March 31, 2024 Easter Sunday "Looking For Life Where Once There Was Death"

ReNew Ames Messages

We're going to walk through John's account of the resurrection. If we piece all the stories together, we can tell there was a whole lot of confusion about the day. How many guards were there? Was there really an earthquake? What did the angels say? Did Mary go to the tomb alone? Or not? All of these discrepancies in the story show that these people were trying to describe an event that didn't fit their reality - their understanding of how things work. None of them saw it coming. So why didn't they see this coming? Jesus did and said so many different things that hinted, or even explicitly stated, "Hey, something big is going to happen, look for this! Maybe they should have seen it coming? What were they looking for when they went to the tomb? They were looking for death. They were looking for a body. Then Jesus shows up looking like a gardener. Maybe the real world we perceive every day of our lives isn't as ordinary as we think it is. Maybe our perception of the world isn't big enough - wide enough - deep enough. Maybe there's more to the world than we know. If Jesus is alive, then he is who he said he was and we really are forgiven and have new life. That's what the resurrection means for us. It's also an invitation to live in a new world where God is renewing all things. Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 20:1-18 http://bible.com/events/49237797