Hope in Difficult Circumstances: the message of Easter

Hope in Difficult Circumstances: the message of Easter

In this talk we are encouraged to reflect on the wonder and majesty of the events of Easter. At the start, we consider the idea of Easter as God's great "Hail Mary", a phrase used to describe ‘hope in difficult circumstances.’ Easter is God's one great plan to save the world. No plan B. No backup arrangement. No second route waiting in the wings. When humanity first departed from God’s presence, God has single-mindedly set out to rescue and restore it through Jesus Christ. Easter is not God scrambling to recover a situation; it is the long-promised, decisive act of salvation at the centre of history.  We are challenged to think of Easter not simply as a tradition to observe, but an announcement to hear as we stand outside His tomb: "He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see." (Matthew 28:6)

That is the heart of Christianity. It begins not with advice, but with news: something has happened.

The women came to the tomb expecting to face a problem they could not solve. There was a huge stone in the way. But when they arrived, the stone had already been moved. The obstacle they thought would define the moment had already been dealt with. 

You know, we can often think that the stone was rolled away to let Jesus out of the tomb, but I wonder if it was rolled away to let Mary, Peter and John, look in? To let us look in and consider! Something has happened.

We thought a little about the evidence for that announcement. Christian faith is not a call to shut down your mind. The women are invited to come and see. It is an invitation to look, to ask, to think, and to consider. Jesus existed. Jesus died. The tomb was empty. His followers became convinced they had seen him alive. Their lives were changed. The church was born in the very place where he had been killed. At some point the question changes from did it happen, to what best explains the evidence?

If Jesus really went into death and came out the other side, then Easter is not a nice religious idea to brighten the spring, it is the turning point of history. It means death is not ultimate. It means sin is not final. It means despair does not get the last word. It means there is hope that is stronger than fear.

One of my favourite details in the Easter story is what Jesus says when the women finally meet him. You might expect something dramatic. Something thunderous. But his first word is simply, "Hello." Or in the original, "Hail." The first Hail Mary.

There is something so fitting about that. The risen Jesus is not distant, strange, or unreachable. He is alive, present, and near.

That is why Easter is an invitation as much as it is a declaration. Come and see. Bring your questions. Bring your doubts. Bring your need. Bring the places in your life that feel stuck, tired, fearful, or beyond repair. The risen Jesus is not just a figure from history to be admired. He is alive, and he still changes lives.

And that is where we ended: when the women heard the angel, hope flickered; when they saw the empty tomb, something woke up; but when they saw Jesus, faith became personal.

That is still how it happens.

And if Jesus is alive, then m

You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at https://www.youtube.com/@leobc2402/streams and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Ask Dean a Question link at the top of the episode description text.

Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:22

In this talk, we're encouraged to reflect on the wonder and majesty of the events of Easter. At the start, we consider the idea of Easter as God's great hail mary, a phrase used to describe hope in difficult circumstances. Easter is God's one great plan to save the world. There's no plan B. There's no backup arrangement. There's no second root waiting in the wings. When humanity first departed from God's presence, God has single-mindedly set out to rescue and restore it through Jesus Christ. Easter is not God scrambling to recover a situation. It's the long-promised, decisive act of salvation at the center of history. We are challenged to think of Easter not simply as a tradition to observe, but an announcement to hear as we stand outside his tomb. He is not here. He has risen just as he said. Come and see. That is the heart of Christianity. It begins not with advice, but with news. Something has happened. The women come to the tomb, expecting to face a problem they couldn't solve. There's a huge stone in the way. But when they arrived, the stone had already been moved. The obstacle they thought would define the moment had already been dealt with. You know, we can often think that the stone was rolled away to let Jesus out of the tomb. But I wonder if it was rolled away to let Mary, Peter, and John look in. To let us look in and consider. Something has happened.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Easter. Easter is Easter is the great rescue. All the stories of the world, they come to this point. This is the story we need to hear. So I've checked your hearing. We're listening carefully. The story is the one shot. This is the story that God gives us to say, this is the answer. This is what I'm going to do. This is what I have done. This is what's going to set the world right and change everything. There is a phrase that sums this up. It's a bit of an American phrase, although we we're familiar with it in this country. We call it a Hail Mary. Now you might say a Hail Mary is a Catholic prayer called a Hail Mary. We're not going to delve into that today. But in America, a Hail Mary is something in American football where it's a moment where everything's on the line, where you've got to make a pass. It's called a Hail Mary. Throw the ball a long way so the person can run up and get the last few points in the dying seconds of a game. It's kind of you do this or die. It's your last moment. If this doesn't work, nothing else will. So do you remember Johnny Wilkinson in the World Cup final? You know, back when it was good to support England rugby. This is not so good in a six and eight. That was awful. Anything worse than that is being a Welsh supporter, but it's it. No, back when you could be proud to support English rugby, and that moment is the dying seconds of the game. And what are they gonna do? So he drops the ball, everything goes in slow motion. I remember I just finished my paper round, I remember watching this, and the ball drops and he kicks and it sails and is it gonna make it? Yeah, it makes it. That's a Hail Mary kind of if he hadn't made that, they would have lost the game, lost the competition, it'd all been done for. But he makes it. That's a Hail Mary. The Hudson River landing, remember the miracle in the Hudson, 2011, I think it was. The plane took off, and both engines failed, they can't get back to the uh to the airport to land, and so they do the thing, the pilot decides, Sully is name. He says, I'm gonna do something that's never been done before. I'm gonna try and land on the river. And then so it says it's one I've got one shot. If this goes wrong, everything goes wrong. And he manages to land it, everyone on the plane survives. That's a Hail Mary, a moment where it's do or die. If this doesn't work and nothing else will work. There's a film at the moment called Project Hail Mary. Haven't seen it? I started reading the book last year. I didn't realize this, but I never finished it. Um, but Project Hail Mary, the story of that I understand, is a guy's gonna save the world. Something's happening. He needs to go into space to save the world. And if he doesn't do it, the whole world is gonna end. A very handsome guy, Ryan Goslin, in it. Can't recommend it, but please go um see it if you if that's your thing. This is it, this is a Hail Mary. This one shot, and that is what Easter is. Easter is the one shot, the one chance that God has to save the world. He doesn't have a plan B, doesn't have an alternative, there's no backup. If this doesn't work, there is nothing else. And so that's where we come to the story. And just before we start the story, there are a lot of Marys in the Bible. Okay? There's Mary the mother of Jesus, there's Mary the sister of Lazarus, there's Mary the mother of Mark, there's Mary who lives in Rome, there's Mary the mother of James, Mary the wife of Clopus, and Mary Magdalene. I think Matthew moved this, because when he wrote it, he said, after the Sabbath at dawn, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. I can't remember when to the other Mary, but he went to look at the tomb. So you've got these two Marys who are coming to look at the tomb. Uh they're making their journey. Yeah, Jesus has died, and when dead people die, they stay dead. And so they're going to the tomb, and on the way to their tomb, they're debating among themselves how are we going to get in? We want to anoint the body. We didn't manage to finish the preparation on Friday. We want to anoint it, but how are you going to get in? So Mary turns to Mary and says, Mary, how are we going to roll the stone away? And Mary goes, Mary, I'm I'm not sure how we're going to get rid of this stone. I mean, it's a two-ton stone. And the other Mary goes, Well, Mary, we're going to have to figure something out. And as they come up to the tomb, Bond Mary turns to the other Mary and says, Mary, is that an angel sat on the tone on the tomb? And the other Mary goes, Mary, you know I think it is. And they come to this angel and it says, There was a violent earthquake. An angel of the Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. And the angel said to the woman, Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He has risen just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples he is risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. Now I have told you. That line, he is not here, he is risen. Come and see. This is only one shot that God's got. And there's only one thing that underlies all of Christianity. There are lots of religions, we sang that in our song, lots of beliefs, lots of truths that you can subscribe to, literally countless the things you could think of. But Christianity doesn't base itself on an idea. Love your neighbour, that's a nice idea, but it's not about that really. It's not be kind to other people, that's a nice idea, but Christianity at its heart isn't about that. It leads to that, but it's not really about that. Um, there is a God, that's an idea lots of people had, but Christianity doesn't even base itself on that. Paul says this: if Christ is not risen, then we are of all people to be pitied. If the resurrection didn't happen, then we've got nothing. Christianity says there's only one thing that makes the difference for Christianity, it's that something happened. And the angels, if you notice, what they say is, come and see the place where he lay. Ricky Gervais, a well-known comedian, said this, you Christians, you you believe in one God. Now he says, you don't believe in 4,000 other gods, but you believe in one. He says, I just believe in one less than you. That's a good line. That's quite clever. I like that. But he misses something of Christianity. Christianity isn't saying there are lots of gods and we like this one best because he's nice to us and he does nice things. Christianity says we believe this because there is evidence. Because it happened. Because you can go in history and you can look at the facts, you can explore this, you can, as the angels say, come and see for yourself. You can test this, you can touch it, you can explore the details around it and see whether it's true or not. And if it's not true, chuck it in the bin. But if it is the true, it changes everything. And so I've got here for the young ones, the one without wrinkles here today, a little stone. Do you want to take a stone, Gracie? And would you go all find all the other people without wrinkles and give them stones? Because Christianity, it's something, something solid. The tomb is empty. If you if you're not aware of this, maybe you even you're new to Christianity, you kind of think it's just a nice idea, isn't it? That Jesus is alive, he's with us. But that's not what Christianity says. It says something happened. Come and see for yourself. Consider the evidence. Here's the evidence, this is the minimum evidence, okay, that you have to deal with. Jesus died by crucifixion. All historians agree that Jesus died by crucifixion, that he was alive and then he died. But uh Bart Ehrman, he's a he's not a Christian, but he wrote this. The reality is that whatever else you may think about Jesus, he certainly did exist and he died by crucifixion. Jesus died and he was dead. Under Pontius Pilate, it's a historical thing. You can look it up. The history of this says he died. The second thing we have to deal with is the tomb is found empty. On that day they found the tomb, the stone rolled away. The story is told that women found the tomb. Now be careful about this. Today we would say, what's the issue with that? But back then a woman wasn't allowed to give testimony in court because her witness wasn't considered valid. And yet the story says that it is women who have the first report. The tomb is empty. They go and they check it. There is nobody. Nobody can find nobody. They're looking for it and he isn't there. The disciples believed Jesus rose and appeared to them. You might say, well, didn't they make this up, you know, Chinese whispered that it got passed down and then created? We can see from history that within a few weeks, perhaps even months, of the resurrection, this was being proclaimed. It wasn't something like Chinese whispered that happened over years. Very early on, the disciples are saying, something has happened. Jesus is risen. We didn't expect it, we didn't believe it, but he has appeared. He appears to more than 500 people at one time. The Bible actually says, look, 500 people are still alive. Go and check for yourself. Some of them have died, it says, but but most of them are still around. Go and check. This is not something we created or made up. And outside of the Bible, we're not just talking about the Bible, but other historians of the time, other people alive, testify, yeah, Jesus appeared. We couldn't explain it. Not all of them believe in Jesus, but they go, Yeah, that he's not there. He's alive and he appeared to people. People saw him. Then his skeptics and his enemies, people like Paul, who persecuted the church, became a believer. People like the brother of Jesus believed his own brother was a son of God and risen. He changed his mind. It wasn't just the disciples who were gullible and a bit naive and perhaps could be led to believe it. Others believed it. And the church grew. How do you convince people who believe in other gods that this weird carpenter from the middle of Israel is the son of God resurrected from the dead? Well, if he's alive and he meets with people, then it becomes a lot easier. If it's just an idea, these things that these aren't contested, these are historical facts, and they're the top five. There are hundreds of others, bits of evidence, but these are the things that have to be explained. What I'm saying is come and see. If you come to Christianity and you kind of go, well, it's all these bunch of nice people who are a bit bit naive and just like to believe nice things. One, we're not very nice. Um you just get to know us a bit. But also, it's based on something. There is something there, and you can prod it, you can poke it. In fact, it has more history to back it up than many other historical things that we take for granted. Caesar and his assassination and and then the rise and fall of Rome and all these other things that we believe and that we teach, there is more history around this than all those other things. Now, you may never have heard that or ever realize that, but you can test this, come and see. And I love that the angel does that. In fact, there is no one in scripture, no one who doubts, no one who questions, no one who wants to see who's told, just have faith. Just just believe it. All of them are told, well, come and see. Come and see the scars in my hand. Come and see the place where he lay. Come and come and explore for yourself. Your questions are not, they don't keep you at a distance. Your questions are allowed. They are how many people come to discover that Jesus is alive. And so they they say this. And the women then they run it away from the tomb, they hurry away, afraid yet filled with joy. There is only one foundation: the resurrection of Jesus. And there is only one solution that we're given. Three or four times in this passage alone, it says, Don't be afraid. Soldiers are afraid and they fall down, the women are afraid, and the angels tell them don't be afraid. Later on, Jesus will say, Do not be afraid. Let me just check something. Could you just stand up if you've ever been afraid? Okay. Could you could you sit down if you've been afraid more than once? Okay. Could you stand up if you've ever been told do not be afraid? Could you sit down if that's ever worked? Okay. There's something there, right? Because do not be afraid. Yeah, thank you very much. That doesn't really help. There are lots of things we can be afraid of. Some people have acrophobia. Anyone know what acrophobia is? Acrophobia is a fear of heights. Apparently, one of the um astronauts on the Artemis II shuttle was afraid of heights. I just love the idea of him looking out the window. He's like terrified. Agrophobia, you can be glossophobia. Anyone got glossophobia? Fear of public speaking. Offer offidiophobia. Anyone want offhodiophobia? Fear of snakes. Now it's interesting because it like with all these things, I'm I don't think we're afraid of height. I think we're afraid of falling. Or we're not afraid of falling, I'm afraid of hitting the ground. Or I'm not afraid of hitting the ground, I'm afraid of dying. I'm not afraid of snakes, I'm afraid that a snake will bite me. And I'm not afraid that it will bite me, I'm afraid it will poison me and I'll die. I'm not afraid of public speaking, I'm afraid that if I say the wrong thing, I might get lynched and attacked and driven out and lose my job and not be able to feed myself, and then I'll die. A lot of people with psychiatrists who deal with these things say that nearly every single fear, perhaps every fear, comes down to one fear, the fear that's called thanatophobia. The fear of death. The fear that ultimately that we will die. And that fear, if you look at the top 10 lists of phobias, that never appears in there because most of them say, well, it's the fear behind every fear. It's the puppet master that influences every other thing, that all of humanity, our fears are based in the fact that we die, that we might lose everything and come to nothing. And that fear drives us more than anything else. And so the Bible again and again says, do not be afraid. But as we've just seen, that doesn't work. Words alone are not enough. But if fear, if the fear of death was dealt with, if death was defeated, then I no longer need to be afraid of it. And if that big mummy of fear, all fear is defeated, then all the other fears suddenly become possible to live with and to overcome. In Hebrews it says this only in this way, there's only one way that this would work, that he could set free all who lived their lives slaves to the fear of dying. Slaves to the Greek is phobia of Thanatos, Thanatophobia, the fear of death. Jesus came and he lived and he died in the roads, because only in this way could he free those who live as slaves to the fear of dying. He says, This is our problem, and there's only one solution. Every other worldview, everything, everything else has to reckon with the fact that queens die and kings die, and prophets die, and warriors die, and philosophers die, and rich people die, and poor people die, and good people die and bad people die. And the love die and the forgotten die, the strong die and the young die. Every empire has buried its leader, every family has stood at a graveside, every generation has had to bow before the same enemy again and again. Death is the one constant, it has a perfect record until Jesus. Until Jesus, its perfect record, is broken and something changes. And that the options you have are you can learn to cope with this, you can learn to distract yourself from this, you can learn some ideas that try to create meaning on this side, but ultimately that meaning will be undone when you face it. Or we find something that once and for all deals with it. So those who got a little stone, Gracie, if I could ask you to do one more thing, if you go deliver a pen, and on your stone, I want you to draw the scary face on one side of your stone. Because this is the fear that the Easter comes to deal with. Jesus is alive, which means death is dead. Easter speaks into that. Death is is the one thing. It is ugly, it is brutal, it is biological, is gross, is something we don't want to face, we don't want to look at, we don't want to think about at any length, which is why we're doing it today. But it's the one thing that Easter says, it is done for. It is gone. Death no longer has any power. Death does not have the final word. And if that is gone, then everything else is easy. Everything else can be overcome. If you notice, it says that the women ran away fearful and full of joy. It's interesting that they're afraid and yet full of joy. They have it's not that the fear is disappears, but they now have something stronger than that fear. They have something greater than that fear. The joy that he is risen is greater than the fear of death. And so it doesn't mean that you become, there's no more fear in your life. You have something now in you that is greater than that fear. It's not been managed, it's not been medicated, it's not been masked, it's not been postponed. Death is defeated. And every other solution, there are hundreds of religions, they all swear they're true. Every other one teaches us how to live with death, Jesus comes to destroy it. Every other one gives you an idea or a hope there might be something next. Jesus alone says, There is, and I've come to make it possible for you to step into it. That isn't arrogance. I hope it doesn't come across as arrogance. I'm not saying we're right and you're all wrong. Jesus has done this and we're just along for the ride. There's a wonderful video I'm going to show you of a parade through Mexico City. It was a Pope Benedict XI, I think it was, riding through. There's the motorcade, the cars, all the things, the celebration, the the confetti being rained down. And then shortly afterwards, this little dog started to run along. He's getting cheered and welcomed, celebrated as part of the parade. And I and I love the idea. Look at this picture of him in a minute. Where is it? Look how happy he is. Look at that. Just running down. That's us. Okay, Jesus. It's Jesus' parade. It's Jesus' victory. He defeated death. He went through the grave and out the other side. I didn't do it. And my ideas and my my attempts, my way to fix life didn't work. None of it happened. I'm just the dog running along, enjoying what he did. I'm just part along for the ride. He did it, and I follow in his procession. Jesus has conquered death, and we're along. There's no arrogance in that. But if he did it, then it changes everything. It means I get to live with this joy. I get to run down the road. I get to live free from the fear of death because it no longer has dominion over me. And so the angels say, Look, he's risen, and they go off fearful yet full of joy. Full of joy because something greater has happened. There's only one foundation, the resurrection. There's only one solution, death defeated, and the fear of death is gone. And there's only one who makes it possible. They go along. And the words in this verse say, suddenly Jesus met them. Up until this point, they've seen the angels and hope stirred. They looked in the tomb and questions were raised. They ran away with joy. Could it possibly be? And suddenly Jesus meets them. Now just step into this moment with me for a second. They meet Jesus. This is it. All of history will be divided in two by this man. All of the world will know the name of Jesus. This is the moment. Death will finally be done. He is risen from the grave. Right, let's think about this. Planning for this moment. God's been working on this for a while. What are we gonna hear? What's he gonna say? I like to think of the film Endgame, Avengers Endgame. Anyone seen that? That's your homework to go do that. You've got to watch 21 films before you get to this one. But it's it's the culmination of 21 films of superheroes. And finally, in the last film, they all gather together. Every single superhero from every film come together. And Captain America grabs his hammer and he says, Avengers assemble. They all go into battle and it's incredible. What a line! Avengers assemble. Okay, if that's not for you, Lord of the Rings, the final battle. They got to distract Sauron long enough that the ring can be thrown into the fire. And so they they they ride around and Aragon comes and he gives his incredible speech. A day may come when the courage of men fail, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but that is not this day. An hour where wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day. Then they ride into battle and finally win. What a speech. Not your thing? Let's do one more. Churchill. Do you remember the Dunkirk, the miracle of Dunkirk, the evacuation? And what speech does he give that me, we shall defend our island? Whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender. A moment in history marks by this. And so here we are Jesus, risen from the grave, conquering Son of God, alive forevermore. He was and is and is to come, has the keys of death and Hades. No more will death reign. He will rule forever. No more, he is the one prophesied from the beginning, the chosen one. One of God the Messiah, what is he gonna say to these women? Let us hear him. Hello. Our Bibles fancy up a bit and say greetings, but the actual ritual is much worse every day, hello. And then the next line I love it, it says they came to him, clasped his feet, and worshipped him. With just one word. Jesus changes their life, and these women recognize this is it. The report was good of the angels, that was incredible. The empty tomb, that was inspiring, but it's him who makes the difference. And with one word, they fall at his feet because everything has changed. What's interesting actually is that the word is hello, that's how we do it in a modern language, but the original isn't isn't hello. It's not really greetings either. The original is the word hail. And he's talking to Mary. The first hail Mary, the one-shot, if this doesn't work, there is nothing else. And Jesus' first words from the tomb are hail Mary. I've done it. I have done it. I've conquered. All those things are true. He doesn't need to say them because they can see it. And today the evidence might inspire you. You might go, hey, I want to look into that. The promise of freedom from fear might make you go, I'd like a bit of that too. But unless you meet him, all of those are nice ideas. God's plan wasn't, I'm going to give you some more advice because that's really worked well so far in human history. I'm going to give you another religion because you've done so well with all the other religions. No, God's solution was I'm going to give you a son. I'm going to give you my son. I'm going to give you a savior. I'm going to give you one that if you meet him will change your life. He is the one who has done it. He is the one who has risen from the dead. And today, while the evidence might get you so far, and the promise of God might get you so far, it might open the door for you, it is encountering Jesus that brings you home. Or to put it another way, the way Jesus puts it, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens the door and lets me in, I will come and eat with you. And today, Jesus, we we can only say this because he's alive. A dead God can't rescue us. But a living Savior can say, I come to you today, and if you open your heart to me, I will come and live with you. And so, guys, on the back of your stone, if you want to write the most incredible word that Jesus spoke on the Easter story, hello. Because that's all Jesus wants to say to you. Hello, I am here. Hello, I'm for you. Hello, I'm the one you've been looking for. And if you say yes to that, then everything changes. If one man rose from the dead, then death is not ultimate. If one man rose from the dead, then your sin is not final. If one man rose from the dead, then despair is premature. If one man rose from the dead, then forgiveness is real. If one man rose from the dead, then judgment is coming, but we can be on the right side. If one man rose from the dead, Jesus is not worth merely admiring. He is worth trusting. And I know that's easy to say. It may sound a bit cliche or simplistic to say put your trust in Jesus, but it's in reality the most practical thing that you can do to say yes to him. We believe you're not here by accident. That you've come here. I know you might say, well, I was invited and I thought I'd come along and they promised me breakfast and I thought I'd get them off my back for another year. That may be the circumstances, but we don't believe that that was an accident. You're here because God knows where you are, he knows what you need, and he wants to make a difference. In whatever way you need him to, he can make a difference. But he will not kick the door down. He'll wait for you to take a step, and as soon as you do, he is there. Hello. And those of us who've been walking with Jesus for a while will know that's so Jesus. He doesn't need to make himself bigger to impress us. He doesn't need the speech and the language to impress us. Our God is one who becomes smaller so that we can know him. Who goes lower that no matter how low you are, he will be there. But you need to leave behind an empty tomb. There's nothing to find there. You need to leave behind the fear that has imprisoned you and walk into the presence of Jesus. He is here, he is with us. He can change your life, he changed my life. He's changed many here. Find the people around you, ask the questions. Today is not about marking a date. If he is alive, maybe he wants to do something. When they heard the angel, hope flickered. When they saw the tomb, something broke up, but when they saw Jesus, that's when faith stopped being a rumor. It's when everything changed. It's where we saw that God's plan did work. That death is defeated. He is alive. He is with us. If you are new to this, this is why we celebrate. It's why we think this is a big deal. And we invite you in whatever way you need to to take a step. If you want to explore, there are things to explore. We can give you little booklets or things that explain the evidence behind Christianity. If you've lived in fear and you've tried to cope with it, or maybe you've just given into it, you know, what's the point? Just give up because there's no way out. Please hear today the promise there is. You may not have found it before. You may not have found it in other things, but there is because death did not have the final word on that day. And if you've done that, perhaps the next step is to say, Jesus, I've been keeping your arm's length too long. Today I say yes to you. Yes to anything you have for me. Yes, I don't I don't even fully believe yet. I'm not don't fully understand, but I want to say yes as far as I am able, that I could know you and walk with you. He is better than you dared believe. He is love itself, he is good. He is here. We're just going to pray because he's here. We don't pray just to fill the end of the service. We pray because we believe God is going to meet with us, and then we'll respond together. So, Father, we thank you. We thank you for this Hail Mary. We thank you for this one shot to save the world, and we thank you that the resurrection tells us it worked. It did what it needed to do. It defeated sin. It conquered our enemies, it overcame death, and then it was given to all who would trust in you. We thank you for that, Lord. We thank you that we're not believing in abstract ideas, that there is something solid to this, something that we can explore, something we can prod and poke and ask questions of. We thank you that no question is too hard for you. No one is rejected for doubting, but they are welcome to come and step closer, to come and see and examine. We thank you that you overcame the fear of death, the fear behind every other fear. We pray that we would be those who live free from that fear, free to live life to the fullness. We thank you, Jesus, that this is not done by our own effort. It's when we meet you. You make the difference. You with just a word can change your life. Today, someone may bow their head one way and lift it another. Someone may be coming to this place one way and will leave another. Someone will be something that they were at the start of this service and they won't be that person at the end because you are working, you are making a difference. And so, Lord, we invite you to come now, to speak to hearts that need to hear you, to reveal yourself to those who can't see you, to make yourself known, and for us to be able to open the door to you. We pray, Lord, for those who want to say yes, you would give them the courage to do that now. A simple yes, that's all it takes. But it changes everything. Because Jesus, you change everything. And so we respond to you today. We thank you. Thank you for Easter. Thank you for your son. Thank you that there is only one. Only one who walked on water, only one who raised the dead, only one who fed the thousands with a little bit of fish and bread. There may be hundreds of religions and worldviews, and they may say they're true, but there's only ever been one empty tomb, and it was yours, Jesus. Thank you. And praise your name. Amen.

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