The View from the Tomb - John 20:1-8

[00:00:00] Thank you for listening to the Calvary Monterey Podcast. Please visit calvary.com to learn

[00:00:10] more about our church and visit Nateholdrich.com for additional Bible teaching from our lead pastor,

[00:00:16] Nateholdrich. Teaching today is our lead pastor, Nateholdrich.

[00:00:24] All right, good morning everyone. Happy Easter. He is risen.

[00:00:29] Well, welcome to everyone here today. It's great to see full house and to see all of our church here

[00:00:42] and then also those of you who are visiting if you're new to Calvary. My name is Nateholdrich. I'm

[00:00:47] the lead pastor here, the guy who's usually teaching the Bible. I've discovered that as a teaching

[00:00:56] pastor when Easter comes near people start treating you a little bit differently. They're just really

[00:01:04] nice to you. They start telling you things a few weeks out like, Easter is coming and I just want

[00:01:11] you to know I'm praying for you. It means a lot. It means a lot to know that people are praying for you

[00:01:17] but then it inevitably intensifies. There's moments where they'll hold your hand more closely in the

[00:01:25] church lobby after service like Easter is next week. I'm praying for you. You start feeling a

[00:01:33] little bit of pressure and then people start saying things to you like, hey, I know Easter is coming

[00:01:39] and I'm bringing some friends. I'm praying for you. I even have one friend who said to me recently

[00:01:49] he said, hey, Easter Sunday is coming up. That is the church's super bowl. I was thinking about

[00:01:58] like, what does that mean? Does that mean they're like all year? I've been playing and practicing and

[00:02:05] trying to win game after game to get into the playoffs to finally get to this final super bowl day

[00:02:11] and I might win or I might lose. When I was thinking about that statement a little bit more and I

[00:02:20] thought, no, Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday is not the church's super bowl. It is our victory parade

[00:02:29] that we celebrate every single year since the moment that Jesus Christ throws from a dead.

[00:02:38] And you know, for some of you here today this is Easter number one. This last year Jesus touched your

[00:02:45] life. He reached into your heart. He drew you by his spirit and this is your first Sunday,

[00:02:53] first Easter Sunday saying, I am a disciple of Jesus and for some of you and we celebrate you.

[00:03:00] This is Easter number 50 or 60 where you've said for many years I have celebrated the fact that

[00:03:07] Christ has risen from the dead and I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good.

[00:03:13] Spoke to a woman this morning a longtime friend of mine who in 2018 right here in this sanctuary

[00:03:20] submitted her life to Jesus and her life has been off to the races these last six years

[00:03:26] and she thanked me. She said, you know, God reached into my life and I am here celebrating my sixth

[00:03:34] Easter recognizing that nothing will ever be the same. Only the resurrection power of Christ can do

[00:03:43] that in our lives. You see the gospel message tells us not just what Jesus did but it tells us what he

[00:03:49] did so that when we believe in him, we participate in what he did. We died with Jesus the Bible says

[00:03:58] and we rise to newness of life with Jesus as well. Now for those of you who call this your church

[00:04:05] home, you know that we're a Bible-believing bunch and we love study and scripture. So today if

[00:04:10] you turned to John chapter 20, as we take a break from our verse by verse study through the book

[00:04:15] of Micah to look at the 10 first verses of John chapter 20. If you guys would follow along now as

[00:04:26] I read through this, at this point in John's gospel Jesus has already died, he's been buried

[00:04:33] and it says in verse 1 now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early

[00:04:44] while it was still dark. So Sunday morning, while it's still dark and saw that the stone had been

[00:04:50] taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom

[00:04:59] Jesus loved, this is John writing about himself and said to them they have taken the Lord out of

[00:05:09] the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter, verse 3 went out with the other

[00:05:15] disciple and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together but the other disciple

[00:05:23] out ran Peter and reached the tomb first again. This is John writing about himself.

[00:05:31] And stooping to look in he saw the linen cloths lying there but he did not go in then Simon Peter

[00:05:37] came following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there in the face cloth

[00:05:43] which had been on Jesus's head not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself

[00:05:49] then, verse 8, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in and he saw

[00:06:01] and believed. He also went in and he saw and believed for as yet up to this point,

[00:06:09] they did not yet understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead then the disciples went

[00:06:16] back to their homes. Let's pray together. Lord we are thankful to you for recording not just this

[00:06:25] passage but all the resurrection appearances of Christ that the gospel writers recorded and then

[00:06:33] certainly the evidence of the resurrection in the early story of the church and how they broadcast

[00:06:40] this message. Christ is risen, Jesus has risen to the world that there at that time could have

[00:06:47] easily pruned if he had not risen. And so Lord we thank you for this passage, this word and we

[00:06:54] pray Lord that now almost 2,000 years removed from this episode you would speak to us today

[00:07:05] of the glory of your resurrection power. In Jesus name we pray together. Amen. Amen.

[00:07:11] The Apostle John, he's a perfect candidate to speak to us today about his experience on

[00:07:27] resurrection Sunday almost 2,000 years ago. For many reasons but for one reason in particular

[00:07:35] John was a young man when he went into Jesus' tomb but he was a very old man when he wrote about it in

[00:07:47] this gospel. What this means is that whatever was unlocked in John when he went into the tomb had

[00:08:00] lasting power. Far from being only an emotional moment experienced by an impressionable

[00:08:11] emerging adult John had an experience in that tomb and in the subsequent appearances of Christ

[00:08:21] that fundamentally altered everything in his life. His moment running out of the tomb at the

[00:08:29] report that it was empty waiting for his older and slower friend Peter to arrive there as well

[00:08:36] and going into the hollowed out cave like tomb after Peter all those things made a permanent impression

[00:08:43] on John. I think I could say like this John saw the world one way before going into the tomb

[00:08:53] and a completely different way after he entered into the empty tomb. To quote from verse 8 he went in,

[00:09:02] he saw and believed and he would never be the same. This paradigm shifting lens transforming

[00:09:11] perspective altering event is I think what so many people are thirsting for today but we crave

[00:09:18] something that's true, we crave something that's good, we crave something that can satisfy us at the

[00:09:24] core of our being and we want whatever that thing is to last because so many of the people that we've

[00:09:33] believed in have failed us. So many of the dreams that we have hoped for have not come to pass and

[00:09:40] because so many of the relationships we have leaned on have crumbled. We are in so many ways a hurt

[00:09:49] people in need of someone to believe in something to hope for and someone who loves us whom we can

[00:09:57] love in return and that is what John found when he entered into the tomb that day. The years after

[00:10:06] this event Paul the apostle wrote to a church in a city called Corinth and he said that the great

[00:10:14] virtues to continue in are threefold faith and hope and love. When Jesus died on the cross John lost

[00:10:25] any semblance of faith or hope and he lost to the one that he loved. You see John thought that Jesus

[00:10:35] might be the deliverer they had waited centuries for but now he was dead. He envisioned conquests and

[00:10:44] the overthrow of their Roman oppressors but now Jesus was dead. He considered himself a man whom

[00:10:51] Jesus loved but now Jesus was dead. Every bit of faith and hope and love that he'd had were

[00:11:01] now dead with Jesus. You could say that the landscape of John's heart was like the decimated

[00:11:09] ruins of a post apocalyptic world as he ran to the tomb that morning where there had been life and

[00:11:17] goodness in the future while he walked with Jesus all John could see now after Jesus his death was

[00:11:24] death and decay and hopelessness like a man lost in a dense forest John had lost his orientation all

[00:11:33] sense of direction had abandoned him. Like a drowning man grasping for his final breath John's

[00:11:41] emotional and spiritual oxygen departed with Jesus' last breath like a marathoner who hits the wall

[00:11:49] at the 20 mile mark of the race John had been floored by everything that had happened the week before

[00:11:55] Jesus' arrest his trials his beatings his crucifixion and his burial. And now he hears word from Mary

[00:12:04] Magdalene that Jesus' body the body of his beloved rabbi is no longer in the tomb no longer available

[00:12:16] for him to venerate no longer there for him as an object of his grief and mourning. John did not

[00:12:23] run to the tomb that morning hoping for or expecting a resurrection for John the story was over it

[00:12:32] had ended now it was time to make sense of the three years that he'd enjoyed with Jesus and somehow

[00:12:40] move on with his life. Now John respected his elders so he waited for Peter to get to the tomb

[00:12:49] after him but by the time he wrote his gospel Peter was dead and John was everyone's elder by that

[00:12:58] so he was sure to include the detail that he had outrun Peter on their race to the tomb.

[00:13:07] He stooped to look in he saw the grave close of Jesus his heart stirred but still he didn't enter

[00:13:15] Peter arrived he went straight into the tomb there was no body but it clearly had not been taken

[00:13:22] as Mary had said because the linen cloths were lying there as if Jesus' body had passed right through

[00:13:29] them and the face cloth which had been on Jesus's head was not with the linen grave cloths but folded

[00:13:36] up in a place by itself. Then John identifying himself again as the one who reached the tomb first

[00:13:44] also went in again in verse 8 and he saw and believed. The grave clothes were lying there

[00:13:53] but Jesus' body was not which told John immediately that Jesus had not risen in the way

[00:14:00] that Lazarus had risen. John had been there on the day that Jesus had raised Lazarus back to life

[00:14:07] he'd heard Jesus say Lazarus come forth he'd watch Jesus command them to roll away the stone and

[00:14:13] he'd seen Jesus when Lazarus came out give the command loose him from his grave clothes.

[00:14:21] That was not the condition that Jesus had risen in. Jesus' lifeless body had laid there in

[00:14:30] the tomb but now his linen grave clothes lay in that same position but without Jesus' body.

[00:14:37] Jesus had conquered death and come into resurrection life and he merely passed through those garments

[00:14:46] and eventually the sealed tomb door they didn't open it so that Jesus could get out they opened it

[00:14:53] so that they could look in and later John would watch Jesus pass through locked doors

[00:15:01] and eat a meal with his disciples showing himself to be physically raised a physical body

[00:15:09] but a body unbound by the dimensions that John and Lazarus and the apostles and all of us

[00:15:17] succumbed to. And when John believed all the faith and hope and love that he had lost

[00:15:22] will he watch the life and blood and water drain from Jesus' side returned.

[00:15:29] It did not only return though it returned and multiplied. He had more to believe in than he ever dreamed

[00:15:37] he had more to hope for than he'd ever thought and he had more to love and more love to receive

[00:15:45] than he'd ever expect it. And I submit to you today that the resurrection of Jesus Christ provides

[00:15:51] anyone anyone in this room anyone listening today who believes it the ultimate of paradigm shifts

[00:15:59] the ultimate in faith and hope and love. So let's think about those three things this morning.

[00:16:07] First Jesus' resurrection it gives us someone to believe in.

[00:16:12] Now we call this belief faith. That doesn't mean though that it's blind or based on illogical claims.

[00:16:24] You know you might be here today and say to yourself well resurrections are impossible. Miracles

[00:16:31] are impossible. Look as a Christian I want to let you know we know about that. We know that it's

[00:16:38] not normal and not within the laws of nature for a miracle or a resurrection to occur. But if

[00:16:47] for a moment you can set aside that precondition. You have to wonder how a small group of people

[00:16:56] became willing to suffer torture and infamy and poverty and marginalization and death

[00:17:04] to tell their whole world about Jesus. Look people might become zealots for lies that they think

[00:17:14] are true, that they've been led to believe are true but a group of people will never become

[00:17:22] martyrs for something they know is a lie. And these early Christians were in the position

[00:17:28] to discern between truth and lie. They were alive during the generation that preached the

[00:17:35] resurrection of Jesus. And these early Christians 500 of them at one point saw Jesus risen

[00:17:41] and became convinced about who he was. That's why they were willing to suffer as they did.

[00:17:48] This is one reason why in a few verses from the passage we read this morning John concluded

[00:17:54] his gospel with a story about Thomas. You may have heard of Thomas before the church often gives him

[00:18:01] the nickname doubting Thomas. It's a real bummer of a nickname for this guy. He's a great man, great

[00:18:08] believer, great apostle. But the reason that people call him that from time to time is because when

[00:18:14] everyone told him that they'd seen Jesus risen from the dead he said I will not believe unless I

[00:18:24] touch him. Unless I put my hands in his the wounds in his hands and the wounds in his side.

[00:18:34] You might be saying to yourself this morning you know I like that. I want to be in the Thomas camp.

[00:18:41] I reserve the right to be skeptical as Thomas was skeptical and if I could just see Jesus

[00:18:48] if he would just appear to me. If he would show me the wounds in his hand or let me touch the wound

[00:18:55] in his side I would believe. John's point however and including that story about Thomas

[00:19:03] is not that everyone should take Thomas' posture. His point is that as an apostle who would suffer

[00:19:11] intensely for the message of the resurrection it was important for Thomas to be a skeptical

[00:19:18] witness on our behalf. When Jesus appeared to Thomas he let Thomas touch him and Thomas believed.

[00:19:28] Thomas was skeptical Thomas saw Jesus and Thomas touched Jesus also that we wouldn't have to

[00:19:37] because of his hesitancy Thomas became our stand-in witness, our proxy eyewitness for the

[00:19:45] generations that would not be able to see Jesus because of his ascension back to the Father.

[00:19:53] After speaking with Thomas Jesus then asked him the question have you believed

[00:19:59] because you have seen me blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed?

[00:20:07] But I'm not here this morning to quibble about whether the resurrection occurred or not.

[00:20:13] I believe it to be true partly for the reasons I've said and partly because of the thousands

[00:20:18] of lives I have seen radically transformed by its message. But what I am here to proclaim is that

[00:20:26] Jesus' resurrection gives us someone to believe in and I think this is incredibly important in

[00:20:33] the time that we are in. I think we find it hard to trust anyone in our modern days.

[00:20:40] Those we lean on so often fail us. Leaders and loved ones, CEOs and senators,

[00:20:49] parents and pastors have all let us down. So many people are so hurt by their own family of origin

[00:20:57] that society in general is trying to rewrite what the family even is. Leadership is so fraught that

[00:21:04] it seems only the worst people want it anymore. Politics is so toxic that people are trying to avoid it.

[00:21:12] I wonder if this is one reason why we love our celebrities and our athletes more than ever before.

[00:21:19] You know, like just distract us. Just do your job and distract us, entertain us so we can get

[00:21:25] our minds off of all of this. But out of this fog steps Jesus. His resurrection changed the game.

[00:21:35] When the gospel writers like Matthew and Mark and Luke and John wrote about him, they were not

[00:21:41] just giving biographies so that we could appreciate a life from the first century. Now they were presenting

[00:21:47] a theology. They were presenting a testimony. They were presenting a biographical history of Jesus

[00:21:57] that listen to me makes a claim on anyone who interacts with it. The question of every gospel writer

[00:22:06] would be what will you do with this information? What will you do with this one who has come?

[00:22:14] What will you do with this Jesus that I am presenting? They're all here to tell us that there is no

[00:22:21] one else under the sun in whom we should place our faith except for him. He came for us, he died

[00:22:30] for us, he rose for us and he can be trusted. Okay, the second thing though that I want you to see

[00:22:37] is that Jesus' resurrection, it gives us something to anticipate or something to hope for.

[00:22:48] You know when John saw Jesus crater under the pressure of crucifixion,

[00:22:58] his hopes perished with Jesus' body. Like all scripture-loving Jews of his time, John would have

[00:23:07] wanted Jesus to be the one the prophets depicted would come, the great deliverer. All the way back in

[00:23:15] the earliest book of the Bible of the Jewish scripture, the Book of Genesis, after sin entered our

[00:23:22] species through the insidious temptation presented by the wicked one in the form of a serpent,

[00:23:28] God rebuked that serpent figure by telling him that one day, even while biting the heel of a great

[00:23:37] deliverer, the heel of that great deliverer would plunge down and crush his head. It's from Genesis 3.15,

[00:23:46] if only I had a picture or an image or a cool graphic that would communicate that to you today.

[00:23:54] For some of you, this is the first time our Easter graphics are making sense.

[00:24:03] The Hebrew people heard that promise from God and awaited this great figure, this serpent crushing

[00:24:11] devil smashing conqueror over cosmic powers, the powers that dissuaded us from trusting God.

[00:24:20] Years later, when Abraham interacted with God, God made him a promise that he would be blessed

[00:24:26] with a land, with a family and with a mission. God would bless him so that through his family line,

[00:24:35] all the nations of the earth would be blessed. And not just his family line, specifically his

[00:24:44] seed singular. One descendant of Abraham's would lead to the blessing of the whole world, and

[00:24:52] everyone was waiting for that single descendant who would crush the serpent and end the chaos

[00:24:58] of darkness forever. People arose, people like David. When he came, he rose up and slayed a giant

[00:25:07] warrior arrayed and scaled serpent like armor, and people probably wondered is David the one.

[00:25:16] He wasn't, but God showed him and others that a descendant would come from David,

[00:25:22] who would arise to become a king with dominion forever. The snake crusher was still to come,

[00:25:30] so the people waited and waited and waited. And as they did, their prophets did their best to

[00:25:39] stoke their desires for this deliverer to arise. Isaiah told them about a servant who would come

[00:25:47] and suffer for everyone before raining in glory. Micah, whom we're studying on Sunday, told them

[00:25:53] about a shepherd king who came from eternity past and would usher them into a future age of

[00:26:00] glory. Jeremiah told them about a day when God would produce a new covenant where he writes his

[00:26:08] law upon our hearts and changes us from the inside out. Ezekiel told them about a good shepherd

[00:26:14] who would be king and prince forever. Daniel told them about an anointed one who would arise,

[00:26:21] who would vanquish all evil while himself simultaneously being cut off by that evil.

[00:26:29] On and on, the prophets went declaring to God's people that the deliverer was coming. And when

[00:26:35] John heard Jesus' invitation on the shores of Galilee to leave his nets and to follow him and

[00:26:42] to become a fisher of men, John began wondering is this the one? Will Jesus be the one to bring in

[00:26:50] this golden age of peace? Will he be the one to crush the demonic powers that have done their

[00:26:57] worst to ruin our world? Has the conqueror arrived? But when Jesus died, so did John's hope or anticipation.

[00:27:07] For three dark nights, John was without hope of any kind. The glorious kingdom age, the prophet spoke

[00:27:15] of would have to wait if it happened at all. But when John went into the empty tomb that Sunday morning,

[00:27:22] he began to understand and he believed. Jesus has risen in all the hopes for our creation and world

[00:27:31] have risen with him. Now I realize it for many people today. Hope is at a low eb.

[00:27:39] And many young people think that the future is very bleak. That they won't ever own a home,

[00:27:47] they won't ever have it better than their parents, they won't ever witness political civility.

[00:27:53] And many older generations grieve all that has been lost while wondering how the world could

[00:27:59] have changed so quickly. And many of the institutions upon which people have built their hopes have

[00:28:07] crumbled before their eyes. Like many who thought that the Roman Empire would be an empire without end

[00:28:16] only to become disillusioned by its quick demise, many have become disillusioned by all they used to

[00:28:24] put their faith and hope and trust and confidence in. But when Jesus rose from the dead,

[00:28:32] He kicked hopelessness and despair in the teeth and made way for all the eschatological hopes of

[00:28:39] the old prophets to make their home in our hearts right now today. Make no mistake, church. We

[00:28:48] must reject a hand-ringing, get us out of here, hold on for the rapture version of Christianity because

[00:28:57] that's not Christianity. I'll speak for myself. I'm concerned with the job, the task of making

[00:29:05] disciples of anyone anywhere willing to listen because we are a hopeful people. The gospel is

[00:29:13] enough to heal anyone in any culture, in any time and in any place and we have a mission to declare

[00:29:22] this hope. We have something to anticipate because one day Jesus will return and establish his

[00:29:28] perfect and glorious range. I want to say it like this, even if you are here today and you're having

[00:29:36] a hard time believing in the resurrection, I think you should want the resurrection to be true.

[00:29:45] You see, the scriptures teach that because Jesus rose, he will one day unlock

[00:29:51] justice for everyone. The scriptures teach it because Jesus rose, he will one day eradicate

[00:29:58] poverty everywhere. The scriptures teach it because Jesus rose, he will one day eliminate hunger

[00:30:05] for all people. The scriptures teach it because Jesus rose, he will eliminate disease and every conflict

[00:30:12] and every war known to man. And he will do this, the scriptures teach all while ushering in

[00:30:18] the renewal of a decaying creation that is currently longing for his return. The resurrection tells

[00:30:27] us that the planet will not merely expire with the death of the sun, but that we have a glorious

[00:30:34] destiny created by Jesus Christ. In him, we have something to anticipate is what I'm trying to say.

[00:30:46] Okay, lastly, finally, briefly. I want to say that Jesus' resurrection gives us someone

[00:30:52] who loves us and whom we can love in return. Clearly, John had felt Jesus's love.

[00:31:05] Even in our passage today and he does this all throughout the gospel of John,

[00:31:09] he uses the autobiographical phrase to describe himself as him whom Jesus loved.

[00:31:19] We wonder if that was just John's way of saying, I feel a special connection to Jesus. How many of

[00:31:24] you would describe yourself that way? I am him. I am her who Jesus loved. I feel a connection

[00:31:30] to him he has cared for me. Or we wonder if John, who more than likely was the youngest of all

[00:31:37] the disciples and perhaps even as young as a teenager during the time that Jesus walked the earth.

[00:31:44] Perhaps John seen Jesus' special tenderness toward him. After all, at the cross, when Jesus died,

[00:31:52] one of the things that he did was make sure that Mary, his mother, would care for young John after

[00:31:59] Jesus had died. John, for whatever reason, felt that he was loved by Jesus. But Jesus has

[00:32:07] death ended Jesus's love or so John thought. Once Jesus rose, he remembered Jesus' words on that

[00:32:19] dark night before Nicodemus the Pharisee. God so loved the world, that he gave his only son,

[00:32:29] that whoever believes in him would not perish but have ever lasting life. And John

[00:32:35] realized it all made sense. It was God's love that John had witnessed on the cross.

[00:32:43] Yes, he was watching death. Yes, he was watching the cosmic powers of darkness do their worst.

[00:32:49] Yes, he was watching a gruesome spectacle, but he was also watching the love of God unleashed upon

[00:32:58] the world. When the veil and the temple was torn into, God was communicating that his love had

[00:33:04] now found a touching point on planet earth. No longer do we have to be separated from him. Our

[00:33:12] unholyness is no longer an obstacle to God's holy perfection because he loved us so much

[00:33:20] that he died in our place. And as we've noted today, Paul said that the great virtues are faith

[00:33:28] and hope and love. And the resurrection shows us that someone loves us. It's a love so strong,

[00:33:35] it was willing to come for us to die for us. And now it lives for us or to personalize it,

[00:33:42] it came for you, it died for you and it lives for you. It's a love so powerful.

[00:33:51] It broke out of the tomb and into resurrection life. It's the love of God wrapped up in his son

[00:33:58] Jesus. John wrote this in one of his letters to the church first, John. He said,

[00:34:05] see what great love the Father has lavished on us that we, those who have trusted in Christ,

[00:34:12] should be called children of God. And that is what we are. Like a master sculptor sees the potential

[00:34:21] in crude stone. God loved us in our crude state knowing that he could make us something beautiful

[00:34:28] by the power of his son's death and resurrection. And now we can love him in return.

[00:34:35] So make no mistake, brothers and sisters. Easter Sunday is not our superbowl, it is our victory parade

[00:34:44] for what Jesus Christ has done for us. He has unlocked the greatest of faith and hope

[00:34:50] and love for us so that our lives will never be the same. Amen? Let's pray together.

[00:34:58] Lord, this morning it is our privilege and honor to gather around you and your resurrection.

[00:35:11] To celebrate you and who you are and what you have done.

[00:35:17] Lord, for many of us who have known you for a long time, we

[00:35:21] can fast to you, Lord, that there are moments where we operate as if we are not a faith-filled,

[00:35:32] hope-filled loving people. But instead operate in fear, a sense of doom and apathy.

[00:35:46] But Lord, we pray that you would correct that in our lives and help us to be as you are.

[00:35:55] Thank You, Lord. We rejoice in You this morning.

[00:36:02] And right now in this moment as we're all praying, I want to speak to those of you who have yet

[00:36:09] to surrender your life to Jesus. I don't know what brought you here today if this is your first

[00:36:15] time here or your 20th time here. But for whatever reason you are here today and the Holy Spirit

[00:36:23] is asking you the question, what will you do with God's Son? God gave him to you.

[00:36:34] He came to be one of us to live a perfect life that we couldn't live and to die in our place,

[00:36:42] to take our punishment, discipline, judgment in himself on the cross and rise from the grave so

[00:36:48] that we could be forgiven of all and brought home to God. And if today you are ready

[00:36:58] to make that decision to invite him into your life, I want you to pray right now where you're at.

[00:37:08] A moment will come later in your life where you can be baptized and tell everyone I'm a follower

[00:37:16] of Jesus, but right now personally before God say something like this, say, God have mercy on me

[00:37:26] a sinner. Come into my life and make me new. Thank you for sending Jesus to live the life I couldn't

[00:37:43] to die in my place on that cross and to rise from the grave. Forgive me of all I've ever done and will do

[00:37:57] to come into my life and make me new. And help me now to live my life in obedience to you.

[00:38:11] Thank you, Lord. Lord we rejoice in you this morning and pray that you would go with us now,

[00:38:19] Lord, this week into the lives you've called us to a people filled with faith and hope and love.

[00:38:26] Because you rose from the grave. We love you, Lord. We praise you. And Jesus name, amen.

[00:38:37] Thank you for listening. If you would like more teachings and information about Calvary Monare,

[00:38:42] please visit calvary.com. You can also find books, teachings through the Bible and articles from

[00:38:48] our lead pastor at Nateholdrich.com. Thanks again for tuning in. See you next week.