Leaving the Locked Room

Seven signs is the name of our series that we've been doing in the miracles of Jesus that are recorded in the Gospel of John. The writer of that Gospel, John, calls them signs. That's how he refers to the miracles of Jesus. And we've gone through all seven of them represented by these icons over the last seven weeks. And today we're looking at the ultimate sign that all these other signs were pointing to, the empty tomb, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because he is risen. He is risen. Amen.

You know, my name's René, I'm one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church, and I am super glad to be back in Santa Cruz this weekend. I am not taking that for granted. I don't think I've ever experienced more joy, more gratitude than being here in my beautiful church home. I love this church so much, and I have missed you so much. And if you don't know what that is all about, for the last several weeks, my wife Lori and I right there have been leading a tour group through Israel with Twin Lakes Church.

Here's a picture of our group there. This is like the second to last day before our two-week tour ended. Look at all those smiles. We were so clueless about how all of our lives were about to be messed up. Because here's what happened. Twenty-four hours before we left on our flight back to San Francisco, we had to take the mandatory COVID-19 test to reenter the states, and it all seemed very routine, right? Because we already had to take a ton of these tests just to get over there, and all been faxed and boosted and all that kind of stuff.

And we were chatting excitedly about the memories from our trip, and then slowly, one by one, those smiles went away. As 14 of us discovered, we had positive COVID tests, including me and Trent Smith, who just led worship for you. And that meant that the attending physician ordered us all immediately back to our hotel rooms. I mean, like each of us individually, it was a go to your room moment. And by Israel law, we had to quarantine in isolation in the hotel room for a minimum of five days. Then we could test out if we tested negative, but we kept testing positive, and quarantine just dragged on and on and on.

And Trent and I wondered, would we even get back to church in time for Easter? I mean, we were supposed to be back last week, and like literally, we just lately returned in time for this beautiful service, and we're so grateful. But I have to tell you something. It was whiplash, because during the tour, we had been experiencing just magnificent views, like this one of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and many more, and all those views switched to this. Our hotel rooms in isolation for seven days.

In fact, let me just give you a tour of my world. You want a tour of Israel virtually? Here's the tour of my Israel over the last week. This was the view out my hotel window. And I became an expert on everything within this framework of my window. For example, just across the alleyway was the Canadian embassy, and I did not know that Canadians are party animals, because this was the Canadian party zone, and they love to party. Like every night, right outside my room, loudly.

I can tell you what all the Canadian diplomats actually think about Middle Eastern politics after a couple of brewskis, if you know what I mean. The Canadians did have a good heart, though. They always put out food in the morning for the stray alley cats, like this one. And in fact, this particular little girl cat was considered to be very attractive by the boy cats in our neighborhood, who made their feelings for her known by loudly singing to her every night after the Canadians were done partying.

I can also tell you that every single morning at 10 a.m. the manager of the hotel loved to flirt with the guard in the gatehouse, just regularly, 10 a.m. every single morning. I wish them well, I think they have a blooming romance. I can also tell you that I noticed that five trees were sticking up out of the roofs of this home, and I wondered for a week, why? Did they not get building permits to cut down those trees before they built? Did they buy some magic beans and spill them on the ground, wake up the next morning with trees growing through the roofs? I will never know when it's driving me crazy.

But after a couple of days of this, I started to feel the walls closing in, and so I started exercising every single day. I walked for half an hour, exactly seven steps that direction, and seven steps this direction every single day. I didn't go crazy at all, unless you count carving my soap bars into animals that I began to have conversations with, but that's not crazy, right? Everybody does that. But seriously, I'm super grateful that none of us really had major symptoms, maybe about four people had mild symptoms, most people like me were asymptomatic, but still, we were in a locked room alone, I mean in isolation.

My wife had to move out of my room, and I have to give her credit for this. She was our angel. She never tested positive, and Lori brought food, breakfast, lunch, and dinner to all 14 of us who were in isolation for a week. I don't know what we would have done without her. She was amazing. Is it possible to grow more deeply in love with somebody that you're in isolation from? It is possible, 'cause that happened to me over the last week. But we were alone, we were uncertain about our future.

I mean, we kept testing positive. It's like, how long is this gonna last? We were shocked at this turn of events, and frankly, we were also a little bit afraid of the health authorities there, and the power that they had over our lives at that moment. And it suddenly hit me, maybe about day four, this is exactly the stage for the first Easter, wasn't it? Because in the same city that I had to isolate in, where were the disciples on that first Easter Sunday? In a locked room, alone, uncertain, shocked and afraid, right? Right there in the same city.

In fact, John 20:19 sets the stage for us. Let's read this out loud together, let me hear you. "On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear." Locked room. But then, those very same people rocket out of that locked room, and they're changed in an instant, and for the rest of their lives, they stand before angry Caesars and bloodthirsty mobs, and they say with joy and confidence and serenity, "Go ahead and do your worst to us, we are no longer afraid." And I got a question for you, what changed them?

Because when you think about it, there's about two and a half billion Christians today who are celebrating Easter with us today. Doesn't that kind of give you goosebumps? And they are all celebrating because those original, little group of disciples didn't stay in their locked room. Something happened that not only comforted them, but activated them. What happened? Today, I wanna tell you their story, and here's why we all need to hear this story.

The last two years, pretty intense, right? To say the least. Pandemic, of course, and wars haunting us every night in the news, division, social unrest, out of control, inflation now, and what psychologists and social scientists are seeing is this, we're all living in locked rooms. Some quite literally, but many psychologically. Somebody just told a friend of mine, "I feel stuck in pandemic mode." That's the phrase they use. "Always afraid the other shoe is going to drop." An article I read a couple of days ago said, "Pessimism has exploded." People are living in a kind of emotional quarantine. Listless, hopeless, expecting the worst.

And what I love about Easter is, it speaks to this directly because it was in exactly this kind of emotional climate that the first Easter dawned. So what I wanna do in the few minutes we have remaining is I wanna tell you this story as one of the people who was there tells it, the disciple John. And then I'm gonna just give you three quick takeaways that have changed my life, and I think they're gonna change your life too. And if you wanna follow along, you can look at the notes that are in your Easter bulletins. And if you're joining us on the livestream, great to have you. You can download these at TLC.org/notes.

It starts in John 20:1. "Early on that first day of the week, Sunday, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance." Now watch this. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the other disciple. We'll find out who that is in a second. The one Jesus loved. And she said, "They've taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him." I want you to notice this. To her, the fact that Jesus' body was missing was not good news.

She didn't go, "Oh boy, that means he's risen from the dead. Who would think that?" She thought there were grave robbers. She said, "We don't know. We don't know what just happened." People back then didn't expect dead people to pop out of the grave any more than people today do. As somebody put it, "Nobody expected nobody." And this is really an important point because sometimes people say all those stories about the resurrection, they're all mythologized. People were just trying to start a new religion. Really, because if you're making up a story about this and you're trying to burnish your own legend and credibility as the heir to Jesus Christ's message, are you really gonna paint yourself? Is this clueless? No.

You're gonna be the most faithful, insightful, thoughtful and understanding and perceptive disciple. You understood what Jesus Christ meant when he said he was gonna rise from the dead and you're gonna be waiting at the tomb. You're gonna be leading everybody else. You're gonna be saying, "Here comes the sun. Let's count it down. Three, two, one, sunrise. Jesus is alive." But nobody did that. Nobody expected nobody. They didn't know what was going on. We don't know what has happened. So Peter and the other disciples started for the tomb. So the other disciple, what's happening here is John, who writes this, is kinda humbly using the phrase, the other disciple, to refer to himself.

It's like he didn't wanna say, and then I started running the tomb. I did this, I did that. So he kinda like, let me just kind of in humility refer to myself as the other disciple. But he has to put this in. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. Kinda like, you know, just for the record. I always think of this as like the first humble brag in history, right? He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him. Like, did I mention I got there first? And went straight into the tomb.

He saw strips of linen lying there as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head. The cloth was still lying in its place separate from the linen, all these details. Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went inside. Now, I wanna help you picture this. In Israel today, there are all kinds of ancient first-century tombs from the time of Christ. The tourists never go to, but these days you can find out where they are on these like urban explorer blogs that people put together. And Laurie and I looked up where some of these tombs were and we explored some of these old tombs.

For example, here's a tomb that was actually in Jerusalem. You can see the rolling stone there. Do you see it? It's all overgrown now, but if you go down these steps and closer to the rolling stone, you can see how it fit into this groove here and slid across the opening. In the 1800s, they put an iron door there so people wouldn't live inside. But can you see how it almost looks like the Raiders of the Lost Ark trap or something, right? And it's just absolutely massive. In fact, I'll take you to this tomb in one of my video devos this week. And if you'd like to get those free, the details are there in your bulletin as well.

But let me take you to another tomb that wasn't blocked off. This one was about seven miles from Jerusalem. You can go right in and you can see how there were niches in the wall where the bodies would be placed. These were family tombs. And the Bible says Jesus' body was put in one of these family tombs. A wealthy follower of his kind of donated his tomb. They rolled the stone in front. So this kind of helps you picture this story a little bit. And can I just say I'm super glad I'm married to a woman who loves to crawl into tombs. I love her so much. What wife likes that, right? Let's go crawl into a tomb.

All right, back to the verse. Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went inside. He saw and believed. Now, what did he believe? There's some options here, but this is curious. It says they still didn't understand from scripture that Jesus Christ had to rise from the dead. So he could have started to believe in the risen Jesus, but maybe he just believed that Mary was telling the truth and the body wasn't there anymore because look what happens. Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. Kind of that's interesting, back into the locked room. Because nobody expected no body. They didn't think Jesus was alive again. And neither did Mary.

She's the only one left there at the tomb. She's crying because this is a disaster. There's already been grave robbers. Verse 14, she turned around and saw Jesus stand there. Remember it says it was still dark, but she didn't realize that it was Jesus and he asked her, and I love this, the risen Jesus is so playful. Have you noticed that in all the accounts? Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you're looking for? And thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've put him and I'll get him." And Jesus said to her, "Mary." Man, I love that. It just takes one word and her eyes are opened.

And she apparently hadn't even been looking at him in the dark because it says she turned toward him. It's Jesus, what? And she cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni," which means teacher. And Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I've not yet ascended to the Father." Now there's been volumes, theologizing this, but honestly, what I think Jesus is just saying, "Stop squeezing so tight, I got stuff to do." But she just didn't want to let him go. Now watch this. Go instead to my, what? My brothers. How much do you have to love that? He doesn't say, "Go instead to those spineless weasels who left me when I was tortured and tell them I'm coming to get you." No, go instead to my brothers and tell them I'm ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.

How much do you love that Jesus is always about grace? How much do you have to love that when we fail Jesus, he never fails us? Well, Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news. I have seen the Lord and she told them that he had said these things to her, but guess what? They still don't believe it because they stay in the locked room and that brings us full circle to verse 19. Luke 24 adds the detail that they even thought that what she said was nonsense because there they were with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders.

Now, I always have to stop there in the middle of that phrase and make it clear this is not some anti-Semitic statement and I hope you get that. The disciples were all Jewish. This is a Jewish story. I hope you know that. They were afraid of the Jewish leaders not because they were Jewish. They were afraid of the Jewish leaders because they were corrupt and they were allied with the Roman oppressors and the Romans had just squashed Jesus who they had thought was the powerful Messiah like an insect and he was dead and they thought they were next. That's what this verse is about.

But then this happens. Jesus came. Now the door was locked but Jesus essentially unlocks the door with his presence and miraculously appears and stood among them and said this and say this out loud with me. Peace be with you. Say it again. Peace be with you. Someone today really, really needed to hear that. And it says they were overjoyed when they saw him. After this, he showed them his hands and his side. Why? Because Luke says they thought he was a ghost at first so he's like, no, no, look, this is a body. This is a physical body. Look at my hands. You know, the wounds are there. Look at my side but I'm resurrected. I'm restored and it says the disciples were what? Overjoyed. Overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

So I really want you to see this. I really want you to understand this. Like 60 seconds before they had been full of fear and now instantly their fear has been replaced by joy. Would you like to have a little less fear, a little bit more joy in your life? Raise your hand if you'd like less fear, more joy, right? How do you get that? Well, what happened to them? How did they change so instantly and so suddenly and yet so permanently? I've had some time to think about this. A lot of time. And I want you to follow me here.

It struck me that later on the followers of Jesus would take the resurrection of Jesus and they would realize the deeper theological implications of it but they were not thinking through all those implications in this moment. When they were changed like this, they were not in a theology classroom. But something happened to them this fast that changed their fear into joy and they ran out of that locked room. What was it? Well, they suddenly knew three things are true because of the appearance of Jesus to them. And these same three simple but powerful truths can change your life today. And let me wrap up by giving you these truths.

Number one is this, you are not alone. When the risen Jesus appeared to them, they quickly understood the first good news of Easter. They didn't get all of the ramifications yet but they knew this instantly. Jesus is not dead, he is alive and he's here with us and we're no longer alone. Say this out loud with me, you are not alone. Turn to somebody next to you and look him in the eye and say, you are not alone. You are not alone.

You know, when I was very little, my father died and some of you understand that when that happens when you're a very small child, your grief comes in stages as you grow up and mature and can comprehend it more. And I'll never forget something that happened when I was about the age of this family photograph. I was about nine years old and it was bring your father to school day and I didn't have a father to bring and I was walking down the hallway at our house and all of a sudden it just struck me, I will never be able to bring my father to school. And it was like a hand just pushed me up against the wall. It was grief and I just slid down the wall and ended up crumpled up in a heap on the floor and I just put my head in my hands and I just was sobbing, I could hardly breathe.

So my mom hears me and she comes running around the corner because she thinks I fell or something. What's wrong? I can't even tell her at first. Sobbing like that. And then finally I get it out, I miss daddy. She puts her arm around me and cries with me for a while and then she says this in her Swiss accent, thick Swiss accent, she says, "René, you are right. You do not have your daddy with you. He's dead. But the Lord, the Lord is always with you." And then she started poetically and beautifully to describe all sorts of different situations that she knew were causing me anxiety during which the Lord would be with me.

And I remember every word she said like it was yesterday. She said, "René, the Lord is with you in the middle of the night when you are afraid of the dark. And the Lord is with you at school when you are taking the tests and you are worried that you will not get a good grade, the Lord is with you." And the Lord is with you on the playground when you are afraid of the big kids and you are playing spart. And she went on but you know, her words became the foundation of my faith. And she kept reiterating those words because she knew how much it meant to me all throughout my growing up years. When I was 16 and leaving for my first date, she said, "René, remember, the Lord is always with you." True, thank you, Mom.

But can I play the role of my mom in your life right now? Because some of you I know are going through some really tough stuff. You're heartbroken, you're lonely, you're afraid, you're facing financial difficulties, relational difficulties, health difficulties. You are not alone. The Lord is with you in the middle of the night when you wake up afraid of the dark and anxious. And the Lord will be with you when you're in a new crowd like this and the social anxieties pop up. And the Lord will be with you until the hour of your death and beyond. Because the risen Jesus promised his disciples, you can be sure of this. I am with you always to the very end of the age.

And I gotta tell you something, I experienced this in that quarantine room in ways I cannot describe. The risen Jesus was with me. You see, when Jesus suddenly appeared in that locked room, the disciples instantly knew that they were no longer alone and their fear turned into joy. And it got better because they also instantly knew death is not the end. Say that out loud with me. Death is not the end. Now, some of you are going, of course I know this is not the end right now. I mean, I'm a church here, I believe in an afterlife. Great.

But can I tell you something that may surprise you? What most Americans believe about heaven is not biblical, even Christians. Because what most of us think of when we think of heaven is what I call dry ice heaven. Kind of like white clouds. We're floating around like ghosts. There's little baby angels with wings playing harps. Ew. What the Bible says is something far more radical. It says one day all nature will be transformed to be what God always intended it to be. All the beauty, all the things you love, but no more pain, no more death, no more sorrow. And it's gonna be a real earthy earth.

The Bible describes it with creatures and rivers and trees and culture. The Bible even talks about feasting. Yeah, personally I picture fish tacos. And apricots. Do I hear an amen on the apricots? And the best part is we will be there in our bodies just like Jesus's body. Now the disciples as Jews had been raised with this idea of resurrection, but Jesus's resurrection proved it was true in an instant. And here's why this is so important. Follow me. If our bodies are not resurrected, then that means there are things more powerful than God.

Because if our bodies are killed by illness or war or violence, then that means illness, war, and violence are taking away something that God can't fix. But he does fix it. Listen, maybe like me when I was a child, you're grieving the loss of a loved one and you long to hold them again. The resurrection says you will, you and your loved ones in the Lord will embrace again. When Jesus stood among them, they knew instantly you are not alone. Death is not the end. And finally they knew evil does not win. Amen.

Now those disciples had seen evil win, hadn't they apparently, with their own eyes. They watched as the Roman empire gave it their best shot with the most effective weapon in their arsenal, crucifixion, and it worked. Jesus the miracle worker was dead. Evil won. Except now Jesus came better than ever and stood among them alive. And suddenly they knew there is a power greater than Caesar. There is Jesus who is Lord of Lord and King of Kings.

I'll be honest, there was a moment in my quarantine watching the news, Ukraine, all the suffering, and it was day five for me and I kept testing positive. And it was Monday of this week. And it just started to feel just overwhelming like chaos is winning here. And then a thought dropped into my brain. I remembered an old Easter sermon that a pastor preached in 1957. And I'm gonna tell you why I think I remembered this in just a minute, but it was a sermon preached by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 1957, and yet it's so relevant to this day if everything going on around the world has been bothering you.

So I remembered a few bits of it and I Googled a few lines I remembered and found it online and I must have read this 10 times in quarantine and the first five times I cried. So I wanna kinda wrap up my message today by reading you the way he wrapped up his. And I pray that what gave me hope will give you hope. Dr. King said, sometimes it looks dark. And sometimes people come to feel that the universe seems to say amen to the forces of injustice. We have seen the forces of military power hold the throne for quite a while, haven't we? And it looks like this is the most durable power in the world, it seems that might makes right.

Yet, at every point in history, we see that this kind of power passes away. History's a running commentary of it. He says, just the other day, I stood over the tomb of Napoleon in Paris and there my mind went back over the centuries, I thought about Alexander the Great and I thought he came to his end. And I went back to the Caesars and the great power of the Roman Empire and then I said, even it came to its end. And my mind went back to Charlemagne and said, he's gone. And then I started thinking of Napoleon with all of his military power at Waterloo. And I said to myself, that's the doom of every Napoleon.

And as I walked away from that building, I decided my mind had to go back a little bit beyond back and it went back 20 centuries. And I could see Jesus and he didn't have any armies and he didn't have many followers and Good Friday came and there he was on the cross and that was his Waterloo. But the difference is, Napoleon's Waterloo ended with Waterloo. Jesus's Waterloo ended up transforming Waterloo. This became the beginning of his influence. This became the most powerful moment of his life and there came that third day and he showed he was able to reign supreme. His Waterloo couldn't stop him. He stopped Waterloo.

And as I walked away from that building, it seemed I could hear choirs singing, all hail the power of Jesus name, crown him Lord. And then I could hear another choir, he's King of Kings and Lord of Lords, hallelujah, hallelujah. And then I could hear the echo and he shall reign forever and ever, hallelujah, hallelujah. This is the Easter message. He's King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Now let me tell you why I suddenly remembered that sermon. Two years ago, I had the honor to speak at the memorial service for Sergeant Damon Gutsweiler at Cabrillo College and I quoted that passage.

Well right before I left for my Israel trip, a young man came up and stood before me here at this stage, a man I didn't recognize. And he says, you don't know me, but I think you'll like to know this. I was one of Sergeant Damon's best friends. I was at the memorial service. I was an agnostic at best, never gave Jesus a second thought. But I heard you quote Dr. King. And in that moment something happened that I never expected whatever happened to me, Jesus began drawing me in. And he said, I started investigating and I started attending church. And he said, I just came because I feel like you should know I am a devoted follower of Jesus today. He has changed my life and given me hope.

And I tell you his story because you have to know all these things we've been talking about today. It's real. The risen Jesus says to you, like those disciples, you don't have to work out all the theological implications yet. What you just have to understand is it's real and he's alive and that means you're not alone. And that means death is not the end. And that means evil does not win, amen? Today we're wrapping up the series seven signs. And John himself wraps up the whole reason he talked about these signs this way at the end of chapter 20.

He says, Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book, but these, these seven and the resurrection are written that you may what? Believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name. Maybe you're in a locked room right now, emotionally, spiritually, because fear, because of addictions, because of woundedness, because of guilt or shame or grief. The risen Jesus is here to say, it is time to leave your locked room. He has abundant life for you. And the simple step out is to simply believe. Let's pray together. Would you bow your head with me?

Whether heads bow, I wanna give you an opportunity to respond to this personally. I don't know how this has impacted you, but perhaps for the first time or maybe as a recommitment, you wanna pray right now I believe, I don't understand it all, but I choose to believe that because Jesus is alive, I am not alone and death is not the end and evil does not win because he died and rose again. And in this moment I placed my trust in him, helped me walk out of my locked room God and to grow in life from this day forward. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.