Rick Warren - The Answer Is Easter - Part 2
Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection happened over three days. Friday was the day of pain and suffering and agony. Saturday was the day of loss and grief and confusion and misery. Sunday was the day of joy, celebration, and victory. Now, here’s the thing; in your life, you’re going to go through all three of those days, over and over and over again. And, when you do, you’re gonna ask three questions: What do I do in my days of pain? How do I get through my days of doubt and confusion? How do I get to my days of victory? I imagine the disciples did a a pretty good amount of «what if-ing» on Saturday. «What if we had stopped Judas from leaving the Last Supper? Maybe we could have prevented this. What if we’d done that»?
And they probably had a lot of self-recrimination. They say, «You know, we all walked away from Jesus». Once he was arrested, the Bible says, they all scattered. «We wimped out, we went AWOL, we left him, we deserted him, we abandoned him». They’re all embarrassed. Peter goes, «Lord, I’ll never deny you» and that night denies him 3 times. There’s a lot of self-recrimination going on. Then there’s probably some fear mixed in there, going, «Hey, wait a minute, they killed Jesus, they coming after us next? Are the Romans gonna come after us now? I mean, we’re the next of kin. I mean, we’re his closest followers. They killed Jesus, they gonna kill us»? So they’re afraid. And then, of course, there’s confusion. «What in the world do we do now»?
When you’re in that Saturday of life, you’re in limbo. You’ve been there many times. You went out, and you accepted a new job, or you started a new business, and you had so much hope that it was gonna be so good and so great and maybe even felt like God led you to start that business or go that job. And then it didn’t work out, and you get fired, or the company goes belly up and you go bankrupt. And you go, «Now what am I supposed to do»? Or you go into a marriage with the greatest of hopes, thinking, «This is gonna be heaven on earth». And then the marriage fails, and it falls apart, and you go, «Okay, what’s my identity now? What do I do now»? There are 1,000 ways you go through the Saturdays of life, the days of doubt, the days of confusion, the days of loss and grief.
Now, Jesus had warned them that this was gonna happen. Let me show you some verses, look up here on the screen. The Bible says, in Matthew 26, that very night, the night he was arrested and and killed, it said, «Then Jesus told them, 'Before the night’s over, you’re gonna fall to pieces because of what happens to me.'» In fact, look at this next verse. The Bible tells us that, that night, Jesus said, «All of you will desert me». Jesus told them. «For the scripture says, 'I’ll strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.'» And that’s exactly what happened. Every one of the disciples went AWOL, absent without leave. They all deserted, they all abandoned him. Look at this verse. the Bible says, «At that point,» when Jesus was arrested, «all the disciples abandoned Jesus and ran away».
Every single one of them ran away. Now, let me ask you a very pointed personal question. Have you ever deserted God out of pain? Maybe you were praying for something to happen, and it didn’t happen that way, so you walked away from church many years ago. Or, maybe you thought, «It should happen this way,» and it ended up being a massive disappointment, and you lost your faith, and you walked away or you ran away from God. Do you ever let pain move you away from God instead of to God? It’s time to come home. It’s time to come back home. I want you to write this down. You need to remember the promises of God. You need to remember the promises of God. Never doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light.
And, when you’re going through those days, and you’re gonna go through them many times in life, when you can’t put one foot in front of the other, and you don’t even know, it’s so dark you can’t even see ahead of you 1 foot. You haven’t the slightest idea what to do next with your life. Everything’s just kind of turned to ashes, it’s thrown up in the air, all of the plans have gone down the toilet, and you don’t even know what to do. And, when you are in that situation, you’re in the Saturday of life, you’re in the day of confusion. You never doubt in the dark what God has told you in the light, and you never doubt his promises. Right before Jesus was crucified, he gave his disciples a huge promise to hang onto in the dark days of Saturday. Let me show it to you; it’s up here on the screen, John chapter 16, «Jesus said, 'Here’s what’s going to happen.'»
Now, this is, he’s telling them this that very night that he’s going to be arrested. «Jesus said, 'Here’s what’s going to happen: Soon I’ll be gone and you’ll be without me, but after a while, you’ll see me again.'» He’s predicting his resurrection; he knows what’s gonna happen, they don’t. «'You’ll see me again.'» He says, «'You will weep and you will mourn and you will grieve, but your grief will eventually turn into joy.'» And then he says this, «'It will be like a woman going through labor pains. When her child is finally born, her anguish…'» that labor pain, «'…turns to joy because the new life wipes out the memory of the pain.'» And then he says, «'In the same way, you’ll go through sorrow now, but I’ll be back and you will rejoice'…», and I love this part, «'…and no one will be able to rob you of that joy! '» All right, because he said, «When I come back, you’re gonna be fearless because you know that I can handle anything».
It was all planned; it was all part of the grand scheme. You can’t see it in the days of pain, and you can’t see it in the days of confusion. But it’s all part of the plan, and it’s a good plan. And, when that come, when you see that plan, you will rejoice in ways nobody ever imagined. And nobody can tear that joy away from you. Now, I don’t know what you’re going through right now, but I will tell you this: You need to become a promise person. What’s a promise person? You need to know and claim the promises of God.
Now, in this book, the Bible, there are over 7,000 promises of God to you. Did you know that? You don’t even know them. And, if you don’t even know them, you can’t claim them. And, if you can’t claim them, they’re like checks that have been sent to you and they’re piling up in your mailbox, and you can’t even use them. How do you know when you don’t know the promises of God? Oh, it’s real simple. There’s a warning sign, and it’s real common. When you don’t know the promises of God, you know what you do? It’s called worry. Are any of you familiar with this word? Because, when you don’t know what God has guaranteed to take care of in your life, you act like it all depends on you. And then you worry, and you stress out, and you have panic attacks, and you get upset, and you get anxious, and you get over pressured and stressed out in every kind of way, and you’re worried because you don’t know what’s covered in the owner’s manual.
A couple weeks ago, I had surgery on one of my feet, and I didn’t know if the surgery was gonna be covered by my insurance or not. So, you look it up on the insurance, and you go, «Oh, well, yeah, this kind of surgery is actually covered». Once you know what’s covered in the policy, what do you do about it, you keep worrying? No, you forget it, you forget it. The reason why you’re worrying is, you don’t know what’s covered in the policy for you. There are 7,000 promises, and the way you get through the days of confusion and doubt is you hang on to the promises of God. I said, in the dark, you never doubt what God’s told you in the light, what do we know about God in the light?
Well, we know that God sees everything you go through. We know that God cares about everything you go through. We know that God grieves when you hurt. The only reason you’re able to have sorrow and grief is because you’re made in God’s image, and God grieves, God sorrows. The Bible tells us that God weeps. And, when God sees inhumanity done by humans to other humans, God weeps 'cause he doesn’t like it, and he’s sorrowful by the way people treat each other. And the Bible says, God grieves. We know that God loves you unconditionally; he will never stop loving you; you can’t make him stop loving you. We know that God is close. We know that God wants the best for you. We know that God can bring good even out of bad, even out of evil, when we give him the pieces.
Anybody can bring good out of good, that’s no problem. It’s no big deal; anybody can bring good out of good. God specializes in bringing good out of bed. He loves to turn crucifixions, it’s over, into resurrections, no, it’s not; no, it’s not. When you don’t remember the promises of God, you worry. Now, let me just talk to you personally for a minute. Some of you maybe recently have gone through a major personal train wreck. Maybe at work, maybe in your marriage, maybe in your health. And it’s a personal train wreck. And it looks like everything has turned to ashes in your life. There’s nothing to show for it.
And you go, «I don’t have anything to show for it. I put all this work in it. I’ve got nothing to show for it». If that’s the way you feel, God has a promise for you; it’s one of those 7,000. It’s Isaiah 61, there on your outline, God promises this, «To all who mourn in Zion, I will give», I will return, «beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, and praise instead of despair». That’s a good promise to hold on to when you’re in the darkest days of your life. Now, I could give you 10,000 examples of that verse. I could easily call 10,000 members of our church to come up here and tell you how that verse has been true in their lives, that he says, «I will give you beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, and praise instead of despair».
One of those 7,000 verses, the 7,000 promises that really helped me is in Isaiah chapter 43, and it says this, «When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. And when you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! And when you go through fires of oppression, you will not be burned up, the flames will not consume you! For I am the Lord, your God and Savior»! You need a Savior. The only way you’re gonna get from the days of pain, the Fridays of life, and get through the days of confusion, the Saturdays of life, and get to the Sundays, the days of victory and joy, you need a Savior 'cause you can’t resurrect yourself. Sorry, you don’t have that power. You need to turn to him, and, if you trust him, then you will get to Sunday, which is the day of joy.
On Sunday morning, a couple of the women go to the tomb because they’re going to go to mourn the tomb, at the tomb. And it says, as dawn was coming up… so, the sun is just rising, but the Son had already risen, if you get my drift. And, when Jesus shows up, and he starts showing up first to the women and then he shows up to the disciples and then he shows up to a bunch of other people, and over the next 40 days he shows up over and over. He has meals with people, he goes fishing with people. One time he sat down and had a several hour discussion with about 500 people at one time. When the disciples saw Jesus, «Okay, game changer, we’re not afraid anymore. We are fearless,» why? «Because you can kill us, but we’re coming back to life. We’re not even worried about this anymore».
And these 11 guys start spreading the good news that life can be changed, and there is power in God’s name, and it starts spreading all over the Roman Empire, and 11 guys start, and 300 years later, it’s become the faith of the Roman Empire, and Caesar’s a Christian. Why, because they were fearless and confident, because they had seen the Lord, and their joy was contagious. Now, how do you get to those days of joy? Would you write this down? You rely on the power of Jesus. You see, you can’t get there on your own. It takes far more than self effort. When your life has turned to ashes, when your life has fallen apart, when you’re in a chronic problem, a chronic pain, a chronic state of conflict, and you can’t do anything about it, it’s not, «I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can».
That doesn’t work, like the little train going up the hill. You can’t resurrect yourself; you need a Savior. God has to do it for you, that’s why it’s called salvation. See, if you could do it on your own, then Jesus coming to earth and dying on the cross is a total waste. Believe me, if there was any other way you could get into heaven without somebody having to pay for your sins, don’t you think God would have chosen the simpler way, rather than letting his Son die a humiliating death on the cross?
There was no other way. I want you to listen very closely 'cause I’m gonna summarize everything I’ve shared with you. To get through the worst days of your life, you’re gonna have to do three things. You’re gonna have to reach out to the presence of Jesus. You’re gonna have to remember the promises of Jesus, and you gotta learn them. And you’re gonna have to rely on the power of Jesus. When you do those three things, it’s a game changer. Everything and anything is possible now. Jesus said it like this, in John chapter 11, here on the screen, «He said, 'I am the resurrection and I am the life! Whoever believes in me, even though they die, they will live again. And I give them eternal life for believing in me and they will never perish! '»
What that verse says is death is not the end of the story, and that gives me a lot of hope. You know, if my son could contact me from heaven, and he can’t, but, if he could, I’m sure he would say to me from heaven, «Dad, you were wrong. You were really wrong». And I would say, «Matthew, what are you talking about? Where was I wrong»? «Dad, it’s so much better than you explained it. It’s so much cooler, and I can’t wait for you to get here». You see, our minds are limited. We only see three dimensions because we’re here on Earth. There are far more dimensions than just three dimensions. There are dimensions you and I don’t even know about. It’s like an ant trying to understand the Internet. You don’t have the brain capacity to understand heaven, and neither do I, it’s a whole another level. And Jesus says, «I am the resurrection and the life».
Now, notice the words «I am». Jesus didn’t say, «I point to it, I teach it, I show the way». He said, «I’m it». What I’m saying to you, that the answer to all of your problems, the answer to getting out of the days of pain and through the days of chaos and confusion and into the day of joy, the answer is not a principle, it’s a person; it’s Jesus. You don’t need a religion; you don’t need ritual; you don’t need rules; you don’t need a regulation. What you need is a relationship to Jesus Christ. And that’s why Paul says, «I want to know Christ».
My prayer for you this Easter is Ephesians chapter 1, It’s in the Bible. This is the prayer that, as your pastor and as somebody who loves you, I’m praying, I’ve been praying this prayer for you. And it says this, «I pray, I pray that you will begin to understand», that you’ll just begin to understand, «how incredibly great his power is», that’s the power of God, the power of Jesus, how incredibly great Jesus’s power is, «to help those who believe him». It’s available. «It is that same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead». Hello, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to you on a daily basis.
Now, listen, if God can raise a dead body, he can raise a dead marriage. If God can raise a dead body, he can raise a dead career. If God can raise a dead body, he can raise a dead relationship. He can do anything. It’s a whole new ball game with the power of God in your life. And that’s why Paul says this, «I want to know Christ», not know about him, «I want to know Christ and I want to know the power of his resurrection and I wanna know the fellowship of sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in his death». He said, «if It means going through tough times, so be it so I can get to know Jesus. If that’s what it takes, so be it. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection 'cause that’s what matters most».
Now, we’re gonna end with a life-changing prayer. This is a verse in the Bible, and it says this, Romans chapter 10, look right here on the screen, verse 9. It says this, «If you confess with your mouth», that means you pray, you say, «God, I admit this». «If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord», that he’s God, that he is who he says he is, that he has a right to be the manager of your life. Lord means manager, boss, CEO; it means he’s in charge. He’s not just resident, he’s not a part of your life; he is president of your life. And he says, «If you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved». If you believe in your heart, God raised him from the dead, that’s what Easter’s all about. And he says, then you will be saved. That’s one of those 7,000 promises.
Have you claimed that one yet? If you haven’t, hello, we need to do that one right now. Let’s bow our heads. If you’ve never accepted the grace of God in your life, if you’ve never turned your life over to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you’re not gonna get out of Saturday and Friday and into Sunday 'cause you can’t resurrect yourself. Jesus said, «I am the resurrection and the life». So I’m gonna pray a simple prayer now, and I invite you to follow me in that prayer. And you don’t have to say it aloud, you can just kinda mumble it to yourself, just kinda, as I say the words, you say, «God, me too. What Rick’s praying, that’s the desire of my heart». All right, I’m gonna pray, and you can follow. Just say:
Dear God, you know every pain I’ve had in my life. And you know the confusion and the doubts I’ve had in my life. And, God, you know, I’ve spent a lot of my life in Fridays and Saturdays, and I want to get to Sunday. I want to live in joy and victory. Thank you, God. Thank you for sending Jesus to pay for all the things I’ve done wrong by dying on the cross for me. I don’t understand it all. I don’t know how it all works. But I know I need you in my life. And, as much as I know how, I humbly ask you, Jesus, to put your love into my life, to come into my life and make me the person you want me to be. I want to learn to love you and trust you. I want to know your presence. I want to live by your promises. And I want to rely on your power instead of my own to get me through my most difficult days. And I pray this humbly in Jesus’s name, amen.