Easter 2023

When Jesus rose from the dead, he conquered death forever and now he is calling us to rise up out of all the dead places in our own lives to live fully alive. A triumphant, joyful, hope-filled celebration of Jesus’ resurrection and the gift of new life!

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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.
  • 00:28:47
    Jesus had talked about this, but they didn't believe Him
  • 00:28:49
    or they didn't understand it.
  • 00:28:50
    The disciples are viewed as kind of thick.
  • 00:28:53
    They're articulated as thick in the Gospels
  • 00:28:56
    because the Bible isn't trying to paint our heroes
  • 00:28:59
    as perfect people who are so smart.
  • 00:29:02
    It's just trying to record history.
  • 00:29:03
    And we see these people who are afraid, who are hiding,
  • 00:29:08
    who aren't as courageous as the women are,
  • 00:29:11
    who don't understand what Jesus is doing.
  • 00:29:14
    We see them coming around and talking about it
  • 00:29:17
    because they were eye witnesses to it.
  • 00:29:23
    The core of our Christianity, what is Christianity about?
  • 00:29:26
    Christianity is about a relationship,
  • 00:29:28
    a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
  • 00:29:30
    When we have that relationship through the core things
  • 00:29:32
    as Jesus dying for me so I don't have to die for myself.
  • 00:29:36
    And He died and He didn't have to because He was God,
  • 00:29:40
    and He proved it by coming back from the dead.
  • 00:29:42
    That's it. That's what Christianity is.
  • 00:29:45
    Nearly everything else is extracurricular
  • 00:29:47
    and everything else is debatable.
  • 00:29:50
    And there's Christians that debate other things.
  • 00:29:52
    And we have different beliefs as Christians
  • 00:29:53
    about this and that and all that stuff.
  • 00:29:55
    All that's intramural debate.
  • 00:29:59
    There seemed like there was more people than ever
  • 00:30:01
    that are deconstructing their faith.
  • 00:30:03
    That means they had Christian faith
  • 00:30:05
    and now they've deconstructed it,
  • 00:30:06
    meaning they've walked away from it.
  • 00:30:08
    Rarely does it mean they deconstruct their faith
  • 00:30:10
    and they build it up to be healthy and happy again.
  • 00:30:12
    Normally just means they deconstruct it
  • 00:30:14
    and they leave it in tatters and they walk away
  • 00:30:16
    and they go to a place of no hope
  • 00:30:17
    because there's no vision for future heaven,
  • 00:30:20
    how to get to heaven.
  • 00:30:22
    More and more people are doing that.
  • 00:30:23
    And I think one of the reasons why people are doing it
  • 00:30:26
    that I've interacted with is they came to faith
  • 00:30:28
    at a very young age, many of them, or many of you rather,
  • 00:30:32
    at a very young age.
  • 00:30:33
    And you were given a long list of things
  • 00:30:36
    you had to believe and you had to do,
  • 00:30:37
    a long list of things the Bible said absolutely.
  • 00:30:40
    And if you don't do these things,
  • 00:30:41
    then you're not a Christian.
  • 00:30:42
    If you don't believe these things,
  • 00:30:44
    then you don't believe the Bible.
  • 00:30:45
    A lot of things.
  • 00:30:47
    And before I talk about one of them, I just might say,
  • 00:30:49
    as I talk about one example here you might believe this.
  • 00:30:52
    You might believe this,
  • 00:30:54
    and it's because you read the Bible
  • 00:30:55
    and you decide to believe that this is
  • 00:30:57
    what you believe the Bible teaches.
  • 00:30:59
    And I want to tell you, we have many people
  • 00:31:01
    who believe different things here at Crossroads.
  • 00:31:03
    And that's wonderful. And that's great.
  • 00:31:04
    And in fact, we need more of us who read
  • 00:31:06
    things in the Bible and just believe it,
  • 00:31:08
    even though other people don't believe it.
  • 00:31:10
    We need more of that.
  • 00:31:11
    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.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up This is the group part of the Bible Challenge, so your questions are based on specific Bible passages from the weekend message. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. What’s your favorite Easter tradition?

  2. What stood out to you most from this week’s message? Why did that spark for you?

  3. What has made (or could make) the resurrection difficult to believe?

  4. What details or aspects of the resurrection story make it compelling for you?

  5. God ALWAYS had a rescue plan for us, a plan named Jesus. How does that impact the way you view God?

  6. What does Jesus’ victory over death mean for the world? What does it mean for you?

  7. What’s an area of struggle in your life right now? What would it look like to invite Jesus into it?

  8. Jesus’ resurrection declares that death is no longer the end of our lives but only the beginning. What’s one thing you can do this week to live in hope?

  9. Let’s end with prayer. You can say something like, “Jesus, thank you for giving your life for ours. Thank you for defeating death. Give us the courage to live not in fear, but in hope. Amen.”

More from the Weekend

Bonus Questions! Check these out if you’re on a roll and want to go a little deeper.

  • How does Jesus’ resurrection change the way you look at your own life?
  • How might your life change if you tapped into the power that raised Jesus from the dead every day?

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(This stuff helps us figure out how many fruitcakes to make come December)

You must include at least one person

Got it! Enjoy your discussion.


Apr 8, 2023

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