Episode 282: What Would It Take? | +Quigg Lawrence | Easter Sunday

Introduction

Good morning, friends. Great to be with you guys. Yeah. So, I was watching the headlines this week, and I stumbled upon the Greensboro news. Any of you guys still get newspapers? I keep wanting to get them, but there's like nothing in them. Sorry if you work for a newspaper, but I just want more material. That's all. But I saw this headline: The majority of Americans agree that candy is the best part of Easter.

Now, I like to eat. There's no secret. But candy really? Go to the next slide. Want to see what the parents said. Seventy percent of parents said that their favorite part of Easter was eating candy and chocolate with their kids. First of all, they're lying. It's not eating candy with their kids, it's eating their kids' candy.

But like, here's the thing, man: chocolate bunnies—love them—bit the ears off a thousand of them. Okay? I just gotta say that if that's the best part of Easter, let's all go home. Seriously. Like, I've been in really happy parts of my life and we want to celebrate for those who are doing well and happy. Praise the Lord. But I must confess, there've been times in my life where I was very, very sad, like incredibly sad. Maybe the loss of a grandparent or my mother or my father or grandchild. Other times, just sad with myself, you know. And a chocolate bunny ear is not enough.

There are times where I've stood over... This year, we've had, was it eighteen of our parishioners die? Many under age 30. In about, what, seven or eight months. And I can tell you, a chocolate bunny ear is not enough. So, next slide. Let's go.

The Real Hope beyond Candy

The bottom line is, I'm going to offer you something better than candy. I hope. Okay? Okay. So, bottom line is this: we're going to get to the resurrection, and that's in John chapter 20. So, if you have a Bible, you can turn there. If you can get an app, we don't think you're unspiritual if you use a phone app. Okay? As long as you don't start emailing people about how boring the sermon is, you're fine. It's great. Alright. And it is really hot in here, by the way. Yeah, somebody find me one degree, one degree. Okay. What I want to tell you is the Lord told us many times, he said, Messiah, the Savior is coming. Like all that stuff in the Old Testament, we kind of go, I don't really know what they're talking about. He's whispering to us that a Savior for the world is coming.

And I like this. I always tell people, I tell the priests that are in our diocese, I say, you know what? I'm not a big yeller. Like, if I have something to say to you that's important, I'll whisper it to you. Whisper. I told my grandkids, the way to get somebody's attention is not to be loud and get in their face, but it's to whisper. I whisper to you, then I whisper a little bit louder, then I tell you, then I get irate and mad. Okay? But in the Old Testament, we see God is saying, Messiah, a Savior's coming because everyone's going to be under judgment, under God's wrath, not because he's mean but because he's holy and we need a Savior.

So, in Psalm 22, can you put that one up?

For God so loved the world... — John 3:16

Now, this was written a thousand years before Jesus was in his mother's womb. A thousand years. That's a long time, but this is the Psalm that Jesus was praying and living as he was on the cross. It tells us this about Messiah. Messiah will have his hands and feet pierced.

Will have his hands and feet pierced. — Psalm 22

Y'all were good. Will have his hands and feet pierced. Messiah's bones will not be broken. Thank you. And men will cast lots for his clothing. So, see that? Like, that's a weird thing. A scientist once did a study of the 300 messianic prophecies and said, one man fulfilling all those would be like one in 8,000,000,000 chance. One in 8 billion chance.

Now, let's go from Psalm 22. We're going to the next one, which is Isaiah 53. Have you guys had the pleasure of meeting Isaiah 53? Seriously, this week, throw down Jesus calling, throw down whatever. Spend this week in Isaiah 53. It is one of the most important scriptures in the entire Bible.

It's talking about Messiah. Again, it's not talking about where he's going to be born, Bethlehem. It's not talking about out of Egypt, I have called my son. These prophecies are focused on his death and his resurrection. God is whispering to us through the prophets.

So, what does Isaiah say?

Messiah will be Messiah. This is strange. Messiah will be killed as a vicarious sacrifice for the sins of his people. Messiah will be in front of his silent, in front of his accusers. He will be buried with the... You know Joseph of Arimathea? A rich man donated. He gave his fancy hewn tomb for Jesus to be buried in. Even though the Bible recounts he had no place to lay his head, he was with two criminals in death and a rich man.

Next one.

Messiah will be buried with a rich.

Back, back, back, back, back. Thank you. Where were we? Oh, number 10. This is incredible.

Old Testament, Messiah will be raised from the dead, and after making a sacrifice for sin, he will do what?

Help me out:

He's going to die, and then he's going to see his offspring. — Isaiah 53:10-12

Does that make any sense to you? It wouldn't make sense to anybody because nobody had ever experienced somebody dying and coming back to life permanently. It's amazing.

Messiah will be... last one, verse 12, will be with...

So, all this, God was whispering to us about Messiah, telling us the way it was going to be. Now, what did Jesus himself say?

Because you might go quick, you know, Old Testament prophecies kind of over my head. What about Jesus's words himself? What did he say? — Matthew 16

Jesus told his disciples plainly. And here's the verse:

Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things from the religious leaders, be killed, and be raised again on the third day. — Matthew 16:21

So, do you see the pattern? Psalm 22, a thousand years before his birth. Isaiah 53, seven hundred and some years before his birth. And then out of Jesus's own mouth. Alright? Okay. So with that, let's open our Bibles. We're in chapter 20. Brian, go buy me one degree of coolness, please, sir. One degree, hold. Everyone will praise you.

The Resurrection Narrative

Here we are. Let's hit it.
Says, now on the first day of the week, what day is that? It's very important because it's why, like the Jews used to worship on Friday at sundown or on Saturday, but the day of worship changed. And it's because of the resurrection.

On the first day of the week, we learn about a woman. And what's her name? Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark. And she saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

And so, question for you this morning is, who's Mary? Who's Mary Magdalene? A lot of us grew up in Sunday school. The people teaching at Sunday school didn't know any more Bible than we did in third grade. Right? And so, a lot of us were told that Mary Magdalene was a what? Yeah. But that's not actually true because it's not in the Bible. Do you know where that came from? Pope Gregory the Great, and I'm sure he was great.

But in May, he got confused in a sermon, and I understand this because I get confused all the time. In fact, about a week ago, I confused the Pool of Siloam and the Pool of Bethesda, and a fellow came up to me and said, hey, I think you mentioned the wrong one. That's embarrassing when you have a doctorate. Okay? So, the Pope messes up, and he conflated and confused Mary of Bethany, the sinful woman in Luke 8, who would cry with her tears wetting Jesus' feet, and had an alabaster jar of nard or ointment. And the third one that he put all together in one character was Mary Magdalene.

But Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute, so lay off her. What do we know about Mary Magdalene? Go.

Mary Magdalene, for 200, go. I need a hearing aid, so you're gonna need to speak up. What do we know about Mary Magdalene? She had seven demons cast out of her. — Luke 8

We know that. She had had seven demons. Could you imagine? You know what strikes me about this? So, she was with Jesus while he was doing his ministry. When he was killed, she was at the tomb, and the Lord entrusted her as the apostle to the apostles to go tell them that Jesus was not dead—he was alive just as he said.

And so, we learn this about Mary: she contributed to Jesus's ministry. Okay, what else?
So, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark. And you know, this morning, I woke up early because I wanted to be ready for today because today is important. And as I do every Sunday, I got in my prayer tub. I've had a hot tub for thirty-six years. And every Sunday morning, rain or snow, sleep, whatever, I'm getting in there, and I'm praying for what's going to happen here.

And so, while I was there, it was still dark. It was just starting to fade from jet black to slightly gray. And then I was like, what would this have been like on the real Easter? On the first Easter? What would it have been like for the disciples? And I had all these grand ideas, and the Lord said, they were sad. They were sad.

Do you know how sad you get when your dog dies or your cat? Well, Dog. Sorry. I know. Sorry. I lost a third of the congregation there. Do you know how sad you get? These people, like, all they knew is that the one they loved, the one who cast demons out of them, the one who had loved them like they'd never been loved before, the one who had given them hope, had been butchered at the hands of wicked men, and he was stone cold dead. And they were making their way in the dark to go to his tomb to properly finish what I think Joseph of Arimathea and others had started.

And so, Mary Magdalene's there. They come to the tomb while it's still dark, and they saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

The stone. So clearly, the writer here, John, wants you to know about Mary Magdalene, but he also wants you to know that the grave was sealed with a stone.

Do we have a scripture that tells about that?

Alright. Here we go. — Matthew 27

It says, the next day, that is, after the day of preparation, the chief priest and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate. What's his first name? Pontius Pilate. Thank you very much. Pontius Pilate. And said, sir, we remember how that impostor said while he was still alive, after three days, I will rise.

So he's predicting that he will be raised from the dead.

Therefore, order the tomb, because see, they're trying to prevent anybody from thinking that Jesus defeated death, that Jesus defeated sin. They want everybody to think he's just a deranged rabbi from Nazareth. But here's what they did:
They ordered that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away, and then tell the people, basically lie to the people and say, Jesus has risen from the dead. And they said in the scripture, the last error would be worse than the first. And so, Pilate says to them, you have a guard of soldiers. Go make the tomb as secure as you can.

Finally, in verse 66, if we haven't gotten the point, it says it outright:

They went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard. Is there any doubt in your mind that this nobody could move it? It was too big. It was on an incline, it came down, it sealed the grave. There were Roman soldiers—think NFL linemen—who were seal team six trained. And they knew if anybody broke in, they themselves would be put to death. So, no, little Mary Magdalene didn't push the stone away. We have to ask, how did it happen? What happened? Let's keep going in our text.

The Empty Tomb and Encounter with Jesus

We're back in John 20. I love this.
So, verse three, it says, so Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going towards the tomb. Verse four. Both of them were what? Running. Running? I hate running. I'm not. I didn't like getting a new hip, but one of the blessings of getting a new hip is that the doctor said, you may never ever run again.
Oh, sir, that's just terrible news. But why do you think that's in here? Why do you think it says that Peter and the other disciple, the one that Jesus loved, John, says it says, just like we saw Mary Magdalene, she ran.

Now, we see them running. When's the last time you ran because you love Jesus? When's the last time you stopped everything and said, man, it can all wait because I want to be in the presence of the Lord? He's important to me. He's my life. Without him, there is no life. So they ran. Now, it's apparently a foot race between Peter and John. It says both of them were running together. But the other disciple, I.e., John, outran Peter, and he reached the tomb first.

Now, why is that detail here?

John wrote it. — Very good.
The truth is, you guys, commentators say, well, maybe John loved Jesus more than Peter. You guys, that's very spiritual. I don't think that's the answer. Because they both were running. I think one was just faster than the other. Speed is God-given. You cannot coach speed. But they're running because they love Jesus, and they were sad, and they loved him, and they were trying to make sense.

So, it says this: when they reached the tomb, Jesus—Peter—reached the tomb first, and the, sorry, the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

That's John. — Right.

Verse five, and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. I don't blame him. I wouldn't want to go to a grave, would you? Creepy. I remember my great grandfather died. James L. Quigg smoked a pipe, gave me my first beer at six, gave me homemade cabbage, gave me a knife at age six. Not a good combination, to have a beer and a knife at age six. Now, how did he figure in this? Where are we? Where are we? I was thinking—my grand... Don't make fun, my granddad, I love him, my great grandfather—I love him so much. Where are we? I didn't know what verse we're on. Can somebody tell me what verse we're on?

Creepy tomb.— Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

So, they go and they see the linen cloths lie there. They didn't go in. Verse six, Simon Peter came following, and he went into the tomb.

Whoo. — And he saw the linen cloths lying there.
Now, pay attention, put on your thinking caps. Why do you think this small detail is there?
He saw the linen cloths. — We know that Jesus was wrapped up, and they prepared him for burial, and they had some spices, right? And so, was that cloth, but apparently, there was another cloth that covered his head and face. We don't actually know what happens when somebody gets raised from the dead, but I bet he just went right through the cloth. I don't think he had to unwrap himself. His hands were wrapped; he couldn't unwrap himself. He came through it. But this small detail—that the linen cloths were there, but then the face cloth was in a different location in the tomb, nicely folded up.

Now, this is like Quig and Annette. If you go into our bedroom, you'll see a chair where all my clothes from the last week are not so neatly displayed. And you know what? We have this magic genie that comes and puts them up in my closet. It's amazing. Just strewn around, but Miss Annette's are neatly folded. Jesus is trying to send us a message. He's basically saying, you guys, I blew right through that linen cloth. But just to let you know a real person was there, I folded it up. Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.

Let's finish the story.
So, what happened? Oh, here it is, verse eight. The other disciple who reached the tomb first went in; he saw and believed. That's the whole point. The whole point of going to an empty tomb and seeing the claws is not for their own sake, but so he could engender faith, real faith, and belief. Not like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got you, God. But so they could know the Lord, know he's risen, know he's a truth-teller. He's proved it. And so, it says they saw and they believed.

What about you? What about you? Do you know for pastors, Easter should be like the happiest day, but a lot of times we feel the weight. If you've never felt it, I... I almost cannot explain it to you. But it's like, Lord, I wonder how many of these folks are like the runaway bunny. And you come after them, and you come after them, and what more could you do? And yet, they're still running. And it makes us so sad. It's not like we're better than anybody else. No. We're not holier. We just want friends who don't know Jesus to know Jesus. We want to like drop the guard and say, Please, please love the man who gave his life for you. Love him back.

So, let's finish it up.
Seeing and believing. They did not yet understand the scripture that Jesus must rise from the dead. And then the disciples went back to their homes. Verse 11. Mary—Which Mary was this?

Remind me. — Thank you.

Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. And as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, where the body of Jesus had lain—one at the head and one at the feet.

And they said to her, woman, why are you weeping? — John 20:13

And she said to them, she really thought Jesus was dead and gone. She said, They've taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they've laid him. Having said this, she turned around, and when she turned around, much to her shock, she saw Jesus.

And so, we always talk about the empty tomb. The empty tomb is an empty tomb. It's still empty. I've been to it. He's not there. You can get on an airplane, go to Israel, and you can go to that tomb. You'll find he is not there. He's not there. But it's not simply an empty tomb. They actually saw Jesus and were willing to give their lives as a testimony to that.

In verse 15, Jesus said to her,

Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? — John 20:15

And supposing Jesus to be the gardener, she said to him, sir, love her manners, sir, kids listen to me—just for a second—don't say what to your parents. Say ma’am and sir. I know it’s antiquated, but it's good form. Say sir, say please, say thank you, and watch the blessings that flow. Okay? Thank you. That's all I want to say to you. Amen? Amen.

So, Jesus said, Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you seeking?

Supposing him to be the gardener, she said, Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've laid him, and I will take him. — John 20:15

In verse 16, Jesus said to her,

Mary. — John 20:16

Have you had that moment? Like I had it when I was 21. I was the furthest thing from a Christian. I knew there was a Bible, and Bibles were for sitting on tables to collect dust because I thought it was boring and not relevant to anything in my life. Have you had the moment where Jesus goes face to face with you?

You know, many times to get to that moment, it’s not in times of pleasure. Almost everybody I know, there's actually been a time of brokenness and suffering. It's then that we get stripped of everything else that stands in the way. And then at that point, we can say, Lord, I got nothing. Only you. Would you come and be my God?

Not just be the God, but be my God. Jesus said to her, Mary.

She said, Rabboni. — John 20:16

Our teacher.

And in verse 17, Jesus said to her,

Don't cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and tell them I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. — John 20:17

And Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples,

I have seen the Lord. — John 20:18

You know what’s amazing to me? Mary Magdalene, a woman filled with demons, is the one God picked to be the apostle to the apostles.

Do you think that God's a respecter of persons? Do you think if he could use a woman that had seven demons in her, he couldn't use you? That's the point. He can use you. With all your brokenness and all your stuff, he can use you.

Application

Now, let's go, let's go, throw the ones with the squares on. Here are the facts. Number one—whatever you think about Jesus, and I don't know about the suffering in the world, and these arguments, and those arguments—you could do that for fifty years, and you'll still be in the same place. But what I want to say: whatever you're thinking, whatever you're feeling, fact number one: the tomb is empty. You can go there and see it for yourself.

Number two: his body has never been found. We know there was money involved. We knew there was bribery involved. All they had to do was throw out a million shekels, and somebody would produce the body. The town was the size of Vinton. Everybody knew who Jesus was. He had just come in on a triumphal entry. How hard would it have been to produce the body? For some amount of money, somebody would have given him up.

Number three: Jesus was raised from the dead. Not only was the tomb empty, but they saw him.

It says more than 500 people saw him, and they were willing to give their lives. The ones who were scared and clamped down after his death were so bold after his resurrection. They were going to say, I'll die for that truth. — 1 Corinthians 15:6

Number four: Over 500 people saw Jesus alive after he died.

Here's another fact: if you're thinking, well, I don’t know, I’m just really a thinker. Guess what? So is Jesus. He's the inventor of thoughts. You smarter than Jesus?

Over 5 billion people in the history of the world have given their lives to Christ. — This week I studied it. A lot of people inflate the numbers, but by the most conservative estimates, over 5 billion people.

You know how many stadiums that would fill? Virginia Tech football stadiums. People willing to risk their lives for the truth that Jesus defeated sin and death.

Last one—and this is no joke, especially to friends in Nigeria—over 200 Christians are murdered every single week. This week, and next week, and the next. I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to be martyred for chocolate bunny ears. I’m not going to be martyred for some religious idea that makes me feel good once a week.

I would only give my life to one who loved me so powerfully, who washed me, that I know him, and I trust him.

Conclusion

Last slide. What's it going to take for you? Don’t be like me. Don’t sit in a church. Don’t sit in a church for years. Whatever age you are now, you're not even promised tomorrow.

The Bible says your life is like a mist. — James 4:14

It’s like the flowers of the field that are here today and gone tomorrow. And yet, some of us just keep saying, well, not this year, not this decade. Today is the day. Today is the day. Why would you let Satan cheat you anymore? You should be mad. You should be mad at Satan. He's stealing your life from you. He's stealing a relationship. He's tired of having people give golf applause—sorry, Masters. He wants people to run and jump and leap because they know him.

Now, let me show you. So, yeah. So, what would it take for you to love him back? What would it take for you to worship him? Are you like this? Go back. Go back. Go back.

Beg on the diving board. I want you to see him. We're closing right now. So, go. Did you ever do this when you were a kid, back when they had high dives? Brilliant idea to have high dives around little children. Do you ever go on the high dive and you make your way up there, scared to death, cement under you? And then there's this big body of water, and you can barely swim. And you have your mom or your dad or some adult who loves you and goes jump. And you like, want to jump? You really do. Like, everything in your body saying jump, jump, jump, and your brain goes no, no, no, no, no.

It's the same with receiving Jesus. Some of you guys like Satan just goes, another year, another year. You keep putting him off and putting him off. Don't be like that. Be like Campy. Just see the joy. Can you rerun that one more time? This is what the Lord wants to experience: joy. The leap of faith. Amen.