughter is dying.” The crowds are pressing in.

His disciples know that Jesus has really upset the religious leaders and so they’re thinking, “Great, here’s a chance for Jesus to go and heal the daughter of the leader of the synagogue and get in good with the religious establishment and then all of a sudden this woman comes and touches Him and He stops and pauses and listens to her whole story.” How long do you think it would have taken her to tell the whole truth, as it says in the Bible there? A minute, two? I think maybe five, ten, fifteen, twenty minutes – this would have taken out of His time. Meantime, Jairus, the leader of the synagogue; this guy whose way up the pecking order – his daughter dies.

Now, figure this out. If you or I had been in this situation, would we have raced off and gone to heal Jairus’s daughter first? Would we actually have stopped for this nobody; this unclean, outcast woman? See you think about it – her bleeding – it didn’t stop. They didn’t have the sanitary arrangements that we have today. This was a deeply shameful thing. They didn’t have hot and cold running water and all that stuff. This is a reality – a gritty life issue.

It’s about social isolation and yet Jesus puts her before the synagogue leader. He puts her before the life of the daughter of the synagogue leader. That touches me so deeply about Jesus. Only when Jesus had responded to this woman’s faith – this nobody – we don’t even find out her name in the Bible; this smelly unclean woman – only when He had responded to her faith and touched her and healed her, did He then turn to Jairus and go and raise the daughter of Jairus from the dead.

See, Jesus has more than enough of Himself to go around. He doesn’t pander to religious hierarchy – He doesn’t pander to the things that you and I think are important. Jesus is about touching little people like you and me when we go to Him in faith. That’s more important to Him than anything else.

Rejected at Home

Ever been rejected by someone? It hurts, doesn’t it? And the whole thing about rejection is that it hurts because whoever has rejected us was supposed to welcome us – to stick with us. In fact, the closer the person is to us the more, in our minds anyway, they have a duty to stick by us and so the more it hurts when they reject us. It’s a vicious circle.

So if God did send His Son and His name is Jesus; if the whole point was to show us how much God really loves us, well, then Jesus had to experience rejection. He had to travel down that road to be one of us; unless He did the whole thing would have been something of a sham.

I want to share with you a story from my life. I became a Christian about a dozen or so years ago. In my work life I ran a large IT consulting firm and I travelled all round the world speaking at conferences – thousands of people in Asia and Europe and North America. And people would ask me for autographs and there were all the lights and the cameras – you know, I was highly esteemed in the IT industry.

And not long after I was called to use that gift that I then used in pride, in the Lord’s service – here on the radio; the speaking ministry, supported by faith partners – people who believe in what we are doing. And it was startling to me, almost none of the Christians that we knew, supported our ministry. And that hurt – it was a form of rejection; it was a form of disappointment – until I read a passage that told a similar story about Jesus.

If you’ve got a Bible, open it to Mark chapter 6, beginning at verse 1. This is what it says:

Jesus left that place and came to His home town and His disciples followed Him. On the Sabbath, He began to teach in the synagogue and many who heard Him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all of this? What is this wisdom that has been given to Him? What deeds of power have been done by His hands? Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James and Judas and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offence at Him.

Then Jesus said to them “Prophets are not without honour except in their own home town and among their own kin and in their own house. And He could do no deed of power there except that He laid hands on a few sick people and cured them. And He was amazed at their unbelief.”

See, Jesus has been doing amazing things; He has been healing people. Huge crowds have been flocking to Him to listen to Him preach and to watch Him heal. Jesus had celebrity status – He was a rock star in the first century in Jerusalem. And He comes to His own home town – see, people had been amazed at Him and He comes to His own home town and even they listen to Him and say, “WOW, it’s really, really amazing what He says.”

And yet, even though He’s got a gift for unlocking God’s love and God’s truth and for healing people – familiarity breeds contempt. Isn’t He the son of Mary? Isn’t He the carpenter from Nazareth? We saw Him growing up – we knew His mum; we knew His brothers; we knew His sisters – and they took offence at Jesus.

God sends His Son – God chooses that His Son would be a humble carpenter from Nazareth. Not the son of some high religious official from Jerusalem – He didn’t live in a palace – He didn’t sit on a throne. If He had had all those outward trappings they would have been all over Him. No, God wouldn’t work that way. God sent His Son as a humble carpenter and even though He was clearly anointed by God, even though He healed people, He preached with such power – familiarity breeds contempt. And the people closest to Him rejected Him.

Let’s assume that this story is true, for a minute – I believe it is, with all my heart. What does it tell us about Jesus? Who is He? What’s He like? The first thing it tells me is He chose to be a carpenter at Nazareth. God Almighty chose this for His Son. Let that sink in for a minute for if I had been God I’d have chosen something entirely different – but I’m not! God chose this for His Son.

What’s that saying to us? To me, it’s saying that Jesus wants to walk a mile in my shoes. Jesus wants to say “I know what it’s like to have God’s call on my life and be rejected by the very people who should be supporting me and rejoicing with me. I know how you feel when you are rejected. I understand what’s going on inside you – I feel your pain.” Isn’t that what Jesus is saying through this? Isn’t Jesus saying “This is who I am? I didn’t have to be but it’s who I am – it’s who I chose to be for you.”?

Jesus is real! Jesus is right down here at my level and your level – right where we are, right at the moment. And He chose to be humble and to be rejected and when He was rejected, in a sense, it took away His power in their midst. But it didn’t stop Him. He walked in their midst and He was the Jesus that God always wanted Him to be and I think, that is just awesome.

Team Provider

Well, here we are in the second programme of a series that I’ve called “Who is Jesus?”. And I want to take one more look at another picture of Jesus. One of the really popular buzz words that’s doing the rounds in business circles these days is “empowerment”. We need to “empower” our employees to make decisions. We need to “empower” our employees to perform and innovate. We need to “empower” our employees to serve our customers.

Now I don’t know about you, but the more they talk about it, well, the less it seems to happen. Smaller companies are gobbled up by bigger ones; there are mergers and acquisitions and listings and big companies have more services and they deal with the complexity by building rigid systems and pushing customer contact into call centres where you talk to someone who not only doesn’t get paid much, but who doesn’t have the authority to make a decision in your favour. And they talk about empowerment!

It’s a pretty familiar story to most of us. As consumers we have more choice and more ways to spend our money than we ever had before and yet, when you deal with these large companies, whether you are buying a bit of furniture or dealing with your bank over the phone, the suppliers squeeze us into their systems. And as employers – the bigger employers – well, you’re just a number most of the time. The supervisor or the boss is just a number and as a result, it’s just not satisfying anymore.

See, you and me, we have all these different skills and creativity and desires that we want to fulfil and we want to innovate to express who we are. One of my sons, who is twenty five or twenty six now, did very well with a large retail chain – he was a manager and had lots of people working for him and he left. Do you want to know why? Because it was a big company and he was just a number and they didn’t care about him.

Ok. Who’s Jesus in all of that? I mean, it’s ok to talk about Jesus back then but is He still relevant today? Does He understand what’s going on? Why don’t you come with me to Mark chapter 6, beginning at verse 6. Let’s have a read.

Jesus went around teaching from village to village. Calling the twelve to Him, He sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits. These were His instructions: “Take nothing on the journey except a staff – no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but don’t take an extra tunic. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave as a testimony against them. Well, they went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.”

See, what Jesus gave to these twelve disciples, sending them out two by two, was a tough gig. The Jews believed in the law of the Old Testament and Jesus was sending them out with a new message – a message of grace. And He didn’t give them a set of rules and procedures. He just said, “Look, head out two by two. Don’t take any props. Don’t take things that you can use in your own strength – don’t take money and food and stuff. Go out there and trust Me and if they don’t welcome you, move on.”

Jesus actually empowered them. See, Jesus sent them out into almost impossible circumstances, with a really tough message. “Repent – turn away from your sins – turn back to God.” And He gave them authority so that demons fled and the sick were healed and the people received the Word of God.

God sent His Son Jesus to this earth and Jesus takes these uneducated fishermen and tax collectors and sinners whom He calls His disciples; the Apostles and He sends them out. You know, that’s what the word “Apostle” literally means. The Greek word “apostolos” means “one who is sent out”.

And He didn’t weigh them down with a rule book. He didn’t weigh them down with a set of tight procedures. He inspired them. See, He said, “Go and tell those people what you have heard from Me. Go and do to those people – heal them and cast out the demons, make the lame to walk and the blind to see – because you have a relationship with Me.”

It was the ‘top down hierarchy model, it was a “bottom up” empowerment model. He didn’t tell them what they couldn’t do; He told them what they could do. “Use who you are and your gifts and abilities and My power,” and they went out and preached that they should repent and they drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and they healed them.

Jesus didn’t tell them “It’s too hard.” He just told them to go and do it and they did it. They got a taste of what His empowerment model was all about. I don’t know, sometimes I think we treat religion like a straight jacket. Sometimes I think we think we have to have all these rules and certain procedures and ways of doing it. Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s wonderful that people go and study at Bible Colleges – I have and it was really important for me to do that. But I know people who kind of sit in the pews of churches and they think “Well, you know, I’m not an expert. I haven’t been to Bible College – God couldn’t possibly use me,” and yet their church is crying out for their gift.

You know the most common people who think that and sit in the pews and think that they don’t have a role are the people who are pastorally gifted; the people who are just gifted to pull along side and be friends and encourage people and hang in there with people. Those people who have that pastoral gifting, so often, don’t see themselves fitting into the structures and the procedures and the hierarchy of their church.

But Jesus … Jesus calls His disciples; His followers; His … you and me, ordinary people, just to go out. We don’t have to have all the tools and all the money and all the ability. So often, we get called by Jesus to get out there and to do something by Him, we don’t have the money; we don’t have the full picture of how it is going to pan out. We don’t know – He just say, “Go out there and trust Me and use the gifts that I have given you and use the power that I have given you and tell people what you have heard from Me.”

Jesus is a wonderful leader. Jesus is someone who doesn’t tell us we can’t do it – He calls us out there in the most outrageous way, to go and do it. I have to tell you, when Jesus called me to do what I am doing right now, it was scary and I didn’t know how it was going to grow. I just knew He had put something in my heart and I just gave Him all my gifts and abilities – I made some mistakes. And we just got out there and started doing it. And today several million people are listening to this very programme around the world.

I can’t do that! You can’t do that! Only Jesus can do that. And whatever the gift is that He has given you that’s the gift that He wants you to use, here and now. If you are a Jesus follower, don’t be one of disempowered people who sits at home or at work or in the pews of your church and thinks, “I can’t do anything.”

Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village and called His twelve disciples and He sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits. Don’t take money or a bag or a spare tunic or anything else. Just go and do it. And it happened – they drove out many demons and they healed the sick.

Who’s Jesus? Jesus is this outrageous subversive who believes in you and me – who knows what He has wired into our D & A. He just calls us quietly to step out in faith, believing in Him.

Tell me this doesn’t ring your bell. And go on; tell me that deep down inside that you don’t want to know this Jesus.

I just so encourage you, get to know Him more and more. Know this Jesus who just wants to empower you to get out there and serve Him for His glory.

Let’s face it – we like winners.  We want to hang around successful people.  And yet when Jesus was hanging there on that cross – He looked like anything but a winner. In fact, given all that He’d said and done and promised, frankly, He looked like a dead loss.

An Angry God

Perhaps one of the biggest objections I ever had to Christianity was what I observed to be a kind of a self righteous hypocrisy. On the one had they put some old guy on the news and he’d tell me that this was wrong and that was wrong. And on the other, that same denomination had a club with gambling and poker machines in it not far from where I lived. I mean, come on. Is it any wonder that people weren’t flocking to church on Sundays? Well, that’s how I saw it.

And so for me that equalled Jesus, which equalled God. And frankly, who needs that sort of religion. Pretty impeccable logic really, until, well until you take the time to look at Jesus himself. Tell me, how would he respond to the church with poker machines? Well, actually we know, because in his walk on this earth he had to deal with almost exactly the same thing.

Well, this week we’re heading towards Easter and over these last few weeks we’ve been looking at this series “Who is Jesus”. And today I’d like to particularly look at Jesus in that difficult week leading up to the first Easter, in that difficult week leading up to the cross. And it began with a triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We’re not going to go there and look at that now because we don’t have the time.

It was like a rock star entry where Jesus rode this donkey into Jerusalem, and the church celebrates it now as Palm Sunday. And people were cheering and shouting “Hallelujah” and “The Messiah’s here”. And straight after that, gets into Jerusalem and one of the things, the thing we’ll look at today, is that He goes to the Temple.

And He kind of behaved a little bit on the surface at least, like one of those quixotic rock stars on dope. You know the ones who get on stage and smash their guitars and do all these weird things. Well, what He did was a little bit different to that and the motivation was different, but on the surface it must have looked a little bit strange to the people in that day. He went and cleansed the temple.
See, have a listen. This is how Mark puts it.

Jesus came to Jerusalem and He entered the Temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the Temple. And He overturned the tables of the money changes and the seats of all those who sold doves. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the Temple. He was teaching and saying, ‘Isn’t it written my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations but you have made it a den of robbers’. And when the chief priests and the scribes heard this they kept looking for a way to kill him for they were afraid of Him because the whole crowd was spellbound by His teaching. And when evening came, Jesus and His disciples went out of the city.

See, the temple was the place where God was. He was in the Holy of Holies in the sanctuary and the Temple was the place where animals were sacrifice. Doves, and sheep and bulls and goats. And what was going on here is that the traders were playing and preying on the people. The great Lamb Scam, as I call it, because people would come to sacrifice to God and they would have to buy sheep and bulls and goats and doves.

So the traders moved into the courts of the Temple and they were selling substandard animals for the sacrifice, because only the best was good enough for God, only the best, only the clean, perfect dove, or lamb or bulls or goats were acceptable for sacrifice. And this practice of selling substandard animals and trading and doing all these things, was worst still sanctioned by the religious establishment. Kind of like a church with poker machines really. It’s religious hypocrisy. And you don’t have to look very far to discover that religious hypocrisy is still alive and well today.

So I’m not mocking all the churches. Absolutely not. You see, people in churches, average, every day people who believe in Jesus do so much good, that out in the world people don’t see, serving the poor, looking after them, loving people that others won’t love and often our society’s missed that. But there is still religious hypocrisy. And there was religious hypocrisy in Jesus day. Elsewhere another account tells us that Jesus actually made a whip and drove people out of the Temple.

See, the Temple is the house of God and you enter the courts and there’s the smell of animals and the noise of money changes and for the convenience for all the pilgrims who came to the Temple they moved the market into the Temple. There was noise and commerce and cattle and exorbitant prices and unfair money changing. And Jesus directly challenged the authority of the chief priests, throwing down the gauntlet. Look at the reaction. The leaders, the religious leaders, were plotting to see how they could kill Jesus. No wonder. He was challenging their hypocritical, cushy, system. They were afraid of Him because the crowds were spellbound by His teaching. He was either a madman or a genius.

People were looking for something, they were looking for someone, they were on a spiritual journey and Jesus comes and He is so real, He is so authentic, He so goes right to the heart of the hypocrisy and distortions of the religious system. He’s the guy that hung around with prostitutes and lepers and tax collectors and healed them and He directly challenged established religion and its hypocrisy.

This is no mamby, pamby saviour. This is not your kind of soft stuffed toy, cuddly Jesus. This is a wild Jesus. He goes, can you imagine, He goes into the Temple, he makes a whip. He drives people out, He turns the tables upside down, He screams at them. You couldn’t put this Jesus in a box, you couldn’t contain Him. This is the only time He does this and it’s important to understand that Jesus had compassion for little people, yet He had this rage for religious hypocrisy, this cold religious establishment.

And the flip side of Him, important to realise, is that Jesus was humble and kind and He changed lives and healed people and He transformed people through His love. But when we look at this ugly end of the scale some people think that must be what religion is like, that’s what Jesus is like, and yet Jesus railed against religious hypocrisy.

You ask who is Jesus? We see Him in this last week before He was crucified standing up against economic and religious systems that suppress people. And maybe that’s all some people saw of Him and ignored the quiet, hidden, not noisy, not public things that Jesus did to touch people and heal them.

Whatever or whoever else Jesus was and is, He’s not a religious hypocrite and He railed against it. He was an advocate of the little people. Little people like you and me, and as you’ll see, that’s what cost Him His life on so called Good Friday.

Dinner with His Friends

I have a confession to make. I love food. I just love it. I grew up in a European household and I learnt to cook when I was young and Mum worked in the early evenings teaching piano so I often cooked dinner for the family. I established my credentials, I love food. It’s not very often that I go off my food. It takes a lot for me to turn down a meal. I have to be really sick or I’m really dreading something. I think in my first 48 years of my life I could count on one hand the number of times I’ve gone off my food.

But when you’re feeling deep pain or real fear, well, I know for me, I just can’t look at food let alone host dinner for 12 other people just before I was arrested and crucified. So what was going on at the last supper? We’re looking at the last week of Jesus’ life leading to Easter before he’s crucified.

And this is such an important time, because, you know, when someone’s under pressure, when the chips are down, when people are after someone’s life, that’s when you really discover who they are. And I know we look at Easter as being bunnies and chocolate Easter eggs and all that sort of stuff. That’s nice, but Easter’s not about that. Remember Easter is an assassination; it’s a state-sanctioned execution, when Jesus was tried and falsely convicted. And this was a tough week for Jesus. It was a really tough week.

If you have a Bible, grab it and open it up at Mark Chapter 14, because that’s what we’re going to look at right now. Mark Chapter 14, beginning at verse 12. I just want to take a brief look at this Last Supper, which I guess we’ve seen the painting that’s been painted and we look at it from a distance, but this was the night that Jesus was betrayed. The Last Supper.

On the first day of the unleavened bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, His disciples said to Him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations to eat the Passover?’ So he sent two of the disciples saying, ‘Go into the city and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you, follow Him and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, ‘The teacher asks where is my guess groom and where may I eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He’ll show you a large room upstairs furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.’ So the Disciples went into the city and found everything just as Jesus had told them and they prepared the Passover meal.

When it was evening He came to the twelve and when they’d just taken their places and were eating, Jesus said to them, ‘You know, truly I tell, one of you will betray me, One who is eating with me.’ They were distressed and began to say to one another, ‘Surely it’s not me.’ And He said to them ‘It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the bowl with me. For the son of man goes as it is written of Him but woe to the one by whom the son of man is to be betrayed. It would have been better for that one not to have been born’.

So here He is at this thing we now call the Last Supper, we see the paintings and churches regularly celebrate Holy Communion. It’s become like a solemn ritual. We have the little pieces of bread and we have the little glass of wine or juice and we all do that. But this wasn’t a ritual, this was the Passover meal. It was a celebration of one of the great miracles did many centuries before to free the Israelites from Egypt. They were to eat roast lamb with rosemary and red wine with unleavened bread, which is a little bit like pita bread.

And this was the week of the assassination plot being well underway. The Chief Priests and the Scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and to killed Him for they said “Not during the festival or the people might riot”. And the twelve disciples knew this and there was a deep sadness and a fear, like a pall of fear, hanging over the group. And Jesus was just entertaining His guests. He was sitting with them and He knew that He was about to be crucified. He knew He was about to suffer pain and death and yet He sits there and while they’re eating reading from Mark Chapter 14 verse 22:

While they were eating He took a loaf of bread and after blessing it He broke and it and said take this, This is My body. Then He took a cup and after giving thanks He gave it to them and said, ‘This is My blood of the covenant which is poured out for many. Truly I tell you, I will never drink again of the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink new in the kingdom of God. And then we know that Jesus washed their feet. (24 feet – 120 grubby toes. The son of God is about to be crucified, He washes their feet. Even the feet of the one who would betray Him, Judas Iscariot)

And after the meal He took the bread and he broke it and he took the wine and gave it to them. (It wasn’t white, soft, fluffy bread it was unleavened bread, brown and gritty) This is my Body broken for you. This cup represents my blood, take drink of it. This is the basis God’s new promise My blood will be poured out for many.”

All the time Jesus is thinking of his disciples and of you and of me and with humility He washes their feet. He even washes Judas’ feet. Doesn’t accuse him, doesn’t condemn Him doesn’t hate Him, even washes his feet. Isn’t this fabulous? Jesus has His closest friends, the Last Supper, the Last meal he would spend with them, He knows He’s about to die, and yet He takes this ragtag little band of fishermen and tax collectors and ordinary people, people like you and me. What would happen next would turn the world upside down. What happened next opened the door wide to God so that you and I could walk through. But here we see Jesus with His friends inviting them to His table, inviting us to His table to eat lamb and bread and drink red wine to remember what God has done.

What’s So Good About Friday

Well, so Jesus was arrested and He was crucified, they call it Good Friday. What’s so good about Friday? I guess every Friday’s good, it’s the day before the weekend. But not this particular Friday. It’s the day when the criminal justice system broke down. It’s a day when Justice became a sham. It’s a day when an ugly, angry mob demanded a lynching.

It’s a day when an innocent man was flogged to within an inch of His life. With blood pouring out of His wounds, and the soldiers’ spit running down His face, He dragged a huge cross along the via Delarosa to the hill they called Golgotha. And there they nailed Him to that cross. Over the next few hours, in excruciating pain, He died an agonising death. Good Friday? Not that particular day.

We’ve all experienced, I guess, bureaucratic buck-passing, when we’re handed from one department to the next with no satisfaction. You’d expect more of the criminal justice system. A fair go, a fair hearing, a just outcome. Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot (who goes and hangs himself). He’s handed over to be tried. For what? Now there’s a problem.

You see Jesus got up the noses of the religious leaders because He struck at the truth. He struck at the heart of things and that threatened their corrupt hypocritical system. He claimed to be the Messiah, the king, and I guess the Roman emperor could have been threatened could have seen it as a political threat. Jesus, King of the Jews? Maybe Jesus was going overthrow the Roman Empire. Maybe Israel would succeed. Jesus was this one man who never took up arms. He had twelve disciples, fishermen and tax collectors. As though Jesus could overthrow the Roman Empire.

And so first He was tried by the Chief Priest. “Are you the Messiah?” No answer. So they beat him and mocked Him. And then He went before the Council, the Sanhedrin. “Are you the Messiah?” “Yes.” Again they rejected Him. And then they sent Him to Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, if you like, who had the power to have Him crucified. And they accused Him. They said He was against the Emperor, He doesn’t pay taxes, He’s the King of the Jews, His going to threaten the Roman Empire. And Pontius Pilate said “No,I don’t think I want to be part of this”. So he sent Jesus off to King Herod.

Herod was half Jewish and an illegitimate king and the people hated him and the religious leaders prosecuted Jesus in front of Herod. And Herod wouldn’t do anything and sent Him back to Pontius Pilate. Can you believe this bureaucratic duck shoving. Here is a system of justice, supposedly, that’s just gone mad. And then finally He comes to Pilate. If you have a Bible, open it up to Mark Chapter 15 beginning at verse 6:

Now at the festival Pilate is to release a prisoner to them, anyone whom they asked for. There was a man called Barrabas who was in the prison with rebels who committed murder during the insurrection. So the crowd came and ask Pilate to do for them according to His custom. Then He answered, ‘Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews’, for He realized that it was only out of jealousy that the Chief Priest handed Him over. But the Chief Priest stirred up the crowd to have him release Barrabas instead.

Pilate spoke to them again. ‘Then what do you want me to do the man they call the King of the Jews?’ And they shouted ‘Crucify Him’. Pilate asked them, ‘Why? What evil has he done?’ But the shouted all the more loudly, ‘Crucify Him.’ So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barrabas for them, and after flogging Jesus, he handed Him over to be crucified.

And Jesus just stood there. The Son of God who could have stopped this because He had the power just stood there and took it all. Pilate said, “I found no ground for this sentence of death”, and yet this Jesus who just days before had been welcomed into Jerusalem like a superstar, was now to be crucified. You find out a lot about a man when he’s under pressure. He stood there and He took because His job was to take my burdened of guilt and your burden of guilt and to pay the price of death that you and I deserve in God’s eyes on that cross.

What an incredible injustice, and yet Jesus took for us and right when He was crucified and when He died, Mark’s gospel Chapter 15 verse 38 tells us that the curtain at the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the Centurion stood there in front of Jesus and heard his cry and saw how He died. He said:

Surely this man was the son of God.

You see when Jesus died, when He cried out His last breath, the curtain of the Temple, the place where God was, in the Holy of Holies, was torn open to you and me. The door to the throne room of God was flung open. The first time in the history you and have access to God, direct access to God. Not through a priest, not through someone else, but through Jesus Christ. We can walk boldly before the throne of Grace and it’s a door that we can only walk through if we believe in this Jesus who died for us.

Was it a good Friday? Well if you were Jesus it wasn’t. It was a terrible Friday. Jesus the Son of God carried all our sin; Jesus the Son of Man going through the pain and the torture of a crucifixion. Ultimately it was a good Friday, because on that day God opened the door. On that day, from the cross, God cried out a personal invitation to you and me. Jesus cried out from the Cross, “Eloi, Eloi lamasabachthani”, which means “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” For one reason, and one reason alone, did God forsake His Son, so that you and I could have and eternal life; so that you and I could be forgiven. Who is Jesus? Jesus is the Son of God who hung on that cross who suffered and died for you and for me.

Imagine that you’d watched Jesus die that horrible death on the cross.  And then, on the third day you go to His tomb and discover that it’s empty.  What would you think? How would you react?

An Empty Tomb

Well I’m excited. This is the last week in a four week series that I’ve called “Who is Jesus?” And over these last few weeks we have just been looking at little snapshots of who Jesus is from the different gospels. From Mark and John and Matthew and Luke. And today of course we are going to talk about the empty tomb.

And maybe you have been having a long week end because its Easter but two thousand years ago it wasn’t some long weekend they were celebrating in Jerusalem it was a brutal crucifixion. A burial and then something that nobody would have expected.

Imagine you have a friend or relative that has just died, tragically killed. You have watched them die. You go to the funeral. You’ve seen them buried and you get what you think is closure. Closure is one thing but the mourning process goes on. And then three days later you go down to the grave to leave some flowers, to reflect on the life that was so tragically taken, and the grave’s been dug up. The coffin is up on the ground, the lid’s off and it’s empty. What would you feel? What would you do?

A friend of mine was interviewing Barry McGuire for a radio program in New Zealand recently. Now Barry McGuire is a well known rock protest singer from the sixties. And over a period of 10 years or so he lost more than 20 of his closest friends to drug overdoses and sexually transmitted diseases. Now these were TV and movie stars and politicians who committed suicide. They were personalities of such promise and yet they turned out not to be what they promised.

Marilyn Monroe, Michael Hutchins of INXS. These were fallen stars. See people have placed their hope in these stars and then they failed to deliver. And Jesus must have looked the same. He had rock star status the crowds followed Him everywhere. He was very definitely Jesus Christ superstar.

Over the last 3 weeks we have been looking at who this Jesus is. And we have seen how He healed people. And people flocked to Him to see His miracles and to hear His preaching. Jesus had this wisdom that confounded the religious critics. And they tried to trap him and yet He cared for the widows and the prostitutes and He did these amazing miracles healing the lepers, the blind and the lame. He was passionate, He was profound, He had a wisdom about God and yet He was so relevant. He touched people deep inside, and so these huge crowds.

Jesus held out so much promise. I mean, here He was in the first century in Israel. It was an oppressed land, occupied by the Romans. Most of these people were subsistence farmers. They were poor. They needed someone to believe in, someone to hope in and that someone looked like it was Jesus. And yet the events of that first Easter long week end, you know, the Passover festival, the crowds in Jerusalem. And then the unexpected. The lynching the mob baying for Jesus blood. They cried out, “We want Barabas” and “Crucify Jesus”. And this hope, this Jesus who was a miracle worker and such a powerful preacher, the hope turned into to despair.

Jesus was crucified on a cross and he was buried. And he was buried just before the Sabbath. And so on the Sabbath people couldn’t do anything. But on the day after the Sabbath they went down to his grave because he needed to be embalmed they didn’t have any funeral parlors in those days or an undertaker. So this just had to be done. Let’s have a listen to the story. Let’s pick it up. If you have a Bible open it up. In John Chapter 20 beginning at Verse one. John Chapter 20.

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. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. And she said to them, “They have taken our lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have laid him”. Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. The two were running together. The other disciple out ran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there but he didn’t go in.

Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. He too saw the linen wrappings just lying there and the cloth that had been on Jesus head not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the 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 Jesus must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

The first reaction of Mary was to run back to Peter and the others and say they have taken the body out of the tomb. Then Peter and the other disciple run down there and sure enough the stone’s been rolled away, the linen wrappings are lying there folded neatly. They saw and they believed. You see Jesus had been telling them that He would rise from the dead. Now you read on and they had a mix of pain and fear and tears and hope and confusion but there it was a glimmer of hope that these next few weeks would show something different.

I mean, they had seen Jesus killed and yet they had hope. They had hope before. They hoped in Jesus and it was lost on the cross and now here was this empty tomb. No Jesus. Hope. We can casually brush over this Easter story dozens of times, lots of times during our lives and miss out what was going on in the hearts of His followers. These were people who had lost hope and now they discovered new hope. Many years later the apostle Peter wrote these words.

If you have a bible turn with me to First Peter, Chapter one. He writes this in Chapter one Verse three.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ by his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

See Peter writes looking back on this that through the resurrection of Jesus Christ God has given us a new birth into a new living hope; hope that we can have here and now a hope that is eternal; hope of glory and joy and peace; a hope of an eternal life of no tears and no pain for ever and ever. That hope began on that first Easter morning when the disciples went down to the tomb, and they discovered that it was empty.

The Local Gardner

I hope that you’re having a great Easter and that you have had a great Easter. But we do we brush the Easter celebration aside so quickly each year. A day or two later we have forgotten all about it. It wasn’t like that on the first Easter, this brutal crucifixion the pain, the mourning, the fear. They had lost someone that promised so much. They had lost hope. And then on the day after the Sabbath when a few of his followers went down to the tomb they discovered that it was empty. He was gone. There was confusion there was hope there was despair there was fear. Maybe? No, surely not. Was there hope? Had He risen? He always said He would. But nah! Couldn’t.

Some found it easier to come to grips with than others. But Mary, Mary Magdalene, was the women who first saw the empty tomb and she couldn’t come to grips with it. She thought some one had taken His body away. And then she talked to the local gardener.

I hope you’ve been with us over these last few weeks as we’ve been looking at who this Jesus actually is. What He said and what He did. And as we’ve looked at Him in these last couple of weeks as we’ve looked these last couple of weeks, what happened leading up to His crucifixion and now what’s happening after his crucifixion. If you have missed any of the programs you can listen to them again at our web site, www.christianityworks.com

Mary Magdalene was a devoted follower of Jesus. She is the first one down to the empty tomb and her immediate reaction is the one that sticks out. They’ve taken His body. Who’s “they”? The Romans? The religious leaders? Other followers? Don’t know! But it’s not an unreasonable reaction in fact it’s the most plausible reaction. In john chapter 20 beginning now at verse 11 why not join me as we read this.

So Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept she knelt to look into the tomb and she saw these two angels sitting there dressed in white one at the head the other at the foot of where Jesus’ body had been laid. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping”. (See, there is this supernatural intervention going on) And Mary says, “They took my Master and I don’t know where they have put Him”. After she said this she turned away and she saw Jesus standing there but she didn’t recognise Him.

She was sort of surprised. She wasn’t expecting to see him alive. And Jesus spoke to her and said, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” And she thought He was the gardener and said, “Mister, if you took Him tell me where you have put Him so I can care for Him”. And then Jesus said “Mary”.

Turning to face him she said in Hebrew, “Raboni” meaning ‘Teacher’. Jesus said, “Don’t cling to me for I haven’t ascended to the Father. Go to my brothers and tell them I ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and your God. So Mary Magdalene went telling the news to the disciples, “I’ve seen Him! I’ve seen the Master!” And she told them everything that He said to her.

See, Mary was locked in the reality of her grief. Isn’t that so often the way. We’re locked in the here and now, the physical circumstances, the pain or just the plain old life that we live in, we are locked into our reality. And we brush by Easter and we barely notice that something profound has happened; we barely notice that Jesus has risen from the dead. Mary looked with her own eyes at Jesus and what she saw was the gardener. “Listen Mister”, she said.

I think that is really funny, it always makes me laugh. Can you imagine? The son of God has just risen and Mary looks at Him and thinks He is the gardener. And in the same way we can look at Easter and see chocolate and Easter bunnies and all that stuff. That’s such a tragedy. But then, you see, then He spoke her name. He said, “Mary”. (There is something special about someone who knows our name; someone whom we can trust.) And then she knew it was Him. He was alive! Instantly her grief turned to joy; instantly her hope was restored; instantly she knew she need never have lost hope at all.

See, the disciples, Peter and the others, believed first, and then they went back to their lodgings. But Jesus knew her grief. He lingered there waiting for her. She was the first one to see Him alive and yet she didn’t know it. And then He spoke her name. have you ever brushed past Easter? Have you ever been so locked in the present circumstances of life you can’t take in that Jesus rose again for you? Today, today He is speaking your name; today He’s whispering hope into your heart; today if you’ve lost hope He wants to bring that back to you again. The master’s speaking your name, can you hear him?

Listen deep inside. Listen. Jesus wants to give you a new hope, a new start, a new life. The gardner is one explanation but when we believe, when we truly believe He rose again we know the joy of Jesus who waited there for Mary.

The Promise Keeper

Well, Jesus is risen. Here we are almost at the end of this 4 part series called “Who is Jesus?” We’ve been just asking and exploring this question, exactly who is Jesus? What I thought would be great is to finish up the series by having a look at one of His last promises. For me there’s nothing worse than when someone makes a promise and then they fails to keep it. It’s really lousy. Jesus makes quite a number of promises in his three-and-a-half years of public ministry. But this one, this was a parting promise. He said it was also His Father’s promise, and it was a promise that ended up changing the course of human history. What was it? Did he keep it? What happened?

In human terms promises are wonderful things. You look at the promise of marriage. There are two types of promises or covenants that we can make, or treaties if you like. There are unilateral promises and bilateral promises. A unilateral promise is an unconditional promise: no strings attached. A bilateral promise is a conditional promise: I’ll do this if you do that but if you don’t do that then I will do this.

These are the vows that I shared with my wife Jacqui when we were married have a listen to this.

Jacqui today I take you to be my wife and I set myself apart from the rest of the world for you and you alone. Everything that I am and everything that I have I give to you, in the heights of our joy and in the depths of our sorrow. I promise to be by your side, to hold you, to encourage you, to honour you, to cherish you, and to protect you. This is my solemn promise to you, that I will always seek to love you just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. All of these things are yours until we are parted in death.

Now I just talked a little a bit about a unilateral promise, which is an unconditional promise and a bilateral promise, which is a conditional promise. So, these wedding vows, which one is it, unilateral or bilateral? See we think as wedding vows as being bilateral; two parties make a vow to each other. But actually, whenever you read or hear a wedding vow it is an unconditional promise. There is nothing in the promise that I made to my wife Jacqui or in the promise she made to me which depends on what the other party does. Nothing in what I read you says, “Well, my darling wife, if you love me and you are good to me then I will be faithful to you but if you are not I wont be.”

No, that is not what I said. I gave her an unconditional promise of relationship. No matter what you do, this is what I will do for you. Anyone who’s married will know that it is tough some days and those days love is a decision. Marriage is a great promise. Its says, when you fail I wont attack you, I wont reject you, I will stick by you, I’ll hold you, I’ll cherish you, I’ll lift you up. When one of us is down the other one can lift the other up. That’s the beauty of an unconditional promise and in sense it’s kind of the same thing this final promise that Jesus made to his disciples.

If you have got a bible open it up to Acts chapter 1 beginning at verse 3. This is what it says:

After His death He presented Himself alive to them in many different settings over a period of forty days. In face to face meetings He talked to them about things concerning the Kingdom of God. As they met and ate meals together He told them they were on no account to leave Jerusalem but must wait for what the Father promised, the promise you heard from Me. John baptized you with water, you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit and soon. When they were together for the last time they asked, “Master, are you going to restore the kingdom of Israel? Is it time?”

You don’t get to know the time. Timing is the fathers business. What you’ll get is the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you’ll be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem. all over Judea and Samaria and even to the ends of the earth. These were his last words. As they watched he was taken up and disappeared in a cloud. They stood there staring into the empty sky.

Suddenly two men appeared in white robes. They said, “You Galileans, why are you just standing looking at an empty sky. This very Jesus that was taken up from you into heaven will come as certainly and mysteriously as He left.”

See they didn’t get it. They were still thinking this Messiah was coming to save them from the Romans. “When are you going to restore the Kingdom of Israel?” “Is now the time?” They still didn’t get it after three-and-a-half years with Jesus. Crucified and resurrected they still didn’t get it. But Jesus wasn’t promising them release from the Romans. Jesus was promising them something much better.

What you get is the promise of the Father. You will get the promised Holy Spirit. John baptized you in water but not too long from now I’ll baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

These were his last words.

See, when a husband and wife promises each other something they become one flesh and here Jesus promised an intimacy. He promised the Holy Spirit. He said, “You’ll be baptised; you’ll be dripping; you’ll be drenched; you’ll be dunked.” You know when you have a crumpet and you put some butter and honey on it and its soaking in this sweet honey, that is what the word “baptise” means. You’ll be drenched with the Spirit of God. That is the promise of Jesus to each person who puts their faith in Him. Isn’t that an awesome promise!

It’s like the marriage promise. It’s not a conditional promise any more, This is the new covenant, the new promise. This is what Jesus died and rose again to give us and it’s open to every person who believes that Jesus Christ died for them on the cross and that he rose again for them to give them a new and eternal life. This promise is open to each one of us. A promise of a new intimate relationship.

And if you read on in acts Chapter 22 you will read about the day of Pentecost, the day that God indeed poured his Holy Spirit out on every one who believes. That’s exactly what happened. What does that mean? Well for the disciples these bumpkins, these fishermen, these tax collectors, God filled them with the power, the strength and the wisdom and the godliness to go out and kick off this thing called “church”, and its still going today two thousand years later. God empowered them amazingly.

Can I tell you, God has filled me with a power and strength and a wisdom and a desire and a passion and a closeness and intimacy with him that makes me want to do what I’m doing now to tell you about Jesus. We need never be alone. Can I ask you, what about you? Have you accepted this Jesus yet? Have you received that promised Holy Spirit yet? This Spirit of the intimacy and the closeness and the presence of God dwelling in you. So this is who Jesus is. This is what He did. He said, “I will come and make my home with you”. He wants to be with us every step of the way.

One of His other promises just before he ascended to heaven was, “I will never leave you or forsake you”. Who is Jesus? Healer, teacher friend. Lord, Saviour, wise, kind, powerful, humble, creator. Everything. He is everything God is. He wants to baptise us with, He wants to drench us with His presence. What a Saviour. What a promise. Jesus.