Thank you for listening to this message from Life House Church.
Come on, good morning, good morning, happy Easter.
Turn to somebody, give them a high five, tell them you clean up better than usual on Easter.
Come on, you clean up better than usual.
Yes, yes.
You all are looking good.
You're looking sharp.
It is good to be in God's house.
You feel God's presence, the excitement of Jesus being out of the grave.
Amen.
I know He's been out of there a long time, but it's still, it never gets old.
Amen.
It never gets old.
It is so good to have you here worshiping together.
I know they're worshiping at East Shore.
If you're joining us online this morning, welcome.
It's good to have you as well.
And I really want to start this Easter morning off, and it really is a message series that
I want to begin.
And how many know that it's not always what it looks like, right?
It's not.
How many know that sometimes things can appear one way, but it's really something completely
different, right?
Sometimes you look at something and you think you got it all figured out and you know what's
going on, and then you find out a little later it's something completely different, right?
Something you're not quite sure of.
And I want to give you just a little bit of example so it sticks this morning.
They're going to put a graphic up on the screen.
I want you to stare right now.
Stare at the screens.
Don't look at me.
Stare at the screens.
Look at that center right now, that dot.
How many see that center moving and growing right now?
Raise your hand.
Come on.
How many see it?
Stare, stare, stare, stare.
You see it moving.
You see it, right?
Then you're starting to shift.
Listen, that is not a video.
That is just a picture.
That's shaking, right?
It's not what it looks like.
I got another one for you.
Ready?
You ready for the next one?
Raise your hand if you're ready for the next one.
Some of you are still just going like this.
I didn't say it was going to leap off the TV.
I just said it's going to move some, right?
Let's go to the next one, right?
Take it in the neck.
How many see the young woman there, right?
Wearing a parka and a hat.
Raise your hand if you see that.
How many see the old woman, right?
Smoking a cigarette in church?
Come on.
How many see it, right?
It's not what it looks like.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't see anything.
There's just as much scribbles on the page, right?
Some of you saw it instantly.
Well, I'm going to give you one more.
How many want one more?
Just one more for this morning.
One more, one more.
This is a classic right here, all right?
How many see the vase?
How many see the vase this morning?
How many see two people looking nose to nose at each other?
Yeah, that's a little easier, right?
It's not how many times you can look at something and it's not always what it looks like.
And 2000 years ago when Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross, it was not what it looked
like.
Let me set the scene for you this morning.
Let me set the scene.
I want you to use your imagination.
Sometimes, listen, when people preach, sometimes you got to use your imagination a little bit.
I want you to see it in your mind.
Yep.
Come on, ready?
Thousands are flooding into the city of Jerusalem.
Get this in your mind.
It is Jewish Passover, a celebration of God's deliverance, right?
From the Israelites, from the bondage of Egypt, 1500 plus years before.
Hearts are light in the city.
Kind of like this morning, there's a feeling of joy and celebration in the air.
Preparations for the Seder meal are taking place all over the city, right?
There's a big sale on bitter herbs and matzah, all right?
If you know anything about the Seder, right?
There's a big sale going on.
People are converging in the city.
That was supposed to be a little bit funny.
Nobody got it.
All right.
They're going to celebrate freedom from the Egyptian slavery, a millennial plus before.
And they're doing it in an open and public way in the city of Jerusalem.
Freedom by God's hand, freedom from the Egyptians.
How many know when you're free, you should celebrate, right?
You know how you really celebrate?
If you've ever been in bondage and you've been set free, you celebrate.
You do.
Some of you, how many of you have ever been in bondage?
If you're saved, you know what I'm talking about.
And you'll celebrate.
And while there's some celebrating taking place and it was complete back then from Egypt,
they're currently living in limited freedom, not in slavery, not in slavery under the Roman
rule, but they're living under the thumb of the Roman government.
The Jewish people are in Jerusalem and they're celebrating, but they only do this by permission
of the Roman government.
And in this setting that's taking place, Jesus comes into the city just days before this.
And as he comes into the city, the Jewish people are laying palm branches at his feet,
right?
He's riding in on a young coat and they're laying palm branches in the street and at
his feet and they're yelling and they're screaming next King of the Jews, right?
This is going to be Jesus, the King of the Jews.
And why are they doing this?
Why are they yelling this out?
We celebrated this last week.
They're doing this because Jesus calls people back from the dead.
They're doing this because they know that Jesus could heal every type of disease.
At this point, all of the society knows that this is the healer.
This is the miracle man.
He's the one, right?
He heals diseases.
And matter of fact, he has so much power that he can speak to wind.
He can speak to the waves.
He can speak to the elements in nature and they listen.
And the people in Jerusalem, the Jewish people who want freedom from Rome, their expectation
is say expectation.
Do you ever have an expectation for something?
Their expectation is that this King is going to rise and he's going to take over and he's
going to crush Rome.
And this is their expectation.
But when Jesus doesn't deliver that Jewish expectation, he doesn't come in, ride in and
conquer Rome.
The corrupt religious leaders of the day, they seize the moment.
They bribe one of Jesus followers with 30 pieces of silver to betray him.
They bribe others to give false accusation and false stories about what's taking place
and they arrest him in the garden.
They coerce a Roman ruler named Pontius Pilate to condemn Jesus to death and not just any
death, but death by Roman crucifixion.
They're going to put a picture of a cross up.
So crucifixion was intended to be a gruesome, gruesome spectacle, the most painful and humiliating
death imaginable.
And it was used for slaves, runaway slaves, pirates, enemies of the state of Rome.
And crucifixion could last for days to ensure maximum pain and to set an example to any
of the other would be criminals, or it could be quick and violent depending on the Roman
leaders and the soldiers carrying out the execution.
Crucifixion was typically carried out by a specialized team.
There would be a Centurion soldier who would be the leader and he would be leading the
soldiers who would really enact or do the execution as it is.
And the convict usually had to carry a horizontal beam that would be part of what the cross
that they would hang him on.
And the crucifixion, the one who was being crucified would first be stripped naked.
I know in the pictures we always see a loin cloth.
That could be the occasion of times when most times they were stripped naked and they were
scourged, they were beat on a post and then they would carry this beam.
They would march him through town.
They would take him down the most crowded roads.
They wanted to make sure that everybody would see and that they would be completely humiliated.
And they usually would put a title list on that piece of wood that said their name and
whatever the crime was.
For Jesus, it said Jesus, King of the Jews.
And upon arriving to the place of execution, the cross beam, they would lay that person
down and they would be laying on the cross beam and they would take nails, spikes as
they were, and they would pound them in through the hands, typically the wrist part of the
hand and they would put a nail in one and a nail on the other.
Then they would hoist that person up by those nails and they would attach that cross beam
and then they would pull the feet together and nail the feet to the cross.
Those nails were usually seven inches long and they had a square shank and they would
take a hammer and just beat that thing into place, pinning them to the cross.
It was there to do maximum harm, to do maximum pain and to humiliate the person that was
being crucified.
Death a lot of times was hastened by the soldiers.
Sometimes, see, a Roman soldier wasn't allowed to leave a crucifixion to whoever they were
crucified was dead.
So sometimes the soldiers or the centurion who was leading it all would get impatient
and they would do things like break bones.
They would break the legs.
Sometimes they would take a spear just like they did with Jesus and they would thrust
it in the side.
Sometimes they would use a spear and beat on their chest.
Other times they would build a fire at the base of the cross that would asphyxiate the
person who was hanging.
They would break the legs so that all the weight would come down on the arms and squeeze
the lungs until the person who was hanging could no longer breathe.
It was a horrible death.
Death by Roman crucifixion was probably one of the most brutal and was rarely recorded.
And matter of fact, it was so brutal that even in Rome, it was kind of taboo to talk
about crucifixions.
And Rome had crucified thousands and thousands.
But this crucifixion was not what it looked like.
This was no ordinary criminal.
Actually it was not a criminal at all.
Nothing about this crucifixion was what it seems.
If you got your Bibles, I want you to go to Luke chapter 23.
I'm going to start at verse 27 and I'm going to pray while you're turning there.
Lord, we thank you for your word.
I thank you Jesus that you rose from the grave.
I thank you Lord that you were willing to suffer and die.
Lord, a brutal death for our salvation.
And Lord, today as we read, God, just settle these words into our hearts.
God, that we might Lord chase hard after you in Jesus name and amen.
Luke 23, 27 says this, and a great multitude of the people followed him and the women also
mourned and lamented him.
But Jesus turning to them said, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep
for yourselves and for your children.
For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, blessed are the barren women that
never bore in the breast which never nursed.
Then they will begin to say to the mountains, following us and to the hills, cover us.
For if they do these things in the greenwood, what will be done in the dry?
Jesus has just suffered a Roman scourging.
And if you don't know anything about a Roman scourging, they would chain the prisoner to
a post and they would begin to, they would use a whip or a scourge.
They would call it to, to lash this person.
They would strip them naked and a Roman scourge was just a whip and it had a rod on it.
And on the end were long leather thongs, long leather strips or thongs.
They would call them put onto the end of that whip.
And they weren't just, it wasn't just the leather strips that somebody was being beat
with.
They would embed lead balls into the leather stripping on those.
They would also place steel and bone that was sharpened into there.
And the idea was this, if a skilled Roman soldier, they would, they would throw those,
all those leather strips towards the prisoner and land them into their back, their legs,
the back of their legs or the back of the neck.
And when they pulled away, it would shred the flesh on that person.
It would pull the flesh away and they would begin to bleed.
And they would do this sometimes up to 39 times on the back and the neck.
And sometimes it would even wrap around to the face.
And Jesus has just suffered this kind of scourging.
Many times prisoners, whoever they got the scourging, they didn't even make it through
this.
They died on the post.
But if they didn't die, they would unchain them.
They would strap them to that cross piece of the cross and they would begin to march
him down the road.
And Jesus went down to Villa de la Rosa, just about a half a mile, not quite a half a mile.
He would carry this cross.
And as he's carrying this cross and while he's bleeding profusely and it's his body
begins to go into shock, the women that know him, the people that know him, as close as
they can, as close as the Romans would let him come in, these women are following behind
Jesus and they're crying out and they're lamenting and they're crying.
And Jesus says something to them that stops them in their tracks.
He says, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me.
Don't weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
This is not what it looks like.
You think I'm condemned, but I'm actually fulfilling God's plan to reconcile mankind
back to God.
You think that that I am condemned and the reality is that those who reject me are the
ones who are going to be condemned and suffer judgment.
You think I'm powerless.
You think that Rome has power me in reality is all authority has been given to me in heaven
and earth.
You think I'm weak and the death is the final victory month.
But this is not what it looks like.
Weep for yourselves.
They thought this was the end of Jesus and Jesus was letting them know this isn't the
end.
This is just the beginning.
I'm just getting started.
It's not what it looks like.
And I can tell you this this morning that in Jesus, it's never what it looks like in
Jesus Christ.
It's not.
It's rarely what we think when we're in Jesus.
It typically doesn't look like we think it's going to look like.
We got one expectation and God's got another.
Our perception many time when Jesus is involved in it is way off.
And this is no ordinary Roman crucifixion.
John 10 17 says this.
Therefore my father loves me because I laid down my life that it may be taken up again.
This is the only Roman crucifixion where that Rome listen, this is the only one where Rome
didn't have the authority.
They thought they had the authority, but Jesus could have came off the cross at any point
in time.
They had.
Listen, he commanded winds and waves.
I said this last week, he wouldn't have had any problem speaking and legions of angels
showing up.
Romans weren't taking his life.
He was laying it down.
They didn't overpower him.
He was.
He was willingly giving it to follow the father's plan for salvation.
This is not what it looks like.
In verse 18, he says this.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down myself.
I have power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again.
This command I have received from my father.
He's walking in obedience to God's plan.
Jesus came into this world, died on her cross.
And the reason was to purchase our salvation.
That was the plan.
Blood had to be spilled to purchase salvation for us, to atone for our sins.
And he paid it.
And if you get your head around this, if you get your heart around this and you understand
that Jesus willingly did this, he willingly suffered this kind of judgment and took it
on so you didn't have to.
He suffered my condemnation.
He suffered my pain, right?
So I didn't have to.
This is not what it looks like.
This is God unfolding his plan.
John 3, 17 says, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but
that the world through him might be saved.
There's nothing normal about this crucifixion.
Absolutely nothing.
In Jesus, it's not what it looks like.
And you might be here this morning and you might be kind of down and out, but I'm here
to tell you, if you're in Jesus Christ, you're not down and out.
You're probably, God's going to get you up and get you moving.
Amen?
It's true.
It might look like you're at the end of your rope this morning and people might even be
waiting.
How many know sometimes you get on the end of the rope, people leave, right?
And they're just waiting to see what happens, right?
Will they drop off the rope?
Are they going to go down the chute?
Are they going to, you know, are they not going to make it?
And I'm here to tell you, if you're in Jesus, if Jesus is Lord of your life, if you drop
off the rope, guess who will catch you?
He'll catch you and carry you wherever you need to go.
He will.
Because it's not what it looks like with Christ, right?
Because he has all authority in heaven and in earth.
He's spoken to us, right?
It might look like you're down for the count.
It looks like you're done, right?
You're laying on your back.
I'm here to tell you, that's not a bad place to be.
Because if you're in Jesus Christ, he will raise you up.
You want to fool everyone around you.
You want them to not listen.
You want to make sure that they don't really see what's going on.
It won't look what it looks like in Jesus.
It really won't.
He's that amazing.
Come on.
On the outside, it looks like Jesus is finished.
They humiliated him.
They falsely accused him.
They stripped him.
They slapped him.
They have beaten him beyond recognition.
They're tore his flesh from his body.
They have scattered his followers.
They all abandoned him.
They have thoroughly mocked him.
They have jammed the crown of thorns down into his skull.
They have nailed him to a cross like a reviled, rejected, common criminal.
And none of this is what it looks like.
Luke 23, 32 says this.
There were also two others.
Say two others.
Good, you're with me.
All right.
Criminals led with him to be put to death.
And when they had come to the place called Calvary, they crucified him.
And the criminals, one on the right hand and one on the left, then Jesus said, Father,
forgive them.
For they do know not what they do.
And they divided his garments and cast lots.
And the people stood, looked on.
But even the rulers, when they sneered, saying, he saved others, let him save himself.
If he is the Christ and the chosen one of God.
The soldiers also mocked him, coming and offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the king
of the Jews, save yourself.
And inscription, remember I said about that title list.
And inscription was also written over him in letters of Greek, Latin and Hebrew.
This is king of the Jews.
Then one of the criminals who were hanged, blasphemed him saying, if you are the Christ,
save yourself and us.
Two criminals hanging on each side, right?
One on each side.
One saying, if you're the Christ, he's mocking Jesus.
But listen to what the other says.
But the other, say the other.
Answering.
And rebuked him saying, do you not even fear God saying you are under the same condemnation?
And we indeed justly receive our reward, our due reward for our deeds.
But this man came and does nothing wrong.
Then he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
I kind of can't imagine this conversation taking place.
Scourged.
Nailed to a tree.
Jesus is talking to one of these criminals like there's nobody else in the room, right?
They're conversating the other.
And this somehow this criminal and I don't know if he was on the right or the left.
Somehow I think he was on the right because in the Bible talks about those on the left
and on the right.
Right.
And the ones that are right are the ones coming into the kingdom.
But somehow this criminal, whatever side he was on, he recognized it somehow in the middle
of all his pain and all this confusion and all this craziness and Roman soldiers beating
them.
And he recognizes that the man in the middle, this is not what it looks like.
This is not a common criminal.
Somehow in his spirit, he knows that this is the son of the living God.
Somehow he knows that this man is a king and he's going to come into his kingdom.
And in the middle of all this, he says, Lord, when you come into your kingdom, please remember
me.
And Jesus says to him, Surely I say to you, you will be with me in paradise.
Jesus is not yelling obscenities at his torturers.
He's not condemning them or rebuking them.
He's nailed to a tree.
He's a king and a man, a criminal, common criminal beside him says, remember me.
It's not what it looks like.
Luke 23, 44 says this now.
It's about the sixth hour, say the sixth hour.
Come on, we're telling a story this morning.
And there was darkness over the whole earth until the ninth hour.
The sun was darkened and the veil of the temple was torn in two.
And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he said, Father, in your hands, I commit my
spirit.
Having said this, he breathed his last.
So when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God saying, certainly this was
a righteous man.
Remember I told you that the centurion was the leader of the soldiers of the whatever,
how many soldiers there would have been that would have been assigned to that area.
This centurion was the leader of them.
He recognizes that this isn't what it looks like because when Jesus is on the cross, the
sun goes dark for three hours.
Now, listen, there's other recorded history that talks about this three hours and it was
not an eclipse.
There was not a lunar eclipse.
They know what those were back then.
There was not an eclipse of the sun that just happened to simultaneously line up with Jesus'
death.
It wasn't that at all.
It wasn't excessively cloudy.
It got dark, like midnight dark for three hours.
And I got to imagine people are starting to look around like this isn't what it looks
like.
Right.
And while Jesus is breathing his last in the temple that there was a veil that separated
the where the priests were from the Ark of the Covenant.
And for 1500 years or plus more than that, actually, the Ark of the Covenant was on one
side and it was a veil that was actually three and a half inches thick.
And the only one that could go into the Ark of the Covenant to make atonement for sin
was the high priest.
The high priest would go into the temple.
He would be cleansed himself and he would go through the veil.
And once a year he would make atonement for the people, all of Jerusalem.
And if the priest wasn't clean himself, he would go into that place and they would literally
tie a rope to his ankle and bells on the on the bottom of his robe.
And if he was not pure before God, he would die and they would drag him back out.
But once he was cleansed, he would go in and make atonement.
That veil, which was three and a half inches thick, was torn supernaturally in the temple
from top to bottom.
And what that showed was that no longer would a priest have to be the go between between
me and God.
No longer.
Jesus came.
He paid the price for all of us so that every one of us could go into the presence of God.
The Ark of the Covenant had the mercy seat on top of it.
God's presence literally dwelled there.
That's why you just didn't wall sin to there.
It was God's presence.
And the door opened.
Right.
The veil was torn and this centurion and the earth shook and it quaked.
You can read that in another part of scripture.
And this centurion realized this man has authority.
This man has authority over the elements.
This is not what it looks like.
Even a heathen centurion who worshiped multiple gods.
So when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God saying, certainly this was
a righteous man.
Other interpretations say the son of God.
Nothing with Jesus is what it looks like.
Now they put him in a tomb.
Come on.
They put him in a tomb.
They think it's over.
How many know when they put you in a tomb it's over?
That's about as over as you get.
All right.
One of these days I'm getting older now.
One of these days I tell my kids I'm getting old and crusty.
One of these days I'm going to get a lot older and crusty.
And if the Lord doesn't return, something's going to fail inside of this fleshly body
of mine and they're going to stick me in a tomb and they're going to say it's over.
Hopefully they grieve and mourn.
Hopefully there's some crying that goes on, but they're going to put me in a tomb.
And they put Jesus in a tomb and they thought it was over.
They thought this is it.
This is done, but it wasn't over.
Luke 24 one says this now on the first day of the week, Sunday.
How many know it was Friday, but Sunday's coming.
Very early in the morning, they and certain other women with them came to the tomb bringing
the spices which they had prepared.
But when they had found the stone rolled away from the tomb, they went in and did not find
the body of the Lord Jesus.
And it happened as they were greatly perplexed about this.
They behold two men stood by them in shining garments from angels showed up.
Then as they were afraid about their faces to the earth, they said to them, why do you
seek the living among the dead?
He's not here.
He is a risen.
He is alive.
Right?
Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee.
Jesus called it man.
It was like playing pool.
He said, I'm telling you, this is what's going to happen.
Right?
Saying the son of man must be delivered into the hands of the sinful men and be crucified.
And on the third day he rise again and they remembered his words and they returned from
the tomb and told all these things to the 11 and to all the rest.
Not even the grave was what it looked like with Jesus.
Dead things are in grace.
Jesus stepped out of the grave.
Right?
Come on.
Angels stood and told the women, why are you seeking the living among the dead?
Right?
He's alive.
I'm going to ask you if you'd stand this morning.
It's not what it looks like.
Turn to somebody.
Tell them it's not what it looks like.
It's not what it looks like.
I want to take a moment and pray.
And I know those are listening online and you're standing at East Shore and Pastor Eric's
getting ready to come before you.
And I want you to close your eyes just for a moment.
And some of you are thinking, you know, there could be dead things in your life.
Right?
You're thinking that this could be the end.
You're thinking there's just no way.
Right?
That things, Pastor, you don't understand.
There's some dead things in my life.
There's some things that got buried in my life.
There's some things that there's no way it's coming back.
Right?
That there's no way there's resurrection for this.
And some of you have relationships.
I want you, man, I just want you to be honest.
Right?
You've got relationships that things have died.
Some of you, some of you have been in relationships and I felt strongly about this this morning
that there was abuse in a relationship.
And you might be thinking, Pastor, you have no idea what has died in my life because of
that relationship.
There are so many things that were killed off in my life in that relationship.
Some of you might be thinking, you don't know the circumstance.
You don't know the situation.
You don't know the dreams and callings that God had in my life.
And somehow that got squashed along the way and ended up in a tomb and they're buried
and somehow died.
Some of you, some of you, some of you listening to me right now, and it could be online.
Right?
It could be in East Shore.
It could be right here.
Some of you, some of you here listening, right?
And you don't even know Jesus as Lord and Savior and you don't, and you're thinking,
you don't understand most of the things in my life are dead.
Most of the things in my life are in the tomb.
I'm here to tell you it's not what it looks like in Jesus.