Welcome everybody and happy Easter. Great to see all of you guys today. We are here today to celebrate the truth, the reality that God made a promise to rescue us from all that's broken in this world and more importantly what's broken inside of each of us and it is finished. God kept that promise by sending his son Jesus to live a perfect life that we couldn't live to show that He loves us to death by actually going to death in our place as a substitutionary payment for our sins.
And to prove that that rescue worked by rising victorious from the dead. Jesus is now seated at God's right hand, transforming this world one life at a time until he comes back again to make it all beautiful and right again. That's what we're here to celebrate today. Amen? Amen. And so, man, great to see you guys celebrating that with us here today. My name is Justin. I'm one of the pastors here of our church.
Okay, so we're going to focus our attention now on Jesus and the words of the Bible, the words that God gave us so that we can know him and know the life that we have through him. And so if you have a Bible, you can grab it now and turn to John chapter 20. That'll be on page 963 in those Bibles under the chairs in front of you if you're using one of those.
For the last several weeks, we've been looking at the life of Jesus And how whenever people encounter the true, real Jesus, they walk away transformed. And today, we're going to look at another story about how Jesus changed someone's life. It's the first life he transformed after the resurrection. That's what we're going to look at today. And so we're going to pray a simple prayer as we get into God's word. It's a prayer from Psalm 74. It's going to be up on the screen.
So I want us all to say it together, and then we're going to pray it. So let's say it in three, two, one. You are the God who works miracles. Let's pray. Yes, God, you are. You are the miracle-working God. Jesus is alive today, and that is a miracle. You have defeated death. You've defeated our sin. You've defeated the enemy. That is a miraculous work that you have done, but you are not done. You are the God who continues to work miracles.
There are so many people here in this room today who are living miracles, who have gone from death to life because Jesus has rescued them. And so God, we just pray that you'd work more miracles this morning. Before we leave here today, we pray that we would see miracles. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's look at verse 1, John chapter 20. On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark. She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.
All right, so who is this Mary? We only know a few details about Mary Magdalene from the Bible, and all of them are really in Luke 8, the first couple verses of Luke 8. And so here's what we know about Mary Magdalene. We know that she was a woman who lived in the first century that met Jesus. And when she met Jesus, at that time, she was possessed by seven demons. All right? You think your life's kind of going kind of weird right now? She was possessed by seven demons. All right?
She was at a low point when she met Jesus. And Jesus healed her. Jesus casted out those demons, brought her new life physically, healed her spiritually, emotionally healed her. And now, since then, she's been following Jesus and his disciples around. As Jesus walks around teaching and preaching about who God is and who he is, She's been following him and supporting his ministry and the disciples through giving of her finances, just supporting Jesus financially.
And what that means is this, she's given her whole life to Jesus. This is someone who Jesus has already transformed. He's already worked in her life powerfully to give her this new life. And now she's following him even though she doesn't fully understand who he is. She just knows he saved her life. All right? And now she's at Jesus' tomb right after his burial.
She's one of the few people who was there at the cross, one of only two people who followed to see where Jesus was buried, and now she's back on Sunday morning. All of Jesus' other followers have run away scared. And she sees that the stone sealing Jesus' tomb has been moved. The religious leaders of the day, they had heard that Jesus was talking about how he was going to die and he was going to rise after three days. And that threatened them.
I mean, these are the ones who killed Jesus because his whole teaching and life threatened them and their jobs and everything. And so they go to the government official to Pilate and they say, hey, this Jesus guy, he said he was going to rise from the dead. And here's what they were saying. They were saying, I know that's not possible. He's not going to really rise from the dead.
But they told Pilate what we think is going to happen is his disciples are going to come, get into that tomb, and steal away Jesus' body. And if they do that, then it's going to keep this Jesus movement going, and it's going to be harder to snuff it out. And so they asked Pilate, can we seal that tomb? And Pilate said, sure. He said, go seal it with a giant rock. He said, take these government-trained guards and put guards all around the tomb.
And then he says this, do whatever else you see fit to secure that tomb the best way you know possible. And so these guys whose lives depended on it went and sealed that tomb to the best of human ability. And Mary shows up Sunday morning and sees that the stone is moved. The guards are gone and Jesus's body is not there.
So verse two, she went running to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, the one Jesus loved and said to them, they've taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they've put him. She runs to tell Peter and John. Now, that's the disciple who Jesus loved, what it says there in verse two. That's talking about John. John's the one who wrote this book. The nickname he gives himself is disciple who Jesus loved. Kind of braggy, you know?
But Mary probably went to get these guys because in the first century, women didn't have the same rights as men and a woman's testimony wasn't admissible in court. For a testimony to be admissible in court as fact, it needed the witness of two men. And so she runs, sadly, to have to get two men here. At verse 3, it says, At that, Peter and the other disciple went out heading for the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and got to the tomb first.
So John doesn't just want everyone forever to know that Jesus loved him best. He also wants us to know that he's faster than Peter. He wants us 2,000 years, here we are now. John's faster than Peter, guys, all right? And so I guess he wanted us to know that. Those are like the two things that every four or five-year-old says all the time. Daddy loves me more than me, and I'm faster than you. You know, I mean, John's got to be a middle child.
He's just got to be the middle child trying to stand his ground here. I don't know. But his fast legs get him to the tomb first. And verse 5, it says, Stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he didn't go in. Then, following him, Simon Peter also came. He entered the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there. The wrapping that had been on his head was not lying with the linen cloths, but was folded in a separate place by itself.
The other disciple who had reached the tomb first, then also went in, saw, and believed. A third time, John just brings it up. He says here, then following him, Simon Peter, and then in that last verse we read there, the disciple who reached the tomb first, he really wants to highlight that he's faster than Peter.
and listen if we know anything about Jesus's disciples we know that they are almost always focused on the wrong things and here we see it again John's focus in this moment is even being faster than Peter wanting to shine some light on himself even while he's writing about Jesus having victory over death like did he think we'd be impressed like yeah Jesus defeated death but I'm faster than Peter what like come on dude like I don't know what he's doing here but it highlights
It's what we see in verse 9. For they did not yet understand the scripture that Jesus must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to the place where they were staying. See, at this point, they still don't get it. They still didn't believe that Jesus had come back to life. They're still focused on all these other little things and trying to figure out how to pick up the pieces of their life. Maybe they were starting to believe a little bit, but not enough to stake their lives on it.
Not enough to stick around at the tomb. They ran back to the house and hid. it was really hard for them to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. Maybe it's hard for you to believe too. Maybe it's hard for you to believe that a Jewish rabbi 2,000 years ago was actually God who became man and who lived and died for you to rescue you and that after he really died he actually had victory over death and rose up back to life. And man, if that is hard for you to believe you're in good company.
I was really hard for Peter to believe and John to believe and Mary to believe. But here's the thing. We've all got to come to a conclusion about what happened to Jesus.
Looking at the historical evidence, everything that's been preserved, all the eyewitness accounts, Jesus appearing to over 500 people after he was raised, the explosion of the Christian faith in the church over the last 2,000 years, all of us have to ask ourselves this, do I really truly believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead? Because if it's true that a God-man came and lived among us and then died but rose from the dead victorious, then that changes everything for us.
That changes everything. If there's a God who can have victory over death, then anything is possible. Anything is possible. Do you believe that anything is possible with God? We live in a world where it seems like the things that are impossible are becoming more and more possible. It seems like some impossible thing is happening like every day. Like dire wolves.
Dire wolves became extinct thousands of years ago, but some company last week named Colossal Biosciences found some DNA of some old dire wolves, and they did something that allowed three dire wolf pups to be born last week into this world after being extinct for thousands of years. We are that much closer to Jurassic Park, guys. Like, it's coming. It's happening. My great-grand, I think we're on track. My great-grandkids could own a Stegosaurus, and I'm for it. Like, I'm all about it.
Bring them back, all right? I think that movie, I don't think that was a cautionary tale. I don't think it'll go that way. I think it'll be fine. All right, so let's just do it. Let's bring them back. I love it. The impossible is coming true. Our new van that our family has, it has the ability when we're at a stoplight to actually ding me, to send an alarm to me when the car in front of me starts to move and go ahead.
So I can now come to this stoplight here at Walmart, put my van in park and take an eight minute power nap. And then right after, right when that car in front of me moves, it's just gonna ding me and wake me up. What a time to be alive. the impossible is coming true. It's an amazing time to be on this planet. But you and I also know that there are things in our lives that seem impossible. The diagnosis. The failing or failed relationships.
the broken trust the crippling anxiety making up for past mistakes there's so many things in our lives that can feel impossible right and I don't know what impossibilities you brought with you here into this room today what things in your life that just feel man, it just seems like it's impossible and it's never going to happen and there's no hope. But Mary showed up to the tomb this Sunday morning with an impossibility.
She was not thinking at all that it was possible for Jesus to be raised from the dead. That's why in verse 11 it says this, Mary stood outside the tomb crying. She didn't think it was possible. But look, as she was crying, as she was feeling life's impossibilities, she stooped to look into the tomb. She saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus' body had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, woman, why are you crying?
Because they've taken away my Lord, she told them, and I don't know where they've put him. Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there. But she did not know it was Jesus. Woman, Jesus said to her, why are you crying? Who is it that you are seeking? Now, Mary's been around for the last several hours. She's seen Jesus hit, beaten, flogged, the crown of thorns. By the time Jesus died, his face was so unrecognizable.
But now, in his resurrected body, those wounds would have been healed. He still bears the scars on his arms and on his feet where the nails pierced him. But all the other injuries have been healed in this resurrected body. And so this isn't the Jesus she's looking for. And that's the point of the question. Who is it that you're seeking? Who are you looking for? When God asks those kinds of questions, he asks them because he wants us to think. Who are you looking for?
Who did you come in here looking for today? Which version of Jesus are you here for? The beaten, disfigured, humiliated Jesus? He's not here. The weak Jesus? The good teacher Jesus? The inspiring historical figure Jesus? The co-pilot of your life Jesus? The homeboy Jesus? The Jesus who will walk beside you on the beach but carry you once you get tired? None of those Jesuses are here. But the resurrected Jesus is here.
The victorious Jesus. The Jesus who's defeated sin and death and Satan and rose triumphant from the grave, showing us that he has the power to raise each of us from the dead as well. That Jesus is right here in our midst. You can experience him today. Just like Mary was experiencing him. But she missed it. She missed it, right? She wasn't paying attention. Verse 15, supposing he was the gardener, she replied, Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've put him and I will take him away.
See guys, we can get so distracted. We can turn our eyes so aggressively away from Jesus that we actually miss him. Mary was missing Jesus even though he was right in front of her. And maybe that's you. Maybe that's you. Maybe you've been missing Jesus. Maybe you've been content to let Jesus be the gardener of your life, to occupy this small piece of your life, and you've had your head turned away from Jesus and focused on all the cares in this world and all the cares of your life.
That's what Mary's doing. She's turned her head away from Jesus, and she's focusing on these other little things. Oh, I don't know where this corpse is, and I don't know what to do about the linen, and what do I do with these spices I brought? She's so concerned with all the other things of life. She's turned her head away from the one who can actually transform her life. Maybe that's you.
Maybe you're a Christian here today and you're like, man, I've been focusing on so many other things in life and I just give Jesus. I let him occupy this little corner way over here. Or maybe you're here this morning and you're like, I don't think I've ever really turned and paid attention to Jesus. I'm here on Easter because I think that's probably a good thing to do. But man, I don't think I've ever actually turned and looked at Jesus. And man, if that's you today, right now, I believe this.
I believe that Jesus is calling your name. just like he did for Mary. That's what Jesus recently did for Sandy. Sandy was in Kakaako a few months ago. She was at her storage unit across the street from Harbor Honolulu putting some stuff in her storage unit and she looked across the street and saw our church. And at that moment she said, man, I've been ignoring Jesus.
I've been ignoring God. I've been searching for all kinds of other things in life for the last 30 years, but I've been ignoring God. And so she walked right across the street that moment walked into church and she heard about Jesus. She started to hear about who Jesus is and how much Jesus loves her. And she heard Jesus call her name. Listen to how she responded. Listen to Sandy's story. It felt like life was full.
A high paying job, designer clothes, the highs of shopping, traveling, and smoking. But beneath the surface, I was numb. I tried everything. Crystals, new age beliefs, even old Buddhist traditions from my upbringing. But nothing filled the void inside me. For over 30 years, I was consumed by the world of luxury retail. I still felt empty, like my soul was slowly dying. Then one day, I looked up from my 45th floor condo, and I saw the face of God in the clouds.
I fell to my knees and cried for the first time in years. Something shifted. In that moment, I surrendered my life to Christ. The things I had been turning to for the past 30 years, I let go of. I felt truly alive. He healed what nothing else could. Now I'm not just living. I'm living transformed. For 30 years, 30 years, Sandy had had her attention turned away,
her gaze turned away from who Jesus was, from how God was working in her life. But she came into church that day and she heard about Jesus and she started thinking about the gospel, thinking about the good news. And then God showed up and just called her name. He did it in this miraculous, I mean, kind of weird kind of way by allowing her to see his face in the clouds. God can speak to us however he wants. But in that moment, Sandy remembered what she'd heard in that church
about who Jesus was and how much he loved her. Sandy put her faith in Jesus and she started to experience a new life. And now today, Sandy is a growing, thriving member of Harbor Church Honolulu down in town, and she's bringing other people in her life to meet Jesus. And it happened to Sandy the same way it did with Mary. In verse 16, Jesus said to her, Mary. Jesus called her name.
He spoke directly to her. Mary heard the voice of God in her life. She knew that God was speaking her to get her attention. Jesus spoke to her. Do you hear it? Do you hear it? The voice of God in your own life? Do you hear Jesus speaking to you today? Maybe he's getting your attention here today. He's telling you, man, you've been running away for a long time. Sandy was running away her whole life. It was later in life, years and years down the path of turning her attention away from Jesus.
And maybe that's you today. You're like, man, I'm way down that path. I don't know if I can turn back. Maybe Jesus is calling your name today. Look how Mary responds in verse 16. Turning around. she said to him in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher. She turns and actually looks at Jesus. She sees him for who he truly is. And that word there, it literally means precious teacher. And in this moment, Jesus is teaching her some precious lessons. He's teaching her that he's
there for her. He's teaching her that he's going to show up for her when she's at her lowest. He's teaching her that he knows her, that he's defeated death for her. And he's about to teach her that he's given her life a new purpose. Because look at verse 17. He says, don't cling to me since I have not ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and tell them that I'm ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord. And she told them what Jesus had said to her. Mary Magdalene becomes the first person to meet the risen Jesus. The first person to tell others that Jesus is alive. This formerly demon-possessed woman, a woman whose society probably had no hopes for, and she'd likely given up having hope in her own life that it could be turned around, is now the first person to share the good news of Jesus with anyone.
And here's what that tells us, guys. it tells us that it doesn't matter what your past is. It tells us that it doesn't matter what you've done or where you come from. It tells us that it doesn't matter your status in society. Through Mary Magdalene, we see that anything is possible now that Jesus is risen. A formerly demon-possessed woman can become the first proclaimer of the greatest news in the world. If the tomb is really empty, then anything is possible.
The way that Jesus transformed Mary's life, he can transform our lives today in the same ways. Mary realized that because the tomb was empty, that she could have a transformed faith. Like in verse 2, when she first shows up to the tomb, Mary says they've taken the body away. where have they taken the body? She's focused on the dead corpse of Jesus. See, when she comes to
the tomb, her focus is simply this. Her faith is just this. Jesus was a good teacher. Jesus was an inspirational figure, but she didn't think he could be raised from the dead, which means this. She didn't think he was God yet. She just comes to the tomb and says, where's my teacher? Where's the one who I've been following? But because of the empty tomb, because she encountered the risen Jesus, she says in verse 18, I've seen the Lord. Jesus is the Lord to her now. He's God himself
who is more powerful than death. She has a new faith, not just in a good teacher or a miracle worker, but in God himself. Because the tomb is empty, Mary's faith can be transformed. And guys, because the tomb is empty, your faith can be transformed today. You can go from viewing Jesus as an inspirational figure or a good teacher or the founder of a religion to today for the first time viewing him as the God of the universe who defeated death for you. That's a new kind of faith.
That's a different kind of faith. Because your faith is in someone totally different. You can have that new transformed faith today. But also because the tomb is empty, Mary's identity was transformed. In verse 17, Jesus tells her, I'm going to ascend to, look at the words, my God, or my father, and your father. My father and your father. What does it mean if you have the same father? Your siblings. Your family. See, Jesus wanted her to know this right away. You are in the family now.
You are my sister. That was her new identity. Because the tomb is empty, she is in the family of God. Listen, you do not need to be defined by your past, your failures, your sins. We are so tempted to define ourselves by our past scars. Mary would have been so tempted to define herself, to just view herself as, well, I'm a formerly demon-possessed woman. That's in my past, that's part of my story, and I don't know if I'll ever recover from that.
Peter would be tempted to define himself as a denier of Jesus. Paul as a murderer. The enemy would love for you and I to define ourselves by our past scars, but Jesus wants you to be defined by his scars for you. The scars of Jesus prove this, that he loves you to death. The scars of Jesus proves this, that he wants you to be in his family. He wants you to be his brother. He wants you to be his sister. That's what defines you. You are part of the family.
Because the grave is empty, you can have a new transformed identity with Jesus as your brother. And because the tomb is empty, lastly, you can have a transformed purpose in life now. A transformed purpose. When Mary shows up at the tomb, her only purpose there is just to cry. I mean, she's just there crying. She's come to the point in life where she's like, man, I don't know what led me here, but this is what my life is now. I hitched my, I never know how to say that.
I hitched my wagon to this train, to Jesus' train, and now he's dead, and I don't know what to do. And so she's just crying. Life is in shambles, all right? Isn't that what life feels like sometimes? You just wake up every day and you're like, man, I don't know how I got here. I don't know what to do with any of this. Life is just hard and all you do is just cry. Maybe that's just me being a parent of three young children right now. I don't know. But it's just life is hard, right?
And you think like, what is the purpose of it? What is my purpose? Is life just about making the best of each situation? Living for the weekend? Waiting on the next vacation? Trying to accumulate as much stuff as I can to see if maybe that'll work to fill some sort of void? Mary's here just at the tomb crying at where life has brought her.
But then in verse 18, in verse 18, after she meets the risen Jesus, she's bursting down the doors of a house that's filled with a bunch of frightened, scared men to tell them to stop being scaredy cats and to put their faith in Jesus. She's the first evangelist. Man, what a life of purpose she has now. Jesus tells her, here's your purpose now. Go, tell my brothers. Jesus could have done that himself. He totally could have done that himself. But he wanted her to do it.
He's given her life a new purpose. Go, share the good news. And you can have that new transformed purpose in life also. You can be here in this life, not just to make the best of each situation or live for the weekend, but with a new God-given purpose to bring good news and life into every place and relationship that God has placed you. You can be a source of life to everyone around you because you now know the giver of life, the risen Jesus.
When Mary showed up to the tomb that Sunday morning, she wasn't looking for a resurrection. She wasn't anticipating a resurrection. She wasn't planning on her own life being transformed, but she encountered the risen Jesus and Jesus changed everything.
he transformed her faith her identity and her purpose maybe you showed up here today this Sunday morning not looking for a resurrection not really planning on your life being transformed but just like Jesus did for Mary and just like he did for Sandy and just like he did for many others here Jesus is now calling your name Jesus is calling your name this morning. Maybe you're encountering the risen Jesus who wants you to have a life and live a life
to the full that you could have never dreamed of. When Jesus called Mary's name, she turned and looked at him and acknowledged who he is. And he gave her new life. So I want to give you the opportunity to do the exact same thing today. If Jesus is calling your name, if he's calling you and getting your attention, I wanna give you the opportunity just to turn and look at him and experience the new life that he has for you.
And so in just a minute, we're gonna sing three incredible songs about the resurrection of Jesus. Many of us are just gonna worship our hearts out and lose our voices in these next three songs, all right? But if you, today, if you know that God is calling your name, calling you to believe in Jesus, here's what I wanna invite you to do. It's gonna take some boldness, all right? It's going to take some guts. But here's what I want to invite you to do.
I want to invite you at some point over the next three songs just to walk up here to the front, to the stage. We would love to pray with you. We'd love to talk with you and pray with you. We'd love to help you hear the voice of God and respond to Jesus calling your name. We would love to welcome you into the family of God and see you live a new transformed life starting right here today.
and so Pastor Mike, Pastor Mike's over here, Pastor Mike's going to be up here in the front, I'm going to be right over here, Lindsay Cole right here is going to be over here and all three of us, we'd love to talk with you, pray with you, welcome you into God's family by you trusting Jesus, we would love to do that and listen to me, it is not a weird, strange, or awkward thing for you to come do that today, that is not an awkward thing in this space, this is a safe space for that,
In fact, this room is filled with scores of people who at one point in their life realized that they were as far from God as they could possibly be, but they experienced Jesus calling their name and they responded to it. Many of them by doing the exact same thing that I'm asking you to have the guts to do, to have the boldness to do, by coming and talking to someone, even during a church service.
And so man, if that's your story, if you're in here today and at some point you realized you were as far from God as you could possibly be, but you heard Jesus calling your name and you responded, and Jesus rescued you and you're living that transformed life, can you just shoot your hand up as high as it can go right now? Put your hand up if that's your story. Put it up high. No weak hands. Put it up high, okay? Keep it up. Keep it up. Look around. That's many people's story in this room.
And so here's what I want you to know. If you've never done that, you can put your hands down. If you've never done that, we are on your side. We are for you. We're just like you. We were as far from God as we could possibly be, but Jesus called our name and he gave us the grace and boldness to respond. And so I just wanna give you the space, the opportunity to also respond. On that Resurrection Sunday, Mary experienced new life like she never could have dreamed.
And now she's with Jesus right now and she'll be with him forever. And we wanna give you the space to know that you can be with Jesus right now and forever and live a new life of transformed faith, transformed identity, and transformed purpose. So we'll be up here. We'll be worshiping. Feel free to come. Tap us on the shoulder. Stand beside us. If you come up and stand beside me, I'm assuming you want prayer to know Jesus. Don't come up and just worship with me, all right?
So I'm gonna lead anybody that comes up to Jesus, but come up. Let's go, man. Let's see Jesus transform some lives. Don't continue to be distracted. Don't continue to look the other way from Jesus. come forward today and begin to live transformed. Let's pray together.