SUMMARY KEYWORDS

jesus, god, life, people, easter, resurrection, church, today, day, followers, faith, conversation, feel, group, world, good, produces, love, part, dead.

SPEAKER

Phil EuBank

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Well, Good Morning, Menlo Church, Happy Easter. So good to see you. Welcome to all of our campuses in San Mateo, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and Saratoga. And so those of you joining us online, I know it's a big deal that you would choose to celebrate part of your Easter weekend with us, and we do not take that for granted. Thank you so much.

Now, I know that for some of you, today is the first time, or maybe the first time in a long time that you have been in church. And for some of you, you feel like this is actually God's last chance to be able to reach me, to say something to me, to make a difference in my life. And I want to give you a special welcome; I actually will let our church know on a regular basis, that I want to have a specific conversation with you when I preach I think about three specific groups of people on a regular basis, I think about saints, men and women, boys and girls, students who have chosen to follow Jesus and are walking with Him imperfectly but faithfully throughout their lives.

I think about skeptics, some of you fall into this category, you're not sure what to believe maybe you grew up with a faith, but somewhere along the way you left it, along the way and then protocols, those of you who maybe you feel like you've done too much, you've gone too far, something has happened either to you or by you or both. That makes you wonder if God is actually even someone that you are entitled to, to have a conversation or relationship with. And I am so glad that you're here.

If you're the saint category, I hope you brought a skeptic or a prodigal with you. If you're a skeptic or a prodigal I hope you hear that the heart of Heaven and the love of God is extended to you today, as it always has been. I know that if you are younger, in the service today, you are either anticipating Easter fun, or you're wondering how quickly you can get back to the Easter fun. In your mind. This is what's waiting for you just on the other side of the doors to the service that you're in right now. And I get it. I wonder, do you know why we celebrate Easter with eggs? There's actually a rich history both inside the church and outside of it for the way we think about and why we would use eggs inside the church. It's a symbol of birth and new life that we've maybe gotten used to. But for a lot of church history, there has been this idea where the 40 days leading up to Easter, the church would fast from meat and eggs and then celebrating Easter with eggs as a part of it was a part of breaking that fast. And so that is a little bit of a representation for us of what it means to celebrate and believe for the new life along the way.

Now, have we gotten a little carried away? Probably. But don't worry, because I'm not going to ruin it for you. I won't tell your parents if you don't, here's what I'll tell you kids. If you're not note takers, you should take this part down use it with your parents later, we can just say that the level of extravagance that they show it Easter is a deep reminder of God's extravagant love and grace demonstrated by His resurrection. Okay? And so if they're like, I think maybe we did too much this year, we went a little far be like, aren't you glad that Jesus went this far for us? You know, as for free. But as grown ups, we have heard a phrase for a long time, I bet you could finish it for me don't put all your eggs in [one basket].

Right. It's this idea that we should spread out our lives, we should invest our lives financially, relationally, wide across many different categories. And actually, this kind of represents a whole bunch of wisdom in a lot of areas. But it's become a pattern in our spiritual lives and culture as well. It's a common joke that in Silicon Valley, you can be anything, do anything, believe anything, as long as that anything isn't a Christian.

See, Christianity is understood to have exclusive claims that Jesus is the only way. And just so we're all on the same page. Every major religion makes the same claim. Scholar and theologian NT Wright describes the problem this way says it's interesting. “It's an interesting observation on today's religious climate, that many people now get every bit as steamed up about insisting that ‘all religions are just the same’ as the older dogma petitions did about insisting on particular formulations and interpretations. The dogma that all dogmas are wrong, the monolithic insistence that all monolithic systems are to be rejected has taken hold of the popular imagination at a level far beyond rational or logical discourse.“

You think I have walked away from faith I'm a person who doesn't live with faith, but even in a culture that has walked away from God, we have found a new thing to have our faith; in it is the lack of faith. So no matter why you came, maybe for you, you came because someone invited you. Maybe you came today because you're at the end of the rope of your life and you're not sure what's next and this felt like an option to at least check out for some of you, you just had a really nice outfit and you weren't sure where you could wear it. And Easter seemed like a good option, you look great.

Here's the problem. On Easter we come face to face with why the claims of Jesus are a basket worth putting all of our eggs inside of. Your passions and your purpose flow from the truth of who God is, and what he's done for you. So if you don't know your purpose, and you don't know the plan that God has for you, you will not find it within yourself, you need to find it within him.

There was a group of people who believed that 2000 years ago, and God has used them and continues to use that movement to change the world even today.

Let's start with where everyone can agree Christian or not, saint, skeptic, prodigal, we're all on the same page; no credible scholar today, Christian or not, argues that there was not a man named Jesus who lived 2000 years ago in the Middle East, who taught a group of people who went from a fledgling group looking for the closest exit on a Saturday to becoming a group of men and women who were willing to give up their lives for this incredible movement, centering around a man named Jesus on Monday. So what changed, that's why we're here on Easter.

See, Jesus see had been traveling around the region for three years. And in his final week of life on this earth, one of His followers betrayed him by selling them out to the religious leaders, and after a speedy and unjust process, he was sentenced to death. Again, this is recorded in sacred and secular accounts. This isn't just biblical history. This is history history. From there, Jesus would face a brutal beating that killed plenty of people all on its own. And then he hung on a cross for hours until he died for you.

He did all of this because 2,000 years ago, they needed and today, we need more than a sage. They needed and we needed a Savior. But as followers, they fled. They didn't know Sunday was coming. They hadn't prepared an Easter egg hunt, they had become the hunted. that were a part of a group of people that the authorities viewed as a threat. And because of that they knew their life faced the same sentence as Jesus if they had been caught. But then something happened.

Matthew’s biography of Jesus life records the moment this way, “Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing, white as snow. And for the fear of him, the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, do not be afraid. For I know that you see Jesus who was crucified, He is not here. For He has risen, as he said. Come see the place where he lay, then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead and behold, he is going before you to Galilee: there you will see him, See, I have told you. So that departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples and behold, Jesus met them and said, Greetings, and they came up and took a hold of his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid, go and tell my brothers and go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

There are three other biographies of Jesus’ life in the New Testament of the Bible that fill in some of the gaps and details of this moment in Jesus’ life, that talk about how Jesus didn't stay in the grave. And believe me 2,000 years ago on Easter morning, I promise you, nobody expected no body, for sure. That was a common assumption across everyone in the conversation. The Boulder that was covering the tomb where Jesus was laid, was not put there to keep Jesus in. It was put there to keep people out. They had not anticipated the need for internal security. Jesus was dead.

The women who first discovered Jesus, they had spices that they brought, they weren't spices for the tea, they thought they'd share with Jesus. They were spices to care for a corpse because they assumed he was dead. The guards fell over dead because of an angel that they didn't expect was coming as they covered and watched over a corpse. Peter and John go to the tomb because they can't believe the accounts of his resurrection. Thomas who, honestly I think we owe a little bit of an apology to one day because we just call him Doubting Thomas right now.

How would you like your name to be connected to a negative characteristic, that was the only thing people ever thought about you for millennia, just feels bad, right? He sees Jesus after the resurrection. And Jesus says, feel the holes in my skin, it's really me.

See Jesus, he repeatedly showed up after his resurrection, first to individuals and small groups, and eventually to hundreds of people at a time before he would ascend to heaven. You can doubt the historicity of these claims. Absolutely, you can, many do. But you can't dismiss the all- in faith that it produced in this group of people, people who were ready to return to their day jobs, people who were planning, okay, how do I go back to the bus that I quit from? How do I return to the trade that was producing the meals and the money that I needed to sustain my life? And they go from that, to this group of women and men who openly shared about Jesus resurrection and the power that it provided to save them and others, from the hell that they were going to and the ones that they were going through what happened?

See this message this moment, it changed everything for them. And whether you believe it or not, in the history of the world has changed everything for us. Our calendar year is a marker of the impact of this person, Jesus, from education and literacy for people because they are image bearers of God, followers of Jesus have pushed this forward to health care for all people because of the universal dignity of humanity. Christians have pushed this forward to social charity organizations who step in in the most difficult crises and moments of history. Jesus followers have pushed that forward to scientific and technological advancements, because of God's incredible design. Even the Christian movement has become a part of the air that we breathe. Christians have pioneered the good of this world, for millennia.

Now, people who have called themselves Christians, they have also done great harm. And we have to make sure that when we talk about this, we acknowledge it. We acknowledge that people who have called themselves Christians have been people that times unfortunately, who have used that, to put other people down, to keep other people in bondage, to hurt and harm entire communities.

But I would say this, the really good news of the gospel is that we don't follow those people, we follow one person and his name is Jesus. And it's not to excuse the harms that had been done. But I would say if you were to take with an even understanding, even in the mixed bag of human contributions, followers of Jesus and the resurrection power that was spawned from this movement 2,000 years ago, it has had a greater more positive impact on the world than any event or group ever. It's not close.

So what about you? What philosophy is driving you right now?

See, the lie that is very easy for all of us to believe, is that the choice is whether or not I will have faith. That is not the choice. The choice is who or what will I place my faith in? We are all operating on faith all the time. And so for you, you have to figure out will I submit my life to Jesus, or will I submit my life to someone or something else something something in your life you are submitting to right now? The question is what, the question is who?

Author John Mark Comer underscores the problem this way. He says, “Ideology is a form of idolatry. It's a secular attempts to find a metaphysical meaning to life, a way to usher in Utopia without God. The best definition I know of ideology is when you take a part of the truth and make it the whole. In doing so you imprison your own mind and heart in lies that drive you to anger and anxiety it produces. It promises freedom but produces the opposite. It does not expand and liberate the soul but shrinks and enslaves it.”

Maybe for you today you came in skeptical or you came in today you were wondering if any of this could possibly be relevant in your life, and what I just read feels like the most true thing about your life that you've ever heard. You find yourself suffocating under the weight that you have placed on top of you.

And the antidote of it is the gospel. It's always been the gospel, the good news of hope for all people, including you, available today. No matter what you've done, no matter where you've been, no matter what barriers you believe exist between you and a loving God.

There's a man in our church. I think he's in this service, actually. Who has recently been in the process of addressing cancer in his body. And they've removed a lot of it, but there's still some of it. And every day he looks in the mirror and he is acutely aware of the potential impact if that cancer were to grow back stronger were to take control. And he lives every day in light of that possibility that today is the only day that is promised. And while he lives out that reality in a very, very acute way. All of us if we're honest, live the same reality.

The Bible talks about sin, the brokenness that lives inside of us. And when we look in the mirror every single day, will that sin overtake us? Will it take control of our lives? As we're living, especially apart from Jesus, we have this sickness inside of us. Gospel is the truth that God made us and that He loves us. And no matter where you've been, or what you've done, he loves you, no matter what you think about him, he is crazy about you. That you were made in His image with infinite dignity, value and worth. But that sin, rebellion against God on a personal societal and cosmic level has separated us, separated you from the relationship that you were made to exist within. That's the foundation of the gospel.

So God, He sent His Son, Jesus fully God and fully man, to live a perfect life, the one that we couldn't, to died, the death that all of us deserved, and come back from the grave to conquer sin and death, so that if we turn from our way, and we choose to follow Him, that we will experience eternity with God. Not some day to day, and forever.

Some of you, you believe that, you've heard that. And for others of you, you're wondering if that could possibly be true. You hope it is. You would love for it to be true, you're just not sure. And I hope that God is whispering peace to your soul right now.

For others of you, maybe it's felt like the circumstances of the last few weeks, or the last few months, or even the last few years have been leading up to a moment where you say, You know what I know it. I know, that's true. I know, I need to submit my life to that, I'm ready to do it. And I just haven't done it. I want to give you an opportunity to do that right now.

I'm going to pray a prayer. And I'm going to invite you if that's you today that you could pray with me. And this prayer, it's not a magic spell. It's not an incantation, these are just words. But they are words that could correspond to a decision in your life, to choose to turn from your way, receive this gift that God has made available and choose to follow him. So if that's you, if you are ready to pray this prayer to choose to follow Jesus, I would say pray this in the quiet of your heart. And if you're a follower of Jesus, and you call Menlo home, I'm going to ask you to repeat these words out loud with me to give courage to those who are praying it for the very first time. Menlo Church, pray this nice and loud with me;

Dear God, thank you for loving me. Even when I feel unlovable, thank you for dying for me, even when you seem dead to me. I choose to follow you today, to lay down my life and pick up the plan you have instead. Give me a brand new start. And the power to live the way you designed me to. In Jesus name. Amen.

I love moments like this and services like these because I know that decades from now, someone's going to ask someone that attended this service; when did you choose to follow Jesus and they're going to describe the moment that you were just a part of.

Now before we finish our service, with a chance to worship God together to sing some more, I want to invite you back to church next weekend, some of you are surprised to discover that we hold services after Easter. We do every Sunday. It just just keeps going. We'd love to have you back.

We are beginning a new series of really important conversations next weekend about our bodies, gender and sexuality. And if you're like is his microphone working, you heard it right.

In our culture, we are receiving some very mixed messages about all of this and making sense of it can feel impossible. I hope that what we can discover together is that there truly is good news in the fact that God has fearfully and wonderfully made us. That he has fine-tuned the entire universe and yet you are the only part of the universe that when he made humans, he made us in His image. When he made the rest of creation, He said it is good. When he added you, he said it is very good and you weren't even wearing your Easter outfit yet. You weren't even born yet.

Even though humanity has rebelled, and brokenness is everywhere in the world. God has not given up on us.

And no, I'm not just talking about one particular community or those people, this is for all of us, the foot of the cross is even for all of us, we all need the same grace, we all need the same forgiveness, we all need the same hope, and I hope that we'll find it together in these conversations. Now I know what you're thinking, Oh, I didn't know that you're one of those churches. And I hope that you'll give these conversations a chance. That you'll discover just like Jesus, we want to offer convictions and compassion in equal measure. The way that I say that a lot around here is that clarity is kindness.

If you've been walking with Jesus for a while, that can be very easy. As you're reading the Bible, you're studying to stumble across something you I didn't know that. What do I think about that? How do I approach that, and I believe that this conversation can bring meaning to all of us, can help bring clarity for all of us. The good news of the gospel is that God loves all of us exactly as we are, no matter what you've done, no matter where we've been, no matter how you identify, God loves you, but he loves us way too much to just let us sit in exactly the life that we're in. He is always calling all of us, including me, to greater and greater dependency on him. Can I pray for you?

God, there is work in front of us, each and every one of us to more fully realize your love; to more fully surrender our lives, to who you are, and what you want to do through us. God for some of us this experience of walking with you, it just started, just a few moments ago. For some of us, we've been walking with you for decades. And God The good news is you have a plan for each and every one of us. You're not done with any of us yet. And so would you God. Would you fan into flame the sparks that you just lit in this room and in rooms across the Bay Area? Would you help this Easter to not just be about the new life we celebrate 2,000 years ago, of your resurrection God, but the new life that you are sparking in so many of us today. God we long to see you and your name be made great, and even more lives that the changes we want to see in the world, that your kingdom would come your will would be done in our workplaces, in our homes and in our community. God would you help us to live in light of that kingdom today. It's in Jesus name. Amen.

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