FRESH START

Easter Sunday

Pastor Dennis Clanton

Sunday, March 31, 2024

(John 20:11–29, NLT) “Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. 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. “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.” She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “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.” “Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”). “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.’ ” Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message. 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. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.” Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed. Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”

(John 11:25, NLT) “I am the resurrection….”

“We want a fresh start. We want a new beginning.”

(Lamentations 5:21, CEV) “Bring us back to you! Give us a fresh start.”

(2 Corinthians 5:17, MSG) “Anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons!”

Jesus gives me the gift of faith.

(John 20:27, NIV) “Stop doubting and believe.”

(Ephesians 2:8–9, NIV) “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”

1. Go to Jesus.

(Mark 9:24, NLT) “Help me overcome my unbelief!”

Look at Jesus’ wounds.

(John 20:27, NLT) “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”

(John 20:20, NLT) “He showed them the wounds in his hands and his side.”

3. Drop your ifs.

(John 20:25, YLT) “If I may not see in his hands the mark of the nails, and may put my finger to the mark of the nails, and may put my hand to his side, I will not believe.”

(John 20:28, NLT) “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.”

RECEIVE… 

1. Forgiveness of my sins.

(1 John 1:7, 9, NLT) “The blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. … If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”

2. Intimacy with Jesus Christ.

(John 20:17, NLT) “Don’t cling to me,”

(Ephesians 2:6, GNB) “In our union with Christ Jesus he raised us up with him to rule with him in the heavenly world.”

(1 John 4:13, GNB) “We are sure that we live in union with God and that he lives in union with us, because he has given us his Spirit.”

3. Purpose for my life.

(John 20:21, NLT) “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”

4. Power for living.

(John 20:22, NLT) “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

5. Peace with God.

(John 20:19, NLT) “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.”

(John 20:21, NLT) “Peace be with you.”

(John 20:17, NLT) “Go find my brothers …”