Well, good morning. Morning. Genuinely, we are so glad that you are here and I know that we got all kinds of people from all kinds of different backgrounds. So maybe you come to Cherry Hills every single week, or maybe you are here for the very first time, or maybe you don’t want to be here and you got drug here by a friend or a neighbor, or you’re just here. ’cause Grandma told you that you had to come to church on Easter. And so regardless of how you ended up here, genuinely, we want you to know that we are glad that you are here at Cherry Hills today. And next week we’d love to invite you back. Gary Thomas, who’s on our staff. He has sold a whole lot of books on the subject of marriage. And next Sunday, he’s gonna be preaching on marriage. Specifically.

He’s gonna be answering the, the question, the one thing every marriage needs is. And so I would encourage you come, it’s gonna be an amazing Sunday, a week from right now. Let’s go to the Lord together in prayer as we start the message together. Heavenly Father, we give you today, Lord, we celebrate that Jesus is alive and that changes everything. And so our prayer today is that you speak, help me get outta the way that anyone in this room that does not know you, that today can be a moment where your character, your nature is revealed with clarity through the power of your Holy Spirit. We give you this time is the mighty name of Jesus we pray. Amen. All around the world today, there are Christians that are gathered in small churches and in big churches. And for over a thousand years, we know in church history that there are churches that have gathered in upfront, in front of congregations just like ours right now.

There are pastors that will proclaim, he has risen. And in response, the congregation will respond with he is risen to people. And what’s cool about that is this has happened for over a thousand years, that there will literally be millions of people around the world celebrating together by doing the same thing. So anytime I proclaim the phrase, he is risen, you’ll respond with, he is risen me. And I know it’s early, so we’re kind of getting warmed up. So let’s try it one more time. He has risen, he has risen me. I, I think in my time in ministry, I found that often when people think of Christianity, when they think of Jesus, when they think of the Bible they think of it the wrong way. Like, like I’ve heard a lot of people say, well, the Bible is primarily just a book of rules.

It’s a lot of things that tell you what you’re supposed to do. Other parts tell you what you’re not supposed to do. It’s a lot of thys and thy knots. And if you do the right things and you avoid doing the wrong things, then that is your ticket to get you into heaven. That, that’s largely what a lot of people I’ve talked to, that’s their view of Christianity. And there’s a lot of wrong problems with that. One of ’em is, I, I think in general, we just hate rules. And so anytime we think of it being a rule book, it just kind of feels, ah, I don’t like that. Our kids for Christmas, they got a trampoline and we got like the biggest trampoline we could fit in our backyard. And then the first rule for our trampoline says only one person is allowed to jump on that trampoline at a time.

And do you know what rule we break literally every single day on our trampoline is that rule because it’s just a dumb rule. Like why would you make a big trampoline if only one person’s allowed to jump on it? And and if you look around and pay attention, there’s lots of dumb rules. There’s lots of dumb warning labels. I’ve got a dremmel at home. If you’ve got a dremmel, a dremmel, you use it to carve wood. You can cut metal with it. And, and here’s a real warning label that’s part of that dremmel. It says, this product is not intended for use as a dental drill or medical applications. And you see that warning and it’s gotta make you wonder. Like they don’t have that warning unless somebody out there has tried it that way. Some dad was looking at that dental bill and he said, I can do this at home.

I I I don’t need to pay a dentist to do this. I just get the Dremel out. Or, or did you know that the hairdryer has this warning on it? It says, never used while sleeping, which just brings up all kinds of questions of who was trying to use a hairdryer while they were asleep. Or if you go to staples and you buy a letter opener, it comes with this warning, safety goggles recommended. Never in my life have I been opening a letter and paused and said, wait a second. I’m not sure met bring out those safety goggles before I keep on using this thing. And so just in general, we don’t like rules. And the problem is when we look at the Bible as well, it’s just a giant rule book. We miss the point of the Bible because here’s the thing, starting in the Old Testament from the very beginning all the way through to the very end of the book, it’s not about rules that this book, it’s all about Jesus.

It’s all about Jesus. That it is trying to reveal to us who God is, the character, the nature, the identity of God. And ultimately it’s revealing to us that it’s all about Jesus. And that doesn’t start on the first page of the New Testament. And that starts on the first page of the Old Testament. That when you think of the Old Testament, you think of the very first page of the Bible. It talks about the creation story, that, that God is creating this masterpiece. And as part of this masterpiece, he’s creating all kinds of different things in that creation. He creates the heavens and the earth and he, he creates mountains and trees and animals. He creates you and me. And Genesis one, one is that, that famous verse that goes with this, in the beginning, God creates the heavens and the earth. But here’s what we find out in the New Testament that Jesus was a part of creation and that it’s one, it’s one of the complicated things that in Christianity that we believe in one God, there’s just one God, but we believe in the Trinity, which means it’s one God, three persons.

And so the person of Jesus who’s revealed to us in the New Testament that he was there all along, look what it says in Colossians chapter one, verses 16 and 17. It says, for by him talking about Jesus, all things were created when heaven and on earth visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things. And in Him, all things hold together that Jesus is on the first page of scripture as part of creation. Ultimately, it’s, it’s trying to help us to understand that Jesus is not just part of the story, that Jesus is the foundation of this story. Scripture from the very beginning. It’s trying to tell us that it’s all about Jesus. That’s that’s the truth. It’s all about Jesus. And so as we continue through the Old Testament, when we look at story after story, there’s these really cool things that happen where there’s these foreshadowings Colossians tells us that, that we knew as a shadow, but we see this fulfillment in Jesus.

One of those is this famous story of the burning bush, the Moses, he’s a shepherd and he’s wandering around. He’s got his sheep, and then all of a sudden in the wilderness, he sees this bush that is on fire, but something crazy is happening that he sees it on fire, but it’s not burning up. And so he, he’s starting to approach it and he, he just got these questions of what is going on. You can imagine that it’s this grand thing that is happening, and yet it’s not burning up. And, and he’s got questions. And all of a sudden God calls out to Moses and, and there’s, there’s this bigger picture that God is trying to help us to understand because at the time of Moses, what people believed at that time would be that God was just this angry God sitting up in heaven throwing down lightning bolts if you did something wrong.

But the God revealed to us in this encounter is totally different than that. That it’s a God that wants a personal relationship, that he wants to know us because he doesn’t just say, Hey, you, hey, you over there, come over here. I got something for you that what is revealed in this story is that God calls Moses by name, that he knows his name. What we find out in the rest of scripture is that God knows your name too and my name too, that God is calling us to have a personal relationship with us because he knows who we are. And then this really cool thing happens in this whole encounter that God tells Moses that Moses is going to go save God’s people from captivity in Egypt. But in that story, in that scripture, what we hear God say is actually this foreshadowing of the person of Jesus. Look at what it says in Exodus chapter three that God is talking and he says, I have seen the misery of my people and I am coming down. So in that context, he’s

Saying, I, I see the captivity, I see

The slavery and I’m coming down to fix it.

But

Ultimately it’s pointing ahead, talking about you and me

That

God is saying, I see the misery of sin that exists in this world. And he says, I am coming down to fix it. It’s foreshadowing Jesus. Because from the beginning to the end, the

Bible is all about Jesus.

And so Jesus bursts onto the scene and it’s something that we kinda

Take for granted because

We’ve gotten so used to it. But

It’s really radical

What happens every year at Christmas, we celebrate

The fact that God, the creator

Of the universe becomes a baby. And that is wild.

It’s

Crazy when you really

Stop

And consider it and think about it, that

God, the creator of

Everything becomes a baby.

It’s

Because what he said in Exodus was true that he saw the misery of his people and he was coming down. So then Jesus grows

Up

And becomes a man and he starts teaching and he starts teaching things that look very different than what we think of. One of the things that he said is

He,

He talked against this idea

That, well, we’re just supposed to follow a bunch of rules that Jesus

Says, well, it’s not actually about just what you’re doing on the outside. He says,

I care about

What you’re doing on the inside.

I care about your heart. You see, Jesus

Was trying to get us to understand that he wanted a relationship.

And so Jesus

Teaching and he’s performing miracles and he is doing really cool things. And you see multiple times in the New Testament, there’s this

Phrase

Where John the Baptist who’s his cousin, he sends word to

Jesus where he says, are

You the one that we’ve been looking for? And he’s talking about the Messiah.

The

Old Testament talks that one day this Messiah would come to save God’s

People

That even connected to Palm Sunday. One of the phrases

That we see the

Crowd saying, they say,

Is this

The one we’ve been waiting for? Because

They

Thought he’s the Messiah. He’s gonna be become the king. And then something crazy happens in the story, something that nobody expected, and that is the Messiah who they expected to become king ends up being arrested and then beaten and tortured. And then he ends up hung on

A cross.

And as followers are, are scratching their head, they say, well, we don’t understand what’s

Happening.

And one of the low points of the story is in Matthew chapter 27, verse 44,

Where Jesus

Is hung in across, and there’s

These two

Thiefs that are hung on either side of him. And it says, in the robbers

Who are crucified

With him on both sides,

Also

Reviled him in the same way.

Yeah, just picture it. The creator

Of the universe who has done nothing wrong and doesn’t deserve this punishment, has now been beaten and tortured and is hanging on across

By his very creation.

And, and then these two sinners who deserve what punishment they are receiving, they also start mocking and making fun of Jesus. And if you pause the movie right there at that moment, it’s a pretty sad storys a pretty it’s depressing movie. Maybe you’re walking in today and the story of your life that right now as you’re walking in, that if you pressed pause on your life that it’s a sad story that looks sad and broken and depressed and you say, I I don’t know what’s going on and I’ve got all this junk that I’m carrying with me. And if you stop right now, it’s just not a good ending to the story. I found that in movies, some of the greatest movies of all time, that if you pause them at the wrong moment and just said, okay, roll the credits we’re done here. It really ruins the whole thing.

When I was growing up as a kid one of the movies that I saw in the movie theater was the movie Lion King. And I want you to imagine if you’re watching the movie Lion King and then this moment happens, Mufasa dies, Simba thinks it’s his fault. And imagine if that’s just the end. Like we’re all credits, we’re done walking out. Spoiler alert, Mufasa does die in Lion King, but that movie came out 20 years ago. So if you didn’t know that you’re on your own. I mean, like that’s a terrible movie if that’s the end of the movie. But it’s not, oh, we’re thinking about Star Wars this moment where Darth Vader says, Luke, I am in fact your father. He’s not a great dad ’cause he’s just chopped off his hand. So it’s kind of a weird father son moment. But if the whole Star Wars series ends at that moment, I mean, maybe that would’ve been better, but it could have been that that’s the end.

And then there’s no redemption. There is no hope. Or one of the greatest movies of all time is this one right here, the Princess Bride. And and what if Wesley isn’t just almost dead? What if he’s dead dead? What if it’s like, oh, sorry, Wesley doesn’t get back together with the princess. I it ruins the whole thing. Not too long ago, our family watched what we try and teach our kids the classics. And so I thought back to the future, that’s a great classic. I don’t remember anything weird in that movie. This was the moment in the movie where the very end where he’s trying to put the electric cable together and it won’t reach. And if that’s the end of the movie, then, then Marty gets stuck in the past and it’s really sad and depressing. But that’s not the end of the movie.

I I will warn you that if you watch Back to the Future with your kids, it has some weird awkward conversations like Marty and his mom and that whole bit. It’s like weird and you didn’t think about that. And when we were remembering the good old days of watching Back to the Future, teaching ’em the classics, but but here’s the truth. All those movies, you pause ’em at the wrong time and it ruins the whole thing. It’s sad, it’s depressing, but that’s not the end of the story. No matter where you are right now, today in your life, the the good news is if you still have breath in your lungs, it’s not the end of the story. Just like with Jesus, when he is hanging there on the cross and all hope seems lost, the cross isn’t the end of the story because we know what happens next.

We know the end of the story. Then at the end, he is risen, he’s risen, that he’s risen, he’s risen. And, and so I want you to imagine that moment where Jesus is hanging there. He’s got a thief on one side and the thief on the other side. And Matthew, his gospel tells us that both thiefs are mocking him. But then we see the rest of the story in Luke’s gospel. Look at what it says. Luke 23 sermon verse 32. It says, two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him. And when they came to the place of this called the skull, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And they cast lots to divide his garments.

And the people stood by watching. But the ruler s scoffed at him saying, he saved others. Let him save himself. If he is the Christ of God, his chosen one, the soldiers also mocked him coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the king of the Jews, save yourselves. There was also an inscription over him. This is the king of the Jews, one of the criminals who were hanged, derailed at him saying, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him saying, do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly for we are receiving the due reward for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong. And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.

There’s a part of this story that just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense that you have this thief that that is mocking Jesus. And then by the end he, he’s correcting the other thiefs saying, no, no, no, don’t mock him. We deserve to be up here. But he doesn’t. Don’t you respect and honor God? What happens? What is it that transforms that thief’s view of Jesus? And here’s what, what happens? It’s pretty simple that he spent time with Jesus. You see, the truth is Jesus will change all of us if we will spend enough time with Jesus. There’s something about Jesus that changes things. He changes brokenness, he changes circumstances. He changes futures. He changes hopelessness. And for that thief, he started noticing that although everybody was mocking Jesus and hurling insults at Jesus, Jesus’ response was what He says, father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

That even in this moment where everything seems awful and wrong, Jesus is showing love and he’s showing compassion and something about that causes the thief to recognize something different about Jesus. And then we see this transformation take place, that the thief goes from mocking Jesus. He’s making fun of him. And now towards the end of the story, he’s pleading when Jesus, Jesus remember me and what happens, Jesus does. He says, today you will be with me in paradise. Now. Now here’s the thing about that story that if we look at this book and say, well, here’s how I get into heaven. I do a lot of the right things and I don’t do a lot of the wrong things. If I do that, that’s how I get into heaven. But that’s not what this book is about. You see this book, it’s all about Jesus.

And the thief on the cross gives us a perfect explanation of that. That the thief is moments away from death. He doesn’t change anything about his life. He doesn’t come down from the cross and start doing a whole bunch of good things, doing enough good deeds to hopefully make his way into heaven. No, he doesn’t do anything except acknowledge that he needs Jesus and Jesus is enough. How? Why? Now what scripture reveals to us is that we can’t fix our brokenness. That we are just like the thief on the cross, that we are broken and by ourselves. We can’t fix it, but the Holy Spirit can transform and regenerate us. Now, here’s what it says in Titus chapter three, verse five. It’s this beautiful picture. It says, he Jesus saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

That throughout scripture that we see the Holy Spirit gets represented as a dove. Holy Spirit is not a literal dove, it’s just a symbol of the Holy Spirit. And it’s this idea that that we can’t save ourself. It’s what God has done. Jesus’ redemptive work on the cross, but then through the power of the Holy Spirit in our life, that’s what saves us. That’s what transforms us. It’s not anything that I have done. And so when we look at the thief on the cross, he didn’t need to go do things. ’cause None of us can do things to get us to heaven. None of us can make it to paradise on our own. It’s because of what Jesus has done for us. But we all, every one of us end up like one of the two thiefs that, that you have three men on crosses, that you have one thief who dies in sin. You have one thief who dies to his sin. He acknowledges Jesus. And then you have Jesus in the middle. Jesus, he died for sin.

The scripture says that

We were the ones just like

The thieves that deserved

To be up there on the cross.

Jesus is

The only one in human history who is not deserved to be on the cross. But

Jesus takes our

Place

And he goes

On the cross on our behalf instead of

Us that that is the gospel, that

We don’t add anything to it. The thief didn’t accomplish

Anything

Other than saying, I need

Jesus. He was literally breaths away

From death. And yet he made it in

How? Because

He acknowledged

That he

Needed

Jesus. And

Here’s what I know is true on resurrection Sunday as

We celebrate that

Jesus not only

Died

For our sin, that he conquered our sin by raising, from raising again from the dead.

What the gospel tells us is that your story, just like that thief,

My story,

It

Isn’t over that no one,

Regardless of how

Broken or damaged or how must

You feel your life

Is right now in this moment,

The

Bible’s clear that no one is too far gone, that no one is too

Late, that if Jesus could save

A dying thief

Who is

Moments away from death, that he can save you, he can save me, he can save anyone. If we can understand and acknowledge

That it’s all about Jesus.

You see, the masterpiece

That

God is trying to reveal to us and trying to get us to understand in his

Scriptures from

The very beginning to the very end, is

Ultimately

Pointing towards the person of

Jesus that he is the revelation of God’s

Character and nature.

The Hebrews

Chapter one verse three tells us

This, that he Jesus is the

Radiance of the glory

Of God in

The exact imprint of his nature.

And he upholds

The universe

By the word of his power.

So if you get one thing today,

As

You leave on this resurrection Sunday, here would be the one thing that I would

Hope that you get, that it’s all about Jesus. The Bible isn’t just this, this

Rule book telling us

What we’re

Supposed to do. We’re not supposed to

Do that.

It’s God inviting us into a personal relationship with him that from in the Old Testament, from Genesis to Malachi, this story

Is clear. All scripture whispers

His name, every symbol, every promise, every

Prophecy

Points to

Jesus. He’s the

Alpha and the Omega. He’s the beginning and the end,

That he is

The fulfillment of every

Shadow, that he is the

Substance of every hope. And so as we look

To the cross and

We look to the empty tomb,

And we look to

The risen and reigning savior that we can declare with confidence,

This is

The one we’ve been waiting for.

Jesus, the Messiah,

Emmanuel

God with us, he’s the bread of life. He’s the Lamb of God. He’s the light of the world. He’s the king of kings. He’s the prince of peace. He’s the Lord of lords. He is the fulfillment of every word and the savior for all who believe. And so on this resurrection Sunday, it’s all about Jesus.

And we remember that

He is risen. He is risen, that he is risen. He is risen. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, can I just thank you so much

That it’s not about us. It’s not about what we can do. It’s not how we earn our way into heaven. But instead,

It is the redemptive work that you accomplished

For us on the cross.

God, I pray that

We can understand that it’s all

About Jesus

And anyone in this room that does not have that personal relationship with you. God,

I pray that today’s the day

That they make that transformation, that change,

Just like the thief that says,

Hey, Jesus, remember me.

We

Pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.