Easter Sunday - The Empty Tomb Changes Everything

Looks like you need help. Looks like you need a savior. Yeah, that's what I was looking for. Thank you You need a savior because you can't save yourself You've got to be perfect to get into a perfect heaven. You need a savior who will present the perfect sacrifice Take away all your sin and then allow you to be born again to have a brand new spirit Which now you can go and meet the Lord in heaven hallelujah Welcome to the City Light Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and Truth that he has for us. If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at CityLightNYC.com That's CityLightNYC.com Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds As you listen to today's teaching Remember that you are deeply loved by God that you are surrounded by his grace and that he has a real hope and a future for you I want to open up this morning and just read to you the account of the resurrection. It's in all four of the gospels My favorite one happens to be in John and so we'll begin John chapter 20 and verse 1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early While it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb Then she ran and came to Simon Peter And to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb And we do not know where they have laid him Peter therefore went out and the other disciple And we're going to the tomb So they both ran together and the other disciple who knows who the other disciple is John the one writing this It's just interesting because the Bible wasn't written by man These were holy men that were inspired by the Holy Spirit and God spoke through them But you still see their personality there. They're still the echo of what makes them them in their personality Turns out John was a little bit of a competitive guy Because even though he leaves his name out of it He makes sure to point out that when two bros went for a run He beat Peter And the other disciple I read Peter and came to the tomb first and there it is forever immortalized in the holy scriptures I have friends like that Maybe I'm your friend that's like that And he's stooping down and looking in so the linen cloths lying there yet he did not go in Then Simon Peter came following him and And went into the tomb and he saw the linen cloths lying there, you know Driving in this morning I was I was going over the message in my spirit and just recounting the story of the resurrection in my spirit And I began to weep as I was driving I was overwhelmed I was overwhelmed because I thought of my relationship with the Lord I became a Christian gave my life to Christ when I was 16 So it's been 34 years of walking with him And then as I'm thinking of my relationship with the Lord 34 years You I was overwhelmed at how messy it was Yes Ups Downs me crying out to the Lord for mercy him always being faithful and just to extend it Him making a way where there didn't seem to be any way me falling him picking me back up I have to say that because when you just hear me preach on Sunday you you get the highlight real And you get me at my best When I look back at 34 years my mother's sitting in the front row She knows And you know what God's not afraid of the mess It's messy He's been a lot lot better to me than I've been to him I haven't always been faithful. He's always been faithful. I haven't always been consistent He's always been consistent. I haven't always been strong in my love He never wavered once in his love toward me. He'll never ever waver once in his love toward you I felt like I had to say that again because there's people here this morning And and you think of how messy your life has been and maybe you've made a commitment to the Lord sometime in the past And it's been ugly and it's been shit god loves the ugly he gets in the ugly He loves the ugly so much that god came in the person of Jesus in the person of a man To ugly earth Left the perfection of heaven He's not put off by the messiness and ugliness of your life 34 years I didn't wasn't driving a wild lord. It's been a wild ride You know and I let you use me to plant the church and you know lord I always pray lord you know. I always pray. I'm so devoted lord I think lord that you must call me past your bow in heaven. I think you use the appropriate I'm I'm quivering I'm white knuckling that steering will go oh god You're so good and thank you for the resurrection because you live I will live also. I made a live right now when I will live forever And you will live forever if you place your faith in Christ hallelujah Sam and Peter came following him and went into the tomb and he saw the linen cloths lying there and the handkerchief Look at the details there and the handkerchief that had been around his head Not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself Why is that in the Bible to show that Jesus was so tidy that even at his resurrection His cloths of linen worn one paw, but the napkin was distinct and put somewhere else No, it's because in Hebrew tradition there was a sign If you were a guest in another place if you were never ever coming back If you were going to say I'm never gonna eat here again I'm never coming back. There was a particular way you fold to the napkin and left it on the table And I believe that's exactly what Jesus did with the faith cloth that was our I'm never coming back I'll never be in this tomb again hallelujah Then the other disciple who came to the tomb first went in also and he saw and believed For as yet they did not know the scripture that he must rise from the dead Then the disciples went away again to their own homes But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb And she saw two angels in white sitting one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had laying Then they said to her woman why are you weeping and she said to them because they have taken away my lord And I do not know where they have laid him Now when she had said this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus He was disguised and Jesus said to her woman And why are you weeping remember Jesus is the resurrected Christ now and he's in a glorified body And there's other accounts where he walked through walls and obviously he was able to hide his appearance There's not too many details about the glorified body in the scriptures, but it seems pretty cool to me She's supposing him to be the gardener He was disguised as the gardener why I believe it's because this whole problem that he came to south started in a garden And now he's coming as the gardener To fix the problem that originated in the garden She said to him sir if you have carried him away tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away And Jesus said to her Mary You know he calls her name and her eyes are open Today some of you are going to hear him call your name There's nothing like when he calls your name Some of you even right now. I haven't even started really preaching But your heart is beating inside your chest because the weight of eternity is in this room And he's calling you out by name He knows you he knew you before you were in your mother's womb He's counted every hair on your head And he's calling you He's calling you to himself Jesus said to her Mary should turn and set to him rebony Which is to say teacher And Jesus said to her do not cling to me For I have not yet ascended to my father But go to my brethren and say to them I am ascending to my father and your father And to my God And your God Now when Mary goes to touch him in the Old King James he says touch me not And the new King James he says don't cling to me In every version of the Bible what he's saying is don't touch me There was a spiritual reason I believe something a reason why she could not physically touch him in that moment But something interesting happens just a few verses later 10 verses later The disciples come and Thomas is one of the disciples. We've now nicknames him doubting Thomas But he wanted to see with his own eyes And Jesus at the time is to reach your finger here to where the spike Had pierced him reach your finger here and look at my hands and reach your hand here And where where he was cut with the spear in his side and put it into my side Do not be believing unbelieving but be Believing So I want to ask you a question what happened in between those 10 verses Because he tells Mary don't touch me but then a short while after he's telling Thomas go ahead and touch me Put put your hand into my side put your finger through the hole in my hand The answer is found in Hebrews chapter 9 Starting in verse 11 When God created this planet when he created mankind he created this world perfect He created man perfect and he put him in a perfect place the Garden of Eden And he said you may eat of every fruit of the garden But just the the tree of the knowledge of good and evil don't eat of that fruit Of course man ate of that fruit and that's when sin entered in And sin like a viral disease was passed down From generation to generation to generation if Adam or Eve could see the fruit of sin If they could see the poverty the wars The disasters The envy the strife that would come for generations in generation And I would afflict the whole world out of course they wouldn't have done it But that sin spread And there is a universal law echoed throughout the entire Bible from Genesis to revelation And that's simply this that the penalty the punishment the wages the payment for sin Is death There must be a blood sacrifice to take away sins There has to be because sin must be punished So when you actually understand that the whole Bible comes alive and begins to make sense And you see the thread from Genesis right on into the New Testament Of the sacrificial system that was God gave the Hebrews that they would come And this would happen every day and then especially on the day of Atonement the high priest would do it himself They would take a bull or a goat or a heifer or a lamb Unspotted without blemish it had to be perfect not a handicap to animal And and sacrifice it to the Lord But the Bible was clear that that would not take away sins that that merely temporarily covered them But that that animal sacrifice was pointing to the ultimate sacrifice God coming in the flesh and going to the cross as our substitute And the punishment for sin that we deserve he would take it on himself This is why blood is so important This is why Satan always wants to minimize and belittle the blood We just celebrated Passover for past over he said When I see the blood I will pass over you the curse was that every first board of the Egyptians Every first born would be smitten But he told the Hebrews take the blood apply it to the doorpost So when destruction comes it's not looking at have you been a good person have you been kind have you been nice It's when I see the blood I will pass over you some of you are hearing this for the first time. Yes, Christianity is a bloody faith Because that is what's necessary. That's how awful my sin is your sin is that it must require a perfect blood sacrifice to take all that sin away So what happened in between Jesus saying touch me not and then Telling time is go ahead and touch me Hebrews nine happened there was an ascension and the great high priest Jesus appeared in heaven and presented his blood You see the resurrection is proof Now let me let me just stop right there The the resurrection is proof that the blood sacrifice has been received the resurrection is proof that it's been paid and full But I had actually a choice when I was going to preach this message I the the the one other angle I could have gone down is that the resurrection Is one of the most attested events in human history And I was going to just kind of go and prove that I've tried that once before like going into how the resurrection is actually one of the most attested to Events in history it was written about it wasn't just written in the gospels other historians wrote about it They wrote about Jesus and other historians wrote about that who wrote about that and there's countless manuscripts And I was going to preach that I preach it a long time ago even a little bit like that and it was crickets People were snoring, but I understand some people are very very intellectual They're very logical and so you need something like that you're not going to get that for me today But the good news hey, there's good news now you can do research Now whenever somebody tells you I did research that means they spoke into chat or grok for 10 seconds into their phone So go up and grok it quad it chat it whatever and say show me how the resurrection is the most attested to Event in history and You'll get a list upon list upon a list That this is no fairy tale This is real How many of you here you've had your lives absolutely transformed by Jesus Christ You were one way and now you're another way wave your hand at me Fables don't transform lives fairy tales don't transform lives Every single one of the disciples gave their lives as a martyr People don't die for a lie Amen But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands That is not of this creation Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood He entered the most holy place you seen the Old Testament the Hebrews had a holy place within the temple God was clear when he gave instructions on building that holy place that this was a shadow of what's in heaven This was an earthly representation of what actually is in heaven So there is a holy place in heaven under the old covenant the Hebrew high priest who come in with that animal That was sacrificed and he would sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat And he would even sprinkle the blood on the people Jesus did the same thing But for the whole world he entered in not with the blood of bulls and goats and calves But with his own blood he entered the most holy place once for all having obtained eternal redemption For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God Cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God Hallelujah So what happened in between touch me not and you may touch me is Jesus went up into heaven briefly And brought his blood to the father and it was approved brought his blood over to the mercy seat and Sprinkle the blood on the planet Because in potential format the blood is on the planet. That's why we we have statues there named Christ the savior of the world That's why when John saw Jesus he said behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world Jesus has cleansed the world, but is the whole world cleansed Those who say yes are those who receive it those who reject Christ are not So potentially speaking because he's done all the work It depends on you it depends on man saying yes I believe I believe that when you were on that cross you actually saw me and he did Even though you were born two thousand years later. He saw you he knew your name and every single sin You have committed or you would ever commit fell upon him And he said it is finished paid in full For you that's how much he loves you Hallelujah So I just want to read you several things that you have as a result of The resurrection number one what I just read was confirmation of the sacrifice The resurrection is confirmation that the sacrifice was well received and isn't that good news Today's ago was good Friday Good Fridays in the Bible somebody called it good Friday. They should have called it great Friday Like really great Friday Because on great Friday He paid the price and said paid in full it is finished Let's go to John chapter three and we'll start a verse one As a result of the resurrection you have something called the new birth The new birth is available to you And this discussion concerning the new birth is found in John chapter three This is one of the first passages of scripture I ever read when I was 16 years old I didn't read it alone, but the people who were witnessing to me and trying to lead me to the Lord Of course, this is one of the first chapters in the Bible. They opened up to There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews I used to have this joke when I first started city light Nicodemus I like to call him Nick. He came to Jesus by night. I called that Nick at night Ha ha in the whole place with laugh now no one laughs as you see And I realized I'm not gonna say the joke anymore because it's told nearly 25 years later You got youngins in the front row never even watch Nick at night So this is probably the last year. I'll leave in a reference it That was a good one while it lasted. We had that for a good decade The man came to Jesus and said to him rabbi We know that your teacher come from God for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him And Jesus answered and said to him most assuredly I say to you unless one is born again He cannot see the kingdom of God and in a few verses you'll read the only must Jesus ever gave Man in religion puts a lot of must you must you must you must there's only one must that Jesus gave you must Be born again And this is so powerful and so necessary That culture and the media has actually poisoned that phrase born again when I became a Christian when actually was born Again People that I spoke to they asked me you remember this mom I let my mom and father to the Lord after I became a Christian to say you one of those born again Christians We're going oh and I was offended they would think because in my mind the born again Christian was a Crazy wacko nut job Because that's what the media and had trained me to think that's what popular culture had trained me to think Then I then I realized oh wait, I am born again But I am born again. I'm not a born again because this isn't a sect. This isn't a denomination. This isn't a A particular church if you're a Christian a true Christian you're born again Jesus just said you have to be born again How can you be a Christian and I be born again Oh your confused your cultural Christian You were born in a family that said oh, we're Christian and they only said that because they weren't Buddhist They weren't Muslim. They weren't Jewish. They weren't Taoist. So yeah, we're Christian You can't be a cultural Christian. It's actually be something you got to go through Come on now. I can go set up a sleeping bag in my garage spend the whole week there doesn't make me a car So I've been to church all my life. Yes, but are you born again? Most assuredly I say to you unless one is born again He cannot see the kingdom of God Nicodemus said to him he's hearing Jesus completely in the natural How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born And Jesus answers most assuredly I say to you unless one is born of water and the spirit He cannot enter the kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit So don't marvel that I said to you and here's the one and only must from Jesus. Don't marvel that I said to you You must be born again A great question to ask after hearing a must from Jesus like this is How can I be born again? And It's so much easier than most people realize We complicate things Jesus simplifies things So I'm going to say it as simple as I possibly can when you believe on Jesus Believe on his crucifixion on his burial and his resurrection And you trust him with your life and you surrender your life over to him and you tell him that out loud You will be born again many people when they actually do this they sense something happening I I felt like I was turned inside out and he said a brand new spirit will I put in you that's what being born again is Your old spirit stained with sin. It's not just refurbished. It's not just patched up He doesn't just take the sin out He cleanses you of all your sin, but he takes your spirit and the Bible calls it a new creation He puts a brand spanking new spirit on the inside of you. That's the new birth That's being born again, and that's available to whoever will call upon the name of the Lord I highly recommend it If you highly recommend a clap right now First Peter one three So because of the resurrection we have the new birth The new birth is necessary Because in order to go into heaven you know you have to be perfect to get into heaven I didn't make that up that's in the Bible I Made a lot of new friends lately living in Long Island People a lot more chatty over there You know people in NYC they're guarded they're rigid Near Long Island people like to chat And I've really I mean I always knew this because I shared my faith everywhere I went But it really is so true that your average person really thinks that they're really really good Because we'll talk about eternity they've asked everyone of the first questions people ask you's what do you do So I tell them Which is a real treat Because everybody has their own idea of what a pastor is and what he should be like Then they start telling me about how good they are People who trust in their own goodness. It's because they're comparing themselves to Hitler Have you ever noticed if you've ever gotten into these conversations You know someone why do you deserve to go to heaven? Well, I'm a pretty good person I mean the whole generally. I mean I'm not Hitler right Like like Hitler is the standard for goodness I mean you compare yourself to Hitler and you go wow. I really you know, I won up Hitler I'm more moral than Hitler God's gotta let me in Listen God isn't gonna compare you to Hitler God is gonna compare you to himself He's gonna compare you to Jesus Christ and you're gonna come short And when I share that with people in it Well who then who then can get in well, that's the whole point. I'm so glad you asked Looks like you need help Looks like you need a Savior yeah, that's what I was looking for. Thank you third row. You need a savior Because you can't save yourself. You got to be perfect to get into a perfect heaven You need a savior who will present the perfect sacrifice Yeah, take away all your sin and then allow you to be born again to have a brand new spirit Will which now you can go and meet the Lord in heaven? Hallelujah Hallelujah first Peter one three blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ According to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again To a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ From the dead because of today because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ If you're to give your life to the Lord and he's knocking on the door of your heart right now You will experience the new birth you will experience being born again And then your brand new life and relationship with God begin Been serving him 34 years now There was never a minute where I regretted it. There's never a time worth. Oh, I shouldn't have said yes It's the greatest decision I've ever ever made Hallelujah Let's look at John 11 verses 25 through 26 The resurrection is confirmation that you will live forever Is this important to anyone? Because it's really important to me But talking to people it doesn't seem like it's that important like you just need to have above a room temperature IQ To realize that you're an eternal being Just put your phone down for 10 minutes and go into your infinite mind spend some time with you And you'll realize you're conscious and that you're an infinite being And what do you think is going to happen when you go What do you really think are you gonna you know and I hear you well? I think so and so why I think so like aren't you terrified to just ever you got an opinion Everybody's got an opinion Well, I think God at the end of the day well Well, I just I and I believe all religions and all the boats, you know They all get to the same side of the lake So you're kind of like just guessing you worked 50 hours a week to keep your lights on but when it comes to your eternal soul You spent five minutes thinking about it There's a heaven to gain and a hell to shun and eternity is real Now again, if you don't know my history, I was raised in New York City since I was five years old In four still queens that moved to Manhattan for a few years and until recently spent 15 years in Williamsburg, Brooklyn I didn't realize when I was in my 20s or 30s that NYC is so young Like age-wise only as you get a little older do you realize you know like as I entered into my 40s in Williamsburg I'm like, you know, I'm not like one of the cool guys around here anymore You know somebody rushed to help me cross the street. I was like oh, I must be becoming a man of a certain age all of a sudden And then we had a flood and we have two children my wife and I we moved to Long Island and Long Island is really old Right, I know there's some Long Islanders here Long Island just like I think the average age is 58 there Like that's a problem Long Island has so a lot of the people I'm meeting are older and I they know what I do We talk about the things of God but So few talk about eternity and I'm going how you got one foot in the grave another foot on a banana peel Does it never cross your mind? Where will you spend eternity? I want to live forever. Amen Jesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in me though he may die Yet shall he live the resurrection is confirmation of eternal life The resurrection is confirmation that you and you know when you just even honest with yourself You know that you're an eternal being you know there's something more going on inside of you than a bunch of what you came from primordial Lose in your collection of random molecules and chemicals and when you feel what what a Christian calls faith and love That's just your neural receptors picking up on different happy chemical what I'm sorry. I don't have faith for that I tried to be an atheist. I did. I really tried. I didn't have enough faith for it As an atheist that have to believe that the big bang theory happened and that's to me that's like Taking a grenade throwing it into a junkyard and now comes a complicated thing like a Rolex watch I'm sorry. That's such a fantastic thing. I can't believe it As much as I try to have faith. It's too much faith. I can't I can't do it I just believe that there's amnipotent. I'm nepresident. I'm nishant loving God and he made you Hallelujah First Corinthian 64 worship team you can come on up First Corinth 614 And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power Hallelujah Hallelujah Amen. I want to give you an opportunity To receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior He said behold I stand on the at the door and knock if any man open the door I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish But have everlasting life Everlasting life is what he came to give you ever lasting life is why he was resurrected What is the enemy? What is the problem here? Well Satan is trying to blind you Satan is trying to keep you complacent Satan and he's succeeding so many people going about I jokingly said one foot on the grave one foot on a banana peel Ignoring what how do you ignore tic-tac tic-tac tic-tac you have a finite amount of time on the surface How do you ignore that like what kind of denial do you have to live in? To just ignore that and to go you know I mean No one's really that good the people have the silliest things that they say and I get it because I used to be one of those people No one's really we're not even comparing you to anyone else forget about other people This is about you and God and he knows you have a problem He knows your stuff and the good news is he came from heaven to earth to solve your problem to fix your problem And he's calling you right now Every head bowed every eye closed I want to ask you the most important decision anyone can ask you and that's if you were to die today Do you know for certain that you would go and have eternity with God? I'll ask it again if you were to die today Do you know for certain that you would go to heaven? If not I want to say a prayer with you and for you I'm not going to ask you to get up out of your seat But I'm going to ask you to lift up your hand in acknowledgement of your need for a savior If that's you right now you want to have your sins forgiven you want to experience the new birth You want to know Jesus You want to be heaven bound and the count of three. I want you to raise your hand one two three Lift your hand up in the sanctuary right now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I see those hands Thank you who else keep your hand up. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Who else? Do not resist the Holy Spirit I sense the way to eternity in this place God is after you. He wants you. He wants you forever with him Who else Who else All right every hand down I want you those of you who raised your hands to say this prayer out loud and we're all going to say it out loud We're all going to pray this together, but those of you who raised your hands say it extra loud That's important Don't mouth this Why am I stickler for it because the Bible says if you confess If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus So you got to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead You will be saved. So it's not actually enough just to believe in your heart. There's something about saying it out loud So say this with me right now say dear Lord Jesus I believe in you I believe you died on the cross in my place For me I receive you As my Lord and Savior I repent I ask your forgiveness Fill me with the Holy Spirit I put my trust in you You are my Lord and Savior I am now forgiving I'm a friend of God And I am cleansed and heaven bound In Jesus name Shot a big hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah I've asked the worship team up Because I want them to lead you in a song you can stay seated But I want you to just have a moment with the Lord I Focus on salvation today because there's people who come on Easter Sunday. That's the only time they'll come That's the only time we'll see them When you actually get saved you'll come more I mean if someone told me I had to go to church Did you come from that background? I had to go to church. Is that what you guys were? Yeah No fun, right now I see both you smiling ear to your every Sunday now. It's not religion. You have to come right? I want to come I get to come And if you don't come you don't get a call from you're going to where have you been Yeah, there's freedom in the camp Hallelujah So just just open your heart up The Holy Spirit wants to come and minister to you now You can do so much more than any man than the best of old men. They'll come and talk to you He'll give you what you need The resurrection is yes about eternal life But the resurrection also Opens the doorway for the Lord to solve our problems right here on earth You were not created to suffer to crawl through life trying to just survive He did actually create you to be blessed to have a victorious life and to thrive. Yes Because The resurrection is a story of victory and that victory has been transferred over to you from Jesus Lord I bless your people lord may heavens rain come upon them this week Show yourself strong on their behalf Lord, I thank you that if any are going through a trial or something difficult you will come in and you will help them for your words Says you're a very present help in a time of trouble Nothing is too difficult for you you conquered death hell and the grave You live and we live also and I thank you for the victory of the resurrection made manifest in every person's life this week And if you believe it shot a man Hey man This is the city light church podcast if you've missed any part of today's message Or if you would like to find out more about pastor boy on jansik and city light church Visit us at city light NYC dot com that's city light NYC dot com feel free to visit us online or in person anytime We would love to connect with you We pray that you have been encouraged today That you have been reminded how much god loves you and that you are surrounded by grace Thank you for listening make sure that you subscribe to city light church podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide You