Were going to talk about the greatest story ever told. Ive been involved in youth ministry for 19 years, and let me tell you about a pregnant teenager whose story I came across. Shes about 14 years old, and shes pregnant. She has a boyfriend, and the baby is not the boyfriends baby. Now, shes stuck in a situation where she has to face her parents; she has to face her boyfriend and try to deal with this situation. Put yourself in this situation. I dont know, for a guy, this may be hard to imagine. But can you imagine being a 14 year old girl and being in that situation? I came across this story, and I was just amazed. Her name is Mary, and she lived about 2,000 years ago. Were going to talk a little bit about the Christmas story and the Easter story and Jesus in between. I dont know about you, but sometimes Easter and Christmas, because you hear the same story, because it is the same story, we kind of gloss over it. So were going to hit it from some different angles, some angles that you may never have thought about. Picture you are the 14-year old girl, and an angel appears to you and says, Im going to place a baby inside of your womb. Any 14-year old girl I know right now would say, Im sorry, but that doesnt fit in my plans. How am I going to go to prom? But seriously, would you be willing to give up the next 18 or so years of your life by an angel saying, Im going to place a baby inside you. Now, obviously, its God. That would be pretty cool, but would you be willing to not only give up your time, but your body and your self? How does Mary tell Joseph? Have you ever thought of that? She has to go to her future husband and say, Im pregnant. The babys not yours, but its Gods. Can you imagine? Okay, Ive heard stories before, but now youre saying the baby is Gods. Okay! Imagine what that would have been like. Think of God as a fetus, leaving Heaven and all its splendor, and Jesus coming down and becoming one of the most fragile things on Earth. An animal baby is more able to defend and adapt when they are born than when a human is. Im continually amazed at how fragile and how tiny babies are when they first come out. Some of them fit in the palm of your hand. God went from Heaven to a fragile human being. As a writer, I would never have written the story this way. If Im going to write the story of God coming to Earth, Hes going to be on a white stallion, and Hes going to ride out of Heaven. Hes going to come in the clouds, and Hes going to circle the entire Earth from east to west, back from west to east, and the clouds will trail behind Him as He zooms through. The stars will line up and say, The King is coming. Itll blink, and itll be the most amazing thing. Therell be trumpets and choruses of angels. Thats how Id write it. God says, Nope. Hes going to live inside of a teenage unwed girl. Hes going to be born in a stable, which is a really nice word for a hole in a mountain, probably a cave, where smelly animals lived. There was manure and urine on the floor, and Hes laid in a manger, which is a feeding trough. The cows put their tongues in there to lick up the food. Thats where the King of the Universe was laid. We dont think of it that way. The first people who come besides a teenage mom and Joseph are shepherds. If you know anything about the culture at that time, they were the lowest of the low, the lowest class of people. I think that is so cool that God chooses all of that to bring Jesus into the world. Psalm 33:6 reads, By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. The One who breathed galaxies into existence, now depended on an umbilical cord for His oxygen. Amazing! The person who best understands God is a teenage girl in a smelly stable. If Mary would have written a book, it would be on the New York Times Best-Selling List. The title of the book would have been, I Changed Gods Diapers. Have you ever thought of that? Someone had to change the God of the universes diapers. This gets a little gross, and Im used to talking to youth, so forgive me, but human waste was next to Jesus skin. Thats how He humbled himself to come down to Earth. Max Lucado, one of my favorite authors, has some questions that if he were to meet Mary today, he would ask her. What was it like watching Him pray? How did He respond when He saw other kids giggling during the service at the Synagogue? Did you ever feel awkward teaching Him how He created the world? When He saw a lamb being led to slaughter, did He act differently? Did the thought ever occur to you that the God to whom you were praying was asleep under your roof in the next room? Did you ever try to count the stars with Him and succeed? Did He ever get angry when someone was dishonest with Him? Can you imagine that? How would you like to be able to know everyones thoughts? And while they are telling you lies, you can tell exactly what theyre thinking and feeling and still be able to look them in the eyes. Did you ever accidentally call Him Father? I love this one, Did you ever think, Thats God eating my soup? Maybe when He was five years old and Mary and Joseph took him down to a hill and looked at the sky, the question was asked, Why is the sky blue? Only Jesus wasnt asking the question, Mary and Joseph were asking their five-year old that question. Did Jesus ever go around as He went through His daily life singing, This is the day? This is the day that I have made. Because, He could have sang that. Or Jesus, at the age of 12, its amazing to me how we go from the age of 2 with the Wise men coming to visit, and then the Bible is silent until the age of 12. You all know the story. Jesus is at the temple, and Hes amazing the rabbi. Can you imagine being a rabbi and preaching a sermon, and God is in the congregation listening to your sermon? If they would have known that, how nervous would they have been? But Hes at the age of 12, and at the end of the story it says that Mary and Joseph left, and they left Jesus behind. They left their 12-year old behind. Im thinking, How can you leave your kid behind? Its like two or three days later before they realize, Um. Wheres Jesus? The reason that happened is because back then, they would travel in caravans, not your Dodge Caravan, your caravan of many, many people for safety. So it would have been very easy to think that Jesus was with his cousins at the end of the caravan or somewhere else. By the time they realized it, can you imagine the panic? Joseph goes to Mary because we guys, we always blame the women. What did you do with God? I thought you were watching God. And then he would be praying, Dear God, could you help us find God? Then they would be going back to try to find Jesus. Or how about Jesus as a teenager? Can you imagine Jesus on the swim team? The gun goes off, everyone dives in the water, and Jesus runs across and stands at the other side, waiting for them. Did He wear WWID bracelets when he was a teenager? How would you like to be the brother or sister of Jesus? Why cant you be more like Jesus? Can you imagine the pressure of trying to live up to Jesus as your brother? We dont think about Jesus having siblings and what that would have been like. Or if Mary and Joseph go out on a date, and they come back and their favorite clay pot is broken. They line up the kids, Who did it? No ones going to answer. So they say, Okay Jesus, who did it? He would have to tell. Maybe Jesus would magically fix the clay pot before the parents got home. What did Jesus look like? Did you know that we have only one verse in the Bible? If youll turn with me to Isaiah 53:2 on page 731 [of NIV, pew Bibles], He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. I wouldnt have written it that way! Jesus would have looked a lot like me, a big handsome, muscular guy. But God says that Jesus looked plain. Do you feel plain today? Youre in very good company. He was very average-looking. But where the greatest story ever told really gets good is the Garden of Gethsemane, so were going to skip ahead. When Jesus is in the Garden, he knows--think of this--whats going to happen. If youve seen The Passion of the Christ movie, you get just a glimpse of what Jesus had to go through. Have you ever thought about wanting to know when you would die and how you would die? If you right now could know that, exactly how, would you want to know? Jesus knows exactly what Hes going to go through. And because He has the human side of Him, He knows whats going to happen, and Hes agonizing over this. He even says, Father, if theres any other way, but I dont want to do anything but Your will, not My will, God, but Yours. It says He was under such great stress that He sweat drops of blood. Ive never seen anybody sweat drops of blood. Its a condition called hematohidrosis. Its when your capillaries and veins expand under great stress, and they actually contact your sweat glands and blood leaks right through your sweat glands. Then he goes back to His three closest friends, and He asks, Please, just stay up with Me a short while and pray with Me because of the great stress Im going through. He comes back and He finds them asleep. Have you ever thought of this? Why do we die a physical death? We die a physical death because of sin. Sin gets passed down through our fathers. Jesus never had an earthly father, so I think of this: He would never have been able to physically die. Did you ever wonder why he was up on the side of the cliff, and they were trying to stone him. The Bible says all the sudden He just walked right through the crowd, and nobody touched Him. I believe its because Jesus could not have physically died. He would have lived forever if He had stayed on Earth. The reason I bring that up is this: He had to willfully give up His life. There was no way they could have taken it from Him. He made that choice because He loved you and me. He willfully gave up His life. Think of the Last Supper, of Judas Iscariot. Jesus knows what Hes going to do, and I never thought of this until this last year. Yet, Jesus washes Judas feet. If you knew that the person who was going to betray you was right there, would you humble yourself by placing a towel around you with nothing else on, washing his dirty, slimy, grimy feet and wiping it off in an act of love, all the while knowing that this person-in a few hours-is going to leave and betray you? Look at John 18:3-6, which is page 1071. This is where the story really gets good. Verse 3 says this: So Judas came to the grove, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons. Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, Who is it you want? Jesus of Nazareth, they replied. I am He, Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, I am He, they drew back and fell to the ground. There are probably two reasons for this. I know Pastor Jeff has shared that just the act of saying, I am, probably was the force, the Godly force of that, a detachment of soldiers right around 600 soldiers at least, would have knocked them all to the ground. The other option would have been theyd heard the stories about the God-man who could perform all these miracles, and they were probably scared to death. Thats why they took 600 people to arrest Him, with weapons, lanterns and torches. When He started to talk, they probably thought that fire was going to shoot out of His fingers and destroy them all. When he finally started talking, they probably all fell back-just scared that they would be destroyed. Then when it doesnt happen, they get bolder and bolder. Then Judas walks up to Him and betrays Him with a kiss. Ive often wondered, did Judas look him right in the eye when He went up to Him? Could he even look Him in the eye? He betrays the Savior. Have you ever been betrayed by someone, by a close friend that youve spent the last three years with? I know what betrayal feels like. One day, my son Caleb, when he was about five years old, he woke up and walked out to me. He said, Dad, I dont think Im a Bears fan anymore. I want to move to Green Bay, and I want to be a Packer fan. You laugh, but Im telling you it was like a stab in my heart because for generations my family has always been Bears fans. But your best friend betrays you with a kiss. When they go to see Jesus, Peter takes a sword out and cuts off the soldiers ear. Im thinking, Peter? How could you have such bad aim? How do you go to cut a guys head off and just get his ear? The only think I can think of is that if he took the sword out and went for the guys head, and the sword was coming this way, the guy started ducking and maybe Peter just sliced off the ear. Think about this: Jesus reaches down and picks up this bloody mass of meat that was attached to this guys head, picks it up, puts it next to his head, and takes His hand away. The ear was perfectly attached. If you are that soldier, you probably run from that place because theres no way you can continue doing what you were doing. Instead of fighting back, just think about that! He takes this guys ear and puts it back. What affect that must have had. I would love to see what happened to that guys life after that. Then, one of my favorite verses in the Bible, Mark 14:50, on page 1008, Then everyone deserted him and fled. A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind. That wasnt in the Passion movie, not a verse that you usually come across. Let me do a quick review: Sweating drops of blood; 600 soldiers come to get Him, and he says, I am. They all fall down, go boom; Peter takes out a sword and cuts this guys ear off. Jesus puts it back on; now, naked man is fleeing from the scene. Wednesday nights, we have the youth group over at our house. One time after small group, this tan blur came flying out of my sons bedroom-right in the middle of our living room where all the youth are standing. He yells, I am naked man! Then he swooshes back into the buff cave. This is just knowledge you dont think about when you hear about the Easter story. Can you imagine this scene of everything taking place here? Jesus allows them to seethe Him. Its an illegal trial at night. All kinds of false accusations. Have you ever had a time when someone said you did something, and it was extremely false? It never happened, and it was extremely damaging to your reputation. You know what that feels like. Then they begin to punch Him in the face as hard as they can after they blindfolded Him. They say, If youre God, tell me who just hit You in the face! Then they mock Him. Then they begin to spit on Him. I think maybe up to this point, I couldve taken all this-probably not because Im a girly-man, but at this point, when somebody spit on me… When I was in about fourth grade, I was walking across this bridge over this small river near our house in the suburbs of Chicago. Some evil teenager, for no reason, hocked a big loogie on my face. To this day, I can still smell the smell, feel the warmth, feel it dripping down my face. If youve ever had somebody spit on you, its one of the most degrading things you can ever imagine. Jesus put up with it because He loved you, and He loved me. If I were there, and the spit started coming, Id go like all Matrix on them. The spit would slowly slow down and stop in the air, and it would fall to the ground because there is no way Im letting another person spit on me, ever! But He never fought back, not even once. The Roman soldiers mock and beat Jesus. They strip Him and put a scarlet robe on Him, and they twist together a crown of thorns and set it on His head. They put a staff in His right hand, knelt in front of Him and mocked Him, Hail, King of the Jews. They spit on Him, took the staff and struck Him on the head again and again. Have you ever noticed the symbolism in there? The crown of thorns is from Genesis 3:17-18. It says, Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. The thorns that were placed on His head were part of the curse back in Genesis. The scarlet robe was also from Isaiah 1:18 (pg 676). It says, Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. Turn to Isaiah 50:6, on page 7:28. If youve seen The Passion movie, I know you know what Jesus went through. One of the things that they didnt show in the Passion movie are here. I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. Turn three pages over to Isaiah 52:14, page 731. Verse 14 says, Just as there were many who were appalled at Him-His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness… Jesus had people grab His facial hair and rip it out of his face along with chunks of skin. The Bible here says that He was so beat up that not only could you not tell that was Jesus, you couldnt even tell He was a human being by the time they got done with Him. He did it willingly because He loves you and me. Then Jesus was crucified. The 40 lashes-I will spare you the details-whips with bone, metal and glass ripped Him to shreds. Then He was crucified. If you know anything about crucifixion, they would sometimes hang up there for three and four days. Thats why they went to break the legs of the two guys next to Him. It was the most devious, painful torturing way you could ever kill somebody. Every breath that Jesus had to take, He would have to push up on the nail that was through both feet, push up to release the pressure from his diaphragm, take in a breath. Then when His legs cramped up, and His muscles would give out, He would sag back down and put all his weight on the two nails in His wrists. Then when He couldnt take that any more because He could not breathe, it would be like drowning in air. Every breath, He had to push Himself for every breath. Think of that. Then darkness falls over the land for three hours, and Jesus cries out these words: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabach-thani, which means Abba Father, why have you forsaken me? Or Daddy! Daddy! Why have you abandoned me? My son Connor was three years old; he was in our back yard with my son Caleb who was six. They found the pruning shears. Caleb took the pruning shears, and Connor, my three year old, took the stick. He held it out to Caleb and said, Caleb, cut the stick! Caleb took the pruning shears and attempted to cut the stick. Not only did he cut the stick, but he cut right into my sons fingers. Im so thankful that he didnt cut his fingers right off. We were in the kitchen, by our patio window, and I heard this scream. And as you know, if youre a mom or a dad, theres nothing like the scream of your child who is in trouble. I rushed out my backyard, and there was my three year old, holding his hand with blood dripping and squirting out his hand. He was jumping up and down, screaming for his daddy. Then he kept screaming, Daddy, I need a Band Aid! I need a Band Aid! My heart just broke. God turned His back on His son. It would be like me rushing out into my backyard, seeing my three year old, my heart breaking, him screaming for His daddy who will make everything better, and looking at him, turning around, walking back into the house and locking the door. Why would God do such a thing? Why would God turn His back on His son at the time in Jesus life when He needed Him the most? Every persons sin who has ever lived, ever will live, and who is living now, every lie that weve told, rape, murder, every single sin was placed on Jesus back. When God looked down, a holy God who cannot stand the presence of sin, He could not stand to look at His own son. Can you imagine what that felt like for Jesus? Again, this is gross, but I cannot explain it in any other way. It would be like us taking dog manure, spreading it all over our bodies, up our nose, and in our mouths. Because a pure Lamb of God, even having one sin touch his existence, would have been like that. It would have made your skin crawl, and thats what Jesus did because He loved us so much. When God looked down, He could not even look at His son. He turned His back. Jesus died of a broken heart. I know thats kind of a cliché saying, but Im going to show you that I believe that Jesus literally died of a broken heart. The reason He died was of a broken heart. Normally, they would be up there for three or four days, and they would come by and break their legs so they couldnt push themselves up. They would then die of suffocation. In Matthew 27:50 and Luke 23:40 say, The death of Jesus immediately followed a loud and piercing cry. Turn to Psalm 40:12, page 556. This is the prophesy about Jesus. It says, For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me. When Joseph went to ask for the body of Jesus, Pilate was extremely surprised that Jesus already died. When Matthew 27:50 says that the death of Jesus immediately followed a loud and piercing cry, what happens is this: it actually happened [he died of a broken heart]. People have had their hearts just rupture in their body. When it happens, there is a loud cry that they cry out, and they grasp their chests. Obviously, Jesus could not have done that because he was nailed here. When people die a slow death, their voice gets softer and softer. Youve all seen the movie scenes where someone is on their death bed, and someone else has to listen. Thats how somebody would die a slow death. Jesus was still strong by the loud and piercing cry, and then His heart exploded in His chest. All the sin that was placed on us, His Father turning His back on Him, everything that He went through just broke His heart. His heart exploded. The last bit of evidence, when they stuck the spear in His side, water and blood flowed out. When your heart ruptures, your blood separates into water, serum, and blood. Jesus died of a broken heart. Your Heavenly Father loves you more than any earthly father can. I came across a story of a man named Richard Hoyt. Richard Hoyt was in his 50s. He had just had a heart attack, and he has a quadriplegic son. When their son was born, the doctor told him hed be a vegetable. They tried to get them to have an abortion. The parents wouldnt do it. They [social workers] tried to put him in an institution. They said, Were going to raise this son like any other son or child we have. By the age of 5, they noticed by blinks and things that he was trying to communicate with them. To make a long story short, he was able to hook up some kind of a computer, through the help of doctors and scientists, to their quadriplegic son. By just moving his arm, because he could only move his arm, he was able to communicate. He went on and graduated from high school and college. Now, his son is in his 30s, and the dad is in his late 50s. Theyre watching ESPN, and they see a triathlon. The son, through the computer, says, Dad, Id like to do that someday. Most of us would be like Okay and just humor him. The dad said, If thats what my son wants to do, then thats what were going to do. Hed never run a five-mile race before. If you know anything about a triathlon, its a three-mile swim in the ocean, a full marathon run, and over 100 mile bike ride. He started training. Were going to watch a video clip that shows, who I believe, to be one of the greatest dads ever to live on this earth, a man named Richard Hoyt. The first time I saw that, I bawled like a baby. Every time I watch that, Im amazed. Thats the depth of love that an earthly father has for his son. Multiply that infinity plus one, as my kids say, and thats how much God loves you. I dont know what relationship you have with your earthly father, whether its a good one or a bad one, but if youre here today, and you dont have a relationship with the Heavenly Father, what a Fathers Day gift you could give to Him today making that choice. Ill leave you with this: Wouldnt it have cool to be a disciple and live next to Jesus for three years? Three years, side by side with God. You have an opportunity to have something that the disciples never had. Have you ever thought that the disciples may have Jesus next to them, but during that time, they did not have Jesus inside of them? You can have Jesus living inside of you! Then, the God who breathed galaxies into existence can be the God of your Mondays. Lets Pray. Heavenly Father, we just come before You, Lord, and we are so humbled. We cannot find the words to thank You for what You did for us 2,000 years ago. Thank You for humbling yourself and coming down to Earth, Lord. I thank You for every whip, every word that was said to You in mocking, every punch, every slap, every time You were spit upon, Lord. I thank You for going through that, that if I were the last person on Earth, You still would have gone through that. And, Lord, on this Fathers Day, I just want to thank You for being such a good Heavenly Daddy. Lord, I just pray that You will make us worthy in our Christian lives to pass on legacies to our children, that the people we work with will know that we are in love with our Heavenly Father, every word that comes out of our mouth, every action, that people will look at us and say, There is something different about that person. So, Lord, we just thank You on this Fathers Day, and we pray this in Jesus name, Amen.