James Merritt - The Empty Tomb
There are three days out of all the other 365 days in the year that give Christianity center stage around the world. One is Christmas Day, one is Good Friday, and one is Easter. Christmas Day points to a cradle, Good Friday points to a cross, and Easter Sunday points to a cave. But of those three days, the only day that makes the other two days special is the third day. Because without the third day, the other two days are meaningless and inconsequential. Without the third day, we don’t even celebrate the first day or the second day. And so, this is the day that’s the most important: Easter Sunday. Let me just explain to you why. The world has over 4,000 religions. Of those 4,000, all except four of them are built on some type of philosophy. But the other four are built on a singular personality.
For example, the oldest religious faith is Judaism. It was founded on Abraham. Even to this day, Jews call Abraham «Father Abraham.» Well, in 1500 BC, Abraham died. The Bible says at a ripe old age, but his body is still dead. Buddhism was founded by Buddha. An ancient Buddhist piece of literature described his death this way: and I quote, «When Buddha died, it was with that utter passing away in which nothing whatever remains behind.» In other words, Buddha died; his body is still dead. Islam was founded on the prophet Muhammad in 571 AD. He died in 632 AD at the age of 61. You can go to Medina today; his tomb is still visited by thousands of devout Muslims. But there’s one thing they know: he died; his body is still dead. But the founder of Christianity is Jesus Christ.
And Christians believe he is the one human being who did one thing that no other human being before him had ever done, and no other human being has done after him. After he died, we believe he was raised from the dead. He was not resuscitated; he didn’t have one of those out-of-body experiences. He didn’t die temporarily, come back in the same body, only to die again. The Bible’s very clear, and I believe with all of my heart it was different because he died in a natural body, but he was raised in a supernatural body. He died in a temporal body, but he was raised in an eternal body.
As a matter of fact, one of the unique aspects of Christianity compared to every other faith and religious belief in the world is that our faith actually traces our beginning and our origin to one particular event, at one particular moment, on one particular day in history. That is not true of Judaism; that is not true of Buddhism; that is not true of Islam; that is not true of Hinduism; that is not true of any other religion in the world. We are the only religion that says we are really not a religion. We’re the only faith that says we are here because of one event, at one moment, on one day in history. Well, what is that event?
Well, I want you to take God’s word this morning and turn to the shortest gospel in the Bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Mark is right after Matthew. So, I want you to take your Bibles, whatever you’re using, and turn to Mark chapter 16. I want us to go back 2,000 years to a tomb somewhere in Jerusalem. We’re about to read in eight short verses about that first Easter Sunday morning when life would never be the same for some people. The question is, what changed? What happened between Saturday night and Sunday morning? Why was there no church at all on Saturday night, but on Sunday morning, a church exploded out of nowhere and is still present in the world today? As a matter of fact, what was it that happened that caused a spark, that lit a fire still burning in the hearts of two billion people around the world? Where did it start? Well, it all began with an empty tomb.
Now, let me tell you why this is a big deal, why this message is so crucial. There is a lot riding on that empty tomb. I’ll give you an illustration. There was a man who decided to take a vacation with his mother-in-law and his wife to the Holy Land. Unfortunately, while they were there, the mother-in-law died suddenly. So, he took her to an undertaker and said, «Hey, can you help me out?» The undertaker replied, «Well, I’ll tell you. You can ship her body back, but that’s going to cost you about $10,000. However, because we love Americans so much and appreciate what you do for us, I will bury your mother-in-law for $500.»
The son-in-law didn’t even hesitate; he said, «No, we’ll ship her back.» The undertaker said, «Excuse me, I’m sorry. Maybe you didn’t hear me; it’s going to cost you $10,000 to ship the body back, but I will bury her for $500.» The son-in-law took the undertaker aside so his wife could not hear what he said. He looked at the undertaker and said, «Listen, buddy, they buried a guy over here 2,000 years ago. He came back from the dead; I can’t take that chance.» Now, I believe there’s a 100% chance that man came back; I truly believe that. But here’s what you have to decide: you can’t straddle the fence. You can’t stay in the middle of the road.
What I’m going to talk about today is fact or fiction. Either it happened or it didn’t. Either Jesus died and He’s still dead, or Jesus died but now He is alive. There is a lot riding on that empty tomb because here’s what you’re going to learn today: only an empty tomb gives us hope for eternity. So, as we look at this story, I want us to do four quick things. Ready? First of all, let’s acknowledge the doubt of the resurrection. Let’s just get it out there: let’s acknowledge the doubt of the resurrection. Because I told you there are over two billion followers of Jesus on this planet. That’s the good news. Here’s the bad news: there are six billion who are not. There are six billion people who say, «We’re not buying it. We don’t believe it. It couldn’t happen. Somebody dies; they’re dead. That’s the end of the story. No need to even bother with me; I have no time for it. I have no use for it.»
Now, if you’re one of those people today, and you’re a doubter who’s not sure, who doesn’t know whether that happened or not, I want you to understand: I don’t want to fuss at you. I’m not trying to put you down. As a matter of fact, I want to encourage you. It’s just natural; it’s just normal. Because there was all kinds of doubt going on that Sunday morning, and it had been a pretty long weekend. Let’s just go back to that weekend. It was devastating for some people. Jesus had been crucified on Friday. But have you ever thought about the fact that He wasn’t the only thing that died on that Friday? Think about what those disciples had done for three years: they left everything to follow Jesus. They left their family; they left their home; they left their work; they left their job; they left their neighbors; they left their friends; they left any source of income.
They went all in on Jesus. They put all their chips on Jesus; they bet everything on Jesus. And for three years, they kept saying to each other, «He’s the guy! He’s the man! He’s the Messiah! He’s the coming king! He’s the one we’ve been waiting for.» I mean, after all, He said to them over and over and over, «The kingdom of God has come.» They said, «We believe it.» He said, «The kingdom of God is in your midst.» They said, «We believe it.» They could not wait! They got up every morning, «Is this the day? Is this the time? Will this be the moment when Jesus is going to take over? We’re going to be princes in this new kingdom!» Although there was just a little bit of a hitch, He kept telling them over and over and over, «I’m going to die, and I’m going to be raised from the dead.» The problem was, «No, not you! Messiahs don’t die; kings don’t die.» And they did not believe Him.
So not only did his body die that day, but all of their hopes, all of their dreams, all of their ambitions, all of their aspirations, and all of their vision went up on a cross. So the story begins. When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’s body. Now, the end of the Sabbath is Saturday; that was Saturday night. Now, you would think, based on what Jesus said, that instead of pulling, you know, they would be excited about Sunday morning. But here’s what’s strange: instead of pulling an all-nighter, instead of counting the minutes until Sunday morning when they could go see the risen Jesus, what do these women do? They go to the mall. They go shopping. They’re going to buy spices. Why are you going to buy spices? Well, we’re going to anoint the body. Why are you going to do that?
Well, back in that day, when you buried the body, you wrapped it up in cloth. But then you would go buy spices and perfumes. You would come back, unwrap the body, and anoint it with spices. You would anoint it with perfume because if you didn’t, the body would begin to stink with the odor of death. Well, you say, «But why were they doing that»? Even after all that he told them, here’s why: they did not even conceive that the tomb would be empty. Resurrection wasn’t even on their radar screen. Jesus has died. He’s graveyard dead. He’s going to stay dead. And so these disciples, these women, these men, were not filled with faith; they were filled with doubt. It was a terrible, terrible time. Because remember, between Jesus’s burial on Friday and his resurrection on Sunday, there was Saturday. So in other words, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, there’s what I like to call Sad Saturday.
Now, Good Friday is famous; Easter Sunday is fantastic. That’s why we talk about those two days all the time. But has it ever occurred to you that nobody’s ever talked about Saturday? I’ve never heard a preacher talk about Saturday. We just kind of gloss over it. We kind of blow through Saturday. But let me go back to that Saturday; it had been the longest day these disciples had experienced in their lives. As a matter of fact, I call it D-Day: disappointment, discouragement, defeat, disillusionment filled the air. But again, you have to ask the question: why aren’t the disciples and these women camped out at the empty tomb around the clock? Because if you go back and do the counting, if you do the math, are you ready for this? Jesus told them 21 times about the third day. He told them three specific times. I mean, he didn’t mince words: I am going to rise from the dead. But why didn’t they believe him?
Well, you have to go back to the culture of the day. Because the Jews, the Romans, and the Greeks—all of them—believed that a resurrection was impossible. Why didn’t the Romans believe it? Well, the Romans believed that anything physical was evil. Well, the body’s physical, so the body’s evil. So the Romans thought the only good thing about a human being was the soul. They thought when the soul finally leaves the body, that’s a great thing. And they had no desire—they didn’t want their soul to go back in this old body. So they didn’t believe in a resurrection. The Greeks not only thought it was impossible; they didn’t even think it was desirable. They wanted no part of a resurrection.
Now, the Jews were a little different. They believed that God created the world; therefore, the body was a good thing. At the end of time, there would be a general resurrection of the righteous. However, nobody ever believed or imagined that God would raise one individual from the dead. So, let’s see how well you’ve been listening so far. Let’s take a little pop quiz. You ready? How many times did Jesus prophesy he would come back to life three days after his death? Three! Well, 21 for the third day, but specifically three.
Okay, how many apostles heard him say this? All of them. Next one: how many apostles waited at the tomb to see if he’d keep his word? Zero! How many of his followers believed in the resurrection before it happened? Okay, you do the math. Nobody! The point is, if you’re one of those people who walked in today, listening right now and saying, «Yeah, I’m not so sure. Yeah, I don’t believe it. You know, I’m too scientific. Those things just can’t happen. It has to be a miracle.» I get it! I understand. I’m not knocking you because they doubted the resurrection too. Because I admit that maybe it is kind of hard to believe at first. And it was for the disciples. But the story’s not over; we’re just getting started. So yes, let’s acknowledge the doubt of the resurrection for sure, but let’s address the display of the resurrection. It’s Sunday morning. The women are on their way to the tomb.
Now let me stop right there. I want to give a shout-out to all you ladies out there. I want to brag on these women. Okay, at least they went to the tomb to anoint the body. What do men do? You know how men are: «Ah, he’s dead! Forget it! I’m going back to work, getting season tickets to Georgia, going hunting, going fishing, going back to the job. Jesus is dead; let’s move on.» But at least these women—I mean, think about it— not one of the other eleven disciples, not one, not Peter, not James, not John, nobody! Not one person said, «Hey, why don’t we just go check it out? The guy said he’d come back from the grave. What have we got to lose?» Not one! But at least the women, even though they doubted, were still devoted. They loved Jesus like only a woman can love. They loved Jesus like only a mother can.
So now they’re headed to the tomb to anoint his body. But it gets worse because on their way to the tomb, they realize, «Wait a minute, we have a problem.» Here’s the problem: very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they’re on the way to the tomb, and they ask each other, «Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?» Now, I have the gift of prophecy. What I would have said to those women was, «Why didn’t you think about that before you got up early in the morning?» But they’re on the way to the tomb, and to add insult to injury, now they’re not only hopeless—Jesus is dead—they’re helpless! That stone was four to six feet in diameter. It weighed several thousand pounds.
These women had no shot of getting inside that tomb to anoint that body unless somebody was there to roll the stone away. But what they saw next not only changed their lives; it would change the world forever. When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. And as they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. So, they get to the tomb, and what do they find? The last thing they expected—the one thing they were not looking for, the one reason they did not go to that tomb.
I mean, by the way, technically, if you want to get technical, it really wasn’t empty because there was a young man dressed in a white robe. We now know that was an angel. But there was a young man sitting inside that tomb on the right-hand side. But it wasn’t the young man that was there that blew them away—that’s not what blew them away. It was the 33-year-old man that wasn’t there that blew them away! So, they were asking the same question we ought to be asking: okay, the stone’s rolled away and Jesus is gone.
Now, at this point in the message, let me just stop right here. I want to drill down on one thing. This is the one thing that, if you don’t listen to anything else I say, if you don’t get anything else I say, you’ve got to get this because everything hinges on it. You ready? No one, to this moment—2,000 years later—has ever disputed this one single fact: that tomb was empty. Nobody has ever disputed that. Nobody. The people who executed him? They didn’t dispute that. The Roman soldiers guarding the tomb? They didn’t dispute that. The Jews? They didn’t dispute that. The Pharisees? They didn’t dispute that. The Sadducees? They didn’t dispute that. Pontius Pilate? He didn’t dispute that. King Herod? He didn’t dispute that.
Nobody, to this day, has ever disputed that the tomb was empty. There has never been a historian in recorded history who said that tomb was occupied. The vast majority of scholars today, many of whom don’t believe one thing in this book, even say that tomb was empty. And it’s really easy to see why. There is no record of any kind, written or oral, that the empty tomb was ever disputed by anybody, even by those who had Jesus killed. By the way, even today in Palestine, bodies decay more slowly in the climate there, and Jesus’s body, scholars say, could still probably be identified even after maybe a month. It wouldn’t decompose that quickly.
So remember, the ladies go to the tomb. They’re not looking for a king; they’re looking for a corpse. They’re not looking to anoint a living king; they’re going to anoint a dead body. But that empty tomb raised one question. It raised the most important question that will ever be asked in the history of the human race. And here’s the question: What happened to the body? Nobody disputes the tomb was empty, but what happened to the body? Now, there’s one explanation. When you examine the evidence, I think it’s the only explanation that makes sense and fits. The angel at the tomb gives it: «Okay, you want to know why the tomb is empty? I can tell you. Don’t be alarmed.» He said, «You’re looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. He is risen.» Three words in English, one word in Greek, and it’s the most important word that has ever been uttered in the history of the world.
And there’s a reason, to this day, why no one has ever produced the body and shut Christianity down once and for all. Because think about it: all anybody had to do was one simple thing—just present the corpse, just show the body, just find the bones—and Christianity would have stopped dead in its tracks, and we would not be here today. There would be no church here today. There would be no Easter Sunday today. There would be no Good Friday today. There would be no Christmas Day today. But there was no body, and the only reasonable explanation is that body was raised from the dead.
Now, I don’t want you to misunderstand what I’m saying. You may hear me say something I’m not saying. The empty tomb, in and of itself, does not demonstrate the resurrection, but the resurrection demands an empty tomb. You can have an empty tomb, and maybe somebody stole the body; we could talk about that, and I have talked about that before. It was so implausible. But if He was raised from the dead, the tomb had to be empty.
So what I’m saying to you is that whatever else you do with Jesus—do whatever you want to do with the cradle, do whatever you want to do with the cross; it doesn’t matter. You’ve got to decide what to do with the cave. You must address the display of the resurrection. The tomb is empty. But that leads to the third thing: let’s accept the demand of the resurrection. Because I realize this morning that I’m preaching to the choir. Literally, I know that most of you believe in the resurrection; you wouldn’t be here. You believe in the resurrection, and you wouldn’t be tuning me in. I understand that. Most of you would say, «Oh, I believe in the resurrection, man! I’ve heard this. You know, I’ve heard Easter; I’ve got it all.» And you say, «I believe in the resurrection of Jesus.»
Okay, I understand that. But if you’re one of those people who would look me in the eye and say, «Pastor, I believe in the resurrection of Jesus,» I have a question for you: So what are you going to do with that? Okay, you believe it. That’s fine. What are you going to do with that? Because there’s a demand that comes with your belief. The very next thing this angel tells these women is this: «Watch this. But go, tell his disciples and Peter. He’s going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.»
Do you realize this is the first time in three years that Jesus has ever told his followers, «Now go tell people about me»? If you read the Gospels, what did he do for three years? He said, «Don’t say anything. Don’t talk about it. You preach the gospel of the kingdom. Don’t mention me. Don’t talk about my death, burial, or resurrection. Don’t say a word.» But for the first time, now that he’s raised from the dead, he says, «Go tell. Go tell.» That’s what I want you to do: Go tell. So here’s what I want to say to those of you who say, «I believe in the resurrection.» Do you really? I mean, do you really believe in the resurrection? «Yeah, I really believe.»
If you do, you can’t just leave this building today and go back to work. You can’t just leave this building today and go back to your restaurant or to your family dinner. You can’t go back and just live your life as usual. If you really believe in the resurrection, you’ve got to go tell. It’s not an option; it’s an obligation. It’s not a declaration; it is a demand. This breaks my heart: most unchurched Christian Americans say they have multiple Christian friends, but those friends have never shared with them how or why they should follow Jesus. And what’s even more amazing is that they say they’re open to having religious conversations. Listen to this: 47% of unbelievers say, «We would freely discuss faith if just someone wanted to talk about our religious beliefs.»
Oh, and by the way, they also said they’d be more than willing to listen to some Christians talk about their faith if they saw more Christians living out their faith in public. So when the angel said he is going ahead of you, don’t misunderstand what he said. The verb does not just mean he was going ahead or going out in front. That’s a powerful verb; it was the word that was used of a general leading his soldiers or a shepherd leading his sheep. In other words, the same Jesus who led them for three years was still leading them. By the way, that same Jesus is still leading us.
And, oh, by the way, that same Jesus will lead us forever. But while we’re on this earth, where does that Jesus lead us? To go tell. He leads us. You take what you know, what you believe, and what’s changed your life, and you tell someone else. By the way, you may have walked in and seen something new on our wall. If you have, I want you to see it before you leave. It’s on the right side, or rather, to my left, your right. We painted the wall with three big words: «You are sent.» And on the front column, you’ll see this word: «Who’s your one?» Because last Thanksgiving, many of you wrote the name of that one person you know is lost and needs to be saved, and they’re now on that wall.
So, what I want you to do before you leave today—don’t forget to do this—is to walk over there to that wall, say a quick prayer over all those names, and I want you to do what I did this morning. I went over there, got a little post-it note, wrote the name of another man I’m trying to win to Christ, and I put it on that wall. We’d like to see that wall filled with names of those we want to see come to Jesus. Those are the ones that we need to go tell. So, I’m going to tell you the two favorite words you’ve been waiting to hear from me right now. In conclusion, the last thing—let’s admit the decision about the resurrection. Mark’s gospel, as you know, is very abrupt. I love all four gospels; I want to make it plain, I’m not knocking any gospel. Mark’s my least favorite, not because it’s not true, but because it’s, well, Mark. I call Mark the Calvin College of gospel writers. Okay?
Short to the point. His favorite words: immediate. Get to the point, make your point, move on, let’s go. So you come to the end of his gospel, and it’s just so abrupt. Here’s the way he ends it: «Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.» Now that is true. What he says is true. At first, the women kept their mouths shut. At first, the women stayed silent. At first, the women did what just about every Christian does today: they said nothing to anyone because they were afraid. Of course, when you read the other gospels, you find out they eventually did go. They did tell; they did proclaim. You know why they did that? Because at that tomb, they had made the most important decision of their lives: they believed that the tomb was empty because Jesus had been raised from the dead.
And when they finally believed in the resurrection of Jesus, they surrendered to the Jesus of the resurrection. And when they surrendered to the Jesus of the resurrection, they made a commitment to share the gospel of the resurrected Jesus. I want you to hear this next statement because this is where some of you are this morning: you can believe in the resurrection with everything you have, but if you don’t surrender to the resurrected Jesus, you will be separated from the resurrected Jesus for all eternity. Hell is filled with people who believed in the resurrection. Believing it up here doesn’t cut it. It’s when it makes it from here to here, and it changes your heart, and it gives you a new passion, and He becomes your supreme love. And it’s not that you have to go tell; you want to go tell. It’s not that you have to get baptized; you want to get baptized. It’s not that you have to read your Bible; you want to read your Bible. It’s not that you have to give; you want to give. That’s the difference that the resurrected Jesus makes.
So what I want to say to all of you today is real simple: you’ve got to decide. Because remember, when those women got to that tomb, the angel did not say, «Surprise, here’s Jesus! Take your spices.» Nope. When they got there, he said, «Oh, excuse me, ladies. He was here, but he’s not here because he’s risen.» So now, we’ve got Question Three that we all have to answer. Question number one: Will you believe it? Happened or didn’t? It’s fact or fiction. He’s dead or he’s alive. Will you believe it? Now, you may say, «Yeah, I believe it.» Oh, we’re not done. Will you accept it? That’s the game-changer. That means nothing without this: Yes, I’ll accept it. We’re not done. Because if you truly accept it, will you share it?
So, Mike and Jerry, I’ve waited seven weeks for this moment. I want you to draw up real close. I don’t want anybody texting. Don’t look at your iPad. Put your pens down. I want you to draw up real close—real close. And let me tell you this last story and we’ll be done. It’s December 7th, 1941. Winston Churchill is at a birthday party in Chequers for a woman named Kathleen Harriman. And even though it was a festive occasion, it really wasn’t very festive because things were looking very bleak in England. Germany was on the march, France had been defeated, and Poland and Czechoslovakia had been mowed down like new grass. The German war machine was running over everything it hit, and the only thing standing between Hitler and world domination was the British Empire.
Churchill knew, «We’re David, and we’re facing a Goliath, but we don’t even have a slingshot. We don’t even have a stone.» But at nine o’clock that night, they did something they did every night: one of his aides, Frank Sawyer, brought a radio into the party so they could listen to the BBC’s 9:00 news broadcast. They were listening to it, not really paying attention, until just at the end of the broadcast when the announcement was made that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. Churchill immediately ran to his study and called President Franklin Roosevelt. He said, «Mr. Roosevelt, what what is this, Mr. President? What is this about Japan?» And Roosevelt replied with words that were music to his ears. He said, «Winston, they have attacked us at Pearl Harbor. We’re all in the same boat now.»
Winston Churchill said he felt so guilty because he was the happiest he had been in years. And before he went to bed that night, Churchill wrote these words in his diary, and I’m going to try to say it the way he wrote it: «No American will think it wrong of me if I proclaim that to have the United States at our side was, to me, the greatest joy. So we had won after all. Yes, after Dunkirk, after the fall of France, after the horrible episode of Iran, after the threat of invasion, we had won the war. England would live. Britain would live. The Commonwealth of Nations and the Empire would live. Once again in our long island history, we should emerge, however mauled or mutilated, safe and victorious. We should not be wiped out. Our history would not come to an end.» Saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and the thankful.
So, let’s go back to Saturday night. How do you think the disciples slept Saturday night? Fitfully, turning, weeping, crying, fearful, faithless, discouraged, and defeated. How do you think they slept Sunday night? They slept great. It was the best night’s sleep they’d ever had in their lives. You know why? They went to bed that night, for the first time in their lives, knowing that the war against sin, sorrow, death, and the grave had been won, and they were going to win it after all.
So, here’s what I want to stand and tell you on this Easter Sunday morning: I want to declare to you that no matter what you’re going through, no matter how strong the wind, no matter how rough the seas, no matter how high the waves, no matter how dark the night, you will weather the storm. You will sleep the sleep of the saved, and you’ll sleep the sleep of the thankful because of an empty tomb. He was there. He’s not there. He is here. He is risen.
So, would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Nobody moving, nobody stirring. I have prayed and fasted for this moment right here. I have prayed and fasted for this moment. There are some of you who walked into this room today, and you have never bought into the resurrection. Never. You’ve never trusted Jesus. I don’t doubt that you may believe in the resurrection; I don’t doubt that. What I doubt is whether it has ever moved from your head to your heart. And there are some of you for whom Jesus is not even on your radar screen because you’ve never really taken this story seriously. Today, I want you to. Some of you came here reluctantly; you were invited by a neighbor. You didn’t really want to come, but the neighbor invited you. You came. It’s Easter Sunday. You felt like at least once or twice you ought to go. And I’m glad you did. But now we come to the greatest moment of your life.
One way or another, there are people in this room, and I know that there are. There are people in this room who have never surrendered your life to Jesus. You’ve never accepted Him as the Lord of your life. You’ve never taken this empty tomb business seriously. But today, you are. And so, I’m going to ask you if today you would say, «Not only do I believe in the resurrected Jesus; I want to surrender to the Jesus of the resurrection. I want to walk out of here knowing that not only is Jesus alive, but He lives in my heart.» Then I want you to pray this prayer with me right now:
Lord Jesus, I believe. I believe you died on that cross on Good Friday. I believe you came out of that grave on that Sunday. I believe you’re alive right now, Lord Jesus. Now, come into my heart. Give me eternal life. Forgive me of my sins. I confess I’m a sinner. I repent and turn away from my sins, and I give everything that I am, Lord Jesus, to everything that you are.