Living Hope

transition into heaven. He's trying to use words that a child could understand, and they come to a curb and he stops at the curb, but the daughter who's holding on to dad's hand steps out into the street and a truck's coming. And so he pulls his daughter back, and the Holy Spirit at that time led him to say, honey, would you rather be hit by a truck or the shadow of a truck? Because as that truck went by, the shadow went over dad and and daughter standing there in the group. And the daughter said, oh, the shadow. And he said, oh, that's what mom experienced. [00:09:52] (34 seconds)

Peter wrote a couple books of the Bible. The man who denied Jesus wrote a couple books of the Bible. That's powerful. That's powerful right there. Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy, what does God offer us through the person of Jesus? Grace and mercy. You don't deserve it. There's nothing you can do to earn it. You don't get it by going to church by playing religion. There's religion doesn't save you. It's grace and mercy. Grace is getting something that you don't deserve. Mercy is withholding something that you do deserve. Grace and mercy. Peter knows mercy. [00:04:02] (41 seconds)

I'm going home, and I'm gonna watch that game. I'm gonna rewind it. I'm gonna watch it again. I have it saved in my library. Right? Why? It doesn't matter how far we get behind. I know the outcome. It doesn't matter how many missed shots or how many fouls or technicals or how bleak it looks because I know how the game ends. This is what a living hope looks like for a follower of Jesus. Your life may be falling apart and you're rocking. It doesn't mean life is is easy. Following Jesus can can be difficult at times. [00:08:38] (40 seconds)

The disciples so Jesus is gone. Guess what the disciples go? They're like, remember what Jesus said? No. They locked the doors and tower in the corner of the room, and Jesus just appears. Right? Locked doors don't keep the resurrected Jesus out. It's always good to unlock the doors with Jesus, but if you don't, he can still meet you. The doors are locked for fear of the Jewish leaders. Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. Because they're thinking, hey. We're next. We're gonna be crucified next. So they run and hide. They couldn't save themselves. [00:15:02] (34 seconds)

They couldn't save themselves. They saw all the miracles. Miracles don't save you. Religion doesn't save you. But when they met the resurrected Jesus, it changed them. After he said this, he showed them his hands in his side, and the disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. They went from fear to confidence. Mary went from grief to joy, and the disciples went from fear to confidence. There's one more character in the story. His name is Thomas. You might know him as Doubting Thomas. Aren't you so glad you're not named? Have a nickname based on your disbelief? Poor Thomas. [00:15:34] (38 seconds)

These guys are a bunch of knuckleheads, hung out with Jesus for three years. They went boating. They went fishing. They went camping. They went on hikes together. I mean, they miles and miles and miles, they walked together, and they didn't get it. So Jesus dies. Most of them were not at the cross. Abandon them. Jesus understands betrayal and abandonment. And on the evening of that first day of the week, you're wondering why we're meeting on the first day of the week because that's what the early church did. The first day of the week, it's the day he resurrected. [00:14:29] (32 seconds)

Some of us are here. We're celebrating Easter. I'm so glad you're here. Might be a tradition in your family to celebrate Easter like you celebrate Christmas. That's great. Easter is to be celebrated, but it's also to be experienced. The only way to experience is is when the resurrection grabs hold of your life. That's how you experience Easter. Don't just celebrate Easter, but experience it through a new birth into a living hope. What's the difference between a living hope and just hope? Just hope is wishful thinking, crossing the fingers. [00:05:27] (34 seconds)

And some of you might be like, oh, I don't know. I don't relate to that story. I've never done drugs or anything. Oh, but you might have pride. You might have anger issues. There might be there might be other things because we all have we all have something, and Jesus wants to take that. He wants to breathe new life into it. So either it's grief to joy, it's doubt to faith, it's fear to confidence, it's maybe worry to worship, whatever you're worried about. But in the end, what Jesus wants to offer is death to life. [00:26:55] (36 seconds)