back to indexSunday Sermon 2015-04-12 "Resurrection Sunday: The Foundation of Our Faith"
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In our early rise service, I'm going to read it again before we jump in. 00:00:08.140 |
"But on the first day of the week at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices 00:00:15.860 |
And they found a stone and rolled it away from the tomb. 00:00:18.380 |
But when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 00:00:22.460 |
While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 00:00:28.100 |
And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, 00:00:37.420 |
Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered 00:00:41.060 |
into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.' 00:00:45.620 |
And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all these things 00:00:51.860 |
And it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary, the mother of James, and the other women with 00:00:59.100 |
But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 00:01:03.300 |
But Peter rose and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in. 00:01:05.780 |
He saw the linen clothes by themselves, and he went home marveling at what had happened." 00:01:12.260 |
Gracious and loving Father, we thank you so much for what this day represents for all 00:01:19.420 |
We pray, Father God, as we come to remember and to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, 00:01:25.060 |
that it would have that impact that you desire, that the same power that resurrected Christ 00:01:30.780 |
that lives in us would renew us and revive us, restore us, that we may live a life truly 00:01:41.660 |
Allow our worship to be sincere, and that Christ and his suffering, Lord God, and his 00:01:54.100 |
You know, this week I was on campus on Thursday. 00:01:57.700 |
We normally do on Thursday, we go out and try to share the gospel with the people. 00:02:01.860 |
And usually I'm pretty, I have to be pretty selective because I see an older guy walking 00:02:07.460 |
on campus, and when I approach them, they immediately like, "What is he doing on campus?" 00:02:12.700 |
And then when I try to share the gospel, it's not like before where I can just have casual 00:02:16.740 |
So I have to target people who don't seem intimidated. 00:02:20.160 |
So I was on campus and rarely I see somebody my age there, and I saw a guy, he was an Asian 00:02:26.300 |
man probably in his late 50s, and I was able to share the gospel with him. 00:02:31.100 |
And he was actually very interested, and I started having a conversation and found out 00:02:35.660 |
that he was a man from Nepal, and he was here in some exchange program with UCI, and then 00:02:41.300 |
it was some sort of a, he's here to learn English, but he was only here for about four 00:02:46.980 |
And he said that there was a group of other people from Nepal who came with him, and in 00:02:52.640 |
the midst of the conversation found out that he was a devout Buddhist. 00:02:56.360 |
I've had many conversations with Buddhists before, and I actually even did a paper when 00:03:00.720 |
I was in college about Buddhism, the beginning of it and different things that they teach. 00:03:05.200 |
And I was really intrigued because he knew a lot about Buddhism. 00:03:09.680 |
He was a very devout, committed man, and he's in his late 50s, so 50 plus years he's been 00:03:16.360 |
studying, and he takes his faith very seriously. 00:03:19.240 |
So of course I wanted to share the gospel with him, but I wanted to find out more about 00:03:24.120 |
And so about 30 minutes straight he just started going off about his doctrines, and it was 00:03:28.680 |
really intriguing because he was telling me stuff that, some of the stuff I've never heard 00:03:35.040 |
This elaborate system of how to get to nirvana, and what are some of the teachings, and how 00:03:39.920 |
there's three different stages of how to get there. 00:03:44.140 |
And so it was very, very interesting, because again, some of it I've never heard before. 00:03:48.960 |
And obviously I was looking for an opportunity, so okay, now I'm going to break in. 00:03:54.200 |
And so I just kind of let him finish his story, and it was interesting to a certain degree. 00:04:00.400 |
And so when there was a little break, I stopped and I asked him, "So this is what you believe?" 00:04:12.360 |
So you know, he was going on for 30 minutes, and he's like, "Huh, you just have faith." 00:04:20.180 |
So that's what everybody, I said, "Okay, so I'm just, I'm not questioning you, but I'm 00:04:24.540 |
just asking, I'm just interested in how you came to this conclusion." 00:04:27.640 |
So because anybody can just say, "Here's what I believe, you know, like I flew, you know, 00:04:39.640 |
If you just say faith, then anybody can just say anything, say you just need to believe. 00:04:44.100 |
And so he just kind of like, "Well, you just have to believe, I guess." 00:04:49.200 |
I said, I asked him, so I asked him further, "Do you think you believe what you believe 00:04:53.260 |
because you tested this out and it was proven to you and you really like, this is what I'm 00:04:57.920 |
Or you just happen to be raised, born and raised in a country that taught Buddhism and 00:05:08.000 |
You know, so I asked him, "So what part of it have you wrestled with and have come to 00:05:15.120 |
And so as we were going back and forth, and again, this was not an argument, I was just 00:05:21.440 |
You're telling me this because if you say you do this and you do this, you're going 00:05:24.400 |
to get here and you have this elaborate system of how to achieve nirvana, but how do you 00:05:33.300 |
So obviously I asked him, "Well, do you know what the Bible says?" 00:05:38.260 |
And so I was an opportunity, I found out that he's never heard the gospel before. 00:05:44.120 |
He's never had a conversation with a Christian, ever. 00:05:47.060 |
You know, from where he comes from, there's no Christians there. 00:05:50.080 |
So he's here for five years and he's heard of Christians, so he thought he knew what 00:05:55.100 |
Christianity was, but he's never had a conversation before. 00:05:58.220 |
So it was a great opportunity to speak to him. 00:06:00.260 |
Now, the reason why I bring this up is because even as Christians, if somebody was to ask, 00:06:11.340 |
Is it because you were raised in a Christian home? 00:06:13.460 |
You just happen to be in a Christianized culture? 00:06:18.460 |
And that's what, if you go to China or different parts of the world where Christianity is not 00:06:22.660 |
prominent, that's what most people will think. 00:06:25.020 |
"Oh, you were raised in the West, so you're a Christian." 00:06:31.260 |
Would our answer be any different than that man? 00:06:34.220 |
See, for Christians, what we celebrate today is at the center of Christianity. 00:06:41.660 |
If somebody can come out and definitively say the resurrection did not take place, it 00:06:51.780 |
Churches, missionaries, the teachings, seminaries, all of this would be for nothing. 00:06:57.380 |
In fact, from the very beginning, Paul says that in 1 Corinthians 15, 14, "And if Christ 00:07:02.860 |
has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain." 00:07:12.060 |
If the resurrection did not take place, all of this is just a hoax. 00:07:19.640 |
This morning, hundreds, maybe millions of people around the world woke up early in the 00:07:24.540 |
morning to commemorate the resurrection of Christ. 00:07:29.260 |
I mean, this is the biggest lie that has ever been told. 00:07:32.660 |
In fact, the resurrection was so important in the early church, the primary message in 00:07:41.140 |
For the sake of time, I'm not going to go there, but in Acts chapter 2, when Peter begins 00:07:46.260 |
to preach the very first gospel, the central message of the gospel was about the preaching 00:07:51.940 |
of the resurrection, that this Messiah that you killed was raised from the dead. 00:07:58.180 |
Paul says when he was defending himself in front of the Roman governor, he says the same 00:08:04.500 |
The reason why I am on trial today is because of my belief and the hope that I have in the 00:08:12.440 |
So the central message of Christianity begins and falls on the reality of the resurrection. 00:08:20.140 |
If this is true, then everything that we proclaim, everything that is written in scripture has 00:08:30.620 |
In fact, some people may say, "Well, what did you lose? 00:08:34.660 |
You went to church, had some good friends, got to play softball, football, get to eat 00:08:46.340 |
Think about all the people who are dying in the Middle East right now, and all they have 00:08:53.580 |
Think about all the people who forsook everything to go and preach the gospel. 00:09:00.120 |
Think about our friends who went up north to preach the gospel. 00:09:04.040 |
Think about the countless number of hours that many of you put in to serve this church. 00:09:12.500 |
See, the central message, central reason why you and I are here is because of the resurrection. 00:09:19.060 |
Now, I'm not going to give you an apologetic presentation about the resurrection, because 00:09:25.340 |
If you are interested in that subject, there are many books that you can read on that subject, 00:09:29.820 |
many apologetical, good scientific, rational reasoning behind why the resurrection. 00:09:38.460 |
But again, our point of this morning is not that. 00:09:45.900 |
And there's three things that I want to look at with you this morning. 00:09:49.100 |
One, the resurrection is significant because it proved that Jesus Christ was the Son of 00:09:56.300 |
Resurrection is pivotal because it proved that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. 00:10:02.760 |
In Romans 1, verse 4, it says, "Concerning his Son, who was descended from David according 00:10:07.580 |
to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of 00:10:16.500 |
He said his resurrection was a public declaration of his identity. 00:10:21.420 |
See, Jesus Christ is not like other great men in history. 00:10:28.100 |
Buddhism comes, if you trace it all the way back, it comes from a man named Gautama. 00:10:36.940 |
And so there's various teachings about what he taught about afterlife, what he taught 00:10:47.020 |
He was just observing life and wanted to find enlightenment. 00:10:52.940 |
Muhammad, the Muslims believe that he was the last and the greatest prophet. 00:10:56.580 |
And so all of their faith rests upon his teachings. 00:11:01.380 |
But Muhammad himself has never claimed to be God. 00:11:11.180 |
But Confucius has never claimed to be God himself. 00:11:15.300 |
And we can go down the list of all the great men that are venerated in our culture, in 00:11:22.180 |
They may have provided some help for mankind, some insight, some wisdom. 00:11:30.480 |
But none of them was crazy enough to say, "Well, I'm God. 00:11:50.660 |
I believe in Jesus, but he did some great work." 00:11:52.460 |
So you're talking about a man who claims to be God himself. 00:11:55.900 |
How can we venerate a man if he really wasn't that? 00:12:00.940 |
Jesus says in the argument between the Pharisees, asking him, "How dare you confront us?" 00:12:11.940 |
That term, that title, "I Am," was the same title that Yahweh, the God of Israel, gave 00:12:23.060 |
So when Jesus says in the New Testament that he says, "Before Abraham was I Am," he's claiming 00:12:27.780 |
the same name and same title of that God of the Old Testament. 00:12:32.580 |
And the Jews understood exactly what he was saying. 00:12:35.880 |
When they wanted to kill him, they said, "We're not killing you because of the deeds that 00:12:41.220 |
We want to get rid of you because you, being a mere man, claim to be God." 00:12:47.300 |
See Jesus didn't just come and do, was a good humanitarian. 00:12:52.980 |
Maybe he had some supernatural power, some prophet, and did some great work. 00:13:01.940 |
Jesus claimed in John chapter 10, 18 that no one could take his life. 00:13:07.480 |
Can you imagine any sane human being saying that? 00:13:16.000 |
Have you ever met any human being, no matter how powerful they are, say, "Nobody can kill 00:13:22.400 |
And even if I lay it down, I can get back up. 00:13:28.720 |
So you can imagine when some people heard that, they said, "This guy's crazy." 00:13:34.360 |
Now if it was just any man saying that, it's like, "Oh, he's crazy." 00:13:37.520 |
If somebody stood up here and said, "You know what? 00:13:44.260 |
But they didn't know what to do with him because he was clearly not an ordinary man. 00:13:50.100 |
They saw him open the eyes of the people who were blind. 00:13:55.520 |
They saw him feed thousands of people miraculously. 00:14:00.960 |
So he wasn't just an average human being claiming these things. 00:14:05.480 |
He was, seemed like a powerful prophet, and they were fine with him being a powerful prophet, 00:14:11.420 |
but now that he's claiming to be God, what do we do with this guy? 00:14:16.300 |
And he says, not only that, I think one of the greatest statements, one of the clearest 00:14:20.680 |
statements of his deity is in John chapter 5. 00:14:24.280 |
He talks about how the father is worshipped, and so the son ought to be worshipped as well. 00:14:30.280 |
You remember scenes in the Bible where even angels would, you know, if they bowed down 00:14:34.360 |
to the wrong person or wrong God, I mean, they would be punished. 00:14:38.700 |
So that's why any time you see in the Old Testament or the New Testament where people 00:14:42.480 |
even make gesture of worship, they would stop him. 00:14:50.500 |
So not only would you be blaspheming, I will be a blasphemer by receiving your worship." 00:14:56.360 |
But Jesus says, as the father is honored and worshipped, the son is honored and worshipped. 00:15:01.840 |
He places himself with equal honor as God the Father. 00:15:07.680 |
Now either he is crazy, or if he really is, what do we do with this man? 00:15:15.080 |
So Jesus said, they asked him, "With what authority are you saying these things?" 00:15:21.600 |
He came and cleansed the temple, and they were like, "What are you doing? 00:15:27.240 |
And Jesus says in John 2, 19, "Destroy this temple, and on the third day, I will raise 00:15:34.100 |
Now obviously he was referring to his resurrection. 00:15:36.720 |
Again, he was having a conversation with people, with the Pharisees, and they asked him, "Show 00:15:42.720 |
I mean, you're doing some great works, but we need to see something bigger than that. 00:15:48.080 |
Jesus says, "A wicked and evil generation, I will give no sign but the sign of Jonah." 00:15:52.700 |
And again, the sign of Jonah, referring to his death and resurrection on the third day. 00:15:57.400 |
So Jesus himself said, "If you see me come back from the dead on the third day, then 00:16:01.880 |
you will know that what I said to you was true, that I am who I said I am." 00:16:09.400 |
And so the day that we celebrate his resurrection, everything that we believe, everything that 00:16:14.360 |
we practice, everything that we study, rises and falls on your conviction, my conviction, 00:16:20.480 |
of the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:16:23.720 |
If you are sitting here in this room and you're not sure if you really believe this, that's 00:16:32.040 |
Before you start talking about, "I need to go to church more often, I need to attend 00:16:36.960 |
If your personal conviction about the resurrection isn't solid, and you're not convicted about, 00:16:46.600 |
See, a lackadaisical conviction of this will overflow in a lackadaisical application in 00:16:58.160 |
And obviously, you and I, or many of us are here because we believe that this to be true. 00:17:04.740 |
Either Jesus Christ was a crazy man, or he really was the Son of God. 00:17:10.560 |
If he really was the Son of God, what does that mean? 00:17:16.380 |
If he really was risen from the dead, and we believe what he says, what does that mean? 00:17:23.940 |
The second reason why the resurrection is so important is a lot more personal. 00:17:28.280 |
The resurrection of Jesus paved the way for our resurrection one day. 00:17:32.960 |
He conquered death, that we may also conquer death. 00:17:36.280 |
See, the Scripture clearly says, Scripture clearly says that because mankind sinned against 00:17:46.480 |
See, let me illustrate it this way to help us understand. 00:17:51.480 |
People just naturally think, you know, most of the people that you talk on the street, 00:17:55.160 |
if you ask them, "Do you believe in heaven and hell?" 00:17:57.480 |
You know, some of them will say, "Yeah, I believe. 00:18:00.920 |
And you ask them, "Do you think you're going to go to heaven?" 00:18:05.120 |
Because most people believe that they're good enough. 00:18:13.220 |
And I was a small child, and he came here first. 00:18:19.240 |
Typically, when somebody is invited to come to the US, you have to have somebody with 00:18:30.800 |
And so for a year, he had to establish himself and get legal status. 00:18:36.720 |
And once he had legal status, he was able to invite his family to come. 00:18:42.200 |
Imagine if somebody stepped up and said, you know, they came to the border, you know, and 00:18:46.720 |
they're in the immigration office, and they said, "You know what? 00:18:54.600 |
Imagine next time you go out of the country, or you go to some other country that requires 00:18:58.480 |
a visa, just imagine walking up there and saying, "I'm coming in." 00:19:10.560 |
See, we naturally think, like, if we die, if I did good enough stuff, I'm going to get 00:19:18.040 |
Typically, if somebody is going to get invited here, if you have a criminal record in your 00:19:26.760 |
They're going to look at it as soon as they see a criminal record and say, "Okay, immigration 00:19:30.800 |
Imagine if you came to the immigration office and you said, "You know what? 00:19:33.120 |
I know I have this record and I was in prison for a couple years, but every Saturday I fed 00:19:40.280 |
So that should kind of, my good I think outweighs the bad. 00:19:46.200 |
Now, I know some of you guys are smirking because you know how ridiculous that sounds. 00:19:51.240 |
But when you actually think through it, heaven is not, we don't own heaven. 00:19:59.920 |
And so the scripture clearly says, "No one who has been tainted with sin can enter." 00:20:05.520 |
But the problem is, you and I, a lot of people don't think, "Well, I haven't been tainted. 00:20:12.680 |
You know, this morning, I don't know, yesterday, those of you guys who are watching March Madness 00:20:18.540 |
and four teams played and there's only two teams left, right? 00:20:22.080 |
Yesterday, there was a big game between Kentucky and Wisconsin and a lot of people thought 00:20:29.720 |
And they thought if they win just two more games, they'd have a perfect record. 00:20:33.600 |
Well, yesterday, they lost to a lesser team, Wisconsin. 00:20:36.320 |
And one of the team members of Kentucky, you know, who was obviously upset, Andrew Harrison 00:20:44.240 |
And some of you guys who've been watching the news and following March Madness may know 00:20:49.520 |
While he was being interviewed, he said some racial slur against another team member in 00:20:55.960 |
He was an African-American guy and he was saying some derogatory stuff about the Caucasian 00:21:02.760 |
Well, he was just mumbling this to his teammate and the mic picked it up. 00:21:15.440 |
Oh, if you go to talk radio or if you go to ESPN right now, that's the talk right now. 00:21:21.880 |
You know, they're talking about he's supposed to go into NBA next year. 00:21:26.680 |
What team is going to want to pick this guy up? 00:21:28.720 |
And he just basically, that one simple statement, he blew it. 00:21:35.480 |
But just imagine if that mic that picked up his mumbling followed him everywhere he went. 00:21:45.660 |
What if that mic followed you wherever you went? 00:21:49.460 |
Everything that you said in private to your wife, to your husband, to your friends, to 00:21:55.020 |
your close companions about other people, everything that you've ever said was picked 00:21:59.500 |
How many of you will be in the same position as that guy? 00:22:06.300 |
You know, we have some friends who went up north. 00:22:08.940 |
And I remember when they first got up there, they were kind of like, they were almost in 00:22:19.820 |
We have traffic cameras, but it's just kind of all over the place. 00:22:26.700 |
But in San Francisco, found out that some of you guys who are from San Francisco know 00:22:32.180 |
They have a lot of cameras hanging everywhere. 00:22:34.500 |
And so I remember one of our church members that went up there, and I think within the 00:22:39.960 |
first month or two, they were getting tickets. 00:22:43.660 |
You know, because the pictures being taken, and these weren't cheap tickets. 00:22:48.380 |
They were not making a full stop and making a right turn. 00:22:53.660 |
Those of you guys who know what it costs to run a red light, I know very well how much 00:23:01.420 |
And so they were getting this ticket, and it's like, what? 00:23:04.060 |
You know, you almost feel violated when you get a ticket like that. 00:23:07.300 |
It's like, because you don't remember doing anything. 00:23:08.780 |
And then all of a sudden they show you a picture. 00:23:13.540 |
Imagine if there was a camera everywhere you went. 00:23:18.340 |
And they took picture every time you went above the speed limit. 00:23:21.260 |
Every time you made a right turn without making a complete stop. 00:23:31.660 |
See what if, we imagine the guy who's in charge of immigration up in heaven was an 00:23:44.180 |
See, we think that if we didn't get caught, we're innocent. 00:23:48.580 |
If we don't have a police record, we're innocent. 00:23:52.180 |
But what if the God that we serve, as the scripture says, is omniscient? 00:23:56.740 |
He knows every time you thought something evil. 00:24:07.380 |
In Psalm 139, 7-12, the psalmist says, "Where shall I go from your spirit? 00:24:19.020 |
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there 00:24:23.920 |
your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. 00:24:27.340 |
If I say surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about me be night. 00:24:34.820 |
The night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you." 00:24:41.380 |
Now, if you are a lawbreaker, you don't want the police. 00:24:50.180 |
The presence of the police will make you nervous. 00:24:52.260 |
If you're trying to hide something, as soon as the police pulls you over, you know what 00:25:00.260 |
All of a sudden, you're on your best behavior. 00:25:03.580 |
People who only know God as the law coordinator, the law giver, the presence of God is not 00:25:17.100 |
There's a sense of fear to know that this omniscient, omnipotent God, who knows every 00:25:21.660 |
thought that you have, that He's going to determine at the end of your life what you 00:25:34.460 |
Any human being who begins to contemplate and understands this should tremble in fear. 00:25:42.580 |
The scripture makes it very clear in Romans 3.10, "None is righteous, no, not one. 00:25:49.140 |
All have turned aside, together they have become worthless. 00:25:54.740 |
And Romans 3.23, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." 00:26:03.380 |
See, but that's where the resurrection is so important to us. 00:26:07.980 |
See, Christ, the scripture says that Christ came and He took on human form. 00:26:12.700 |
He walked on earth and He lived a sinless life and He became the perfect sacrifice for 00:26:18.780 |
And when He was resurrected from the dead, He provided hope for mankind. 00:26:25.140 |
And Galatians 3.13-14 says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a 00:26:31.980 |
All mankind was under this curse and Pastor Mark did a great job this Friday explaining 00:26:39.340 |
All mankind is under this curse, but it says, "He became a curse for us, for it is written, 00:26:44.700 |
'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.'" 00:26:49.220 |
Let me explain this in this way to kind of help us understand what this day represents. 00:26:58.060 |
Ever since the fall of mankind, you and I have been reacting against everything that 00:27:05.460 |
So whenever you go to a counselor or psychologist and you explain to them what's going on in 00:27:09.020 |
your life, they're going to ask you, "Well, what happened to you? 00:27:14.380 |
And they'll say, "Well, my parents were abusive." 00:27:16.780 |
And they'll say, "Okay, that's why you're doing that, but you've traced it back and 00:27:24.420 |
Or maybe you're an alcoholic and you go to a counselor and say, "Well, what happened? 00:27:32.380 |
And they trace it back and they'll say, "Well, your grandparents were alcoholics." 00:27:35.420 |
And so every single person who was born into this sinful world is reacting against a sin 00:27:44.020 |
And if you've been kicked, you're going to kick. 00:27:49.020 |
And the people who kicked you are kicking you because they've been kicked. 00:27:52.860 |
And the people who kicked them are kicking because they've been kicked. 00:27:55.620 |
So generationally, one generation after another generation, sin is spiraling out of control. 00:28:02.600 |
And all psychology can do is to tell you, "This is why you behave the way you behave." 00:28:08.380 |
And so, we're kind of like, "Oh, okay, that's why I did it." 00:28:14.820 |
So how is that going to prevent you from, if you've been kicked, how is it going to 00:28:19.140 |
So all of us has a tendency to react when we're sinned against. 00:28:29.980 |
Every single person, if I slap you, you're going to slap me or you're going to slap somebody 00:28:35.100 |
Jesus Christ came and instead, He was sinned against and He absorbed the sin. 00:28:43.100 |
Not only did He absorb the sin, He resurrects and He pushes back. 00:28:52.260 |
So no man who has been affected by His death and resurrection can say, "I do this because 00:29:02.980 |
From that moment on, we say, "I do this because He absorbed my sin." 00:29:20.100 |
And that's what the resurrection signifies to us. 00:29:22.820 |
It is the reverse of the curse that mankind is in. 00:29:28.420 |
See, in 1 Corinthians 15, 20 it says, "But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, 00:29:33.260 |
the first fruit of those who have fallen asleep." 00:29:36.420 |
See, Jesus Christ, His resurrection means that He paved a way for our resurrection. 00:29:43.420 |
Prior to Him, every man who died would have come under judgment. 00:29:48.020 |
But now, everyone who confesses Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and your sins are forgiven, 00:29:54.620 |
The third and final thing is a lot more personal. 00:29:58.100 |
See, our hope of the resurrection isn't simply about the future, it's about today. 00:30:03.140 |
It's not simply that when I die, I'm going to go to heaven. 00:30:09.180 |
You know, when I was younger, you know, I didn't live in California, so until a certain 00:30:13.500 |
age I've never met an Asian American who spoke English, other than my brothers. 00:30:18.900 |
You know, so my parents came to the US in 1975 to Philadelphia. 00:30:22.820 |
I'm pretty sure we were the only Asians there, so if they said "Chinaman" or whatever, you 00:30:29.860 |
You know, or we went to Kansas and it was even worse. 00:30:32.860 |
I've never, you know, I've never seen any ethnic group. 00:30:37.220 |
And so I didn't even know it existed, like other Asians who could speak English existed. 00:30:41.140 |
And then we went to Atlanta and it was like each year it got worse. 00:30:45.140 |
And then I thought if I went to Korea, things would get better, but it wasn't any better 00:30:52.060 |
But when we were younger, if you were Asian American, the only reference that they had 00:30:57.580 |
was either Bruce Lee, and some of you guys, most of you guys don't know this, have you 00:31:12.780 |
So either you had two references, either you were Bruce Lee or you were Hop Singh from 00:31:19.660 |
And he's the guy who had the typical Chinese ponytail, you know, is walking around and 00:31:25.580 |
So if you were cool, you're Bruce Lee, right? 00:31:28.500 |
And if you didn't know Kung Fu, then you're Hop Singh, right? 00:31:31.740 |
So obviously all the Asian people wanted to be, you know, Bruce Lee, so we were like, 00:31:37.100 |
You know, even if we didn't know anything about karate or anything, it's like you wanted 00:31:41.860 |
You know, Bruce Lee, there's been a resurgence of popularity of Bruce Lee and there's this 00:31:45.980 |
videotape of him being interviewed and they ask him about his philosophy and Kung Fu and 00:31:51.540 |
And you probably heard this before, but this is what he says, right? 00:32:06.020 |
I was going to say the whole thing in his voice, but I don't want to distract from the 00:32:17.900 |
If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. 00:32:21.660 |
You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. 00:32:35.420 |
Okay, so a lot of you guys remember that clip. 00:32:44.060 |
Doesn't Paul say, "Be all things to all people"? 00:32:52.380 |
Now that sounds great, but what if you're a potato? 00:33:04.300 |
How do you just, "Okay, I'm going to be water." 00:33:08.220 |
I mean, that sounds great, but there's no way to get there. 00:33:12.900 |
You know, that Buddhist friend that I was talking to, he was saying, like, one of the 00:33:18.020 |
things that central teachings, why people don't attain higher enlightenment is because 00:33:27.100 |
And what he meant by that is being attached to anything prevents you from higher enlightenment 00:33:30.740 |
because your lust, your desire for material, your desire for fame, all of these things 00:33:37.380 |
So he says the key thing of Buddhism is detachment, right? 00:33:44.140 |
It's like, "Do not love the world or anything in the world," right? 00:33:54.180 |
How do you detach yourself from these things?" 00:33:57.060 |
It's just like telling a hungry person, "You know, I have a solution to your hunger. 00:34:22.580 |
So it may sound like wisdom, but all it leads to is frustration. 00:34:27.020 |
Here's a goal that you can't possibly attain. 00:34:29.820 |
See, Christianity is not about, like, rules of life, and if you follow these rules, somehow 00:34:34.980 |
you're going to find attainment, and you're going to find fulfillment. 00:34:38.820 |
In fact, the scripture says exactly the opposite. 00:34:41.380 |
The law was given to us so that you and I would recognize, "Here's what you need to 00:34:45.420 |
have to get into heaven, and you can't get there." 00:34:53.220 |
It's the attachment to the things that are destroying us, but how do you get detached 00:35:03.540 |
People who are attached, people who see where we need to be and can't get there. 00:35:07.720 |
You know how do you get a hungry person to not hunger for things that are wrong? 00:35:17.960 |
You can't just tell him, "Stop being hungry." 00:35:21.940 |
See, the scripture tells us that Christ came, and he reversed a curse, and he gave us eternal 00:35:28.900 |
hope, so the scripture isn't simply telling us, "Stop loving the world." 00:35:32.460 |
He says, "No, if you are filled with Christ, you will no longer love the world." 00:35:41.680 |
The world is never going to quench my thirst. 00:35:45.720 |
The hunger that we have, he doesn't just say, "Stop hungering." 00:35:48.800 |
He says, "No, fix your eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." 00:35:54.560 |
When the scripture says that Jesus came to bring life and bring this life abundantly, 00:36:01.440 |
A lot of people think that salvation means that I'm going to live forever, but that's 00:36:08.200 |
See, there's two words for life in the Bible. 00:36:13.000 |
Bios is the word where if you breathe, you eat, you sleep, you get up. 00:36:20.900 |
Even after we die, the Bible says the soul doesn't disintegrate. 00:36:28.880 |
"Zoe" is equivalent to the word we would use to say we are alive. 00:36:36.960 |
We were existing, but we were dead in spirit. 00:36:40.400 |
But Jesus Christ came and he made us alive in him. 00:36:44.040 |
See, our source, our power, and our life is when we are connected to the living water. 00:36:52.140 |
So Jesus didn't just come and say, "Hey, now you don't die. 00:36:56.880 |
That's what a lot of people don't understand. 00:36:58.760 |
It's like, "Well, I don't know if I want to be forever." 00:37:04.240 |
He meant that that which died because of sin, because of his absorption, he allowed us and 00:37:10.760 |
So our life is found in Christ and Christ alone. 00:37:14.520 |
In 1 Peter 1.3 it says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:37:18.240 |
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again and to a living hope through 00:37:23.280 |
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 00:37:25.840 |
See, a person who does not recognize Jesus as a living water and Jesus as a living bread 00:37:34.640 |
It is not simply getting rid of the penalty of sin. 00:37:40.040 |
Jesus Christ came to give life and to give this life abundantly. 00:37:44.560 |
So when we feel the most alive, when genuine Christians feel the most alive is when you 00:37:56.360 |
And so, you know, the things that you're excited about, you end up talking about. 00:38:00.920 |
You guys here who are watching the final four and there's final two now, there's going 00:38:05.560 |
to be, I guarantee you, once this is over, there's going to be some conversation about 00:38:10.400 |
Pacquiao and Meriwether fight is going to happen in May 2nd. 00:38:15.920 |
There's going to be some conversation about that after this. 00:38:25.120 |
Whatever it is that you're excited about, you're going to end up talking about. 00:38:29.120 |
And when you talk about it, there's somebody who says, "Hey, how come you're not talking 00:38:32.360 |
How come you're not talking about the final four today?" 00:38:38.520 |
In fact, it's all the, "Hey, you've got something better to talk about than this." 00:38:43.440 |
We feel almost guilty about talking about it too much. 00:38:47.960 |
Evangelism happens when people are living in Christ. 00:38:53.960 |
When we are alive, when you recognize the life that we have in Christ, you tell somebody 00:38:59.000 |
who's been affected by the cross to tell them to stop talking about Jesus. 00:39:05.200 |
All those people in the Middle East, all they have to say is, "I don't believe in Jesus," 00:39:11.380 |
You try to get them to stop talking about Jesus. 00:39:13.760 |
Those pastors that we met in India, they're risking their lives, their lives and their 00:39:29.480 |
It's not just that our old self has died, but our new self has been resurrected with 00:39:40.160 |
You know, before I met Christ, I was so lost. 00:39:44.280 |
You know, we had ten brothers and sisters give their testimony this morning at the early 00:39:50.080 |
And honestly, I could hear that all day long. 00:39:56.080 |
You know, hearing how God is working in your life. 00:39:58.040 |
And every single person, every single Christian has a genuine testimony. 00:40:06.480 |
You know, like by the time that I got into, I think I counted maybe about 11 different 00:40:18.000 |
So, you know, usually I would go to a new school and typically, it's like, "Hey, Chinaman," 00:40:26.560 |
And then my two brothers, they're kind of, they're more meek and gentle and patient. 00:40:32.320 |
You know, so they just kind of tick it, but not me. 00:40:35.640 |
If I hear Ching Chung something, I'm going to do something about it. 00:40:39.640 |
So every school I went into, I started, sometimes, I got in a fight the very first day I was 00:40:47.520 |
So first day, second day, eventually I ended up fighting somebody. 00:40:50.440 |
And then, because I usually made friends by fighting somebody, so the friends that I made 00:40:57.200 |
So you can imagine, you know, these were not the straight-A students. 00:41:02.020 |
So that's the crowd I ended up, and then, as soon as I felt comfortable, we ended up 00:41:07.360 |
When I was younger, I didn't really think much about that, because you're young, you 00:41:11.920 |
So the first time I really like felt that, the impact of the move, was right when I was 00:41:17.920 |
You know, going from sixth grade to seventh grade. 00:41:20.160 |
My parents moved back out to Korea, and I got really close to this friend. 00:41:24.680 |
And to be honest, when my parents said they were going to go back to the U.S., I said, 00:41:33.840 |
The first time I really became good friends with somebody, and the moment I told him, 00:41:38.280 |
until I left, I mean, he cried the whole time. 00:41:41.200 |
And I remember at the airport, he was like screaming. 00:41:44.960 |
And obviously that made me sad, and I was crying, and then we got on the plane. 00:41:48.360 |
And you have to remember, at that time, if you moved to a different country, I mean, 00:41:56.520 |
And I knew I probably would never see this guy again. 00:42:01.160 |
Like Pastor Alex went to China, I'm talking to him more now than he was when he was here. 00:42:09.560 |
So by the time we came back to the U.S., I mean, I was completely, completely like lost. 00:42:14.080 |
And I thought, you know, when I came here, I said, "Oh, I'm Korean." 00:42:17.920 |
So when we went back to Korea, they told me, "Go back to your country." 00:42:32.280 |
I don't know anybody who's Asian, who speaks English. 00:42:36.080 |
And so, again, right around puberty, right around, you know, seventh grade, and that 00:42:43.520 |
When I met Christ in 1983, my world got just flipped upside down. 00:42:50.520 |
Every anger, every bitterness, I felt so lost. 00:42:55.520 |
And I took it out, you know, every little thing just would set me off. 00:42:59.160 |
My biggest problem was like I had a bad temper, and I would just, any little thing that I 00:43:06.040 |
1983, you know, we go up to a retreat, and I see a bunch of people who are praying, and 00:43:15.240 |
But there's these guys who were praying, they were all my age people, and they were praying, 00:43:19.800 |
they were praying like God's actually listening. 00:43:22.840 |
It was just because to me it was just a ritual, because I didn't understand. 00:43:26.160 |
But they were crying out to God, and say, "Is there something that I don't get?" 00:43:30.480 |
If you asked me at that time, "Are you a Christian?" 00:43:37.120 |
But I never gave it serious thought, other than that, until that day. 00:43:41.840 |
I got on my knees and I prayed, "God, if you're real, open my eyes." 00:43:46.560 |
And I'm not going to go into too much detail, but that's when I met the Lord. 00:43:51.000 |
And when I met the Lord, for the first time in my life, I felt like I belonged. 00:43:56.320 |
And it wasn't in America, it wasn't in Korea, it wasn't with other Asian Americans. 00:44:05.160 |
I got citizenship in eternity, and I belonged somewhere. 00:44:12.120 |
And this life, this emptiness that I felt, thinking that if I did this and had this, 00:44:16.600 |
and only if my life was different, only if we didn't move around so much, only if my 00:44:21.080 |
parents weren't pastors, only if we had more money, all these things that I thought would 00:44:25.240 |
fix my life, the moment I met Christ, all of that got answered instantaneously. 00:44:31.120 |
And I knew that everything that happened in my life, God did to bring me to that point. 00:44:37.360 |
And that's the day that I made a decision, "This is the reason why I'm going to live." 00:44:44.280 |
And I can honestly tell you that 1983 was my new birth. 00:44:51.520 |
And I know a lot of people say, "Well, you know, it happened gradually." 00:44:54.320 |
And people come to Christ in different ways, but for me, it was instantaneous. 00:44:58.760 |
So it was so vivid to me what the world looked like before I met Christ and what the world 00:45:06.800 |
What the world was like before the resurrection, what the world was like after the resurrection. 00:45:12.640 |
I pray with all my heart that not a single person in this room, whether you've been attending 00:45:18.640 |
church all your life and you've just been assuming your faith, or maybe you're here 00:45:23.040 |
because somebody invited you because they wanted you to hear the Gospel message, that 00:45:27.520 |
not a single person in this room would miss the greatest gift that mankind has ever been 00:45:38.440 |
That you would consider deeply what this means. 00:45:41.560 |
If Jesus Christ was actually risen from the dead, what does that mean? 00:45:48.620 |
If this Jesus that we sing, that we talk about every single week, if he really was the Son 00:46:07.000 |
I pray with all my heart this morning that at least we would consider deeply, that we 00:46:13.360 |
would not simply be churchgoers, that we would not just be happy with the fact that we've 00:46:17.540 |
just put up our name on a list, but that we are true disciples of Jesus Christ. 00:46:24.560 |
I'm going to ask the praise team to come up at this time, and I'm going to invite all 00:46:30.680 |
Again, I know we do this often, but as we think carefully about the resurrection of 00:46:36.760 |
Jesus Christ, I think the people that I feel the most, I don't know if the word is compassion, 00:46:45.240 |
but people who are like me, you know, live their whole life just assuming that they know 00:46:51.160 |
Jesus, just because you were raised in the church. 00:46:54.680 |
And you can repay, if I ask you any biblical question, you might be able to give me the 00:47:01.960 |
You don't have a personal relationship with Christ. 00:47:05.140 |
The resurrection is a historical event that affects Christianity, but not you personally. 00:47:13.480 |
It's just important on paper, but not in reality, because you don't know Jesus. 00:47:20.400 |
The greatest tragedy is for somebody to be in church all their life and then meet the 00:47:24.880 |
resurrected Christ and he says, "I never knew you. 00:47:31.360 |
I pray that as we think upon the resurrection of Christ and what it means, that you would 00:47:39.960 |
Don't be satisfied with saying, "Oh, it means this for Christianity." 00:47:45.400 |
When Jesus asked the question, "What do the people say that I am?" 00:47:54.680 |
That's the same question that we need to answer. 00:48:02.440 |
And I pray for those of you who are sitting here who came as guests and maybe you've never 00:48:05.760 |
heard the gospel or maybe you heard it before, but you just heard it as just knowledge. 00:48:11.200 |
You never really thought of it as your own personal savior. 00:48:17.800 |
And again, I'm not going to ask you to come out. 00:48:21.340 |
You don't have to repeat, you know, some religious ritualistic words when you come to God. 00:48:26.600 |
You could talk to him like you talk to anybody else. 00:48:29.780 |
Say, "God, if you're real, I want to know you. 00:48:34.040 |
If you really did die for me on the cross and you're offering me a new life and you 00:48:39.560 |
want to forgive my sins, I want to receive you." 00:48:45.000 |
You can, you don't have to use fancy vocabulary. 00:48:56.320 |
I invite you to take some time as we pray that again, every single one of us, that this 00:49:02.840 |
is not just another resurrection Sunday that we're just going to chalk off and say, "Okay, 00:49:07.360 |
now it's my seventh or eighth or ninth or tenth." 00:49:10.800 |
But the reality of his resurrection would make a deep impact on each one of us. 00:49:15.040 |
So let's take some time to pray as we welcome the worship team to lead us.