 Mark chapter 16 verses 1 through 8. Mark writes, when the Sabbath was past, Mary Madeline, Mary the mother of James and Salome, bought spices that they might come and anoint him. Very early in the morning on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they said among themselves, who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us? But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away before it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe, sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. But he said to them, do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He's risen. He's not here. See the place where they laid him. But go tell his disciples in Peter that he is going before you into Galilee. There you will see him as he said to you. So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. Let me begin as I normally do here in our Bible studies by giving a little bit of a context, a little bit of an introduction to help us put these events into some perspective. One of the things that I want to emphasize as I introduce our study today is that Jesus' resurrection, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, is called the cornerstone, the cornerstone of a Christian faith. It's the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ that everything is built on. It's a resurrection that holds all things together. And if the resurrection of Jesus is removed, our faith then would be worthless. And that's what Paul had told the Corinthians when he wrote his first letter to them in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians. He had said, if there's no resurrection of the dead, Christ is not risen. If Christ is not risen, our preaching is vain. Your faith is also vain. Yes. And we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he did not raise up if in fact the dead do not rise. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile. You are still, he says, in your sins. If he's not resurrected, our preaching is worthless. Those who believe he was resurrected would be trusting in empty promises. Those who declare his resurrection are bearing false witness. And those who believe he was resurrected, he says, are still in their sins. So everything we do, everything we are, is built on one thing. It's built on the death burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you remove the resurrection, the church will be reduced to simply a social club. It would be a club that is filled with deluded people, which is, by the way, what the world thinks concerning us believers already, that we're just a bunch of people who believe in myths and are deluded. And so if the resurrection is not so, then everything that we believe is built on a line. Therefore, we have no hope in this age. We have no hope in this world. You see, Paul made it very clear that everything that we believe in is built on the resurrection. It's his resurrection that gives us purpose. It's the resurrection that gives us hope for our future. And we believe that Jesus was resurrected. And because of that, our lives are built on that central core belief. And it's by faith in his death burial and resurrection that we've been saved. Romans chapter 10 verse 9 in the New Testament says, if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you, he said, will be saved. So his resurrection is central to everything that Jesus taught concerning himself. His entire ministry rests on whether or not he was raised from the dead. And because this is true, obviously Satan works overtime to undermine the fact of his resurrection. As we're going to, as we're about to pick up our story here, Jesus has been crucified. He died. His lifeless body was on a cross. His men had forsaken him. His men had fled. They went into hiding out of fear. At that cross and the side of his crucifixion, John is the only apostle who was present. He and Mary and a few other women who followed Christ were also there. Luke tells us in chapter 23 verse 49 of his gospel, all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. So they saw him as he suffered. They heard the things that were said, the taunts. They saw him die. They experienced the hours of darkness. They shook with that earthquake. And they heard him. They heard him as he was speaking his final words on the cross. They, they heard him when he said, it is finished. They heard him when he said, father into the hands, I commit my spirit. Now, when he said it is finished, it wasn't a weak cry. It was a loud cry. It's been called a cry of victory. When he said it is finished, he was saying, paid in full salvation has been won. They heard him when he said, father into your hands, I commit my spirit, quoting Psalm 31 verse five, the last words out of his mouth that they recorded were the words of a Psalm. I was mentioning on Good Friday that this was a song that was part of the evening prayers that were recited before people went to bed. And so Jesus was actually reciting the words that he would have grown up reciting out of the Psalm into their hands. I commit my spirit. And as it was accustomed to pray every night, he prayed and he laid his head down and the cross became his pillow as he laid down his head one last time. And he died with the Psalm on his lips and he gently and he peacefully and he willingly died. They had heard the centurion when he said, truly, this man was the son of God. And they saw how when Jesus died, that some in the crowd were watching that became moved emotionally in Luke again in chapter 23 verse 48, it says, all the crowds that had gathered for this spectacle when they saw what had taken place went home, striking their chests. Jesus was on the cross for nine hours and he had died. Now, nine hours is a long time, but sometimes they would stay on the cross much longer than that, sometimes up to a week. And it was so unusual that he was dead within such a short period of time, at least in the way that the Roman governor pilot thought that he demanded proof that he was dead and the centurion who was overseeing the execution that assured him that Jesus had died. We know that he died between two thieves and we know that the thieves were still alive when Jesus died. Like I said, many prisoners would remain alive for many days, but the Sabbath was approaching and to hasten their death, they came with a club and they broke their shins. But when the soldiers came to break Jesus' legs, they saw he's already dead. There was no need for them to do that. He was already dead. And again, to make sure he was dead, a soldier pierced his side with a spear. Now that fulfilled two prophecies that had been written concerning him. Well over 300 Old Testament scriptures referred to Messiah, his life in his death, and the things that pertain to that. And so to make sure that he was dead, they had come pierced his side, but it fulfilled the scripture which says, not one of his bones shall be broken, and they shall look on him whom they pierced. Now John and the women who were there were in stunned silence. They saw the light of the world extinguished. They saw truth silenced. And as far as they could see, death was victorious, life was defeated. All they saw was a broken, lifeless body, a body that deserved a proper burial. Their faith was gone, their hope shattered, love itself had died. A man by the name of Joseph of Arimathea had gone to Pilate and had requested the body of Christ. He was a secret follower of Jesus along with another man we're well acquainted with, a man by the name of Nicodemus. They had been secret believers, but no more. Now normally only family members would claim the body. Joseph wasn't a family member, but he was wealthy, he was well known. And that gave him access to Pilate, and he gained the needed permission. And by doing so, Joseph placed himself in danger. He did it anyway. So he and Nicodemus, another secret disciple, had placed him in a tomb. As Jesus' body had been taken down, the women were watching. They noted where he was buried. And though Joseph and Nicodemus gave him a king's burial, for them it wasn't enough. It says in Luke 23.56 that the women returned to prepare spices and perfumes, and they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment. But the Sabbath is now over. The women have returned to the tomb, and they have forgotten something. They have forgotten that Jesus repeatedly had taught them that he would arise. And so we pick up our story in verse 1 here in Mark chapter 16, and it says, when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Madeleine, Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices that they might come and anoint him. Now as we begin, we need to consider what his disciples have been through. They've been traumatized at the death of Jesus Christ. Again, he was crucified. He left his followers confused. They were afraid. When Jesus had been taken, his men had forsaken him and fled. And now it's early Sunday morning. Various women have come to the tomb. They have brought spices to complete and give them a better burial. Mary Madeleine, Mary the mother of James the last, Salome, Joanna, other women are there. And again, they've come to finish the burial rites for Jesus Christ. They had followed Joseph and Nicodemus. They knew where the body was buried. So Joseph and Nicodemus had hastily prepared Jesus's body. They've come to finish the procedure. They wanted to anoint the body of Christ. Remember that Jewish people did not embalm bodies. They anointed them. It was to offset the smell of decay as an act of love and honor for Jesus. Three days before he had been crucified, they saw him die. So they've come early to the tomb. They're going to properly bury him. And notice that's what it says in verse one where it says that they might come to anoint him. Now that's evidence that his death and his burial was in a hoax. He didn't fake his death to deceive people into believing that he had risen. He didn't faint. He didn't pretend to be dead and then roll away the stone himself. He died. And they're coming to the tomb to finish his anointing and speaking loudly of that. Joseph and Nicodemus once again had taken his body, anointed it extravagantly. And maybe that they felt that it didn't give them enough honor. And because of this, they've come to finish the anointing. And so very early, verse two, in the morning on the first day of the week, they came. They came to the tomb when the sun had risen. So they arrive early Sunday morning. It's dawn. It's still dark. Now that's a touching picture, but it's actually an action that is rooted in unbelief. They're fully expecting to find the dead body of Jesus in a tomb. And that reveals to us that they did not understand what he had already taught them. Remember that Jesus had prepared his disciples throughout his ministry for this one day. He knew they would be overwhelmed with what they were about to go through. He had taught them that he would die, but he also taught that he would be resurrected. And he wanted them to know and to believe that death would not have the final victory. Though he's going to die, he's going to be raised from the dead. But the message of resurrection is too hard to fathom. And that's understandable because in all of human experience, death is absolutely final. In the Old Testament book of Job in chapter 14, verses one and two, it reads, man who was born of woman is a few days in full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower. He fades away. He flees like a shadow and does not continue. All of us know, those of us who have lived for a while, we all know there are a few things that speak with the authority and finality of a funeral. There's something about attending a funeral that sobers your heart. Funerals help us to see how short life is. Funerals remind us of the inevitability of our own death. And they have a powerful effect. And they can affect us in a tremendous way, impacting us. They sober us up. They cause us to consider our own lives. Ecclesiastes seven, verse two says it like this, better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting for that is the end of all men. And the living will take it to heart. When you're young, you don't expect anybody to die. You actually don't believe you yourself will die. You can be pretty stupid and do very dumb things because after all, young people never die. Right. When I was around 13, I had my first experience of attending a funeral. It was for my cousin. His name was Richie. Richie was from the Venice area by Culver City. Some of us today at this time think of Culver City and Venice. And perhaps you may think of it as being a kind of a bougie kind of place. But there was a time and perhaps there still are places like this that it wasn't quite as well off as it may be appearing today. There were a lot of gangs there. And my cousin Richie was part of a gang. And Richie had gotten hit in the head with a two by four in a gang fight. Split his head open. He was like 19 years old. I still remember he had his shaved head and he had a scar from the temple all the way to the back where somebody had hit him with a two by four. Split his head open. And Richie being involved in that kind of life moved into the drug scene. And again, today, drugs are so accepted by so many. We even legalize things. But during that day, America was wise enough to know that that destroys. We shouldn't legalize things like that. So he took drugs. He was a heroin addict. And he was like 19 years old. And one day my mom spoke to me and said, your cousin Richie's dead. Richie had overdosed on heroin. And he had overdosed in a field. And he had been in that field for several days. And when they finally found my cousin, Ants had consumed his face. So he had a closed casket. I was 13 years old. I was very close to my cousin Richie. I loved Richie. He lived with us for a while. My mom and dad wanted to get him out of that lifestyle and actually brought him to our house. And so Richie lived with us for a while, but he didn't want to stay. He went back, got back into the life. And he ended up dead in a field. And I still remember going to my first funeral. And I still remember how sobering it was, the moment was, for a kid, 13 years old who thinks that you live forever. I remember very well my aunt as they had the casket up in the front there and how my aunt, my aunt Tilly who had seven children and he was their only son. How that she went and she fell on top of the casket and was screaming his name Richie, Richie, Richie and how my dad and other uncles had to come and basically peel her off of that casket and went and sat her down. And it left an impression in me that I've never forgotten. Funerals have a way of sobering you up. They don't necessarily change you because of course that's just one person. That's a lot and yet as I grow up and as I was growing up I began to see other friends, not just relatives, but friends who died. I had a friend named Ray, Ray Casada. Ray and I knew each other from the time we were five years old. And Ray, Ray got into the, into the life and one day there was a party across the street from where I lived. My mom said, Dave, please don't go to the party, please. My mom used to say it like this. She says, I have a bad feeling, please don't go. And for once I obeyed her and I decided just to go to a friend's house and she knew I was there. So my mom calls my friend's house and says, can I speak to my son and I get on the phone and my mom says Ray got shot tonight. Ray had gone to the party that my mom had not wanted me to go to. And Ray had a problem with a guy named Pete. He'd had this running problem with him for some time. They had gotten into several fights many times. They just had it in for each other. And so they were at the same party and Pete and he squared off. They went outside, they went into a parking lot. As they were starting their problem, a friend of mine named Mike, we called him Mikey, Mike Torres. Mikey lived just up the street, went home, he picked up his pistol and came back. So when Ray started to fight with Pete, Ray dove at him to try and bring him down. At the same time that Mikey fired his weapon and he hit Ray in the head. And Ray hit the ground. Pete saw what happened, heard the sound, took off running, and Mike shot him too. Ray was put into the hospital. Used to be a hospital called Studebaker Hospital in Norwalk. I grew up in Norwalk. And some friends of mine and I found out what room he was in. They wouldn't allow us in because he was in ICU. But we knew the window of the room. So we climbed up on each other's shoulders and looked in. And that was the last time I saw my friend Ray alive because he was hooked up with tubes. I'll never forget that. And a couple of days later, we buried my friend. I started seeing this as a kid. I started having friends die. My friends David Smith, who got loaded on some reds and dropped acid and was drinking and it was riding a motorcycle. He decided to ride a motorcycle when in that condition it ended up going face first into the corrugated bumper of a parked pickup truck. Another friend of mine, Bruce, who got stabbed to death at a tasty freeze in Santa Fe Springs, grew up with a neighborhood friend. He had been stabbed before and his last words were, oh no, not again. And he died. I started seeing friends, a guy I partied with. We were at some place. We used to get high in Holland and I had been partying with him on a Friday. I used to be a guy who delivered flowers and so I would deliver funeral wreaths and I still remember going to Rose Hills. And I read the name on the card and I said, ah, it can't be him. He's my friend. I was just with him a couple days ago. He overdosed. You can't imagine it felt for me at the age of 19 to take a funeral wreath and place it on a casket and to look in the face of a friend I'd been partying with just two or three days before. All these things started happening and I started going to funerals. And as I started going to funerals, I started becoming aware of the fact that I wasn't living. I was dying. And I didn't know that the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. I didn't know the Bible. I didn't know that the Bible said it's appointed unto men to die once and after this the judgment. You mean there's no second chances? No, there's no second chances. You have one life to live. You need to make the best of it. You need to be right with God who loves you, who sent us into dying across from you. I didn't know that. I just started seeing friends die and I started awakening to the fact that I was a young man, but I wasn't going to live forever because funerals help us to see how short life is and death. Again, it's better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will take it to heart. Even a believer who goes to a funeral may forget what they've been taught about resurrection. The reality of death can challenge you about all that you thought you believed. Jesus prepared them, but the resurrection for them was simply a distant kind of a vague promise. The Old Testament mentioned it, but not in detail. It wasn't something well-developed. In Job once again, in chapter 19, verses 25 through 27, Job, it said, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth, and after my skin has been destroyed yet in my flesh, I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes. Not another. How my heart yearns within me. The Old Testament prophet Daniel, in chapter 12, verses 2 and 3, it said, Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament. Those who turn many to righteousness like stars forever and ever. There's a resurrection, the resurrection of the just, the resurrection of the unjust. Some will shine like stars, others go into everlasting condemnation. Jesus had taught them about resurrection. Echoing the words of Daniel in John 5, he had said this in verses 28 and 29. He said, Do not marvel at this. The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life. Those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. So that corrects the misunderstanding that many, especially here in the United States, carry today about entering into heaven. They say the only need you have to enter into heaven is to die. You die, you go to heaven. Everybody goes to heaven. Even their dogs go to heaven, apparently. They think everybody goes to heaven. All you have to do is die. But the Bible doesn't teach that. Nowhere in scripture, as a matter of fact, it says there are those resurrected to life and there are others who are resurrected to condemnation. And what makes the difference, and this is why Christ came, what makes the difference is Jesus Christ. The fact that he took upon himself our sins, the fact that he died and was buried and three days he was in that tomb, and the fact that on the third day he rose from the dead and in doing so he shows us that he has conquered sin in the grave and that we can have life in him because we believe in Jesus Christ. That's why we're here now celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He's alive and we worship a living Savior and so that corrects the misunderstanding. They were yet to understand that Christ is the resurrection and the life. They didn't understand the promises of Psalms. For example, Psalm 16 verse 10 where it says, you will not leave my soul in sheol nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption. They've been instructed. They were told, you need to have joy through all that you're going through, but their sorrow was through unbelief. They didn't expect him to be alive. Jesus in John 14, 28 had said, you have heard me say to you, I'm going away and coming back to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice because I said I'm going to the Father for my Father's greater than I. If you loved me, you'd be rejoicing. I'm going home instead of grieving and sorrowing. You see, Christians sorrow, we do. We sorrow over the death of a loved one. And sometimes I think our sorrow and our grief is deeper than that of the world. Why would that be? Why would I say something like that? Because in Christ, we love deeper. We know what love is. We know the cost of love. We follow Christ because he has given us love and God is love. And so we grieve deeply because we have deep relationships, but we don't grieve as those who have no hope because we know that we'll see them again. These were sorrowing because of unbelief, not just grief. So in verse three, they're speaking, it says that they said among themselves, who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us? Who's going to do that? Who's going to roll it away? Now, when you look at artist's conceptions of the tomb and all, there was a stone that was in the shape of a wheel. It would be placed on a ramp on an incline. And what would happen is there'd be a cut out of the cave, the tomb, the body would be placed in it, and then they would roll the stone and it would go down the incline and lodge into something that had been cut out in a rock. And it would be lodged that they'd put a seal over it. And so that stone that they're speaking about would weigh anywhere from 3,000 to 4,000. Some commentators said it could have weighed as much as 6,000 pounds. And so they're speaking amongst themselves and they're saying, who's going to roll it away? It's impossible for us to roll it up that incline. So their unbelief is provoking them to create a need that they cannot meet. Well, as they're speaking amongst themselves verse 4, it says, they looked up and they saw that the stone had been rolled away for it was very large. God answered the concern, the need that they had, that they had invented, to be honest with you, that need had already been met. We need to remember that many of the lessons that the Lord intends to teach us requires repetition. The theoretical and the intellectual is intended to become the experiential. And they needed to see this, they needed to see it in experience so they understand it. It said that the stone had been rolled away, which tells us that no one really needed to do it for them. God had done it himself. Matthew 28 tells us in verses 2 through 4, behold, there was a great earthquake. An angel of the Lord descended from heaven, came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it. His countenance was like light and his clothing is white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him. They became like dead men. Now, Jesus didn't need the stone to be moved. He could pass through it. In John 20, verse 19, it says, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, peace be with you. He didn't need it to be rolled away to have exited it, but the stone had been rolled away. That answers the question in verse 3, when they asked, who will roll the stone away? God was aware of what they'd need and he took care of it beforehand. Like it says in Isaiah 65, 24, even before they call, I'll answer. Well, they're still speaking. I will hear. And it wasn't done so that Jesus could leave the tomb. It was done to allow the women into the empty tomb. And so as they enter in, verse 5, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side and they were alarmed. Now, this is the angel that Matthew had earlier mentioned. You might find this interesting. I want you to notice how it says they saw a young man. In the Bible, angels are often assuming the appearance of men. They don't appear in the form of a woman and they definitely don't appear in the form of a baby. We see those pictures of the little fat cherubim, the little fat cherubs, they call them. You didn't see a little fat baby sitting there going, hey, da, da, go, go, or whatever. They didn't see anything like that. And notice he was clothed in a long white robe. Matthew 28, verse 3 says, his countenance was like lightning, his clothing as white as stone. There was a radiant purity about him, a holiness about him. And verse 6, but he said to them, do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He's risen. He's not here. See the place where they laid him. Now, Luke 24, verse 4 tells us there were actually two angels. One is speaking, but there are two. And in Luke 24, verse 5, it says, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, and this is an important question. Why do you seek the living among the dead? Now, in the presence of these glorious beings, the natural response is great fear, but the question, why do you seek the living among the dead? The Lord that they had come to honor as dead is alive. The other founders of all world religions have one thing in common. If they ever lived, they are all now dead. And what he said then is still true today. Why do you seek the living among the dead? Why are you looking for life amongst those who don't have it themselves? We have a risen Savior, one who is alive. We come to him for the words of life because he lives, and because he lives, we live because of him. That's how it works. And Jesus is alive. You see, it's useless to seek life in dead rituals or dead works or dead institutions. What he wants for us, and the Bible makes it clear, is to have a relationship with him. God wants to give us life through Jesus Christ. Jesus conquered the grave to show us that there's nothing that holds him back. He is alive, and he gives life to those who seek him. In Revelation 118, he said it like this. He said, I am the living one. I was dead, and now look, I'm alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death in Hades. Jesus is not dead, the same. Why are you seeking his body in this tomb? And as they say that, verse 6, continuing, they go on to say, he's risen. He is risen. He's not here, and see the place where they laid him. Calm down. Don't be alarmed. They're so startled as they see him. He's risen. You've come to the right tomb, but you came with the wrong expectation. Jesus is not dead. He is alive. He is risen from the dead, and then in verse 6, see the place where they laid him. There's your visible proof. The place where he had been is now empty. Now, Luke gives us more information in chapter 24. He's not here, but is risen. Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee saying, the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again, and they remembered his words. How did he bring, how did they bring comfort to their troubled souls? Well, they reminded him of Jesus's word. He's risen as he said. He reminds them of the resurrection, at something they'd been taught, in Caesarea Philippi, during the ministry of Christ, they were up north in the Galilee region, and Jesus had spoken and asked the question, who do men say that I am? And they said, well, some say John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets, and Jesus went on to say, but who do you say that I am? And that's when Peter said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And then Jesus began to speak, and he said, the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders, and chief priests and scribes be killed and be raised, he said, the third day. They remembered his words. It's trusting in the Word of God, the God who cannot lie. That gives you peace. And Psalm 119, verse 50, this is my comfort in my affliction. Your Word has given me life. Psalm 130, verse 5, I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his Word, I hope. So Jesus had taught them he would be resurrected and now make sense to them, and his words have been fulfilled, and it brings peace to them. In verse 7, he says, go tell the disciples in Peter that he's going before you into Galilee, and there you will see him, as he said to you, as he said to you. Remember they had fled that night. Jesus says, all of you will be scattered because of me. Strike the shepherd, the sheep will be scattered. They had all forsaken him and fled. But you need to tell something to Peter, and I want you to notice this. I'll say something, a couple of things about this. He says, go tell his disciples and specifically, and Peter. Why that? Why and Peter? Well, remember with me that it was the apostle Peter who said, all forsake you, I never will. I would die for you. Will you die for me, Peter? You're going to deny me tonight. No, I won't. I would, I love you. I love you so much that I would die for you. And there in that garden, when they came to take Jesus to arrest him, the apostle was making good on his word. He had drawn a sword and he had swung it. He had hit the ear of a servant of the high priest, a man by the name of Melchus. He tried to take his head off, and Jesus actually healed Melchus. And after doing so, we know the story, the all forsaken him, and they fled just like Jesus had said. And Peter had been mulling over and was very despondent over the fact that he had claimed to love Jesus more than them all. That I'd even die for you. And at one point he had demonstrated that indeed, he was willing to do that. I would die for you. But when it came down to it, Jesus's words were correct and they stung his heart. He needed to be cared for. He was that little sheep that was broken. And that's why Jesus is saying, you need to tell the disciples, but make sure you let the apostle Peter know. See, Peter thought that he loved Jesus more than the rest. And that's why when Jesus was restoring him in the Gospel of John, that's why Jesus said, Peter, do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than these others who have, you claim that you have, do you love me? He said, you know all things. You know, I have a deep affection for you, but no, I cannot in good conscience ever claim to love you more than anybody else because I'm just as guilty as everybody else. I first took you and I fled too. I denied you three times. Peter needed to learn something and sometimes we need to learn the same kind of thing. It's not the amount of love that Peter had for Jesus. It's the amount of love that Jesus had for the apostle Peter. That's what changes lives. Some of us get caught up trying to be good, trying to do the best that we can. I'm going to be the best person or even the best Christian. I'm going to be good. I tried that when I was a little boy. My mother was burdened with many illnesses, was hospitalized on a few occasions as I was little. I was around six years old and she went through a series of things that broke me as a little guy. I was just a little boy. My mother was in the hospital. I still remember being in my bedroom and mama was in the hospital and my dad walks into the room and my dad says to me, what are you crying about? My dad was not a very gentle and warm man before he got saved. He was pretty direct like a man of his time and I was crying. I was six years old. I'm weeping and I told him, I said, I miss mama. Mama's sick. She's in the hospital and my dad looked at me and he said, if you're a good boy, she'll get well. And so I tried to be a good boy. I went to catechism class. I was raised in the Catholic Church. I always went to catechism class. I did everything I could that a little boy could do because my dad had told me my mom will get well and I did that for eight years. I didn't do anything that the other kids did. I was involved in athletics. I did a variety of things that kept me out of trouble, but at the age of 15, I got tired of it. My mom continued being ill. My mom continued. She never got well. And so I said to myself, and again, I was only 15 when I started doing this, that I said, you know, all this good stuff doesn't work. I might as well do what's in my heart. I'll do what I want to do. That's why I got involved in the alcohol and later on into the drugs and kinds of things that go along with that, the stealing and the various other things that I got involved in at the early age. Because I wanted to show God that I was a good person who could love him. It's not the amount of love I had for God. Nobody ever told me the amount of love he had for me. And maybe there's somebody in this room right now you're trying so hard to be good. Trying so hard because you want to show others in God himself how much you love him. But the fact is he loves you more than you'll ever love him. That's why he sent Jesus. So he could take your sin upon himself because you can't do it. You'll never be that good. There's only one good man who's ever lived and that's Jesus Christ. He's the only one who has ever been truly good. And that's why we need a Savior and that's why we trust in His Word. And Peter is like a lost sheep. So he says, let my men know, but make sure that you speak to this one here. He's calling this lost and broken sheep to himself. And he needed comfort. You see, failing to recognize that we have sin keeps us in bondage. And the only way to experience freedom is to confess to say, God, I agree with you. I have sinned and fall short of your glory and to repent, to turn away from it. The Psalmist in Psalm 32 verse 5 said, I acknowledge my sin to you. Didn't cover up my inequity. I said, I'll confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin. So these words were intended to communicate the grace of God to the apostle Peter. He didn't clearly know what was happening that morning, but sooner you would. Jesus is alive. Jesus will forgive his sin and Jesus will use him mightily and armed with that message the rest of his life would be spent sharing about the Lord. And Peter wrote an epistle, a letter called 1 Peter where he said in chapter 1 verse 8, though you have not seen him, you love him, even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. Having this relationship in the midst of a world that is truly going crazy. We have a right path. We have a right direction. We have the word of God. We have the power of the Holy Spirit. We have the communion of saints. We have friends who love us and encourage us. We have a message to give to this lost world, this lost and depressed world, a hopeless world. This world is on steroids. When I got saved, we had revolution. We had every kind of revolution you could think of. We had concern for the environment. We had concern over wars. We had concern over the pollute. We had concerns in the same way. And that's when God began to move and that's when God began to reach a generation. I was 20 years old and the Holy Spirit when he grabbed hold of my life and he told me through the word of God, I can change you. I'm not asking you to change yourself. You repent and I'll transform you. You repent. Let me do the work at you. You agree with me. You confess your need for me and I will work within you. I have friends who cannot believe to this day, cannot believe what God did in my life. If you'd have told them that one day David Rosales would be up here in a pulpit on an Easter sharing the good news of the gospel, they would have said you must be talking about a different David. That's not the David I know. But you know what? God transforms lives doesn't he? God forgives sin doesn't he? God makes you brand new doesn't he? He makes you new. And it isn't because you clean up your own act. It's because you said God be merciful to me. I'm a sinner. I don't know what to do. I'm hopeless and I'm helpless and I need your help. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. I'm tired of hurting people. I'm tired of being known for being evil. I want a new life. And then you hear the gospel. God so loved the world he gave has only begun something. That whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. God sent his sin into the world not to condemn it but that through faith in Christ we could be saved and if anyone's in Christ he's a new creation. Old things pass away. Behold all things become new. You made every sin. Yes every sin can be washed away. I can be brand new absolutely transformed from the inside out. Not by your works of righteousness but according to his mercy. He loves you. He sent his son. How much more how much more can he do? And some of us have been running from him for a long time. Some of us are aware of his promises but we won't take him at his word and some of us have tried to be good on our own and we have failed miserably and others of us have never even asked him. And this will be your opportunity now if you need to get right with the Lord so you can also proclaim the reality of a risen Savior. You can come to faith at him today. You can give your heart to Jesus.