Sunday message · Easter 2020 series
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Message Summary
On Easter Sunday 2020, with the church gathering online, Pastor Phillip Santillan asks why the resurrection of Jesus deserves to be called the greatest story ever told. Everyone loves a good story, he says, and while fish stories leave us skeptical, great stories leave a lasting mark. The question matters for believers, because without the resurrection there would be no Christians. It is also a fair question for anyone watching from home with doubts, since a search for a life of joy, peace and purpose should leave no stone unturned. He offers three reasons.
First, the resurrection shows that doubt is not a stumbling block to following Jesus. Jesus’ closest friends did not expect him to rise. Mary Magdalene found the tomb empty and assumed someone had taken the body (John 20), and when the women reported what they had seen, the disciples thought their words were nonsense (Luke 24). Even after seeing the risen Jesus, some still doubted. Phil admits that after a lifetime of following Jesus he still has moments of doubt. “If you doubt, you’re not out,” he says, and he dares skeptics to follow Jesus, study the Scriptures in community and find clarity on who Christ is.
Second, the resurrection shows that God is all-powerful and in control, even when things seem out of control. Phil retells a conversation from Jeff Vanderstelt’s book Gospel Fluency: the cross looked like the worst possible outcome, yet God was in control the whole time, and a woman who worked through what the resurrection says about God and about herself concluded, “I would have peace.” The disciples only understood this after Easter. Peter later wrote that Christ was the spotless Lamb chosen before the world began, and that because God raised him from the dead, our faith and hope are in God (1 Peter 1:18–21). When life will not go according to plan, God is powerful enough to bring the peace and hope we cannot produce ourselves.
Third, the resurrection proves God’s love for us in spite of us. Paul, once a persecutor of Christians, became one of the church’s greatest missionaries and carried one message everywhere: though we were dead in our sins, God, rich in mercy, gave us life with Christ (Ephesians 2), and God proved his love in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Phil shares the prayer he spoke over his children at bedtime: there is nothing you could do to make God love you more, and nothing you have done that would make him love you less.
He explains the gospel plainly. Sin is living life my way, for my glory, instead of God’s way for God, and all of us have sinned. Jesus’ death and resurrection rescue us from sin’s penalty and restore us to God when we repent and trust him. Phil closes with an invitation for anyone ready to follow Jesus to respond anonymously in the online comments, then leads everyone in a simple prayer of confession, faith and commitment, welcoming new believers into the family of God and into the greatest story ever told.