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Andy Stanley - Why Easter Is Still Relevant · Andy Stanley Sermons

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  Speaker 1: You know, if you think about it, the message of
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Easter has never been more relevant for the modern world
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: than it is right now. And the interesting thing is
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  Speaker 1: that everybody is sitting up straight and paying attention, you know.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, the events of Easter are relevant because well,
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  Speaker 1: they address our deepest and our greatest fears, and all
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  Speaker 1: of our fears are pretty much front and center right now.
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  Speaker 1: Is everything going to be all right? Is my family
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: going to be all right? Does God know about this?
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  Speaker 1: Does God care about this? Does God care about me?
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  Speaker 1: Does God care about my family? Does God hear my prayers?
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  Speaker 1: Does God care about our country? In fact, perhaps the
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  Speaker 1: only time in history that the events of Easter were
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  Speaker 1: more relevant was the first Easter. Now, those of us
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  Speaker 1: who are Jesus followers, we have an advantage. We have
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  Speaker 1: an advantage because we have something to look back on
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  Speaker 1: and to hang our hope on. But for first century
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  Speaker 1: Jesus followers, it was a very different story. And this
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  Speaker 1: is the part of the story that I think most
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  Speaker 1: of us as believers us understand or miss altogether. And
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  Speaker 1: perhaps if you're not a Christian, this is part of
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  Speaker 1: the story that perhaps no one ever told you. And
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  Speaker 1: I understand why because of the way that a lot
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  Speaker 1: of us read our bibles, or the way a lot
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  Speaker 1: of us don't read our bibles. But here, here is
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  Speaker 1: what was so difficult for first century Jesus followers. And
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  Speaker 1: this is the part we miss. When Jesus died, when
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  Speaker 1: Jesus was crucified, When Jesus died, their hope died. When
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  Speaker 1: Jesus died, nobody believed he was the son of God.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody believed he was the Messiah of God. Nobody believed
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  Speaker 1: he was the savior of the world. After Jesus was crucified,
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  Speaker 1: there were no Christians because there was no christ It
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  Speaker 1: was lights out on everybody's faith. There was a broken
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  Speaker 1: hearted mother. There were some disillusion Galileean fishermen who thought
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  Speaker 1: they had wasted a season of their life. But there
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  Speaker 1: were no Jesus followers. There were no Christians, there were
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  Speaker 1: no believers. Think about it. With that, so Joseph of
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  Speaker 1: Arimathea and Nicodemus go to Pilot. They ask for Jesus' body.
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  Speaker 1: They take his body down from the cross. They put
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  Speaker 1: him in a basically a cave, Joseph of Arimathea's family tomb.
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  Speaker 1: They roll a stone in the front of it, and
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  Speaker 1: they go home because it was over. Matthew, Mark, Luke John,
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  Speaker 1: all the authors of the New Testament, they're very clear
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  Speaker 1: no one, no one was planning to keep this dream alive,
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  Speaker 1: and nobody was planning to keep this movement moving. And
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  Speaker 1: here's why. If Jesus couldn't keep himself alive, if Jesus
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  Speaker 1: couldn't keep himself alive, what was the point of trying
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  Speaker 1: to keep the Jesus movement alive? Because clearly Jesus was
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  Speaker 1: not who he claimed to be. And this was the
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  Speaker 1: issue Jesus teaching, and this is this is kind of
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  Speaker 1: new for us sometimes to understand. Jesus teaching was not
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  Speaker 1: the driving force of his movement. It was actually his
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  Speaker 1: outrageous claims that he made about himself. It was the
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  Speaker 1: outrageous claims he made about himself that kind of kept
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  Speaker 1: the band together and kept the movement moving. And it
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  Speaker 1: was the outrageous claims about himself that drove religious leaders crazy.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't the miracles, it wasn't his healing, and it
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  Speaker 1: wasn't most of his teaching or most of his parables.
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  Speaker 1: Most people didn't even understand most of his parables. But
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  Speaker 1: he was relentlessly attributing to himself things that only belonged
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  Speaker 1: to God. For example, he claimed to have the power
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  Speaker 1: to forgive sin, but only God could forgive sin. At
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  Speaker 1: one point, he said he was greater than the Temple.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, who would say that. He said he was
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  Speaker 1: greater than Moses, he was the lord of the Sabbath.
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  Speaker 1: He claimed to be greater than Abraham. He claimed to
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  Speaker 1: be greater than the prophets. That he was constantly attributing
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  Speaker 1: to him, to himself names and brands and labels that
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  Speaker 1: only God carried. And it was their confidence that perhaps
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  Speaker 1: or their suspicion that perhaps Jesus was corrected by himself
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  Speaker 1: that kept the disciples and the apostles following. And Peter
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  Speaker 1: and the boys. They didn't choose to stay with Jesus
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  Speaker 1: because of what he taught. In fact, they chose to
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  Speaker 1: stay with Jesus in some cases in spite of what
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  Speaker 1: he taught. Case in point, John tells us about this incident.
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  Speaker 1: It's a famous incident. You've heard this before, where Jesus
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  Speaker 1: feeds all these people with loaves and a few fishes,
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  Speaker 1: and then the crowd is so big they want to
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  Speaker 1: make him king right there, because that's what kings did.
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  Speaker 1: Kings fed the people. So Jesus and his disciples get
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  Speaker 1: in a boat and they travel across the southern end
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  Speaker 1: of the Sea of Galilee just to get a break
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  Speaker 1: from the crowd. When they get out of the boat,
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  Speaker 1: the crowd has found them and other people make their
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  Speaker 1: way around the southern end of the Sea of Galilee,
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  Speaker 1: and next thing you know, Jesus has another crowd on
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  Speaker 1: his hand. So he takes advantage of the situation and
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  Speaker 1: decides to teach. And as he's teaching, he says that
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  Speaker 1: he is the bread of life that has come down
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  Speaker 1: out of heaven. The problem is, somebody in the crowd
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  Speaker 1: raises their head and says, no, you're not. We know
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  Speaker 1: your dad, Joseph, and we know your mother, and you
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  Speaker 1: didn't come down out of heaven. This was just weird.
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  Speaker 1: And then Jesus continues to teach, and he continues to
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  Speaker 1: talk about himselves in terms that are very confusing, and
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  Speaker 1: then he speaks of himself in terms that are actually offensive,
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  Speaker 1: and the crowd starts to thin. In fact, John says this.
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  Speaker 1: He says, from this time on, many of his disciples,
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  Speaker 1: many of the people who just followed him everywhere he went.
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  Speaker 1: Many of the crowd turned back and they hit the
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  Speaker 1: unfollowed button. They decided they were no longer going to
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  Speaker 1: follow him because this particular analogy in the terminology he
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  Speaker 1: was using to describe himself, it was just so offensive. Well,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus sees the crowd thinning out. The apostles see the
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  Speaker 1: crowd thinning out, and Jesus turns to his twelve followers
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  Speaker 1: and he says, you guys aren't thinking about leaving two,
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  Speaker 1: are you? Well? Nobody makes eye contact with Jesus because
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  Speaker 1: perhaps that's what they were thinking. They turned to Peter
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  Speaker 1: because he's the spokesman, and Peter responds. And what Peter
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  Speaker 1: doesn't say in this moment is as instructive as what
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  Speaker 1: he does say. Here's what Peter doesn't say. Jesus says,
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  Speaker 1: you guys aren't thinking about leaving too. And here's what
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  Speaker 1: Peter doesn't say. He doesn't say, Lord, leave you? Are
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  Speaker 1: you kidding? To whom shall we go? Nobody teaches as
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  Speaker 1: well as you do. We've learned so much. Your content
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  Speaker 1: is compelling, and your storytelling skills, my goodness, there without
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  Speaker 1: equal Now, granted, granted, today wasn't one of your better outings. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: but one mediocre message is no reason for us to
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  Speaker 1: abandon you. That's not what he said at all. Why
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  Speaker 1: because they weren't following Jesus because of what he taught.
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  Speaker 1: They were following Jesus because of who they believed he
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  Speaker 1: might be. Here's what Peter actually said in that moment.
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  Speaker 1: You guys aren't thinking about leaving too. Peter says, Lord,
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  Speaker 1: to whom shall we go? You have the words of
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  Speaker 1: eternal life, And then get this. We have come to believe,
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  Speaker 1: we're convinced, we have come to know that you are
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  Speaker 1: the Holy One of God. Translated, you are the Messiah
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  Speaker 1: of God. They followed Jesus because of who Jesus claimed
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  Speaker 1: to be, and because of who they thought perhaps he was.
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  Speaker 1: But now he's dead and now he's buried, and clearly
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  Speaker 1: they were wrong. They knew they were wrong, because the
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  Speaker 1: Holy One of God, the Messiah of God, the Resurrection
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  Speaker 1: in the life, the Bread of life, can't be crucified,
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  Speaker 1: can't be executed. I mean, God would not allow the
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  Speaker 1: Messiah that the Jews have been waiting off for hundreds
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  Speaker 1: of years to be executed by a foreign power. That
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  Speaker 1: was impossible clearly they were wrong about Jesus, and clearly
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  Speaker 1: Jesus wasn't telling the truth about who he was. They
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  Speaker 1: watched him die, and it's clear from the Gospels all
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  Speaker 1: of them expected Jesus to do what dead people normally do,
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  Speaker 1: stay dead. No one. We find no one standing outside
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  Speaker 1: the tomb on that first Easter morning, counting down backwards
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  Speaker 1: from ten and equally is interesting. Nobody writes themselves into
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  Speaker 1: the story as a die hard believer. Nobody writes themselves
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  Speaker 1: into the story is but I was the one who
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  Speaker 1: never lost faith. In the Gospels, they're so honest, they
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  Speaker 1: all stopped believing. So if we can pause in that
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary moment in history, Jesus is dead. Jesus has been buried.
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  Speaker 1: And what do we have. We have a corrupt religious system,
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  Speaker 1: We have a heartless empire. We have a relieved Roman
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  Speaker 1: governor pilot who cannot wait to get out of Jerusalem
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  Speaker 1: after pass Over and get back to his coastal home.
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  Speaker 1: We have some sad Galileans. But there's no savior, there's
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  Speaker 1: no Son of God, there are no believers, and there
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  Speaker 1: is no hope because when Jesus died, hope died with Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: There were no Christians because there is no Christ. And
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  Speaker 1: then something happened. Then something happened that changed everything, because
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  Speaker 1: then came that morning that sealed the promise. His buried
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  Speaker 1: body began to breathe, and out of the silence, the
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  Speaker 1: roaring lion, don't you love these lyrics? Declared the grave
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  Speaker 1: has no claim on you, and the grave has no
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  Speaker 1: claim on me. That's why I say Easter has never
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  Speaker 1: been more significant for us, because at Easter we celebrate
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  Speaker 1: not something that was written on Easter. We celebrate the
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  Speaker 1: event that launched the movement the church that eventually brought
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  Speaker 1: us the Bible. And this is a really important sequence
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  Speaker 1: of events. In fact, if you get this out of order,
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  Speaker 1: it will not only be confusing, get this out of
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  Speaker 1: order and your faith will become fragile. In fact, if
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  Speaker 1: you're watching today or listening today and you're not a
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  Speaker 1: Jesus follower any longer, or you grew up in church
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  Speaker 1: and lost your faith, my hunch is because no one
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  Speaker 1: actually gave you this sequence of events. This sequence is
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  Speaker 1: so extraordinarily important, and again, without it, faith becomes so fragile.
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  Speaker 1: You lost your faith. I would say this if you
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  Speaker 1: lost your faith because of something in the Bible or
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  Speaker 1: about the Bible. I have some great news for you.
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  Speaker 1: The Christian faith. The Christian faith did not begin with Genesis.
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  Speaker 1: The Christian faith began with Jesus, but not the birth
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus and not the teaching of Jesus. The Christian
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  Speaker 1: faith began with the resurrection of Jesus. Because there were
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  Speaker 1: no Christians. There were no followers until after something happened.
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  Speaker 1: There were no believers until after the resurrection. The Bible
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  Speaker 1: did not create Christianity. Christians did not create Christianity. The
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  Speaker 1: Resurrection actually created both. And that's why we celebrate now.
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  Speaker 1: Whenever I'm talking to a small group of people or
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  Speaker 1: an individual about this, somebody always asks this question. And
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  Speaker 1: it's a great question. And if it's the question you have,
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  Speaker 1: then you're tracking with me. And the question is simply this,
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  Speaker 1: But Andy, Okay, I get all that. But Andy, the
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  Speaker 1: Bible is how we know about the resurrection. Actually it's not,
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  Speaker 1: but most folks think it is. And the reason most
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  Speaker 1: folks think it is is because of people like me,
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  Speaker 1: because of preachers. So listen so carefully. This is so important.
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  Speaker 1: The Bible was not assembled until about three hundred and
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  Speaker 1: fifty years after the resurrection. The Bible wasn't assembled. And
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  Speaker 1: when I say assembled, I mean the Jewish Scripture combined
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  Speaker 1: with Matthew, Martin, Luke and John, the apostles letters, Peter's letters,
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  Speaker 1: the Book of Revelation. The Bible wasn't assembled until the
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  Speaker 1: fourth century. So if no one knew about the resurrection
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  Speaker 1: until the Bible was assembled, then no one knew about
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  Speaker 1: the resurrection until almost four hundred years after the resurrection.
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  Speaker 1: We don't know about the resurrection because of the Bible.
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  Speaker 1: Do you know how we know about it. We know
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  Speaker 1: because Matthew told us about it, and Mark told us
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  Speaker 1: about it, and Mark got his information from the apostle Peter,
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  Speaker 1: and Luke told us about it. And Luke says this,
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  Speaker 1: I thoroughly investigated everything. I talked to every single eyewitness,
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  Speaker 1: and Luke tells us something else as well. Luke says
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  Speaker 1: that many people sat down and tried to put together
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  Speaker 1: an orderly count of the life and the teaching of Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: We know about the resurrection because the apostle John was
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  Speaker 1: an eyewitness and tells us about it. Peter, who wrote
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  Speaker 1: two letters that ended up in the New Testament. And
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  Speaker 1: then my favorite James. James was the brother of Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: and whenever I talk about James, I can't resist asking
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  Speaker 1: this question, what would your brother have to do to
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  Speaker 1: convince you that he was the son of God? And
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  Speaker 1: James shows up in the New Testament Book of Acts
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  Speaker 1: as a leader of the church. James was martyred because
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  Speaker 1: he believed get this, because he believed his brother was
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  Speaker 1: his lord. James was martyred because he believed his brother
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  Speaker 1: rose from the dead. So, no, we don't believe in
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  Speaker 1: the resurrection because the Bible tells us. So we believe
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  Speaker 1: because Matthew, Mark, Luke, John Peter, James, and the apostle
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  Speaker 1: Paul who steps onto the pages of history trying to
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  Speaker 1: put the church out of business. We don't know about
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  Speaker 1: the resurrection because of the Bible. Actually, we have a
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  Speaker 1: Bible because of the Resurrection. Without the Resurrection, there would
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  Speaker 1: be no Bible. And the reason we know that is
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  Speaker 1: because the only reason, and please don't miss this, the
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  Speaker 1: only reason Jesus' story was worth telling. It wasn't his teaching,
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  Speaker 1: and it wasn't simply his claims about himself, and it
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  Speaker 1: certainly wasn't his Crucifixion. Tens of thousands of people were crucified.
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  Speaker 1: The only reason Jesus' story was worth telling was the resurrection,
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  Speaker 1: and as it turns out, because of the resurrection, it
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  Speaker 1: was a story worth telling. So for over thirty years,
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  Speaker 1: the apostle Peter would tell that story. For thirty years
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  Speaker 1: after the resurrection, he would travel around to villages and towns,
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  Speaker 1: and everywhere he went the Christians would invite him into
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  Speaker 1: their homes and they would say, Peter, tell us one
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  Speaker 1: more time. So for thirty years he tells this story.
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  Speaker 1: And then Peter ends up in Rome, Nero's Rome, and
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  Speaker 1: he's imprisoned. Peter doesn't know what at the time, but
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  Speaker 1: he will not leave Rome alive. And he's accompanied by Mark,
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  Speaker 1: who traveled with him for several years. And Mark had
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  Speaker 1: heard him tell these stories over and over and over,
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  Speaker 1: and Mark coaxes it out of him one more time,
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  Speaker 1: and Mark documents it for us, and it comes to
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  Speaker 1: us as the Gospel of Mark. And just imagine Peter
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  Speaker 1: and Mark sitting there and they're to this part of
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  Speaker 1: the story, the resurrection, and Mark says, okay, go slow,
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  Speaker 1: I got to get this down. And here's what Peter said.
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  Speaker 1: He said Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the
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  Speaker 1: Jewish Council basically their supreme court, who was himself waiting
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  Speaker 1: for the Kingdom of God. And Joseph was hoping that
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  Speaker 1: Jesus was going to usher in the Kingdom of God,
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  Speaker 1: and like everyone else, he lost faith because God's Messiah
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  Speaker 1: couldn't possibly be crucified. He went boldly to Pilot and
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  Speaker 1: he asked for Jesus's body, and Pilot was actually surprised
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  Speaker 1: to hear that Jesus was already dead. And summoning the
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  Speaker 1: centurion who oversaw the crucifixion, he asked him, has the
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  Speaker 1: King of the Jews already died? And when he learned that,
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  Speaker 1: in fact it was so, he gave the body to Joseph,
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  Speaker 1: which was very unusual. So Joseph bought some linen cloth,
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  Speaker 1: he took the body of Jesus down from the cross
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  Speaker 1: and he wrapped it in the linen. He placed it
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  Speaker 1: in a tomb cut out of rock, and then he
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  Speaker 1: rolled an enormous stone against the entrance of the tomb.
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  Speaker 1: Mary Magdalen and Marry, the mother of Joseph, saw where
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  Speaker 1: Jesus had been laid and then when the sabbath was
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  Speaker 1: over and it was legal for them to come back
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  Speaker 1: out when the sabbath was over. Mary Magdalen Marry, the
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  Speaker 1: mother of James, bought spices so that they might go
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  Speaker 1: to anoint Jesus's body. And why did they go to
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  Speaker 1: the tomb to anoint Jesus's body, Because like everybody else,
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  Speaker 1: they expected Jesus to stay dead. And then very early
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  Speaker 1: on the first day of the week, just after sunrise,
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  Speaker 1: when they were on their way to the tomb, they
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  Speaker 1: asked each other, who is going to roll away the
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  Speaker 1: stone from the tomb? But when they looked up, they
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  Speaker 1: saw that the stone that was very large, had already
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  Speaker 1: been rolled away. And then they did something that I'm
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  Speaker 1: not sure I would have done. They entered the tomb
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  Speaker 1: and they saw a young man dressed in a white
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  Speaker 1: robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
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  Speaker 1: Don't be alarmed, he said, you are looking for Jesus
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  Speaker 1: the Nazarene who was crucified. But he's risen. He's not
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  Speaker 1: here see the place where they laid him. But you
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  Speaker 1: go and tell his disciples. And I love this part,
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  Speaker 1: but go tell his disciples. And Peter make sure Peter knows.
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  Speaker 1: Go tell his disciples, and Peter, he is going ahead
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  Speaker 1: of you into Galilee, and there you will see him
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  Speaker 1: just as he told you. So the women find the disciples,
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  Speaker 1: Peter and John rush to the tomb. You may know
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  Speaker 1: this story. They look inside, they walk away confused. They
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  Speaker 1: do not assume a resurrection. These were not super men.
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  Speaker 1: They make their way to Galilee, just as they were
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  Speaker 1: instructed to do. And Peter and the rest of the
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  Speaker 1: disciples get there and they meet their risen Lord and
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  Speaker 1: they have this is such an intimate setting. They have
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  Speaker 1: breakfast with him on the beach. And I'm just guessing.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if this is the case, but perhaps
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  Speaker 1: they had breakfast with him on the beach, in the
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  Speaker 1: very location where this entire journey began. Now, if you're
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  Speaker 1: a Jesus follower, Peter would tell you, Andrew and James
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  Speaker 1: and John would assure you that your faith, your sacrifice,
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  Speaker 1: your compassion, your generosity, your loyalty, your love, and most importantly,
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  Speaker 1: your hope is not in vain. If you're unconvinced, I
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  Speaker 1: think Peter would lean in and he would speak first.
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  Speaker 1: If you're not convinced, I think he would lean in
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  Speaker 1: and he would say, look, I understand, I too was
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  Speaker 1: unconn evinced, I too lost faith. I was in the
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  Speaker 1: back of the crowd, and I saw him die. But
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  Speaker 1: then something happened, something happened that changed everything. Something happened
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  Speaker 1: that changed everything for me, something happened that caused me
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  Speaker 1: to spend the rest of my life, risking my life
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  Speaker 1: so that you could know that your Savior lives. And
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  Speaker 1: when I saw my resurrected Rabbi, it was only then
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  Speaker 1: that I finally understood what he had been telling us
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  Speaker 1: all along. The time has come. God has done something
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  Speaker 1: for the world in the world, The Kingdom of God
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  Speaker 1: has come near, which means you are never far. And
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: then I finally understood what the invitation was all about.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: The invitation was to repent. The invitation was to turn
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: and hit direction and embrace this kingdom value system, and
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: to embrace this king to repent and believe what I
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: understand now to be one hundred percent good news. Peter
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: would tell you God has done something for you, because
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: God is for you, and he simply wants you to
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: receive this good news and to accept his invitation to follow.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: After all, Jesus introduced the Kingdom of God to earth,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: and everyone is invited to participate in it. So I'm
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: convinced the message of Easter has never been more relevant.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: This Easter, I hope it becomes more relevant than ever
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: for you, Assa