What's Keeping You From Recognizing Jesus? | Easter 2026

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♪ Every time I call you Jesus ♪ ♪ I call you, I call you Savior ♪ ♪ Burning in glory forever ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name ♪ ♪ Chains break and child bones break ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name ♪ ♪ Blood, veins of hell shake ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name ♪ ♪ Chains break and child bones break ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name ♪ ♪ Blood, veins of hell shake ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive, dead things come alive ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive, dead things come alive ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive, dead things come alive ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive, dead things come alive ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive, I call you Jesus ♪ ♪ I call you, I call you here ♪ ♪ Risen in faith, risen in power ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call you Jesus ♪ ♪ I call you, I call you Savior ♪ ♪ Worthy of glory forever ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name ♪

♪ And all the earth will shout your praise ♪ ♪ And our hearts will cry, these bones will sing ♪ ♪ Great are you, Lord ♪ ♪ Every voice is my name ♪ ♪ And all the earth will shout your praise ♪ ♪ And our hearts will cry, these bones will sing ♪ ♪ Great are you, Lord ♪ ♪ And all the earth will shout your praise ♪ ♪ And our hearts will cry, these bones will sing ♪ ♪ Great are you, Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, I call you Jesus, I call you, I call you healing ♪ ♪ Is it in vain, in my way? ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call you Jesus, I call you, I call you saving ♪ ♪ I call you saving, worthy of glory forever ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call you the name ♪ Come on, give Him praise today. Man, it is so great to be gathered here with all of you. I wanna say it again. Welcome to Church on the Move. Whether you're here every week or just visiting us, we're honored that you would spend this Easter, this day with us as we celebrate and remember what Jesus has done for us. You know, one of the things we love to do around here is read Scripture as a congregation together. And so why don't you join me as we read our call to worship out of Psalm chapter 23. Let's say this together as the people of God today.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflow. truly goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever this is the word of the Lord and we all say let's continue singing together I wasn't rich I remember who I was I was lost I was blind I was running out of time sin separated the bridge was far too wide from the far side of the chasm you held me in your side so you ran away across the great divide left behind heaven's throne to build it here inside and there at the cross he paid the debt we owe broke our chains feed our souls for the first time we have hope come on sing thank you Jesus for the blood of Christ thank you Jesus it has washed me wild thank you Jesus you have saved my life you brought me from the darkness into glorious glory to God hallelujah you took my place laid inside my tomb sin come on listen to this he was buried for three days

but then he walked right out again and now death has no sin holy life has no end for I have been transformed by the blood of the Lamb thank you Jesus for the blood of mine thank you Jesus it has washed me wild thank you Jesus you have saved my life you brought me from the darkness into glorious thank you Jesus for the blood of mine thank you Jesus it has washed me wild thank you Jesus you have saved my life you brought me from the darkness into glorious there is nothing stronger than the wonder working power of the blood the blood because of sons and daughters we are answered by our Father through the blood his precious blood there is nothing stronger than the wonder working power of the blood the blood because of sons and daughters we are answered by our Father through the blood the blood there is nothing stronger than the wonder working power of the blood the blood because of sons and daughters ♪ Dear Jesus, you have saved my life ♪ ♪ You've called me from the darkness to glorious light ♪ As loud as you can, come on, sing it out. ♪ Thank you, Jesus, for your love and for your grace ♪ ♪ Thank you, Jesus, for your love and for your grace ♪ ♪ Jesus, it has washed me wild ♪ ♪ Thank you, Jesus, you have saved my life ♪ ♪ You brought me from the darkness into glorious light ♪

♪ You brought me from the darkness into glorious light ♪ ♪ You brought me from the darkness into glorious light ♪ Give him praise today. Hallelujah, glory to God. Thank you, Jesus, thank you. Thank you, Jesus, thank you. ♪ Amazing grace, how sweet the sound ♪ ♪ That saved a wretch like me ♪ ♪ I once was lost, but now am found ♪ ♪ I once was blind, but now I see ♪ ♪ T'was grace that taught my heart to fear ♪ ♪ And grace my fears relieved ♪ ♪ How precious did that grace appear ♪ ♪ The hour I first believed ♪ ♪ My chains are gone, I've been set free ♪ ♪ My God, my Savior has ransomed me ♪ ♪ And like a flood, His mercy reigns ♪ ♪ Unending love and amazing grace ♪ ♪ My chains, my chains are gone, I've been set free ♪ ♪ My God, my Savior has ransomed me ♪ ♪ And like a flood, His mercy reigns ♪ ♪ Unending love and amazing grace ♪ ♪ Unending love and amazing grace ♪ ♪ Unending love and amazing grace ♪ ♪ Unending love and amazing grace ♪ ♪ Unending love and amazing grace ♪ ♪ The wages of my sin was dead ♪ ♪ And you knew I couldn't pay the debt ♪ ♪ You parted with your final breath ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, hallelujah ♪

♪ You took the wrath that I deserved ♪ ♪ And your holy blood broke every curse ♪ ♪ And your mercy had the final word ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ We see Christ, in Christ, crucified in you ♪ ♪ Crucified in you, we raise from death to life ♪ ♪ We see Christ, in Christ, crucified, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ No sin is bigger than your love ♪ ♪ No shame is stronger than your love ♪ ♪ You said it's finished, it is done ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ You rose in power into heaven and earth ♪ ♪ And death now is living in us now ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ We see Christ, in Christ, crucified in you, we raise from death to life ♪ ♪ We see Christ, in Christ, crucified, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ We see Christ, in Christ, crucified in you, we raise from death to life ♪ ♪ We see Christ, in Christ, crucified, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hey, hey ♪ ♪ We sing today because He rose, We sing today because we're alive in Christ ♪ ♪ Can I invite you to lift your hands in this place, to lift your voice in this place, we sing damn could it hold you down? ♪ ♪ We sing today because He rose, We sing today because we're alive in Christ, we sing damn could it hold you down? ♪ ♪ Could it hold you down, hell, could it seal your crown in this resurrection power in your name, in your name? ♪ ♪ Lift up the earth cry out, lift up the holy child and give it all the glory now to Jesus name. ♪ ♪ All the glory now to Jesus name, we sing damn could it hold you down, hell, could it seal your crown in this resurrection power in your name, in your name? ♪ ♪ Lift up the earth cry out, lift up the holy child and give it all the glory now to Jesus name, in your name? ♪ ♪ All the glory now to Jesus name, we sing Christ, Christ crucified in you, we raise from dead to life, we sing Christ, Christ crucified in you. ♪

♪ We sing Christ, Christ crucified in you, we raise from dead to life, we sing Christ, Christ crucified in you. ♪ ♪ Christ, crucified, and healed ♪ ♪ We raise from death to life ♪ ♪ We sing Christ, Christ, crucified, and healed ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ That's it. The lost have been found. Those who are bound have been set free because of what you have done for us, Jesus. Lord, we say thank you. Thank you for the giving of your body, the giving of yourself for us that we might have a life here today. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Can I invite your church today to just say thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for what you have done. Thank you, Lord, for saving us from our sin. Thank you for your unending grace, your everlasting love. Thank you, Lord, for being who you are, for being unchanging, unfailing. And Lord, we will time and time again put our hope, our trust, and our faith in you alone. In Jesus' name, everybody said today. Amen, amen. One more time. Can we clap our hands together? Hallelujah. Amen. Man, why don't you do this before you take a seat.

Greet those who are seated next to you. We'll keep things moving together this morning. Well, good morning, Church on the Move. You sound good today, you really do. Man, happy Easter Sunday morning. What a joy and what a privilege it is for us to have the opportunity to lift our voices in worship, to give glory to Jesus. He's worthy of it on this Resurrection Sunday. My name is Lee. I'm up here with Priscilla. We're a couple of the pastors here at Church on the Move, and we just wanna say a very warm welcome to all of you. We're glad you're here, and I wanna shout out those of you who are in the lobby, some of you in the fellowship hall, a little overflow, because you couldn't get into this room. We're so glad that you're with us this weekend as well. Whether you're normal around here, every weekend, this is your church, or whether maybe you're visiting, maybe you're here with some family or some friends, maybe you're checking out churches this weekend, we're thrilled that you're at Church on the Move, and if you are new around here, we love that, and we've got something for you. That's right. If this is your first time with us,

thank you so much for being here. In fact, we would love to give you a gift. It's kind of our way of welcoming you into our home, so do us a favor. Text the word new to the number 23101. Then right after service, stop by one of our info hubs, either in the lobby or the fellowship hall. We would love to hand you a gift card to Fulfill Coffee Lab, which we're so excited is opening this week. But stop by, get a free drink on us at any time, but we really do wanna invite you to come back and be a part of what's happening here. We know oftentimes walking into a big church like this for the first time, it can be really overwhelming to know how to get involved. That's why we do a gathering every single month for you called Next Move. When you join us in Next Move, you get to hear more about who we are as a church from our lead pastor, Wit George, and our entire team is in there as well. We love getting to share more about the different ministries we have on offer for you and your family. But really, our goal with Next Move is to help you decide if this is a church home you wanna get rooted and planted in. So I know we have one coming up in a few weeks. We would love to invite you to be a part of that.

Yeah, that's right. Sunday, April 26th is the Next Move. If you'd like to be a part of that, just text the word next to 23101. You can get signed up in that way. We would love to see you there. And you mentioned Fulfilled Coffee Lab. Man, isn't it nice to see our lobby open, our kids' area open? It's just amazing. Yeah, that's something we can celebrate around here. Just our church home being so functional and useful for us being together. If you didn't know that Fulfilled Coffee Lab and our kids' play area is gonna be open seven days a week, starting tomorrow. And so if you wanna come by here and get your coffee on your way to work, you can do that. Hang out with your little ones and play at the play area. You can do that. And we're gonna have a seven-day-a-week church, not just a church that meets on the weekends, but a church where Jesus can be met any day of the week. I hope you grabbed one of these when you came in. If you didn't, grab it on the way out. This is just a great little resource to let you know kinda what's going on here for families, for kids, for students, for young adults. You can kinda see what's happening. And really, we got a couple cool things coming up

just in the next few weeks. We do. So every weekend between now and Mother's Day, we have planned something fun for you and your family every single weekend. We're kicking things off next weekend with a big old ice cream truck, free ice cream for everyone. Now, you may actually have to push Lee out of the way to get your place in line for ice cream. but come join us. We believe this is a place for community and we're excited to kind of journey towards Mother's Day with you and have some fun together. Yeah, that's right. Well, I know you guys are ready to hear an Easter message, a message on the resurrection of Christ. And what I love about Pastor Whit's message this weekend is it's not just about what happened 2,000 years ago. It's about what it means for us today. So before we do that though, we always in our services worship and honor God with our giving. We bring a portion of our resources back to Him. It reminds us that everything comes from Him and it allows us to do what we do as a church. If you'd like to know more about why and how we give, there's a card in the seat back in front of you. It's a generosity card. Easiest way to do it here though is just text the word give to 23101.

You can get instructions on how to give electronically in that way. If you came prepared to give in the room, one-time gift or whatever, there's envelopes in the seat backs in front of you, drop boxes at all of our exits. However you choose to partner with us, thank you for giving generously here at Church on the Move. Well, let's do this. If you got your Bible handy, your notebook handy, we're gonna get in a time of teaching but let's bow our heads together. Let's quiet our hearts. Heavenly Father, it's been, it's always so good on Easter weekend to just be together as family. Just all of us here together at once and we've opened our mouths. We've sang praises to you. You're worthy of every bit of it but now we open our ears. We open our hearts that we might hear from you from your word and that by hearing from your word and the story of what you did for us, Jesus, we might walk out of here different than when we came in. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, happy Easter weekend. Happy Resurrection Sunday, Church on the Move. Good to see everybody who is part of our church regularly and for those of you who are maybe visiting

with us this weekend, maybe you're from out of town, maybe you're checking out churches, new to the area, that kind of thing, or maybe just a friend or a family member invited you, welcome, so glad that you're with us this weekend. My name is Witt and I am the pastor here. Before we jump in, I wanna let you know kind of where we're going over the next few weeks. Next weekend, I am starting a new series of teaching on the life of Abraham. Every year or so, we will kind of take a few weeks and teach through kind of a Bible character and we're going to teach through the life of Abraham. I'm really excited about this. My life verse is Hebrews 11, eight, which simply says that by faith, Abraham, when called by God to go to a land that he would later receive as his inheritance, it says he obeyed and went, and then this is the key line here, though he did not know where he was going. And I wonder if any of you can relate to that. Like, that's how I feel in following God. I'm following him one step at a time. I think sometimes we get this notion in our minds that if you're really doing it right, you sort of know and understand everything that God is doing, but the truth is, our walk with him looks a lot more like a kind of step-by-step-by-step-of-faith

walk of obedience, and that's what we're gonna talk about. So if you're maybe new to this whole Christianity thing or you're wanting to take your faith more seriously, I can't think of a better series to jump into than what we're starting next week as we learn from Abraham. He's not perfect. He may be a hero of faith, but we're gonna find out that he did a lot of stupid stuff, and we're gonna learn from his mistakes and hopefully apply some of the lessons that he learned to our own lives and maybe learn what it looks like to follow the Lord faithfully like he did. So that starts next weekend. Hope you'll be able to come back and join us. All right, if you have a Bible, would you grab it? We're gonna be looking at Luke's gospel, chapter 24. It's one of my favorite stories of resurrection, Luke 24. It's one of my favorite stories because there's just so much humanity in it. I think we're often guilty of what C.S. Lewis called chronological snobbery. Have you ever heard that term before? It just means that we kind of look back, we modern people, we look back on the ancient world and we think that they were idiots, that they believed in spirits and fairies and ghosts, and so, of course, it was easy for them to believe in a resurrection.

But what we see, if you actually read the Bible, is that they had just as much a hard time with the idea of a resurrection as we do. They are wrestling with, grappling with the impossibility of a man being raised from the dead, and we get to see them wrestle with that in real time in this passage. So we're gonna be looking at verses 13 all the way down to 35. If you don't have a Bible, you can follow along on the screens behind me. We'll put the verses there. Here's how Luke begins. That very day, what day are we talking about here? This is Resurrection Sunday, right? This is the day Jesus was raised from the dead. Two of them, two of Jesus' disciples, were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept. From recognizing him and he said to them. What is this conversation that you were holding with each other as you walk and they stood still Looking sad then one of them named Cleopas answered Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? And he said to them by the way, if you've ever wondered does the Lord have a sense of humor here is 100% proof positive He does what things Jesus says and they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth A man who was a prophet mighty indeed and word before God and all the people and how our chief priests and rulers

Delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel Yes, and besides all this it is now the third day since these things happened Moreover some women from our company amazed us They were at the tomb early in the morning and when they did not find his body They came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said he was alive Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it Just as the women had said but him they did not see and he said to them. Oh foolish ones and Slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken to translate that into kind of modern pop culture English McFly Hello, is anyone home? Come on. It's right in front of your face. How do you miss it? Was it not necessary? For the Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory and beginning with Moses That's the first five books of the Old Testament the Torah Beginning with Moses and all the prophets he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself So they drew near to the village To which they were going and he acted as if he was going further But they urged him strongly saying stay with us for it is toward the evening and the day is now far spent So he went in to stay with them When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them and their eyes Were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight They said to each other did our hearts not burn within us while he talked to us on the road While he opened to us the scriptures They rose that same hour returned to Jerusalem and they found the eleven and those who were with them Gathered together saying the Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread This is the Word of the Lord. We all said Thanks be to God. So three thoughts. I think will encourage you from this passage this weekend The first is this Jesus is often closer than you think. I Think this is one of the main themes of this passage if not the main theme I mean here Jesus is right next to these guys and they have no idea that he's there Luke records an interesting detail

I wonder if you noticed it when we read through the story just now in verses 15 and 16 Look again. It says while they were talking and discussing together Jesus himself drew near and went with them look at verse 16, but their eyes were kept From recognizing him almost as if someone is doing this intentionally Now this is a kind of an ambiguous sentence because the question we have to ask is well Who's keeping them from recognizing him? Is it Jesus? Is he intentionally? Concealing himself and I think the answer it has to be perhaps at least partially true At least he doesn't seem terribly interested and letting them know that it's him. He doesn't show up and say hey guys It's me Jesus. He doesn't do that. He plays along with their inability to Recognize him, but I think the other interesting side of the coin is to just recognize that sometimes Our experiences, our Emotions, our pain, our grief, our wounds Can blind us from the truth that's staring us right in the face I don't know if you've ever sat down with a Counselor or a therapist and began to share kind of what was going on in your life We do that because we need some answers. Help me understand. Help me make sense of what's going on here Why am I acting out like this? Why do I feel the way that I feel? I am convinced that These therapists and counselors know what our problem is and like the first 15 minutes of sitting down with us I mean, we're all unique. We have different backgrounds and unique histories But I mean human nature across the board is fairly similar It plays out similarly from person to person to person and what I've just noticed is that they can kind of pick up on what's Messed up with us like, oh, you got a father wound here. There's something going on over there, right? Like they understand, but they don't ever come right out and tell you that. Have you noticed this? What do they do? They ask you annoying questions Well, how do you feel about that? Tell me more about that. I don't want to tell you more. I just want you to tell me what's wrong with it so I can fix it. But you know why they don't do that?

Because you're not ready to hear it. You wouldn't accept it if they told you. So they wait for it to dawn on you in the moment that you're ready to hear it. Jesus said to his disciples, I have many things to tell you, but you're not yet able to bear them. In other words, there's a time and a place where the truth can come home for you. And it's not always at your choosing. It has to happen that your eyes are open. And here, Jesus walks with these disciples though they cannot recognize him. They don't see him, either from his own concealment, or I think it's both, his own concealment and their inability to recognize him due to their own grief and the blocks that they have in their mind. You ever had a blind spot revealed to you? We've all been there, where it's like something occurred to you. You realized something that probably people around you had known for a long time. You were just the last one to acknowledge it. Of course, we've all been there. That's human nature. Sometimes there are things that are staring us right in the face we simply cannot see. And I wonder,

maybe a helpful question to ask this weekend is, what might be keeping you from recognizing Jesus at work in your life right now? Could it be that the Lord is more present than you know? Could it be that he's closer than you realize? You're just not able to sense his presence? Could it be that your past experiences, your pain, whatever it is that you're going through, could it be that those things are inhibiting you right now? You could see nothing good. Maybe the situation that you're in is like, where is God? Why isn't he here? Why isn't he showing up? Maybe the circumstances of life have even got you questioning whether or not God is really with you at all. I talked to a gentleman last night. This is exactly his story. Been through a really tough time lately, and he's asking these questions, God, why? And it's rocked him at the level of his faith. This is how life works. This is what's going on with these guys. And yet, often, we don't recognize that the Lord is working, we just can't see it yet. You know what I've found? Is that often,

I am unable to perceive the Lord's presence and his work while I'm in the midst of a situation. It's only upon reflection, looking back on the other side, and saying, wait a minute, God was with me, I just didn't see it in the moment. It felt like he was so distant, but he wasn't. He was right there. Maybe we might ask this, are you so consumed right now with grief over your losses that you're not able to discern Christ walking right alongside you in the pain? Or maybe you might ask, have you become so disillusioned by some of your life experiences that you've given up and given in to cynicism? Perhaps you've experienced church hurt, perhaps other Christians, people who profess to be followers or believers of Jesus have hurt you in some deep kind of way, and it has rocked your faith, and you've grown a little cold and cynical. Maybe these are keeping you from recognizing the presence of Christ near you in this present moment.

Maybe your vision has become so myopic, so focused on the details of your own life and making everything so relentlessly personal that you cannot see things from a larger perspective of what God might be up to. Or maybe it's just simply, you've just lost the feeling that the Lord is near. You know, one thing I think we can all acknowledge from this story is that your senses don't always tell you the truth. I mean, here are these guys, they're looking at Jesus with their eyes, and yet they have no idea that he's right next to them. Our feelings are not always, in fact, they're often not the truest indicator of the presence of the Lord. And so maybe it's time to set aside our feelings and trust that the Lord is at work even when it doesn't feel like that. The first point I would tell you is that Jesus is closer than you think, doing more than you think. My prayer for you this week has been that your eyes would be open to see him at work in your life and present circumstance right here, right now.

Number two is this. Your problem is deeper than you think. So there's this interesting admission that Cleopas, one of these disciples, makes in this passage. So we don't know who these disciples are. These are not two of the 12. These are kind of more peripheral followers of Jesus. We get the name of one. Is this a husband and wife? Is this two brothers? Is this two other disciples? Who is this? One of them named Cleopas begins to speak in response to Jesus. just questions, and he admits something interesting. In fact, I think that's part of why Jesus conceals himself for as long as he does. He wants to see what's really in your heart. By the way, Jesus isn't looking for a surface-level relationship with you, he wants you to be real with him. He wants you to share your real heart and feelings. Too many people, we don't pray, we don't really talk to the Lord because we don't feel like we have the religious language to be able to do that. Maybe you've grown up in a church where it felt like you had to be able to talk in a certain way and use a certain kind of language and a certain kind of voice that just feels

super foreign and different and weird to you, and so you don't know how to talk to God. Can I just tell you, the scriptures are filled with people being honest before God, and that's what's happening here. Look at Cleopas, look at what he says to the Lord. He says, but we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. He's talking about the hope. What his hope had been set on. Now, if you wanna understand this phrase, you gotta understand sort of ancient Jewish culture, and I know we're all up to speed on that, but in case you're not, let me sort of give you a little bit of context, right? So, in the time of Christ, there was great anticipation of a Messiah. Now, Messiah's a term that doesn't appear in the Old Testament, but the idea is all through the Old Testament. It's the idea of a ruler, a king, specifically a divine king. Someone who would show up, empowered by God, to rule and restore Israel to kind of her rightful place among the nations, to be a light to the Gentiles. That was the idea. Israel's glory days were long in the rear view mirror by this point, and David had been dead for nearly 1,000 years. They had been conquered time and time again,

and so by the time of Christ, Israel was eager to see the Messiah come and to redeem them from their oppression, namely, Rome. Rome was their latest oppressor. Rome had moved in, taken over, brought with them their foreign gods and their foreign culture, and they longed to be free from the oppression of Rome. And so they were looking for a Messiah, an anointed king, to come and liberate them. In fact, the very last question that the disciples asked the Lord Jesus before he ascends, this is after the resurrection, by the way, this is in Luke, excuse me, in Acts chapter one, and Luke records there, because he wrote the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, he records that they asked the Lord, Lord, at this time, will you restore the kingdom to Israel? In other words, wait a minute, when are you gonna do something about Rome? Such was the expectation. And so every prominent figure that would show up in this time would get asked, are you the Messiah? Are you going to lead a rebellion against Rome? This is why it was so dangerous to come out and declare yourself the Messiah, because Rome was not too kind on people who would kind of lead rebellions. And so John the Baptist gets asked this question. Are you the Messiah? No, he says, there's somebody coming after me

who's gonna be greater than me. There's an interesting detail in John's gospel when Jesus feeds the 5,000. John records that the crowd sought to take Jesus by force and make him their king. This is how strong this desire is. They wanted someone to lead them against Rome. And so here these disciples are looking back and reflecting upon Jesus, all the miracles that they witnessed, but now they've seen him crucified, he's dead. And they admit, we had hoped, past tense, we'd hoped that he was going to be the one to redeem Israel. What they don't realize is that's exactly what he did. His death was redemption, they just couldn't see it yet. They were looking at the wrong thing. Now you might be saying to yourself, great, interesting kind of historical context, I guess. What does this have to do with me? Everything. Because in 2,000 years, human nature has not changed. They thought their biggest problem was Rome. They thought their greatest oppressor was Rome, out here, in other words, an external circumstance. Fix our kingdom, fix our homeland, restore to us our national pride and prominence. What they did not realize was their biggest problem wasn't out there, it was in here. Jesus did come to set them free from their oppressor.

Their oppressor wasn't Rome, it was sin and death and the devil. And that's exactly who he came to deal with, they just couldn't see it. And you and I do the same thing all the time, because humanity, in our pride and arrogance, we mistakenly believe that our biggest problem is our circumstance. In fact, this is how most people come to Jesus. When the pain gets big enough, they show up and say, Lord, fix whatever it is. Heal my marriage. I need a better job. Help me with these kids, right? We think that our problems are primarily external. And this is the biggest reason why Christianity, excuse me, doesn't work for a lot of us, is because that's the deepest level that we approach the Lord on, is external problems and circumstances. Fix this, fix this, help me with this. What we don't realize is that the problem is not out there. The deepest problem is in here. I need the Lord to do something about what's wrong in me. Cynthia Heimel, who was a writer for a New York City publication years ago, wrote this very interesting piece kind of detailing her experience with people she had known in New York City who had just been regular folks

who had kind of gained a pretty significant amount of fame. These are, you know, bartenders or someone who worked behind a makeup counter at Macy's. And then they hit it big, either as an actor or maybe a Broadway star or whatever. And she details kind of her experience, what she saw and witnessed in them before and after they became famous. And it's interesting what she notes. She says that giant thing they were striving for, that fame thing that was going to make everything okay, that was going to make their lives bearable, that was going to fill them with happiness, had happened. And the next day they woke up and they were still them. The disillusionment turned them howling and insufferable. Now, living in Oklahoma, it's a little bit of a different story. There's not too many of us that are obsessed with fame quite the same way, yet we are all chasing something. We're chasing a measure of significance and maybe the field of business that we're in. Maybe we're trying to launch a business, get it up off the ground. Maybe it's just we desire our family to kind of be happy and peaceful. Maybe there's some land that we've got our eye on and one day we're gonna buy that and get kind of life set up the way that we want. So many of us, we live under the mistaken illusion that if we just had things a little bit better

than what they are now, if I could just find the right person, me and my wife could just figure out how to work things out and get along. If we could just sort of, I don't know, get a better relationship with our kids or make a little bit more money, right, that then we would be happy, that that would lead to some kind of fulfillment. Not realizing that those things really can't fulfill us at the deepest level, that those are only a change of circumstances. They don't actually change us. And yet we keep chasing these things. Gotta get our kids that scholarship. Gotta get my son that starting spot on the football team. Like whatever it is, we're going after it like it matters. Everything is at stake because we're banking our happiness and fulfillment on that stuff. And what we don't realize is that when we get it, it won't fulfill us in the way that we think. We believe that it will, so we keep chasing it. But it won't. I ran into this interesting interview from Kevin Durant a few years ago after he won his first championship with the Warriors. And I thought this was staggering, like so honest. He said this after his first championship. He said, after winning that championship, I learned that much hadn't changed.

I thought it would fill a certain void. It didn't. Now it might also be because he betrayed the Thunder to go win a championship with the Warriors. We won't talk about that though today. But I think his point is one we ought to consider. We're pursuing happiness. I have friends right now who are not believers, don't believe in Jesus, and they've made a mess of their lives. By the way, people who believe in Jesus make a mess of their lives too. But I'm just talking about friends that have kind of rejected Christianity or walked away from their faith. And their lives are a wreck. Relationships just in pieces. Things are not good. And yet somehow they're certain that they're just a few steps away, just getting life organized just a little bit better, away from finding real happiness and fulfillment. I'm amazed at how stubborn we are. In spite of the wreck we've made of our lives, I mean our relationships are in a shambles. We're in debt up to our ears and yet we know we've got this, right? Like somehow we're holding all of this together. And yet we're doing a miserable job of it. And we believe that our problems are just out here.

If we could just fix all of this, that somehow it's gonna get better. Not realizing that the deeper problem is in here. You don't need Jesus to just fix your circumstances. I'm not telling you he doesn't care about your circumstances. I'm just telling you that's not your first problem. You don't need him to fix you. You need him to save you. You're not just a sufferer with some bad situations going on, you're a sinner who needs a savior. That is the message of the gospel. And it's not terribly popular these days. You look around and all of our cultural messaging is you're okay. In fact, you're more than okay. You're beautiful inside and out. You're perfect just the way that you are. You don't have to look far to find that kind of messaging and yet I think we know down deep inside, maybe when we look at ourselves in the mirror, we lay our heads on our pillows at night, we know that deep down inside we're not okay. And I think we're trying to distract ourselves. I think we're trying to numb ourselves. I think this is why we are so driven to consume more and more, more shows, more stuff. We're ordering stuff, scrolling through stuff, just distracting ourselves. Anything than to be left alone with our thoughts. We're the most prosperous people who have ever lived

and yet our happiness levels are lower and lower and lower. Why? Because stuff cannot satisfy you. You could try to fill the void with yet another new lifted truck and it is not going to change anything. The bigger house, having everything the way that you want it isn't going to fix what's broken on the inside of you. The good news can't be good until the bad news is bad. And the bad news is you cannot save yourself. You cannot fix yourself, you cannot resurrect yourself, you cannot transform yourself. You cannot experience resurrection until you're willing to go to the cross. And too many of us are too proud to admit that we're broken. I have friends like this. They will not admit it and yet it's easy to see they've made a mess of things. When will you humble yourself and say, I cannot do this on my own? I had a friend tell me years ago. He said, you know, I'm okay with Christianity. I just, I think it's for people who just, you know, need like a crutch to sort of get through life. Like they just can't deal with everything on their own so they need, you know, this kind of faith. You know, my response to that is, yes. Do you not realize, like I can't do this on my own. That's who Christianity is for. A group of people who have finally woken up to the fact

that the problem is in me. Hi, it's me. I'm the problem, it's me, right? That's the problem. It's in here and until I'm willing to face that and admit that and say, all right, Lord, I don't need you to just fix all of that out there. I need you to do a work in here. You will never experience the beauty of Resurrection Sunday. Do you wonder why there are people around here who are crying and weeping and jumping and shouting for joy on this day? You want to know why? Because they know who they were and they remember what it was like to be without Christ. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they know who they would be if it wasn't for Jesus reaching down and pulling them out of that pit. That's the Christian story. It's more than just, oh, you look pretty today. You know, let's go have lunch. It's more than a family picture and a egg hunt. And look, I'm all for all of that.

Like, we're gonna go home and we're gonna, our adult children are gonna run around and hunt eggs in the backyard. It's gonna happen. I'm serious. But it's so much more than that. And when you realize that, like when it hits you, it changes you. In fact, that's really the last point. The resurrection is bigger than you think. It's so much more than just what a cool story. Something happened 2,000 years ago. The resurrection has so much more to do with your life now than you could possibly realize. Here's my guess. There's probably some of you in here. You don't believe it. I mean, I imagine like someone invited you and you're pretty skeptical. Maybe you're even openly skeptical. Like, yeah, I don't buy it. Maybe Jesus was a great guy. I don't buy that he was resurrected from the dead. Here's what I would tell you. It's more important than you could possibly imagine. Here's the other thing. And you may struggle to believe this, but I wanna show you that this is true. You're living like it's true whether you actually believe it or not.

How do I know that? Well, let me show you. Look at what Paul says. Paul says this. If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. I love this about Christianity. I love this about Paul. He is so convinced of the resurrection, he's able to push all the chips of the Christian faith into the center of the table and say, look, if Jesus wasn't raised from the dead, we could give up this whole Christianity thing. It doesn't matter, produce a body. Show me that he's dead. Just show me, and we'll stop preaching and we can give up on our faith. But so central is the resurrection. Look, he doubles down on it a couple verses later. He says, for if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. Now, what is he doing here? Well, there's a lot to unpack. Let me just kind of make it simple for you. What he's doing is he's linking Christ's resurrection with our resurrection. And this is why it's so important. He's saying Christ's resurrection is only a down payment. Do you understand this? It's only a picture, a foretaste.

Not a picture, it is a first fruit, you could say. A down payment of what is going to happen for all of us when the Lord returns. That's the idea. Too many Christians, and it's our fault, really. We've not done the greatest job of preaching about this. Our whole vision of the end of the Christian story is just dying and going to heaven. Maybe that's how you were raised. Maybe that's what you heard at church. Die and go to heaven, die and go to heaven, die and go to heaven. That is not the end of the Christian story. It's not about escape to heaven. It is a resurrected body, a new heavens and a new earth. Too many of us, like our vision of eternity is like harps and clouds and see-through bodies and robes and singing worship songs all the time. I remember hearing about this when I was a kid. We're gonna go to heaven. We're gonna sing these songs for eternity. I remember thinking, I'm not sure I wanna go. That does not sound fun. That's not the end of the Christian story. It's not you sitting on a cloud with a harp and wearing a crown and a white robe. It's a resurrected body. I want you to stop and think about that for just a second. A new creation. I'll turn 50 next Monday, so I'm just a little more

than a week away from my 50th birthday. And you know what I'm looking forward to? A resurrected body. Where are my middle-aged people at? Come on. Like, you roll out of bed, you just hurt in the morning. You don't know why. You work out once in a week and it wrecks you for a month. It's leg day and I can't sit down for like two weeks after, why? Decay. This is the world getting older. And guess what? It's not gonna get better. This is my future. This is a reality. I want you to stop and think about this. If there's no resurrection, what is my hope in? What am I looking forward to? What is it that makes this life matter? See, think about it. If there's no resurrection, if there's no new heavens and new earth, what does your life now matter? Does anything matter? Does love have any kind of transcendent meaning? Meaning it goes beyond the here and now or is it just utilitarian? Just serves the purpose of making you feel better about the existence that you have while you have it.

But think about it. If there's no resurrection, then we're all gonna die. That's exactly what he says. If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is futile and you're still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep, he's talking about people who have died before you have perished. They're gone. Lights out, game over, end of story. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. We're just fooling ourselves because there's really no future to look forward to. Think about it. If there's no resurrection, then what does any of it matter? Is love real? Are human rights real? Why should I get so up in arms about morality and who should be doing this? Does kindness matter? Does racism matter? Does oppression matter? I mean, one day the sun's gonna burn out and we're all gonna be dead. 1,000 years from now, you will be gone. Everyone you've ever known is gone. Anyone that ever knew you or remembered you will be gone and in that day, there'll be no appreciable difference between your life and Hitler's.

I mean, really, what does it matter in the end? And this is why I tell you that even if you don't believe in the resurrection, you live like it's true because you want your life to matter. We all do. Why? Because we're hardwired that way by God. I think there's something inside of us that wants the here and now to matter. How we treat people should matter. How we love people should matter, that you shouldn't just live your life for yourself. But I gotta tell you, if there's no resurrection, then the way you ought to live your life is get what you can, why you can, because this life is all that there is. But I don't want that to be true. I'm gonna go home after this and I'm gonna sit down with my family and we're gonna share a meal and we're gonna enjoy one another. and we're gonna celebrate, and we're gonna hug each other, and we're gonna have a great time, and we're gonna laugh, and it's gonna be good. And if there is no resurrection, I better enjoy it while I can, because it's coming to an end. But if there's a resurrection, do you know what's true? It means that the best of this life is only a poor, a poor shadow, an incomplete vision

of the ultimate beautiful reality that is to come. And I am looking forward to that day when there will be no more death, and there'll be no more cancer, and there'll be no more sickness and disease, and there'll be no more abuse and suffering, and that things that were wrong will be made right. That's why we celebrate. That's why the resurrection matters. And whether you believe it or not, I promise you, you're already living like it's true. I would just encourage you to acknowledge it, to long for it. In fact, my prayer for you this week is that you would see Jesus, because seeing him and realizing who he is and what he's done changes everything. If you knew me 20 years ago, you would not see the wit that you see standing before you now. I was a different guy. I was selfish, consumed with my own wants, desires, and needs. I really didn't care all that much about other people. I was not a great husband and not a great father. What changed me? Seeing Jesus. When I met the real Jesus, and I stopped playing this stupid Christian game that so many of us in Oklahoma play,

where we believe in Jesus, but we treat other people like dirt. And we pretend at Christianity. When I saw him for who he was, I saw him crucified for my sins and resurrected. When I saw that, it wrecked me and it changed me, and I said to myself, how can I treat other people like I'm treating them when he's treated me with such kindness? It transformed me. That's the power of the resurrection. And there are stories all around this room. Like if I could just say, all right, let's put an open mic down here. People would start coming up here and telling you about how they were alcoholics, about how they were addicts, about how they were involved in porn, and the Lord set them free. They are not who they were. Why? Because they met the real Jesus. Look at the end of the story. It says, when he was at table with them, he took the bread and he blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him. And then he vanished from their sight. And look at what happened. He said, did our hearts not burn within us?

I wonder if I've, as I've been talking about resurrection and that hope, it's like your heart isn't burning within you. Because what hope do you have for suffering? You've lost someone. What hope do we have if there is not a resurrection future? Did our hearts not burn within us while he talked to us on the road and while he opened to us the scriptures and they rose that same hour? Now we've gotta go back to Jerusalem. You know what's interesting? And I close with this. The Lord didn't want them in Emmaus. He wanted them in Jerusalem. And if you know the rest of the story, you know why. He was gonna send the spirit. He told the disciples, don't leave. Stay here until the promise of the spirit. He's gonna send the Holy Spirit. That's a story for another day. But the short version is they weren't where they were supposed to be. Maybe you can relate. If you come in here today, you're not where you're supposed to be. You've been walking your own path, moving away from where it is that the Lord wants you. What changed them? What took them back where they were supposed to be?

Seeing Jesus for who he is. And that's my prayer for you today. That you would actually see the Lord. Maybe you've been burned by the church. Maybe you've been burned by other Christians. Maybe you've been burned by the version of Christianity that you've heard. Can I deliver to you the great news? Jesus Christ suffered and died for sinners like you and for me. And he has risen from the grave so that we could have new life transformed to live like he lived. That's the good news of the gospel. It's changed me and I know it can change you too. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Father, we're so grateful for these beautiful verses that have been preserved over the centuries so that we might know you and see you. Lord, thank you for the vision of resurrection, new life that we've had today. I pray it would, it would be like a stake driven into the ground of our hearts that we would not forget what we've heard today, but that it would burn within us. to resurrection life, I pray in Jesus' name. Heads bowed, eyes closed, you're in the room today, say with, I,

my heart's been burning with, as you've been talking about this, I long for that kind of relationship with Christ. I long for that kind of transformation. Maybe you'd be bold enough to admit, I'm not the man, I am not the woman that I ought to be. And maybe you just showed up here for another family Easter and maybe the Lord is dealing with you, doing real business with you today. I pray that's the case. I got no use for showing up here and just going through Christian platitudes together with you. Like, we're here for a reason and for a purpose and my hope is that you would surrender to that conviction today and acknowledge you need a Savior. I'm not gonna have you stand up, I'm not gonna have you come forward, but would you be bold and courageous enough? You have a Savior who died for you, would you be bold enough and courageous enough to say, I need him? He does the work, he calls your name, all you do is just say, yep, that's me. I need Jesus. Maybe you're returning to faith or maybe you're discovering faith for the first time, but you say, that's me. The Lord is doing work in me today and I wanna acknowledge that.

Would you just throw your hand up right there where you sit? All over this room, hands everywhere. So good. So good. God bless you. God bless you. So many hands, thank you. We're gonna pray a prayer together of surrender and repentance, whether you raised your hand or you didn't. Would you join with me? Say this out loud, say, Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus. I believe he came for me. I am a sinner. I need a Savior. And he died for my sins. Lord Jesus, I surrender. I give you my life, my past, my future. I am yours. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. Amen. Now, at the close of the service here in just a moment, our prayer team's gonna be down front right here, lining the whole front of the stage. We would love the opportunity to resource you if you raised your hand. So, we have this book, we wrote it. It's called What Does It Mean to Be Saved?

This is for anyone who's kind of wondering what does a journey of faith with Christ look like? You don't have to have raised your hand to get this. All you need to do is come forward and say, hey, can I get one of those books that Pastor Root was talking about? We would love to be able to share one of these with you or give them to you, really. And so you can get them from our prayer team. I promise, we're not gonna try to corral you and force you to join the church or come back next week. Our heart is just to resource you with this book. So, we would love to be able to give this to you today. And if you have a prayer need, maybe you're in the middle of something, hard, tough, overwhelming right now, we would love to be able to minister to you as well. That's our prayer team. They're right down here, standing right in front of me, on the ground, facing that way. They will be here at the close of the service. Stand to your feet. Don't forget, next week we start a new series on the life of Abraham. Love to invite you back. Love it for, if you could join us next weekend, we would love to have you. We're gonna close with this blessing out of Numbers, chapter six. And this is how we end all of our services

at Church on the Move. Words are on the screen, so you can join along in saying this with me. Here we go. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. God bless you. Happy Easter. You are dismissed. .. [♪ Illumina intro by Eric Bittorre ♪ [♪ Illumina intro by Eric Bittorre ♪ [♪ Illumina intro by Eric Bittorre ♪ [♪ Illumina intro by Eric Bittorre ♪