Hope for Cave Dwellers

I want to teach you something here you guys might know, but the very earliest Christians came up with kind of a slogan about Easter, and you might have heard it before. But let me teach it to you again. The pastor says, Christ is risen, and then the people say, He is risen indeed. But we have to do a little prep work here because I didn't hear quite enough oomph there or quite enough conviction when you just said that, right? I'm convinced that this phrase has become so familiar to many of us. It's achieved sort of Pledge of Allegiance status. Do you know what I mean? Where when you're a little kid in school and you stood up and you said, 'I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,' the words came out, but you weren't really thinking about what it said.

So one of the objects of this morning's service, the message, the music, everything else, will be to get some meaning back into these words for you, some feeling back into these words for you. And to do that, I'm gonna read a little riff that was written by a hero of mine. I guess you could say he's my pastor crush. Can I say that? John Orpurg up there at Menlo Park, and he wrote this riff that I just think is fantastic. But to really do it justice, I'm gonna have to kind of go old school on you here. I don't usually preach like this a lot, so I'd appreciate any encouragement that you could give me here.

Because John puts it this way: he says when we say this phrase, here is what we acknowledge. There was a man named Jesus. He taught like nobody ever taught. He lived like nobody ever lived. He loved like nobody ever loved. He especially had a heart for people who were on the margins. But on Good Friday, 2000 years ago, his great courage got him arrested. His great love led him to the cross where his great heart stopped beating. And on that Friday, it looked like a horribly tragic end to such a wonderful life. On Friday, he was dead in a tomb sealed shut with a stone.

But then on Sunday, the stone got rolled away. On Sunday, death lost its sting. On Sunday, the grave lost its victory. On Sunday, Hell was defeated, death was dethroned, darkness was derailed, the devil was declawed. On Sunday, the tomb was emptied and hope got filled. On Sunday, faith was vindicated, the prophets were validated, the soldiers got aggravated, and the disciples got animated. On Sunday, sin lost, shame died, hope soared, love won. On Sunday, you got something beyond yourself to live for, beyond your life to die for, and beyond your death to hope for.

This is therefore the central proclamation of the greatest victory over the darkest enemy by the noblest hero for the costliest cause in all of human history. If ever anything in this dark world of ours has ever been worth celebrating, it is this: Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Give God some applause right now. God is good.

So think about all that, and let me hear you say it with some emotion every time I point to you in this sermon. You say this, ready? Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. And that changes everything. Let's talk about it. Grab your message notes that look like this in the bulletins that you were handed when you came in. 'Hope for Cave Dwellers' is our Easter sermon today.

And as you're taking those out, I gotta tell you something. I am very stoked about something that's happening in just about five days from now. I am going to be taking a group of people from this church. Some of you guys are here right now, and we're gonna leave very early Saturday morning, 3:45 a.m., to be early. That's pretty early, right? And we're gonna leave on a trip to Israel. Yeah, we're gonna go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. And as I've been preparing for this, I've been investigating how did the very first, the most ancient pilgrims to the Holy Land, how did they kind of do their journey to Israel?

And I discovered something I had never known before. They saw their pilgrimage as a series of caves. They had these maps, and they would go to the Holy Land and go to all of the caves of the Bible that commemorated different events. And it's surprising how many events in the Bible took place in caves. Some of you are looking at me blankly, like, what are you talking about? Well, like there was the cave where Abraham buried his beloved wife, Sarah. It's called the cave of Machpelah, and it's now covered by this platform that King Herod the Great built 2000 years ago in the time of Christ. But there's a cave under this where the Bible says Abraham mourned and wept for Sarah.

And the ancient Christian pilgrims way back in the 300s, they would sit there inside the dark cave that's under this building, and they would think of his grief. Because grief's a part of life. Anybody here ever spent time in the cave of grief? I have. That's a dark cave. And then they would go to the cave Elijah hid in, and they would visit this site to remember how Elijah, the great prophet, even he got depressed one day and he said, 'I have had enough, Lord. Take my life.'

Anybody here ever felt like that? Ever prayed that prayer? Maybe I should ask it this way: Do we have any parents of toddlers here today? Because I know you have felt like this. All right, the cave of quitting. And then they would visit this cave. It's the cave of Adullam. It's been called this for 3000 years. And the Bible says King David hides in here when his life is falling apart. Saul is trying to kill him. David feels hopeless, and he says, 'No one's concerned for me. I have no refuge. No one cares for my life.'

And they'd visit all these caves: the cave of grief, the cave of quitting, the cave of hopelessness on their pilgrimage. Now, in case you're thinking, 'Wow, those ancient pilgrims were very depressing people on their vacations,' right? You know, when I go on vacation, I like to go to places with a pool, you know? Well, hang on. Then they would visit this cave. You know what this is? This is the cave of the Nativity, Jesus's birth. And they would remember how Jesus was probably born in a cave because stables in those days were caves. And then they would go there and remember how God came down into our caves.

See, this is the start of the good news. It turns out God knows all about our caves. It turns out our caves were the reason he sent Jesus to be with us in all the caves of life. And then they would go from here to the Mount of Temptation in the Judean wilderness and remember in this cave there how Jesus got tempted just like you and me. And then they would go to a cave at Gethsemane and remember how Jesus said the night before they killed him, 'Father, please let this cup pass from me.' And then they would walk from there to the final cave, the cave to end all caves, the tomb that Jesus was laid in.

Now these days, the church over this tomb is quite ornate. It is very difficult to imagine the tomb here, but if you know where to look, and I do, I'm going to be taking our group here. You go behind some pillars and through an ancient crumbling chapel that not very many people go to. And you go past a door that is sometimes locked. You can see ancient cave tombs from the first century, from the very time of Christ. And historians tell us that when they got here, the ancient pilgrims would do something surprising—surprising to do in a cemetery. They would laugh and they would sing and they would start to dance because they remembered how Jesus blasted through life's final cave, the grave cave, and he made that cave into a tunnel. And through his resurrection, gave hope to every other cave of life that they had visited on their pilgrimage.

I think that is an awesome way to look at human life. Because in a room with this many people in it, you know, some of you are in a dark cave right now. And in case you're not, you will be. You see, nobody wants to live in a cave, but we all log cave time at some point, don't we? We all do, every single one of us, even the disciples of Jesus Christ. And I'll prove it to you. I want to show you a snapshot of the cave that these guys were in in John 20:19. This is before these guys knew Jesus had risen, and it says, 'On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear.' This is a room that has turned into an emotional cave.

Because think about it. Jesus is dead and their dream has died with him. So this is a cave of grief like Abraham's cave. And they have messed up royally, so it's a cave of quitting because of their shame, just like Elijah's cave. And other people are now trying to kill them, just as they killed Christ. So it's a cave of hopelessness, just like David's cave. It's all three. But then something happens, and these same 11 cringing, guilt-ridden, fearful cave dwellers burst out of that locked room and change history. What happens? Jesus shows up.

That's all I want you to try to imagine what this was like for them. Imagine their emotions. Imagine their surprise. I had a unique chance to imagine this the last time I was in Israel. I told some of you I went inside of a first-century tomb that was just discovered in 2006 when they were doing some road construction. They were widening a little country highway, and they unearthed this tomb. I got there just a few months after they had unearthed it, so it was just sitting there. By now, it's probably all guarded, and you can't go in there anymore. But when I was there, there was nobody guarding it, you know, no caution tape or anything like that.

So I stopped our driver and said, 'I want to go inside of this place.' And I took out my camera. It was this very tomb. I took some snapshots of it, and I went inside all by myself. It was so quiet. And I even got to lay down on this slab in there. And you know what I was doing? You might think this is silly, but I was imagining being Jesus at the resurrection and imagining what Jesus Christ felt. I felt the smooth, cool stone, and I imagined what he smelled. I smelled that dank, cold cave smell. And then I opened my eyes and I imagined what he saw as the stone rolled away and daylight streamed in. And just then, I heard a tourist bus pull up and some people walking toward the cave. In fact, I took a picture of them. See their legs there? These are the people. This is where I was sitting when I saw them.

And am I bad because I could not resist what came next? I waited until they were just inside the door, just before their eyes adjusted, and I laid back down on the slab. And when they came in, I could tell they were like in hushed voices whispering. And then I sat up and I said, 'I'm alive!' It was awesome. After they beat me up, I was so glad I had that experience. No, they didn't really beat me up, but they were not happy. They did not see the humor in it. But I felt like I had the rare chance to sense a little bit of the shock of the disciples, right? And you know what else? A little bit of the playfulness of the risen Christ. Have you noticed that in the resurrection narratives? He's always very playful. He always pops into the room and says, 'Guess what? Here I am! I'm alive again!'

And he gives his disciples three resurrection truths for cave dwellers that change their lives. And I want you to quickly jot these down because these could change your life too if you're in a cave right now. And if you're not, you'll need to know these because you will be in a cave. So jot these down quickly. Number one is this: your fears need not control you. Your fears need not control you. Jesus pops in and says, 'Peace be with you.' Now, in those days, this was a greeting, shalom, kind of like, 'Hey, what's up?' You know, everybody said this: 'Peace be with you. Hey, what's going on?' And to me, this seems so playful to these guys, right? They're all, 'Jesus is dead,' and Jesus goes, 'What's up, guys?' You know?

And then it says, as he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. And I imagine even this was kind of playful, like, 'Check this out! Was dead, and now look at me!' And it says, 'And when they saw the Lord, they were filled with joy.' Why? Because those very wounds had been fatal. And then he says it a second time: 'Peace be with you.' Now, why does he repeat this? Because he's saying, 'Guys, it's more than just a greeting. Be at peace because look, I have been to the other side, and now I am back.'

It's kind of like this: there's a story I heard about a guy named Danny. Now, Danny is a spelunker. Anybody know what a spelunker is? Shout it out if you know it. What's a spelunker? Yeah, it's a cave explorer, right? Well, Danny goes cave exploring with another guy, and the other guy had been through this particular cave before, but not Danny. And at one point, the guy says, 'Danny, I discovered this very cool cavern, but it's a little tough to get to. Do you want to go?' And Danny says, 'Absolutely.'

And so his friend goes first, and they start walking through this passageway, and it just gets shorter and shorter and narrower and narrower. And they have to walk through it hunched over like this, and then pretty soon, they can't even walk over it on two feet anymore. And they have to crawl like this because it's that short and that narrow, and they're trying to crawl with their flashlights. And then it's even too small for that, and check this out: they actually have to get through the fissure in the rock. They have to lay on their backs like this, and they have to push with their legs and keep their hands to their side. This is the only way they can get through. And then it gets so narrow that they literally cannot breathe and move at the same time.

When they breathe in, their lungs are expanded so much that it fills up the space in the cave, and they can't move forward. They have to breathe out to move forward. Then they breathe in, and they're stuck. And then they breathe out and move forward again. And I have one question: is anybody else besides me feeling claustrophobic as I tell that story right now? I know it's freaking me out just telling this to you. Can you imagine what Danny felt like at that moment? Well, Danny says that all of a sudden he starts to lose his mind. He starts to think, 'I am going to die in this cave because there's no way out. I can't go backwards anymore. My feet won't go that way. I literally can't breathe and move at the same time.'

And at that moment, his friend says to him, 'Danny, this is really important. If you keep listening to those voices in your head, if you let your mind run wild, you will flip out. So I want you to only listen to my voice right now. Danny, I have been through this, and I am here with you right now. I won't leave you. You can trust me. You can make it. You just have to keep listening every moment to my voice.'

Danny died in that cave. No, just kidding. I'm joking. The end. No, kind of scared you for a minute though, didn't I? He made it all the way through, and the next cavern was glorious. But do you see what I'm saying? That voice for you and for me is the risen Jesus today because the Bible says the risen Christ is here saying to you the same thing: 'I know you're in a cave. Don't listen to those voices of fear in your head. If you listen to them, you'll give up. He says, I have been through this. Anything you can imagine, he's been through. You can trust me. I will not leave you, but you keep listening to my voice.'

Now, the practical-minded here are going, 'Okay, but what is he saying to me?' Well, you know, every week we do daily meditations that are designed for you to get more out of each weekend's message, and we did the same this weekend. If you open up to page two under Tuesday's daily meditation, you see in the box there, there are some verses that are the voice of the risen Christ to you. What's he saying to you? He's saying things like this: 'I'm with you always. My peace I give you. Don't let your heart be troubled. Don't worry.' And so on. So this week, listen to the voice of the living Jesus still saying these things to you: your fears need not control you.

And then back on page one, number two: your failures need not define you. Your failures. See, the last time these guys had seen Jesus, they'd all failed him, right? All abandoned him when he was being tortured. I mean, what kind of friends are these? They all ran away like scared rabbits into the night. How guilty do you think these guys feel right now? How disqualified? This is a cave of failure, friends, and I have logged some time there. I don't know about you, but I've sat in that cave and thought, 'How could I have done that? I'm so stupid. I've disqualified myself. God must be just disgusted with me right now.' That's where these guys were at.

And the very next thing Jesus says after 'Peace be with you'—check this out—'Peace be with you' is this: 'You sniveling cowards.' No, that's not what he says. What he actually says had to be the last thing they expected to hear: 'As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.' I mean, the risen Jesus has been back with his disciples for all of about 30 seconds. They haven't proven themselves to him. They haven't even really said, 'I'm sorry.' But he goes, 'Yeah, you know that mission the Father gave me, right? That's yours now.'

Does this seem to be like an unstrategic thing for Jesus to do, right? No, this is the strategy because the strategy is grace. Because Jesus is showing by what he's saying to these guys that when you've failed, when you've blown it, or when you're proud of yourself, he's saying your worth to me is not based on your accomplishments or your virtues or your failures or your regrets. It's based on me choosing you by my grace alone and saying, 'Now you go tell other people about how I've lavished my grace upon you.' That is your mission. He gives us a mission. He gives us a message. What's our message? I love the way the Apostle Paul summarized it here in Ephesians 2:5, and I want us all to read this out loud together. Let me hear you.

'Even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. It is only by God's grace that you have been saved.' So your failures need not define you if you receive this. I don't know if anybody here remembers, like I do so vividly, a couple of years ago when 33 miners were trapped in a collapsed mine cave in Chile. Does anybody else remember this? Did anybody else? Was anybody else riveted to their TV screen like I was when they said they're trying to rescue these guys right now? They were trapped by just thousands of feet of tunnel cave-in, and they sent down this little drill bit that had this missile-shaped torpedo that the guys got into one at a time, and they were rescued.

Now, they'd been down there for so many days that most people thought they were dead. They were as good as dead, even though they were professional miners. They could not dig themselves out of this cave. In fact, there was a guy who stood right here after last night's Easter service, and he told me he worked with the company that actually dug the tunnel down there to the Chilean miners. And at the time, the mining company had already put up white crosses at the site for the 33 miners because the company had given up. They thought these guys are dead. And there was only one person who wanted to keep looking for them. And do you know who it was? To his credit, it was the president of Chile.

He's the one who had his office personally contact an American drilling company, and they went down there to Chile, and they drilled down there, and they didn't know who was still going to be alive. And one by one, by one, by one, by one, they all came up, and all 33 were rescued. And you know who was standing at the top of the hole to embrace every single one of them? The president of Chile. That's who's embracing them right here with a hard head, huh? He's just saying, 'I knew you were still alive.' And they each got lavish gifts after that. I don't know if you remember this. I mean, Apple gave them each a free iPod because they all got rescued, right? That's pretty cool. And they got all kinds of expense-paid vacations. They each got a vacation to a Greek island, to Madrid, to London, to Fresno. No, just kidding about that. But they did get free trips. They each got a free trip to Memphis to Graceland, Elvis's own place. You know why? Because one of the miners happened to let it slip in an interview that he was an Elvis fan.

And I loved how they could not stop shouting for joy and giving God glory and telling everybody about their rescue. And as I was watching this, I thought how much is this like our spiritual situation, right? Just like them, we were in a cave, spiritually, and it was impossible to rescue ourselves no matter how good we were. And like them, we were freed only because somebody else dug down to us: Jesus coming down to rescue us. And like them, riches were then lavished on us. The president of the universe embraced us, and you know what? He even promises to take us all to Graceland. And that's point number three: your future need not be hopeless. Your future need not be hopeless.

Jesus says, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live even after dying.' Your last cave is a tunnel to something amazing. Check this out. Read this next verse out loud with me: 1 Corinthians 15:20. Let me hear you. 'But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also be raised.' I want you to circle one word today. Take out a pencil or a pen and circle one word, a very important word in this verse: the word indeed. Do you recognize that word? Say that slogan with me again: Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Why do we add the word indeed? Indeed, it sounds so British, doesn't it? Right? Brilliant, indeed. Indeed, it is quite so. Who says that? Lovely day, indeed, right? Why do we say this? Indeed is an important word because it means really risen.

You know, we don't say, 'Christ is risen. He is risen metaphorically.' Christ is risen. He is risen symbolically. That's not very inspiring, is it? You see, this is important because some people say the resurrection is just really kind of a metaphor for the beauty of life, right? But the problem with that view is something happened to galvanize a little group of cave dwellers 60,000 years ago to rocket out of that dark locked room and change the whole world history. And they were not galvanized by the idea that Jesus Christ is risen metaphorically. I mean, eventually, they all died for their faith, and they didn't do that believing they would be resurrected symbolically. They did it because they believed to the core of their being they knew this to be true: Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.

So let's land a plane here. Your future is not hopeless. Now, will your future have problems? Of course, it'll have problems. So did the disciples. In fact, in some ways, their problems got worse. But they lived and died with such peace knowing the one who had been through all the caves, including death, was with them and promised something amazing was ahead. Let's just show some respect here for those among us who are in deep caves. And Easter's tough because everybody's laughing, and it's, you know, national wear pastel colors day, and you just feel like wearing black, right? And you're listening to all this going, 'This is all for good religious people. I feel hopeless. I'm a hopeless case.'

But you listen to me. I believe to the core of my soul that the risen Christ is here today saying, 'You think you're hopeless? No, not today. Not anymore.' The risen Christ came into every last cave of human existence, including death, and lit it up so that whatever your pain, whatever dream has died for you, whatever your fear, whatever your failure, whatever your regret, whatever your shame, whatever your sorrow, this is not the end. So don't you give up. Don't you give in. Don't you waver. Don't you quit. Don't you throw in the towel. Listen to the voice of Jesus saying, 'I am the resurrection and the life.' Do you believe this?

You see, Jesus always makes it personal. He never leaves it theoretical. He says, 'Do you believe this?' And here's a great opportunity for you to say to the risen Jesus, who's here right next to you, 'Yes, Lord, I believe. I don't understand it, but I believe it.' Now, I think this morning probably most of us are here because we've already said, 'Sure, I believe this.' But do you believe, really believe, that the risen Christ is with you in all of your caves today and forever? That you are never alone, that you are never without hope, that he is always there? See, that is the beauty and the glory and the miracle and the mystery and the power and the awesomeness of this phrase: Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.

Let's pray together. Bow your heads with me. You know, sometimes on a weekend like this, it can be so busy that there's not even a moment to actually talk to God and let this soak in. So I just want to invite you to do that right now, to reflect on the wonder of all of this: the wonder that his love came for us into our guilt and shame, the wonder that Jesus loves you and knows all about your cave. So if you've never responded to him before, you can do that right now. You can do it as simply as saying a prayer like this: 'Lord, thank you that you know all about my cave, my hurt, my pain, my regret, the times I denied you, my sin. And Lord, I choose to believe you today. I'm gonna open my heart in this moment, invite Jesus to be the forgiver of my sin and also my guide as I walk through all my caves and then to be with him forever in the life to come.'

And Lord, I pray for your comfort to be with anyone in a cave time today. In Jesus' name, Amen.