- Well I absolutely love Easter. And when you're the
pastor and it's Easter everybody already knows what
you're gonna talk about. Christmas and Easter, and some
preachers struggle with that. In fact, every once in a
while, I'll get a text, this week I did from
pastors, like hey, pray for me, I'm trying to
figure the Easter thing out. I'm like, figure the
Easter thing out? (congregation laughing) My goodness, this is
like the Super Bowl. I mean, this is like the thing. This is like, this
isn't peripheral, this isn't hey, have
you heard the one about. This is the one everybody's
heard a little bit about and we get to repeat
it and talk about it because at Easter,
obviously we celebrate the resurrection of
Jesus, but the point of it is that Easter actually
points to the answer to a question that
everybody should ask. And I don't wanna say
it's the most important question in the world
because you may disagree so I won't go that far. But I'll tell you what, it's
a really important question and it's a question
everybody should ask and if you haven't asked
it since you were a kid or maybe you haven't asked
it since you left faith or you haven't asked it as
a Christian in a long time, you should ask it. This is the question
everybody should ask at some point in their life
and Easter points to the answer to the question and the
question is who is Jesus. And the resurrection,
this is so important, the resurrection
is what convinced his first century followers
that he was the Jewish messiah, that he was the son of God,
that he was God in a body. It wasn't his teaching
that convinced them. It wasn't even his other tricks or his other
miracles, depending on how you interpret those
things that convinced them. It was the resurrection
and the resurrection has been convincing
people ever since. But if this is your
first time with us at any of our churches
or first time to tune in or to watch online,
here's something you need to know about us, we don't believe that
Jesus rose from the dead because the Bible tells us so. It is way, way, way, way better and more substantial than that. We believe Jesus
rose from the dead because a first century
follower of Jesus named Matthew documented
the life of Jesus and documented the resurrection. And we believe because
a Greek named Mark who was a friend of Peter got
Peter's story out of Peter and concluded in
the first century that Peter was telling the truth and that Jesus actually
rose from the dead. And we believe because
a doctor named Luke, who was also a
Greek, who traveled around the area of Judea and
traveled around the world with the apostle Paul
came to the conclusion that he'd met enough people
who'd seen the resurrected Jesus that Jesus was alive and
he gave us an account and we call it the
Gospel of Luke. And at the beginning
of that gospel, he says to the person
he was writing this for, Oh excellent Theophilus,
I have sat down like many have to give
an orderly account of the events that
took place among us. And we believe because
the apostle Peter in the two letters he left
the first century church declared that Jesus
rose from the dead. And we believe Jesus
rose from the dead because, this is
my favorite, James, the brother of Jesus concluded
his brother was his lord. What would your brother
have to do to convince you he was your lord, exactly. And James did not believe
Jesus was his lord when Jesus was doing
his earthly ministry. He was not impressed by
his sermons, apparently. He was not impressed
by his tricks. He was not impressed by
the supposed miracles. But James the brother
of Jesus shows up as the pastor of the
church in Jerusalem and is stoned because
he will not go along with the religious
tradition because he insists that his brother,
his crucified brother who rose from the
dead was his lord. And we believe because
the apostle Paul who stepped onto
the pages of history as someone who was committed
to doing away with the church concluded that Jesus was
in fact the Jewish messiah, he was the son of God,
and that he actually rose from the dead,
and he knew this because of a personal revelation and because he spent
so much time with Peter and Andrew and James and John and James, the brother of Jesus. And these
extraordinary brave men documented what they saw, documented what they heard, documented what they
heard from others who had seen the
resurrected Jesus. And these documents
were collected and they were protected
and many years later they were combined
and put into a volume we call the Bible. But long before there
was the B-I-B-L-E, there were men who
were witnesses of and friends of witnesses of
the resurrection of Jesus. And besides that,
the story of Jesus isn't even worth telling. The story of Jesus
wasn't even worth telling or documenting apart
from the resurrection. Apart from the resurrection, Jesus was just
another Jewish rabbi that went off the rails. Apart from the
resurrection, Jesus is just another wannabe messiah
executed by Rome. They come and they go. And the people who
were closest to Jesus are so excruciatingly honest, in fact it's one of the reasons you should take their
account seriously. They do not write
themselves into the story as heroes in the story. They write themselves into
the stories as doubters because in fact they doubted. They expected Jesus to do
what all dead people do. Do you know what
all dead people do? They stay dead. Nobody, nobody, even
his closest followers, even the most
committed among them, nobody expected no body. Nobody was standing
outside the tomb counting down from 10
backwards on Easter morning, 10, nine, eight, cue the sun, seven, six, nobody was out there because every single
person who loved and was devoted to Jesus
determined they had been fooled, they had been tricked, he
was not who he claimed to be. Because the problem with
Jesus was not what he taught. The problem was Jesus
was not what he did. The problem with Jesus was
what he claimed about himself. And if he was telling the
truth about who he was, clearly he lied, because
you can't crucify the resurrection and the life. You can't execute God's
messiah that the Jews had been waiting on
for hundreds of years. You can't put the
son of man to death. The other person
that was a eyewitness and a follower of Jesus
who gives us his account is John, Matthew,
Mark, Luke, John. And John was a witness
of both the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus. And he details both for us. But like the others
who followed Jesus, he did not expect either. He did not expect a crucifixion and he did not expect
a resurrection. Do you know what he expected? He expected a king. John tells us that after Jesus
raised Lazarus from the dead just two miles from Jerusalem, a miracle that went beyond
all the other miracles because Lazarus hadn't
been dead for a few hours. They'd already had the funeral. And just a few miles
outside of Jerusalem so many Jewish people
put their faith in Jesus after the resurrection
of Lazarus because it was an
undeniable act of God for anybody who saw
it, that many, many, many Jewish people put
their faith in Jesus and there was a
groundswell of support. They had all the momentum. They had the crowd. John said, after
the resurrection, many, many believed in him. But the problem was it was
too many who believed in him. And Jesus' enemies
back in Jerusalem decided they'd had enough. Something had to be done. If they didn't do
something about Jesus, in their words, the whole
world would go after him. They knew Jesus was coming
to Jerusalem for Passover. The city would be crowded. They decided this was
their best opportunity to take him out. They would wait 'till after
all the festivities were over, as people were leaving the city, thousands and thousands
of visitors and travelers in the city at that time,
they would isolate Jesus form the crowd, they
would arrest him, and they would make sure
they could convince Rome to ultimately execute him. So as Jesus and his disciples
leave the area of Bethany and move toward Jerusalem,
the crowd knows he's coming. The city is full of spies. The city is full of fans. This is if they're so
much patriotic zeal during Passover in Jerusalem. Passover was a
reminder to the Jews that God once upon a
time a long time ago had delivered the nation from
the bondage of the Egyptians and they hoped one
Passover would come along when God would
deliver the nation from the bondage of Rome. And perhaps this
was that Passover. Because there was so much
momentum behind Jesus, perhaps it would
be during Passover that he would rip
off his rabbinic robe and declare himself king. As he makes his
way into the city he's met by hundreds
and hundreds, maybe thousands of fans
declaring him lord, declaring him king, it gets
political very quickly. He comes into the
city a few days before the final
Passover Sabbath. He makes his way to the temple. He teaches and preaches. He works his way freely
through the city. People are watching
him at all times, waiting for that
moment when they can carve him away from the crowd. And while he's there,
Judas runs out of patience, goes to the temple leaders, and says, I can isolate
him from the crowd. I can isolate him
and his few followers at a time that it will be
easy for you to arrest him. And he does his deal. Toward the end of that week,
after he came into the city, Jesus celebrates the final
Passover with the 12. And while he is there, he
increases their expectation that perhaps this is the time
he will declare himself king. While they're having that meal, Jesus announces that
he's establishing a
brand new covenant. And for these Jewish young men who'd been raised
listening to Torah and being taught the prophets, they knew that the
prophet Jeremiah had prophesied that one
day God would in fact declare a brand new
covenant with his people and Jesus indicated
that this is that time. I am about to
inaugurate the covenant with all of mankind
that God promised so many years ago. A covenant, he said,
that will be established and they had no
category for this. That would be
established in his blood. In his blood? And then he said this,
the terms and conditions of this new covenant
are very simple. Once upon a time the terms
and conditions of a covenant were very complicated
because they were given to a very, very specific
group of people. But this is a covenant
for the whole world. This is an arrangement between
God and the human race. And the terms and the
conditions are very simple. It is one new command. You are to love
each other the way that I have loved you. You are to love each other
not the way you've been loved, not the way you wanna be loved. This isn't do unto others as you would have
other do unto you. This is a whole nother thing. Gentlemen, you are
to love each other. You are to love the world
the way I have loved you. And the next day, he would
put on a demonstration of love that would take
their breath away. And this was to
be the trademark, this was to be the brand
of this brand new movement. Clearly, they thought, he is
about to declare himself king. Clearly, he is about to do
something for the nation. But unbeknownst to them, Jesus
was about to do something for you, and you, and for you, and for the whole world. They leave that meal
and that very night, as you know, Judas
has betrayed Jesus. He's worked it all out. He's isolated from the crowd. He's in the garden. Judas knows his pattern. Judas knows his habits. And Jesus is arrested. He's taken to the high priest
where he's falsely accused. He's beaten. Later they take him to Pilate because they want
Jesus executed, and they want him
executed quickly, before the crowd
changes their mind about who this false
messiah really is. They take him to Pilate. Pilate doesn't wanna have
anything to do with it, but they convince
Pilate to talk to him. And Pilate comes out
and says, seriously, I can find nothing
wrong with this man. There are no charges
worthy of death. And they say, he must
die, he must die. So Pilate gives in and
decides, you know what, I will have him flogged,
I'll have him beaten within an inch of
his life, and surely when I bring out the beaten
and broken and bloody wannabe king, surely
the crowd will change and they won't force me
to execute their king. And he has Jesus flogged
and he brings him out and he's looking for
mercy from the crowd. And instead they say
no, it's not enough. He must die, he must die because he claims to
be the son of God. He must die because he
claims to be a king. And Pilate, if you are
a friend of Caesar, you cannot be a
friend of this man and you cannot be
allow this man to live. And Pilate relents
and he gives in. And John, who was there
for all of this says, at that point the soldiers
took charge of Jesus. And carrying his own cross, he went out to the
place of the skull. Again, John is writing this
as an old man thinking back. He's dictating this probably,
because he's too old to see. He probably can't
write by this time. He's dictating this and someone
is taking this down in Greek because Greek is the
language of the Empire, that part of the Empire,
and this is a story for the whole world about
simply a part of the world. And he says he was taken to
the place place of the skull. And there they crucified him. No details are given because
no details are necessary. Everyone who would hear this
story in the first century, everyone who would hear this
story in the second century had seen or had seen the
aftermath of a crucifixion. He was crucified
with two others, one on each side and
Jesus in the middle. And then John records the
words of Jesus from the cross. And John gives us a detail
that would be unnecessary unless it were true, in
fact, he gives us a detail that would be easy to discount
or show that it wasn't true unless it was true. John said that as he stood there gazing and wanting to look away, but gazing and wanting to look
away he stood beside Mary, Jesus' mother, and
Jesus said to him, John, Mary is now your mother. And Mary, John is now your son. And this was Jesus'
way of saying take care of my mom. And John said, I was
there and I heard him utter his last word when
he said, "It is finished." And then he said I watched
as he bowed his head and died. And then John does the
most unusual thing. These are words that if
you are reading the gospel on your own you would
get to these words and skip right by because
they don't seem significant. They don't seem to
carry any meaning and they are extraordinarily,
extraordinarily important. John pauses, reflects, and then makes this statement, not for his immediate audience, but for future generations. For us, for you. And here's what he writes. The man talking about
himself, the man who saw it, in other words, I saw this. I didn't hear about it, I
didn't read about it, I saw it. The man who say it has
given his testimony, in other words,
I'm swearing to you that this is exactly
how it happened. The man who saw it has
given his testimony, and his testimony is true. And he knows, he
says, and he knows that he tells the truth,
and he testifies so that. And then it's as if John
reaches out through the ages and grabs each of
us by the shoulders and looks into our
eyes and he says, my testimony is
true and I testify so that you also, like
me, the eyewitness, so that you also, even though
you were not there to see it, that you also would trust
that I'm telling you the truth and that you also would
respond like I responded to this story, that
you also may believe. To which we may respond,
well that's easy John. So far, so good. So far we got a wannabe messiah
that gets executed by Rome. I believe. So far you got a rabbi who
kinda went off the rails and fooled his followers and
finally the religious leaders caught up with him
and got rid of him. We believe. So far Rome simply crucifies
another wannabe king. I mean, we believe,
it's easy to believe. To which John would
say no, no, no. Not that part. What happened next. Not that part. It's this next part you'll
have a hard time believing. But I promise you,
I swear to you my testimony is true, what
happened next happened. I was there, I saw it all. Later, he's says, later
Joseph of Arimathea, a specific name, so much detail, asked Pilate for
the body of Jesus. Why, because you couldn't
bury a crucified body unless you bribed someone,
the centurion on site, or in this case, Pilate. They asked Pilate for the body
and with Pilate's permission, he came and he
took the body away. And he was accompanied
by somebody that showed up earlier in
John's gospel, Nicodemus. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had
visited Jesus at night. And Nicodemus brought a
mixture of myrrh and aloes, and about 75 pounds of
things to embalm Jesus' body. Why, because these
men expected Jesus to do what dead men always do. Stay dead. And taking Jesus' body,
the two of them wrapped it, with the spices,
in strips of linen. This was in accordance
with Jewish burial customs. This was John's way of
remembering, oh yeah, there will be people
who hear this account, hopefully, who read
this account hopefully that don't understand
all the Jewish customs. I want them to
understand what happened at such an important moment. At the place where
Jesus was crucified there was a garden, and
in the garden a new tomb, a cave, in which no
one had ever been laid. And because, and because
it was the Jewish day of preparation, and
since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. This was his way of
saying they were in hurry. The sun was about to set. Once the sun set
the Sabbath began. And none of this
work would be lawful as when the Sabbath began. So they hurriedly prepared
Jesus's body for burial, put him in this tomb, this cave, had their slaves roll
the stone in front of it, and they left. And John, along with
Peter and perhaps others, but for sure John and Peter, they disappear into
the city as well. We don't know what
John did that night. We don't know what John and
Peter talked about that night. But they knew that these last
three years of their life were a waste of life. They were so convinced Jesus
was who Jesus claimed to be and the fact that he
was arrested so quickly and crucified so
quickly, I mean, these events went by so quickly they were just beginning
to catch up emotionally. We don't what they
did that night. We don't know what
they did on Saturday. But John tells us that
early Sunday morning they were awakened,
assuming the slept at all. They were awakened to
someone banging on the door. And certainly their
first thoughts is the officers or the
soldiers have found us, but then they realized
Roman soldiers don't knock. They just kick in
the door and come in so they go to the door
and they open the door and there's Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene was one of
Jesus' most devoted followers. She had followed
Jesus for a long time because Jesus had delivered her. And Jesus had performed
a miracle for her. She was one of the women
that followed Jesus that was so grateful
because Jesus consistently elevated the dignity of women and elevated the
dignity of children and elevated the
dignity of everyone and she was so brokenhearted like all the women
followers were when Jesus was crucified. And she's banging on the door. They open the door
and she's panicked. She's sobbing, they can barely
understand what she's saying and she says to Peter and John, they have taken the
lord out of the tomb, and we don't know
where they've put him. We went to the tomb to make sure his body was properly prepared. The stone was rolled away. We looked inside and
there was no body. Someone, and she assumes
what anyone would assume, not a miracle, not
a resurrection. No one writes themselves
into the story as heroes or believers. None of them believed Jesus
would rise from the dead. She looked into an empty tomb and she assumed what you would
assume in the first century. Somebody has stolen the body. Someone has taken
the body of our lord and we don't know where
they, whoever they are, put him. And John tells us that
whereas they'd been hiding the night before,
suddenly they felt the urgency of the
moment, and they knew where Jesus' body had
been put the night before. And John says, so Peter
and the other disciple, speaking of himself,
started for the tomb. Both were running, but
the other disciple, talking about
himself, outran Peter and reached the tomb first. Now this is an
interesting detail. I have a theory. By the time John dictated
this, I think he chuckled. By this time Peter had been
executed in Nero's Rome. And he thought to himself, I think it's safe
to tell this detail. Peter's not here
to be embarrassed. I outran him to the tomb. (congregation laughing)
People should know that. And then John steps
back and realizes, okay, but if I'm gonna tell
that part of the story, I have to tell the entire story. John says when I got there, I
got to the outside of the tomb and I bent over and I looked in at the strips of
linen lying there, but I'll be honest,
I didn't go in. And why didn't he go in? It was dark. It was a tomb. Such honesty. He's no hero, he's
as confused as all of Jesus' followers were on
this first Easter morning. He said, then eventually my
friend Simon finally caught up. Then Simon Peter
cam along behind me and he went straight
into the tomb. And why did he go
straight into the tomb? Because he was Simon Peter and that's what
Simon Peter would do. Simon Peter didn't wait. He spoke too soon,
he acted too soon. He was always
getting into trouble and he went straight
into the tomb. And John says,
here's what we saw. We saw the strangest thing. We saw what we did
not expect to see. Because when someone
steals a body, they take the body and
everything with it. But what we saw in that moment convinced us that the world,
our world, had changed. He saw the strips of linen lying
there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped
around Jesus' head. The cloth was still
lying in its place, separate from the linen. This wasn't a mess, this
wasn't a rushed job. Thieves would not take time to disembalm or unembalm a body. And John finally musters up
the courage to step inside. He says finally, I'll
admit, finally, I was late, the other disciple who had
reached the tomb first, I do want you to know that, (congregation laughing)
also went inside. And then John gives
us his formula. This is the formula we
find throughout the gospel. This is the formula he wants
to leave his readers with. Because it takes us
to the epicenter of
the Christian faith. And John said, speaking
of himself, he saw and when he saw, he put
two and two together. And he believed. And his world changed. Because the
resurrection of Jesus reframed his entire life. It reframed everything
about his life. Suddenly it dawned on him, everything Jesus
taught was true. Everything Jesus said about
God the father was true. He realized that in the moment when they had that
difficult conversation, that final Passover,
when Philip said hey, Jesus just show us the father and Jesus said that crazy thing that should have got, you know, this is when everybody
should've gotten up and left the room, and
Jesus looks at Philip and looks at the guys
in the room and says, if you've seen me,
you've seen the father. I am close to
every understanding what God is like
as you'll ever get. Why do you think I came? And in the moment
when it dawned on John that we don't know
where Jesus is, but clearly he has
risen from the dead. I saw him crucified,
I saw him died, I saw him embalmed,
I saw him buried, and he has risen. And suddenly everything
lines up for John. Who could imagine, who could
imagine so great a mercy? What heart could fathom
such boundless grace? He invited a tax
gatherer to follow. He elevated the dignity
of every single person. He spoke to centurions,
the rich, the poor, the empowered, the disempowered. The God of ages has
stepped down from glory to wear my sin
and bear my shame. This was his message. That in the beginning
was the word, and the word, don't
ask me to explain it, he would say, all
I can say is this, the word which is God became
flesh and dwelt among us. The best way I can
describe it, he would say, is this, it's as if
the light of the world entered the world and
lit up the world for us. And on that Easter
morning, when I recognized that he had risen from the dead, it all came together for me. And John and Peter
and the others would eventually see
Jesus alive from the dead. They would have conversations. John, you should read them, records many of
these conversations. But one in particular, I
wanna read to you as we close. You see, when
Jesus was crucified and everybody knew
the game was over and there was no
movement to keep moving. There was no cause
to keep going. There was nothing to keep alive because Jesus declared
too much about himself. This wasn't like some
of the other movements in culture where
people, you know, the leader goes away or
the leader is assassinated and people wanna
keep the dream alive or people wanna keep ideas alive or people wanna keep
the teaching alive. There was no teaching
to keep alive because Jesus, so much of his
message was all about him. Said there was no future,
and when they realized there was no future,
they scattered. Peter and John stayed in town. Some of the disciples
went back to Bethany where Lazarus lived, and
some of the disciples, we don't know where they went. They just knew that there
was a price on their head and one of those
disciples was Thomas. And John gives us
the detail of Jesus' first encounter with
Thomas, he says this. Now Thomas, one of the 12,
was not with the disciples, or he could have
said was not with us when Jesus came
to the rest of us. And we told him, we
said, Thomas, Thomas, we have seen the lord,
because jesus' sightings were circulating all over
Jerusalem and in that vicinity and apparently Thomas
heard about this, that people are saying that
Jesus is back from the dead. And Thomas makes his
way back to the area, makes his way back to the city and he finally reconnects
with the disciples and they're like Thomas,
where have you been? The lord, he is alive. But Thomas isn't superstitious. Thomas is just,
felt like he just spent three years of his
life chasing a false messiah. Now he's not gonna spend
the rest of his life chasing a ghost and a rumor. And he says to them,
fellas, unless I see the nail marks in his
hands and put my finger where the nails were,
and put my hands into his side, I
will not believe. John, I love you, but
your word's not enough. Peter, I love you, but I
think you're seeing things. The rest of you guys, I
love you guys, but no. I'm not gonna dedicate
the rest of my life talking about a dead man
who came back to life unless I see him, and
who can blame him. A week later, so much detail. His disciples were
in the house again, and Thomas was with them. And John say, I
know this is odd, but I'm just telling
you how it happened. I've just asked you to trust
that my testimony is true. I have suffered
for what I believe. I have been exiled
for what I believe. I'm telling you, this
is how it happened. We were in the room and
the doors, I promise you, they were locked and Jesus
came and stood among us and he said, "Peace
be with you." And of course he
said peace be with us because he scared us to death. (congregation laughing) And then he looked at Thomas. Then he looked at
Thomas and he said, Thomas, put your finger here. See my hands. Reach out your hand
and put it to my side. It's me. It's me, Thomas I love this, the literal Greek
translation of this verse that in some of our English
bibles gets a little wonky is literally this, Do not be unbelieving,
but believing. Do not be unbelieving,
but believing. John included this
little piece of narrative because again it goes
back to his central theme, do not be unbelieving,
but believing. And Thomas answered
and said to him, my lord, wow, my God. And then Jesus told him, Thomas I understand why you doubted. Thomas, I understand
why you didn't believe. Thomas, you're just like
the rest of these guys. Don't let 'em fool you, don't
let them give you a nickname like Doubting Thomas,
because none of the believed. All of them doubted, not
one single guy in this room believed I was risen from
the dead until they saw me, even when they looked
into that empty tomb. Don't be deceived,
don't be an unbeliever. Be believing, and then
are you ready for this? At this moment, Jesus
leaves his immediate context and he looks through the ages and he looks at you
and he looks at me. He leaves his immediate context and knowing that this
story would be told for generations and for
centuries with you in mind and with me in mind, he says
to the group gathered that day, "Blessed are those
who have not seen "and yet have believed." You believe because you've seen, but blessed is that
future generation, blessed are the people
that come after you. Blessed are the people you tell. John, blessed are the people
that read your account. And Matthew, blessed are
those that read your account. And Peter, blessed are those
that read your account. Blessed are those
future generations that hear and believe
but have not seen. And then John closes
his account with this, he closes it with an
invitation for all of us. And his invitation is simple. It's what he has said
throughout his gospel. John would say, I just
want you to believe that. And then I want you to trust in. I want you to believe
that my testimony is true and I want you to believe that Jesus is who
Jesus claimed to be. And once you're convinced that
he's who is claimed to be, I want you to take
one more step. I want you to place
your trust in, I want you to believe that,
I want you to believe in. I want you to believe that,
I want you to believe in. Here's how he says
it, he says Jesus performed many other signs in
the presence of his disciples, we saw them, which are not
recorded in my document. But these, the
ones I've selected, the conversations I've selected, the signs I've selected, the miracles I've selected, these are written, not
simply so that you would know what happened, these
have been written by me and I've ordered
them in such a way that you may believe that
Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, that's
the believe that. I want you to take my word for
what he said about himself. I want you to believe that, and then I want you
to do one more thing. But these are written
that you may believe that Jesus is the
Messiah, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. I want you to believe that. But I want you to
personally trust in. And why? If we were to ask John why, these would be our
words, not his, but this would be his message. He would say, I'll tell you why. Because there came that morning, that sealed, that punctuated, that authenticated the promise. His buried body
began to breathe. And out of the silence that we thought would
be silent forever, the roaring lion
declared, the grave has no claim on you or me. For God so loved
the whole world, John concluded after
being with Jesus, that he gave us his only
son, the light of the world, the word became flesh,
that whoever, here it is, believes in him, would
not be lost to God, would not perish, but have,
John says don't ask me to explain it, I'm
just telling you, would have eternal life. That was Jesus'
invitation to John. That's your heavenly father's
invitation to all of us. And our hope this Easter season is that that would
become personal for you. That based on John's account
you would believe that. And then you would trust in.
