Sermon Tone Analysis

Last week I spoke about 2 men who dared to defy Earth’s gravity by climbing the Dawn Wall of El Capitan mountain at Yosemite Valley.

In 1972 on the 17th and final mission of the NASA Apollo program, Gene Cernan dared to defy Lunar gravity by becoming the last astronaut to date to touch the moon’s surface.

Hopefully that changes in the next 5 years with the NASA Artemis program.

Following Apollo’s final mission, Gene Cernan quoted Sir Isaac Newton and said that he walked on the moon while standing on the shoulders of giants!

In the middle of the university that I attended - Alderson Broaddus University - Go Battlers!

- stands a statue called Apollo.

[[[show Apollo pic]]]

The statue commemorates the Apollo program and lifelong learning with an abstract rendering of one individual standing on the shoulders of another.

Nearly every day for four years I passed by the statue.

Sometimes I walked right by it without giving another thought, but other times, I passed by the statue and thought about all of the people in my life who hoisted me higher to reach further!

In fact, the very reason why I am standing on this platform today is because of countless individuals who invested into my spiritual growth and maturity.

As I reflect on this, my heart feels overwhelmed by all the men and women who stood in the gap for me, including my mom, grandparents, great grandparents, my in laws, uncles, pastors, scout leaders, coaches, professors, and a special mention to a cadre of octogenarian men from my childhood church who modeled Christ to my brother and me Christ with a humble servant hearted love and also told us some really rad stories from world war 2.

Lord knows I needed every single one, including our very own senior pastor who has been like a father in the faith and a mentor in the ministry to me.

I thank God every day for providing me with broad shoulders of men and women on which to stand firm and hoist others to reach greater heights!

This past week, at student camp, 145 teenagers stood on the shoulders of more than 60 leaders ranging in age from 19 to 72 to reach higher.

These 3 pictures show just a glimpse of how kingdom multiplication occurs when a few make themselves lower to help others grow higher.

[[[Christy Rodriguez pic]]]

[[[Macgowan and Camacho pic]]]

[[[.

Pic]]]

Revelation 12:11 says, “They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.”

Victory, faith, and the regeneration of new life and kingdom growth come by way of sharing the story of Jesus’s salvation in you through his sacrifice on the cross!

Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.

The old life is gone; [[[it is gone, don’t go back to it!

Stop going back to it.

Leave it on the cross where it belongs.

]]] a new life has begun! 1 Corinthians 5:17.

Regeneration and new life always leads to multiplied growth.

I once heard someone offer a leadership axiom that said, ‘healthy things grow,’ which means healthy leadership grows others.

In our current series, Cultivating the Kingdom, we’re seeking to build high by growing deep in 3 key characteristics of kingdom leadership:

model, mentor, and multiply.

Jesus demonstrated every one of these characteristics throughout his life and ministry.

With every step he made, he sought to cultivate the kingdom in others, and in John’s Gospel, we see Jesus embody all three of these characteristics most acutely and urgently in the final hours before his death and the first hours after his resurrection.

In the first message of this series, we learned how Jesus modeled the kingdom through humble, servant hearted love in John chapters 12-13, and we asked the question of ourselves: what are you modeling because behaviors model beliefs?

Then, last week, in John chapters 14-17, though we only referenced John 14, we observed how Jesus mentored kingdom leadership by offering the opportunity for all people to grow in clarity, discovery, and empowerment through his Word in the community of his Body, the church.

As God’s people, we closed with the challenge to defy gravity together by finding someone to help you grow so that you can help someone else.

Today, in the final message of this series, John records Jesus in the first moments after his resurrection giving a clear, unwavering call to all those who follow him to multiply God’s Kingdom through others.

Today, Jesus confronts us with the question: whose kingdom am I cultivating?

Whose standing on your shoulders to see further and reach higher?

First on the scene on Easter Sunday morning, Mary arrived at the tomb to care for Jesus’ body, but much to her surprise, she saw no body.

Nobody expected to see no body, so she ran back to town to tell Peter and John.

They rushed to the tomb, and after they saw no body, too, they went back home, but Mary stayed to mourn the loss of her Lord.

Beginning in chapter 20, verse 11:

11 Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in.

12 She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying.

John 20:11-12

John wants us to notice that the image Mary saw resembled the lid to the Ark of the Covenant called the ‘Mercy Seat’ or the ‘Atonement cover.’

[[[show picture of the Ark of the Covenant]]]

In Number 7:89, we learn, “When Moses entered the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark of the covenant law.

In this way the Lord spoke to him.

In addition to Yahweh God meeting Moses atop the cover on his Mercy Seat, the atonement cover also held a significant role in Israel’s most sacred worship ceremony of the year: the Day of Atonement.

On this day, a series of sacrifices would be offered on the atonement cover to make amends for the sins of all God’s people.

The Atonement Cover foreshadowed the time when God would one day accomplish the complete forgiveness of our sin through Christ Jesus.

In the tomb where Jesus’ sacrificed body laid, Mary saw the fullness of God’s atonement for sin.

The empty tomb was Jesus’ Mercy Seat.

It was no longer a cover on the ark.

It was an empty grave.

In the death and resurrection victory of Christ, God atoned for the sins of the whole world!

John continues:

13 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.

“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

14 She turned to leave and saw someone standing there.

It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him.

15 “Dear woman, why are you crying?”

Jesus asked her.

“Who are you looking for?”

She thought he was the gardener.

“Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

16 “Mary!”

Jesus said.

She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!”

(which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).

17 “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father.

But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” John 20:13-17

Here, John so subtly, yet majestically, records the most pivotal moment in world history…

[[[which as an aside, Jesus revealed to a woman.

Mary was the first human being in history to herald the good news of Jesus’ resurrection.

Every good news announcement ever since has been a progression of Mary’s first announcement.]]]

Jesus’ resurrection redefined God’s relationship with humanity.

In verse 17, Jesus said to Mary, Go find my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.

John 20:17

Up to this point in John’s Gospel, Jesus had only spoken about God as ‘the father’, or ‘the father who sent me’, or ‘my father,’ and had only referred to his followers as ‘disciples’, ‘servants’ and ‘friends’.

But following Christ’s victory over death in the resurrection, Jesus leveled up a whole new way for us to relate to God the Father, as our God and our Father, and to Christ himself as our brother, representing our restored relationship to God.

He made a way for God’s people to know the Father with the same kind of intimacy and depth as the Son knows the Father.

We are his sons and daughters, and Jesus is our Brother who intercedes on our behalf with the Father.

From the beginning, this was always God’s intention.

God created Adam and Eve in his own image and related to them in full intimacy without any barrier to their connection.

God said to Moses: This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son.

Exodus 4:22.

God said to Jeremiah: I am Israel’s father.

Jeremiah 31:9.

God’s heart has always been to love his people like a good father loves his children, but our sin divided us against God and one another.

Yet, because of the Father’s love for us, he sent his Son to us to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.

He atoned for our sins, reconciled our relationship to the Father, and made the impossible possible in Christ Jesus.

Following Jesus’ first interaction with Mary, John records that later that same day, Jesus visited with his disciples.

Beginning in verse 19:

That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders.

Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them!

“Peace be with you,” he said.

20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side.

They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord!