Mystery, Ashes, and Resurrection

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday Morning Worship Experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. So, yeah, so it's Easter, right? And a lot of you here are probably just because of Easter and somebody invited you or you felt like maybe this is your once or twice a year that you come to church. And the reason you don't come to church all the time is because it's the same message every time you come because you only come on Easter and Christmas.

So I don't want to hear the same message every time I come. I'm sure that's, no, I'm just playing. I'm just kidding there. But I love Easter because Easter is that time where we can kind of set aside things and really focus and reconsider. And if you're not a believer today or you're kind of figuring out this Jesus thing or you're not sure about all the miracles and things like that, but you're open to who He is, this is a perfect opportunity for you to reconsider, you know, being a follower of Jesus.

Easter is that perfect occasion where you can really, set aside all those things. Set aside all those things. Set aside all those things. So for the next, you know, 20, 30 minutes as I talk, take some, you know, I want you just to set aside any of those misconceptions, those pre-notions, those whatever you have, maybe, and throw away the things you think about. Christians, because a lot of people don't like the church because of Christians, right?

So, and despite that you work with a Christian or that you're married to a Christian or maybe you live next door to a Christian or you grew up with Christians and, you know, and all those things that you think about Christians, let's just set those to the side just for a minute so we can really look at what Easter is all about. Because the foundation of the foundation of the foundation of the foundation of the foundation of the Christian faith isn't answered prayers or having all the right answers or God giving us the right answers. The foundation of the foundation of the foundation of the foundation of the foundation. The foundation of the foundation of the foundation is what we celebrate today, Easter. And Christianity is the great mystery of history.

It is really a mystery that we can find no explanation for. In fact, it's implausible that the Christian faith has lasted throughout the years and throughout the centuries. It's implausible that you can have a movement. Let me just explain just for a second. Millions of people this weekend are gathering together to celebrate a Jewish carpenter that only ministered for three and some odd years.

And he didn't travel any more than 30 miles outside of his territory. And he never wrote a book. He never had any kind of award-winning speech. He never had any kind of Ph.D.

or any kind of degree of any type. Yet, a third of the world is gathering today to celebrate under his name, singing similar songs in many different languages, and there's no explanation for it. There's absolutely no reason for it outside of why we're here today at Easter. I want you to think about it for a minute. We mentioned the name Nero, and many of you automatically think about that name, right?

Oh, that was the emperor, the Roman emperor that killed Christians and threw them to the lions, right? But that's the only thing we really know about them. There's nothing in history that we would even think of outside of it being a footnote in the Bible, a footnote in Christianity. Caesar Augustus, one of the most popular Caesars, was the first Roman emperor. He made many degrees and many reforms and did a lot of things, but unless you're a historian or unless you're a scholar, none of us here probably could name one thing that Caesar Augustus did outside of him being a footnote in the birth of Jesus Christ.

The Bible didn't even come into a full right until 300, 400 years after Jesus. The term New Testament appeared 250 years after Jesus, and there's no rational explanation. There's no plausible explanation why this movement is still what it is. In fact, the fact that it could have survived the first century is extraordinary. It's unexplainable.

It just doesn't make sense. The Roman government and the Jewish leaders got together to try to stamp out this knockoff cult in the Jewish ring called the Way. And yet, there is no more Roman Empire, and there are far more Christians around the world than even Jews. It's implausible. It doesn't make sense.

It's what is the mystery. But what's not a mystery is a movement in general. What's not a mystery is the art and science and study of how movements begin. We can look at, there's actually a scholarly way of looking at how movements begin. Usually, there's a civil unrest in a geographic area, in a city, in a state, in a country, and there's a lot of division.

And in the midst of that, in the midst of that, people looking for answers, looking for hope, looking for how to bring peace to a situation, a charismatic leader usually arises out of that movement. And they say the right things, and they introduce the right ideas, and they craft the right statements, and it makes so much sense to the average person. They're like, yeah, he gets me. Yeah, she gets me. Yeah, they get me.

And then they usher in a new way of thinking that changes things, that makes things happen, that brings about dynamic change. And then, eventually, the leader dies. But when the leader dies, the movement doesn't die. People still gather around the ideas, gather around the philosophies, gather around the teachings, gather around the things that this person introduced. And it has helped in so many ways throughout movements in history, and has actually changed, helped or hindered, and brought impact and change to the world.

Think of this, Islam. Islam. It's fascinating. It's fascinating how this movement began, how it was based from one man named Muhammad. And at that time, in the Arab countries, they were full of tribes, polytheistic people who served many gods, and they were in conflict with each other.

And this one man named Muhammad comes out of the cave, says God visited him by an angel, and he brought these teachings to his people, starting with his family, and then his community. And then he galvanized people under a single idea, a single idea that there is a monotheistic way of looking at things, that there is one God. And he began to bring these teachings together. And he was such a good leader. He had other leaders below him, he gathered a following, he built an army, and it changed the Arab tribes that for centuries had been worshipping many gods to coming under that one idea.

But in 632 A.D., Muhammad died. But his movement didn't die with him. It's so fascinating.

The people came together under his ideas, under his philosophies, under his teachings, and they began to carry those ideas from one generation to the next and to the next. And the leaders in that time, they battled over, okay, is this a political movement or is this a, should we have somebody step up that could be the next leader as a descendant of Muhammad, and that's where you get the sex of Islam and things like that as we roll through, but that a world religion was developed based on a movement. A movement. It's fascinating, but it makes sense. The civil rights movement, racism, was heavy in our country.

There was a lot of abuse. There was unequal treatment of African-Americans, and they wanted more and they certainly deserved more. And there were unfulfilled promises, and there was a lot of division. There was a lot of violence. There was a lot of unrest.

And then a man named Martin Luther King Jr. arises, and he introduces these ideas. In fact, he resurfaced the ideas of peaceful protests, and people galvanized around his ideas. And he left a promising career as an educator and possibly a pastor. And he moved the Birmingham, excuse me, Montgomery, Alabama, right in the middle of the very conflict that was taking place.

And he began to pull people together and talk, and they're like, he gets it. He's moving us toward, this will work. And it was just, it was amazing, extraordinary. And in 1968, he died violently. But the movement didn't stop there.

It didn't stop. His followers rallied behind his ideas and kept them going. And eventually, it would change the landscape of America. A great story, a fascinating story, one we should know, one we should understand, one we should appreciate, but it makes sense. But what doesn't make sense is Christianity?

No reputable historian, no scholar would ever say that Christianity was like one of those. And that's why it's a mystery. And the mystery is, we're here today. One third of the world is together today celebrating Easter. It doesn't match the paradigm of any other movement in history, any other study of a movement in history.

And the reason it doesn't fit is this, because of Jesus' message. Because there was two things that he did that just don't fit. Jesus never advocated a liberation or a revolution. He never did. He never tried to liberate people from any kind of organization.

He never caused a revolution of any type. In fact, when they were asking, should we be against the government? They're taxing us and do this. He says, render to Caesar what is Caesar's and render to God what is God's. And then Pilate, as he was standing before Jesus, he says, they say that you're a king.

Tell me what is your kingdom? Who is your kingdom? He says, Pilate, you don't have to worry about my kingdom. I'm not against Rome. I'm not against the Jewish people.

I'm not against anybody because my kingdom is not of this world. The Jewish leaders tried to pull him in. You revolted against God's law. He's like, I am not against God's law. I believe in every piece of God's law.

It is, in fact, God gave us that law. And he elevated the law to a standard that we can't even meet. He never advocated liberation or revolution. And secondly, it was all about him. Everything was about him.

He never asked his followers to trust in his ideas. He never asked his followers to trust in his philosophies. He never asked his followers to trust in anything that he was teaching. And even in his miracles, he asked them to follow him. In fact, when Jesus was in Caesarea Philippi, they were on the mountainside and he asked the disciples, who did the people say that I am?

Well, some say you're like a great prophet. Others say you're a patriarch from the Bible that's resurrected. And they were just going down the line. And then he looks over and says, well, who do you say that I am? And Peter darts out, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

And Jesus' response was, Peter, you are right. Because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. It was all about him. John the Baptist didn't come along and say, behold, here's the guy who's going to teach you about salvation and show you about salvation and teach the theologies and the philosophies of everything, of spirituality. He said, behold, hold the lamb of God who saves you from the sin of the world.

It was all about him. Mary and Martha and Lazarus, one of his best friends had died and they had called on Jesus to come, come, come heal him. Get here before he dies. Get here before before he passes away. Because we know you can do it, but Jesus arrives late to the scene.

And Lazarus is already dead. And they asked, well, if only you had been here, Jesus, if only you had had, he would have been okay. Now, Jesus didn't stop and say, oh, guys, if I could tell you about heaven, if I could tell you about spirituality, if I could tell you about the afterlife, that wasn't his response. It could have been his response, but it wasn't. This was his response in John 11, 25.

He says, I am the resurrection and the life and the one who believes in me will live. And to the disciples, they were asking, when will we see the father? You know, you talk about the father, you talk about God all the time. We want to see the father. And he says this in John 14, 9, anyone who has seen me, I seen the father.

It was all about him. Everything was about him. He never taught a revolution or he never, he never taught anything like that. And it was all about him. And that's why it's super implausible that this movement would have ever lasted past Jesus.

And on the day he died on the cross, their hopes died. When Jesus died, people's hopes died because he never left behind a revolutionary idea or a principle or a parable or a philosophy because it was not, it was all about him. It was centered on him. So no one believed when he died, no one believed his message and no one believed his claims. No one believed his message and no one believed his claims.

And unlike any other leader we know or honor, he was the movement. He was the message. He was the claim. And all of the gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, wrote in their books that they were cowards. They were scared.

When Jesus died, we ran. We hid. In fact, Peter, the very one that said, You are the God. You are Jesus. You are the Son of God.

And I believe that was the one that stood before a middle school girl and said, I don't even know him. When she asked, you are one of his followers, as he was standing outside the court of where Jesus was being prosecuted. When Jesus was crucified, they lost their faith because a Messiah doesn't die. A Son of God doesn't die. A resurrection and a life doesn't die.

And it died with them. And that's why Easter solves the great mystery of history. Easter solves the great mystery of history. And here's how it unfolds. In John 21 through 8, he says, Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb.

Now, this is very significant, guys, because in this day, women were not written in records. Women were not allowed to testify in court. Women were not allowed to be a critical piece to any kind of situation where they were gathering evidence together to support something. Women were not looked at as that in that day. But the gospel writers wrote Mary Magdalene and the women as the first people to make it to the tomb.

Why did they do that? Because women were the first ones to make it to the tomb. Because it is absolutely perfect and validated. They would have done anything to keep that out of the records, but they put that in there. So she went to the tomb, and she saw that the tomb had been removed from the entrance.

So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciples, the one Jesus loved, which is John. And they, and she says this, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where we have put him. They have taken him out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him. Her first response was like, wasn't, Oh, Jesus, he's resurrected. Guys, he's raised from the dead.

He rose from the dead. He's out there somewhere. Let's go find him. Let's go see him. He is the son of God.

She's like, somebody took him. Somebody put him somewhere else. Nobody believed. When he died, the whole message died with him because it was him. So Peter and the other disciples started for the tomb.

Both were running, but the other disciple outrun. Peter, I love how John puts that in there. He's got to let everybody know that I beat Peter. You know, Peter's a little fatter than I am, and I'm a little better in shape. So I outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

And then John, he says, he bent over and looked at the stripes of linen lying, but did not go in. I think that's hilarious because he probably peeked in. He's like, does anybody know why he didn't go in the tomb? Because it was a tomb. Think about that for a second.

Let me look in there for a second. It's hilarious how the Bible is. The Bible can kind of be funny that way sometimes. And he bent over, and he looked in, and he didn't go in. And then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb and saw that the strips of linen lying there, saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus's head.

And the cloth was still lying in its place, separated from the linen. And then finally, the other disciples, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first, okay, John, also went inside. And this is significant right here. This is where it's all getting to. He saw, and he believed.

He looked in the tomb. He saw, and he believed. He walked with Jesus for three years. He didn't believe because of his miracles. He didn't believe because of his teachings.

He didn't even believe because of his crucifixion. He believed because what he saw. He believed what he saw. And the rest of the disciples saw him. And he walked among people for days.

And as much as 500 at one time saw the risen Savior. And they galvanized around, not an idea, but what they saw. And what they saw changed the world. In fact, when when the disciples went after the Acts 2 account, where they were baptized with the Holy Spirit, and they went out and they started preaching, the very first sermon they preached were four things. You killed them.

God raised them. We saw him. And now say you're sorry. You killed him. God raised him.

We saw him. Now say you're sorry. So as we celebrated, you know, Friday, good Friday, the crucifixion. This is what solidifies it. Because that very statement that he makes is all about resurrection.

It's all about Easter. It's all about why we're here today. Acts 3.15, it shows you here, you killed the author of life. This is what Peter said.

But God raised him from the dead. And we are all witnesses of this. We saw it. And then a little further, he backs it up, you know, before he even mentions that. And in Acts 2.

38, he says, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for your forgiveness of sins. So when Jesus died, the movement died. But what reengaged his followers was not the ideas, not the philosophies, not the teachings. It was what they saw. They saw resurrection.

They saw life. It meant that, you know what that means for us as Christians? You know what that means for us today is that we have hope. We have hope that there is more to what we're currently experiencing. We have hope that those that we have lost along the way, that the people that have gone before us, we have hope that we will see them again someday.

This has been a really hard week for me leading up to Easter. Just last week, we had a young man, 37 years old, sitting in this audience. And he passed at 312 yesterday. And nobody would have known that he'd be gone today. And as I was around the bed with the people there, the family members and the friends, and I reminded them of this very thing.

It's not because of the ideas. It's not because of the teachings. It's not because of whether God answers our prayers or not. But it's because of Easter. It's because they witnessed something.

And for us, it means everything because we know that we will see him again one day. We will see our loved ones one day. We will see. We will celebrate together. This is not it.

That's what it means for us. So the resurrection of Jesus solidifies this point. It solidifies the point of crucifixion. It solidifies the point of crucifixion, the forgiveness of sin. Without resurrection, the cross is meaningless.

But the cross means so much more because when resurrection came, it meant everything. It meant that we had a way for us to be forgiven. It meant that we had hope. In a hopeless world, we have hope because of Easter. Because of Easter.

Last week, all of you saw, and I'll be closing here in a second. I know all of you. If you're ready for Easter eggs and things like that with the kids and taking pictures and I don't want to take that away from you, we'll move on with that in just a second, but here's the thing, last week we all saw Notre Dame Cathedral burning to the ground, right, and we all looked at it with amazement, and I saw news sources, media, everybody's on social media going back and forth, you know, wow, this is crazy. You know, this is like one of the oldest structures in the world, this religious institution. It goes over 800 years, I mean, and it saddened me because of the historical, because I'm a man of history and I love history and I love walking through old, just historical sites and looking.

I never had, I haven't had the opportunity to even visit France. And I watched this structure, this old structure fall to the ground. But then I was, you know, I thought about that, the ruins, the ancient ruins that are all around, and I realized, you know, that structure may have fallen, that structure may have burned to the ground, but everything burns. Everything goes to action. In fact, there's monuments older than the cathedral that have been raised, and they fell down again, and they rise them up again, and they drop down, and they raise them up again, and they build them up again, and they fall down.

And finally, they just leave them there, and they call them ruins, because you can go there and visit them, and they're just ruins, because they just couldn't keep them up, because everything eventually goes back to ashes. But the beauty and the hope we have, because of Easter, because of the resurrection, is that the ruins can be restored. They can be made new. And that's the beauty of it. In fact, Jesus says that in His very teaching.

In fact, He quoted from Isaiah 61, 1-4, as He began His public ministry, He walked into this place with these teachers and these rabbis and different people, and He sat down, and He sat down, and He read this statement. He said, The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, to release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and to provide for those who grieve. In Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair, and they will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor, and they will rebuild the ancient ruins, and restore the places long devastated for generations. And then Jesus shut His scroll, He rolled up His scroll, He set it down, and He said, This has been fulfilled before you today.

This has been fulfilled before you today. And if it wasn't for Easter, none of this would have made any sense. And there are four things real quick that we can get out of this. Number one, you can stop dying. You don't have to die anymore, because from the point we are born, we're dying.

I know that's kind of a sad fact, but it's true. We only have so much time in this life. Everything is temporal. But today, we can stop dying. In that verse 1, it says, The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim what?

The good news. What is the good news? It is eternal life. Today, you can stop dying. In fact, C.

S. Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia says it like this, Easter is death working backwards. Today, we are reminded that we have hope and death from the moment we believe, the moment we've given our lives to Christ, the moment we make that decision, that confession of faith, trusting in Him. That's what it's about, trusting in Him. We know that we can stop dying and live for Him.

John 11, 25 and 26, I am the resurrection and the life, as I mentioned before. The one who believes in me will live even though they die. They will live even though they die. And whoever lives by believing in me will never die. And then he says this, Do you believe this?

Do you believe this? That's my question for you today, those of you that I ask to reconsider here today on Easter. Do you believe this? You can stop dying. Dying spiritually.

And secondly, I can start rebuilding. I can stop dying, and I can start rebuilding. Because the ruins have been broken down. Because sin has affected our lives. We can start rebuilding today.

It's not just about the initial step. Yeah, it's about the initial step. At the beginning, Jesus and God cares nothing about any of your past, anything, because the sin, you have not out-sinned the love of God. But you cannot out-send the love of God. His love is so much more.

It consumes everything that has been killing you, and hurting you, and taking you, and dividing you from having a life to the full that Jesus promises us. And we can begin rebuilding. We can start that journey today. That's why we have a local church to help you take the next steps down that journey, to connect you to the things that will help encourage you. We don't believe that church, and Christians, and our gatherings fix everything.

It's impossible to fix everything. But we are launching paths to help you, to catapult you into new life and being changed. You can start rebuilding today. He says, He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted and to proclaim freedom. You can experience freedom.

I mean, so many Christians, they know God, and they're walking with God, and they just still feel like they're in such bondage. But you can experience freedom. He came to experience freedom, and He wants to help you through that process. It's a spiritual journey that you have to decide to take as you walk with Jesus. He proclaims freedom for the captives and releases from darkness and for the prisoners.

You don't have to be a prisoner anymore. Number three, I can stop doubting. I can stop doubting. I can stop doubting. I don't have to doubt that I can be fixed.

I don't have to doubt that I'm too far gone. I don't have to doubt anymore that this is too beyond me. I don't have to doubt. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor. We are displays of His splendor.

He takes the broken. He makes them beautiful again. God sees the greatness that you don't see. He sees the greatness in you that you don't see, and He wants you to stop doubting. He wants to make you oaks of righteousness.

You can be righteous. Yes, we're not perfect. Yes, we're tainted with sin. But He can rebuild us. He can make us whole.

He can make us new. He can give us hope. He can give us a future. He can do it all. And we've got to stop doubting.

And lastly, we've got to start living. We've got to start living. Don't stop. Start living. He's created you to be more than what the world has kept you from being.

In verse 4, they will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated. They will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for centuries. Always. I'm sorry. Thank you.

Maybe you've been devastated for centuries, but man, God wants to renew you, He wants to build you back up, He wants to use you, He wants to, I mean, the things He has in store for you, He says, you don't even know, you can't even fathom what I have for you in eternity. You're gonna, there's so much, such a bigger piece to the puzzle. So this is why Easter is the perfect time to consider. That's why Easter is the perfect time to consider being a follower of Jesus. Because as we reflect on Easter, as we reflect on the resurrection, as we reflect that God, that God raised His Son from the dead, that Jesus actually took Himself out of the grave, we can know and we can believe and we can trust that it's mystery's greatest, it's history's greatest mystery, it's history's greatest mystery.

And that's why we believe. Because they saw it. We believed it. And now we're experiencing it ourselves. It's powerful.

It's wild. And God's inviting you to come on the ride with Him down this journey. So if that's you today, I'm not even, you know, usually I ask people to bow their heads and close their eyes. I'm not even gonna do that today. I'm just gonna openly ask you to trust in Jesus.

And I want you to, you know, say this prayer with me. You can say it loudly. You can say it quietly. You can say it in your heart. But when you say this, and when you, it's not the prayer, guys.

It's not, it's not about some magical formula and what I'm saying. It's simply trusting in the Easter event where Jesus Christ, He is risen and we place our faith in Him. You make that decision today. All cards on the table. No strings attached.

But Jesus, He invites you. And if you would pray this with me today. Father, I admit that I have walked far from You. Or I walked away from You. Or I made decisions that steered me away from You, God.

Or maybe, I didn't even know who You were, Lord Jesus. I didn't even realize this. And I was so far from You. But the day I believe, and I confess my sin, and I lay it down at Your feet, I believe that You died on the cross for my sin. And that I am no longer accountable because You were the perfect sacrifice.

So I place my trust, and I place my faith in You, not just because You died for my sin, Lord, and I'm no longer accountable. But I know that You are God. And I believe today. Come into my life. Make me new.

Restore my ruins. Send me on a spiritual journey today. In Your heavenly name. Amen. Amen.

Can y'all celebrate Jesus?