Matthew 28 - Easter Sunday
Welcome to Easter 2022
Jesus is Lord of the encounter. He isn’t just here to help us; He is here to save us. In the life of a believer, we train day in and day out for the ultimate goal of godliness. I truly believe that people—especially students—crave and desire authenticity. They want to understand how far out of the pit God had to reach to get you and to get me. And the truth is, He did it all because He loves us.
A church exists for the proclamation of the gospel and the making of disciples. That is our heartbeat. This means the church is not a cruise ship; the church is a battleship. We want our young kids to grow up with the seeds of the gospel planted in them at an early age, and we want to partner with families in that discipleship. The story being told here is a story about a faithful God using broken people to proclaim the excellencies of Christ.
So, welcome to The Well Community Church and welcome to Easter 2022. We are so thankful you chose to join us for this creative Easter gathering. We’re continuing some of the creative themes we started on Good Friday. Regardless of where the Lord finds you today—whether you’re in your Easter best, sitting on your couch in your PJs, or on the treadmill—we’re glad you’re here. You’re going to hear the story of a God who loves you and seeks to pursue you to redeem you through the work of Christ.
The Sound of the Resurrection
I know it was a long time ago, but can’t you almost hear the Pharisees off in the distance? Just listen. Can’t you hear them laughing and whistling, celebrating what they did just a couple of days ago? They called it justice. They felt so accomplished. They swore they knew the Scriptures like the back of their hands, yet they must have skipped every prophecy about the promise of Jesus raising the dead.
But get this straight: the stone was rolled away. His heart started beating in His chest, and His lungs began breathing again. By the time the sun was in the sky, the Son of God was alive. He had holes in His feet and His hands, a piercing in His side, and scars on His head from that crown of thorns. There was dirt on His feet from the ground where He carried that cross. He defeated death because He is God. Their hate couldn’t control Him, and those nails couldn’t hold Him. Jesus Christ saw a rolling stone and He kept that boulder rolling, because it is finished. We are no longer separated by our sin, because He who was without sin became sin for us to give us grace and forgiveness. Death no longer has a hold on us.
My name is Brad Bell, and I’m one of the elders and the lead pastor here. Some of you have been going to church forever—this is your jam. But for others, this is a brand-new experience. Maybe you’re just checking this out because it’s Easter. If that’s you, you’re in good company.
The Hole in the Soul
I’m a local kid—Dry Creek Elementary, Kastner Junior High, Clovis West High School. I graduated from Fresno State with a health degree but had no faith background whatsoever. My grandparents went to church, but for my family, it wasn’t our thing. Through the years, I realized something was going on in my soul. I didn’t have the words for it then, but I felt like something was missing. I tried to fill that hole with anything and everything the world offered.
Until late in my college career, I lived a life of incredible indulgence in alcohol and drugs. I was not an honorable man. I hoped those things would satisfy, but they never did. A couple of days later, there was always remorse, shame, regret, and that same aching lack of satisfaction. Can you relate to that?
We live in a culture that has tried many solutions with very little effect. Alcohol-related deaths are up 25%. The opioid crisis is skyrocketing, with fentanyl taking over a hundred thousand lives last year. Sexual addiction is rampant; the pornography industry is now a 13-billion-dollar industry—more than NBC, ABC, and CBS combined. We see skyrocketing confusion, depression, and anxiety. Why is that? Why the bad news on Easter? Because we have to understand the reality of the world we live in to understand the solution.
Rejecting the Design
To put it simply: as a culture, we have rejected our God. There is a passage in the book of Romans that explains this. It says that since the creation of the world, God’s invisible attributes and eternal power have been clearly seen through what has been made, so we are without excuse.
Romans 1:20 (NASB)
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
When we look at the Sierras or a trip to the coast, creation screams that there is purpose and intent. But although people knew God, they didn’t honor Him or give thanks. They became futile in their speculations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped the things of this world rather than the Creator.
Romans 1:21-25 (NASB)
For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
When a culture rejects God and embraces a morality based on personal opinion or feeling, God eventually says, “If that’s what you want, go try it and see how it works for you.” That was my first three years of college. I worshiped anything but God, and He let me reach the end of myself. When we reject the Creator, we lose the design for human flourishing. We end up with a snapshot of culture that looks like this: full of unrighteousness, strife, deceit, and malice—people who are untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.
Romans 1:28-32 (NASB)
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; [they are] gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
Left to our own instincts and cravings with no boundaries from God, chaos is the natural outcome. I don’t say that to shame anyone. I was at the front of the line in that rebellion. I used to think religious people just needed a crutch. But then, I began to feel a stirring in my heart.
The Story of Redemption
Ecclesiastes says God has put eternity in our hearts. We were created by God to have a relationship with God. This flies in the face of being told we are just a cosmic accident or a genetic mutation. You have worth, value, and dignity because you were made by a Creator. The very first verse of the Bible reframes our entire existence.
Genesis 1:1 (NASB)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
If there is a God who existed before the world, then the world doesn’t revolve around me. He created us in His image, male and female.
Genesis 1:26-27 (NASB)
Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Life is best lived according to His design, but the fatal flaw happened in Genesis chapter three when sin entered the world. Adam and Eve rejected God and pursued life on their own, and because of that, sin spread to all of us.
Romans 5:12 (NASB)
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned–
We aren’t “good” people compared to a holy God. We are born with a propensity toward sin. You see it in toddlers—they think the world revolves around them and they are prone to “assault with a deadly toy truck” the moment they don’t get their way! We all have that bent toward rebellion. But that is what makes Easter so important. Easter highlights our sin and the movement of a God who pursues us anyway.
It Is Finished
Romans tells us that while the wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life. God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 (NASB)
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
He did not leave us without hope. You might know this famous promise:
John 3:16-17 (NASB)
’For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. ’For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
Jesus came to live the life we couldn’t live and die the death we should have died. It wasn’t an accident or an ambush. He said He had the authority to lay His life down. At about 3:00 PM on Good Friday, Jesus cried out from the cross.
Matthew 27:46 (NASB)
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?’ that is, ‘MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?’
In that moment, the sins of the world—mine and yours—were placed on Him. He paid the price that separated us from God. His final words were, “It is finished.” They buried Him, and He remained in that tomb for three days. But He was busy conquering death. When the disciples went to the tomb, an angel met them with a question.
Luke 24:5-6 (NASB)
and as [the women] were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, [the men] said to them, ’Why do you seek the living One among the dead? ’He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee,
By rising from the dead, Jesus proved His power over Satan, sin, and death. He offers us reconciliation as a gift. You don’t have to earn it, perform for it, or stop all your bad habits before you can come to Him. You simply open your heart and believe by faith in what Jesus has done for you.
Newness of Life
When you trust Christ, you become a new creature. The old is gone; the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NASB)
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
That was incredible to me. I was no longer defined by where I had been or the things I had done. It was a reset. Jesus didn’t invite me into a religious life of restriction; He invited me into abundant life.
John 10:10 (NASB)
’The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have [it] abundantly.
I used to think following Jesus would be boring. I was wrong. He asks us to say “no” to certain feelings not because He’s a killjoy, but because His design for our lives is better than anything we can experience on our own. He offers rest for the soul.
Matthew 11:28-30 (NASB)
’Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. ’Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. ‘For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.’
This is the work of the gospel over time. It’s a messy process. For those of us following Jesus, it’s often one step forward and two steps back. But there is no more shame. My worth comes from being an image-bearer of the Creator.
Stories of Transformation
We see this transformation in so many lives. One woman in our community shared her story of growing up in a church but not truly knowing Christ. Her home life was dysfunctional, her parents divorced, and she felt broken. She spent two decades emotionally and spiritually bankrupt, in a relationship where she wasn’t respected. But God never stopped pursuing her.
One day, she heard a message about relationships and felt God say, “I see you. I know your situation. Follow me.” She laid her fears at His feet. God rescued her from addictions to alcohol and pornography. He took what was dead and gave it life. That is the power of the cross—it covers our past, present, and future.
A Call to Respond
Jesus made a very audacious statement about who He is.
John 14:6 (NASB)
Jesus said to him, ’I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
He offers that life to anyone who would believe. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9 (NASB)
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
Why not today? Why not recognize the things you’ve been trying to fill your life with and reject them in favor of Jesus? For those who already trust Him, remember that you have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer you who lives, but Christ who lives in us.
Galatians 2:20 (NASB)
’I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the [life] which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Let’s be a people of hope in a world that needs it.
As we wrap up, I want to invite you to join us in person. There is something unique about the body of Christ assembling together.
Hebrews 10:24-25 (NASB)
and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging [one another]; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
We are one church in multiple locations. We have our Fig Garden campus at Palm and Gettysburg and our North campus at Maple and Nees. And mark your calendars for May 29th—we’re going to have an outdoor gathering at our new Clovis campus. We’re going to “tag” the buildings with Scripture and prayers as we dedicate that space to the Lord.
We exist to help people connect to God and each other in every neighborhood. Happy Easter to you. God bless you, and we hope to see you next week.