Before and After

Happy Easter! Christ is risen! Well, for the message this morning, our theme is before and after, and so I want to start out with a little game, an audience participation time that I call "before and after." Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna show you before pictures of famous celebrities, and then I want you to try to shout out who these people are, you know, in their after picture, all right? Now it doesn't matter if I hear you or not, just shout it out as you and I both know you are here to impress the people around you, right?

And so here's what I want you to do. I'm gonna show that picture and then you just shout out who you think it is. Got it? Okay, first photo. Who is this before he was famous? What's your best guess? Shout it out. What do you think this is? All right, and here's the after picture. It's Leonardo DiCaprio. How many guessed that right? Raise your hands. How many of you guessed it right? Seriously? You're lying, because how could you know that?

All right, next picture before this person was famous. Who do you think? Shout it out. I heard it. It's Ray Romano. Can you believe that? Look at this. Would you have picked that guy to become a powerful Hollywood player? I mean, serious, how many on the left side, how many of you went to high school math class and sat next to a guy who looked exactly like that? How many of you were that guy? Can I see that? Show of hands.

Okay, next, here's what she looked like before. Who do you think this is? I actually heard a couple of people say it. It's actress Katie Holmes. Can you believe that? All right, two more. Before he was famous, little Cub Scout. Any guesses? Yes, it is John Lennon, believe it or not. I mean, so many of these people, who would have picked from the before picture that they would ever become, you know, rich and famous?

Okay, and finally, who is this? I am not making this up. Take a good look at that picture. This is actually Tim Beverly, our choir director. A picture is worth a thousand words, isn't it? That just explains a lot, right? Well, I love before and after pictures. I could think about them and look at them for hours, and that's probably one of the reasons I love Easter because it's the ultimate before and after picture, isn't it? Not just of the risen Christ, but of all the lives that he touched and that ripple effect just keeps on going.

So, let's talk about it. Grab your message notes that look like this. They're on the inside of the bulletins that you were handed when you came in, and our theme verses are from 1st Corinthians chapter 15 starting in verse 3 in the Bible. They're printed right there on the top of your notes or you can open your Bibles and look at them as well.

Now, the entire chapter of 1st Corinthians 15, just to give you kind of an orientation here, it is a great chapter all about what we celebrate today, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's very thought-provoking and philosophical, and if you'd like to dig deeper into it, we have daily meditations on pages 2 and 3 of your notes so that every day this week you can kind of explore this chapter further, but I want to give you an introduction this morning.

Let's just look at the first few verses starting in verse 3. This is the earliest reference in scripture to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it's important because Paul says, "And this was passed on to me," meaning that the belief in the resurrection of Christ started way back at the beginning. He says, "I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me." Now stop there for a second. He says, "This, what I'm about to say, is most important." Say those two words with me. "Most important."

He's saying, "You Christians can disagree about a lot of other stuff. You can disagree about political stuff and you can disagree about worship styles and all kinds of stuff, but," he says, "here is our core message." This is intriguing to me because one of the things that companies here in the Silicon Valley pay a lot of attention and time to is the idea of what is our core message. Just over the hill they're always having meetings saying, "What's our core message and how can we stay on message and let's not get off message?"

And then they spend even more time coming up with logos that say, "This represents our core message." Companies all across America do this, and let me give you some examples. Shout, kind of, the name of the company out when I show you this logo, another audience participation thing. All right, here we go. First example, what is this company? That's right, Nike, but do you know what this is? Anybody? It's the swoosh, but what is the swoosh? Any guesses? Somebody said it. This is a stylized version of the wings of the Greek goddess of victory whose name was Nike. That's right, and so this represents victory.

Okay, what company is this? It's Apple, and this logo is supposed to represent knowledge. Did you know that? Okay, what is this? Just shout it out. I heard it over here. I knew that somebody would say from Santa Cruz, "It's a peace sign." Okay, here's the thing. I knew that would happen. Outside of California, what company does this represent? Mercedes-Benz, that's right, but do you know what this means? I looked this up this week. This is a three-point star representing excellence on air, water, and land for Mercedes-Benz engines.

But if you think about it, the most recognized emblem on the planet, the most famous symbol of all, is this, the cross, right? I mean, you can't go through a day without seeing this somewhere, but have you ever asked yourself, "What does this mean?" I mean, think about it for just a second. For people back in the day the Bible was written, they probably couldn't have imagined that one day people would be wearing crosses around their necks as a symbol of hope because crosses were ways that the Romans used to execute people in the most grisly, the most horrific, the most tortuous way possible.

For people in the first century, crosses didn't symbolize hope, they symbolized hopelessness and despair and death. So why did the Christians, this fledgling movement who were presumably trying to attract followers, I mean, what focus group thought this was a good idea to make this their theme, to make this their symbol? This wouldn't have attracted people; it would have repelled people unless something happened to switch the meaning of this symbol dramatically. And that's exactly what happened.

Paul says in the next verses, here's what's most important, Christ died for our sins just as the Scriptures said, and he was buried and raised from the dead on the third day just as the Scriptures said. What a before-and-after picture. Have you ever just kind of helped your imagination on this? Have you ever tried to imagine what it must have been like to be Jesus Christ on this weekend, almost 2,000 years ago now?

I mean, imagine Easter morning, you're Jesus, you have taken upon yourself the weight of the world's sins, you've literally gone through hell to pay for mankind's sins, so nobody else has to go through that. And then your spirit is reunited with your resurrected body, which is made in perfection, and you're lying in the cool of the tomb, and your dead heart takes its first new beat, and your lungs fill with your first new breath, and your eyes blink, and you see the tomb, and you feel your resurrected muscles, and you burst out of that tomb, along with your angels, with an amazing message to proclaim to the world, thrilled about what's in front of you, what's ahead of you on that morning.

Man, that's a before-and-after picture, and that's why the whole meaning of that symbol, the cross, flipped, and why from the early second century it was a symbol for Christians, because for them suddenly it was not a symbol of despair, it was a symbol of victory, it was not a symbol of discouragement, it was a symbol of absolute positive hope, and that is why when you see a cross, a Christian cross, it's usually empty, right?

Now once in a while you see a crucifix with Jesus still on the cross to remember his suffering, but most of the time it's an empty cross. Why? Christians really thought this through, that the early fathers, church fathers, wrote about this, the cross is empty because the tomb is empty, and this was meant to be kind of a two-for-one symbol. Jesus is alive, he's not hanging on the cross anymore, his work there is finished, and the cross is empty because you don't have to hang on the cross anymore.

Listen, you can stop crucifying yourself for that past sin; your debt has been paid. Isn't that great news? And Paul is saying here to the Corinthians, don't get off message, this is your core, literally at the crux of your message. This whole letter to the Corinthians was written because these people were constantly getting distracted by all kinds of stuff, by religious stuff that didn't really matter that much, by political stuff, and by worship style stuff, and by sinful stuff.

Paul's going stay on message because the whole message is wrapped up right here, and then Paul says, and this is not just some beautiful poetic metaphor, this really happened, and watch this amazing list, I love this, he says because this risen Jesus was seen by Peter, and then by the twelve, and after that he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at the same time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died, and then he was seen by James, and later by all the Apostles, and last of all, as though I'd been born at the wrong time, I also saw him.

Now I ask you to imagine what it was like to be Jesus coming back from the dead. Now imagine what it must have been like to be one of these people that he lists. I was reading People Magazine's website the other day, found a great story, true story, 20 years ago a woman named Ruth Dillo gets a phone call from the Pentagon. Her son Clayton Carpenter, private first class, is dead, killed by a landmine. Of course they grieve, they make plans for the funeral, but on the third day the telephone rings, and the voice on the other end is the voice of her living son, "Hi mom, I'm alive!"

It turns out the army had gotten the whole thing wrong; her son was just injured in a minor way, but he was alive. Can you imagine that? Now listen to this, I love this quote, she said, "I laughed, I cried, I felt like turning cartwheels because my son, whom I had thought was dead, was really alive." She says, "I'm sure none of you can even begin to understand how I felt." Well, these people could. Imagine the feeling, you're seeing your friend who was dead, I mean you'd seen him dead and you'd helped to bury him and now he was standing in front of you living. Wow, mind-blowing.

I heard about a Sunday school teacher who asked her class on Easter morning, "Does anybody know what Jesus said when he rose from the dead?" And one little girl's hand shot up, "Oh, oh, I know teacher, I know call on me." The teacher says, "Please tell us." Little girl jumps out of her chair and shouts, "Ta-da!" Well, that's not far off. Check this out, I want to give you a quick before and after snapshot of some of the characters Paul lists here and here's what's gonna blow your mind.

This isn't a complete list, you know, there's other lists in the Bible that talk about more people who saw Jesus, but I think Paul specifically chose these people to make a point to communicate something that he wants you to hear right now. So see if you can connect the dots here with me, see if you see a pattern among the characters Paul talks about here because just like those celebrity pictures I showed you earlier, you would not have guessed when you see the before pictures who these people end up becoming.

The first person he talks about is Peter. His before picture in a few words, public failure, ashamed, guilty, do you remember the story of the Bible? When we first meet Peter three years before the crucifixion, he is this kind of know-it-all, redneck fisherman guy, always putting his foot in his mouth, he's the kind of guy who always knows more than you do, you can't tell him nothing. Basically picture Cliff Clavin from Cheers, "This is Peter," in so many words.

And to make it worse, the night before Jesus Christ is crucified, Peter has to do it again. He gets up, this is in the Bible, and he makes an announcement at dinner, goes, "Excuse me, can I please have everybody's attention here? Jesus, I just want you to know that even if everybody else denies you, and I'm pretty sure they will because compared to me they're all losers, I will never deny you. Even if I have to die, I won't deny you kind of beats it's just I'm the greatest apostle." And Jesus says, "I'm sorry Peter, but you're wrong." Peter goes, "No, you're wrong." And then before the night is over, falls flat on his face, not once, twice, but three times, Bible says he denies Jesus while Jesus is being tortured with swearing, "I don't bleeping know that guy," to save his own skin.

And then when he realizes what he's done, the Bible says that he runs away into the night weeping bitterly. That's a quote from the Bible, probably thinking, "Unbelievable, I've done it again. I am such a stupid failure. I don't know about you, but I've been there." And then, tada, the risen Christ appears to him and says, "Hey Peter, I love you. I forgive you. Now get back in the game. Get off the bench." And the after picture, he's forgiven, he's a great leader, I mean he ends up writing part of the Bible, he leads the church, an amazing before and after picture, and the momentum keeps building in this list.

Next Paul talks about the 12. Who were they? It was the rest of the original 12 disciples. The before picture, three word snapshot, fearful, hiding, doubters. I mean you cannot imagine a less heroic bunch. If you were inventing a religion and coming up with saints that helped to launch it, you would never write the stories that are in the Bible about these characters. They are, the Bible says they're fearful, the Bible says they're locked in a room because they're so afraid. Basically picture Barney Fife, you know, from maybe RFT. In fact, 12 Barney Fife's.

And one of them, Thomas, even openly mocks the whole idea that Jesus could ever rise again. He says, somebody says, "The women have a report that Jesus is back from the dead." And Thomas basically said, "Oh, and he appeared to some of you too?" Don't be ridiculous! That's absurd! Which is probably what you and I would say, right? You know, these days people say, "Oh, we're modern and we're smart," but in ancient days people were so gullible and stupid they were ready to believe anything. CS Lewis calls this chronological snobbery because ancient people weren't stupid. They had the same brains you and I have. They knew dead things tend to stay dead.

Ken Davis tells a great story about a woman who looks out her kitchen window and she sees her German Shepherd with a rabbit in its mouth and it's just, you know how dogs do it. She's shaking it like this and she runs out with a broom and she knocks her dog on the head and it spits out the rabbit and she sees if she can rescue it, but it is stone cold dead. And to make it worse, she recognizes it as the next-door neighbor's rabbit. A next-door neighbor with whom they have never gotten along. So this is gonna be like a disaster. And she starts to panic.

And so here's what she does. She takes the rabbit into the house and at the kitchen sink she washes the blood off of it and the mud and the dirt and then she takes it into the bathroom and turns on the blow-dryer trying to restore the rabbit to its original fluffiness. Yes. And then she tiptoes into the neighbor's yard and she puts it back into the rabbit hutch and closed the door and sneaks back over to her yard again thinking at least the neighbor will think that the rabbit died of natural causes. It wasn't killed by my dog. Predictably, a couple of hours later, she hears a scream from on the other side of the fence and she innocently peeks her head over and says, "Oh, what's wrong?" The neighbor says, "It's our rabbit! Last week it died and we buried it and now it's back!" Oops.

People in the ancient world knew dead rabbits tend to stay dead. And dead rabbis tend to stay dead. But then, ta-da! And after, they become confident, purposeful world changers. This fascinates me about these guys. One minute they're Barney Five just not wanting to say a word to anybody unless they're killed. The next minute you can't shut them up even if you do threaten them with death and follow through on their threats. They just want to tell the world. What happened to these guys? Well, one thing, they met the risen Christ. When you meet somebody who was dead, alive again, nothing's gonna shut you up.

Now, look at this chart because I know a lot of people today feel like the disciples felt locked in the upper room fearful and hiding doubters. In fact, I saw a survey this week. The number one emotion felt right now by Americans is not confidence. It's not hope. What do you think it is? It's fear. And that is one of the reasons that we're starting this new series. There's a postcard about it in your notes. Trusting God in troubled times. It's all about how do I trust God, right? That he's got a good plan for my life when it seems like the world is going to hell in a handbasket. And that's what the disciples felt like too.

Well, the whole Bible was written by people who were in times of stress. The whole Bible comes out of that context. And so it has a lot to say about this subject. You're gonna get a dose of hope every weekend in May. And I really hope you can join us for that. But this incredible list just keeps going because next Paul mentions my favorite guy on this whole list. I love that he's in this list. He talks about James. And do you realize who this was? Here's his before picture. And this is gonna take a lot of you by surprise. He's the cynical half-brother of Jesus Christ.

Did you know that Jesus Christ had half brothers and half sisters? Did you know the Bible talks about that? This is not like the Da Vinci Code or something. This is actually in the Bible. In fact, the Bible even gives us some of their names. And the oldest one was named James. And in John 7, it says that James and some of the other brothers of Jesus stood kind of off to the side mocking him, making little sarcastic comments about their Messiah brother. They did not believe in Jesus. It's kind of interesting that they had this family dynamic going on, but I think I can understand it.

How many of you had siblings, brothers or sisters? Can I see a show of hands? How many of you had a brother or a sister who your parent thought could walk on water? Anybody? Okay, now imagine if he really could. All right? So you can see why maybe there was a little bit of this conflict. So James mocks Jesus and then Jesus appears to him after he's resurrected. And I think I can relate because I love that Jesus does this because if you had a brother who had mocked all your claims during your life and you could come back from the dead and appear to him, would that not be pretty high on your to-do list, right?

Jesus goes, "Ta-da! Who's right now, bro?" You know? And what's the after picture here? He becomes an absolutely devoted, fully committed, passionate follower of Jesus Christ. And this is still happening to skeptics to this day. Maybe to you. I was reading in the Wall Street Journal of all places this last week and I found an interesting article by Lee Strobel. He's the Pulitzer Prize-winning legal editor for the Chicago Tribune and a staunch atheist. Lee talks in the article about how his wife decides to start going to church and Lee decides to prove to her it's all a fake.

And I put the URL for this article right there at the bottom of your notes. I'd encourage you to check this out. He calls it "How Easter Killed My Faith in Atheism" because he says in this article, "The evidence convinced him and then Jesus changed his life." My point is that there were skeptics back in the day too, just like now, but you gotta look at the picture before and after. And then finally, Paul says, "I also saw him." Paul, what's the before picture here? Well, he was a legalistic, hyper-religious persecutor of Christians literally dragging men, women, and children into jail and presiding over their deaths because they disagreed with his religious views.

I mean, I want you to picture Dana Carvey's character from Saturday Night Live. Remember the church lady? Do you remember this? Yeah, well that was Paul, only picture a church lady who was not only sour and joyless and legalistic but would kill people who disagreed with him or her. That's the picture. And don't take my word for it, Paul himself describes himself this way in verse 9 of 1 Corinthians 15. But the after picture? He becomes a joyful, totally grace-focused apostle. If what you picture on one side was something like the church lady, on the other side picture something like St. Nick just giving out gifts, just all about grace, full of joy, even in prison, even on death row, he's just always full of joy and grace.

I mean, look at that. Those are great before and after stories, aren't they? It's like God deliberately chose unheroic, cowardly, confused skeptics to show I can change anyone when they encounter the risen Christ. And as I said, the ripples just keep going, keep rolling through history. One of my favorite stories is John Newton. Do you remember his story? He was the captain of slave trading ships. They picked up slaves in Africa and under brutal conditions transported the slaves to America and to the colonies.

And this guy, by all accounts, was a vicious guy. He was immoral. He was so profane that many other sailors refused to sail under his captaincy. Now, you got to be pretty profane for other sailors to think you're too profane, but that was John Newton. And not only that, but he was a committed atheist who made it his life's goal to, as he put it, "deconvert" every Christian he met. That was John Newton. And then one night his ship is in the most horrible storm he has ever experienced at sea.

And before he even realizes what he's doing, he starts crying out, "Jesus, help me!" And the ship limps to port, comes to the storm, and it concerns him that a guy whose life's goal was to deconvert people ended up calling out, "Jesus, help me!" And so he thinks, "Maybe there's something to it. Maybe down in my subconscious there's some truth there." He starts exploring the Gospels and he gets converted. In fact, he becomes a pastor. In fact, he works to abolish the very slave trade that he had once been one of the leaders of.

And then he writes his own before-and-after story. It's in a song that he called "Faith's Review and Expectation," but you know it better by its first two words, "Amazing Grace." That is the guy, what a before-and-after picture, that's the guy who wrote the words, "I once was lost." Now you know what he meant when he said "lost." I was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see.

Now what about you? Because you can take your place too in the parade of before-and-after stories, of lives changed by God's amazing grace. I want to encourage you, where it says "me" on your notes, at some point today I'd encourage you to jot down some words. What has the risen Christ done for you? What differences has he made in your life? But now look at the whole chart. If you're honest, and this is church, let's all be honest, some of us here today at this very, at this exact moment in our lives can relate a little bit more to the left side of the chart than the right side, right?

You say, "Honestly, maybe I even believe in Jesus and everything, but what I feel in my life right now is that I'm a failure, and I feel ashamed and guilty and fearful and hiding." Maybe you even got this picture of yourself just locked in, that "I'm a loser," like Peter thought of himself. "I disappoint people constantly." Or maybe you've got that picture of people in your family, your own children, or your spouse. This person has made wrong decision after wrong decision, and there's no hope for them. But you got to realize, whether it's you or somebody else you're thinking about, that's just the before picture. God sees the after picture of you and of them.

So how do you get from one side to the other side? Wouldn't you like to move over? Well, here's how. Look at the very last verse in your notes. We're also gonna put it on screen, and let's read this out loud together. It's Easter, so let's do this with real Easter enthusiasm. Let me hear you. "I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead." What? The power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. That same power can be yours, and it's available for who? For those who believe him, not just believe about him, but believe him.

Believe what he says about your potential after picture. God says, "Come on over. You can be full of joy and grace and purpose and a world changer. No need to hide locked in a room anymore." I'll tell you something. I'll give you a little behind-the-scenes glimpse into a pastor's life on Sunday mornings. A lot of times after the service, people come up right here to these steps, and they ask for prayer, and sometimes they ask for it because they are desperate.

And they come up and they tell me about some of the things maybe you're struggling with, about people in their family that they feel so hopeless about, or about their own addictions or their own griefs. And I look at their faces, and I can tell in their eyes that they feel like there's no hope, that they feel like there's no way out. And so I'm talking to them like this, and I'm looking over their shoulder, and you know what I see? I see you. I see the church after services saying hi to one another and smiling, and I see people whose stories I know.

I turn them around and I say, "If only you could see a little sign above everybody's head here that tells their before and after story, that says, 'Yeah, I was grieving because my husband died and I thought there was no future for me, but I met the risen Christ and that changed my life,' or that picture, that person over that picture says, 'You know what? I was an addict, but God has changed me.' And I look at them and I say, 'There's people who are going through just what you went through.' And I look in their faces and I can see that they're looking at me like, 'Is that really true? Does everybody here really have a before-and-after story?'

Well, I want you to watch this. Here are some real people from this church and their true before-and-after stories by God's grace. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see. My chains are gone, I've been set free. My God, my Savior, has ransomed me. And like a flood, His mercy reigns. Unending love, amazing grace. The Lord has promised good to me. His word my hope secures. He will my shield and push me as long as my endures. My chains are gone, I've been set free. My God, my Savior, has ransomed me. And like a flood, His mercy reigns. Unending love, amazing grace.

Would you remain standing for prayer and let's bow our heads together on this Easter morning. With your heads bowed, I hope you get the message today. There's hope. And there's hope because Jesus has risen from the dead. And He said, "Wherever two or three or more are gathered together, there I am in the midst of them." And we're in the "more" category this morning. And that means the risen Christ is here.

Would you just quietly in your own heart just thank God for what He has done in your life? Would you just thank the risen Christ for the before and the after in your life? Oh God, thank you. I think of my own life. I think of the anxiety and the dread that filled me. And now I think of the, just that almost newborn sense of confidence and the belief that the best is yet to come. God, thank you for that before and after picture in my life.

Now maybe with your heads still bowed, everybody here is still praying, maybe you feel kind of stuck in the before picture. Would you just quietly pray to the risen Christ who is here ready to help you? Pray, "Jesus, help." Jesus, change the picture. I want to move from the before side to the after side. And today I'm saying that I choose to believe you. And I'm not sure I even understand what that means entirely, but I just choose to begin to believe you. To believe what you say about me and about you and about the future. To believe that because of the cross and the empty tomb, I can live again. My past is forgiven, my future is promised. God, we thank you for that today. In the name of the risen Savior we pray, amen.