Easter 2023

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- Well, hey, welcome to Crossroads.

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I'm Andy, your community pastor for Crossroads Anywhere.

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Crossroads Anywhere is just our community of people

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all over the country and the world who call Crossroads home.

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And today we're celebrating Easter.

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Hey, if this is your first time watching with us,

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man, I am so excited.

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You are in for a real treat.

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Today we're talking about the best news you could ever hear,

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news that can fundamentally change your life.

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I know that it's changed mine.

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So let's go ahead and dive into the good news of Easter.

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- You have stepped into a sacred supernatural story.

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In this tomb lies the hope of the world,

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the promised Savior, the Messiah, Jesus.

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One week ago, He entered Jerusalem as a king.

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Three days ago, He was executed.

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This is an ancient story.

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This is the story of today.

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It all began with God's beautiful plan for mankind

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to live in perfect harmony and relationship with Him.

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But there was a Fall.

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Man chose to turn their backs on God.

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And after Adam, all would be born into death,

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outside of the garden,

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outside of relationship with the Maker.

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It was a tragedy that would echo through time.

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Now, death ruled life.

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But there was a promise made:

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God would make everything new.

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He promised that every part of our dead hearts

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would come back to life.

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That once His Son paid the price,

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once death was defeated, the death working in us daily,

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in our hearts, in our souls would be defeated also.

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We would be made new here and now, resurrected.

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For generations, God's people waited for a rescuer.

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When Jesus came, it was to a world fraught with tension,

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on the brink of revolution.

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He claimed to be the Son of God,

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the fulfillment of God's promise to defeat death,

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the One who would save us.

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His claim threaten the establishment

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and enraged the leadership of His day.

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They arrested Him and brought Him before

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the Roman governor, Pilate.

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He asked the crowd, "What shall I do then

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with Jesus who is called the Messiah?"

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And the crowd screamed, "Crucify Him."

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Pilate asked the crowd, "What crime has He committed?"

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But the crowd just screamed louder, "Crucify Him."

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He was falsely accused, stripped naked,

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beaten, mocked, spit on,

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humiliated, innocent.

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Yet He willingly went to the Cross

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to pay the price for the sins of the entire world

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so that we could live fully alive.

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Hanging on the Cross, a sacrifice for our sin,

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Jesus cried out, "Father, forgive them,

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for they do not know what they are doing."

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And with His last breath, He paid the price

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for every man's sin and whispered, "It is finished."

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And so here we are three days later, waiting at His tomb.

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The promised hero defeated.

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But an ancient promise echoes through the darkness.

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"I will swallow death."

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[music]

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- I kind of forgot I was supposed to be up here,

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didn't I? I forgot.

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I was enjoying the music.

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I wasn't thinking about my part in the production.

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Are we having a good Easter so far?

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Yeah, we are. Hey.

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We've got a lot of good stuff happening today.

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Before we do, why don't you turn around,

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say hello to somebody, give somebody a fist bump,

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maybe even a hug if you want to be a little weird

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about it with somebody you don't know.

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Well, happy Easter, everybody.

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Man, it is a good, good day.

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You know, what would --

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what would I have to do to convince you

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to listen to anything I say?

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Like, what would it be like?

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What could I do that would impress you?

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Like, if I recited the alphabet backwards,

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would that make you want to listen to me

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and do anything I say?

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If I could recite the entire Bible by memory,

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would that impress you?

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The whole Constitution of the United States?

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Would it be a physical act?

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What if I could right now jump up right here on this,

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without impress you, like, "Oh, that guy might have

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something going on, I might want to listen to him?"

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What if I -- I mean, certainly there'd be

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some things that I would do that you at some point

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you would go, or some of you would go, "Whoa,

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I'm going to have to listen to that guy. Right?"

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What if I actually came back from the dead

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would you listen to me?

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Yeah, You'd probably go, "Hmm.

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That person could teach me something."

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I've never come back from the dead.

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I don't plan on it, though I'd like to try it some time.

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But this is what Easter is.

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Easter is this crazy -- it sounds total crazy,

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but people like me and millions and millions of others

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for thousands of years have believed it to be

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literally, physically and historically true

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that Jesus came back from the dead.

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If He did, if He did, I want to give you some ideas

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to believe that that's true.

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[coughs] Excuse me.

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If He did, if He did, life changes.

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Not in an ominous way, like, "Oh, no, this is serious."

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No, no, but in a way of, "Oh, my gosh,

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there's that kind of power, that kind of hope for me? Wow."

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That's we're talking about here for a little bit.

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Let's pray before I go any further.

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God, I'm thankful for Your truth and Your history

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and the birth of Easter.

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This thing so, so, so many years ago

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that's altered human history

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and at least has altered this human's history.

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Thank You for being so gracious

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and so powerful and so wise.

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I pray that and ask You to help me

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try to instill Your truth and Your ideas

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into Your children who are here today.

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And most importantly, God, I ask that You just help me

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to honor you, that's what I want to do today.

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I want to honor You and the classic story.

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And I pray these things according to

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the character and identity of Jesus. Amen.

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Yeah, I'm kind of surprised I'm an Easter fan,

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a big Easter fan, because, you know, much of my life

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I haven't been a really, really big Easter fan.

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When I was a little kid, my parents would take me to church,

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dragged me to church, and they'd always buy

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some new suit for me and stuffed me into it.

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And it would be scratchy around the collar.

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And, you know, I just would be uncomfortable.

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It was really, really odd.

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And I never understood, no one ever explained to me

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the difference between,

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much difference between Easter and Christmas

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other than people go to church on those two holidays.

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That's about the only thing I knew about them.

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I never really understood.

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I thought Easter was about things like spring

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and second chances, and it happens in spring

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and second chances God's all about.

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But I didn't realize that, no,

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Easter is about the literal, physical

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and historical resurrection of the Son of God

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who was crucified for the sins that I've committed,

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who took the punishment that I deserved to take.

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And He took it because He loves me and He loves you,

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and He loves people to come in relationship with His Father.

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And He said, "I'm going to take the hit for you

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because my God is a God of justice.

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And I'm going to take the hit of justice

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so you don't need to."

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I just never had understood that.

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I just got caught up in purple and spring and Easter Bunny.

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I don't understand Easter Bunny.

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I don't like Easter Bunny. I don't.

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I mean, what is Easter bunny? What's he do?

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I don't know, or she, he, she, I don't know,

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creates eggs and does a lot of things to make eggs?

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I think that's what bunnies do. I'm not sure.

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I don't understand how the bunny

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has become the mascot for Easter.

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What does a purple entity that's small and fluffy

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and does eggs and hides them have to do with Easter?

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Because Easter is about Jesus.

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It's about Him dying on a Cross, a grisly death,

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and coming back to life.

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A grisly death, brutal death.

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We've talked about this in great detail

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at our Good Friday service.

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Maybe, actually -- Okay.

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I could really get on with the Easter holiday

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if maybe we instead of Easter Bunny, it's Easter Grisly.

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What if we had Easter Grisly?

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Easter Grisly, remembering the grisly death of Jesus

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comes and just gives bloody eggs to everybody.

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I don't know. I like Easter Grisly.

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Hey, let's talk about the story of Easter.

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Let's go to it. John 20:1.

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What I want for you is to not just see

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the historical idea of somebody rising from the dead,

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but if this is true, if this is true,

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that means there's a power that's available to you.

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It means when you think you're down, you're not out.

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And it means when you think you're done,

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you're not necessarily done.

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It means when you think there is no power left,

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there still is more power.

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The power is outside of you.

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The power is not yourself. The power is not your own ideas.

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The power is not your own willpower.

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The power is the very spirit of God

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that actually raised Jesus from the dead.

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And I believe it's true.

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John 20:1, let's read this:

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This is after Jesus has been put in the tomb

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after He's died on the Cross.

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There's so many things in the Bible that I just love.

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If you look at the Bible as a textbook,

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you're going to miss some things.

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If you look at it as a piece of literature,

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you're going to miss some things.

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If you look at it as recording history

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and people recording it in their personalities,

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it takes on a whole new life.

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The Gospel of John is written by

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the disciple whose name is John.

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That's who wrote it.

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And John sometimes he doesn't mention himself,

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he just mentions his qualifications.

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So he calls himself "the disciple whom Jesus loved."

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He doesn't give his name, the disciple whom --

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He's like, "I'm writing the book.

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I'm going to have everyone know

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I'm the one Jesus loved, me. I'm the one."

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Mary Magdalene finds this and as we piece

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all these different accounts together,

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which I'm going to look at the book of John today.

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But we have them in all four gospels:

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Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

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It's very clear women come upon the empty tomb first.

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They go and tell the men.

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The men come at them in verse three.

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So John's like, "Well, I just want people to know

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that I am the most loved,

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and Peter runs like a weenie boy.

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I want that to be a memorial.

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I want that to be memorialized for all of time

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that I outran him." Okay. Okay.

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There are so many reasons why able thinking people

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for thousands of years have looked at this story,

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looked at what's happened in history,

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and have concluded that Jesus of Nazareth was God

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and He literally rose from the dead.

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And there's some reasons I want to give us today,

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because I want us to see if He actually did that,

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there's hope for you in your darkest hour.

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There's a power for you that's beyond understanding,

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beyond expectation.

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And in fact, if there isn't something to look forward to,

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then we are living a lie,

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those of us who call ourselves Christians.

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The Book of 1 Corinthians 15:17 says this:

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It's a sad thing when you go to a funeral

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with a bunch of people who don't believe in God,

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don't believe in Jesus, don't believe in the afterlife.

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It's just a very, very sad thing.

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I've been to a number of them.

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I've performed some of those funerals.

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It's very, very sad because

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there's an absolute absence of hope in the room

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because that's it.

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That's like the -- it's like the Atheist Sam Harris says.

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What would you tell your kids?

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"I would just tell my kids that you

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just turn off the lights and it's all over."

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That's just -- that's hopeless.

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That's utter hopeless.

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And the Apostle Paul is telling us

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if we don't have a hope, we're to be pitied.

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And if we're deluded on this resurrection,

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then we've lost it.

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The resurrection is the center point of why I believe,

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why people believed for thousands of years,

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just a few reasons for it.

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Number one, if the Bible was trying to get us

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to believe a lie and to give us a snow job,

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they would have done a better job laying their case.

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Like, you wouldn't have women

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be the first people to discover Jesus.

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Now, I know that sounds very misogynistic today

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to say that, not only that, but anti women.

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I know it doesn't sound very good.

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It's basically misogynistic.

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You see what I did there? Where was I going?

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I just lost my train of thought.

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I'm trying to define words for a crowd that never ends well.

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Yes, that sounds very awful,

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because we're better than that today.

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We're more intelligent than that today.

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We realize that women are equal to men

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in terms of mental power and value and all that stuff.

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That wasn't the way it was in the first century.

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In the first century,

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women weren't able to testify in a court of law.

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They were seen as less than men.

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And so why would you have, in fact,

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an ancient historian by the name of Census --

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Celsus, excuse me, Celsus.

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Celsus says this is definitely one of the reasons

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why you would disregard Christianity,

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because it takes cues from women.

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The Bible is trying to get us to think of something

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as true it would have had a bunch of esteemed,

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educated men discover.

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But no, it's women who discover first

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and women who are the first one to proclaim

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that actually Jesus has risen from the dead.

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Actually, the first preachers that are preaching

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that Jesus has risen, the first preachers are women.

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Ouch.

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They come and tell the men that Jesus is actually risen.

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The documentary evidence on this is really compelling.

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There isn't a lot of ancient documentation

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in the ancient world.

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Only people would write in the ancient world

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were kings and such.

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There just wasn't a lot.

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You would save records of of things

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because it was in the King's Court.

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There wasn't libraries and books like that.

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There was papyri, codexes, these kind of things.

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But there's all of these fragments of ancient scriptures

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of people talking about what they saw

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and copying things down.

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There's historians like Josephus in the first century.

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You can look up and Google him.

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He's rather controversial, who has a number of sayings

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about just talking about people in his time

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who said that they actually saw the risen Christ.

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That's not a Christian.

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That's a Jewish historian by the name of Josephus.

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You can look that up. It's very compelling.

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I find one of the most compelling things

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is that all these people who saw Jesus,

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many of them who said they saw Jesus,

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they all died brutal deaths.

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Liars don't knowingly die for a lie.

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They don't do that.

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Jesus's 12 original male disciples,

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one of whom was Judas.

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You may know the story. He betrayed Jesus.

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He tipped the authorities off where He lived,

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where He was staying that night.

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Judas felt so bad, felt so convicted, he killed himself.

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That was one gone.

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Every other person that followed Jesus was crucified,

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or excuse me, tortured and executed for their faith.

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Every single one, except actually John,

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the one who Jesus loved,

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the one who ran faster than Peter, except for him.

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He's the only one who died of natural causes

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on the Isle of Patmos in Greece,

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writing the last book of the New Testament,

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the Book of Revelation.

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Ten people died because they said

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they saw somebody who came back to life.

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Ten people.

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People don't knowingly die for a lie.

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You might think,

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"Well, terrorists die for a lie all the time."

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Well, terrorists don't know that what they believe is a lie.

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They think that what they believe is the truth.

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These people who followed Jesus said, "I saw the guy.

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I saw him. I know him. I'm not turning back."

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And so, hundreds of other people did.

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In the book of 1 Corinthians 15:4-6,

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it talks about the eyewitnesses.

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This is another piece of evidence, the eyewitnesses.

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These are the eye witnesses.

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And these eye witnesses, by the way,

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aren't always painted as really being smart.

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Some of these eyewitnesses were the disciples.

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And I just read in the book of John where the disciples

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didn't realize He was going to come back from the dead.

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Jesus had talked about this, but they didn't believe Him

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or they didn't understand it.

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The disciples are viewed as kind of thick.

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They're articulated as thick in the Gospels

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because the Bible isn't trying to paint our heroes

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as perfect people who are so smart.

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It's just trying to record history.

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And we see these people who are afraid, who are hiding,

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who aren't as courageous as the women are,

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who don't understand what Jesus is doing.

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We see them coming around and talking about it

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because they were eye witnesses to it.

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The core of our Christianity, what is Christianity about?

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Christianity is about a relationship,

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a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

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When we have that relationship through the core things

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as Jesus dying for me so I don't have to die for myself.

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And He died and He didn't have to because He was God,

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and He proved it by coming back from the dead.

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That's it. That's what Christianity is.

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Nearly everything else is extracurricular

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and everything else is debatable.

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And there's Christians that debate other things.

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And we have different beliefs as Christians

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about this and that and all that stuff.

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All that's intramural debate.

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There seemed like there was more people than ever

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that are deconstructing their faith.

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That means they had Christian faith

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and now they've deconstructed it,

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meaning they've walked away from it.

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Rarely does it mean they deconstruct their faith

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and they build it up to be healthy and happy again.

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Normally just means they deconstruct it

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and they leave it in tatters and they walk away

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and they go to a place of no hope

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because there's no vision for future heaven,

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how to get to heaven.

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More and more people are doing that.

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And I think one of the reasons why people are doing it

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that I've interacted with is they came to faith

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at a very young age, many of them, or many of you rather,

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at a very young age.

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And you were given a long list of things

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you had to believe and you had to do,

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a long list of things the Bible said absolutely.

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And if you don't do these things,

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then you're not a Christian.

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If you don't believe these things,

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then you don't believe the Bible.

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A lot of things.

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And before I talk about one of them, I just might say,

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as I talk about one example here you might believe this.

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You might believe this,

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and it's because you read the Bible

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and you decide to believe that this is

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what you believe the Bible teaches.

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And I want to tell you, we have many people

00:31:01

who believe different things here at Crossroads.

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And that's wonderful. And that's great.

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And in fact, we need more of us who read

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things in the Bible and just believe it,

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even though other people don't believe it.

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We need more of that.

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That's an admirable quality in my mind.

00:31:13

Now, having said that, is it true,

00:31:16

is a foundational element of Christianity,

00:31:19

of knowing God, that God created the world

00:31:21

in seven literal days over 6000 years ago?

00:31:25

Is that a core part of Christianity?

00:31:27

No, it's not.

00:31:30

There have been Christians,

00:31:31

Christians long before Darwin came along,

00:31:34

Saint Augustine and others,

00:31:35

long, long before Darwin came along

00:31:37

and enlightened reason and the Enlightenment ever

00:31:39

who said, "I don't think that we need to take this

00:31:41

as a literal 24 hour period of time."

00:31:45

You may take it that way,

00:31:47

but it doesn't have to be that way.

00:31:48

And what happens is when we tell little kids,

00:31:50

drill into them, "This is what the Bible says,

00:31:53

seven literal days, 6000 years ago.

00:31:55

You've got to believe that,

00:31:56

because if you don't believe that,

00:31:57

you can't believe anything in the Bible."

00:31:59

Once that child starts getting exposed

00:32:02

to other evidence, other viewpoints,

00:32:05

I might even say science, and it starts to crumble,

00:32:09

then they go, "I don't -- I guess I've got to leave it all.

00:32:13

I always said this is central to my faith.

00:32:14

I guess I've got to leave it all."

00:32:16

It's the beginning of

00:32:17

an avalanche of destruction of faith.

00:32:20

There's a lot of things I used to believe

00:32:22

that I don't believe anymore.

00:32:23

A lot of things I didn't believe I now believe.

00:32:26

But the core thing will never change.

00:32:28

The core basis of everybody's life who has power

00:32:33

has found power in Jesus is that He beat death

00:32:36

by coming back from the grave.

00:32:40

Wow. Come on. That's amazing.

00:32:44

It's worth being celebrated.

00:32:45

Romans 8:11 says, If the Spirit of Him

00:32:48

who raised Jesus from the dead.

00:32:49

Jesus got raised from the dead somehow.

00:32:51

According to this, it's the Holy Spirit.

00:33:07

So that Spirit, that power

00:33:09

that brought Jesus from the grave,

00:33:10

that's caused many people to believe in Him,

00:33:13

that same Spirit can actually dwell in you

00:33:16

and help you get over your addictions,

00:33:18

help you get over your abusive past,

00:33:20

help you get over your confusion,

00:33:21

help you get over your laziness,

00:33:23

help you get over your hang ups,

00:33:24

help you get over the memories that still haunt you,

00:33:28

help you get over your failures,

00:33:30

help you get over your loneliness.

00:33:32

Even though you may be a billionaire,

00:33:34

you still may not have peace

00:33:36

because internally you're dead

00:33:39

and in your honest days, maybe you feel it.

00:33:41

And that same Spirit that brought Jesus back to life

00:33:44

can bring life to your spirit and my spirit.

00:33:49

One of my favorite weekends we do a Crossroads

00:33:53

is going to happen a couple of weeks.

00:33:54

We've done it, this will be the third year in a row.

00:33:56

We just call it simply Horse Weekend.

00:33:59

It's when we bring a live horse on stage

00:34:01

and we have live horses at all of our sites.

00:34:04

And it's a horse that's wild.

00:34:06

It's never been broken.

00:34:08

Normally they've been abused

00:34:09

and they're just skittish around people

00:34:11

and they got major, major issues.

00:34:13

No one's ever been able to ride this horse.

00:34:15

And a friend of mine comes in.

00:34:16

He's a legitimate horse whisperer.

00:34:18

His name is Todd Pierce.

00:34:19

And he under an hour will take a horse,

00:34:22

no matter how bad off it is, and he will get on its back

00:34:24

and unlock a whole new thing in him

00:34:26

and bring him to freedom.

00:34:27

It's amazing. It's stunning.

00:34:29

And every time we do it,

00:34:31

people are boo-hooing all over the place,

00:34:33

if not outwardly weeping,

00:34:35

at least having pollen affecting your tear glands.

00:34:38

It happens all the time.

00:34:40

Why is that?

00:34:43

It's because we're identifying with that horse.

00:34:47

We see something that's bruised,

00:34:49

see something that isn't reaching its potential,

00:34:51

seeing something that's skittish,

00:34:52

seeing something that's a little afraid

00:34:54

around an authority which is taught,

00:34:56

which is taught in the ring.

00:34:58

And we identify with it and we see that thing

00:35:00

come to life and be restored.

00:35:02

Something in us says it's the Spirit basically

00:35:04

saying to us, "You want that? Do you want that?

00:35:09

Or do you remember when I did that for you?

00:35:11

Remember what you used to be like before Me?

00:35:13

Remember how you could --"

00:35:15

You would wither off street for Me,

00:35:16

how I would wither under any judgmentalism,

00:35:19

judgmental criticism from anybody

00:35:22

because I didn't have internal confidence

00:35:24

because God hadn't made me confident.

00:35:25

And so I would be crushed if someone.

00:35:27

And God says, "Do you remember that? Remember that?

00:35:30

You say to me, like, remember that horse

00:35:32

that no one will touch them?

00:35:33

Remember no one, you wouldn't let anyone touch you there.

00:35:35

Remember when, like, remember that?

00:35:37

Like, you don't want anyone talking about your parents

00:35:39

and stuff of your family of origin.

00:35:41

Remember that? You remember that?

00:35:42

He's healed me of that.

00:35:45

Lib and I were talking just this morning

00:35:47

about how our marriage, I wouldn't say it was dead,

00:35:52

but it was lacking life.

00:35:54

It was lacking life and God resurrected our marriage

00:35:57

here in the last year.

00:35:58

He brought a power of His Resurrection.

00:36:00

It was crazy.

00:36:01

And we were talking about how, what happened there?

00:36:04

It wasn't a counselor who said magic words.

00:36:06

It wasn't one of us stopped doing something we were doing

00:36:09

or one of us started doing something we weren't doing.

00:36:11

It was like it was --

00:36:13

It was the Resurrection power of Jesus.

00:36:15

We would love, we would love to have you at Horse Weekend.

00:36:18

Anybody you know, they're going to love it in a couple weeks.

00:36:20

We love that, love that.

00:36:21

But maybe more than that, I would love right now,

00:36:24

I would love right now for you

00:36:25

to have that Resurrection Power. Right now.

00:36:28

This thing about Jesus is

00:36:29

you don't have to grow into Him,

00:36:31

you don't have to get high, high education,

00:36:34

you don't have to know everything about the Bible.

00:36:36

You don't have to agree with everything

00:36:37

that you think Christianity says to believe.

00:36:40

All that stuff can be worked out.

00:36:41

The crux of the matter is right now,

00:36:43

do I have a need where I need life

00:36:46

and do I know enough to say, "Hmm,

00:36:49

the most important man in human history,

00:36:53

everybody knows that, the only person we date time after.

00:36:57

His claim to fame wasn't His teaching.

00:37:00

His claim to fame was people had to listen

00:37:02

to his teaching because he conquered death.

00:37:04

Do I know enough, do I believe enough right now?

00:37:07

Which, by the way, I know this sounds crazy,

00:37:09

but come on, come on.

00:37:10

If you want God, are you up for crazy ever?

00:37:13

If you don't -- Come on.

00:37:15

I mean, seriously, if you don't want crazy,

00:37:17

if you don't want supernatural,

00:37:18

then why would you want God?

00:37:20

Just go get another degree.

00:37:22

This is about God giving you and I

00:37:25

something we can't explain and we can't rationalize.

00:37:28

And if He can't do that,

00:37:30

then we may as well not worry about him.

00:37:32

The good news is He cares and He's got power and He's for you.

00:37:38

So we're going to do a couple songs.

00:37:40

Let me tell you what we're going to do.

00:37:42

I'm going to give you an opportunity to respond here.

00:37:44

And it's not just the ability to sing a song

00:37:48

that we're going to be able to that,

00:37:49

we're going to have a number of songs here.

00:37:52

I'm going to give us the ability to reenact

00:37:54

the life of Christ, to reenact,

00:37:56

and it's called the Ancient Rite of Baptism.

00:38:00

Romans 6:3 says this:

00:38:24

This means that when I get baptized,

00:38:26

I'm not talking about infant baptism.

00:38:28

That's a different thing to debate.

00:38:30

I'm talking about when a person of knowing mental ability

00:38:34

says, "I want to give my life to Christ.

00:38:36

I want the power of Christ to come in me.

00:38:39

I want to do something

00:38:40

that tells Jesus I'm serious about Him."

00:38:43

That thing is baptism. That thing is baptism.

00:38:49

When we're baptized, we go into the grave,

00:38:52

the watery grave, our old life,

00:38:54

our sin gets drowned, it gets killed.

00:38:56

Just as Jesus is killed, He's placed in the grave,

00:38:58

and Jesus comes out in power and life.

00:39:01

We come out of the watery grave

00:39:03

a new person by the power of Jesus.

00:39:06

That's what happens.

00:39:09

And when that takes place,

00:39:11

your life changes, your future changes.

00:39:15

It's going to take bold things.

00:39:17

Easter demands bold things.

00:39:19

Bold things like promoting Easter Grizzly,

00:39:22

a very bold thing like that.

00:39:24

Bold things, like maybe I came to enjoy

00:39:29

a nice service in some purple and said,

00:39:31

"Maybe I'm going to get baptized right now.

00:39:34

Maybe right now I'm going to take the plunge

00:39:39

because I want to receive Christ right now.

00:39:41

I want Him in my life right now

00:39:43

or I've had Him and I've never done this.

00:39:46

I've always had excuses, but I want that power.

00:39:49

And if baptism is a sign to God I want that power,

00:39:52

I'm in, like, I'm in with God, I'm in with Jesus,

00:39:55

and I'm in the water."

00:39:57

I'm going to pray right now.

00:39:58

And then we're going to think while song is going.

00:40:02

And I want you to be thinking about

00:40:03

what is it that needs to rise up in me?

00:40:06

What is it?

00:40:07

Is baptism a good response?

00:40:09

What is it?

00:40:10

Is there something I've short circuited God on

00:40:14

and He has abilities I haven't trusted Him with?

00:40:17

What is it where I need His power,

00:40:19

His Resurrection power that we're celebrating?

00:40:22

God, would you speak to us right now?

00:40:24

God, would you bring something to our minds right now?

00:40:26

Would you help us think of something right now?

00:40:28

God, right now while this song happens,

00:40:31

we trust in the quietness of this place

00:40:35

that you will give an impression, a thought

00:40:39

or a word to your children or to your future children.

00:40:43

I pray these things in your name, Jesus. Amen.

00:41:05

[music: Rise Up (Lazarus), by Cain]

00:43:59

- Maybe there's something rising up in you internally.

00:44:02

We're going to spend the rest of our time

00:44:03

celebrating Easter by worshiping

00:44:05

and honoring God through our song.

00:44:07

He loves to hear us sing,

00:44:08

even when we're out of key, like I am right now. Right?

00:44:12

I'll tell you what we're going to do during this time.

00:44:14

You can -- We're going to sing.

00:44:16

Maybe you're just going to want to enjoy singing.

00:44:18

Maybe you're going to want to enjoy singing

00:44:20

and watching people who are getting baptized

00:44:23

and wondering what's happening in your life, their life.

00:44:25

Maybe you're going to spend time praying

00:44:27

and asking God to release certain things

00:44:29

and bring things to life inside of you.

00:44:31

If you've been baptized and if you've received Jesus,

00:44:34

maybe, maybe you want to receive Jesus for the first time.

00:44:38

That's what you can do in baptism.

00:44:40

People walk that through you.

00:44:41

Maybe, maybe you want to get baptized

00:44:44

and you haven't before.

00:44:46

Man, I'll tell you what,

00:44:48

it's a good, good thing when that happens.

00:44:52

It's a beautiful thing.

00:44:53

It's the most -- one of the most important things

00:44:55

that you could ever do.

00:44:57

And you're ready for that right now.

00:44:59

You're ready for right now.

00:45:00

You might be 13 years old, and you're ready for that.

00:45:02

You realize at 13 years old in most of human history,

00:45:05

at 13 you could figure out to get married

00:45:07

and have a family at 13.

00:45:09

Now, I know today 30 year olds can't figure that out,

00:45:11

but a 13 year old could still do that.

00:45:14

He is good and He goes great places with us.

00:45:17

I just want to encourage you, man,

00:45:19

sometimes you have to make an aggressive move,

00:45:21

you've got to follow after God.

00:45:23

You've got to stop being passive.

00:45:25

You've got to step out from where you've been,

00:45:26

step out from your grave,

00:45:28

step out from everybody who's been dying around you

00:45:30

and say, "I'm going to different parts.

00:45:32

I'm going the way of Jesus.

00:45:33

I'm going the way of people who've been brought to life."

00:45:37

And all you've got to do is follow these instructions

00:45:40

from all of our community pastors.

00:45:41

They're going to help you to know how to do this

00:45:43

in your specific site right now.

00:45:45

It's a great day for you.

00:45:46

Come on. Come on. Take this.

00:45:48

Take this right now. Take advantage of this.

00:45:52

There's no better way to celebrate Easter

00:45:53

than celebrate you coming back to spiritual life.

00:45:57

- Hey, I don't know how

00:45:58

the last couple of minutes have been for you,

00:46:00

what stood out to you,

00:46:01

what's resonated with you, what's spoken to you.

00:46:05

Baptism is one of those things

00:46:07

that's really, really important

00:46:08

and really, really special for everyone

00:46:11

who chooses to follow Jesus.

00:46:12

Baptism is a little bit like a wedding ring,

00:46:14

it's an outward sign of an inward change and commitment,

00:46:18

and it's something that followers of Jesus

00:46:20

have always done to signify

00:46:22

wanting to follow Him with their whole lives.

00:46:24

If something today struck you

00:46:26

and you're interested in baptism and being baptized,

00:46:29

I'd love to help you take that next step on your journey.

00:46:33

God's redemption story is for you anywhere you live.

00:46:36

Seriously, we will come to you to make this happen.

00:46:39

This is actually my teammate, Sean,

00:46:41

baptizing somebody in the Upper Peninsula

00:46:43

the morning after getting another foot of snow.

00:46:47

And in fact, I've got to Crossroads Anywhere friends

00:46:49

down in Florida that need to get baptized.

00:46:51

So Sean and Gail send me a date

00:46:53

and let's make this thing happen.

00:46:54

If you're interested in getting baptized,

00:46:56

you can head to crossroads.net/baptism

00:46:58

or you can just email me directly,

00:47:00

Andy.Reider@crossroads.net.

00:47:03

And man, I can just assure you that's my real email,

00:47:05

not like a chat bot or something.

00:47:06

We will come to you to help you make this step.

00:47:10

So let's use these songs to say thank you to God

00:47:13

for the hope that we have in Jesus

00:47:15

and how the good news of Easter

00:47:16

is still changing lives today.

00:47:38

[music: I Thank God, by Maverick City Music and Upperroom

00:51:28

[music]

00:56:02

[Grateful, by Crossroads Music]

01:00:24

- Man, these baptisms just make me so grateful

01:00:27

both for what God's done in me

01:00:29

and for what I just get to see that He's doing

01:00:31

all across our Crossroads community.

01:00:33

Hey, I've got two takeaways for you real quick.

01:00:35

First question, like, have you ever felt

01:00:37

like you tried the Jesus thing, and it just didn't work?

01:00:40

Like, maybe you were all in,

01:00:41

but then you just felt the same after a while,

01:00:44

or maybe you just got baptized

01:00:46

or made a decision to be baptized

01:00:48

and you want those promises of becoming

01:00:49

a new person in Jesus who lives a full, abundant life,

01:00:53

you want those things to be real for you.

01:00:55

Well, hey, we've got a new cohort starting April 16th,

01:00:58

led by Hannah Driskill, who's a leading 21 days

01:01:01

of teaching, challenges, community, and personal coaching

01:01:04

to help you get everything

01:01:06

that Jesus died for you to experience

01:01:08

and the new life that you were made for.

01:01:11

And like every cohort, you can do it

01:01:13

whenever it works for you, on your schedule.

01:01:15

So don't miss 21 days to live fully alive.

01:01:19

Sign up at crossroads.net/cohorts.

01:01:22

Secondly, we've got great stuff coming up for you

01:01:25

for the next few weeks that I don't want you to miss.

01:01:27

Next week, Alli Patterson will be answering the question

01:01:29

Where is Jesus now?

01:01:31

And in two weeks we're going to have

01:01:33

one of the wildest church services that I have ever seen.

01:01:36

Spoiler alert: There will be a horse on stage.

01:01:39

Here's a sneak peek.

01:01:40

Thanks for coming. Happy Easter.

01:01:46

- This could be one of the most memorable experiences

01:01:49

you will have in your lifetime.

01:01:52

A chance to see true transformation

01:01:54

and the embodiment of unbridled strength

01:01:57

go from surviving to thriving.

01:02:00

Even though we were born wild,

01:02:02

we were also designed to live free.

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