The Ultimate Restart

There's a saying that Christians around the world love to say at Easter time, and it's this, "Christ is risen," and then the response is, "He is risen indeed." So let's try it. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Hey everybody, my name's René, one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church, and a couple of days ago I was listening to this podcast where a bunch of behavioral scientists were talking about what they call the "fresh start effect." And here's what this is all about. They said there are certain times in life that seem particularly well-suited to effecting life change. For example, of course, New Year's Day, we all make resolutions, but you also see the fresh start effect on a big birthday, like a birthday ending in zero, when you get a new job, a new baby, when you move to a new community.

They said anytime there's this sense of, "A new chapter has dawned," change seems particularly effective in our lives. And they've done all kinds of research on this. For example, when baseball players are traded from the American League to the National League, or from the National to the American, by Major League Baseball rule, their stats reset. They go to zero. Well, researchers at UCLA examined all of these cross-league trades for the past 50 years, and what they found blew my mind. Get this. Players performing below average before the trade always significantly improved after the trade. Batting averages went up. Pictures got better. Why? The fresh start effect.

Well, the question that all these behavioral scientists were asking on this podcast was this. Will the pandemics end provide the biggest fresh start ever? And when I heard that, I knew we had to talk about it in church, because fresh starts are what our faith is all about. And today we are launching a five-week series called "Ready for a Restart." Every weekend during April, we're going to be talking about fresh starts, getting a fresh start in your relationships, in your habits, in your faith, in your daily routines. And today, the foundation for it all, the ultimate restart, the resurrection of Jesus.

I truly believe that the scripture we're going to look at today is going to inspire you and empower you to get whatever kind of restart you need in your life right now. We're going to be in the Gospel of John, chapter 20, where the risen Jesus has three surprise encounters with three different people or groups of people who all desperately needed restarts in life. In encounter number one, I see that for my grief, he gives his love. For my grief, he gives his love. Our story opens on the third day since Jesus was crucified, and its disciples are grieving and alone and afraid. They're scattered and shattered. John 20:1, "Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb."

Now, press pause there for a second because, curious fact, Mary Magdalene is the only one of the female disciples of Jesus never mentioned in reference to her family. All the other women who are followers of Jesus in the Gospels are identified as the mother, the sister, the wife of somebody, all except Mary. She is only mentioned in reference to her village, that she's from the village of Magdala. And all the scholars say that this strongly implies she had no family ties. And that's why her family wasn't mentioned. She wasn't really known as the wife or the sister or the mother of anyone. And that may have been because of her troubled past. Perhaps her family disowned her. The Gospel of Luke says she's been possessed by seven demons until Jesus restored her and released her.

And apparently still, he and the disciples are the only family that Mary had. And now he's dead. And she's devastated. And so she goes to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. And her first thought is not, "Oh, this is great news. He must have risen from the dead." Of course not. Is that what you would think? If a loved one's tomb was empty, that's not what she thought either. She thought the tomb had been vandalized and the body removed by somebody. In fact, that's what she told a couple of the disciples. That's why she's so disconsolate in verse 11. It says, "Mary stood outside the tomb, crying. She's alone, grieving, so sad."

And then I love this. "The risen Jesus quietly comes up alongside of her. 'Woman,' Jesus said." And I know in English it sounds like "woman," almost rude, right? But the word he uses there in the original language means, "Dear woman, almost like my lady, why are you crying? Who is it that you're looking for?" And it says, "Thinking he was the gardener," I envision this as she has her back turned to Jesus. She said, "Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've put him and I'll get him." And I love what happens next. "Jesus said to her, 'Mary.'" Man, I love that. Just one word. Her name. And she is changed instantly.

And this is so significant. You know, earlier Jesus had said, "The good shepherd calls his own sheep by name." By name. You know, Jesus doesn't just love the whole world generically. He loves you. And maybe today you are lonely like Mary, grieving like Mary, some losses from this past year. I believe with all my heart that the risen Jesus is here with love for you. I got to read you something that a friend of mine here at TLC, Rob Stewart, wrote. And he wrote this for me to share with you today. He says this. My son Jordan died at two and a half years old of a brain tumor. Twelve and a half years later, on New Year's Day 2005, my 18-year-old son Brendan died in a snowboarding accident. I cannot begin to describe the pain of these losses. I mean, can you imagine?

But now listen to this. He says, "It is only the ultimate hope in the resurrection that allows me to get up every morning and put one foot in front of the other, knowing there is a loving God who comforts me with the hope that I will be reunited with my sons. And it was a plan for me to make a difference for others with my life until then." And he wraps up with this sentence. Jesus has given me a new purpose for living and new power for living. Yeah, Rob Stewart knows today what Mary discovered then. Restart even after devastating grief and loss really is powerful and possible because of the risen Jesus.

And then the second encounter in John 20 shows me that for my fears, he gives his peace. For my fears, he gives his peace. Verse 19, "It was late that Sunday evening and the disciples were gathered together behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Judean authorities." In other words, they are freaking out because of their fear. "Then Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you.'" Now think about the last time that he'd seen these characters fleeing, abandoning, denying him. Let me ask you this. If people had treated you like that and now you're back from the dead with superpowers, what's the first thing you would do when you saw them again? Probably not, "Peace be with you," right? That's amazing.

Let me put it this way. We just had April Fool's Day, right, this past Thursday. Did anybody try to play a trick on you? When I was a youth pastor, April Fool's Day every year was like the worst day of my life because the greatest reason for living that my youth group kids could think of was playing April Fool's jokes on their youth pastor. Like, for example, one day a very clever kid left a note on my front porch, René, "I hope we will still be friends after all that happens today." After reading that all day long, I was dreading my next step. And of course the joke was, he played no jokes. He just knew I would be in dreadful anticipation all day long.

Another year they decided it would be super funny to leave notes on all the cars in the mall parking lot with my phone number and the words, "Sorry for the dent." I got calls for days. And believe me, when I saw them on April 2nd, my first words were not, "Peace be with you, my friends." No, they were more like, "There will now be much weeping and gnashing of teeth." But here Jesus. I mean, the Jesus they abandoned. The Jesus they denied says, "Peace." Peace. Man, don't you want to just sit back and breathe that into your soul after the kind of a year that we've had since last Easter? Do you, like these guys, have you been locked in your room because of fear? They were in a lockdown voluntarily because of their fear. Do you need a restart after a year of fear and maybe a year of failure? Well, the risen Jesus is with you to speak to your spirit, peace.

Then look at the next verse. As he spoke, he held out his hands for them to see and he showed them his side. Remember where the spirit pierced him, the nails had pierced him, and they were filled with joy when they saw their Lord. Now, let me ask you this. Why were they filled with joy? And it was not just because, "Hey, my friend's alive again. I thought he was dead." It went deeper. They wrote a lot about it in their epistles in the rest of the New Testament. It went deeper because Jesus' resurrection is his validation. Think about it. Somebody can say anything about God that they want to, but how do you know that it's actually true? Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead was sort of the ultimate validation to prove that all the stuff he'd been teaching them about God's love for outcasts, God's forgiveness for them, all of that. It's really true. And so they rejoiced.

And then the very next verse, Jesus says, "As the Father sent me, I now send you." Wait a minute. The risen Jesus has been back with his disciples for all of like 30 seconds, and he says, "Oh, and hey, the job the Father sent me to do? Yeah, I'm now giving it to you." What an incredibly unstrategic move this seems to be, right? These guys have literally just proven in the two days previous to this that they are definitely not up to the task. But you see, from day one, Jesus has gone to the people who messed up worst and said, "I pick you first to have a restart and bring the good news of restarts to the world."

And one of the things I love about TLC is that it's filled with people who've experienced this themselves and who really get this. For example, a couple weeks back, a man named Charles Gijers, who's a friend who attends TLC, sent me this email, and I loved it so much I asked him if I could share part of it with you today, and he said, "No, but I'm going to share it anyway." No, just kidding. He said, "Yes." Listen to this. It's powerful. He says, "I spent years trying to fix myself with things outside of me. Everything from alcohol to heroin and most of what's in between. Well, drugs didn't work fast cars, promotions, new girlfriends, and dozens of other things provided little bumps of counterfeit happiness, but they didn't give me what I was really looking for.

I constantly wanted more. There was never enough of anything. The problem was inside of me. So of course, outside solutions were never going to work. It wasn't until I invited Jesus to be inside of me, into the very innermost part of me that I found peace. Once I let God's love in, I could start loving myself and begin loving others. The big unexpected surprise is instead of taking from the world, I now want to give to and make a difference in the world. Today closes with this sentence, "Thank you, God, thank you for never giving up on me and for loving me when I was incapable of loving myself." You know what Charles found? Charles found that to this day, the risen Jesus never gives up on you.

He never gives up on fearful failures locked in a room because of the dangers out there. He comes to you and he says, "Peace." And then the third encounter in John 20, we see that for my doubt, he gives his assurance. For my doubt, he gives assurance. You know, have you found that sometimes when you've really been through the wringer, it gets hard to believe good news, right? I mean, you feel kind of beat up by life and so you look at good news skeptically, you become a little bit cynical. Well that's where the next character we meet in John 20 is at, verse 24. Now Thomas was not with them when Jesus came and so the other disciples told him, "We've seen the Lord." But Thomas said, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." Why not? Well again, literally no one believed in those days that dead people could pop out of their graves. This seemed just as unlikely then as it does today.

Well, watch this. A week later, the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." And then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here. See my hands? Reach out your hand. Put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." That's an invitation, not a scold. Notice Jesus does not just say, "Stop doubting." He helps Thomas believe. And what's the response? Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God." Simple prayer. And you know, when you say this sentence to Jesus, this is a sentence of possibility. You're saying, "Jesus, you are my Lord." Not some virus, not some fear, not some feelings, not culture, not somebody else's opinion. I will listen to you, my Lord and my God. Man, that simplifies life, that empowers so much in life.

And in fact, Thomas went on to travel all over the known world, all the way many historians believe to India to share the good news. And this kind of restart is still happening today. Let me tell you about a third person that I know here at TLC, Dr. Irene Miranda. Now Irene is an evolutionary biologist, and I want you to listen to what she wrote about when she needed a restart in her own life. She says, "I was an atheist, completely convinced that belief in God was for the weak-minded. Then at 40 years old, I had a crisis, a divorce, and began rethinking my life. Clearly my way wasn't working, so I went with a friend to church for a year. And during that year I researched the Bible and found a surprising amount of manuscript evidence."

She says, "I began thinking, could the Bible stories be true? Could Jesus have actually risen from the dead? No, no, no, I'm a biologist, this is ridiculous, but maybe I don't know everything there is to know. No! Back and forth like that for months. Finally, at a conference in Santa Barbara, in a hotel room, I said a simple prayer, 'Jesus, if you're real, I need you.' And that was all he was waiting for. The next day I felt centered. And then I discovered the beauty of Christian music and loved it. And then I couldn't stop reading the Bible. Now listen to this, she says, "Until then the Bible had been complete nonsense, but now suddenly the words leapt off the pages as if Jesus were speaking right to me the message of his love."

And just like Thomas, a skeptic found a restart and reassurance. And I just want you to know if you find yourself skeptical, maybe just skeptical at times, you always have a home here at TLC. We will never belittle you or make you feel stupid or something for your doubt that is normal and we have many resources that have helped many people for you, like a class called Starting Point designed for people who want an honest, open place where they can ask their questions about faith. And we also have all kinds of other resources, books about doubt and faith. You can go to TLC.org/bookstore and see some of our recommendations there.

So three groups in desperate need of a restart. Mary, those fearful disciples, skeptical Thomas, and Jesus gives them the restart they need. And what he did for them, he can do for you. In fact, I want to show you something. Let's leave the Gospel of John for one final verse. It's 1 Corinthians 15:20, "But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also be raised." Did you catch it? Very important word there, "indeed." You know, why do we say Christ is risen? He is risen indeed. Why do we add the word "indeed"? Indeed. Sounds so British, doesn't it? He is risen. He's risen indeed. Quite so brilliant, indubitably. Why do we say that? Indeed is actually an important word because it just means Christ is risen. He is risen actually.

You know, we don't say Christ is risen. He is risen metaphorically. That doesn't inspire a single person. We say he is risen indeed. You know, whatever you believe about what happened that first Easter, you have to account for the fact that a bunch of grieving, fearful, skeptical people were changed overnight into world transformers, into history makers. And they were not changed by the idea that Christ was risen metaphorically. They were changed because they knew Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. See, the resurrection means that the worst thing is never the last thing. The worst thing will never be the last thing, not ever. Because Christ's resurrection is the first taste, the Bible says, of all the restarts to come. Your resurrection, the world's restoration. The question is, do you believe?

I'm going to close with this story. Chuck Swindoll is a pastor in Texas who tells the true story of Edith Burns, an elderly Christian woman who lived in San Antonio. And Edith was kind of a funny lady. She had a habit of introducing herself this way. "Hi, my name is Edith Burns. Do you believe in Easter?" And that would get a conversation going. Eventually, sometimes she would be able to explain the true meaning of Easter, and many people throughout her life actually became Christians that way. Well, when Edith was moved to the hospital with terminal cancer, she remained so charming about the way she asked her question, "Hi, my name is Edith Burns. Do you believe in Easter?" That everybody on that floor from staff to patient started calling her Edith Easter.

Everybody that is except for Phyllis Cross, the head nurse. Phyllis made a plan that she wanted nothing to do with Edith because Edith was, as Phyllis put it, a religious nut. One morning, Edith had a big smile on her face and said, "Hey, Phyllis, guess what? I have asked God not to let me go home to heaven until you come into the family." And Phyllis said, "Then you will never die because that will never happen." Well, one day Phyllis said she was drawn like a magnet to Edith's room. She sat down on the bed and Edith told her, "I'm so glad you've come because God told me today is your special day." Phyllis said, "Well, Edith, I want to ask you a question. You have asked everybody here your question. Do you believe in Easter except for me?" And Edith said, "Well, Phyllis, I wanted to many times, but I felt like God was telling me to wait until you asked for it."

And now that you've asked, Phyllis, do you believe in Easter? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is alive and wants to live in you? And Phyllis Cross said, "Oh, I want to believe that with all my heart." And right there, Phyllis Cross prayed and invited Jesus Christ into her heart. Two days later, on Easter Sunday morning, Phyllis Cross came to work with some Easter lilies because she wanted to go up and see Edith and wish Edith Easter a happy Easter. And when she walked into Edith's room, Edith's big black Bible was open on her lap. And soon Phyllis realized Edith was gone. She was home in heaven. Her hand was on John 14, "These words of Jesus, I go to prepare a place for you." Phyllis took one look at Edith's body and then lifted her face toward heaven and said with tears streaming down her cheeks, "Happy Easter, Edith. Happy Easter."

She walked out of that room over to a table where two student nurses were sitting, and she said, "Hi, my name is Phyllis Cross. Do you believe in Easter?" Remember how in my opening I said that behavioral scientists say important dates are good times for a fresh start? Well, I cannot think of a better day than Easter for your restart. Are you ready? When would you pray with me? Let's bow our heads, close our eyes together so that we can just focus and concentrate. And I just want to ask you this. Do you believe? Are you ready for the risen Jesus to give you a restart? Then I want to invite you maybe for the very first time or maybe as a recommitment to pray just like Irene and Charles and Rob and Phyllis prayed a simple prayer like, "My Lord and my God, I need you. I need a restart and you know it, God. I don't understand it all, but I choose to believe that Jesus is alive and I choose to invite Him into my life as my Savior and as my Lord."

Help me to grow every day from now on in my restart, in my new life in Christ. And God, whether we are restarting our faith or starting it for the first time, whether we're longtime believers today or new believers, remind us all that you are still in the restart business. Give us hope as we go further into the spring of 2021. Hope that you are always working even at times when it seems hope is lost and let that resurrection power and hope course through our lives as we move through this year. Help us to be agents of your restart. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.