Wow!

Date
April 10, 2023
Speaker
Matt VanCleave
Topic
Grace, Gratitude, Salvation
Series
Easter 2023
Book
Hebrews, John, Luke, Mark, Matthew

Next Steps

I will do my own personal study to learn about the resurrection of Jesus.

I will plug into the resurrection power of Jesus in my life and circumstances.

I will be a conduit of God’s resurrection power to people who desperately need it.

I will live with the perspective that anything is possible because of the resurrection power of Jesus.

This year, as we were approaching Easter, I was thinking, “If I had one word to express my response to the idea of the resurrection, what would it be?” I want to get to it by going back in time. Imagine being alive 2,000 years ago when Jesus came. Imagine if you were able to listen to him teach and witness his miracles. * No one had ever taught like Jesus.
* No one had ever lived like Jesus.
* No one had ever loved people the way Jesus did.
So imagine you were there and you wanted to become his follower, and you left everything.
* You left your home.
* You left your family.
* You left your work.
People told you you were crazy, but you didn’t care, because you were convinced that to follow Jesus was the opportunity of a lifetime.
* He understood how to live life to the fullest.
* His love was beyond anything you had ever experienced.
* His brilliance was unmatched.
* He was unlike anyone you had ever known.
And you believed his little community was going to change the world. For a few years it would have been an amazing adventure. Then one Sunday you go into Jerusalem, and everyone wants to make Jesus king.
But he wouldn’t be that kind of king. And things went south real fast.
By Friday, what we call Good Friday, this man you had given up everything to follow was dead. Not just dead; he was crucified like a common criminal. That meant failure, and you would have experienced deep confusion and despair. On Sunday you go to the tomb because you had nowhere else to go.
It’s very confusing — the tomb is empty and the stone that had blocked it has been rolled away.
The Roman guards who were guarding it are gone, and there’s an angel, and the angel says, “Jesus is not here. He’s still alive.”
So you go and tell everyone this good news, which is a dangerous thing to do. The Romans will probably kill you for it. But they killed Jesus and he was doing great, so you don’t worry about that. Now, what do you think would have been the first word out of your mouth if you were standing at the empty tomb on that first Sunday morning? There’s a tradition that has been around for a long time now. At church gatherings, someone will say, “Jesus Christ is risen,” and all of the people will respond, “He is risen indeed.”
That’s a beautiful sentiment, but I don’t think your response would have been that polished. I think if you were there that first Sunday morning when you heard the message, “Jesus Christ, the guy you knew, the man you followed, this carpenter, this rabbi, is raised from the dead.”
I think the word that would have come out of your mouth would have been — “Wow!” “Wow” is what we say when something happens that turns the world upside down, but we didn’t see it coming and we don’t quite know how to take it all in.
“Wow” is an expression of wonder and awe and being dumbstruck. It’s interesting — every language has a word for wow.
And yet wow doesn’t really have a definition. If someone doesn’t say, “Wow” in a moment of shock, the other word they might say is just, “God! Oh my God,” because in those moments the soul knows there’s something bigger than us. So I want to talk to you today about this Easter word — Wow! Because it has something to teach us. Now, life is filled with wows. History is filled with wows.

The Wright brothers get into this machine, and all of a sudden human beings can fly.

Then several decades later, a man named Neil Armstrong takes his first step on the moon. That was a “Wow!” moment.

Maybe you remember watching that moment on TV when you were a kid.

The Chicago Cubs won the World Series in 2016, proving that there is a God and that God is infinitely good. That was a wow moment.

But it’s not just history. Your life is filled with wow moments.
Birth — what a mystery. It never ceases to be.
I remember when our daughter Lily was born. I was in the hospital room with Kathy. It was noisy and messy, and then at one moment the doctor gets really serious and has to do an episiotomy.
I couldn’t take it. I started to get woozy. I’m supposed to be coaching. The doctor made me sit down in a chair and put my head between my legs. It’s all I could take. A few moments later, I heard the cry of a baby.
My wife asked the doctor, “Is she okay?”
The doctor said, “Yes. In fact, your baby and your husband are both pinking up at the same time.” It’s called resurrection. Wow.

* Go to the Great Wall of China and see this structure. Wow!

* Get a driver’s license. I can drive a car all by myself for the first time. Wow!

* I meet a girl in college, and propose, and she says, “Yes,” and we get married. Wow!

Every life has these wow moments. The universe is built on a wow. Birth and death are wow. But we’re here to talk about the most extraordinary wow in human history. And I want to walk through three truths about the resurrection of Jesus that make it the most extraordinary wow.
They’re real simple.
* One of them is that the resurrection actually happened in history.
* The second truth is the resurrection changed everything.
* And the third truth is the resurrection is deeply personal. It can mean the world, life or death, to me and to you. Alright, here we go.

1. The resurrection really happened

This is important, because in our day, often, there’s a kind of idea floating around about Easter. It goes something like this.
Jesus probably existed. He was probably a really good man, probably a great teacher, probably deeply inspirational, but he was just a man. It’s just stuff happening at the natural human level. When he died people missed him, and some people felt like his spirit was still with them — they felt this sense of his presence — so that turned into mythic stories about a resurrection. Because people in the ancient world were kind of naïve, some of them took it literally, some of them took it seriously, and they shouldn’t have. And really stories about resurrection should be understood as just symbolic. They’re just mythic stories about the power of hope or how life has a way of reemerging. I want to explain for a few moments that, for the New Testament writers, the resurrection did not mean that. It was not understood that way.
They were presenting it as something that actually happened. And a lot rides on this. There’s an Oxford scholar named Richard Bauckham, a brilliant guy. He wrote a fascinating book called Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony. He talks about how in the ancient world, ancient Rome or ancient Greece, there would be people who were quite serious about writing about history, what really happened.
It was a very different genre than myth or folklore, and they believed — to write serious history depended on talking to eyewitnesses who were still alive who had actually experienced, hopefully been participants in, the event, the war, or whatever they were going to write the history of.
So history is built on eyewitness testimony by ancient historians who are serious about their craft. We see this in the Gospels. In the beginning of the gospel of Luke, notice how seriously he writes what he puts together.

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.

With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you… so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
Luke 1:1-4

Whatever you think about this writing, it is not intended to be a symbolic story. Bauckham writes that in ancient histories that were meant to be taken seriously, eyewitnesses played very much the role that footnotes play in literature in our day. If someone writes something and they’re serious about it being taken as a truth claim, they will put in footnotes to say, “You can check this stuff out.”
And we’ll see this in serious academic work.
In physics textbooks or peer-reviewed journal articles or Stanford research, there are footnotes. In light, fluffy, symbolic stories there are no footnotes.
There are no footnotes in Dr. Seuss or The Very Hungry Caterpillar or Cal Berkeley research. (I’m just kidding. I apologize if that offended you.) We see this dynamic all over in the Gospels — the importance of “These are stories that are drawn from eyewitnesses.”
I’ll show you one place, but it’s all over. This is in the gospel of Mark.
Mark says:

A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.
Mark 15:21

Mark notes that there’s a man Simon.
Simon was a very common name in ancient Israel, so he wants to distinguish him — the particular Simon who came from Cyrene.
Then to make him even more clear he notes that this was the father of Alexander and Rufus.
Now why in the world would Mark include “The father of Alexander and Rufus”? They were not famous people back then. Bauckham notes that it’s precisely because they would have become a part of the Christian community. They were still alive when Mark wrote his gospel.
Mark is understood to be the first gospel written. Interestingly enough, the other gospels don’t include these names.
Mark was saying, “These guys are still alive, and if you don’t believe me, you can ask them. Check it out. This happened, and it matters.” We see the same dynamic of eyewitness testimony in another really striking part of the Gospels. All four of the Gospels — they’re written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — are accounts of Jesus’ life, and they include the names of eyewitnesses who saw the empty tomb and heard the message, “Jesus has risen.” In each case, the first eyewitnesses at the empty tomb are women.
We would tend not to think about this a lot, but this would be very striking in the ancient world. Because in the ancient world women were not regarded generally as credible witnesses.
In ancient Israel and in ancient Rome, women generally were not allowed to serve as eyewitnesses in a court. They could not legally give testimony in a court, but men could. You see this dynamic at work in this little passage from the gospel of Luke.
Luke is writing about the resurrection, and he says:

It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
Luke 24:10-11

Can you believe there was a time when men were slow to take women seriously? The women said, “Jesus Christ is risen,” and the men said, “Fake news,” way, way back then. It wasn’t until some of the men actually saw the risen Jesus that they started to take it seriously. Now here’s the point — if the stories of the resurrection were just made-up stories trying to convince gullible people about some higher truth, people would have never made up women as the eyewitnesses of the resurrection. And yet in every single gospel it’s women who are listed that way. The only reason women are listed as the eyewitnesses is that, in fact, they were eyewitnesses. No one could have or would have made that up. You see, the writers were taking the historicity of the resurrection very seriously.
Whatever you may think about these accounts, they are presenting the resurrection as something that really happened. Why? We’ll talk about that next.

Announcement

Alright, the first truth is — the resurrection actually happened in human history. The writers of Scripture take the historicity of the resurrection very seriously.
Why? Because of this next truth.

2. The resurrection changed everything.

It is the hinge of history. To this day, we date human history by the life of this one man who lived and died and was raised again. We all have wow moments in our lives, but they don’t really change a whole lot. I remember when we moved to California and went to Yosemite for the first time.
If you’ve been to Yosemite and have seen El Capitan or Half Dome or Inspiration Point. Those are wow moments. You get your first paycheck. I remember when I got my first paycheck, saying, “Wow.”
I saw how much of it went to the IRS. “Wow.” We all have wow moments, but they come and go, and the world just keeps right on going.
Our problems keep right on going. Life and death keep right on going. Once there was a man named Jesus, and he came and taught like no one had ever taught, that God is real and God is loving. God is more loving than the most loving mother or loving father.
* God cares about you. Not a sparrow can fall from its nest that God does not know and care about.
* God is infinitely good.
* God is concerned about justice.
There was this amazing movement, and then Jesus died, and the movement died with him. Do you understand — on Saturday there was nothing left of that movement. And then Sunday, the movement was back on. A lot of people don’t understand this. Christianity is quite unique among faiths in this way. It’s the only faith that did not develop gradually over time.
One day it did not exist and then the next day it did exist, and people were ready to die for it. And as a matter of historical fact they did die for it. Jesus is so matter of fact about the resurrection. It’s what gave birth to the church. We’re told in Matthew’s gospel account:

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said.

They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.
Matthew 28:8-9

Yesterday he was a crucified criminal, a failed messiah. Today he’s Lord of the universe, and they worship him. His way, that way of servanthood and humility and self-sacrifice and love, wasn’t thwarted by a cross. In fact, it turned the cross into the most recognizable symbol in human history. You don’t have to live in fear anymore.
You don’t have to live in defeat anymore.
Nations rise and fall, civilizations come and go, and the life of this one man, Jesus, impacts the human race 2,000 years later like no other. He changed everything. And the power of the resurrected Jesus can be at work in your life. That’s the third great truth.

3. The resurrection is deeply personal

Whatever is going on in your life, we all face this wonder of being born and then of having our lives come to an end.
Biblical writers talk a lot about this. This is from a book in the New Testament — the letter to the Hebrews.

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Hebrews 9:27-28

Are you waiting for him? Here’s the truth about you. The biggest wow of your existence has not yet come. The most amazing moment in your life will be the moment after you die.
We don’t talk about that much, but it’s a good thing to think about now and then, especially at Easter, because it will come to everyone. There’s an old story —
A little kid comes running out of his bedroom and says to his mother, “Mom, is it true that from dust we are made and to dust we return?”
She says, “Yes, why do you ask?”
And he says, “I was just looking under my bed, and someone is either coming or going.” Someone is always either coming or going.
The moment will come in your life when your life will be over. And then something amazing will happen.
Either you will see God —
I went to visit someone recently who was at home on hospice, dying from cancer at a fairly young age. She was in the last hours of her life, and the last thing she said to me when I was leaving her was, “I’ll see you in heaven.” Imagine that moment. That will be your moment. Or, the writers of Scripture say, you will face an eternity without God. Wow. God doesn’t want anyone to face that, so he says, “I will give you my grace and my love and my forgiveness for where you’ve messed up as a free gift, and I’ll be a part of your life every moment that you live. And then you can be with me forever in all of eternity after you die.” And in that one moment after you die, not only will you be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus; you’ll be celebrating the resurrection of you. Wow! The death and resurrection of Jesus means that sin, your sin, is forgiven, that death, your death, is taken care of, that you can have hope, that you have a purpose, that you have a meaning, that you have a message, that you have a destiny, that love has triumphed over hate.
Not just that. It means that creation itself is going to be redeemed, that suffering has been repealed, that every loss is going to be restored, that God himself will wipe every tear from every sorrowing eye, that sickness and sadness and grieving and mourning and weeping will be no more. This moment will come. It will surely come.
And it will come for one reason, for one thing that actually happened. — Jesus Christ is risen. Wow!
That’s the great gift. That’s what we celebrate on Easter. Wow! I want to talk to you about one more wow, because this death and resurrection power comes to us not just for us, not just for our own benefit, but so that we can be conduits of God’s resurrection power and love and hope for the people in our world who so desperately need it. * Maybe you have people in yo life who you love, but the truth is — you often kind of take them for granted. And in this moment you can remember, “That’s someone made in the image of God for whom Jesus died and was resurrected,” and you can make a decision right now to let that person know how much they matter to you.
* Maybe you’re in a situation where you feel like the hope has gone out of some relationship. Maybe it’s with a friend, or your marriage feels dead, or you’ve been betrayed by someone, or there’s a problem with your children.
God wants you to know that because of the resurrection power of Jesus, anything is possible. Would you make a decision to live with that perspective? Anything is possible because of the resurrection power of Jesus. One more thing — we’re starting a new teaching series next week called “The God I Never Knew.”
Most people have a clear picture of who God the Father is. They’re not confused about the person of Jesus, either. But who is the Holy Spirit? What does he do? And how do we feel his presence?
In this series, I’m going to work to remove some of the mystery that surrounds the Holy Spirit so we can understand him better. We’re meant to know God the Holy Spirit as fully as we know God the Father and God the Son. So come back next week. Alright, I’m going to ask that you bow your heads right now and close your eyes. I want to say this prayer.
God, there are people being still right now, and they really need your presence and the power of the resurrected Jesus in their life.
If this is you and you’ve never committed your life to God before, you can do it right now. You just surrender. You just tell him, “God, I confess my sin and I repent, and I ask you to come in and forgive me as a gift of grace and be the leader of my life.” God loves doing that.
God, bring your resurrection power to every person listening who needs it now. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Blue Oaks Church
Pleasanton, CA

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