Easter Service | Sunday, April 12, 2020

Good morning and welcome to Cross Connection Church at home. On a date like this, we like to begin by saying, "He is risen!" We say that because today is Resurrection Sunday, or as it's commonly referred to, Easter. In reality, it is the most important day of the Christian calendar throughout the entire year. It is the most important day of the year because this is the day that we remember and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If it were not for His resurrection, the Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, 1st Corinthians chapter 15, says that if there is no resurrection, if Christ be not raised from the dead, we are of all people most miserable. There would be no Christianity without the resurrection. So, welcome and happy Resurrection Sunday!

Now, before we begin with worship this morning, I want to ask you to do two quick things for us. First, I would ask you to share this stream with some of your friends and family members on social media. Go on Facebook, go on Instagram, go on Twitter—wherever you go for social media—and share the link live.lifeinconnection.com. This is a very simple way that you can boldly share your faith with friends and family this morning.

The second thing I would ask you to do is take a picture wherever you're at with your friends, family, or whoever you're worshiping together with this morning. Post it to social media using the hashtag #LifeInConnection. I realize some people misunderstand what this whole hashtag thing is—I'm talking to you, Mom. A hashtag simply uses the pound symbol followed by the words "Life In Connection" with no spaces. This will connect all of our pictures together this morning so we can see where you're at as you are worshiping with us.

We are so thankful that you are here this morning. Welcome again, and join in worship. Amen.

Let's pray.

Oh Lord, risen, alive, and full of grace, God, You paid such a price, Lord, that we may live in freedom today. Now we worship Your Holy Name and give thanks for Your redeeming grace. God, may we drink in Your tender love so that we can pour out that love on others. Reign in our hearts today; reign in our minds and spirits. God, I pray for anyone watching this today who doesn't know You. May they be filled with Your love.

Receive you today and never be the same. Thank you, Jesus. In Jesus' name, we worship our King.

Bow at His feet; He has done great things. One Savior has done amazing works. Oh, hero, you can feel it. Break every chain; we dance.

Oh, Jesus, yes! Oh, through every storm, we trust in Your promise, God. Every change, I say.

You're above it all, the unshakable. You have done everything. Oh yes, Sheikha, bow. Oh, of Heaven, You conquer the grave. You free it, bring captives, and break every chain. Oh Jesus, I say we praise You, God, worship You.

On the day that death surrendered to the mighty cross of Jesus Christ, the earth would shake, the ether of time.

A crown of sorrow. Weakness was isolated. No word. He is the Lord. Jesus is the answer for his people. I said he will never forsake us. It's a selection of hope.

Hello.

The day He comes in to live, the fool, His home, His raid.

Good morning, Cross Connection Church, and thanks for joining us this morning as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If you're new or visiting here at Cross Connection Church live this morning, we are a church that's all about living life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus Christ.

If you are new, we'd like you to check in and let us know how the service is going and how your experience at Cross Connection Church has been. You can do that simply by going to new.lifeinconnection.com. We'd love to get your input.

Next, thank you all for subscribing to our weekly emails and our YouTube channel. Many of you have subscribed, and we've seen a significant increase in subscribers over the last couple of weeks. If you have not done so already and would like to receive our weekly updates, please consider subscribing.

You can connect with us by emailing subscribe@lifeinconnection.com and also by subscribing to our YouTube channel, where we will be posting updates and video messages for you to view after the service. There are many ways to connect with Cross Connection during this pandemic. First, we encourage you to check out our website, which will be the main point of contact for just about everything.

If you would like prayer, our website has a prayer link that is easy to find. If you would like to help others in need by running errands or if you need help yourself, we would love for you to go there and sign up. This option is simply on the front page of our website, and you can easily find it. You can also find our service guide for this morning and our normal Sunday services on the website, so be sure to check that out. The service guide includes all the points that Pastor Miles will be covering.

Before we enter into another time of worship, I would like to mention two more things. First, moms and dads, we are praying for you. We understand the challenges that come with being at home all day with your kids. It can definitely be a challenge, and we are praying with and for you. We hope this is a blessed time for you as you minister to your kids and perhaps try some new activities.

We would also like to make available some resources for you. After the service this morning, please check out our website at kids.lifeinconnection.com for ministry resources that you can use with your children. This is a great way to instruct your kids in the ways of the Lord during this pandemic.

Second, we will be entering into a time of worshiping the Lord through giving. We are truly thankful for and grateful to all of you at Cross Connection Church who are faithfully supporting our ministry—not only through financial contributions but also through your prayers. We need both, especially with everything going on right now. Our ministry is reaching out and supporting people in our community and around the world, and we appreciate your continued prayer and financial support.

If you are prepared and willing to give this morning, we will be entering into a song during which you can do that. You can give at gift.lifeinconnection.com, text the number below, or even send your offering to our church address at 1675 Sevenoaks Road. We still receive mail and would love to get that as well.

With that, we will enter this song with Pastor Anthony. If you feel led to give, we encourage you to spend this time worshiping the Lord with your giving. God bless you all, and we will see you in the service.

I could feel desperation as I turned my head and spoke. Through the darkness, Your loving kindness tore through the shell. The work is fair; the end is written. Jesus Christ, who could imagine such grace?

Then came the morning that sealed the promise. You will be raised.

Thank You, Lord God, that You are alive. That means we have living hope in You, Christ Jesus. We praise You and bless You here on Easter Sunday. In Jesus' name, Amen.

As we come together this morning, we continue to find ourselves right in the middle of this crazy pandemic. I realize that some people don't even like it when that word gets used because "pandemic" seems to stir some emotions, some fear, and some anxiety. I kind of understand that, but in reality, that is what we are in the midst of. This situation has disrupted everything in our culture; everything in our lives has been effectively turned upside down.

A week or so ago, one of my daughters came...

To us, she broke down crying, and through her tears, she told her mother and me that this virus has ruined everything. When it comes to a routine, she is one of those people who kind of likes a routine, and school and all this stuff have really ruined everything for her. I think that probably you can relate in some sense to that sentiment.

Now, this may be somewhat controversial, but as I look at some of the things that have been happening around this whole virus, there are times when I'm not entirely convinced that our leaders have chosen the best path in the midst of this. While I think it is totally important and wise for us to try to save as much life as possible, when it looked like, through many of the models that were coming out, that COVID-19 was going to bring about the death of millions of people—potentially as many as 2 million people in the United States—then maybe it made a whole lot of sense to try and pick a path that would mitigate that as much as possible.

But then what happens when it turns out that the complicated models don't appear to be giving the right information? According to some models, we were being told that as many as 2 million people were going to die in the United States if we didn't take extreme steps to stop the spread and to flatten the curve, which has been the term we keep hearing. Now, many of those models aren't supporting that, which is a good thing. I mean, we don't want to see that happen, and they are starting to wind those numbers down to 60,000. I've even heard 40,000, and let's be really candid: 40,000 would be terrible. We wouldn't want to see that happen, and there have already been too many people who have died as a result of this.

Of course, you might say that we are seeing this trend down because of all the social distancing that we have been going through, and maybe that's the case. It's not entirely obvious to me that that is really the case, but I'll grant you that maybe if the models are predicting something better, what now?

As we now look at our country, where 17 million people in the last three weeks are out of work, you really can't even fully wrap your mind around that number. That's an average of nearly 6 million people a week for the last three weeks. Some of you who are listening to this right now are a part of those statistics; you're out of work, and this is weighing upon you in a huge way, understandably so.

Aside from the economic devastation in the form of job losses and revenue losses, we, the people of the United States, or our representatives, have now spent more than 2.2 trillion dollars. That's one-tenth of the annual GDP in the United States in a good year. This is a significant percentage of the GDP, and probably even more so this year when everything is down. These are the realities as we find ourselves here on Sunday, April 12th, 2020. The coronavirus has ruined a lot in many ways, and we have adapted here at Cross-Connection Church.

We have turned our sanctuary into something of a recording studio. We've moved from working here at the church office to working at home, like many of you who are communicating through Zoom or FaceTime. We're doing the same thing. We've created new programs and new processes to try to handle the ministry we are faced with right now. In the midst of everything, we've done about all we could do under the circumstances we are in right now, and we have more that we plan to do in the coming days and weeks should this continue.

However, I have to say this is not at all how I thought we would be celebrating this holiday here at Cross-Connection Church in 2020. This is not ideal. I was very hopeful that we would be gathering here in the sanctuary to worship together. But 2020 is not shaping up the way I thought it would. It's not how I envisioned things happening this year, and I don't think this is how you probably envisioned things either.

Some of you, at this moment, have lost work for the company that you own, or some of you have lost jobs. As we gather together for worship on Easter Sunday morning, you may be worried about upcoming bills that you are facing. Some of you are concerned about health issues, either for yourselves or for family members who are immunocompromised. Additionally, some of you are worried about the politics of all of this. What will this mean for our economy going forward? What will this mean for civil liberties in the future? I've had a number of conversations about these concerns.

People in the church and other pastors around the country are asking the question: What does this look like for civil liberties going forward? There really is just so much that feels uncertain. As I was thinking about this last week, I was reminded of a story in the Gospel of Luke.

After Jesus had been crucified, there is a story about a couple of Jesus's followers. These two followers had followed Jesus because they believed in Him. They believed that Jesus was worthy of their time, that He was worthy of their devotion, and that He had power. They had probably been there with Jesus when they saw His power. Maybe they had seen Him raise the dead, heal the sick, or feed the multitudes. Perhaps they even had the opportunity to see Him calm the storm or walk on water. They believed that Jesus could do things that other people could not do, and they believed that Jesus was the Messiah.

That word "Messiah" meant a whole lot more to Jewish people living 2,000 years ago in the first century than we can fully comprehend today. Everything that they had believed and hoped for was thrown into total disarray and chaos on Good Friday, which we just celebrated a couple of days ago. After a couple of days of hiding with the other followers of Jesus in the city of Jerusalem, these two disciples decided to leave.

Luke's Gospel, chapter 24, tells the story of these two followers of Jesus leaving Jerusalem. They were heading west from Jerusalem to a town called Emmaus, which was just about seven miles west of Jerusalem. We don't know exactly why they were heading in that direction. The road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, if they had stayed on it and continued going, would have taken them to the ancient coastal city of Joppa on the Mediterranean. Maybe they were from that area, or perhaps they were from another town along the way. It seems, and I could be wrong—this could just be speculation—but it seems like they were going back to their old life after their hopes had been dashed.

The two individuals were destroyed after their expectation of what Jesus was going to bring about was crushed by the crucifixion. I imagine that they were pretty brokenhearted; they were grieving as they walked together. They were grieving the loss of Jesus, whom they loved and had followed for maybe three to three and a half years. However, they were also grieving the loss of everything they had anticipated and expected that Jesus would ultimately bring and do. They fully envisioned that Jesus would bring about a great future because they thought that He was the Messiah. Then, Jesus died on the cross.

The coronavirus pandemic has done something similar in our lives. For a lot of people, their hopes, dreams, beliefs, and expectations have been pushed into chaos and disarray as a result of everything that has been going on. This is not what you envisioned for 2020; you didn't plan for this. In fact, I'm not really entirely sure that you could have planned for this. At this point, there are just a lot of unknowns and uncertainties. We can't see six months out; we can't see a year from now, and we don't really know how everything is going to unfold in the coming weeks and months. That can be somewhat frightening, especially if you're one of those people who is a real planner and likes to try and see where everything is going.

This is what we would refer to as unknown or unexplored territory, and that unexplored territory can cause psychological angst and fear. In some sense, we can relate to these two followers of Jesus. One of them, the text tells us in Luke chapter 24, was named Cleopas. They were walking to Emmaus on the third day after Jesus was crucified. As they walked, something about their appearance—the way they were carrying themselves and the way they were conversing with one another—revealed that they were sad and grieving. The Scriptures in Luke's Gospel, chapter 24, tell us, beginning at verse 15, that while they conversed and reasoned with each other, Jesus Himself drew near.

He went with them, the risen Lord, but their eyes were restrained so that they did not know it was Him. The text says that they conversed and reasoned with one another. I think they were trying to figure all of this out. How could this be? That had to be going through their minds as they walked together. I found myself doing the very same thing over the last three or four weeks, talking with a lot of different friends and other pastors from all over the country. I spoke with people on staff and in leadership here at the church, as well as friends and family members, trying to figure all of this out and reason it out.

I tend to be one of those very analytical people, and this is just one of those things that's very hard to reason out. While these two followers of Jesus did this, the text says that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. This week, as I was thinking about this text, I was reminded of a really important truth: Jesus is nearer than you think. In the midst of everything that we're going through right now, it is so important for us to remember that Jesus is nearer than we realize. Our eyes may be restrained so that we don't fully recognize His presence, but He is closer to you than you might realize.

Not only is He closer to you than you might realize, but I am absolutely certain that Jesus wants to draw near to you in this time. There are some of you right now watching this message from a pastor from the Bible who, four weeks ago, you would have never thought that you would be listening to a message from a pastor from the Bible. Four weeks ago, you would have never really thought about going to church, and yet here you are. I mean, you're not at church, but it's church at home. A family member or a friend sent you a text message, or you saw it posted on social media, and here you are listening to this message. I want you to know that you're listening to this message because the Lord is drawing you to Himself.

So, Jesus drew near to these two depressed followers and asked them, "What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?" Jesus comes, they don't recognize that it's Him, and He says, "Hey, what are you guys talking about? You look to be deep in conversation. What is this all about?" I love the reaction; I love the response.

To Jesus's question, especially as it is translated in the New International Version of the Bible, one of the disciples stood still, their faces downcast. The scripture says that one of them, whose name was Cleopas, asked Jesus, "Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?" The reaction of the disciples was essentially, "You can't possibly not know what's going on."

Jesus answered them simply, "What things? What things are you talking about?" I want to point out that Jesus was obviously not unaware of the things these men were discussing. He was not oblivious to what was going on in their lives, in the world, or in Jerusalem at that moment. In fact, the irony of the text is that Jesus was probably the only one who truly understood what was happening. Cleopas, this other disciple, and every one of the other followers of Jesus thought they understood, but only Jesus truly grasped the situation.

When Jesus asked, "What are you discussing so intently as you walk together in this way?" it reveals a really important truth to us: Jesus is not unaware of the burdens that we carry; rather, He is interested in bearing them with us. This is such an encouraging point this morning. Sometimes we can think that God doesn't know what's going on, but He actually does know, and He is very interested in drawing near to us and bearing our burdens as we go through these challenges.

In another place in the Gospels, Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." If ever there was an important passage of Scripture that the Lord wants to drive home to you today, it is that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Even in the midst of a tumultuous situation like the coronavirus, His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.

So, Jesus asked Cleopas and this other disciple, "What are the things that...?"

They responded to the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. They spoke about how the chief priests and the rulers of their people delivered Him to be condemned to death and to be crucified. They had hoped that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.

The two disciples said to Jesus, "Jesus of Nazareth, He was a prophet. We were hoping that He was the Messiah, the Redeemer of Israel. But today, it's been three days since He was crucified." In other words, they said to Jesus, "We don't have any hope anymore; our hopes are dead."

They continued, "Yes, there were certain women of our company who arrived at the tomb early this morning. They astonished us when they came telling us that they found His body was not there. They said that they had seen a vision of angels who said that Jesus is alive. Certain of our company went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Him." These reports seemed pretty unbelievable to the disciples. In many ways, it was indeed unbelievable. They had seen Jesus crucified; He had been laid in the tomb three days ago. He was dead, and now there was a group of people saying, "No, He is alive; He is risen."

This reminds us that Jesus works outside the realm of what we think is possible. It's so important for us to remember that our Lord is the Lord of the impossible. Jesus spoke to these two disciples as they were reminding Him of all the terrible things that had been going on around them. He said, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?"

Then, beginning at Moses in the Old Testament and all the prophets, Jesus expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

Listen, we don't always understand the ways and workings of God, but we can be sure that God is working even in the situation that we're going through right now. We don't always fully comprehend the ways in which God is at work, but we can know for certain that He is working. Though sometimes we accuse God of not knowing what is going on and not working things out the way we think they should, we must remember that He is always at work.

The reality is that His ways are higher than ours. The prophet Isaiah discovered this to be the case and speaks about it in Isaiah chapter 55. The ways of the Lord are higher than ours. It’s not that Jesus doesn’t know what’s going on; it’s that He doesn’t see the same way that I see. Walking with Jesus gives us greater perspective on the way things truly are and the situation we’re in the midst of right now. That’s exactly what we need. We need a little bit of perspective, and when we begin to walk with the Lord, close to Him, we begin to gain that perspective.

Our world can be turned upside down in so many different ways in an instant. The loss of a job, the loss of a house, the loss of a loved one, the loss of our own health, the loss of a savings account or our 401(k), the diagnosis of cancer, or the diagnosis of coronavirus— all of these things that can turn your world upside down are brought into a different perspective in light of the fact that the tomb is empty and that Jesus rose from the dead. When we realize that the tomb is empty and that Jesus is alive, all of these things that can turn our world upside down are brought into perspective.

We read in the text in Luke's Gospel, chapter 24, that they drew near to the village of Emmaus where they were going. Jesus indicated to these disciples somehow that He would have gone further with them, but they constrained Him, saying, "Abide with us; remain with us, for it is almost evening and the day is far spent." He went in to stay with them.

Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed it, and broke it, just like we did last week when we were part of communion together. He gave it to them, and when Jesus blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to these two disciples, the passage says in verse 31 of Luke chapter 24, "Then their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, and He vanished from their sight." They said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road and while He opened the Scriptures to us?"

One of the great realities of Jesus after the resurrection is that Jesus will spend as much time with you as you will.

Spend time with Him, and in that time, He will open your eyes to greater depths of His grace, His mercy, and His truth. This is no doubt a challenging time that we are going through right now. You may feel that your entire world has been turned upside down and is in disarray. These are not the way things ought to be; these are not the way that we would have planned them to be. But this is the reality that we find ourselves in right now.

In the midst of it, I know that the Lord desires to draw near to you to a greater degree than He ever has before. He wants to open your eyes and give you a new perspective on the way that things really are. He wants to spend more time with you and reveal greater depths of His grace, His mercy, His peace, and His truth during this time. He wants you and me to cast our cares and our burdens upon Him. He wants you and I to find a greater measure of His rest as we take His yoke upon us and learn from Him.

All of that begins as we simply say to the Lord, "Lord, abide with us," just as these two disciples in this passage did. They said, "Lord, abide with us," and I would encourage you to say the very same thing to the Lord today: "Lord, abide with me." As you spend time with the Lord, as you draw near to Him and He draws near to you, you will experience a greater level of His peace, joy, and hope in the midst of trying circumstances.

Father, I pray right now that You would minister Your truth to Your church, that You would draw us near to You, and that You would remind us that You are nearer to us than we might even realize at this moment. You desire that we would experience Your presence and know Your peace, the peace that surpasses understanding. May we grow more and more in Your likeness during this time.

Lord, I also know that at this very moment, as we are thinking through the Scriptures here in Luke chapter 24, there are individuals watching this live stream right now. They saw a link on Facebook and clicked on it. Maybe they have never been into church or haven't been in church for a long time, and they are far from You, but You are drawing them to Yourself.

I pray, God, that you would, by Your Spirit, draw them. If that's you this morning, if you realize at this moment that you are lacking in peace, joy, and hope, and you recognize your need for Jesus, draw near to Him. He is the one who gives us forgiveness, grace, and hope.

If you'd like to receive that hope today, I want to give you a chance to put your trust in Jesus by simply calling out to Him in prayer. When we pray, we are simply talking to God, and I want to invite you to do that this morning. So, if that's you sitting in your living room, watching this on YouTube, or online on your phone, wherever you may be, the Lord is ministering His grace to you.

If you would like to receive His grace right now, I would invite you to pray with me this very simple prayer of confession and faith. Just simply pray with me right now:

"Dear Jesus, I pray that You would come into my life. I recognize that I am a sinner. I pray that You would forgive me of my sin and help me to follow You by faith. In Jesus' name, Amen."

Listen, if you prayed that prayer this morning, we would very much like to hear about it. You can just send us an email to the address prayer@lifeinconnection.com to let us know that you prayed that today, so we can be in touch with you and maybe send you a Bible if you don't have one.

We are so grateful that you tuned in with us this morning, and we believe that God wants to speak to you through His Word. We encourage you to check out some of our other resources on our website, lifeinconnection.com.

I try to hide it. It was my time until I met you. When you come, man, now, Sileo, yes, day. Your glorious day, my soul, now you're free. So that I know the only Jesus, when I'm near you, when you come, man, to you, come now out of, oh, glorious day.

I need a rescue. My sin was heavy; chains break at the weight of your glory. I need a shelter. I wasn't on them; you were lucky.

You call my name, Laurie. Instead, you go.

God, we thank you so much for this opportunity to worship together here on this Easter Sunday morning. We pray, God, that you would pour out a blessing upon your church, wherever they may be, and that you would continue to use your body, your church, to be a light shining in a dark place. Certainly, in the midst of everything that's going on right now, that's exactly what we are in need of.

So, God, pour out your Spirit upon your church, we pray. We thank you, Jesus.

Now may the Lord bless and keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.