Pastor Brian Burson: Welcome to the Sandals Church Podcast. My name is Brian Berson, and I'm the campus pastor at Sandals Church of Redlands. We are so happy to have you join us today as we listen to this incredible message. If you've enjoyed our content, consider leaving us a rating to help this podcast reach more people. But for now, let's get into the message.
Pastor Matt Brown: Two thousand years since our Lord rose. Amen. Can I get an amen? Absolutely, absolutely incredible. And this is our twenty ninth year as a church, not nearly as impressive as two thousand years, but it's incredible.
Twenty nine years ago, Tammy and I were making a list of so many of our young adult friends that were far from God and desperately needed a relationship with God. We wrote a list of 75 names. And we believed that if we started a church where people could be real, we thought they might come to church and they might receive Jesus in the way that we have. And so I want you to know, there are all kinds of amazing churches around the world in California and in Southern California, but our church vision is to be real. And that's something that set us apart for almost thirty years.
That's because I started the church when I was 11. Amen. I'm not that old, but I want to be real with you today. And just think for a moment, if Jesus really rose two thousand years ago, your life needs to change today. That's an event worth changing for because it changed the world.
And so I wanna wrestle with you today over what the Bible says. And so I want you to open your Bible to John chapter 20. This is my twenty ninth Easter message that I've had to plan and prepare. And when I was looking through my notes, do you know I've preached on this passage for Easter more than any other passage. And I'm always drawn to this tension with Thomas and Jesus.
Where Thomas says, I won't believe, I'm not gonna believe, I'll never believe. And then he's confronted with a risen Jesus who holds out his hands and says, Do you believe now, Thomas? And so I just wanna just be honest. The hardest part about Easter, listen, this is the hardest part is admitting that I've made things more important than Jesus. I wanna be real today.
How many guys ever been to a wedding? Raise your hand if you've been to a wedding. Okay. If you're married, you're always convicted. Amen.
Like you go to the wedding, you're like, we don't love each other like that. You know, you're like, oh, something's happened. And so here's the thing guys, listen to me. When you take your wife to a wedding, you're either going to make up or break up. Can I get an amen?
So make up, make up. But weddings are convicting, why? Because we were reminded of what love is supposed to look like. And so we get to see soulmates and we feel like cellmates, amen. It's like, oh my gosh, they're in love, we're in prison.
But we're convicted. And so what happens? What's the difference between a couple getting married and a couple who's been married? Things happen, things happen, life happens. Look, when you're dating, it's all about you.
You know, it's not about reality at all. And then life happens, there's bills, there's struggles, you know, there's And it's not that you're not in love, it's that you're in life. Life happens. And then if you're not careful, fear takes over. Oh, I made a mistake.
I don't know if I married the right person, right? And all of these thoughts jump in our minds. I want you to know the same thing happens with God. Why did you drift away from church? Why is God not as important in your life as he once was?
Life happened, things happened, fear set in. And I want you to know on that first Easter, that's exactly what happened to the 11 disciples. They knew Jesus, they loved Jesus, they followed Jesus, but you know what happened? Things happened. Jesus got arrested.
Jesus was crucified. Jesus was laid in a tomb and they were rattled. They were rattled. Things happened, life happened, they didn't know what to do. And then guess what happened?
Fear set in. And now they're not boldly proclaiming their faith, they're actually hiding from their faith. And I don't wanna guilt any of you, I wanna set you free. Some of us were raised right, but we're not living right. And today is the day for you to come back.
So let's open our Bibles to John 20 nineteen-twenty three. So let me kinda set this up for you. Early in the morning, Mary Magdalene runs to the tomb and Jesus is not there. That's why, you know, some of our campuses have sunrise services and I don't attend because the Bible says early in the morning, he was not there. Can I get an amen?
I'm just preaching God's word, preaching God's word. So, I mean, you gotta let's be fair, he had a rough weekend, amen? You know what I'm saying? He wanted to sleep in, he deal with disciples later. So Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb, he's not there, she's afraid.
She runs in the Gospel of John, and she tells the disciples and Peter and John come running. And they go there and Peter's confused, John believes, but they're not sure, right? There's no body. And it's just really, really weird. So when you wrapped a Jewish person in burial, you would put basically a sack over their head and then wrap them in gauze like a mummy.
And when they look in the tomb, they're separated. All the gauze that went around his body is in one place and the covering that was over his head is in another place neatly and folded. Okay? And so if you're a parent, tell your kids, make your bed in the morning. Jesus did.
Amen. That's what that's what he did. So here it is Sunday evening. There's nobody, nobody's seen Jesus. Mary thinks she's had a conversation with Jesus, but the disciples are unsure.
Look at verse 19. That Sunday evening, amen, notice it's in the evening, right? That Sunday evening, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors. This is what's gonna happen to your faith if you're not careful. You can lock God out of your life because maybe somebody at church hurt you.
Maybe a pastor let you down. Maybe your church went through a scandal and you've divorced yourself from Jesus because of someone who claimed to follow Jesus. Don't do that. So they locked themselves behind closed doors and it was locked. Why?
Because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Now, if you have your Bible, I want you to circle that it's really important to understand that many of us have had bad experiences with religious leaders, and they can be quite frightening, but don't rob yourself from the love of Jesus because some leader didn't know Jesus. So be very, very careful. Don't judge Jesus because of the people who wear his uniform, Judge Jesus by Jesus. Now look at this.
Suddenly, Jesus was standing there amongst them. Peace be with you. And why did he have to say that? Because he just walked through a locked door. And all of you, amen, would need Jesus to share peace.
He'd be like, are you here to kill us? He's like, no, no, chill. It's Sunday evening, this is the chill Jesus, amen, right? He just walked right through. And this is amazing.
There's something that the resurrected Jesus can do that his body could not do before. He's changed, he's resurrected. And we'll come back to this at the end because many of you miss why Easter is so important. Verse 20, and as he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and at his side. It's him, it's really him.
And they can't believe it, but he's standing there just like he said he would. And then look at this, they were filled with joy when they saw the Lord. And again, he said, peace be with you as the father has sent me, so I am sending you. And then look what he does, then he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. And if you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven.
And if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. Now this doesn't mean that they have the power to forgive, but the church has the power to announce forgiveness. And here's the thing, if you want God to forgive your sins, he'll only do it through Jesus. And as a church, we cannot forgive your sins, but we can announce that you've been forgiven because of the risen Jesus, amen? All right, you guys ready to get real?
Okay, here we go. Some of you still don't know you're in church. Yep, this is me, this is me. Next, this is really, really hard. The hardest part about Easter is admitting I was wrong about Jesus.
Isn't amazing, people can be experts in two things without any experience, politics and religion. Isn't it amazing? Like I know about Jesus, you've never read your Bible, you don't have a Bible, if you do, you don't know where it is. But you know Jesus, same thing about politics. Anybody got a friend that flips burgers, but they know how to run the country.
It's like, woah, woah, woah, woah, Why don't you show up for work on time and then we'll talk about how to fix every other problem on earth. But here's the thing is, it's hard to admit that you're wrong about something, especially about religion, especially about Jesus. Look at verse 24. One of the 12 disciples, Thomas nicknamed the twin was not with the others when Jesus came. So they were all locked in that room.
They were all praying, they were all afraid, they were all scared to death. The Lord appeared to him, Thomas for whatever reason wasn't there. They told him, we have seen the Lord. So now Mary has seen the Lord, 10 of the 11 have seen the Lord. And listen to this, he says, I won't believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands and I put my fingers into them and place my hand into the wound on his side.
I'm not gonna believe. The hardest thing for us to do as people is admit when we're wrong. Amen, don't stare at your partner right now. Don't don't be like this. This service was for you.
You know? Okay, so let me ask you, how many of you honestly can admit you're wrong? Raise your hands. Okay. Raise them up high.
Come on, own it. Like, you're all lying right now. Just like Americans do. Okay. In study after study, 90% of Americans, 90% believe they can admit when they're wrong.
However, when they actually show people that they're wrong, only 33% could actually do it when it came to something real. Okay, so ladies, there's a reason your husband can't stop and ask for directions. He cannot admit that he's lost, which is so sad now with our cell phones. How can you get lost with our cell phones? At least back in the day we had an excuse, amen.
But here's the problem, failing to admit that you're wrong, look at this one, it can ruin relationships. I mean, you know, some of you are like, wow, I just it's all men in the world. No, you just can't say you're sorry, you're wrong. And let me tell you something, the key to a lasting relationship is being willing to admit that you're wrong. And so you might not need to believe in Jesus today, but you might need to go home and apologize.
Some of you need to go on an apologizing tour. And you're like, I don't think I can do it. Go get an inhaler, like get an asthma inhaler, get a little Vicks Vapor Rub on your chest and just like, I was wrong. Because you were. And that's the key to healthy relationships.
That's the key to lasting relationships. Listen, if you can't admit you're wrong, look at it can bankrupt you financially. Okay, some of you are still invested in Myspace. It's not coming back. And the kids are like, what is Myspace?
It was Facebook before Facebook. You're like, what was Facebook? It's meta. But I mean, some of us, we just can't admit we're wrong and we just invest in something all the way to zero. Next, look at this, this is scary.
It can lead to death. I mean, this just happened to me last week and I didn't realize the Lord was like, your sermon's lame, we're gonna spice it up a little bit. But I went surfing and surfing is a scary thing. The ocean is dangerous and it always reminds you how small you are. So I looked at my surf app and it said two to three feet, no problem.
I grabbed my board, I grabbed the long board that's appropriate for that level of surf. And I got down to the beach and it wasn't two to three feet. It wasn't mild conditions. It was four to six and it was barreling, huge barrels. And here's the thing, I had the wrong board.
I brought the wrong board. So what should a normal healthy man do? Go home, get the right board and come back. But I'm a man And I cannot be wrong. Amen, dude, you know I'm saying?
I cannot be wrong. I will prove the ocean wrong. Amen, guys. So I paddle out and I convince myself that I with this longboard can drop into these barrels. Now here's the thing, longboards are not fast enough oftentimes to get into the barrel quickly enough.
But I'm a man and a pastor and a follower of Jesus, therefore I can do this. And I dropped into the barrel, my board stalled, the wave pitched, it caught my head, threw me over the top, I land, which is fine, it's water, but then because the ocean loves to rough you up, it sucks me back up and throws me over again and guess what I hit this time? The longboard. Now let me tell you something. How many of you ever had the wind knocked out of you?
That's not fun to have that in the ocean. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, I'm gonna die out here. I'm gonna die. And it was really scary. I had my kids flashed before me, my wife flashed before me and then I could hear her saying, why are you so dumb?
So then I move that, you know, I was like, okay, let's go to, you know, other people. But here's the thing, I almost died last week because I couldn't admit I was wrong. Now here's the thing, it can be even worse than just death. You can miss out on eternal life. It could make you miss out on Jesus.
That's one mistake you can't fix. So let's talk about the best part of Easter. Man, the best part of Easter is it proves there's life after death. Amen. It just says, so I don't know what you're going through today.
I don't know what's going on. I mean, there's a lot going on in the world today. Gas is a thousand dollars an ounce, right? I don't I don't know what's happening there. There's wars, things are frightening.
I mean, every day, you know, it it just feels like the news is worse and worse and worse. Here's the good news about Easter, no matter what you're going through, no matter what's happening in your life, it doesn't matter if you're battling cancer or you have an hour left to live. Because of the resurrection of Jesus, it means there's hope, amen? It's hope, it's hope, it's not over, it's hope. John twenty twenty six through 27, Eight days later, the disciples were together again.
And this time Thomas was with them. Amen. Thomas decided to show up just like some of you today. Welcome. All right.
The doors were locked. Does anybody feel like a repeat here? The doors were locked, but suddenly as before Jesus was standing amongst them and he says, peace be with you. And then he said to Thomas, put your finger here. Now I want you to pause here because some of you have never noticed this before, but Jesus wasn't with them when Thomas said, I won't believe.
Jesus wasn't in the room when Thomas said these things and yet Jesus heard every word Thomas said. This is the resurrected Jesus. This Jesus has powers that he didn't have when he was in our human state. This Jesus can do things that they didn't know. And so listen to me, some of you on judgment day, the Lord Jesus is gonna have heard every word you said, and he's gonna know everything you did.
And you can't hide and you can't lie and you can't play the games that we play. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Listen to what he says, don't be faithless any longer, believe, believe. Look, I know some of you guys, you're like, well, this is two thousand years ago.
How do we how do we really know? How do we really know what comes after death? Some of you are like, I'm a scientific person. I believe in science, I believe in math. Well, here's the scary thing.
As you are losing your faith, scientists and mathematicians are finding their faith. In numbers that we've never seen before. Quantum physics seems to be proving there's a soul. Some of you didn't even know that. They're seeing something inside the cells of human beings mathematically that they could not see biologically.
You see there's more to you than you know. You were made to live forever with God. You were made in the image of God and you are not just an animal even though unfortunately some of you act like it. You were made to live like an angel And there is life after death. Think about that.
You don't have to fear death anymore. You don't have to fear life anymore. You can walk out of this church changed today. About fifteen years ago, one of my best friends in the world son took his own life. And my friend asked me to do his funeral and I was tore up about it.
I was a mess. Funerals are always hard. Self harm is the hardest I think, because it leaves us with questions. It just leaves us with guilt. It leaves us a lot of things.
And he asked me the day before the funeral, he said, is my son in heaven? And I love him so much, wasn't gonna lie to him and I wasn't just gonna give him the platitude of yeah, yeah, of course, of course. I looked at him and I said, I don't know. And I didn't say that to scare him, I said that because I loved him. And I went to bed that night.
And I know some of you, you you know what to believe, you don't know what to think, but I'm gonna tell you, as God is my witness, everything I'm gonna tell you is true. Okay, I'm not talking about some story written in the Bible two thousand years ago, I'm talking about something that happened to me in my own house. The Lord Jesus awakened me in the middle of the night, the Lord Jesus. And I was awakened in the middle of night. And you know what he said to me?
Do not be afraid, peace. And do you know why he said that? Because I was afraid and I needed peace otherwise I was gonna pee. You know what I'm saying? Amen.
I was scared to death because I encountered something that was far more powerful than me. And he said this, Stephen is with me, he is with us. He had a scepter in his right hand and he was glorious on a throne. And I said, what do I do now, Lord? And he said, go to sleep and preach tomorrow.
I'm telling you, amen. I'm telling you that happened to me. And do you know why that happened? Because he's alive. He's alive.
He's not dead. He's not in the grave. And I believe that he still appears from time to time to speak to the church With this message, there is a heaven and there is a hell and you have to choose. But you know what the problem is? Some of us are looking for heaven in everywhere but heaven.
In Luke 20 four:five, the angels ask the women, why do you look for the living amongst the dead? Here's why maybe your life is terrible. Here's why maybe your life is not what you've always wanted it to be, because you are looking for the living amongst the dead. Some of you are investing your whole life in dead things, in things that are not living. Houses are not alive.
Boats are not alive. Cars are not alive. Money's not alive. Your social status on Instagram, it's not alive. Jesus is alive.
Why do you look for the living amongst the dead? You need to look for Jesus. You need to find Jesus. So the best part about Easter is this, it reveals there is power for me in his name. Amen.
Look at John twenty thirty through 31. So listen, Jesus appears to the 11, Jesus appears to Mary. Now Jesus has appeared to Thomas. In verse 30, the disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs, in addition to the ones recorded in this book. But look at verse 31, but these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God.
They are testifying to you, just like I am testifying to you. He is alive, he is God, and there is power in his name. Amen. There's power in his name. Look at look at this, that by believing in him, you will have life by the power in his name.
Oh my gosh, anybody need power for life? Oh Lord, anybody need power for marriage? Anybody need power for finances? Anybody raising a two year old? You need power.
You gotta slay the devil, amen, every single day. Because those two year olds wake up jacked ready to go. Our grandson is almost a year and a half old and I can see him changing from this beautiful perfect kid. I see it in his eyes. He's like, I'm gonna take over this place.
You need power parents, power. How would you ever think you could be whipped by something so small? Yeah, you need power. You need power for your life. You need power for every day.
I want you to know that there's real power for you in your life. One time specifically and our church has heard this story many, many times, but some of you've never heard this story. And some of you are gonna walk out here and say, how come I never heard that? And it's because in our world only bad news travels. Good news doesn't travel.
But I was in a hospital with about 19 medical professionals, multiple surgeons, multiple anesthesiologists, multiple nurses, multiple people trained in saving our bodies when we face death. But there was a dead kid and he had not been breathing for almost eight hours. And one of the doctors, Doctor. Viendone said, we're not gonna call him dead until a pastor prays over him. And I wanna hear, I want you to hear me clearly.
You asked me to pray over you in the lobby, I can't guarantee there's no power in me. There's no power about me. There's nothing special at all about me. It is all about Jesus. And I never know what he's gonna do, but I know what he can do.
That's why I keep praying. And you need to listen to me. I prayed over this little kid who hadn't breathed in hours in the name of Jesus. And he woke up, amen. He woke up right there in front of me, in front of me.
He's alive today. No brain damage, no brain damage at all. He's alive. There's power. Imagine that power in your life.
Imagine that power in your soul. Imagine that power in your stress. Imagine that power in your darkest moments. Jesus went to hell alone and won. Amen.
An army of one and the devil and all of his demons lost. What could he do in your life if you just believed? What could he do in your life? So the best part about Easter, I love this. It allows me one more opportunity to believe.
Every single year, this is my twenty ninth year doing Easter services and every single year, I mean, you just need to know, I preach all the time. Most weekends, I preach at least four times, sometimes five times, sometimes six times a weekend. I do this on a regular basis, but at Easter, there's always this added pressure and here's why. I know that for many of you, this is your one shot. This is your moment to get life with God, to get your life right with God.
And so I carry that. And it's not on me, it's that I worry about you. This is your one more opportunity to get right. Some of you today, your decision will not just affect your life, but your kids lives and their kids lives. Almost seventy years ago, two young men came back from World War II, beaten and battered, broken men.
And so many of their contemporaries turned to alcohol and drugs. But two men, one named Lawrence and the other named Ed, didn't turn to drugs, didn't turn to alcohol, they turned to Jesus. And in that moment, they changed my parents' lives. And because of that, they changed my life. Listen to me parents, this isn't just about you, this is about generations of you.
And here's what some of you don't know. The evidence is coming out overwhelmingly. When I went through college, educators were anti God, anti religion, everything that Jesus and Christianity has stood for. And now what they're saying is maybe we were wrong. Because as they've divorced our society from God, as they've divorced our society from Jesus, our kids are suffering.
And here's what all the data says. Listen to me parents, kids who are raised in church do better in life. They're stronger, they're happier and they have meaning. Because it turns out there's something amazing when you know that there's a God in heaven who loves you deeply and to send his son to die on you for the cross. And it matters to our kids.
Amen. So parents, make this a moment where church isn't something that you do once a year, but church becomes something that is a regular part of your life. Because it's not just your soul that's at stake, it's the souls of your kids. And they deserve to know about God. They deserve to know about God.
And a lot of parents, I hear this all the time. Well, I'm gonna let my kids decide on their own. That's like throwing your kids in the ocean saying, they'll learn to swim. No, they'll lose to the water. And every parent that makes that decision, your kids will lose to the world because they weren't equipped to deal with it.
John twenty twenty eight, Thomas, remember he said, I'll never believe. I'll never believe. I can't tell you how many times you wanna know when somebody's gonna get saved right after they say, I will never believe. I got a friend of mine. He built a bridge for Saddleback Church, he made fun of the church.
He's like how ridiculous it is that a church would spend these millions of dollars to build this bridge. Do know where that friend goes to church now? Saddleback Church. Do you know why? He met the Lord.
He met the Lord. And right as he mocked God, because Christians were building a bridge to reach him, God reached him. Thomas said, I'll never believe, I'll never believe. And why is that dead people don't rise? They don't rise.
Everybody dies. Everybody dies. Man, this is something extraordinary. You know where Chuck Norris is today? Still dead.
And he's Chuck Norris. Pretty amazing dude. Do you know who Chuck Norris worships? Jesus, Jesus. Thomas, chapter 20 verse 28.
My Lord and my God, Thomas exclaimed. Do you know what he's saying there? I was wrong. I was wrong. Oh my gosh, I was wrong.
You are the son of God. And listen to what Jesus says. Then Jesus told him, you believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me. I want you to know, I know it's hard to live in this world.
And I know it's it's more difficult now than it's ever been. But I want you to know there's a God in heaven that loves you now more than ever. John three sixteen, Jesus says this, for God so loved the world, he loved you, he loved me. He knows everything about us and he loves us anyways. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.
Look, I don't know what your dad on earth was like, but I know what your father in heaven is like. He loves you so much. He gave his one and only son for you. That whoever believes in him, listen to me, will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, listen but to save the world through him.
It doesn't matter who you are or where you've been or what you've done. If you are ready for Jesus, then Jesus is ready for you. Amen. Jesus is ready to save your soul. He's ready to forgive your sins.
He's ready to teach you a better way to live. Some of you guys don't realize this, but when you open your Bibles in Genesis chapter one, God creates the heavens, then God creates the earth. And then the last thing he creates is a man. And that man sinned. And that sin destroyed him, his wife, his kids and this earth.
And ultimately it infected the heavens. In the book, excuse me, the book of John, God creates a new man and does the whole creation story in reverse. He creates a new man first, Jesus who's resurrected and then he'll resurrect you, me and then the earth and then the heaven and he'll make it all perfect again. Amen. He's undoing it all.
And here's the thing, he's inviting you to come with him to a new heaven and a new earth where there's no sin, there's no death, there's no decay. There's no more suffering, but the choice is yours. The choice is yours. Are you ready to admit you're wrong about Jesus? Are you ready to admit that you've fallen away from Jesus?
Are you ready to come back to Jesus today? He's ready if you are. All I'm gonna ask you to do is if you know that today, you need to make a decision either to follow Jesus for the first time or to come back to Jesus. I don't know if you're like me for the seventeenth time. All I'm gonna ask you to do right now is to raise your hand and I'm gonna pray for you.
Is there anybody that wants to come back to Jesus today? You just raise your hand right now. Is there anybody in this room? Right there. Anybody in the back over here?
Listen, let's clap for these hands right now. Let's clap for these people. We love you. God loves you. I love you.
We built this church for you so that you could know Jesus. You don't have to follow him alone. You can follow him with us. We are not perfect people. We are broken just like you, but we're following him the best we can.
So let's bow our heads, let's close our eyes and let's pray over these people. Father, we pray in the name of Jesus, Lord, that you would breathe your spirit upon them just like you did the disciples as they believe. God empower them, change them, save them, and help them to walk out of here today, not doubters, but believers. We pray this in Jesus name. And all God's people said, amen.
Love you.
Pastor Fredo Ramos: Now what a great Easter word for us today, and I wanna encourage you wherever you might be watching this from. If you have made a decision to place your trust in Jesus, would you just let us know in the chat if you are watching on YouTube so that we can follow-up with you and let you know how to join us on this journey of following him together. And listen, so much of what we do here at Sandals Church, especially online, would not be possible without many of you, contributing and giving back. And so I wanna encourage you to pray about doing that now. To do that, can go to sandalschurch.com/support.
Grace and peace and happy Easter.