Jesus resurrection surprised everyone
Revelation 21:1
What seems like the end is just the beginning of something new - 2nd chance
Luke 24:1-8
Jesus resurrection was traumatic. Trauma is any experience that doesn’t fit in with our usual way of thinking about how the world works.
Trauma can be positive or negative (frightened, shocking, joy, amazement)
Luke 24:36-45
Christianity is built around words like joy, amazement, surprise, resurrection, hope and infinite possibilities.
God is not that gives us meaning: God is that which renders all things meaningful.
Jesus is not the band-aid of meaning we put over our trauma…Jesus is the trauma, the event, the moment, that enters into what we think meaning is and turns what we thought about the world upside down. Easter is about that moment that turns everything we thought about how the world upside down and gives us new beginnings, fresh starts, second chances and infinite possibilities.
What does resurrection mean for us?
1. Resurrection demonstrates that death has no power. What appears to be the end is only a new beginning.
· Resurrection says you were wrong about death, what else could you be wrong about
· Nothing else has the last word, only Jesus
2. Resurrection challenges the way we think. If we were wrong about death, what else?
· We need to open up more conversations about Jesus
3. Resurrection demonstrates the availability of new life here and now.
· resurrection and new life are available to us right now
· you are never beyond hope
4. Resurrection demonstrates that there is a new creation bursting forth in the middle of this one. It is a glimpse as to what is going to happen later.
· You don’t know what God might do to your tomorrow that changes everything
· Fear has no place
1 Corinthians 15: 1-58 – Paul spends 57 verses explaining resurrection and sums it up in verse 58
· Resurrection means that if you’re doing it for God, nothing is wasted
· Paul wrote this waiting to die before he ever knew if his message ever worked (before the gospel was preached, before the church even took off)
5. Resurrection declares that this world matters to God. It is still valuable enough for God to start the process of reconciling the whole broken thing to Himself.
· Because the world is valuable to God, we as Christians can’t just sit around. We are called to fix this broken world
6. Resurrection means that how we speak, act, and treat others matters because God is restoring creation and we should be partnering with Him to restore the world.
· Are we participating in disrepair or in order and beauty and compassion?
· How you treat people matters, how you respond to people matter
· It matters how you treat others because God is restoring the broken world
1 Peter 1:3
7. Resurrection offers new birth. An imagery that gives hope to a do-over, a fresh start, a new hope and a belief that says how it has always been isn’t necessarily how it will always be.
· That part of your life you want to do over (regrets, failures), that’s resurrection
· Resurrection is proof we get 2nd chances. As a church, we need to see this as a fundamental way we see the world so that we assure people get a 2nd chance
· Your past will not be held against you, there’s a new hope. How it’s always been is not how it always be
Romans 6:8-14
8. Resurrection offers the opportunity to be free from whatever is driving our lives. Fear, rejection, pain, control, greed, hoarding, lust, anger, all belong to death…and death does not belong.
