Frankie Mazzapica - Very Early on a Sunday Morning
Thank you for tuning in today. My name's Frankie Mazzapica. The title of today's message is "Very Early on a Sunday Morning". Let me dive right into it. We're gonna be in Luke chapter 24, we're gonna go over verses 1, 2, 3, and then 9, 10 and 11. So, let's just jump right into it. Very early on a Sunday morning the women went to the tomb and they brought the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone that had been rolled away from the entrance of the tomb. They went in, but they could not find the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, they rushed to the 11 disciples and to everyone else and they told them everything that had happened. And so, the disciples saw what had happened and they backed up and they were unsure of the entire situation. It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and several other women that told them all that had happened, but they did not believe the story, the men did not believe what they were telling them. They thought it was nonsense. However, Peter jumped up, he ran to the tomb, and he stooped down, he looked inside, but the only thing that he found was an empty linen wrapping. So, he went home to think about what had happened. Now, we don't know if all of the disciples were married, but we do know that Peter was married.
And so, when he went home to think about what had just happened, there's no doubt that he came into the house quiet. He didn't know what to say. His face was probably white as snow, his eyes were big, and his wife most likely looked at him and said, "Are you okay"? And being at a loss of words, he just saw Jesus crucified on a Friday, this is a Saturday, and he doesn't have the words to say. And so, he looks at his wife, no doubt. And he just says these simple words, "The tomb is empty. He's not there. I don't know what happened to him, but he's not there".
There's no way that stone could have been rolled away any other way. There's no man that could push that thing. We ended up hearing from the ladies and when they saw that the tomb was empty and the stone had been rolled away, could read about this in another gospel, but an angel was sitting on the rock. It's almost like, the big obstacle in your life is so simple, I'm sitting on it, look what I did. He was gone, he had rose again, he had moved on. And so, I got three major points this morning. The first one is how there was a group of people who was urgent, and then, secondly, there was a group of people that thought the whole thing was nonsense, and then, I wanna talk about, what did the disciples have, and other people, that made them so committed.
So, let's just jump right into it. There is an urgency. We noticed that the women rushed back to the disciples. They rushed back to tell them what they saw. They rushed, they ran, they pulled up those robes and they ran, they took off, their extensions fell out of their head. They ran, their fake eyelashes was just hanging off on, they were running. They got over there, broke a heel, they ran, they were urgent. And then you see Peter, he jumped up, he ran, he took off.
Now, it's interesting because the Bible says in John over, when they talked about the same story. See, John wrote the book of John, but he never mentions himself by name and it's fascinating how, when he talks about it, he says, "And the disciple that Jesus loved," he was talking about himself. "I'm not gonna say my name, but just so you know". He says, "And the disciple that Jesus loved and Peter raced to the tomb, but the disciple that Jesus loved got there first". Was that necessary? "I was really much faster than Peter. In fact, I love him most, so I outran him. That's why I got there first".
Was that necessary? But anyway, they get there, Peter ran, the women rushed, there was an urgency to the opportunity that... I looked up urgency. An urgency is a quick response to a great desire. It's quick, it's a great desire, and the great desire was, I have to know more. I wanna show a visual illustration for this and for those of you that were born after the year 2000, this is a phone. I ordered it and it came in. My daughter is ten and whether the order is for her or someone else she has to open it. And she had a friend of hers over the house and she opened it it and she was like, "What is this"? And so, my wife immediately pulled out her cell phone, started videotaping it, this is gonna be awesome.
If you follow me on social media, you've seen this video, but anyway. The wires were all wrapped up, there was a wire coming out of the back, and then there was two wires and I said, "Hey, put it together," and so they took wires and they didn't know what to do with it and they just started plugging it in and the long wire that goes into the wall, they had no idea what to do with that. And so, they're looking at it and Kate, my daughter, she gets mad when I call her Kate, but* she goes, "I used to have a baby phone like this, this must be a phone". And so, what's so cool is a friend of my daughter... I have a daughter who's 19 and I have a son who's 16, they had a friend over and he walks in, I think he's 19. He comes in and he takes it and he goes, he's looking around. I said, "Hey, you put it together".
And so, he figured out how to do this and then he took the other wire, he stuck it in here, and he didn't know what to do with the end of it. And he goes, "Well, this is an ethernet cord and it would work if I could plug it into a computer". And I'm looking at him and I'm like, this is awesome. But anyway, I was like, my kids are hanging out with a dummy, this is... no, I didn't think that. But anyway, the reason why I ordered a red phone is a red phone represents the urgent phone calls. It never rings unless it's urgent. The person calling in, it's an urgent call. What's scary is when the person on the other end doesn't answer the urgent call. That's a scary thing. there was an urgency in their spirit, the women were running. There was an urgency inside of Peter, they were running.
You know, the Bible says in John chapter 6, verse 33 that no man comes to the Father unless drawn by the Son. They draw, you are here this morning because you were drawn. You might say, "No, my wife dragged you". You're a full grown man, you can do whatever you wanna do. You might be sleeping on the couch, but you're a full grown man, you can do whatever you wanna do. This is Easter Sunday, you could have said no, but there was something that was curious. There was a, "I'm interested," there was a call. Watch this, I'm sorry. Revelation chapter 3, verse 20 Jesus says this, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if anyone hears my voice, I will come into their life, and I will dine with them". It's like sitting on the other side of a table with a candlelight in the middle, there's an intimacy there. He says, "I will have an intimate relationship with them. I will come into their heart, they will be mine".
Now, notice what he says. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears my voice," that means he's yelling. "Hey, open the door. I'm calling you, I'm drawing you. This is an urgent call, pick up the phone, respond to me. Put your mind's attention, your heart's affection," come on, put your hands together, "respond to me. I died, I came out of the grave, I rose because I want this relationship". My challenge to you is just, answer that call and to be very specific on what that means. It just means hey, from this day forward, this will be the most urgent thing in my life, the most urgent thing in my life. Answer the call.
Let me move on to the second point where the disciples just called it nonsense. So, we have one group of people that this is urgent, this is the center of their life, their mind's attention, their heart's affection is on the Lord. When they say something, when they do something that they know the Lord doesn't approve, they don't let the enemy sit there and condemn them, knock them down. They just say, "Lord, you know, I'm made from dust, give me the grace to move on". And they move on. Their mind's attention, their heart's affection is on him, it's an urgent thing. But then there were others that this whole thing was nonsense. There's a cold heart there's. It's like, I'm not responding to what you're saying.
And now, here's the thing, they wanted to believe it, but there's no way they could, they couldn't get there. It's almost like King Agrippa. Paul, if you read Acts chapter 1 all the way through 25, you see that Paul was in prison for two years because they kept pushing his court date back further and further and further. Finally, he met with King Agrippa and he states his case. He says, "This is how I got saved. This was the moment. This is who Jesus is. He died on the cross for you and I, he rose again. This is who he is, this is why I devote my life. Everything else in my life is rubbish, it's trash. It's", In Philippians chapter 3, verse 8 he says, "All other things are rubbish," and one version he calls it dumb.
If you don't know what that is, look it up later, not right now. It's just trash, and he says, "All that is trash to me". And then King Agrippa looks at him after he gets done talking and he says, "You almost convinced me. It was close. I was interested in what you were saying, I was provoked, but then I kinda checked out and like, you almost got me but you didn't get me".
You see, there's so many times where we're almost there and then the enemy comes in so quickly and he just sails thoughts into our mind, sails emotions into our mind, and backs up and knows what our most probable response will be. It's almost like he just shows up and he sees us putting our mind's attention on him and he just walks up and he's laughing and he just says, "I know how to deal with this person. This isn't how I deal with everybody, but I know how to deal with this person. I'll just cause their entire intimacy, their entire relationship with the Lord. All I gotta do is just walk up to him and just make him angry".
See, it's normal to get angry. But when it gets into your spirit and you can't let it go, the enemy is laughing because you cannot be angry at a person and feel close to God at the same time, you just can't do it. It can't happen, you can't do it. I know this is a resentful clap because you're making a pursuit towards the Lord, but I got that one friend that every time he comes into your life, all of your intentions with the Lord, they just fade to gray and I think he bumps his demons and says, "Watch her, she's so passionate about the Lord all I gotta do is send in a Karen". If your name is Karen, that means highly favored and anointed. "All I gotta do is just cause them to worry about something, that's it. Boom, gotcha". All the passion, and they back up and say, "Oh he almost, she almost got serious, almost".
But it's like the disciples, they just thought the whole story, they used to be passionate about it, but they just take interest. There's certain competing interests, they may not even be sinful, it's just a competing interest that rivals your passion with God. You love this and you love God, which is not even a sinful thing, but this trumps your relationship with God. This gets more time than your relationship with the Lord and the enemy just backs up and says, "You're almost fully committed, but I'll just take that special interest and, boom, I gotcha". He just shows up and says, "Okay, you're toying with doubt, you're not sure whether or not you believe or not".
And I'll say this. If you've never doubted and had to wrestle through doubt, then you've never believed. I'm a pastor, I wrestle with doubt all the time. It's just, it's part of the battle. But Peter said this... no, Paul said this in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 7. He says, "I have fought the good fight". But what is fighting the good fight? You know, it's not UFC, it's not punching somebody in the mouth, it's not punching a devil in the mouth. What is he doing? He's fighting the good fight and it included doubt. So, we all doubt, but there's some people who can just sail it in there and there is no battle. They're not fighting the good fight, they're just raising their hands, saying, "You know, it's unbelievable".
And so, what have we talked about so far? We got certain people, they are urgent, they get, this is it. And then, you got other people that it doesn't take much to cause them to back up and say, "I can't believe this, I'm not in". Just one thought, just one sail, just one desire. But now I wanna back up and talk about what was it that caused the disciples to make this massive shift. They were wrestling with these thoughts, they didn't believe the story, but as you read about them, you find out. Some theologians say 9 out of the 11 were martyred for what they believed, they died for it. What did they learn about God that not only made him the most important thing in their life, but they were willing to die.
Think about this. What did they discover? What was revealed to them? Billy Graham, he was a person that was urgent with the Lord, and the reason why it's so important to be urgent is because God is the only one that can change everything in your life in one moment, in* one phone call. The trajectory of your... absolutely put your hands together for that. There's a part of me, I pray and I worship and I'm devoted to the Lord for two primary reasons. One, I wanna know how much of his Spirit can I feel, can I experience just as I experience the wind. I can't see it, but how close can I get? Every man is as close to the Lord as they wanna be. How close can I get?
But then the there's this second motivation, is I've seen it too many times in my own life, but I'm talking about Billy Graham right now, where the trajectory of your life is not flat, but not sharp either. But when you're spending time with the Lord, God wants us to expect and to anticipate and desire and be fueled by the knowing that he changes your trajectory to what you're responsible for, the gifts of the spirit, wisdom, knowledge, faith in God, healings when you pray, miracles, prophecy, to know what's coming. These gifts rise up in you and I pray because I'm like, I know you can change my entire trajectory in just a moment.
That's what he did with Billy Graham. Billy Graham was just a preacher just like anyone else. He was in a tent and he was talking to a congregation, and this guy named William Durst comes walking in, he owned the largest newspaper in the country, he had newspapers being distributed in every major city. And in 1949 he walks in, he hears Billy Graham talking. He sends a message to all of his outlets, all of the newspapers in each city, and he tells the chief editor these exact words, "Puff Graham". In other words, "Make him famous," just like that.
What did Graham know? What did he realize that made him so devoted, NBC came to him and offered him millions of dollars for a weekly television show and he said no because he felt like he needed to travel and talk to other people across the United States and in other countries? When you're on television, you can reach more in one moment, in one half hour, in one hour, than you can reach in tens of years. And Billy Graham backed up and said, "No, I'm gonna travel and talk to people face to face and in person".
What did he discover to where he would walk away from millions of dollars to do something that in the conscious mind, logically, doesn't make sense? What did he know? What did the disciples know? What did Billy Graham know? There was a lady by the name of Kathryn Kuhlman and she would go into stadiums and pray and people would be healed and she would just pray for people and people would be healed. And she was being interviewed by a reporter and she looked at him and she said this, "You must understand that the Holy Spirit is more real to me than you are".
What did they discover? I'll tell you this, and I pray that this motivates you, Jesus came out of the grave for two reasons. One, so that death will never hold you down either. But secondly, so that you would have life and life more abundantly here. That the trajectory of your life can change for those people who says, "For this day forward, this will be the most urgent thing in my life. I will make my car," you've heard this if you come here regularly, "I'll make my car a sanctuary". Everything about the Lord is the most important thing of my life. Everything else will be called rubbish. He's the one. If you died and rose again for me, I will live for you. Come on.