One recent study has identified 27 emotions.[i] That might not sound like a lot until you try to start naming emotions. What emotions have you felt in the past week? Joy? Sadness? Anger? Frustration? What else comes to mind? The enemy numbs our emotions. Most men I meet who are struggling with an addiction are numbed emotionally. Few are aware of the emotional numbness. It’s not uncommon for men to be unable to identify only a few emotions. An emotionally numbed person often struggles to identify any emotion at all. A common marker of emotional numbness is the response, “I don’t know.” “How are you doing?” “I don’t know.” “How did that make you feel?” “I don’t know.” Worse still, someone struggling with an addiction often believes feelings are the enemy. It is their unhealthy appetites that got them into this situation, after all. “If I could only stop desiring,” the addict thinks, “then I would be free.” Our fully God-reflecting humanity is intended to be alive spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. God no more wants our emotions to shut down than he wants our minds to shut down as we grow in faith. In his essay, “The Emotional Life of Our Lord,” BB Warfield explains that the emotions of Jesus demonstrate the fullness of his divine-human nature and are a necessary part of his atoning work. Warfield concludes his essay by explaining, “As we survey the emotional life of our Lord as depicted by the Evangelists, therefore, let us not permit it to slip out of sight, that we are not only observing the proofs of the truth of his humanity, and not merely regarding the most perfect example of a human life which is afforded by history, but are contemplating the atoning work of the Saviour in its fundamental elements.” In other words, to fully grasp our salvation, we ought not merely examine the facts of the narrative of Christ’s work on the cross and its theological implications, but also step into the emotions of the Savior. Jesus’ emotions are part of his salvific work. The author of Hebrews points out this remarkable truth about the connection of Jesus’ emotional life with his salvation this way, “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” ( Heb 2:17 ). Jesus “ had to ” be made like us, emotions and all. As we look to Easter, I want to invite us to feel the final week of Jesus’ life. My prayer is that as we feel the final week of Jesus’ life we would be drawn closer to Christ’s heart and experience. Let’s begin our journey with Christ’s entry into Jerusalem late on Sunday, the day after the Sabbath on the week that would end with him being put to death just before Sabbath began (Sabbath began on sundown on Friday and concluded at sun down on Saturday). The account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is contained in all four gospels. Below is Mark’s version of the account. I will point out a few additional details that Matthew, Mark, and John add to the account. As you read, consider how Jesus felt, how his disciples felt, and how the crowds felt Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’” And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” ( Mark 11:1-10 ) For Jesus, there seems to be an emotional resolve. He is acting with great intention to demonstrate his messianic mission. The disciples trust Jesus, but are confused by the scene he is orchestrating. John gives us a glimpse into their emotions when he reflects that, “His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him” ( John 12:16 ). How about the crowds? They are excited! They are filled with anticipation! They respond to Jesus’ entry through the matrix of their messianic expectations. They cut branches and throw cloaks in front of Jesus as they would in front of the return of a conquering king. They shout out, “Hosanna!” which means “Save us!” or “Please save us!” “From what?” you might ask. From the Romans. They call out, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” They believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that means that he will re-establish David’s kingdom. How? By overthrowing the Romans by force. So how did they feel? Triumphant. Emboldened. There was some confusion and ambivalence in the crowd as well. First, a donkey was no way for a king to enter a city he was conquering. Second, Jesus had showed no proclivity toward violence. In fact, his teaching had opposed violence of every sort. And so, we have this interesting detail in Luke. Some in the crowd also shouted out, “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” ( Luke 19:38 ). That chorus echoes the song of the angels who welcomed the birth of Jesus. Were those who cried out for peace believing that peace would come after Jesus’ overthrow of the Romans? Did they perhaps have hope for something supernatural to break through, bringing heaven’s peace to earth? John shares that those who were there to witness Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead were there. So some at least had supernatural expectations of Jesus. How did they feel? Peaceful? Calm? Introspective? Anticipating a surprise? Doubtless, all were filled with hope and wonder. Matthew speaks also of the excited confusion that filled Jerusalem in the wake of Jesus’ triumphal entry, “And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, ‘Who is this?’ ( Matt 21:10 ). Returning to Jesus, he was resolute. He knew that this entry would stir the wrath and envy of the Jewish leaders and Romans alike. He was compassionate toward the people, hearing their desperate cries for salvation. He was likely disappointed by the crowd’s inability to see who he was and what he offered. There is another emotion in him that I look forward to understanding one day, but I can’t wrap my own finite emotions around. When the Pharisees demand, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples,” Jesus answers, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” ( Luke 19:39 b-40). The Son of God has a connection to the joyous reception of his creation that creates what emotion in him? Comfort? Strength? Joy? I can’t wait to find out one day. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection restore to us our emotions jaded by the fall and our sin. May he continue his restoration of our emotions this Holy Week. www.thebeehive.live .

Are you struggling with fear today? Is it the pandemic, a job, food, something else? Are you seeing the size of your worries and not the size of your Savior? I think I can point you in a direction that might help you right-size your fear. I’d like to start with a long look at Jesus. A long look at his face. It’s the expression of Jesus that puzzles us. We’ve never before seen his face like this. Jesus smiling, yes. Jesus weeping, absolutely. Jesus stern, even that. But Jesus anguished? Cheeks streaked with tears? Face flooded in sweat? Rivulets of blood dripping from his chin? You remember the night. Jesus left the city and went to the Mount of Olives, as he often did, and his followers went with him. When he reached the place, he said to them, “Pray for strength against temptation.” Then Jesus went about a stone’s throw away from them. He kneeled down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take away this cup of suffering. But do what you want, not what I want.” Then an angel from heaven appeared to him to strengthen him. Being full of pain, Jesus prayed even harder. His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. ( Luke 22:39–44 ) What do we do with this image of Jesus? Simple. We turn to it when we look the same. We read it when we feel the same; we read it when we feel afraid. For isn’t it likely that fear was one of the emotions Jesus felt? One might even argue that fear was the primary emotion. He saw something in the future so fierce, so foreboding that he begged for a change of plans. “Father, if you are willing, take away this cup of suffering” ( Luke 22:42 ). What causes you to pray the same prayer? Facing a pandemic? Leaving your house? Being in a crowd? Walking into a hospital? Boarding an airplane? Speaking publicly? Starting a new job? Taking a spouse? Driving on a highway? The source of your fear may seem small to others. But it freezes your feet, makes your heart pound, and brings blood to your face. That’s what happened to Jesus. He was so afraid that he bled. Doctors describe this condition as hematidrosis. Severe anxiety causes the release of chemicals that break down the capillaries in the sweat glands. When this occurs, sweat comes out tinged with blood. Jesus was more than anxious; he was afraid. Fear is worry’s big brother. If worry is a burlap bag, fear is a trunk of concrete. It wouldn’t budge. How remarkable that Jesus felt such fear. But how kind that he told us about it. We tend to do the opposite. Gloss over our fears. Cover them up. Keep our sweaty palms in our pockets, our nausea and dry mouths a secret. Not so with Jesus. We see no mask of strength. But we do hear a request for strength. “Father, if you are willing, take away this cup of suffering.” The first one to hear his fear is his Father. He could have gone to his mother. He could have confided in his disciples. He could have assembled a prayer meeting. All would have been appropriate, but none were his priority. He went first to his Father. Oh, how we tend to go everywhere else. First to the bar, to the counselor, to the self-help book, or to the friend next door. Not Jesus. The first one to hear his fear was his Father in heaven. How did Jesus endure the terror of the crucifixion? He went first to the Father with his fears. Do the same with yours. Don’t avoid life’s Gardens of Gethsemane. Enter them. Just don’t enter them alone. And while there, be honest. Pounding the ground is permitted. Tears are allowed. And if you sweat blood, you won’t be the first. Do what Jesus did; open your heart. And be specific. Jesus was. “Take this cup,” he prayed. Give God the date of the event. Provide the number of the flight. Tell him about the doctor’s appointment. Share the details of the job transfer. He has plenty of time. He also has plenty of compassion. He doesn’t think your fears are foolish or silly. He won’t tell you to “buck up” or “get tough.” He’s been where you are. He knows how you feel. And he knows what you need. That’s why we punctuate our prayers as Jesus did. “If you are willing . . .” Was God willing? Yes and no. He didn’t take away the cross, but he took the fear. God didn’t still the storm, but he calmed the sailor. Who is to say he won’t do the same for you? Philippians 4:6 reminds us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Don’t measure the size of the mountain; talk to the One who can move it. Instead of carrying the world on your shoulders, talk to the One who holds the universe on his. Hope is a look away. Maybe you’ve let fear rule your life in the past, but today, give your fears to God. It’s never too late to begin again. www.maxlucado.com .

Transcript: The Gift of Peace Transcription The Gift of Peace - John 14:27 - Skip Heitzig [UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING] (SINGING) All we are saying-- (SPEAKING) Peace. Celebrities demand it. (SINGING) --is give peace a chance. (SPEAKING) Pop culture makes it a catchy tune. Activists protest for it. (SINGING) All we are-- (SPEAKING) Still-- (SINGING) --saying-- (SPEAKING) --peace seems out of reach. (SINGING) --is give peace-- (SPEAKING) True peace can't-- (SINGING) --a chance. (SPEAKING) --be found in or understood by this world. (SINGING) All we are saying is give it a chance. All we are saying is give peace a chance. (SPEAKING) Give peace a chance. [MUSIC ENDS] [CLAPPING] Good morning. Good morning. Great to see y'all. Great to have you in church and we're looking forward to this new series, Give Peace A Chance. Shout out to the team in doing such a great job with the graphics, very Yellow Submarine I love that whole vibe there. And in your bulletin, by the way, we have given you a little pamphlet. It's called the "Peace Pamphlet." And what it does is it gives you Monday, all the way down to-- Sunday to Saturday, a whole week's worth of things to apply to make you a more peaceful person. And to make the message something that is a real part of your life, so take advantage to that. Turn in your Bibles, please, to the book of John, chapter 14, please. John, chapter 14. Back in the 1990s, there was a very popular bumper sticker. Do you remember this one? Remember that on cars, visualize world peace? So I remember when people started putting that on their car, and I was thinking like, really? That's all you got to do. Just think about it? Kind of picture it? Visualize it? That's going to bring world peace? And of course, that was the standard response that most people had. They kind of mocked that and they did alternate bumper stickers, like this one, visualize world peas. You've probably saw that as well. I think my favorite one is, visualize using your turn signal. [LAUGHING] That's a very important one, especially for Albuquerque drivers. People have been talking about peace, and singing about peace, and protesting for peace, and giving out peace prizes to one another for generations. We've been talking about it, and singing about it, and marching for it, but we haven't been experiencing much of it. So there was a journalist that was assigned to the Jerusalem Bureau for her news outlet. And there she was living in Jerusalem. And she got an apartment overlooking the Western Wall complex. So the Wailing Wall, or the Western Wall, is the most iconic part of old Jerusalem. It's the remnant, the remains, of the old temple complex. So it's like the best view in the city. So she has an apartment looking over the place where Jews still come to pray, a very sacred spot. And so she would notice that every day this same man, an older gentleman with a beard, and the hat, and the side curls, an orthodox man would come to the wall every day and pray. And she thought, wow, he would be a great interview. I want to find out who that is and talk to him. So she went down to the wall, to the Western Wall, the Wailing Wall, and she found him after he was done praying. And she introduced herself as a journalist and could I have an interview with you? And he said, sure. So she said, well, how long have you been doing this? And what is it you pray for? He said, I've been doing this every day for 25 years. I come every day. And when these guys pray at the wall, they just don't stand there and pray. They move when they pray. They pray with such intensity and they shake and rock back-and-forth. So he said, I've been doing this every day for 25 years and I pray for world peace. I pray for the brotherhood of all mankind. And I pray for, especially, peace in the Middle East. She was greatly impressed by his answer. And she said, so, how does it make you feel to come here every day for 25 years and pray? And he threw up his arms and he said, like talking to a wall. [LAUGHING] When it comes to peace, I think a lot of people feel just like that. It's like talking to a wall. We talk about it, we sing about it, we march for it, but we just don't have it. Where do we get it? So I did a search this week in Google, it something I like to do from time-to-time just to see what kind of results. And I typed in the word, "peace." And it came back with one billion, 390 million results. You think it's on people's minds? Then I typed in the two words, "world peace." Got a similar number, one billion, 70 million hits. Then I typed in, "personal peace." And got one billion, 60 million hits. Then I typed in the words, "inner peace" and "spiritual peace." And both of those got a similar amount, 215 million results. I found a group of researchers and they call this the Global Peace Index. The Global Peace-- I didn't even know such a thing existed. So it's a group of people who research this topic and they come up with an index called the Global Peace Index. And their statement on their website was, the world is less peaceful today than at any time in the last decade. Now, it's been a bad decade, but right now, they're saying it's the worst in the last decade. Now, that doesn't surprise us. We've been through a pandemic. We have been through a lot of loss, a lot of death, a lot of bad times in our economy, so it doesn't surprise us when the Global Peace Index says the world is less peaceful today than at any time in the past decade. There's another metric though that you probably have heard of, it's an economic number, an index called the misery index. It's even been made into a popular television series, The Misery Index. It is an economic measuring tool. It came out in the 1960s by an economist named Arthur Okin, he was an advisor to President Lyndon Johnson. And he came up with this idea of the misery index. And he calculates it this way. It is the unemployment rate added to the inflation rate. So it's a combination of rising inflation and people out of work. The best time for the misery index was 2019, it was at its lowest. Our misery was at its lowest, economically. So September of 2019, which seems like a long time ago, but it was, if you can think back, a really good time for our country and the world economically. A lot of economic prosperity and it was getting better and better. So September of 2019, the misery index was at 5%. It peaked at its worst, guess when? 2020. The year of the pandemic. Up from 5% to 15%, its been the highest. So our misery index is high our Peace Index is low. This is another reason why church is essential, because you're not going to get any good news anywhere except here. You're not going to get good news in the newspapers. You're not going to get good news on social media. If you want to be robbed of peace, go there. If you want good news go to a place where you hear the truths and the promises of God's word. So we just felt that after a year of all this, and it's still not over, we needed to be refreshed with a series on peace and be reminded of the promises of God's peace. And we're going to look at John, chapter 14, and one particular verse, verse 27. It's a great promise. Years ago, there was a school teacher from Canada. He read through the Bible 27 times. And he decided he wanted to find out how many promises God made to us, so he spent a year and 1/2 after reading through the Bible 27 times, he decided now I'm going to go through it and tally up all of the promises. Took him a year and 1/2. And the number he came up with was there are 7,487 promises that God has made to us. Peter calls them great and precious promises, but of all the promises God has given to us, perhaps the most elusive of them is this promise of peace. So the next few weeks we're going to look at peace with God, peace with each other, peace within ourselves. And I want to take you to this verse, verse 27 of John 14. I'm going to begin a couple of verses in advance, look back at verse 25. Jesus speaking, "These things I have spoken to you while being present with you." Now let me remind you what he is referring to, these things, is chapter 13, 14, 15 and 16. It's called the Upper Room Discourse, it is the last meeting Jesus has with his disciples before he is arrested and crucified. He knows what's coming. He has announced to them what is coming. But with those announcements come all of these promises in these chapters. It's filled with incredible promises, the power of the Holy Spirit, the promise of peace, and many others. So, "These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you." Now our verse, verse 27, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." That's the verse we're going to camp on. It is such a monumental promise that I want to give you out of that single verse, a four-fold description of the peace that Jesus promised his followers. Four aspects of this peace. The first aspect is that this peace is needful. I don't think anybody would disagree with that. We need God's peace. And I think everybody here would vote for that, say, yep, I agree with that. We need it. But if anyone really needed peace that night that Jesus spoke these words it would have been his disciples. Here's what you have to understand at this point in the Last Supper meal, the disciples are stressed out. They had given up their careers. They'd been following Jesus for 3 and 1/2 years. They anticipated he's going to come and build a kingdom on Earth, that clearly is not going to happen. All their hopes during this meal come crashing down. Why? Because Jesus announces to them his expiration and his exit. He says to them, I'm going to die and I'm going to leave. I'm going to depart. And where I'm coming, you can't follow. So in the midst of that, when their turmoil might even have been out of control. He says, peace. "Peace I leave with you." I'm going to just venture a guess that when he said these words a few of the disciples may have rolled their eyes at him. He just said he's leaving, he's dying, you can't come where I'm going, I'm not building the kingdom you thought. Peace. Like, peace it out. See you. And they roll their eyes like, oh really? Like, whatever. It might be sort of like this, somebody comes up to you and says, hey, I just want you to know that your son or your daughter just got in a traffic accident, but don't worry. You go, don't worry? You just laid that news on me and then you say, don't worry. I'll just tell you a personal story. Years ago, I was in junior high school, I was on vacation with my parents. I was in the back seat, my dad was driving, mom was in the passenger seat. We are going from our home in Southern California up to Oregon. We're going out of Reno, Nevada, early in the morning. We're on a highway. And we didn't know that there was a driver who had been drinking, and had fallen asleep at the wheel, and was in our lane coming around a curve on a mountain highway. It was a head on collision. It was a 120 mile an hour impact of two vehicles. It instantly killed that man. And it put my mom and dad in the hospital. I guess, they didn't know what to do with me. I was in the hospital for a little bit getting checked out. Then they stuck me in a hotel room alone. I'm a junior high school kid. So I turn on the TV that evening and the evening news talks about the collision. It shows our vehicle that had been in the collision, and the news anchor announced that my father and mother had died. Now it wasn't true, but I didn't know that at the time. So all of the wind gets sucked out of the room. I'm freaking out. And so I started getting calls from my brothers and other people in town saying, don't worry, it's going to be OK. I'm going, it's going to be OK? And then, oh, no, they didn't really die, but how do you know? And I mean, it's like you're at a moment of heightened emotion and you're processing through the information. And the midst of that Jesus says, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you." I just want you to get that impact for a moment. Now let's look at the word. The word that he uses here for peace is the Greek word, "eirÃ​ni," which is where we get the feminine name Irene. Irene means peaceful one or peace. It is defined as an internal state of tranquility. It is when you are quiet and you have a restful mind. That's the idea of this word, "eirÃ​ni." It became a greeting, a common greeting to say to somebody. To say, peace to you, eirÃ​ni. Paul uses that in his letters. He says, grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that practice of extending peace actually goes farther back than the Greeks, it goes back to the Hebrews. The Hebrews to this day use the ancient greeting when they meet one another on the street. And they say-- What do they say? Shalom. Shalom! You go to Israel and they say, shalom. And "shalom" is to extend peace to somebody or to wish them well. So here's Jesus saying, peace, shalom, eirÃ​ni I leave with you. "My peace I give to you." Now notice what he says, "Peace I leave with you." It's a deposit. It's a gift. You don't work your way into a feeling of peace, I'm just laying it on you. In fact, the New Living Translation says, "I am leaving you with a gift, peace of mind and heart. Let those words sink in. If you're a businessman or a businesswoman and maybe you're losing your business because of all these lock-downs, and regulations, and restrictions, Jesus Christ is promising you his peace. If you're a worker and you don't know if you're going to have a job this coming week or next month, he is promising you peace. If you're a student and you are struggling with Zoom classes and you don't know if you're going to be able to graduate because of this crazy system, he is telling you peace. If you are a parent and you have to work, and have your children at home and homeschool them because of this not being able to go to school, hear these words, Jesus is promising you peace in the midst of that. OK. That's good, Jesus. Thank you for that nice sentiment. Thank you for saying peace. But it's nice to talk about peace and it's great to promise peace, but the question still remains where is peace to be found? Because the truth of the matter is, world history shows that there's never been a time of peace. There's never been a time where we haven't, as a human race, experienced war. I read an article in the New York Times that was quoting Will Durant, the famous historian, who said in 3,400 years of recorded history, the world has only been at peace about 8% of the time. So out of 3,400 years of recorded history, the world, according to the article, has been at peace 268 years. And people say, well you know how many peace treaties have been broken in that time? All of them. All of them. So somebody said, peace is actually that brief moment in history where everyone stands around reloading. [LAUGHING] All right, getting ready for the next conflict. According to the Daily Mail-- the Daily Mail is a news outlet in London. The Daily Mail said, there are more than 40 active conflicts around the world at this moment. This is today. This is now. Some of the countries currently at war, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Mexico, Turkey, Somalia, Iraq, Libya. And it goes on to say the number of people affected by humanitarian crises has almost doubled over the past decade. So you've got war, you've got humanitarian problems, add to that COVID-19. Add to that worldwide recession. And you have the absence of peace. You have national peace, you have international peace, and because of that you have-- or excuse me, the absence. You have conflict, you don't have international peace, and you don't have, because of that, inner-personal peace. Anxiety levels are at an all time high. Here's something I found from Mental health America, that's a group of mental health experts the study this. They said, "As the pandemic relentlessly persists we are seeing the highest levels of anxiety and depression reported since the pandemic hit the US in March of 2020." So it's been about a year almost. In this whole year right now depression and anxiety are at their highest. The article says, "This troubling trend is fueled by loneliness and isolation." So once again, it's great to have a promise, great to sing about it, great to talk about it, but where is it? Ah. That's why we have to keep reading. Because it says, "Peace I leave with you." But here it is, "My peace I give to you." The peace that Jesus is speaking of is tied to him personally. The promise of peace is linked to the Prince of Peace. So that's a title that is given to Jesus by Isaiah The Prophet. He's the one that wrote about the Prince of Peace. You know the text well, we talk about it just about every Christmas. Isaiah 9:6, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and his name will be called wonderful, counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of peace. It's a very interesting title. He's not called the prince of love. He's not called the prince of hope. He's not called the prince of joy, though he could be called all those things. But he is first and foremost to be regarded as the Prince of Peace, because you really don't have joy until you have peace, you really don't experience true love without that peace, you really don't have hope until you have peace. So he goes by that title, the Prince of Peace. Now he says, my peace. I need you to understand what this means. It's literally, my personal peace. The peace that I own. The peace that governs my internal life, that peace is what I give to you. So he is the manufacturer of this peace and he is the distributor of it. So it could be translated this way. He is saying, I am going to cause you to be restful, and quiet, and peaceful inside your hearts with the same kind of rest, and quietude, and peace that I have inside my heart. Now you think about that for a moment. So think about the peace that Jesus had. When you read the Gospels, do you ever see, or read, or think of, do you ever imagine Jesus to be worried? Is that who you picture? Do you picture Jesus biting his fingernails? Going, man, stressful! It's out of control! Ever? He is the most calm, peaceful, unruffled personality ever. He even stands before Pontius Pilate. And when he he's before Pilate, and Pilate asked him a question Jesus doesn't answer and a Pilate gets all up in his grill and says, what? You're not answering me? Don't you know that I have the power to put you to death or set you free? Remember what Jesus said to him? You would have no power at all unless it were given to you from above. In other words, the only thing you're going to do to me is what God the Father wants you to do to me. That's peace. That's rest. That's calm. Now when Jesus says, "My peace I leave with you." Keep in mind, he knew what he was about to encounter because he predicted it. He said, they're going to arrest me. They're going to beat me up and they're going to kill me. So he knew in a few hours he would be betrayed, arrested, he would be beaten, he knew that he would have a crown of thorns pushed in his scalp, and he knew that he was going to a cross. And he is peaceful. So he says, that's the peace. The peace that I have, the peace that I enjoy, the peace that governs my internal processing is what I am giving to you. So I want you to just think about this that the effect that Jesus Christ should have on a person's life is this. It's this peace. It is the stamp we bear. It's called the Fruit of the Spirit. Fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5, is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness. I love what J Oswald Sanders said. He said, peace is not the absence of trouble, it's the presence of God. Sure, you're going to have trouble. It's going to be all around you. It's going to be around you nationally, internationally. Even in your neighborhood, among your family. But he promises you his presence. He promises you peace. I don't know how you picture God, but I've been around enough Christians who picture God with a frown. Not a smile, they don't think of God like this at them. But he's just miffed at me a little bit. He's never really pleased with me. He's sort of like folding his arms over his celestial robe, kind of looking at me like this. If you picture God that way, you need a new picture. You got the wrong picture. Because God said even to his sinning people, the children of Israel, about to go into captivity, he said, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." You know that verse, Jeremiah 29:11. Now at this point, it's good to divide peace up into two different categories. We enjoy two kinds of peace. We enjoy the peace that comes with God. I'll explain that. And then we enjoy subsequent to that, the peace of God. The first kind of peace, peace with God, is objective. The second peace, the peace of God, is subjective. In other words, the first, objective, means it's outside of us. You may feel it, you might not feel it. Irregardless, it's there. It's a transactional peace. Whereas the peace of God is something that is subjective, you feeling, it's experiential. So peace with God comes when you come to Christ. You come to Jesus Christ, you ask him into your heart into your life as Lord and Savior, your sins are forgiven. In effect, you raise the white flag of surrender and you say, I give up. I give up. And when you do that the hostility is turned into peace, you have peace with God. That's Romans chapter 5. It begins like this, therefore, being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. You come to God on his terms. His terms are the cross. You come and receive what Jesus did for you on your behalf, and God says good, we are at peace you and I. You're right before me. You are righteous before me. You are justified before me. So now you have peace with God. That's what Isaiah meant when he said, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his strifes we are healed. That's the first, peace with God. After you have peace with God comes the experience part. That's the peace of God. That's the feeling of well-being. That's the feeling of tranquility. That's experiencing what Jesus promises here in this chapter. It's what Paul meant when he said, and here's a verse you know, I know you know it because watch this. Paul said, in Philippians 4, "Be anxious for--" Nothing. "--nothing." See I knew you knew it. "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds." So now you are feeling it, now you're experiencing it. You're feeling tranquil and peaceful. That's why I love the song that we just sang, "It is Well With My Soul." That's being in the midst of turmoil still having the feeling of tranquility. If it helps I'm going to boil it down even further and say this, Jesus Christ as Savior gives you peace with God, Jesus Christ as Lord gives you the peace of God. You make Jesus your Savior, you're at peace with God whether you feel like it or not. But when you walk with him, and trust him, and apply what you know to be true, you experience the peace of God. Either way, both of the kinds of peace that I just describe come through the person and the personality of Jesus Christ. If you've never read this book, you should, it's called Peace Child by Don Richardson. It came out in the '70s. Don Richardson was a missionary to the Sawi tribe, down in Indonesia in Irian Jaya. And he felt called by God, he and his wife went there. He wanted to preach the Gospel. He lived there for months and then years. He even developed a language, a written language for them, so he could translate some of the Gospel in their language. And he just loved them. Well, the problem with loving them is that the Sawi tribes were cannibals. How do you love your next door neighborhood cannibal? Headhunters. And so he was there trying to share the Gospel with them without any success at all. He was about ready to give up, because he discovered that the Sawi villages, the tribes, were always warring with each other. They had no peace. And they extolled things like revenge and murder. Those were noble traits in those cultures. If you murder somebody, if you exact revenge, that's good. Whereas acts of kindness were seen with suspicion. So good luck trying to love on them and be kind to them, because they don't respect kindness, but give me a head on a plate, you're a good guy. So that's tough. So he didn't quite know how he's going to share the Gospel with them until he discovered the key. Though they viewed acts of kindness with suspicion, there was only one act of kindness that they really respected. And that is when one village, one tribe, gave a baby boy of theirs to the other village. When they gave that baby boy to the other village, as long as that child was alive, there was peace between the tribes. It was called the Peace Child. He goes that's it, that's my key. So he told them about God's peace child. How God gave his son to our tribe, and that he is still alive because he rose from the dead, and that transformed their understanding. And to this day, there are vibrant, vibrant Christians and churches in that area. The point is, God makes peace through his peace child, the Lord Jesus Christ. So this peace is needful and this peace is relational. Let me give you a third aspect of this promise. This peace is incomparable. For, notice verse 27, when Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you." The next phrase is, "Not as the world gives do I give to you." In other words, this is an other worldly peace. You'll never find this kind of peace in the world. Or you might say, the peace that I promise is out of this world. And in the truest sense, there is no real peace to be found in this world. The Bible says, that we in our natural state are at enmity with God. That there is hostility from the moment we are born with God. You may not feel that, that's irrelevant. It is a fact. There is a hostility, we're at enmity with God. Now people might try to play that down like the false prophets in the Old Testament, who came along during Jeremiah's time and said, peace, peace! Jeremiah shot back at them and said, you are healing the hurt of my people slightly by saying peace, peace, when there is no peace. Jeremiah said, there's no peace. God's going to judge this nation or bring them into captivity. But these false prophets are saying, oh, no, it's peace. Now the world may offer a momentary experience of a peaceful feeling. You, apart from Christ, might have fleeting feelings of tranquility. You might find it in a romantic relationship. You might find it on a good vacation. You might find it in a new purchase of a car or something you've saved up for. Hey, you might find it in a good cup of coffee. I find a lot of peace and a really well roasted cup of brew. But it is momentary. And all of those things are substitutes, it's a pseudo-peace. It's what one author calls, the bliss of ignorance. That's worldly peace, the bliss of ignorance. Because if an unbeliever understood what awaits them they would not enjoy a single moment of peace. All that they have to offer is something momentary and transitory, Jesus offers something that is long-lasting, that is everlasting. Many years ago, over a century ago, you've heard me talk about D.L. Moody, Dwight Lyman Moody, the evangelist and pastor from Chicago. He was on a evangelistic tour. He was preaching with another evangelist in a town. People from the town were coming to hear them speak and hear the Gospel. One man was coming every night, but he was under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and he was so angry and wrestling with what he heard. He finally wrote one of the evangelists who was with Moody this letter. Look at it. He said, "I wish you and Moody had never come to this city. Before you came, I wasn't troubled about my sins. You talk of peace and joy, but you have turned my soul into a living hell. I can't stay away from the meetings, and to come to them only makes me worse. You promised salvation, but all I find is torment. I wish you'd leave, then I'd get back my old peace." Listen to that, I want my old peace. I want that dumb, little, substitute feeling that I had before you guys came to town and told me about your Savior. Give me my old peace. Sir, you don't need your old peace, you need his peace. And his peace comes from receiving the Savior, who promises you his own personal sense of calm and peace. So this peace is incomparable, you won't get it anywhere else. And finally the fourth aspect, this piece is responsible. Now this is interesting, because look at verse 27 again. It says, "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." Now I want you to really get this, because you have one verse, but there's two sentences in one verse. The first sentence is a promise. The second sentence is a command. So he says, peace I leave. "My peace I give to you." Then he gives us a command. He says, "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." You're saying, well, wait a minute. What is this about? It's called responsibility. What do you mean responsibility? I thought you said it was a deposit? I thought you said he gives it to you, it's free, he's leaving it with us? Well, sure but any promise you have to appropriate. I mean, that's the way it is in all of life. You could have a million dollars in the bank, but if you don't take money out of the bank it does you no good. You have to use what you have. If you have a cabinet full of tools and you need to get something done, well, you've got to go get those tools. You might have all the equipment you need, but you have to appropriate that. Same with this. Same with peace. So he gives a promise, then he gives a command. Now listen to the command. It is an imperative, and it is a present passive imperative, which means he is saying stop an action that you're already doing. Stop an ongoing action. So it's like saying, you guys are stressed out. You are feeling anything but peaceful. You're filled with turmoil and so much worry, stop it. I know it's going on, stop it. Literally it's, let not your heart continue to be agitated. You say, no, wait a minute. Here's Jesus giving his beautiful promise to a bunch of worried disciples and he tells them who are worried, stop it. That's like saying, your kid's got in an accident, don't worry. No. Here's the difference. Whenever Jesus gives you a command, he gives you the ability to obey the command. He gives you the power to do it. So with a command always comes capacity. When Jesus gives a command, he also gives capacity, capability to fulfill the command. So what this shows us is that you and I have the power to stop freaking out. Yeah, but the world is a pandemic. Stop freaking out. Yeah, but the economy. Stop freaking out. Stop the ongoing action of being overwhelmed by it. "Let not your heart be troubled." As Christians we have a responsibility to enact the promise that he gives. So Jesus gives them a promise of peace, they have to appropriate the promise. That's the responsibility. How do you do that? 2 Corinthians 10, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. So your thoughts are taking you in a direction, lasso them, chain them, bring them to Christ, drop them off there. And if you have to do it 10 times a day, 20 times a day, do it. Romans chapter 12, do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Renew your mind with God's promises. Refresh your mind with what you know to be true. 1 Peter chapter 1, gird up the loins of your mind. That's an old-fashioned way of saying, think clearly and exercise self-control. So it has a lot to do with what you allow your mind to do. So the peace promise has to be guarded. You might say, we have to keep the peace. I've discovered it's better to keep the peace than to make peace every time you lose it. Just keep it. Just guard it. Just maintain it. Now, how do you do that? Well, I'm going to be showing you how to do that in the next few weeks. But I want to leave with you, as we close, two basics. Two basics. Here's our responsibility. These two things, if you do them, will help you stay peaceful as a believer. Number one, stay connected vertically. Number two, stay connected horizontally. It's pretty basic, right? Life is like two planes, vertical, horizontal. So stay connected vertically, that's your relationship with God. Jesus said, in John 15, abide in me. Abide means stick close to me, just like a branch sticks close to the vine to get all the nutrition flowing in. Stick close to me, abide in me. Maintain a constant living communion with me. Go over to John 16 for just a moment, look at one verse, John 16:33. Just flip a couple of pages to the right. It's the same evening, it's the same talk, it's the same place. He's closing out his Upper Room Discourse. Chapter 16 verse 33, "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you might have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." You stick close to me, "I have overcome the world." You maintain a constant living communion with me and you're going to experience, in the midst of tribulation and turmoil, a very peaceful tranquil feeling. Wouldn't we all love that? Sailors talk about this place in the ocean called the Cushion of the Sea. And the Cushion of the Sea is a place below the surface of the ocean so deep that it's undisturbed. Doesn't matter what's going on atop the ocean. You could have a typhoon, you could have a storm event going on, but underneath you go down to a place where it's so calm it's cushioned. So God wants to place you in his little Cushion of the Sea. In the world you're going to have tribulation. The storms are out there. "But be of good cheer, I've overcome the world." That's the cushion. So stay connected vertically. Second, stay connected horizontally. That's right. You need people. And people need you. And one thing we have looked at in the last year when everybody said, lock yourself away and stay put. We found the truth of what it says in Genesis. What did God say, one of the first things? It is not good that man should be, what? Alone. Alone. And yet, we're told be alone. And the anxiety, and the suicide, and the depression is off the chart. You need people. And you can do that safely, but you still need connections horizontally. So do me a favor, if you know anybody in the church, anybody in the community, who is locked away, has pre-existing conditions, is feeling isolated and lonely, if you can get to them and encourage them, give them food, give them love, pray with them, please do that. Help them stay connected horizontally. If you ever go to San Francisco, California, there's one major icon of architecture that everybody sees and it's called the-- Yeah, I heard a bridge. Golden Gate Bridge. So if you've never seen it, it's worth a trip just to check it out. So when they built the Golden Gate Bridge, the architects basically designed it based on three criteria. One is called dead load. Two is live load. And three is wind load. So the dead load is just the weight of the bridge itself. It's a suspension bridge, so they take the weight of the unit itself, that's dead load. Live load is the traffic that travels across it, so think peak traffic, truck's going back-and-forth, that adds weight and stress. Third is wind load. It's on the coast, so you get prevailing winds and you get storms. So they take all of those into consideration and to keep it strong they built special bracing for that. All of that to say you and I need special bracing. We have God's promises and we should stay connected this way, but we need special bracings this way to stand the storms of life. You need friends. You need mentors. You need family members. You need the church. That's staying connected horizontally. Every year at Christmas we celebrate peace. And we celebrate peace and we sing about peace, it's most of the Christmas songs, because the angels who spoke to the shepherds outside Bethlehem-- Remember what they said? They said, glory to God in the highest and on Earth peace, goodwill toward men. It's one of the best promises ever. But, now just think about it, based on where you're at, and what you've seen, and what you know. So you're standing around right now and an angel says, hey, peace on Earth. Goodwill toward men. You're thinking, Mr. Angel, have you not read the stats? Do you not know that only 8% of world history has seen peace? Do you not realize that there are conflicts right now going on everywhere? Where do you come off saying peace on Earth? Are you mocking us? Are you some hippie angel, like, peace dude? What's all that about? Well, that's an unfortunate translation, peace on Earth, goodwill toward men. A more literal translation sounds like this, glory to God in the highest and on Earth peace to men on whom God's favor rests. That's a very different meaning, isn't it? Or, glory to God in the highest. Peace on Earth to those that God is well-pleased with. So you want peace? You can have it. It can be yours. It can be a real experience. Will there be world peace? Someday, not now. Not anytime soon. It will never happen until Jesus comes back. So I applaud those who are given awards for it and marching for it, but ain't never going to happen until Jesus comes. But you can experience peace personally. You can be connected to him. You can experience his own sense of tranquility and calm by being connected to him. It can be yours. And it's something I not only preach on, I pray for you for. I pray you experience God's peace. Father I do that now. We've come through a very tough season and reports, even locally in our own state, of peace officers, police officer, being gunned down, down in Deming. And we think of those men and women who give their lives to keep the peace and then get shot in the process. Lord, our hearts go out to their family. Our hearts go out to our community who are experiencing loss and economic hardship. And I do pray for your peace. It can be found, it can be had, it can be experienced. The world will never give it, they can't give it, they don't know it. What they have to offer is ignorance. It's all the dumb answers that lead nowhere. And it just makes people feel good for a day. But there is a lasting sense of tranquility, and calm, and peace, and respite that does come from a relationship with you that is out of this world. That is so real and it can be ours. I pray, Lord, that your people would experience it. And that those who don't know you would come to know you and have it. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Let's all stand, shall we? [UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING] (SINGING) All we are-- (SPEAKING) We hope you enjoyed this-- (SINGING) --saying-- (SPEAKING) --special service from Calvary Church. We'd love to know-- (SINGING) --is give him-- (SPEAKING) --how this message impacted you. (SINGING) --a chance. (SPEAKING) Email us at MyStory@CalvaryNM.Church. And just a reminder-- (SINGING) All we are-- (SPEAKING) -- you can support this ministry with a (SINGING) -- saying-- (SPEAKING) --financial gift at CalvaryNM.Church/Give. (SINGING) --is give peace a chance. (SPEAKING) Thank you for joining us for this teaching from Calvary Church. [MUSIC ENDS] . With the Global Peace Index the lowest it’s been in a decade and the Misery Index at a high, it’s hard to believe that peace is within reach in today’s world. But peace is possible. Jesus promised it to His followers, and the only place you’ll hear about true peace is the church. In this teaching, Skip Heitzig begins a new series, unpacking four aspects of the peace Jesus promised believers in John 14:27 . connectwithskip.com .

You know if you think about it, the message of Easter has never been more relevant for the modern world than it is right now. And the interesting thing is that everybody is sitting up straight and paying attention. I mean the events of Easter are relevant because well they address our deepest and our greatest fears and all of our fears are pretty much front and center right now. Is everything gonna be all right? Is my family gonna be all right? Does God know about this? Does God care about this? Does God care about me? Does God care about my family? Does God hear my prayers? Does God care about our country? In fact, perhaps the only time in history that the events of Easter were more relevant, was the first Easter. Now, those of us who are Jesus followers we have an advantage. We have an advantage because we have something to look back on and to hang our hope on, but for first century Jesus followers, it was a very different story. And this is the part of the story that I think most of us as believers misunderstand or miss altogether, and perhaps if you're not a Christian this is part of the story that perhaps no one ever told you and I understand why because of the way that a lot of us read our Bibles or the way a lot of us don't read our Bibles. But here is what was so difficult for first century Jesus followers, and this is the part we miss. When Jesus died, when Jesus was crucified... When Jesus died, their hope died. When Jesus died, nobody believed he was the son of God. Nobody believed he was the Messiah of God. Nobody believed he was the Savior of the world. After Jesus was crucified, there were no Christians because there was no Christ. It was lights out on everybody's faith. There was a brokenhearted mother. There were some disillusion Galilean fishermen who thought they had wasted a season of their life. But there were no Jesus followers. There were no Christians. There were no believers. Think about that. o, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus go to gonna, they ask for Jesus body. They take his body down from the cross. They put him, in basically a cave. Joseph of Arimathea's family tomb. They roll a stone in the front of it, and they go home. Because it was over. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, all the authors of the New Testament, they're very clear. No one, no one was planning to keep this dream alive and nobody was planning to keep this movement, moving and here's why. If Jesus couldn't keep himself alive. If Jesus couldn't keep himself alive, what was the point of trying to keep the Jesus movement alive because clearly Jesus was not who he claimed to be, and this was the issue. Jesus teaching... And this is kind of new for us sometimes to understand. Jesus teaching was not the driving force of his movement. It was actually his outrageous claims that he made about himself. It was the outrageous claims he made about himself that kind of kept the band together and kept the movement, moving. And it was the outrageous claims about himself that drove religious leaders crazy. It wasn't the miracles. It wasn't his healing and it wasn't most of his teaching or most of his parables, most people didn't even understand most of his parables, but he was relentlessly attributing to himself things that only belong to God. For example, he claimed to have the power to forgive sin but only God could forgive sin. He at one point he said he was greater than the temple. I mean, who would say that? He said he was greater than Moses. He was the Lord of the Sabbath. He claimed to be greater than Abraham. He claimed to be greater than the prophets. But he was constantly attributing to himself names and brands and labels that only God carried. And it was their confidence that perhaps or there suspicion that perhaps Jesus was correct about himself that kept the disciples and the apostles following. And Peter and the boys, they didn't choose to stay with Jesus because of what he taught. In fact, they chose to stay with Jesus, in some cases, in spite of what he taught. Case in point. John tells us about this incident, it's a famous incident you've heard this before where Jesus feeds all these people with loaves and a few fishes, and then the crowd is so big they want to make him king right there because that's what kings did, kings fed the people. So Jesus and his disciples get in a boat, and they travel across the southern end of the Sea of Galilee just to get a break from the crowd. When they get out of the boat the crowd has found them, and other people make their way around the southern end of the Sea of Galilee and next thing you know Jesus has another crowd on his hand, so he takes advantage of the situation and decides to teach. And as he's teaching, he says that he is the bread of life that has come down out of heaven. The problem is, somebody in the crowd raises their hand and says, "No you're not". "We know your dad Joseph and we know your mother and you didn't come down out of heaven", this was just weird. And then Jesus continues to teach and he continues to talk about himself in terms that are very confusing and then he speaks of himself in terms that are actually offensive. And the crowd starts to thin. In fact, John says this. He says, From this time on many of his disciples, many of the people who just followed him everywhere he went. Many of the crowd turned back and they hit the unfollow button, they decided they were no longer gonna follow him because this particular analogy and the terminology he was using to describe himself, it was just so offensive. Well Jesus sees the crowd thinning out. The Apostle see the crowd thinning out, and Jesus turns to his 12 followers and he says, "You guys aren't thinking about leaving too, are you"? Well nobody makes eye contact with Jesus because perhaps that's what they were thinking. They turned to Peter because he's the spokesman, and Peter responds. And what Peter doesn't say in this moment is as instructive as what he does say. Here's what Peter doesn't say. Jesus says, You guys aren't thinking about leaving too", and here's what Peter doesn't say. He doesn't say, "Lord, leave you are you kidding, to who shall we go? Nobody teaches as well as you do. We've learned so much. Your content is compelling and your storytelling skills, my goodness they are without equal. Now granted today, wasn't one of your better outings. Okay, but one mediocre message is no reason for us to abandon you". That's not what he said at all. Why, because they weren't following Jesus because of what he taught, they were following Jesus because of who they believed he might be. Here's what Peter actually said in that moment. You guys aren't thinking about leaving too. Peter says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and then get this. We ave come to believe, we're convinced we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God". Translated, you are the Messiah of God. They followed Jesus because of who Jesus claimed to be and because of who they thought perhaps he was. But now he's dead. And now he's buried. And clearly, they were wrong. They knew they were wrong because the Holy One of God, the Messiah of God, the resurrection in the life, the bread of life. Can't be crucified, can't be executed. I mean God would not allow the Messiah that the Jews have been waiting on for hundreds of years to be executed by a foreign power, that was impossible. Clearly they were wrong about Jesus, and clearly Jesus wasn't telling the truth about who he was. They watched him die. And it's clear from the Gospels, all of them expected Jesus to do what dead people normally do, stay dead. No one, we find no one standing outside the tomb, on that first Easter morning counting down backwards from 10. And equally as interesting, nobody writes themselves into the story as a die hard believer. Nobody writes themselves into the story as... But I was the one who never lost faith. In the Gospels, they're so honest. They all stopped believing. So, if we can pause in that extraordinary moment in history. Jesus is dead. Jesus had been buried. And what do we have? We have a corrupt religious system. We have a heartless Empire. We have a relieved Roman governor, Pilate who cannot wait to get out of Jerusalem after Passover and get back to his coastal home. We have some sad Galileans, but there's no Savior. There's no son of God. There are no believers. And there is no hope. Because when Jesus died, hope died with Jesus. There were no Christians, because there is no Christ. And then... something... happened. Then something happened that changed everything. Because then came that morning, that sealed the promise. His buried body began to breathe, and out of the silent, the roaring lion... Don't you love these lyrics, declared the grave has no claim. On you, and the grave has no claim on me. That's why I say, Easter has never been more significant for us, because at Easter we celebrate, not something that was written. On Easter we celebrate the event that launched the movement, the church that eventually brought us the Bible, and this is a really important sequence of events. In fact, if you get this out of order it will not only be confusing, get this out of order and your faith will become fragile. In fact, if you're watching today or listening today, and you're not a Jesus follower any longer, or you grew up in church and lost your faith, my hunch is because no one actually gave you this sequence of events. This sequence is so extraordinarily important and again without it faith becomes so fragile. If you lost your faith, I would say this, if you lost your faith because of something in the Bible, or about the Bible I have some great news for you. The Christian faith did not begin with Genesis. The Christian faith began with Jesus, but not the birth of Jesus and not the teaching of Jesus, the Christian faith began with the resurrection of Jesus, because there were no Christians, there were no followers until after something happened. There were no believers, until after the resurrection. The Bible did not create Christianity. Christians did not create Christianity. The resurrection actually created both, and that's why we celebrate. Now, whenever I'm talking to a small group of people or an individual about this, somebody always asked this question and it's a great question and if it's the question you have then your tracking with me. And the question is simply this. "But Andy okay, I get all that, but Andy The Bible is how we know about the resurrection". Actually it's not, but most folks think it is and the reason most folks think it is is because of people like me, because the preacher. So listen so carefully, this is so important. The Bible was not assembled until about 350 years after the resurrection. The Bible wasn't assembled and when I say assembled I mean, the Jewish scripture, combined with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the Apostles letters, Peter's letters, the book of Revelation, the Bible wasn't assembled until the fourth century. So if no one knew about the resurrection until the Bible was assembled, then no one knew about the resurrection until almost 400 years after the resurrection. We don't know about the resurrection because of the Bible. Do you know how we know about it? We know because Matthew told us about it. And Mark told us about it. And Mark got his information from the Apostle Peter. And Luke told us about it. And Luke says this, "I thoroughly investigated everything. I talked to every single eyewitness", and Luke tells us something else as well. Luke says, that many people sat down and tried to put together an orderly account of the life, and the teaching of Jesus. We know about the resurrection because the Apostle John was an eyewitness and tells us about it. Peter who wrote two letters that ended up in the New Testament. And then my favorite, James. James was the brother of Jesus. And whenever I talk about James I can't resist asking this question. What would your brother have to do to convince you that he was the son of God? And James shows up in the New Testament book of Acts as a leader of the church. James was martyred because he believed, get this, because he believed his brother was his Lord. James was martyred because he believed his brother rose from the dead. So no, we don't believe in the resurrection because the Bible tells us so. We believe because Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, James and the Apostle Paul, who steps onto the pages of history, trying to put the church out of business. We don't know about the resurrection because of the Bible actually, we have a Bible because of the resurrection. Without the resurrection, there would be no Bible. And the reason we know that is because the only reason and please don't miss this. The only reason Jesus story was worth telling, it wasn't his teaching. And it wasn't simply his claims about himself. And it certainly wasn't his crucifixion, 10s of thousands of people were crucified. The only reason Jesus story was worth telling... was the resurrection. And as it turns out, because of the resurrection, it was a story worth telling. So, for over 30 years, the Apostle Peter would tell that story for 30 years after the resurrection he would travel around to villages and towns and everywhere he went, the Christians would invite him into their homes and they would say, "Peter, tell us one more time". So for 30 years he tells this story, and then Peter ends up in Rome, Nero's Rome, and he's imprisoned. Peter doesn't know it the time but he will not leave Rome alive. And he's accompanied by Mark who had traveled with him for several years and Mark had heard him tell these stories over and over and over and Mark coaxes it out of him one more time, and Mark documents it for us and it comes to us as the Gospel of Mark. And just imagine, Peter and Mark sitting there and they're to this part of the story, the resurrection, and Mark says, "Okay, go slow. I gotta get this down". And here's what Peter said. He said, "Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Jewish council", basically their Supreme Court, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God", and Joseph was hoping that Jesus was going to usher in the kingdom of God, and like everyone else he lost faith because God's Messiah couldn't possibly be crucified. He went boldly to Pilate and he asked for Jesus body. And Pilate was actually surprised to hear that Jesus was already dead. And summoning the centurion who oversaw the crucifixion, he asked him, "Has the King of the Jews already died"? And when he learned that in fact it was so, he gave the body to Joseph, which was very unusual. So, Joseph bought some linen cloth. He took the body of Jesus down from the cross and he wrapped it in the linen, he placed it in a tomb cut out of rock and then he rolled an enormous stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph, saw where Jesus had been laid. And then, when the Sabbath was over, and it was legal for them to come back out. When the Sabbath was over Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James bought spices, so that they might go to anoint Jesus body. And why did they go to the tomb to anoint Jesus body? Because like everybody else they expected Jesus to stay dead. And then, very early on the first day of the week. Just after sunrise, when they were on their way to the tomb. They asked each other, "Who is gonna roll away the stone from the tomb"? But when they looked up. They saw that the stone that was very large had already been rolled away. And then they did something that I'm not sure I would have done. They entered the tomb, and they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. "Don't be alarmed", he said, "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified, but he's risen. He's not here see the place where they laid him, but you go and tell his disciples", and I love this part, "but go tell his disciples and Peter", make sure Peter knows. "Go tell his disciples and Peter he is going ahead of you into Galilee, and there you will see him just as he told you". So the women find the disciples... Peter and John rush to the tomb, you may know this story. They look inside. They walk away confused. They do not assume a resurrection. These were not superstitious men. They make their way to Galilee, just as they were instructed to do. And Peter and the rest of the disciples get there and they meet their risen Lord. And they have... this is such an intimate setting, they had breakfast with him on the beach. And I'm just guessing. I don't know if this is the case, but perhaps they had breakfast with him on the beach in the very location where this entire journey began. Now, if you're a Jesus follower, Peter would tell you and Andrew and James and John would assure you that your faith, your sacrifice, your compassion, your generosity, your loyalty, your love, and most importantly, your hope is not in vain. If you're unconvinced, I think Peter would lean in and he would speak first. If you're not convinced I think he would lean in and he would say, "Look, I understand. I too was unconvinced. I too, lost faith. I was in the back of the crowd and I saw him die. But then... something happened. Something happened that changed everything. Something happened that changed everything for me. Something happened that caused me to spend the rest of my life, risking my life so that you could know that your Savior lives. And when I saw my resurrected rabbi, it was only then that I finally understood what he had been telling us all along. The time has come. God has done something for the world in the world. The kingdom of God has come near which means you are never far. And then I finally understood what the invitation was all about. The invitation was to repent. The invitation was to turn in his direction, and embrace this kingdom value system, and to embrace this king. To repent and believe what I understand now to be 100% good... news". Peter would tell you God has done something for you because God is for you. And he simply wants you to receive this good news, and to accept his invitation to follow. After all, Jesus introduced the kingdom of God to earth, and everyone is invited to participate in it. So, I'm convinced the message of Easter has never been more relevant. This Easter, I hope it becomes more relevant than ever for you. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, give us eyes to see. Give us ears to hear. Please give us courage to follow you. In Jesus' name, amen. North Point Church. Easter is relevant because Jesus was and is who He claimed to be: God in the flesh. No one expected for Jesus to rise from the dead! Until He stepped out of the tomb. North Point Church.

Dear Roger, When I think of the signs of the End Times, I usually focus on the outward, visible signs. I’m familiar with what the Bible says about what will happen in nature, like oceans turning to blood, earthquakes, nuclear holocaust, and the battle of Armageddon. But too often, I think we all neglect the fact that there are spiritual signs as well, maybe because they’re not taught or discussed nearly as often. Could you please help me understand the spiritual signs leading up to the End Times? Sincerely, Peter Dear Peter, I’d be most happy to do that. Many today are preaching about the signs of the times. Yet, the world continues to scoff at the message of Christ. They don’t want to hear the truth, and they certainly don’t want to change their behavior for anything. You must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions … Thank you. (2 Peter 3:3, 8) The prophet Jeremiah also tells us that the heart of man is desperately wicked! The result is that mankind usually ignores the signs of God. For example, Noah's preaching fell on deaf ears! The testimony and miracles of Christ fell on deaf ears! Even when people watch in horror as a sign is fulfilled before their eyes, many refuse to believe the signs and repent. Instead, they curse God. The fourth angel poured his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch men with fire; … yet, they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues, and they did not repent. (Revelation 16:8-9) As followers of Christ, the Bible encourages us to watch the signs of the times in preparation for Christ’s return. Jesus will come like a “Thief in night. … But you aren't in darkness for that day to surprise you like a thief!”(1 Thessalonians 5:2-4) So, read the signs and be ready. Jesus is coming like a thief! FOUR NEGATIVE SPIRITUAL SIGNS WILL HERALD THE LORD'S RETURN. First, notice that these spiritual end time signs involve the perversion of the gospel of Jesus Christ. FALSE PROPHETS WILL LEAD MANY ASTRAY. “And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray” (Matthew 24:11). “For false Christs and prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead many astray, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24). Sure enough, the landscape today is polluted with false prophets, both inside and outside of the Christian faith. For example, outside the Christian faith, we find Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, and thousands of other non-Christians religions that pervert, replace, or contradict God’s Word. This isn’t a statement of “intolerance” as our culture would claim. It’s simply the truth, according to the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have little trouble seeing these for what they are. But the real danger is when they are within the church! These false prophets use Christian language and Christian symbols, but they do not know or profess the Jesus Christ who said, "I am the only way to God.” Witness some of the things taught in the name of Christ that are not true. Jehovah Witnesses preach Jesus as the “Archangel Michael.” The Church of Christ Scientists and Unity Churches proclaim a Jesus who is a Spirit only. Both have very little to do with the real Jesus Christ who was both God and man. But without a physical body there was no way for Jesus to resurrect from the dead! He must be fully God and fully man to pay the price for our sin and give us eternal life. Mormons erroneously teach that Jesus and Adam are brothers who have grown and matured into being higher planes of god. In fact, Mormons proclaim that Jesus is just one of a thousand gods. They teach that anyone can become a god. Unitarians speak of Jesus as nothing more than a good moral man. We are besieged on every side by these false prophets, so let me encourage you to keep constantly in mind the warnings of the Apostle Paul: Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander in the myths.” (1 Timothy 4:1-3) A WORLDWIDE REVIVAL OF SATANISM WILL OCCUR! Satan has ruled the world through deception since the Fall, and his rule will intensify as during the End Times. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3) For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. (Mark 13:22) Think carefully about Satan’s deceptive powers in the Garden. If he could deceive perfect Eve, think what he can do with us! Evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:13) Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. (2 Thessalonians 2:3) You may notice that we hear of overt demonic battles in Third World countries. Spiritual warfare is obviously engaged there. You may wonder why we don’t see the same manifestations in America. The answer is simple. Satan doesn’t need to bring out his big guns against American Christians. He already has us trapped in materialism. And don’t miss this; Satan is also reading the signs of the times. He's launching his last great ego trip which Revelation says will reach its high point during his rule of the earth through his possessed puppet, the Antichrist. Satan is bold and brazen in his deceptions. He thinks he can win the final battle. He cannot. MANY WILL FALL AWAY FROM JESUS CHRIST AND COMMIT APOSTASY. Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. (Luke 8:13) Jesus also said, “Those who endure to the end shall be saved” (See Revelation 3:10). In other words, Jesus was saying that those who navigate the end days well will make it through the End Times. Placed in historical context, Revelation 3:14-19 Jesus shows us the state of the Christian church during the End Times. It is not a very pretty picture. Jesus said that the church at Laodicea was lukewarm. It was neither hot nor cold. He was about to spit it out of his mouth: You say, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.” But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. …Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me. (Revelation 3:17, 19-20) This church is wretched, poor, blind, and naked, yet it thinks it is rich! This church is so apostate that Christ is on the outside looking in! And this is the type of church that will be in existence when Jesus Christ returns! In fact, we are in the End Times. This is the state of the Christian Church today. It is not unusual to find Christian ministers and organizations condoning abortion, extramarital sex, and defending homosexuality. The Roman Catholic Church is shot through with corruption, superstition, pedophiles, and unbelief. Mainstream Protestantism is rushing toward a renunciation of the fundamental truths of Christianity. The World Council of Churches have rejected the Gospel of the Lord Jesus for the rankest form of liberal humanism! In Revelation, the apostle John also says this attitude of apostasy will result in a church which will unite politically with the revived Roman Empire and the Antichrist. He also illustrates it as the great harlot, drunk on the blood of saints, with which kings of earth commit fornication. MANY FALSE “CHRISTS” WILL ARISE. In the New Age Movement, we are all Christ. What a damaging, dangerous claim! And how this deception perverts the truth that we are sinners and Jesus alone is our Savior. In Matthew 24, Jesus says, “For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. … False messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” Be wary. Be ready. Be wise. THREE POSITIVE SPIRITUAL SIGNS WILL HERALD THE LORD'S RETURN. Peter, not only are we used to looking at natural, earthly signs of the End Times, we are also likely to catch onto the negative ones. But there will be several positive spiritual signs … ones that we can be inspired and encouraged by as we wait for Christ’s return. THE TRUE CHURCH WILL MAKE HERSELF PURE AND HOLY AS THE BRIDE OF CHRIST. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.” (Revelation 19:7) In this unparalleled season of persecution during the End Times, those who are alive shall realize a level of holiness and blamelessness of the quality in which Jesus Himself walked. Persecution and suffering always make the church grow stronger! THERE WILL BE A SPECIAL OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Spiritual renewal will thrive throughout our world. We will see a sweet aroma of love and unity among Christians. I look forward to the day the prophet Joel described; I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Joel 2:28-32) "THE GOSPEL WILL BE PREACHED TO ALL NATIONS, THEN THE END WILL COME!" The Good News of the Gospel is going out around the world in ways that have never before been possible, thanks to the advent of the internet and other technology. The Bible has been translated into 75% of the languages on earth, with more translation happening every day. Missionaries are on the field in nearly every nation. The number of “unreached people groups” is decreasing fast. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14) Our God is a God of great mercy and incredible love. And it is out of His mercy that Christ has yet to return … to give as many people as possible the opportunity to hear the Gospel and respond. Peter, let me leave you with this. We are blessed to be living in most exciting times of the Lord's return in triumph! But these days are a blessing only to those who know the Lord. Without knowing Jesus and the eternal hope we have in Him, these must be terrible days as we are confronted daily with wars and rumors of wars and natural catastrophes and famines and inhumanity and breakdown of values and morals and collapse of the economy. Therefore, as we watch for signs of the End Times, may we seek to share His love far and wide. May we never be discouraged by the negative spiritual signs we encounter, because they point directly to Christ’s return. And may we be encouraged that eternal life with Him is near! Love, Roger

Amidst all the changes you’ve experienced in the last few weeks, like a ton of leaders and pastors, you are likely trying to master the skill of speaking or preaching straight into a camera. With no audience. And by now, you’ve realized just how challenging that can be. As difficult as speaking in front of a live audience is, being in the room with a crowd gives you huge advantages as a communicator. When you have an audience in the room with you, it’s easy to tell if people are paying attention and whether they’re leaning in. You can sense whether they’re tracking by whether they laugh at your jokes (please, laugh at my jokes…), sitting up during important points, or become so rapt that in moments you can hear a pin drop. All of that plays into an invisible feedback loop in the speaker or preacher’s mind that gives you cues as to whether to speed up, slow down, move on, dig deeper, relax or make other adjustments as you go. When there’s no audience, all of that is gone. Completely gone. I didn’t realize how heavily I relied on my ability to ‘read’ an audience and see how my message is tracking until I spoke straight into the camera in an empty room for the first time. At first, it felt awful—almost as if I had never spoken before. I had no idea how to adapt. These days, I shoot hours and hours of video each year with zero audience (just a camera) for everything from pre-recorded sermons, to creating my  online course s, to leading webinars and livestreams. For a while I even live hosted a live national TV show (with no studio audience). I’ve learned some things along the way. This post is part of a series on church leadership and the current global crisis: Here are a few tips that can help you get used to speaking directly into a camera (with no audience). 1. Be Real. Real Is Resonating, Deeply It’s so tempting to think you’re only as good as your gear. And if you don’t have great gear, a crew, and amazing production, your message won’t resonate. That’s not the case at all. The truth is you’re every bit as good as your content and delivery. Gear can help, but in this moment, who you are is resonating far more deeply than the gear you use.   Some church leaders are still doing big production on a stage without the audience, and you could argue that’s what people are longing for (can we please go back to normal?). No criticism here. We’re all trying to figure this out in real-time. But for some that’s impossible or unwise (health considerations, number of crew needed, or frankly, you never had big production in the first place). Only having your iPhone or something less than a pro-set up isn’t fatal at all. In fact, it gives you more opportunity than anything. You can take the pressure off yourself and just be real. Our world needs real more than it needs anything right now.   You know who’s crushing the new low production reality? Jimmy Fallon is. Jimmy Fallon didn’t try to pretend he wasn’t doing the Tonight Show from home. Instead, he embraced it in all of its ordinariness. Which is exactly what makes it work. If you haven’t seen it yet, he’s filming the entire Tonight Show from various places in his home with his wife as camera operator and video linking to guests in their homes.   As you flip through the episodes, notice that Jimmy: Doesn’t compete with his family…he includes them. His daughters make all the art for the show. Reads his monologue from a printed sheet, the same way you’d read something in a meeting or casual conversation. That actually makes it funnier, because even someone with the gifting of Fallon realizes that without the studio audience there, it would be really difficult to get the delivery right. Wears the clothes you’d normally wear at home (no suits). The audio quality is really crazy low…including the musical guests (literally no mic other than the iPhone in a bricked room). Does a low res Skype/Zoom iPhone interview with Alec Baldwin on his iPhone with his wife and daughter hanging out in the background. Raises money for a new charity every night to try to help with the crisis. The best part? It’s so real. Rather than compete with the situation we’re all in, Fallon embraces it. And while he has a few more zeros in front of the decimals in his bank balance than you and I do, he brings himself into the reality we’re all in. He went where his audience lives: to his home, adapting like everyone else. Theologians might call that kind of approach incarnational. Incarnational is one approach our world is longing for right now. Being with your people in a time like this means being real with your people in a time like this. Deciding to be real is strangely, even more calming and anchoring than constant hype or constant hope. 2. Picture Your Audience Real is one thing, but how do you connect when you can’t see your audience? Simple: imagine them. Pick a person you know and talk to them. Maybe it’s an unchurched friend you’re trying to reach, a new attender you just met or a long time member you trust deeply. Just pick a person and speak to them. Naturally, you can vary that from talk to talk or live-stream to live stream, but it really breaks down the digital wall. When I record my  leadership podcast  I imagine a leader out for his morning run or in her car listening to the episode. I think about what he or she is struggling with and I try to speak directly to them. When I film one of my  online courses , I imagine a senior pastor listening and trying to apply it to his or her church, or a staff team trying to make it work in their context. When I preach to a camera, I imagine room full of people, or in this case, a living room with a family. All of that helps. Imagining your audience will make your tone of voice more expressive and empathetic as well as more natural. And it will even help you think about whether your content is really going to help the people watching or listening. If you imagine your audience when you’re speaking into a camera, you’re far more like to connect with them. 3. Shorten It My general rule on live communication with a crowd is that there’s no magic length for the perfect sermon or keynote. While TED talks have changed the game, there’s nothing magic about 18 minutes: 5 minutes of boring is 5 minutes too long and 60 minutes of fascinating isn’t nearly enough. I still stand by that for live communication. Video, though, is different to me. People listen to podcasts and watch videos at 1.5 or 2x speed. And I don’t know why, but two minutes still seems like an eternity on YouTube. Know what I mean? For that reason, my rule of thumb on video (with no live audience) is that shorter is better. I’m up this Sunday, and instead of speaking 38-40 minutes, I plan on doing no more than 25 minutes. It just feels much longer when there’s no one in the room. Plus, if you look at the reality of what’s happening in the average home, kids are crawling all over parents, half your audience might be cleaning up breakfast while ‘worshipping’ and it’s pretty easy to open multiple tabs on your laptop if you get bored. This might change over time, but I would leave your congregation wanting more than having them wish you had been done ten minutes ago. Remember, online viewing is much less polite than an in-person congregation. To walk out during a message takes guts. To swipe out of the message takes nothing…and nobody would ever know. So be shorter. 4. Don’t Try to Recreate What’s Gone As I shared in an  earlier post about how to lead in a digital default church , that you’re probably spending a lot of time doing right now is figuring out how to do what you  used to do. Um, that’s gone. It’s history. Again, back to Fallon, rather than trying to build the Tonight Show set in his back yard, he just embraced the fact that all of that was gone for now.   I’m not criticizing preachers who have a camera set up in an empty auditorium (I will likely preach that way this weekend…it’s what our church is still able to do), but don’t just re-create. Experiment. I plan on adding a live-stream Q and A at the end of the message. And video is endlessly creative. A friend who leads a mega-church, and has a huge love of movies, screenplays and great art, texted me and asked if finally all the energy he’d love to put into cinema (he wanted to write screenplays) could be put into the message. I didn’t blink. Of course it could. Don’t spend your energy trying to recreate what was lost. Try to find something new. When the audience isn’t in the room, new ways open up to connect with the audience. Let this crisis be a cradle for innovation.   5. Take people backstage And by backstage, I mean into your life.  My pastor, Jeff Brodie, smartly opened  his message  by showing pictures of his family and how everything changed in the last few weeks at his house. Fun, personal and real. I speak around the world (or at least used to) on leadership, write books, host leadership podcasts and breathe leadership every day. But if you check my  Instagram  feed (especially  stories ), it’s a hybrid mix of my leadership ideas, and my life—going out for a run or bike ride, smoking brisket on my Big Green Egg, getting my first COVID haircut, and in the summer obsessing over the lines in my (hopefully very green) lawn. When I land in a city to speak (on leadership), you know what the top things people talk to me about? It’s often not leadership. Instead, they talk to me about my obsessions with my lawn and barbecuing on the Big Green Egg. People may love what you say, but they identify with you. In an age where everything is spun, sold and marketed, people are looking for you. Let them see, well, you. Quick tip for preachers. People think you say what you say because you get paid to say it. I know that’s crass and it’s not true, but that’s the thought-bubble over people’s heads when they interact with a preacher. Letting people see that you’re real helps people see that God is real. I guess we’re back at point 1, but that really is something that will get you so far in the midst of this crisis. And well beyond it. Bonus Tip: Watch Yourself As painful as it is, watch yourself on video. I know…I still cringe, noticing every little mistake I make. If you’re really brave—which you should be—get others to evaluate you and give you tips. Pain can be a great teacher. If you can’t stand to watch yourself on video, why would anyone else watch you? www.careynieuwhof.com .

Dead Air - Good Friday Service 2016 Transcription Welcome to Calvary Albuquerque. We pursue the God who is passionately pursuing a lost world. We do this with one another through worship, by the word, to the world. I want to share with you a little scripture out of the Gospel of Luke Chapter 23. You probably know by now, after seeing your bulletin that you have the songs on, that the theme of this Good Friday, we're calling it dead air. I see some of the programs even now. Dead air. Dead air is a radio broadcast term, that if, on the radio if there is silence for a period of time and there is no song or disk jockey, that's called dead air. And it is what people in the broadcasting industry fear the most, because it could mean a loss of their revenue. It could mean people will tune out. So dead air is that period of silence in radio or television broadcasts where the signal is interrupted, where there is no transmission of a message at all. What is dead air the result of? Either technical difficulties or operator error. Sometimes on our radio stations here-- we have one on the Crest and one out on the west side-- if you get lots of wind, you can blow out that tower or you can have dead air for a long period of time. Or if lightning strikes the tower, there can be that period of dead air. Well, throughout history God has broadcast his message to human beings. The writer of Hebrews said, God at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets. Loose paraphrase, God has been in the broadcasting business for a long time. He has broadcast messages of truth throughout human history. And how does he do that? Well, there were two main sources of God broadcasting his message of truth. Number m through his world, and number two, through his word. Through his world and through his word, God has broadcast truth to human beings for thousands of years. Those two sources are what David referred to in Psalm 19. First of all he said, the heavens declare the glory of God. The earth shows his handiwork. Day unto day they utter their speech. Night after night they reveal knowledge. There is no voice or language where that speech is not heard. God speaks to people through his creation. You look around and you see the marvelous intricacies of God's created order, and it forces the logical person to say, with such design, there has to be a designer. It speaks to me when I go camping. It speaks to me when I take a vacation and see the vistas and the trees, the mountains, the ocean. God is speaking through his world. But the second source is God is speaking through his word. In that very same psalm where David said, the heavens declare the glory of God, he said this: The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimonies of the Lord are sure. So God speaks through his world generally, but God speaks through his word specifically. So God has been in the broadcasting business. And when you pick up your Bibles, you discover that for 15 long centuries, God has spoken. God has broadcast truth to people on this earth for 15 centuries. Throughout the Old Testament, God was speaking. And during that time, during those 15 centuries-- then something happened. Suddenly there was a period of dead air where God wasn't speaking any longer. He stopped broadcasting. You know, if you open your-- you don't have to do it now, but if you were to look at all 39 books of the Old Testament-- you know, your Bible has 66 books, 39 in the Old and 27 in the New. When you open your Bible and you look at Malachi the last of the 39 books of the Old Testament, if you just turn the page, you have Matthew. So it kind of looks like this continuous revelation. But do you know that between Malachi and Matthew were 400 years. Theologians call these the silent years. There was no revelation for 400 years. God wasn't broadcasting for 400 years. God wasn't giving any message for 400 years. There was dead air for 400 years. There was dead air. And then suddenly, one night, the silence was broken. Outside the city of Bethlehem, out in the fields, there was a UFO. Well, it must have felt that way to the shepherds. It says that an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. And after 400 years of dead air, the first message was, don't be afraid, for there is born to you this day in the City of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And then an anthem of praise went up. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill toward men. Suddenly, after 400 years of dead air, God was back in the broadcasting business. You could tune in to KNGL, K-Angel, right there in Bethlehem, and you could get God's message from heaven. What was the message? Simple. The long-awaited Messiah is here. Emmanuel, which is God with us, has been born in Bethlehem. And that little boy grew up. And when he grew up, he spoke. And he spoke incredible words. It was the voice of God through a human body. It was so powerful that one of the apostles, John, writing about the events years later, said this. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which our eyes have seen, which we have gazed upon and our hands have handled, concerning the word of life. We saw him, we heard him, we watched him intently. This was God's message, his word, the word of life. And that is why the writer of Hebrews begins his book, God who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to our fathers, by the prophets-- listen to what he continues to say-- has in these last days spoken to us by his son. And what an incredible voice that was. What incredible messages they were. When the temple officials came to arrest Jesus in John Chapter 10, and they came back empty handed, and the Pharisees said, why didn't you arrest him? All they could say is, nobody ever spoke like this guy. His words were amazing. When Jesus showed up in Nazareth, it says, they all marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And then on one very particular confrontational day in John Chapter 10, when it says scores of people decided to turn back and not follow Jesus any longer because his sayings were so difficult, they were so hard to hear. Jesus turned to his apostles and said, will you also go away? And Peter said, where else are we going to go? You alone have the words of everlasting life. Think of the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Think of the words of Jesus in the Olivet Discourse. Think of the words of Jesus and all the parables that he gave that so many, to this day, still recall. A few years ago The Atlantic magazine, hardly a conservative magazine, if you know, The Atlantic magazine asked an agnostic writer named Robert Schlesinger, in your opinion, sir, what is the greatest speech ever given in history? He said, unquestionably it's the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus Christ. God was in the broadcasting business and he was speaking truth through his son Jesus. But then one day, one Friday at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, suddenly there was dead air once again as Jesus was taken and put on a cross and executed outside the city of Jerusalem. The event I want to look at is from Luke's perspective in Luke Chapter 23, beginning in Verse 44. Now it was about the sixth hour, and that's 12:00 noon in the Jewish reckoning. And there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. That's 3 o'clock in the afternoon. And then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last. Now we just read the last of the seven sayings of Jesus on the cross. The last of the broadcast of God through his son Jesus were the words, into your hands I commit my spirit. Jesus said seven sayings all together while he hung on that cross for six hours. You might think of it this way. While Jesus was doing his greatest work, he was uttering his greatest words. And Luke records that Jesus said, into your hands I commit my spirit. Just before this he said, it is finished. A couple of things to note at the crucifixion of Jesus. We're told that darkness covered the land. For three hours there was darkness. Now today were enjoying sunshine. But there was a darkness that was written about even in Roman history books and known about for years after this event, three hours of darkness at his death. Now go back 33 years at his birth. It was exactly the opposite. There was light that shone in the skies around Bethlehem. His birth was accompanied by light because the light of the world had come into the world. But now there is darkness at midday because the light had been extinguished by the world. The light had gone out. There was now dead air. This man on the cross had died, actually. He was not speaking any words. Do you know that in the Jewish writings, the Babylonian Talmud, they make a very interesting remark that God will reserve wickedness-- or reserve, excuse me, darkness to judge people for extreme wickedness. And they point back to the Ninth Plague in Egypt when darkness covered the land as part of the 10 plagues. Of course, we also know in the Book of Revelation, the fifth bowl that will be poured out on the earth on the kingdom of the antichrist will be darkness that is accompanied by pain. So there is darkness over all the land at the time of his death. Then Luke tells us that the veil in the temple was torn in two. The veil was 60 feet high from the ground to the ceiling in that temple. It. Separated the holy place from the holy of holies in Herod's temple it was several inches thick. And what is noteworthy is Matthew's account says that the veil was torn from the top to the bottom, not from the bottom to the top. It wasn't like a group of guys grabbed it and wrestled it and tore it. It was torn from the top to the bottom. God tore the veil. God ripped that several inch-thick curtain that separated people from the very holy place of God's presence. What God was doing is giving a message. Even as there was dead air on the cross, God was giving a message saying, no more sacrifices are needed. You don't have to be distant any longer. We can have fellowship together. Because of this death, there can be access between you and me. We can have fellowship together. In that, God was giving a message. The veil was torn. I read an interesting account, however, that days and weeks after this event-- and it is written about, by the way, even in Jewish history, the veil being torn-- that they decided to sew it back up. Now think about that. God tore it open. They decided, sew it back up. And it remained stitched up until the final destruction of the temple in 70 AD. Isn't that just like mankind? God rips the veil. Man sews it back up. God simplifies it, man complicates it. God says, come on in and have fellowship with me. Man says, no thanks, I'd rather stick with my religious activities. But the veil was torn after there was darkness on the land. What's remarkable are the words of Jesus. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Having said this, he breathed his last. Now listen to the language. He says into your hands, I commit my spirit. Jesus was in total control of his death while on the cross. Remember, he said, no man takes my life from me. I lay it down of myself. Yes, on the one hand, it was a human execution. But on the other hand, it was divine intervention. God was giving his son for the sin of the world. Usually people last, during crucifixion, for days, days, on a cross. It's a long, excruciating death. But after six hours, Jesus said, it's finished. And he yielded up his spirit. He gave his spirit he was in absolute and total control. And as he gave his last breath, the final broadcast was over, it would seem, and he exhaled. He quoted out of Psalm 31, which says, into your hands I commit my spirit. And then once again, there was dead air. Just like there had been dead air for 400 years, there was now dead air. God wasn't speaking any longer. The God who spoke for 15 centuries, and then stopped speaking for 400 years, and then spoke again with the birth and the life and the ministry of Jesus Christ was not speaking any longer. There was dead air. And what happened? Well, the women wept at the dead air. The disciples ran away at the dead air. And all the demons in hell probably rejoiced at the dead air. Finally, they thought, it's over. We got him. He's dead. But God was not done speaking. God had much more to say than that. And what he would say is that death is not the final word. Jesus Christ is the final word. And three days later, not 400 years later, three days later, victorious from that grave Jesus would rise from the dead, conquering death itself. So the dead air was shattered by a living Savior. And he spoke again. And what did he speak? According to the Scriptures, the very first word he spoke after the three days of dead air was to a woman in a garden. Her name, Mary Magdalene. The Bible describes her as a very great sinner. Sounds a lot like us. A very great sinner, Mary Magdalene. The first words out of Jesus' mouth after three days of dead air were, woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? I love the fact that his first words were to this woman in a garden. You know, Satan's first words were to a woman in a garden. His first words were to Eve in the Garden of Eden, and his words brought death. Jesus' first words, after the dead air of his death on the cross, after his Resurrection, his first words were to a woman in a garden. But they didn't bring death. They proved life. They proved he was m that he had risen from the dead, that he had conquered death. Why are you weeping? And to me, I go forward all the way past our own time zone, our own history, and I go all the way to the future, when the Bible says, one day God will wipe away every tear. And there will be no sorrow. There will be no pain, and that will be a reality for us all. But there was dead air. And the dead air was shattered by a living Savior. Now as we're about to take the Lord's supper and celebrate that Jesus just didn't do it, but he did it for me-- and you can take these elements, if you truly, totally believe Jesus did it for you, you're personalizing it when you take Communion. Here's what you need to know. There needed to be dead air. There needed to be this dead air. Without the dead air, there couldn't be a living hope. Jesus actually had to die, because if Jesus didn't die, there would be no atonement. Without a death there would be no resurrection. And without a resurrection there would be no hope. So you need a death for atonement and resurrection and hope. That's Paul's whole point in 1 Corinthians 15. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, then your faith is in vain. You are still in your sins, and you are, of all men and women, most miserable. But the resurrection proves that the death was sufficient. The resurrection proves that the death of Jesus Christ, the blood shed, the sacrifice given, was enough to buy people into heaven, that God was satisfied with it, and the resurrection is the proof. The writer of Hebrews-- I've been quoting that now twice. This is the third time I'm quoting Chapter One of Hebrews. It says, after Jesus by himself paid for our sins and redeemed us, he then sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. A priest never sat down because a priest was never done. But this priest did, because what he did was enough. It was finished. Nothing else had to be done. And the proof that he gave a sufficient sacrifice was seen in his resurrection, his ascension, and then he sat down at the right hand of God. Before he ascended into heaven he was with his disciples. Do you remember how many days after his resurrection, anyone? After Jesus rose from the dead, before he ascended into heaven, he was with his disciples 40 days. 40 days. He spoke for 40 days. He spoke, once again, words of life. He spoke messages to them for 40 days. But then he left. Then he left. I Have a question for you. Does that mean there's dead air right now? Is God not speaking because that voice embodied in the person of Jesus Christ has left? No. I hope not, because before he left, he gave you a commandment. He said, go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. You know what that says to me? It's your turn. It's your turn. It's your turn now. Every generation, it's your turn. Once you come to the knowledge of salvation and your sins are forgiven, now you take that message of the word of God, of God's truth, embodied in the simple gospel that anybody can memorize and anybody can speak, and you go into all the world and you preach the gospel. Back in 1936 an interesting thing happened in New York City. There was a broadcast of the King of England to the United States of America going all the way from London to New York City. It was going to be broadcast on WJZ, it was called then, New York City, now known as WABC in New York. It was King Edward VIII. He had his message all prepared. He was going to speak words to the people of the United States of America. But something happened right before the broadcast. Somebody in the studio at WJZ in New York tripped over one of the wires, a very thin little wire, a very low voltage but very necessary transmission cable, and severed the link, severed the transmission from England to America. People in the studio were in panic mode. The engineers didn't know what to do. Oh no, the voice will not be heard. The speech will not go through. A very quick-thinking and clever apprentice engineer, just seconds before King Edward VIII was to speak, grabbed both wires with his hands. And he became the link. He became the bridge from England through his body to the United States of America. It worked. And for that speech, through the body of a human being, the signal was transmitted. Now that's what Jesus did 2000 years ago. He came and was, as the Son of God, the link between heaven and earth broadcasting the message. But you know what? It's our turn to grab the wires. It's our turn to take the message and to speak it to people. Jesus died on a cross to purchase us as souls for God, men and women who are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. It's our turn to grab the wire and get the message out. So as we take communion, we're grateful, we're thankful, we're humbled because of what he did for us. But we're hopeful of what he's going to do through us. Thank you, Father. Lord, as we are about to receive these elements, I pray as we take them, one speaking of the shattered, broken body of Jesus, one speaking of his life blood pumped through his veins and arteries, the blood of God, the blood of the precious son of God shed for us, a willing sacrifice, that when he died, he really died. And there was dead air. But the dead air was shattered by a living Savior alive from the tomb. And now today, Lord, the message has come to us in this part of the world, far away from the Middle East, far away from Israel, far away from Jerusalem, to us in Albuquerque or wherever we may be watching this broadcast. But Lord, you've given us a commission, a commandment to go into all the world and to proclaim that message to hold the wires and get the message through us. I pray, Lord, that in our thankfulness and in our hopefulness, we would be that conduit that is faithful. In his name we pray. Amen. What binds us together is devotion to worshipping our Heavenly Father, dedication to studying His word, and determination to proclaim our eternal hope in Jesus Christ. For more teachings from Calvary Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig, stakes visit calvaryabq.org. Dead air is a period of silence in radio or television in which the broadcast signal is interrupted and there’s no transmission. Throughout history, God has broadcast His truth to humanity through His world and His Word—including through the person of Jesus. But when Jesus died on the cross, there was dead air. Would God ever speak again? In this message, we look at how the dead air of Good Friday would be shattered by a living Savior on Sunday morning. This teaching is from our series Good Friday Messages with Skip Heitzig from Calvary Albuquerque.

I love back-stories, the story behind the story. Many years ago, our family watched the hit movie The Blind Side, and we loved it. The film is about a boy named Big Mike who grew up on the streets. His mother was a cocaine addict, and he went from home to home and school to school. Finally a family discovered his plight. This is a true story. Big Mike was living on the streets and they invited him into their home and began to love him, raise him and teach him. One scene shows Mike coming into their house and he has never seen anything like it. He is awestruck, and the mom prepares a bedroom for Big Mike with a computer and a beautiful desk. She makes the bed and she says, “This is yours.” Big Mike says, “I’ve never had one.” And she says, “What, a bedroom?” And he says, “No, a bed.” My eyes started tearing up at that point in the movie. I’m thinking, "it was just a kid who has never had a bed to sleep in!" To me, that moment in the story symbolized his life--no home, no mom, no comforts to enjoy, no bed of his own. Knowing that back-story sucks you into the movie. Then when Big Mike starts playing football, you totally want him to excel. That’s because you know the back-story. I think if you start with the Christmas story and miss out on the back-story, I don’t know that you fully appreciate the Christmas story itself. So Matthew tells you the back story in the genealogy of Christ. Matthew 1:1: This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (whose mother was Tamar). Christ’s genealogy, his family tree, records the names of ancestors. Some were noble, some were ignoble, some were righteous, some were downright evil; some left legacies of faith, others left legacies of dysfunction, a mixed bag, to say the least. But Matthew, in his genealogy, makes specific point of mentioning four women-four scandalous women! The first is Tamar, and then you have Rahab and Ruth and Bathsheba . What you have in this genealogy are two prostitutes, someone who is not even Jewish in a Jewish genealogy, Ruth, and Bathsheba, an adulteress. Why would Matthew pull these four women into this genealogy? Why did he go out of his way to do it? This family tree was filled with people who made huge mistakes. In fact, we would call them scandals... scandals of historic proportions. But God is bigger than that and I love the way this story turns out . I want to look at the first scandalous great, great grandmother of Christ--Tamar. Read Genesis 38:6: “In the course of time, Judah arranged for his firstborn son, Er, to marry a young woman named Tamar. But Er was a wicked man in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord took his life. Then Judah said to Er’s brother Onan, “Go and marry Tamar, as our law requires of the brother of a man who has died. You must produce an heir for your brother.” But Onan was not willing to have a child who would not be his own heir. So whenever he had intercourse with his brother’s wife, he spilled his seed on the ground. This prevented her from having a child who would belong to his brother. But the Lord considered it evil for Onan to deny a child to his dead brother. So the Lord took Onan’s life, too.” Ok, this is already messed up. Seems to me like Tamar is 0 for 2. She is widowed twice, and come on, she was probably better off with those two husbands dead, because they were wicked. This is serious reality. The thing I love about the Bible is it doesn’t sugar coat thing, it shares the reality of the human condition. I don’t know how old Tamar is at this point, but do you think this is the life she wanted. What I see as I read this story, I picture this little girl with dreams of growing up and falling in love and having a family, but her life is a nightmare and it’s about to get worse. Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, “Go back to your parents’ home and remain a widow until my son Shelah is old enough to marry you.” (But Judah didn’t really intend to do this because he was afraid Shelah would also die, like his two brothers.) So Tamar went back to live in her father’s home. Some years later Judah’s wife died. After the time of mourning was over, Judah and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went up to Timnah to supervise the shearing of his sheep. Someone told Tamar, “Look, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.” Tamar was aware that Shelah had grown up, but no arrangements had been made for her to come and marry him. So she changed out of her widow’s clothing and covered herself with a veil to disguise herself. Then she sat beside the road at the entrance to the village of Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. Judah noticed her and thought she was a prostitute, since she had covered her face. So he stopped and propositioned her. “Let me have sex with you,” he said, not realizing that she was his own daughter-in-law. “How much will you pay to have sex with me?” Tamar asked. “I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” Judah promised. “But what will you give me to guarantee that you will send the goat?” she asked. “What kind of guarantee do you want?” he replied. She answered, “Leave me your identification seal and its cord and the walking stick you are carrying.” So Judah gave them to her. Then he had intercourse with her, and she became pregnant. Afterward she went back home, took off her veil, and put on her widow’s clothing as usual. If this wasn’t in the Bible, I would feel like I was sinning reading it. It is so sorted, so sinful, so scandalous, I don’t want to read it, I don’t want to think about it, I don’t want to talk about it, do you? But since we’re on the subject. Isn’t this the kind of story we’d cover up? This is the last story that you would ever want to tell your kids. Did Tamar’s boys ever ask how their mom and dad fell in love? Like, ‘I actually propositioned your mother and I’m not only your dad, I’m also your grandfather, surprise!’ Can you imagine the family reunions? Can you imagine the identity issues with everybody involved in this story? Part of the reason I read that is because every once in a while, we need to read a story in the Bible that makes you feel like maybe it’s not quite as bad as I think. You’d say, ‘I thought I was messed up.’ This is so scandalous. This is about as bad as it gets. About three months later, Judah was told, “Tamar, your daughter-in-law, has acted like a prostitute. And now, because of this, she’s pregnant.” “Bring her out, and let her be burned!” Judah demanded. But as they were taking her out to kill her, she sent this message to her father-in-law: “The man who owns these things made me pregnant. Look closely. Whose seal and cord and walking stick are these?” Judah recognized them immediately and said, “She is more righteous than I am, because I didn’t arrange for her to marry my son Shelah.” And Judah never slept with Tamar again. Let’s learn some lessons. 1.God’s plans are bigger than your mistakes. Aren’t you grateful for that? We know how the story ends! How did Tamar assess her own life? I’m guessing that she assessed her life as a huge tragedy. Disappointment. Betrayal. Her life is so not what she wanted it to be. But she did produce a son and that son turned out alright. And he had a son who had a son who had a son who had a son who had a son who had a son who had a son who is the Son of God. See, I don’t think you can assess your life on your life span. What I love about the Bible genealogies is this, zoom out and take a 42-generation perspective. Sometimes, we get so embroiled in the minute, circumstantial details of our lives, we just feel like our lives aren’t what we want them to be and what we need is a little bit of eternal perspective.  God’s plans are bigger than your mistakes-sexual or otherwise. I think sometimes we reduce God to the size of our biggest failure. But He is bigger than that. 2. Let me make a second observation. It’s not who goes before you, it’s who you leave behind. I think some of us read these stories and we can identify with them because we come from dysfunctional families and dysfunctional situations. At Christmas, a lot of people are going back into situations where it just brings all this stuff back, and the truth is, some of you are here and you wonder if you’re destined to make the same mistakes that your parents made. You wonder if you inherited their genes! You ask, ‘am I going to mess up the same way my parents messed up?’ Be encouraged. Your mom is not you, your dad is not you, you are not them, you are a unique individual and you don’t have to make the same mistakes. You can leave a magnificent legacy with Christ’s help. 3. Finally, look at Grandmother Tamar. She was a part of the Messiah’s genealogy! You are, too! If you have put your faith in Christ, then Galatians 3 says you are a child of Abraham, you have been grafted into this genealogy and His church is your family. It is your messed-up family.  We are all sinners, and yet John writes in John chapter 1: “…as many as have received Him, to them He gave the power to become children of God.” You can’t imagine how important you are to God’s family. You have the divine genes of Almighty God! You are of infinite value to Him. theaterchurch.com/media/message/the-scandal-of-the-genealogy/

I remember an old episode of The Andy Griffith Show entitled, “Tom Silby Returns.”  In that episode there is a funny exchange between Andy and Tom made so by a misunderstanding.  Andy said, “It can’t be, Tom, it just can’t be!” “What can’t be?” Tom asked. “You can’t be,” Andy said, “You’re gone!” Tom replies, “I was gone, but I came back!” A shocked Andy says, “You can’t come back, not when you’re gone, it just ain’t decent!”   What makes this exchange so funny is that when Tom says, “I was gone, but I came back,” he was simply referring to the fact that he went away to Charlottesville.  Andy, however, had reason to think Tom was dead (Andy even attended Tom’s funeral) so when Andy said, “You’re gone,” he meant the big you’re gone, as in Tom was dead!  You can imagine Andy’s surprise and Tom’s bombshell announcement! Stories like this give us a good laugh.  And we can laugh at death, especially when death seems like it is a long way off, or when death seems so remote that it doesn’t affect us.  BUT WHEN DEATH IS CLOSE – when it visits our families and friends – when it makes its “round of threes” (as in the old wives tales), then the laughs fade, and the serious business of dealing with death begins. Death is the most traumatic experience we will face.  Certainly it is traumatic and scary for the dying, but it is sometimes more traumatic (in my observations) for those who remain behind.  While there is much uncertainty and fear surrounding death, however, we can be certain of this much:  God will always gives the grace we need to navigate that valley. God loves us all.  God can and does supply grace and peace and comfort and assurance to the dying and to those who care for the dying.  Yes, it is tough.  Yes, it is difficult.  Yes, it is fearful.  We may have moments when we think that we cannot press on.  But the Great Comforter – the Holy Spirit of God Almighty – the Spirit of Christ – the power of God’s WORD, these will get us through and provide all that we need.   This passage of Scripture is about trusting God. It is about the comfort and peace and assurances God gives when we are facing death.  It is a passage you’ve heard many times over – probably read at a funeral.  It is intended to give assurance and hope to those feeling a profound sense of loss and sadness.  It is intended to give comfort and encouragement. In fact, Paul concludes these verses with this summary:  So comfort and encourage each other with these words.   Comfort and encouragement.  These ancient Christians needed it way back when, and we most certainly need it today.  And for the same reasons:  We all face death.  Let’s take a moment and look closely at what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 .   I          The Problem *** 1 Thessalonians 4:13  But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. An important part of the gospel message as it is presented by the Apostle, Paul, involves the parousia, or what we’ve come to call the “second Coming of the Lord.”  The Bible teaches, and we all believe, that Jesus will return again to the earth to catch up with him all those who have believed in him as Savior. We aren’t the first to hold such a hope.  The believers at the church in Thessalonica also believed it. In fact, it is probable that most of them, and perhaps Paul, himself, believed Jesus’ return would happen in their lifetimes. They believed the resurrected, living Jesus Christ would make his coming before they died.  They believed that he was coming for them, to take them to their eternal home, to that place where Jesus, himself  had promised, I am going to prepare a place for you. But watch this carefully, because there is a problem emerging.  The years are passing, and Jesus hasn’t returned.  As the years are passing, people who have believed the gospel, people who have trusted Christ as Savior, they are DYING, and confusion is spreading.  The question is being raised:  What happens to those who die before Jesus comes back?  Are they lost?  Will they miss out on the blessings the gospel promises?  And this confusion led to a fear and a great sorrow.  Persons were overcome with grief at the thought of this kind of a LOSS – a loss of hope that looked like they were missing out on God’s great promises. It is to answer these questions that Paul, by the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit, writes this section. And his answer to the problem presented in verse 13 is the promise of verse 14.  Let’s take a look. II         The Promise *** 1 Thessalonians 4:14   For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.   Our great comfort and encouragement always begins with the WORD and PROMISES of GOD.  God speaks to us by the his word, the Bible.  When we have questions, especially those that involve eternity, especially the LIFE and DEATH questions, we should always TURN FIRST and foremost to God’s word and to God’s promises.  Paul is trying to get these ancient believers to do just that. The promise in this passage starts with an event.  Since Jesus Christ died and rose again is a reference, of course to the resurrection of Jesus.  Jesus died on the cross, but on the third day was resurrected from the dead.  Paul is referencing an actual event on the timeline of human history.  In fact, the resurrection of Jesus has been called the most attested fact in ancient history.  Paul then connects this actual event to the promise of God in verse 14:   We also believe that when Jesus comes, God will bring back with Jesus all who have died (fallen asleep, with sleep being a euphemism for death).               The PROMISE made to these ancient and anxious believers is simple and direct – GOD will not lose a single one of those who have trusted Christ for salvation.  Death cannot separate the believer from his or her secured place in God’s heaven! Imagine the JOY and RELIEF this promise would’ve meant to these believers.  It brought hope to a circumstance they believed hopeless.  It brought comfort to a circumstance which was previously unconsolable.  It brought them the full truth of the gospel’s promise of eternal life. AND IT SPEAKS this SAME TRUTH TODAY to believers like you and me when we face death.  Nothing can separate us from the love of GOD.  God will NOT lose even one of the millions and millions of those who’ve placed faith and hope in Him through Jesus Christ.   That God will not lose even one is a promise beautifully present in a story I heard one of my professors tell at the seminary many years ago.  It goes like this: My father and I were hunting in the backwoods of Mississippi when I was about 10 years old.  We happened upon an old, old cemetery.  The woods had grown up around the two dozen or so headstones which were so weathered that the writings were hardly readable, and the whole place looked like it was long ago forgotten.  Even as a little boy it bothered me that the place seemed so abandoned.  So I asked by father, “What happens to the believers who are buried here?  It looks like everything is lost.”  My father spoke strongly and reassuringly, “Son, the Lord will never forget where one of his own has been laid.” Many years later I was aboard a US Naval vessel in WWII.  Our ship had been hit and there were casualties.  Some of those who were dead were my good friends and brothers in Christ.  After a service honoring these brave dead, they were cast over the side of the ship into the depths of the Pacific Ocean.  As I watched my Christian friends sink into the seemingly endless deep, the words of my father came back to me from so many years before, “The Lord will never forget where one of his own has been laid.”  Those words gave me the blessed assurance that God will not lose a single soul who has trusted him.               I think this is the message of the promise of verse 14.  And this promise means everything to you if you are an ancient believer caring for a dying loved one, our if you know that you are in your last days.  Of course, that promise lives today for believers like you and me. I am also reminded of one of the first verses in the Bible I committed to memory.  It is John 10:27-28 – My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me.  And I give them eternal life.  And they will never perish and NO ONE can take them out of my hand.   That is God’s Promise.   III       The Progression *** 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17   …we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.   Let me say a couple of things about the Progression. One is that the progression is important, yes, but it is not the most important part of the passage.  By far the most important part of the passage is the promise itself; the promise that we as believers in Christ will be with the Lord forever and nothing can ever separate us.  Again, that promise is as sure as the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  But how exactly will it work, you ask?  That answer is less certain, at least to my limited reasoning. There are some things we can say for sure about the progression.  One is that Paul is telling us about an actual event in history.  We said earlier that the resurrection is a real, actual event on the timeline of human history – from the timeline of our past.  The progression that begins with the trumpet blast announcing the coming of the Lord is also a real, actual event on the timeline of human history – that is still in our future.  Yes, Paul is describing an actual moment in the story of humanity. That means there is coming a moment, and yes, it might be this very day, when the events of verses 15-17 will actually happen.  There will be a shout from heaven.  The dead in Christ will rise.  Those who are alive and remain will be caught up with them in the air and will forever be with the Lord.  Oh my!  Just the thought of that glorious moment brings me such joy!   Now, through the years I’ve been pressed with some logistical questions about the progression that, I confess, I have some difficulty thinking through.  For example, some have said to me, “What about someone who has been cremated?  They don’t have a grave to pop out of.  Still others have had their cremated remains scattered.  What happens to them?” Still others have asked me, “What about someone who has been blown up in the war?  If the bomb vaporized them, where do their remains come from?  How do they meet the Lord in the air?” And still others have said things like, “What about someone who died a thousand years ago?  Their graves are long gone and their remains have all decayed into nothingness.  What happens to them?” I don’t know can be my only answer.  But I do have a return question.  Is any of this too hard for God?  Is there anyone who thinks God cannot deliver on his promise.  Is there any part of the progression that God is unable to complete because of how a person died?  Is there anything the Divine One, the All-Knowing and All Powerful One, the Author and Creator of the Universe – is there anything our Great God cannot do?   Again, let’s apply the verses from John 10 - I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one can take them out of my hand.  Can a bomb dislodge a soul from the hand of the Savior?  If a person is cremated or their remains completely lost, does that mean the Savior has lost them?  Does that mean they can no longer participate in the eternal salvation plans of the Almighty God?  Of course not!  If you think about it, it begins to sound ridiculous.  Can you even imagine God saying to someone, “Oh, sorry, I know you were a believer and everything, but you were cremated and so we can’t let you into heaven.”  Again, ridiculous. Friends, I do know this.  All of God’s Word is true.  And the truthfulness of God’s Word doesn’t depend on my ability to be explain every single detail.  I believe in faith in the good heart of God!  Yes, there will be a shout from heaven.  Yes, he dead in Christ will rise.  Yes, those who are alive and remain will be caught up to meet him in the clouds and to be carried to heaven.   Let me close with a beautiful picture. Thessalonians 4 uses language referring to the death of a believer as “sleep.”  The Greek term is koimao.  It is translated “to fall asleep” or “to be asleep.” This idea became a euphemism of the death of the believer.  The idea was that a person wasn’t anymore dead if he/she had faith in Christ as Savior, than any person would be dead if he/she were simply asleep. Now let’s go back to the progression – v.15-17. The Lord comes down out of heaven with a SHOUT – the CALL of the archangel – the TRUMPET of God. Why do we need a shout, a call and a trumpet blast?  To rouse the SLEEPING ONES!  This is the DIVINE alarm clock announcing that it is TIME to GET UP!  And just like your alarm clock designates the precise moment when it is time to rise from your slumber, God’s Divine call will come at the perfect moment in human history – He will wake the sleeping ones when it is TIME. So the shout, the call, the trumpet – announce that the moment has come.  Then those whom God has come to ROUSE from their sleep will arise first, followed by all those who are alive and remain, to meet him in the air! Praise the ALMIGHTY for that glorious moment! And now let us turn full circle to the purpose of this passage.  Please remember that the big picture purpose of this passage is brought into focus in verse 18 – So comfort and encourage each other with these words. Paul wants the surviving believers in Thessalonica to be assured that their loved ones, those who have fallen asleep in Christ, are safe and sound in God’s hands. They are not lost.  They will participate fully in God’s promise of eternal life. Not even death can separate them from God’s love.   We, too, understand the great hope, comfort, and encouragement we feel when we are reminded of these great promises of GOD.  When it is our turn to stand beside a casket, when it is our turn to contemplate our own mortality, these words mean everything to us.  They are God’s Great Comfort.

Almost everyone in the world of American religion has spent the last couple of weeks thinking through what  Gallup just revealed : that, for the first time since they’ve been surveying the topic, less than half the country belongs to a church of any kind. My first thought was grief. But what came after that was a strange sort of almost survivor’s guilt. When I was fifteen years old, I considered suicide—and it was because I didn’t want to lose my religion. As I’ve  written about elsewhere , I went through a prolonged spiritual crisis then because of what I was seeing all around me in Bible Belt Christianity. Not only were the televangelist scandals all over the news, but also I knew that this wasn’t the half of it. Just as those in political journalism have long known how to interpret “Sen. Smith has decided to spend more time with his family,” I knew how to interpret “The Lord has called Brother Jones from the pastorate into itinerant evangelism.” I knew of “Christian people” who beat their children for listening to “secular music.” I knew of “Christian people” who denounced the vulgarity in the culture but seethed with racism. I heard prediction after prediction after prediction tying current events to Bible prophecy that was all “just about to happen.” But nobody ever said, “Remember when I said ‘Gog and Magog’ of the Bible is the Soviet Union? I was wrong about that” or “Mikhail Gorbachev, I told you was probably the antichrist, but, my bad” or “Now that I also am using these supermarket scanners, maybe they’re not the Mark of the Beast after all.” These folks just moved on with the next confident assertions, as though the last never happened at all. And this was even more the case with the politics. Even as a teenager, I could see that the “voting guides” that showed up in Bible Belt America were kind of like the horoscopes one could find in the newspaper. The horoscope could say, “Today you will find a surprising new opportunity,” and a certain sort of credulous person would be amazed at how this just happened to be true—without ever thinking about the fact that this is true of virtually every human being at virtually every moment, if one just pays attention to it. Likewise, the voter guides lined out the “Christian” view from the “anti-Christian view” on a list of issues that just happened to line up with the favored party’s platform that year. Somehow the Bible suddenly gave us a “Christian view” on a balanced budget amendment or a line-item veto, things that, like the European common market as a sign of the last days, were never noticed in the text until the favored candidates started emphasizing such things. And along with all that came apocalyptic warnings that if these candidates weren’t elected, or these policies weren’t enacted, we would “lose our entire culture.” But when those candidates lost, no one headed for the bunkers. The culture didn’t fall—at least not any more than it had before. I started to wonder whether religion itself—or at least the kind of Christianity that showed up in the slogans all around me—might really be about something else: southern culture or politics. If so, I thought, that would mean that Jesus is not the Way, the Truth, and the Life, but a means to an end. And that would mean that the gospel is not “You must be born again,” but “You must be one of us.” All that was terrifying to me because I really believed that Jesus was the Son of the Living God. I really believed that Jesus loved me…for the Bible told me so. And if the gospel I had been given was really just about finding ways to get voters to back party bosses or to fund prostitutes and cocaine for some preachers on TV, then that would mean more than just an adolescent cynical awakening. It would mean that the universe is a random, meaningless void—red in tooth and claw. It would mean that the preacher who beat his daughter for dancing wasn’t an aberration but was instead the way the cosmos is, right down to the core. And that was a horrible thought. Obviously—since this isn’t a horoscope coming to you from beyond the grave—I came through this teenager crisis. And obviously—since I’m an evangelical Christian—I came through it with my faith not just intact but deepened. That’s due, ultimately of course, to the grace of God. But, in terms of secondary causes, it’s due to the fact that I found a copy of C.S. Lewis’  Mere Christianity on a bookstore shelf and, having read to the point of memorization  The Chronicles of Narnia  as a child, I recognized his name. And it’s due to the fact that listening to Christian music led me to a Christian bookstore where I found, amidst all the kitsch, a copy of  Christianity Today magazine, where I found columns by Philip Yancey and J.I. Packer and John Stott and Chuck Colson. These people seemed to take the reader seriously as someone who could think, and they seemed to be filled, not with anger and outrage and manipulation, but with what I recognized as the fruit of the Spirit—peace, joy, kindness, gentleness, self-control, etc. There seemed to be something there that bore witness to a Jesus who was not a means to an end but who was the Alpha and Omega of everything. But my fifteen year-old self haunts me. I know that the reason I even went looking for C.S. Lewis and the others is because I had been taught the Bible—in a good, loving church. I had seen genuine love and community and authenticity there, week by week in Sunday School and Training Union and worship services and Vacation Bible Schools—to know that it could exist, and what it would look like when I found it. But I wonder what would have happened to fifteen year-old Russell Moore had I been born in 2001 instead of 1971? Would the things I saw have even prompted a crisis at all? Or would I just have walked away altogether? Would I have ended up the sort of atheist or agnostic or “deconstructing ex-vangelical” that I find myself counseling almost every day now? Who can know—and I suppose I should just conclude that, with apologies to Paul Simon, I was Born Again at the Right Time. But I think about this literally every day of my life. And maybe more this week than ever. Back to Gallup. The number of Americans now affiliated with a church is just 47 percent. What’s significant is not just the low number, but the speed of the plummet —from 68 percent of Americans twenty years ago to 47 percent now. And the numbers are even worse than they appear. Generation X is less affiliated than Baby Boomers and Millennials less than Gen-X and Generation Z looking to be even less affiliated than them all. In recent years, even some who were less apocalyptic about the prospects of evangelical Christianity—because of growth in the Global South or because of the cyclical nature of revivals and awakenings—have grown more foreboding about the prospects of evangelical Christianity in the twenty-first century. Referring to the “Nones,” those claiming “no religious affiliation,” sociologist Philip Jenkins contends: “The future of the USA is None.” Indeed, the most reliable studies available show us that as little as 8 percent of white Millennials identify as evangelicals, as compared to 26 percent of senior adults. With Generation Z, the numbers are even more jarring—with 34 percent identifying as religiously unaffiliated, and that number is growing. What’s more, the “culture wars” narrative of this secularization is increasingly demonstrated to be false—at least in the way presented by and to American evangelicals over the past fifty years. Some of the disaffiliation, to be sure, is due to liberalizing cultural norms, decreasing fertility, and increasing mobility. But the evidence is mounting that a significant amount of secularization is accelerated and driven not by the “secular culture,” but by evangelicalism itself. Many of us have observed, anecdotally, a hemorrhaging of younger evangelicals from churches and institutions in recent years. What seems different about this quiet exodus is that the departures are heightened not among the peripheries of the church—those “nominal” or “cultural” Christians who grow up to rebel against their parents’ beliefs—but instead among those who are the  most  committed to what were previously thought to be the  hardest aspects of Christian religion in modernity: belief in “the supernatural,” the rigorous demands of discipleship, and a longing for community and accountability in a multigenerational church with ancient roots and transcendent authority. Where a “de-churched” (to use an anachronistic term) “ex-vangelical” (to use another) in the early 1920s was likely to have walked away due to the fact that she found the virgin birth or the bodily resurrection to be outdated and superstitious or because he found moral libertinism to be more attractive than the “outmoded” strict moral code of his past or because she wanted to escape the stifling bonds of a home church for an autonomous individualism, now we see a markedly different—and jarring—model of a disillusioned evangelical. We now see young evangelicals walking away from evangelicalism not because they do not believe what the church teaches, but because they believe the  church itself  does not believe what the church teaches. The presenting issue in this secularization is not scientism and hedonism but disillusionment and cynicism. Many have pointed to compelling data—from Robert Putnam and David Campbell and countless other sociologists, political scientists, and demographers—showing that the politicization of American religion is a key driver of people away from religious affiliation. Some would point to the fact that most of those leaving would identify politically as somewhere from moderate to progressive, to suggest that such people are better off outside the church in the first place. Let’s just assume for the sake of argument that such is true, which comes first here—the demand to line up politically in order to follow Jesus or the decision to reject the politics of those making such demands? Moreover, it seems to me that the controversy is not actually even over the specific political planks or ideas or personalities as the fact that many have come to believe that the religion itself is a vehicle for the politics and the cultural grievances—and not the other way around. And it’s not difficult to see why. I watched twenty years ago as people suggested that those waving away a president’s sexual behavior as irrelevant to his public office were the result of liberal forms of Baptist theology, and then lived long enough to watch the same people suggest that those who  did not  wave away such behavior from another president might not be “real Christians.” People can change their minds, of course. I certainly have done so on many things. But—as with the prophecy charts a generation ago—there is no talk of minds changing, just certainties in one direction and then certainties in the opposite direction, with the only difference being the tribal affiliations of the leaders under discussion. The trends in secularization mean that people do not  need  the church in order to see themselves as Americans or as good people or even as “spiritual.” And they certainly do not need the church in order to carry out their political affiliations—even when those political affiliations are those preferred by the church. If evangelicalism is politics, people can get their politics somewhere else—and fight and fornicate and get drunk too, if they want. A religion that calls people away from Western modernity will have to say, with credibility, “Take up your cross and follow me,” not “Come with us, and we’ll own the libs.” One can do the latter on YouTube and one needn’t even give up a Sunday morning. Almost every survey of disaffiliating people has also emphasized the scandals within the church—most notably the sexual abuse cover-ups and predatory behavior. This is about more than just the standard trope of “Don’t judge the church by the hypocrites in it.” Every generation has had idealism shattered by scandal within the church. That’s why J.R.R. Tolkien wrote to his own disillusioned son to encourage him not to give up on the church, despite hypocrisies, as “the virtue of loyalty” is one that “only becomes a virtue when one is under pressure to desert it.” This is far more than just that. We might reassure ourselves when we see the proliferating “Nones” among our youth that the reason they are leaving is because they want to run their own lives and pursue the sexual hedonism the church (rightly) forbids. Some of that is no doubt the case. But if one believes the Bible, one knows that wanting to run one’s own life is not a new development with modernity. And one need only know a little bit of high school biology to know that the desire for sexual hedonism didn’t start in the Obama Administration. First-century Athens, Greece, was just as intellectually averse to Christianity as is twenty-first century Athens, Georgia—and far more sexually “liberated” too. And the gospel went forth and the churches grew. The problem now is not that people think the church’s way of life is too demanding, too morally rigorous, but that they have come to think the church doesn’t believe its own moral teachings. The problem is not that they reject the idea that God could send anyone to hell but that, when they see the church covering up predatory behavior in its institutions, they have evidence that the church believes God would not send “our kind of people” to hell. If people reject the church because they reject Jesus and the gospel, we should be saddened but not surprised. But what happens when people reject the church because they think  we  reject Jesus and the gospel? If people leave the church because they want to gratify the flesh with abandon, such has always been the case, but what happens when people leave because they believe  the church  exists to gratify the flesh—whether in orgies of sex or orgies of anger or orgies of materialism? That’s a far different problem. And what if people don’t leave the church because they disapprove of Jesus, but because they’ve read the Bible and have come to the conclusion that the church itself would disapprove of Jesus? That’s a crisis. Will the church die? No. The church moves out into the future not on the strength of its culture or its institutions but because of the promise of Jesus at Caesarea Philippi. And—however buffered the modern self might be from the so-called supernatural—the tomb is, in fact, empty. The apostles were telling the truth. The stories are true. And that means Jesus is alive—and seated in heaven until the kingdom of God has come on earth as it is in heaven. That truth, though, doesn’t mean that the institutions as they are will continue to exist. Any church can lose its lampstand—and any church “culture” can lose its credibility and die. The church will be reborn in every generation, but, as the prophet Jeremiah warned Jerusalem, “Don’t be fooled by those who promise you safety simply because the Lord’s temple is here…Do you really think you can steal, murder, commit adultery, lie and burn incense to Baal and all those other new gods of yours, and then come here and stand before me in my Temple and chant, ‘we are safe!’—only to go right back to all those evils again?” ( Jer. 7:4 , 8-10 NLT). The church will survive—even here in America—but, along the way, a lot of fifteen year-olds will be hurt. A lot of them will conclude that the gospel is just one more aspect of political theater or outrage culture or institutional self-perpetuation or worse. They will be wrong, of course, but, as Jesus put it, “woe to the person through whom the stumbling block comes” ( Matt. 18:7 NASB ). We are losing a generation—not because they are secularists, but because they believe we are. What this demands is not a rebranding, but a repentance—meaning, as the Bible does, a turnaround. Stranger things have happened, and that’s good, because we will need it. We need to be the people of Christ and him crucified, the people of a Word that stands above all earthly powers and, no thanks to them, abides. Somewhere, there’s at least one fifteen year-old who needs to see if we’re such a people. Maybe, even, his life depends on it. www.russellmoore.com .paatheculture

Why Should We Have Hope: Peter’s Prison Rescue Andy Stanley One of the objectionable, irrational, easy to criticize things about our faith as Christians is this, you've experienced this. We actually turn to God when bad things happen, believing he could have kept them from happening in the first place, isn't this true? Don't we all do this in fact, we encourage other people to do this. We actually turned to God when something bad happens and we turn to God with this crazy confidence that well God, you could have kept this from happening in the first place, but now that it's happened, I'm gonna turn to the very one who could have kept this from happening. But at the same time, most of us feel like we really don't have any choice, but to do that. I mean, where else are we gonna turn? Or maybe you've been here before, you find yourself asking God to comfort someone else in the aftermath of a loss, a loss that you are confident God could have prevented in the first place, but didn't. So are we crazy? Are we naive? I mean, some would argue, yes. In fact, for you, this dynamic may be the reason you finally gave up on faith altogether and I'll just tell you just between the two of us, I understand that. In August, this past August, I participated video in a Memorial service for two teenage boys. They were brothers who passed away on the same day in circumstances that, in circumstances that are so horrific, that I'm not gonna tell you their story, primarily because it's not my story to tell. But if I were to tell you their story, you may not be able to pay attention to anything else I say in the next few minutes. Weeks, I did not know this family weeks after the incident weeks, which took place in March. The parents actually, the husband sent me an email, a long email and told me the entire story in detail of what happened. There was a statement in his email where he said, it doesn't really matter what God does now because of what he did not do then. he story was so difficult to even begin to imagine that I didn't even wanna respond to the email and I have since told the family that. When I called, I found myself in a conversation with a mom fighting, fighting to maintain her sanity and her faith, in fact, the entire family was. Her husband and their two daughters. And I was not sure their faith would survive, I even said that to her. I tried not to say anything patronizing. They already knew all the Bible verses and all the Bible stories and in a later conversation, she actually said to me, she said, "Andy, the most helpful thing you said", and when she said that, I thought, I can't imagine that I said anything helpful, but she said, "the most helpful thing that you said was that, that if our faith did not survive this", but that was understandable. "You said that it may take years for our faith to recover, assuming that it recovers it all". And that is what I said and I meant it. And through the weeks that ensued, we texted several times and then in June, remember this event happened in March, in June she texted me to say, "Hey, we're planning a Memorial service for our sons at a church". One of our partner churches. "It'll be an August and we would love for you to send a short video that could be part of the service". And honestly, I was stunned not that they asked me to send a video, I was stunned that their faith had begun to recover, that they were rediscovering faith, but not their old version of faith. They would be quick to tell you if they ever tell their story. A much better faith, a deeper faith, a faith that wasn't propped up by everything is up into the right, a faith that wasn't propped up by will God will make sure that you get back to normal eventually because they will never get back to normal eventually. And what they recovered was faith in God, not the promises of God, not the blessings of God, just God. Because all the other stuff, all the other fluff had been torn away in a day. Now you may know someone like that and perhaps you're hoping for a recovery like that. And it may help to know, it certainly helps me to know, it may help to know that the men and the women who brought us the message of Jesus walked through similar valleys, valleys filled with random acts of violence, unnecessary suffering, and unanswered prayer. And yet, somehow some way they believed and they persevered. Now, last time we were together and I hope you were with us last time we were together. Last time we were together, we looked at an episode from the life of the early church where food was about to become scarce throughout the entire Roman empire. And most people in ancient times were already hungry most of the time. So when a famine struck people didn't just eat less, in many parts of the world, there was literally nothing to eat. And as we discovered the church in Antioch, instead of turning inward and focusing on their own needs, they actually stop to consider who would be most negatively impacted by the famine. And then they asked the question, "What can we do about it"? And in an unprecedented move and an unprecedented move, they began collecting funds for a group of people, they had never met in a part of the world most of them would never visit whose culture was nothing like there's. In fact, this is so important and it was so unprecedented, I wanna give you a visual to help you understand the magnitude of their decision and what they did. Here's a map of what we generally consider the Holy land with Galilee in the North, Sumeria, Judea and the city of Jerusalem in the South. Now these gentile Jesus followers were located in Antioch, which doesn't even show up on the map, it is 300 miles away from Jerusalem. And in terms of ancient travel, these two cities, take a look, these two cities were, they were any eternity apart. And culturally speaking, as I said, they were half a world apart as well, never before, never before in recorded history had a local multicultural group felt responsibility for a group of people with whom they had virtually nothing in common. Now here's the question, where did, where did this politically and socially incorrect behavior come from? Well, it came from their recognition that for God so loved the entire world that he gave. And so they gave, they gave because that's what love required of them. So picking up where we left off last week, the folks in Antioch, the Gentile believers in Antioch are beginning to take up a collection, they're concerned about the believers in Jerusalem who are already suffering because they're being persecuted for their faith and then there's a famine that's about to make things even worse. So anyway, back in Jerusalem, something terrible happens. I mean, something terrible is coming, but something terrible happens. Something random, something seemingly unnecessary, something dark, something that would leave Jesus followers scratching their heads and wondering where in the world was God? Here's what happened. The text says that it was about this time, and again, just to put this into perspective, this is about 15 years after the resurrection. "It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to torture them". Now this King Herod is actually the grandson, this is Herod Agrippa, who is the grandson of Herod the great who murdered the babies in Bethlehem after the birth of Jesus. So violence clearly ran in their family. And the some, the son that he intended to arrest were actually Jesus' original apostles and his first victim was a high profile target. In fact, his first victim was one of Jesus first apostles. Here's what Luke tells us, He said, "He had James, the brother of John", not James, the brother of Jesus, "he had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword". He had James, the brother of John beheaded. Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Now this was a huge blow to morale for the Jesus followers in Jerusalem, but it won Herod political points with his constituency. In fact, here's what the text says, "When he saw, when he saw that is met with approval among the Judeans Herod proceeded to seize Peter also". Now Peter is a really big fish in next to Jesus, this is the biggest fish, and this would keep the taxpayers happy and perhaps it would quell some of the anti-Roman sentiment that was usually very high during Passover season. So Herod followed through with his threat, "After arresting him", after arresting Peter, so he arrested him, "he puts him in prison, handed him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each". So Peter is being guarded by four soldiers at all times and this happened at the beginning of Passover, inherit intended to bring him out for public trial after Passover, Luke continues, he says, "So Peter, Peter was kept in prison", but here it is, "but the church was earnestly praying to God for Peter". They were praying specifically for Peter's release. And there it is. This is one of the many places where the experience of first-generation believers intersects with ours. Think about it. The Jesus followers in Jerusalem, think about it. The Jesus followers in Jerusalem are asking God to deliver Peter days after God did not deliver James. Again, the Jesus followers, they're asking God, they're praying, they're asking God to deliver Peter from prison just days after God did not deliver James. I mean, why bother if God was concerned about Peter, he wouldn't have allowed Peter to be arrested in the first place, right? So if God didn't stop Peter from being arrested, why turn to God after he's arrested? And if God didn't protect James, why should they expect him to protect Peter? I mean, they were as crazy as we are. Actually, we are as crazy as they were because apart from their crazy, we would not be having this conversation. Apart from their crazy, the message of Jesus would have never survived the first century. In fact, it turns out they weren't crazy and their faith was not misplaced and neither is yours. So for me, narratives like this one are comforting on two levels. First, the people closest to the action, think about this. The people closest to the action, the men and women who actually knew Jesus personally and chose to follow him because of the resurrection, they were not immune to random inexplicable tragedy and loss. And in spite of believing that God could have kept these bad things from happening, they turned to him for comfort and help anyway right after they happened. So we may be crazy, but we are in good company. We are not the first. And they didn't continue trusting and turning to God because it all made sense. They continued trusting it and turning to God because the thing that made the least sense of all, the crucifixion of God's Messiah resulted in the greatest possible good for all, the salvation of the world, forgiveness of sin and on-ramp to our relationship with God. And here's the thing, to the degree, to the degree that our faith is anchored to those same ancient events, our confidence in God will sustain us through the random, inexplicable God where are you valleys of life. So when you find yourself praying to the very God who did not come through for you to begin with, the way you wanted it to, the way you expected him to, the way he came through for the person next to you, you are in good company. Peter, Andrew, James, John, Mary, Martha, the men and women whose faith laid the groundwork for the evangelization of the entire world. They're irrational in spite of where are you God faith is why the message of Jesus made its way into the 21st century. In fact, spoiler alert, Herod doesn't execute Peter, but we'll get back to that in just a minute. Now, several years after Peter was arrested in Jerusalem, he actually sits down and he dictates a letter to Christians living in a variety of regions, scattered around the Roman empire. Christians who like himself and his friends in Jerusalem were suffering because of their faith. Now, before I read you what he writes, keep in mind, by the time he's writing this letter, he's been arrested multiple times, he's been living as a fugitive for years. In fact, he kept his whereabouts so concealed, nobody even knows for sure where Peter was between his arrest in Jerusalem and his execution in Rome, maybe nine or 10 years later. Yet in spite of this, in spite of this, in spite of the fact that he's living on the run, here's what he says. He writes to Christians who are experiencing some of the same things he is. He says, "Praise, praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ". It's like, wait, wait, wait, Peter, Peter, you've been arrested multiple times, you've been flogged, you are scarred for life and the God and father of our Lord, Jesus Christ did nothing to stop it. I mean, you have a price on your head. Stephen is dead, James is dead, the apostles are all scattered. What are you talking about? And he would say, here's what I'm talking about, "In his great mercy, he has given us a new birth, a different kind of relationship with God. He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade". In other words, your prayers may not all get answered and you may never understand the randomness of life, but you have hope and your hope is an anchored to theology, it's not anchored to belief and it's not anchored to a book. Peter says that our hope is anchored to an event, an event that rekindled his hope, the resurrection of Jesus. And then he says this, "In all of this, all of this suffering and all of this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief of all kinds of trials in all kinds of trials". In other words, he says in light of all that God has done for you, you can find joy and you can rejoice in the middle of it. There's not joy because of their trials, there's joy in spite of the trials because of what God has done for you. And Peter, again, who has suffered in ways we can't even begin to imagine says that this suffering is just for a little while and he could have added on all kinds of trials like I have. To which we say, so wait again Peter, grief, trials, suffering, randomness are not evidence that God's not listening, that God's not involved. They don't indicate that things are spinning out of control that we need a revival that Jesus is returning soon, or maybe we've done something wrong and Peter would say, "No, not at all". "These, these trials have come. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith, the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire may result", in other words, there's gonna be a result, "may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed". Again, to which we would say, so Peter, we should expect this to which Peter would say, "Yes". And people are watching, people who are suffering as you suffer are watching, people suffering without hope will be drawn to your hope, your peace. In fact, they may be drawn to the object of your faith because the darker it gets, the brighter your hope, the brighter your response shines. And then he would say, perhaps, as Jesus said, "So as you suffer, and as you try to explain the inexplicable, as you navigate yourself and navigate your way through things, you never anticipated and for which there are no answers, let your light shine in such a way, in such a way that people see your response and they look up". Then he continues, he says, "Though you have not seen him", And I love this because remember, he's writing to people who had never actually seen Jesus, the way that Peter had seen Jesus. He said, "Though you never met him, though you've never seen him, you love him based on my testimony about him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and you are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy because you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls". So once again, we pushed back, so Peter, so what you're saying is this, that the inconsistency and the randomness of life, it doesn't throw you off, It doesn't undermine your confidence. I mean, come on, they got James, they came for you and Peter would say, "No, my faith, my faith doesn't depend on consistency or certainty or my ability to explain things. My faith is not shaken by the randomness of life. Come on, I saw the best possible person suffered the worst possible death, it made no sense at all, none. And God brought him back to life. So while there's a lot, I can't explain, there's a lot I don't understand I just got to tell you. After the resurrection, the rest is just detail". And then in the same letter, Peter gives his audience and gives us the strangest to do list, but we're gonna talk about that next time. Now I want to get back to the storyline real quick, so to catch this us up. So God allows Herod to execute James, he allows Herod to arrest Peter and put him in jail, the Jesus followers in Jerusalem are praying, asking God to facilitate Peter's release, knowing that Herod may be coming for them next. And then for reasons that made absolutely no sense to them at the time, but would become clearer later, "The night before", check this out, "The night before Herod was to bring Peter to trial and then have him executed, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and sentries stood guard at the entrance. And then suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell and the angel struck Peter on the side and woke him up. 'Quick, get up!' He said, and the chains fell off of Peter's wrist. Then the angel said to him, 'Put on your clothes and sandals.' And Peter did so. 'Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.' The angel told him. And so of course, Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening. He thought he was seeing a vision or maybe having a dream. And then they pass the first and the second guards and they came to the iron gate, leading to the city. It opened for them by itself and they went through it. And then when they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him". Now I know what you're thinking, because I think the same thing, really, really. And why doesn't God do that kind of thing anymore? And why doesn't God do that kind of thing for me anymore? But let me tell you what Peter and his friends were wondering, why didn't God do that for James, our friend. And they never got a good answer to their question. And we may never get satisfying answers to ours either. "Now, when Peter realized that this was not a dream, that he really was safe and outside the city walls, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying for his release. So Peter runs down the street". He knows he doesn't have much time. He certainly doesn't want to incriminate his friends. So he runs to the door of a home he'd been to many times. "And Peter knocked on the outer entrance and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. And when she recognized Peter's voice, because he had been in their home many times, she was so overjoyed, she ran back to the people who were praying without opening the door and exclaimed, 'Peter is at the door.'" Now, remember they're praying for his release, but apparently they did not really expect God to answer their prayer. In fact, listen to their response and this is important, this is just more evidence that the writers of the new Testament did not write the main characters in as heroes or even people with more than average faith, they didn't experience miracles every day and they did not expect a miracle this day. Now when Rhoda tells the prayers that Peter is at the door, here's what they said. They said, "Rhoda, you are out of your mind", which would say, wait, weren't you just praying for this to which they would say, "Yeah, but we didn't really expect anything to happen". "When she kept insisting, when she kept insisting that it was so they said, 'Well, then it must be his angel, it must be his spirit counterpart. He must already be dead and it's, it's his ghost.' But Peter, but Peter kept on knocking. And when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished". Imagined that an actual answer to prayer, imagine that. Now at this point they are so delighted, they're celebrating and they're making so much noise in the middle of the night that Peter motions to them with his hand to be quiet and then he says this, "Tell James, James the brother of Jesus, tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this, let them know that I've been, I've been released that I'm free. He said, and then he left for another place". Now this is so interesting and we're gonna come back to this next time, Luke doesn't say where Peter went. Now, remember when he wrote this, Peter was still alive and was still a wanted man. If Luke knew where Peter was, he didn't document it lest his document fall into the wrong hands. So Peter went underground, in fact, he went underground so successfully that to this day, no one has discovered for certain where he went. And then Luke gives us even more detail. As you might imagine, "In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. And after Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross examined the guards and ordered that they be executed". Now, Herod is publicly humiliated because he had promised the people that they were gonna see the trial of Peter, Jesus number one follower. He's so humiliated, he leaves town, he goes to his beach house down by the Mediterranean sea and while he's there a group from the neighboring city asked to have an audience with him to show their support because they depended on Herod and his favor for their food supply. And Luke tells us about this. Here's what he says, "He says on the appointed day, when Herod was having this public meeting, he was wearing his royal robes and he sat on his throne and he delivered a public address to the people". Now Jewish historian Josephus says that heritage robe on this particular day was actually made of silver. And that when the afternoon sun reflected off of the silver robe, that the crowd erupted and declared him a God. Luke says it this way, "The crowd shouted, this is the voice of a God, not a man. And immediately because Herod did not give praise to God an angel of the Lord struck him down and he was eaten by worms and died". And again, Josephus confirms this here's his version, he says, that Herod was seized by a severe pain in his bowels. He was rushed off the stage and several days later he died. Now, what do you think? What do you think Peter thought when he got the news? I mean, he was probably relieved that Herod was out of the way, but he may have thought, "God, if you had just taken him a month earlier, James would still be alive as well as four unfortunate prison guards". And then Luke wraps up this account with this statement, "But, in other words, in spite of all of this drama, in spite of all this inconsistency, in spite of all of these unanswered questions, but the word of God continued to spread and flourish". In fact, we know that it did because it's why these texts were created and preserved, it's why the name and the message of Jesus would eventually circle the globe. But on a personal level, these events and events like these and the response of our first century brothers and sisters is why to borrow a phrase from the apostle Paul, it's why we don't grieve, it's why we don't mourn as those who have no hope, for we believe that Jesus died and rose. Again, it's why to borrow from Peter's words, it's why we can cast our cares on him, because we know he cares for us. You can know that he cares for you in spite of what you see around you, in spite of what's happening to you, it's why to borrow a phrase from the author of Hebrews, "We can approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need". It's why we have hope even when we half explanations. If Peter is correct and he would know, if Peter is correct, what strikes us as random, unfair, unnecessary, may in fact be random, it's certainly unfair and perhaps unnecessary but in spite of that, if Peter is correct, he assures us our hope is not misplaced, our hope, your hope is not in vain because we have a living hope that is anchored not to our ability to predict and interpret circumstances, we have a living hope that is anchored to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It can be hard to maintain hope in the middle of chaos. But our hope isn’t anchored to circumstances, theological opinions, or a book. Our hope is anchored to an event—an event that rekindled the dwindling hope of the first followers of Christ. Preached at North Point Church.

KIM - Personal Story – When I was a teenager I knew I wanted a marriage that was strong and honored God. I wanted to do things differently that what I had witnessed from others. I go away to college and meet this wonderful young man. He would tell you that he knew the day he met me that I was the person he wanted to marry. It didn’t take me long and I was day dreaming about the day I would marry him either. He checked all my boxes: he loved God, pursued him with a daily walk, attended bible studies and church on Sunday, and of course he was really cute. After a long engagement I knew I had the prefect formula for a good marriage. Quickly after my marriage my husband began to slip away from me emotionally and physically. I was devasted. My dream was fading fast. After a few years in the dark i realized my husband had long suffered from a devastating addiction. He pursuit of God was real because he was desperate. He thought marriage would fix His issue but it did not. He was giving up and stopped trying to fight the addiction. I went into fix it mode, I as not losing the marriage I want and the marriage I needed to prove to everyone how to do it well. My identity was so tied up in my dream that I read every book, wrote scripture cards, highlighted books for my husband to read – that went so well!! But finally after years of trying to fix him on my own, I gave up. I admitted that I could not do this on my own and I had come to my end. I admitted this was an impossible situation and turned my husband and my marriage and my dream over to God. My circumstances may seem different but Esther and I had something in common. We had come to a place of being at the end of our rope. We knew there was nothing more that we could do. We both admitted out weakness and gave in to only trusting God as the one who had any power. Paul knew this also and said it best : 1 Cor 12:9-10 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. JOHN- 16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” Introduction -recap what Greg said the previous week. Discuss the crossroads that Esther was at and her choice to choose between being Persian or Jewish. Self reliance or Reliance on God. Reminder of the way she was prepared to be presented to the king 3:12 6 month myrrh and 6 months spices and ointments. KIM -Look at this clip to see the opulence of this kingdom, largest in world 300 clip Esther 5:1 On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, in front of the king’s quarters, while the king was sitting on his royal throne inside the throne room opposite the entrance to the palace. And now she is appearing before him in a fasted state. In all of this lavish luxury where beauty is demanded she is appearing before the king probably drawn, with bluish grey skin, sunk in eyes, dark circles. She is in this fasted state because she recognized she did not know how to do what was being asked of her. In her weakness she turned to God and surrendered to Him. This is what we are called to do. JOHN – Ester 5:2 The King was drawn to Esther. Remember at this point it is not her lavish beauty that has probably drawn him to her but it is her humility and weakness that has probably caught his eye. Such a contrast from his world. Prodigal Comparison The awareness of our sin is a weakness that we recognize and draws us to our need for our Savior. Luke 15:18-19 No matter where we are pig pen or palace we come to our end and answer God’s call when we recognize we are sinners (weak) and in need of our Savior, Father and King. Luke 15:20 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. Not moved by words Father or King KIM- Esther 5:3 And the king said to her, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom.” Wow! ½ his kingdom, biggest kingdom on earth. This is the power she had previously been after. Frodo on Mt Doom risked everything and now he can have it. ??? Esther 5:4 And Esther said, “If it please the king,[a] let the king and Haman come today to a feast that I have prepared for the king.” Talk about Esther’s ascent to power. Gave up her virginity, family, heritage, but when presented with the reward she gave it up, remained humble. JOHN – Luke 15:22-24 tie up prodigal comparison – vulnerability results in celebration Esther 5:5 5 Then the king said, “Bring Haman quickly, so that we may do as Esther has asked.” So the king and Haman came to the feast that Esther had prepared. KIM – What we see here is a picture pointing to Christ. Was Christ himself. We come to God in our weakness, seeing our need for a savior. He is not holding out a scepter for us to touch because He has already given us Christ our Savior. Christ is the bridge, the mediator, the mighty scepter that allows us to go before our King. Jesus’ humility. Philippians 2:5-11 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,[b] 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. JOHN – We don’t just receive the gift of Christ we are also called to walk like Christ in humility and weakness. 1 Corinthians 12:9-10 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. KIM – Echo this, recap what God did in our marriage and what He did with Esther’s story BOTH – practical application – where do you feel weak and vulnerable? Instead of running, where do we step in? Where are you walking in pride and power? Where do you need to repent. Queen Esther faced insurmountable odds as she courageously approached King Xerxes to save her people. God gave her favor and freedom for the Jews. Team sermon with Kim Parrish. Sermon begins at 22:04. https://www.newlifetucson.com/