Season 1, Episode 5: The Hope of Jesus' Victory
The Hope of Jesus’ Victory
Have you ever seen the movie Finding Nemo? It seems like probably everybody has, but if you haven't seen it in a while, early in the movie, Nemo, the Fish has a stubborn moment and he goes out in waters in the ocean that he isn't supposed to be in. He gets caught and taken and put in a fish tank. His dad that's been afraid of almost everything for some time, he goes across the ocean. He meets all kinds of different fish and he's trying to find his son, trying to reunite them. And in the middle of the movie, especially as a kid, it seemed impossible that the two would reconnect. But like so many movies, they end up coming back together in the end. They face all kinds of very difficult obstacles, but against all odds, they end up coming back together.
And this is a similar setup to many movies. And in this setup, there's a beginning to the movie where a problem arises, there's a middle that you can't see how everything's gonna work out. And in the end, We usually get this satisfying resolution to the problem that came up in the beginning. And sometimes in our lives, we get caught in the middle. We've seen a problem come up, but we don't see how the resolution is gonna work out. We're caught in the middle. We see this impossible challenge, but we can't see how to get to the finish line.
Several weeks ago now, we celebrated Easter and the events of Palm Sunday and Good Friday and. On my Instagram feed, there was a trend that went around and it was asking why we call Good Friday. Good. Maybe you saw some videos similar to this and people would say why is Good Friday good? Jesus got murdered. He was betrayed by some, one of his closest friends, and maybe you found yourself asking some other questions about the death Mari resurrection of Jesus. We all know the incredible sacrifice that Jesus made, but. What does the resurrection of Jesus mean for us today? Does it say anything about our hope in the midst of our crazy world we live in today? But moreover, I believe that the resurrection of Jesus is the perfect resolution to our story. But before we get into that, let's cue the music.
The Problem of Death
I remember when I was real young, my mom had a chihuahua. She had her for a long time. The dog's name was Prancer, and we called her Prancer because when you would eat food or whenever you had something that she wanted, she would go up on her back two legs and put her front paws in the air and kind of do this little dance trying to get your attention and trying to trying to get whatever you had.
And she was full of life and energy and fun and. But as she got older, she lost a lot of that energy and ended up having some health problems. Eventually, after dealing with those health problems for some time she passed away and it was hard for my whole family. It sounds silly sometimes when we talk about you animals passing, but it's a loss in the family.
We picked a spot under a tree in our backyard and we ended up burying her out there. And, I remember as a young kid, it was, maybe silly looking back, but I remember praying and asking God to raise her back from the dead because the pain of losing her hurts so bad, even for an animal, even as a young kid.
And obviously I'm not going around doing that now over animals, but as a kid, the pain of loss hurts so much that even just that prayer felt like a little bit of hope. And likely all of us have faced some kind of heartache and pain like that. And many, even have experienced much more than that, experienced the death of a close loved one. And that pain can be so incredibly intense.
And while I mentioning the ensure that the resurrection of Jesus is the resolution to our problem, death is really the closing. The reason I bring this up is because just like in the intro where I talked about the different parts of the story of Finding Nemo, and you have the beginning with this problem. If you zoom out of the story of the world or God created the world and in it there was this problem of sin and whenever sin came up, so did death. And so this problem came up early on in the world and you go through and we see in the middle. Long ago that there wasn't a good resolution for it. People were sacrificing animals and doing all these things to try to make themselves right before God.
A Problem No Longer
As we fast forward on death is still this big problem. Sin and death are the problem in the story of mankind. And then Jesus comes along. God sends his son into the world to die on the cross for the sins of humanity. And he goes, and he dies on the cross for our sins and he's put in a tomb and three days later he's resurrected, raised from the dead. And that is the perfect resolution to the story of mankind.
And the reason is because no longer is death and sin our biggest problem. Max Lucado said, "View death through the lens of Christ's resurrection. The grave brings sorrow for sure, but it need not bring despair. The tomb could not hold Christ, and since Christ is in you, you will not long be in your tomb."
The reason this is so important for us to share and talk about, because honestly death is probably not something we as young adults think about frequently. The idea of death and even whenever it comes up in losing a loved one or something, it can take a lot of our hope. It can create worry and anxiety. And you might not think about it just in the day to day, but whenever a situation comes up where you do think about it, it can be really discouraging and maybe make you worried.
And that's one of the most powerful aspects of Jesus's resurrection. Is that if Jesus could be killed, placed in a grave for three days and still come back to life, and then ascend to the Father, we can know that even though we face a physical death, Jesus has shown us that death isn't final. It's not the last stop. Death is simply a door to the incredible paradise that God has created for those who love him.
If you look at one Corinthians 15:54, It says, "Death is walled up in victory." Which is the opposite of what we saw all throughout mankind's story, because death was the biggest problem. It was the biggest concern. But now what we've seen through Jesus is that he died and was resurrected, but then he went to heaven. But whenever you consider that verse in one Corinthians, it shows that even the thing we were most concerned about, Ends up being a place of victory because of God's sacrifice and because of what Jesus did on that cross. And through the example of Jesus dying and being resurrected and then ascending to heaven, we can know the death does not have the power over God. God has worked it all out ahead of time.
The Promise of Heaven
But maybe you don't stress a whole lot about death, but have you ever looked at the world? And seeing all the pain, suffering, hunger, and wondered why is it like this? Why did God let the world come to this? Most of us have asked this question and it's a difficult thing to consider, but I want to tell you, and this is gonna loop back around in into everything else in a second, I promise.
But our earth was never supposed to be this way, way back in the story of Adam and Eve, we catch a glimpse of how the world was supposed to be. It was at peace. It was good. There was work to do, but it wasn't terribly strenuous or painful. God came through daily and walked and talked with Adam and Eve. Yet through the fall, all of that changed. We had to work hard to survive. The thorns grew up and animals began to turn on each other. Sin entered the world and just like I mentioned earlier, it was the big problem that came up.
But with Jesus' death and resurrection, it reminds us of the words in 2 Peter 3:13, it says, "In keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells." The point of all that talking about Adam and Eve is to tell you that God is going to bring the world back to the way he initially designed it, where there is righteousness, peace, and love abounding.
I like the way Max Lucado describes it. He says, "Everything new, the old will be gone. Gone with hospital waiting rooms, gone with tear stained divorce papers gone with motionless, ultrasounds gone with loneliness, foreclosure notices, and abuse, gone with cancer. God will lay hold of every atom of motion, insect, animal, and galaxy. He will reclaim every disease, body and afflicted mind. He says, I am making all things new.”
Anxiety about Eternity
Maybe you're like me and you've had anxiety occasionally about eternity, what it'll be like, and maybe just the vastness and incomprehensible parts of it. I understand. I really do. And even as I say this to you now, and as I've prepared for this, there's still glimpses of nerves in me over what eternity looks like, because it is difficult to comprehend and difficult to think about, if I'm being honest with you.
I want to tell you one of the things that's helped me as I've thought about this and because I know and can appreciate this world for whatever reason, it's comfortable in some ways and I understand it in some ways. There are difficulties and pains and struggles, but we've all been there, we've all faced those things and honestly, it makes sense. And I think that's why it's so difficult to comprehend eternity and heaven is because we've become comfortable here. And so it gets difficult to think about somewhere else that we haven't experienced because we're kind of comfortable in this.
But it's a lot like when you're in high school and you're in the middle of your senior year, high school isn't perfect, you enjoyed it, you had a good time. There were difficult things about it, classes were hard, maybe some people were annoying. And you feel like in high school you've made something of yourself in your school, and then you start to think about going to college and you get nervous because you've never done it. It's completely different. Maybeyou're moving away for college and so you're moving to somewhere you've never really been and you're trying to, you're trying to do something that you've never done. So while you're in your senior year of high school, you're thinking about the future, but you can't understand it because you've never been there.
It scares you a little bit because it's not familiar and we all know after high school, yeah, it was uncomfortable for a little while, but we go to college, we make some friends, everything pretty much worked out and I believe we feel the same way about eternity and what God has planned for us. On the inside, we know that God is preparing something good. That's what Jesus said in John 14:2-3, he said, "In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would've told you. I go to prepare a place for you."
We get anxious because it's unfamiliar and we don't fully understand it because we can't. But just like going from your senior year of high school to college, just because you don't fully understand it, you probably had some friends who told you about it and they're like, oh, it's not that bad. You'll get out there, you'll make some friends, everything will be okay. You hear from other people. I wanna tell you that through the scripture, we hear from Jesus himself saying, I'm going to prepare a place for you and it's good. If I wasn't going to prepare a place for you, I would've told you.
Wrap Up
So I want to wrap up what I've talked about. First of all, one of the things that we worry so much about, Is death. It was the biggest problem of mankind and truly, for a lot of people that aren't Christians that don't put their trust in Christ, it still is. But because of what Jesus did on the cross and because he was resurrected, we can see the proof that death is not stronger or more powerful than our God.
The second thing is that if you're like me, you get worried sometimes about what eternity could be like. There's two real things that we touched on. One is that God is creating a new heaven and a new earth. He's making all things new. The things that are bad here are not going to be that way in heaven. God is creating all things new. And the second is that God is preparing a place for us. And even though we can't see the future, we can't see what it's gonna be like. Whenever you take that step, you realize everything was okay the whole time. Jesus said He's preparing a place for us, and the truth of all of this is that Jesus's victory over death shows that there is something to be hopeful about, and even death that has been a staple problem for humanity for all time is no match for the power and the authority of God.
