Our theme for today is life, comma, life. And I know that's an odd-sounding theme, but stick with me, I think it'll make sense. I want you to pay really close attention to this comma. We're going to talk a lot about commas of all things today. Don't worry though, if you're having a panic attack, flashing back to English class and middle school, you're fine. You don't have to have a deep knowledge of English grammar to get the most out of the message this morning. You just have to know the difference between a comma and a period. And the difference is actually pretty simple. When there's a period, it's over. When there's a comma, there's more to come. Quick story. A few thousand years ago, there's this group of people who are so afraid, so afraid of death specifically, that they refuse to even go outside. And it's like, man, if only we could think of something happening today that would allow us to all relate to that, right? This group of people we we typically refer to as the disciples. They're the first followers of Jesus. They were Jesus' closest friends. They followed him everywhere he went for three years. And the reason they're hiding, the reason they're so afraid of death, is because just a few days before, Jesus himself was executed. He was killed. And up to that point, the disciples, they couldn't have ever even fathomed that happening because to them, Jesus might as well have been invincible. They had been with him for years. They had seen Jesus do things that didn't make sense, miraculous things that you would never even believe could be true, unless you happened to be there, unless you happened to see it. This Jesus that they followed was not only powerful, he was smart. Every time the authorities tried to trap him, Jesus would outwit them, he would turn the tables on them. This Jesus that they followed, he was popular. Just days before his execution, thousands of people were cheering for him, cheering that he had come to their city. They couldn't have even pictured Jesus of all people being captured, being arrested, being tried, being killed. But that's what happened. Jesus was killed, and with his death, there came the death of their confidence, the death of their hope. See, they had put their faith in Jesus, and Jesus had made them promises, promises that made them believe that because they followed him, they were invincible too. Because they followed him, they didn't even have to worry about something like death. Jesus told them things like, like, I've come to give you life, and to give you life in abundance. He had said that anyone who believes in him would never perish, but would have everlasting life. He'd gotten really specific and said that anyone who believed in him would live even after they died. Those were the kinds of promises about life that Jesus made, but then all of a sudden, he's gone. He's dead. And with that death came the death of all the hope that they had in those promises, because that's what death does, it ends things. Death is like a period on life. When it comes, everything's sort of over. We happen to be living in a time right now when everyone is consumed with death. The fear of death, it's rampant right now. It's something that almost none of us can avoid. Because every single time we turn on the TV, every single time we we open up a news app, we're given an update on how many people have died in the last 24 hours of the coronavirus. It's the first time in my lifetime, the first time in many of our lifetimes that the world is so consumed by the thought of death. It's affecting people who even even shouldn't think about death, people who have no business worrying about death. For example, a few weeks ago, I put my 10-year-old son to bed, and with tears in his eyes, he looked at me and he asked this question. He said, Dad, if you get coronavirus, do you die? Can you die from it? He's heard things, he's heard enough to tell him that. And I looked at him and I thought to myself, okay, he's 10 years old, I know he's worried, but he's he's so young, he has really very little to worry about because the virus doesn't really impact young people that much. And so I looked at him and I said, Son, you're fine, you're 10 years old. And this virus, it's not very dangerous at all to people your age. And he looked at me and he said, Dad, I'm not worried about me. I'm worried about you and mom. He said, I'm worried about my grandparents, I'm worried about my great-grandparents. He said, I would rather die than have something like that happen to you guys. My 10-year-old son's looking at me with tears in his eyes, saying these things. He's supposed to be focused on his spring basketball season right now. He's supposed to be focused on having fun with his friends. Instead, he's having to wrestle with the idea of death. That's what's happening in our world. And that's why the message of Jesus and the story of Easter is more relevant right now than most of us have ever even pictured. Because what Jesus did on Easter, it changed everything. It changed everything throughout history. It changed the nature of death itself. See, the disciples were consumed by the fear of death. That's why they refused to go outside. They were afraid that they'd be recognized. They were afraid that they would be tried and killed just like their leader was. The authorities were looking for them. They were basically outlaws. But then something happened that they didn't see coming. Something that changed their outlook on life, something that took away forever their fear of death. There was a knock on their door. And when they opened the door, they recognized the woman that was standing in front of them. She was one of them. She was one of the followers of Jesus. And that morning, while they were locked behind those doors in hiding, she had gone out to visit the tomb of Jesus. And what she found surprised her. He wasn't there. And it may seem like just a thing that could have been pulled off as a prank or some type of joke. But no, that wasn't the case at all. In fact, the the tomb of Jesus wasn't like a grave. It wasn't a hole in the ground. It was a cave, essentially, with a giant, a giant boulder put in front to seal it. There were guards watching it day and night to keep anyone from messing with the body of Jesus because the people who had him killed knew that he had made promises about resurrection. They didn't want to see anyone steal his body and have the ability to claim that he was risen. So they placed a Roman platoon outside of his tomb. But that morning when she got there, the platoon wasn't there, the guards were gone, the stone had been rolled away, and Jesus was nowhere to be found. So she came back to tell the disciples that Jesus was risen, but even then they didn't really believe. A few of them got up enough courage to run outside and check and see that, yeah, he was gone, just like she said, but they still didn't believe that he was risen. And then a short time after that, Jesus himself appeared to them. When they saw him, they were all terrified. Can't really blame him. They thought he was a ghost. And so Jesus had to convince them, he said, Hey, look, no, I'm I'm here, I'm real, I'm alive. Look at me, touch me. And they touched him, they touched his scars. He said, Hey, give me something to eat. And Jesus sat there and ate in front of them just so they would know, hey, look, food's not falling through my body. I'm really here, I'm alive. The same Jesus that had promised life after death was in front of them, living that out. And once that happened, the disciples were forever changed. They were no longer afraid of death, they were no longer in hiding. Short time after this, they begin to go out and preach and teach the whole world around them about who Jesus is. And people see the boldness in their eyes, they see the conviction and they see the results that people are having when they give their life to Jesus. People's lives are being changed. And so people start following Jesus by the thousands. By the thousands. The same authorities that had Jesus killed, they can't stand this. And so they threaten the disciples. They beat the disciples, they throw the disciples in jail. They begin to kill the disciples one by one, but nothing stops the message of Jesus from spreading because the disciples are no longer afraid of death. And the reason they're no longer afraid of death is because Jesus defeated it. Jesus changed death forever. He turned death from a period into a comma. Death, it's just this little thing. It's a comma followed by more life. The disciples believed that, and it made them unstoppable. It made the movement of Jesus unstoppable. Because for all of human history, people, even people of faith, had wrestled with the idea of death. There's a man named Job in the Old Testament. And Job had experienced a lot of death in his life. A lot of people that he loved had died. And he once wrote, Can the dead live again? If so, this would give me tremendous hope. But when he wrote that, he wasn't actually expressing faith and hope. He was expressing despair because he didn't know whether or not the dead can live again. To him, death was a period. For all of human history, death has been a period. But then Jesus died and rose again, and he changed death forever from a period into a comma. Now we know because of Jesus that if we put our faith in him, we can enjoy life right now, but we have an even greater life to look forward to after death. It's life and then more life. Death is not a period, it's a comma when you put your faith in Jesus. And by the way, Jesus made promises about what the life that He would give us would be like, the life after we experience death. Jesus used words like paradise to describe that life. The Bible speaks to it, scripture speaks to it and says it's a time when God will wipe away every tear, where there'll be no more mourning, no more weeping, no more sadness to speak of, no more sickness. It's a time when we'll be truly reunited with the God who made us, with the God who loves us more than anything than we can possibly imagine. He loves us. That's what the life to come looks like. And that's the life that Jesus promised, that's the life that he proved exists when he defeated death, when he changed death forever from a period into a comma. So what does that mean for me and you? It means that if we put our faith in Jesus, we don't have to live in fear. The rest of our world might be gripped by fear. But we don't have to live that way. Because we know that death is not final, death is not the end. We know something that Job did not. That the dead can live again, that the dead do live again. And when you put your faith in Jesus, death is just something you pass through. It's just a brief interruption in the life that God has planned for you. We often focus so much on what death does to us, but it's Easter, and we need to pay attention to what Jesus did to death. He transformed it, he defeated it. And because of that, he's freed us from any fear of death. Hebrews chapter 2 tells us that Jesus became one of us, that he became a human being. Because he had to become a human being in order to experience death, and he had to experience death in order to defeat death. And when he defeated death, he robbed death of the power that it's had over us for all of human history. And now, because of that, we've been freed from the fear of death. We've been completely freed from the fear of death. Jesus has done that for us because he changed death forever. Death, it's just a comma. Who's afraid of a comma? When you put your faith in Jesus, you have no reason to be afraid because the life that he gives you is greater than anything in this world. It's greater than any sickness. It's greater than any hardship. It's greater than any disease. It's greater than any crisis. It's greater than anything. It's greater than death itself. With Jesus, it's just life and more life. It's Easter, and we need to focus on that today. We need to remember today that we have a life that's been given to us that death cannot defeat. We have a life that's been given to us by Jesus that nothing can take away, nothing can snuff it out, because nothing can stop our God. And so if right now you're afraid, if right now you're worried, if right now you're anxious about anything in life, just remember who Jesus is. Remember what Jesus has done for you. Remember what he's done to death. If he has the power to make death a comma, imagine the kind of power he has for your life. He loves you, he cares so deeply about you. And if you're ready to give your life to him, he's ready to receive you. As a church, we actually want to help you with that. We want to come alongside you if you're ready to make that decision, because it will change your life forever. All you need to do to let us know that you're ready for that, by the way, and this is kind of an odd thing, but this is all we've got since we're we're doing everything online is text the word ready, R-E-A-D-Y, ready, to the number that you see. And that goes directly to us as a church. And we'll have someone reach out to you, we'll have someone talk with you, someone you can ask questions to, someone you can pray with, someone that can kind of help you get your feet wet when it comes to following Jesus, someone that can just help guide you along the way. We care about you. And we want you to know that no matter what you're going through, no matter what fears you're facing, Jesus has freed you completely. And when you follow him, you don't have to be afraid anymore. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you so much. Thank you so much for doing what you did. Thank you so much, Jesus, for having the power and the authority to transform death from a period to a comma. To change it from being something that we have to live in fear of because of its finality into something that is nothing but a momentary pause as we move from life to even greater life. Jesus, you love us so much and you promise us an abundant life, not just in the afterlife, but right now. But but I want to make sure that we remember, I think it's so important now more than ever, that we remember that you do promise us life after this life. That we do have that to look forward to. We don't have to live in fear. We don't have to live dominated by anxiety. Right now, Lord, we might have to be people who stay inside a little bit more often than normal, just to be safe, just to be cautious, and you're okay with that. But when it comes time for the doors to be opened, for us to go out and live life again, the way that we're meant to live it. I pray, Lord, that you give us the confidence to live it boldly. I pray, Lord, you give us the ability to enjoy it and to no longer, to never again be gripped by the fear of death, because you've defeated death itself. Jesus, we love you so much. Thank you for all you've done for us. It's in your name we pray. Amen.