Something New Has Happened

[00:00:00] Risen indeed. Alleluia. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Hallelujah. Please be seated. [00:00:16] God said through the prophet Isaiah long ago, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. It's like, erase everything you're thinking about because I've got something else for you to think about right now. [00:00:36] That's what God is saying. I'll give you something to think about. Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. [00:00:45] Something new and exciting is happening. [00:00:48] Then he goes on, and he's speaking about a time in the future, something fulfilled by Jesus Christ. [00:00:57] Well, something big has happened, something worth paying attention to, something that should put everything else to the back of our mind. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Hallelujah. [00:01:11] Now, the women go to the tomb early in the morning, and they're not expecting to find Jesus alive. They're not thinking that something new is happening. They're thinking in the pattern of thinking that, well, that makes sense according to the way things generally are. Jesus died, and they're expecting to find him dead. But something new has happened. Something new is happening. Reality has changed. [00:01:38] And with it comes a new mindset, one that they. Well, that they're just beginning to be, well, to have in Christ. Christ is risen. He's risen indeed. Hallelujah. [00:01:57] So they see two men standing by them in dazzling apparel. They are afraid. They bow their faces to the ground. The men said to them, why do you seek the living among the dead? [00:02:13] Well, they weren't coming to see the living. [00:02:17] They were coming to see the dead. [00:02:20] But there's more to Jesus than they realized. Jesus has been telling them. He told them that he would die and then on the third day, rise from the dead. But it still didn't set their expectations. [00:02:34] They hadn't adopted that as their mindset. They didn't really know Jesus, who they were following around, living with, spending time with, learning from Jesus, who they called Teacher. They didn't understand yet that he's the Lord of life, through whom all things were made. Come down from heaven for us and for our salvation. [00:02:59] Jesus within Jesus, who they saw, talked with, touched, there was something hidden, something beautiful, like an Easter egg. [00:03:16] Who has searched for Easter eggs this morning already. [00:03:20] All right, wonderful. All right. And there may be more Easter eggs ahead today. All right, but why Easter eggs? You look at an egg and it's just. It's white or brown, right? Let's go with brown, because most eggs were brown until fairly recently. So, all right, so you got a Brown egg, and it looks like the earth, nothing real special. And then you crack it open and there's a golden treasure inside. [00:03:47] Similarly, Jesus came to us as one of us. Nothing real special on the outside. Isaiah says he wasn't great to look at, as Isaiah says, but within, with the eyes of faith. [00:04:05] And seeing him risen from the dead and hearing the news proclaimed, we realize, wow, there's a lot more to Jesus than meets the eye. Jesus is the Lord of life. He's risen from the dead and he gives life to you and me. [00:04:22] The women, the disciples, others who heard of his resurrection received the news as they went out and told everybody. [00:04:34] People throughout history who heard the message of the gospel, that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world, rose from the dead, defeated death. [00:04:45] And now you and me who have heard the news and have believed in Jesus Christ, that He is the one through whom all things were made and who came to us for us and for our salvation. [00:04:57] We all now have received in Jesus Christ a new mindset, a transformation of perspective, so that we no longer are looking for things just to take the natural course. From a worldly perspective, we see things with new eyes because we see Jesus with new eyes. We see Jesus our Lord, who has all power and authority in heaven and on earth and uses it for the benefit of his people who rose from the dead. Not even death could hold Him. He rose victorious over death and all of our enemies. That transforms our perspective. [00:05:40] And does it? [00:05:42] Does it? I mean, do we hear these words and think, yep, that's me. Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind a lot of the time. For me, the former things come to mind. [00:06:02] Let's put it this way. [00:06:05] God has done something worth our attention, worthy of our greatest attention. It should be at the fore of our attention. Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. And it means that though all have died since Adam, save a couple, Enoch, Elijah, though mortality is the pattern that holds for human beings, in Jesus Christ there's a new reality. He is the new Adam, and in him we are recreated so that nothing can touch us. And Christ's victory over all our enemies and over death is ours by faith. [00:06:47] That that should be at the fore of our attention all the time. [00:06:52] There are all kinds of things that happen that seems really important. Maybe it's things happening geopolitically. [00:07:00] Maybe it's all the craziness going on right now, the government and everything going on. It's in the news and such, you know, what wasn't in the news? I kept expecting that, like, Good Friday article or that Easter article in the Wall Street Journal, and maybe I just missed it. It's like the. There's a lot that seems newsworthy in the world, but news flash. God is doing something new, has done something new in Jesus Christ, creating new heavens and a new earth. Something to really invest our hope and our attention and our faith in Jesus. Christ has risen from the dead and in him we will rise by faith. God, who raised Jesus from the dead, he'll raise our mortal bodies in him. Now that, that is worth paying attention to and not just individually, but with one another. Maybe there are going to be family gatherings this afternoon or this week. [00:08:04] Bring Jesus into it. Remember Jesus resurrection with others. Remember that Jesus rose from the dead and that changes reality. You're going to have conversations with people today and this week and always. [00:08:18] And they might just need that new perspective. [00:08:22] Well, we need that new perspective. [00:08:25] So remember, remember Jesus promises. That's what the angels say to the women. [00:08:32] They say, why do you seek the living among the dead? [00:08:38] Flip your perspective around. He's alive. [00:08:41] And then they say, remember how he told you? [00:08:46] And I need that a lot. [00:08:48] It's like I'm worried or I'm down or whatever. Remember how he told you that, well, he's risen from the dead and that you and I will rise in him. Remember how he told you he's making all things new, that in Christ you're a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come. Remember how he told you that you're his brother or sister, that you're God's child, that nothing will separate you from the love of Christ. [00:09:20] Remember, remember together in Jesus name, Amen.