The Encounter

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Christ is risen, hallelujah. He is risen indeed, hallelujah. It's great to have you here this day as we celebrate. Easter has not been canceled. The resurrection is not changed. Nothing has actually changed that actually matters in this world in terms of your eternal destiny and where you can be with your Lord forever. No, that is still true in this day and age. Even when we are socially apart, we are connected together. Over 2 billion strong throughout this world celebrating today one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Welcome to Thrive Community Church and our time together in God's Word today. Right now we're going to be starting to read our text, which happens to be from the Gospel of John, chapter 20, beginning with verse 1. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early. While it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb, so she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved and said to them, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter went out with the other disciple and they were going towards the tomb. Both of them were running together. But the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Peter came along following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there and the face cloth, which had been at Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb and as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him. Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Aramaic, which means teacher. Jesus said to her, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to the father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I'm ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her. Now, let's just say for argument's sake, in the mail this next week, you received an envelope from a law firm, not Morgan and Morgan are one of the ones that you always see on TV, but a law firm that you don't recognize. And yet it seems like it's a serious letter and it's addressed to you. Would you open it up? And if you did read it and when you opened up that letter and it had information in it that a recent relative of yours had passed away. And you were named the beneficiary in the will. And it is a relative distant, though, to you that you knew that some somebody had to let you know had passed away. Now, you might be skeptical about all of this. This sounds too good to be true. But would you just toss the letter away or would you at least investigate the next day, phone up the law firm to see what the real story is? You see, the offer is too great to just let it pass by. You would investigate. You would look into it. Well, the resurrection is like that. The offer is so great. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is so great. And the question is, I realize many people consider it a scam like one that you would receive in the mail or one that you would receive over the phone. You might believe yourself that it's too good to be true. You might be skeptical of it. It's just a projection of what people want to believe. But I dare say I want you to consider this. The offer is so great. So great. At least explore it. Investigate. What would it hurt if you actually did explore whether the resurrection happened? You know, not just write it off, throw it away, act like it's nothing worth looking into. Now, I dare need to say this, though, too. This offer that we have in the Christian faith is much different than other religious philosophies and world religions offering some feeling, some experience, some idea that you will have some type of a life after death. You know, some faiths offer an escape from this material world of suffering into a realm of...