Easter // But God

Resurrection Sunday: The Foundation of Our Faith

• Pastor Jonathan opens with the resurrection account (Luke 24):
• The tomb is empty
• “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here—He has risen”
• Central truth: Jesus is alive, not dead—and that changes everything

The Story Leading to the Resurrection (Passion Week Overview)

• Palm Sunday:Jesus enters as King, but people misunderstand His mission
• They expect political rescue, not spiritual salvation
• Monday–Tuesday:Jesus confronts the religious system
• Intentionally moves toward the cross
• Wednesday:Judas betrays Jesus
• Thursday (Last Supper & Garden):Communion is established
• Jesus prays and is arrested
• Friday (Crucifixion):Jesus is tried, beaten, and crucified
• Key moments:
• “Father, forgive them”
• Promise of paradise
• “It is finished”
• The temple veil tears—access to God is opened
• Saturday:Silence and mourning

The Resurrection: The Turning Point

• Sunday morning:
• The tomb is empty
• Jesus has risen
• Without the resurrection:
• Jesus is just a good man
• With it:
• He is Savior and Lord

Why Did Jesus Have to Die?

• Because of sin—yours and mine
• Humanity cannot save itself
• Ephesians 2:
• We were dead… “But God”

“But God” — The Core Message

• Two powerful words: “But God”
• Meaning:
• You were broken → But God intervened
• You were lost → But God made a way
• Salvation:
• By grace, not works

“But God” Still Happens Today

• God still moves in real life:
• Broken marriages → But God restores
• Wayward children → But God reaches
• Financial struggles → But God provides
• Addiction/shame → But God heals
• Resurrection power is still active today

Personal Testimony

• Pastor Jonathan shares:
• His life and marriage could have gone differently
• Repeated theme: “But God showed up”
• God moves again and again

Invitation to Salvation

• The greatest “But God” moment:
• Accepting Jesus
• Response:
• Faith and surrender

Communion: Remembering and Encountering

• Communion is:
• A reminder of Jesus’ sacrifice
• A moment to experience His power
• Emmaus:
• Jesus revealed in the breaking of bread
• Bring your needs to God

Closing Themes

• Jesus is:
• Alive
• Interceding for us
• Still working today
• When life feels impossible → “But God”

Big Idea

• The resurrection proves nothing is final—because God can intervene.

 Hey, good morning. Yeah, let's give God some praise this morning.

 Oh man, it's so good to be with you this morning. Let's go ahead and stand up to our feet for the reading of God's Word. I'm gonna read out of Luke chapter  and we're gonna go into chapter .

 We're starting in verse .

 It says this, it says, it was the day of preparation

 and the Sabbath was beginning.

 The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid.

 And they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath, they rested according to the commandment.

 But on the first day of the week at early dawn,

 they went to the tomb,

 taking the spices they had prepared.

 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

 But when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them and dazzling apparel.

 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?

 He is not here, but he has risen."

 Let's pray this morning.

 Father, we thank you that today on all days, we get to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

 That we do not need to look for you in the land of the dead, but rather you are in the land of the living. And even more importantly, you are seated at the right hand of the Father.

 Lord, this morning as we contemplate and think about the sacrifice that your son made, I pray that you will open our hearts and minds and that your goodness will be illuminated to us this morning. So in Jesus' holy name we pray, amen and amen. You may be seated. You may be seated.

 I'm gonna take a minute this morning and I wanna kinda share the story of Jesus

 and what leads to this moment that we just read.

 We have to fast forward or rewind I should say back to the week before, the Sunday before. And this story, this week of stories that happen on this Sunday to Sunday, a lot of times it's called like Holy Week or the Passion Week in different traditions. And it starts with a week before Resurrection Sunday, which we would have celebrated last week. It was Palm Sunday, Palm Sunday. And on Palm Sunday, that was the day where Jesus made his triumphant entry to Jerusalem. He rides on that young donkey and everyone is celebrating and they're laying out palm branches and they're saying like, "Hosanna in the highest." And they're saying, "Here comes the Messiah." And all this stuff, this triumphant entry. And while Jesus is entering Jerusalem and this triumphant procession,

 he's weeping, saying, "Oh, Jerusalem, "that I could gather you under my wings "like a hen gathers her chickens."

 He weeps over what he knows will happen. That all of this fanfare is only because they think that Jesus is coming to do what they want and think Jesus to do,

 which is to free them from the Roman occupation, to free them from unfair taxation, to free them from different things. They think that the Messiah that they've been waiting for is a political or a national revolution. And Jesus knows that the same people that are right now proclaiming him to be the Messiah and the King are gonna be the same people just a few days later that will be chanting out, "Crucify him."

 And for us, we sometimes need to remember,

 sometimes the ones who are your biggest fans will also be your biggest adversaries later in life.

 Because the moment you continue to stand to do for what you're supposed to do, that narrative can change very quickly.

 Then on Monday, Jesus begins, Monday and Tuesday, it's what I call poking the bear.

 Because Jesus came to Jerusalem with one intention, to lay his life down.

 If you remember the story, there's multiple times that religious leaders and people want to kill Jesus. And what you hear time and time again, was that it did not happen because his time had yet not come.

 No one was ever going to take the life of Jesus, because the life of Christ was given by Christ. No one could murder Jesus because he laid his life down willingly. And this was the moment, and this was the time that had been preordained before the even man's first sin, that this was the time that Jesus was gonna come and to make things right once and for all. And so on Monday and Tuesday, he began to do some real wild stuff. He goes into the temple and he starts throwing things out, he starts whipping things, he starts calling people liars, he starts calling people thieves. It's just he starts poking every direction and every person that he can, and it does not go unnoticed. So on Monday, he cleanses the temple. On Tuesday, he starts teaching and he starts teaching very directly against the current religious system that's going on. And really just hurting some people's feelings.

 And they got upset and they began to plot. And in fact, they wanted to arrest him then, but they were so afraid of the people loved him so much that they were like, "We can't do this right now."

 So on Wednesday, it's the only day we don't know what Jesus did on Wednesday. Because the only thing we know about Wednesday is that's the day that Judas went to the Pharisees and the Sadducees and he made the deal to portray Jesus. And they created the plot of how they were going to do it.

 Some people call that silent Wednesday, but my favorite is some people call it spy Wednesday.

 Judas being a little spy, a little double agent.

 And then Thursday, Jesus begins the Passover feast with his disciples, what we call the Last Supper. And after he gives them this new representation, this new thing that will be carried forward beyond his death and the idea of what communion will look like, the Lord's Supper and the bread and the wine and what it means for the disciples moving forward. They sing a song and he takes his disciples to the garden where he often retreated to pray. And with his closest three friends, he separated and he said, "Can you just be with me by why my soul is in such sorrow?"

 And he beseeches the Father, "Can you take this cup from me,

 this thing that I'm marching towards, but if not my will, but your will be done." And it's in the middle of this prayer session at the end when Judas comes with the religious leaders and their soldiers and Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss.

 And then of course, this is also the moment when Peter,

 because you know Peter can't just chill out for any story,

 takes out his sword and he cuts off some guy's ear. And Jesus is like, "Bro."

 And he picks up the ear and he puts it back on and it's fine.

 And Peter's just like, "Oh, this wasn't the time." He's like, "No, bro.

 This is not it."

 And then all of the disciples disperse and leave and run.

 And late Thursday or early into Friday, he's taken to the religious leaders, to the Jewish priest, the high priest for this trial.

 And it starts off as a disaster because they think it's gonna be real easy. They're gonna basically, they bribe some people to make some accusations against Jesus so that he could be considered guilty in the Jewish court of law and then they could have him be punished by the Romans and say that's simple, we're gonna bribe some people and all they gotta do is agree on the story because the Jewish law is really clear. The Jewish law is really clear. You just need two witnesses to agree. But it kept messing up because the two witnesses couldn't even agree on their fake stories.

 And they couldn't figure it out. And the high priest was getting frustrated.

 And so at that moment, Caiaphas asks him a question.

 And he says, "Are you the Christ, the son of the blessed?"

 No, you have to realize this. This is actually like such an epic moment. Sometimes we read right past this. But this is the high priest of the Jewish order and Jesus the Messiah.

 Jesus the Messiah, Messiah means God's chosen one, anointed one. But what you have to realize is in Jewish tradition, the high priest is also the Messiah, the chosen anointed high priest.

 And in this moment, you have the earthly chosen anointed one staring with the son of God, face to face.

 It's a high priest showdown.

 And he says, "Are you the son of God?" Like people keep saying, he's already given up on the first trial because he's like, "That didn't work."

 And Jesus responds in verse  of Mark ,

 "I am, and you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven." And it says, "And the high priest tore his garments and said, "What further witnesses do we need?" And now you may say like, "That seems excessive to be tearing your clothes because someone says, like, I answered the question that you asked." But he didn't just answer the question, I am. Like, are you the son of God? This is the moment in which he says, one of the, and John, it's seven different times, but here in Mark, it's one of the times that he says and claims to be not just the son of God, but he uses the name of God that was not supposed to be spoken, the same name that God introduced himself to Moses when he was in the burning bush, and he said, "Who should I tell them has sent me?" And he says, "Tell them that I am has sent you." The one who was and is and who will be.

 That's the same thing when the people came to actually arrest Jesus before this. They came and they said, "Are you Jesus the Christ?" And he answered with the same phrase, "I am," and they all passed out. They were all shooken so much, they went down to the ground. And if Jesus wanted to, they could've, he could've left, but he actually waited for them to stand up and regather themselves and be like, "Yeah, now we're gonna arrest you, buddy."

 Here in this moment, he says, "I am," and the high priest considers a blasphemy and he tears his clothes and they arrest him. And then he's taken from there

 to the religious leaders, from the religious leaders' court to the Roman court. And all this while, by the way, Peter, the one who's chopping off the ears, the one who says, "I'll never deny you," the one who says, "I'll even get crucified with you," just like Jesus predicted. It's at this moment that Peter denies Jesus for the third time.

 And it says that he went off weeping bitterly

 because he denied Jesus.

 So he's brought before Pilate. Pilate sends him over to Herod.

 Herod sends him back to Pilate, and both of them keep saying like, "Listen, this guy hasn't done anything wrong. He doesn't, he hasn't done anything deserving of death." And he keeps asking over and over again, "How about I just punish him just a little bit?" And then we let him go and they're like, "No, crucify him."

 And time and time again, they ask. And finally he says, "I wash my hands of this."

 And they kept, not only did they say, "Hey, we don't want to let him grow," they said, "We would rather you release Barabbas,

 a known murderer, than give us Jesus."

 So he says, "Okay," because they didn't want to cause a riot. And so he was handed over to the soldiers who began to mock him as king of the Jews, and they struck him, and they hit him, and they blindfolded him, and they put a crown of thorns on his head, and they dressed him up as a king, and they put the cross on him, and they forced him to carry that cross outside of the city

 to the place called Golgotha,

 where he's crucified between two other criminals,

 and a sign is placed above his head that says king of the Jews.

 And while on that cross,

 Jesus does some amazing things.

 In the midst of one of the most horrible forms of human suffering that any human being can experience, which is the cross,

 where you cannot breathe, where you are literally affixiating

 with spikes driven through your wrists and your feet.

 The only way to get a breath is to be able to push off on your feet and to raise yourself up.

 In that moment, he says some things that will shake you to your very core if you allow them to.

 He says things like, "Forgive them."

 "Father."

 Because they don't know what they're doing.

 He tells one of the men who are up there with him

 after they've been making fun of him, and he says that he believes that he's the Christ. He says, "Hey, today, you'll join me in paradise."

 He looks at John, the beloved disciple, and he takes a moment in the middle of all this praying, and he says, "John, I'm about to leave this place,

 but can you make sure to take care of my mom?"

 Her husband's already gone.

 Can you make sure that she's okay?

 And then when one of his last breaths, he cries out,

 "It is finished."

 And from  p.m. to  p.m., everything had gotten dark. And when he cries, it is finished. The ground begins to shake. The veil in the temple is ripped from top to bottom. The thing that signified the separation between the presence of God and man is torn,

 and Jesus dies.

 His spirit leaves.

 This actually surprised the Roman soldiers a lot because it was too fast. They do this a lot. They know how long it takes, and Jesus hadn't been there long enough.

 So one of them went up with a spear and poked into his side to make sure that he wasn't just faking.

 And in the process of poking the side, blood and water flows from our Savior.

 His body is removed from the cross,

 and a secret disciple of Jesus

 requested the body and took it and placed it in a tomb that had never been used.

 And the Jewish officials made sure that there was guards posted outside, and they rolled a stone in front of the tomb because they didn't not want his body to be stolen so his disciples could make a claim that he had been risen from the dead like they had said.

 And all of this was done in a hurry because this was a Friday evening, and the sun was setting, and they had to get it done before Sabbath.

 And now we're to the point of the story where we just read about those women who were there.

 And on Saturday,

 from Friday to Saturday, Jesus rested.

 In the tomb.

 And if that was the end of this story,

 we probably wouldn't be here today

 because he would have received the fate that so many have.

 Someone who had great ideas, and great morals, and great standing, and was martyred for the cause.

 And we would maybe remember him as a great man,

 and maybe there would be some different writings, but I can tell you, , years later,

 that would not be what brings us together today.

 But for us today, the thing that we get to see

 is not that he died on that cross, which was so important.

 The spotless Lamb of God who took your and I's place on the cross, who took the punishment,

 it wasn't that he was buried.

 It's that on the third day,

 early Sunday morning,

 he wasn't in the tomb anymore.

 That he was risen from the grave. And when the women, he's risen indeed, amen. And when the women came out there today

 to anoint his body, to do the things for preparation that they didn't have time to do on Friday night, they found the tomb empty.

 Now, I always find this interesting that the women who were there first, not just because like this is such a key detail that an ancient writing would not have been there if it weren't for the fact that God and Jesus really loved the women.

 And he honors them, he values their part of the story.

 But you would think as many times as Jesus said it,

 that his disciples would have been camped out waiting.

 And I'd like to pretend that I would be there. I've camped out for a lot of things in my life. Do you guys remember when Krispy Kreme came to town?

 I camped out for three days.

 I was there. This was for a donut. Now, it's a holy thing when it's hot. Once it's cold, it's lost all of its standing.

 But for three days and three nights, I was there, camped out with my friends, first in line.

 I camped out for free ChickfilA for a year, camped out all night,  free ChickfilA sandwiches.

 My wife and I both camped out, so we got  ChickfilA sandwiches. That was our only date location for over a year, because we were in college and we were poor.

 But we could go to ChickfilA and use two free coupons to split a fry and a small lemonade, and we were living large.

 I like to camp out.

 I would like to believe I'd have been just like, I know he died, but he told me, he told me, I'm going to die, and I'm going to rise again. He kept alluding to it and then kind of pointing to it. And then finally, he literally just said it,

 as plain as can be. And so I would love to say I'd have been right there all three nights, just like Krispy Kreme style waiting.

 But I probably wouldn't have been.

 Because when you face death, it feels very final.

 When you face things that only God can do,

 you often lose hope.

 And so those disciples, even the ones that have seen him transfigured, even the ones who were there with him, even the ones that he told him, they were not there.

 They were in mourning, not knowing what's next. And so the women go to the tomb and they find that it's not there, that it's empty. And it says that they run back.

 And they tell the disciples.

 And the disciples are like, what? And they go to run to the tomb.

 And in John's account, which is my favorite account of this story, it says that Peter and John both decided to run to the tomb. And John got there first. You know, and John's the author.

 He just really wanted everyone to know for all time he was faster than Peter. And I appreciate that.

 As a former track person, I would definitely have recorded that fact. We had a race to see who could see our risen Savior first, and I beat Peter.

 And John loves to knock on Peter.

 And John loves to knock on Peter.

 A lot of the accounts will be like, a disciple did or said this, but not in John's gospel. John, every time, you're like, Peter said it. Peter did it. Peter cut it off.

 Peter denied him three times. And then Jesus looked him dead in the eye.

 And then he cried.

 But you know what's a spoil? Look at this little spoiler alert.

 John's also the only one that recorded Jesus. And go get all the disciples, including Peter.

 And have him meet me.

 And John's the only gospel that recorded Jesus's conversation with Peter, of where he restored him. And said, "I'm building my whole church on you."

 So John gets a pass for making fun of Peter for the other something chapters. Audience Laughing Because he ended it well.

 But they go and they look, and he's not there.

 And then Jesus begins to show himself to the disciples,

 and groups and individuals.

 And he's alive, and they're excited. They don't know what it means.

 But here's the question.

 We hear this story.

 And I don't know if you have any kids.

 But when kids are young, they ask a question that is maybe the most annoying question.

 It's just two words.

 But why?

 Has your kids ever asked you, "But why?" Or even just, "Why?" And it's infuriating because it actually always works. And there's no answer you can give that does not lead to another why question.

 And you just keep going, and going, and going.

 But we hear this story, and maybe you grew up in church, or maybe you're not. Maybe today's the first day you hear this story. And you may have the question still, all that is beautiful, and Jesus' resurrection is powerful, and it proves these, but why did he have to die in the first place?

 Why was this whole thing necessary?

 Why wasn't there another way?

 And here's what's wild.

 The reason that Jesus had to die on the cross

 is because of me, and because of you,

 and because of those who came before us.

 Listen to this, Ephesians , verse one says this, "And you were dead, and the trespasses and sins,

 "in which you once walked, "following the course of this world,

 "following the prince of the power of the air, "and the spirit that is now at work "in the sons of disobedience,

 "among whom we all once lived "in the passion of our flesh,

 "carrying out the desires of the flesh, and the mind, "and by nature, children of wrath."

 Like the rest of mankind.

 You see, Pastor Isaiah alluded to it in worship.

 There was no one here who has lived a pure and spotless life. Whether you were saved very young, or you haven't even yet come to Christ yet, we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. From the moment that Adam and Eve sinned, and sin entered this world, we have all been born into the fallen nature of this world, and we are caught in this battle, this cosmic battle of good versus evil, of God's love for mankind, and the enemy Satan's desire to destroy that relationship. And as a result of that, we are all in need of a savior,

 of someone who could take our place, someone who could pay the penalty of sin, someone who could ransom us away from the enemy, someone who could win this cosmic battle against evil and put to death the powers

 and the principalities of this world.

 And we find ourselves broken.

 And I have found myself in times and places where I felt broken.

 That we were far away trapped

 in living under the influence of the powers of this world.

 Then verse four of Ephesians, it says two words, it's two words in English, two words in Greek, it's two words if you were to look at it in Hebrew and other places where it uses the same phrase.

 They're two of the most powerful words.

 But God,

 you were lost.

 I was broken,

 stuck in my own shortcomings and failures and sin in a way that I could never get myself out, that you and I could never earn our way out, that we could never pray our way out, we could never through our good works, be able to find the favor of God. We were stuck and broken, but God, God being rich in mercy

 because of the great love with which He loved us. By the way, the word mercy there for you, Bible nerds in the room,

 that this is Greek, but this is referencing Exodus.

 And it's the word has said, this loyal faithfulness that shows up, this key word that He being rich in faithful love for you. Because of the great love that He has for you.

 Even when you were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and rise up with Him and seated us with Him in heavenly places in Christ.

 So in the coming age, He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For I grace you have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ for good work, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

 Titus says it this way,

 in Titus chapter, the book of Titus says it this way, in chapter three, verse three, it says, "For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasure, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness of the loving kindness of God, our Savior appeared."

 We were saved.

 We were saved.

 First verse I say, He saved us, not because of the works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

 so that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

 And here's the thing about this verse.

 We in this room can find ourselves

 in places

 where we feel like we have no hope,

 that there is no way.

 Maybe you are here this morning and your marriage is struggling,

 and you think there's no way for it to be repaired. There's been too much damage.

 Or you're here and you have kids who are far from God

 and you desperately want them to be in relationship with Him, but they're making choices that are just really hard to watch.

 Or you have other relationships that have experienced brokenness and betrayal, or your health is not good, or you've been standing and believing for someone that you love to be healed and it hasn't happened yet.

 Or your finances are in shambles and when you look at the bank account, it just says, "Come back later."

 Your career is not going where you're at, where you'd like it to go. You feel stuck.

 We all can find ourselves in these places,

 whether you've been a believer forever or it's very new.

 And the thing that the cross shows us is that but God moments are not the same. They're not just a onetime thing.

 That we were broken and we were lost, but God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to die on our behalf so that anyone who chooses to believe in Him will have eternal life. But eternal life is only the beginning, the very foretaste or the promise of what we have to come, because He is also concerned about the life that we are living day to day here on this earth. When we are partnering with Him in the Holy Spirit on invading this broken land and the goodness and the love of God, that we walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, bringing new life and new creation power everywhere that we go. And when we experience brokenness and hopelessness and hurt and we look around and we say, "This is impossible. My marriage will not make it, but God loves you so much that He can do things that you cannot even imagine." And if you forget, you just have to look back to the cross and remember, if He raised Jesus from the dead, then the same power that raised Him from the dead is living inside of me, working on my behalf, calling me out and deeper, and He can bring healing to my heart and wholeness to my relationships. And He knows that my kids desperately need to be in relationship with Him. And but God will move in their lives and He will send the right person at the right time to reach out for them. He will provide for you exactly what you need, when you need it, because that is the type of God that we serve, that even though you think it's impossible, but God, but God, but God.

 I can tell you, my marriage was destined for failure, but God, He saved me.

 My life was destined for a different place, but God showed up.

 And you know what? It wasn't even that it should have surprised me because my parents' life was destined for a different place, but God showed up.

 And you know the beautiful thing about what happens when God shows up? He doesn't just do it once.

 He does it again and again and again and over and over and over and just when you start to think you can't take that next step, and just when you start to think you'll never find healing, and just when you think you'll never be freed from that sin or that addiction or that shame or that guilt, but God, being rich in mercy and loving kindness towards you shows up.

 And I don't know what you need today, but God does.

 But God does.

 And here's what I want to do this morning as we begin to close our message.

 The first and greatest miracle that God can do

 is the thing that the cross, the primary purpose of the cross,

 which is saving you.

 And in just a second, if you're here in this room and you've never made the decision to accept Jesus as your savior,

 it is the greatest but God moment you will ever have.

 And I want to give you that chance today.

 And it's as simple as just repeating a prayer here in just a minute.

 And I'm going to invite everyone to say this prayer, whether you've done it a million times or this is the first time.

 We're just going to all pray this prayer. So this is you, just pray this with all your heart. Say, "Dear Heavenly Father, "thank you for sending Jesus to save me, to set me free.

 "I was stuck, but God, you saved me."

 Thank you for that.

 It's in Jesus' name we prayed.

 With every head bowed for just a minute, if that's you today, if you made that decision anywhere in the room, would you just raise your hand up really high? Raise your hand up really high.

 It's a bold move, but just take your hand and put it up high, just so I can continue to pray for you this week.

 All right, any of those hands that are up, they can go down.

 At this point, what I want to do is this, church,

 I'd like everyone to go ahead and stand with me. I'm going to invite the ushers to go ahead and we're going to pass out communion elements.

 And as we're passing them out,

 there's something so profound and the act of communion.

 This is the very physical thing that can remind us, but God.

 So much so.

 There's a great story in Luke

 where two of his disciples, his followers, had left Jerusalem because he was dead and they thought the story was over and they were walking back to a town called Emmaus.

 And the Bible doesn't tell us why these two were special or why Jesus picked himself to show up, but it says that Jesus began walking with them.

 And the two men didn't know it was Jesus. Something had veiled him in a way that they did not recognize him.

 And they told him what happened and he began to teach them from scripture everything concerning himself

 in a walk that I wish I could have been on.

 And they arrived to the city where they were at. It was actually about a  mile journey.

 They arrived to the village where they were gonna be and Jesus was acting like he was gonna go on and they said, "No, you can't go on. "You have to stay with us "and you have to at least eat with us."

 So Jesus said, "Okay."

 It says that he took the bread

 and he gave thanks and he broke it.

 And I said, "In that moment,

 "they recognized him for who he was,

 "that this was Jesus."

 And then it says that Jesus, this is one of these real great time travel, it says he disappeared.

 And they immediately got up.

 Remember, they just walked  miles and it's nighttime. It says they immediately got up and went back where they went and they went to the disciples and they said, "He is alive.

 "I know it was him because of how he broke the bread.

 "It was in the breaking of the bread "that we knew it was him."

 For everyone else who's here today,

 we're gonna take communion

 and you maybe have something that you need your own but God moment in. Soft Music

 This is not just a symbolic gesture.

 There is power in this body

 and there is power in this blood.

 It transforms things. It heals things. It does miraculous works. Soft Music

 And sometimes this is the physical contact that we need to say,

 "God, this is gonna be broken forever,

 "but God, I know that you are rich in mercy "and loving kindness.

 "So I'm trusting you to show up."

 And this body that lived the perfect life and this blood that was poured out for you and I, go to work on your behalf.

 So as we take this communion together, church,

 we get to experience God's powerful move in our life again and again and again.

 And on that night that Jesus was betrayed, when he was with his disciples, he took the bread and he broke it and he gave thanks. And he told his disciples, "Take, eat,

 "do this often in remembrance of me. "Let's take the bread together."

 Soft Music It says in the same manner he took the cup

 and he said, "This is my blood that's poured out for you "for the forgiveness of sins.

 "Do this often in remembrance of me.

 "Let's take the cup together." Soft Music

 Father God, today this Easter Sunday,

 we celebrate your resurrection.

 We celebrate the fact that the enemy thought he as one, but God showed up and did a miracle in the very body of Jesus Christ. And the God who was the same yesterday, today, and forever is still doing miracle working power in our bodies today through the very Savior we have in Jesus. Our high priest, our chosen one, the I Am I of I Am, the ancient of days is currently seated at the right hand of the Father, advocating on my behalf, claiming and proclaiming that his love for me is greater than whatever I'm experiencing in my life. But God loves me so much that even when I fail and even when I fall short and even when I stumble, he sends his Holy Spirit to remind me of how loved I am by you and that precious blood of Jesus makes me white as snow because God is here and alive today moving in our midst, Father. And as we are here and as we worship and as we sing or as we step out in this life and we leave this place, we pray that we can experience the things that you cause to experience. And when we experience hardship or failure or hurt or wounding or fear or shame, we can say, "But God loves me and Jesus is alive." And so today I'm gonna walk from this place knowing and believing that the blood is working on my behalf and I will live and see and taste that God is good even here in the land of the living. We thank you, Father.

 Congregation Applauding

 Come on, every voice, let's sing this a few times. The work you did is finished. Come on, sing it out.

 The work you did is finished All of our sins forbidden And now we get to live The water of the working blood The cross was your decision But death was not the end

 The work you did is finished All of our sins forbidden And now we get to live The water of the working blood The cross was your decision

 But death was not the end The work you did is finished The work you did is finished And now we're risen Oh, the water of the working blood Oh, the water of the working blood Oh, the water of the working blood Oh, the water of the working blood

 Come on sing "The Blood"

 The blood, the blood, the blood Oh, the wonderful blood

 You love, you love, you love All the marvelous love Let the redeemed sing a song Praises belong to the Son

 The blood, the blood, the blood All the wonderful blood

 Come on, is anyone thankful for the work that Jesus did on the cross? Who He is as our Savior, thank you Jesus. Congregation Applauding

 Church, before we bless you and we dismiss you, we have a couple things. One, if you're here today and you're one of the people who made a decision to accept Jesus this morning, I just wanna tell you, I encourage you to tell someone. If someone brought you today, share that information with you. I promise they will be excited.

 Whoever it is, we're all excited. Congregation Applauding

 If you have any questions, our prayer team will be down here after service, they would love to pray with you as well. But before I bless you and dismiss you, we have a little bit of tradition that we've been doing here as a church that everyone loves except for the cleaning person. And it's really a great tradition. And the person who explains it the best is my wife. So I'm gonna let her go ahead and explain it. Okay, well Easter is so full of different symbols and traditions that date back for decades. This is not one of them. This is actually kind of like a borrowed cultural gift. And I think it's meant so much to us because of what it represents, right? So which color should I pick? I'm gonna go with pink. So these are called Cascadones. I would think the translation for it is like shells, right? Like shellies. It looks like an Easter egg. It's not filled with candy, but so much like the grave that was found empty, right?

 These are a little bit of a surprise themselves because instead of having an egg on the inside or candy, like some people fill with, these actually have confetti in them. And so the way that we use them at Destiny Church are a little bit of yet another symbol that we can hold on to today. I hope today has been a blessing to you. It has definitely been a blessing to me. I think at the beginning of the weekend, at the end of a long week, I decided on something personally and I told my family about it. I told them, I want this Easter weekend

 to not leave me untouched. I want to experience the power of Jesus in my life. I need that, right? And I've been celebrating Easter for a long time.

 But it is a personal decision to embrace the symbols just like we receive and take communion, which is what Jesus said for us to do. I'm so thankful that we did. Thank you for leading us in that. Thank you also for the word. And I hope in Jesus' name that your heart received something that is gonna stay with you, not only for the rest of the week or the rest of the day, but for all of your life. And I'm so thankful for worship. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to sing out loud and declare it is by the blood of Jesus that I am a new creature, that I get to experience salvation and new life. And so, you know, here at Destiny, we're all about knowing Jesus and showing Jesus. And I think an empty grave is something to ponder on, but also a way of living. I live in the grace of that empty grave. When I face impossibilities in my life,

 which there are many,

 I am reminded that it is not just empty faith or repetition. It is by the actual power that rose Jesus from the death that I am building my life upon.

 And so are you. So today as one final symbol, before you head home, we wanna invite you to participate on this tiny little celebration that is this shell that should contain something else, but much like the people who were outside of that grave, waiting for something else to find maybe that they found something unexpected. There's a grace that we all get to embrace in our lives because that empty grave. So the way that we do, do you want me to display? Yeah. Okay. Okay, hold this. Thank you. It's pretty simple and it makes great pictures. So I hope you go and get your kids. If you have them, if you don't have them, grab somebody else's kids. Nope, nope, grab other kids. We're getting set here. It's just a funner with kids.

 Nope.

 But definitely take a picture.

 Grab somebody that you love and...

 Yay!

 Don't get it in your mouth.

 So listen, we've got these all set up outside. You can grab those on your way out. You can take pictures. You can do it inside. You can do it outside. I am against violence.

 So don't violently and aggressively assault other people with eggs. You know who you are.

 The few people. You've, that's you. So there's plenty of these out here. And then one more thing before we pray. And I always wanna invite this because it is a moment. If you're here and whether you made a decision to accept Jesus today or something's just stirring inside of you, we actually have the baptismal set up. And if you wanna make it act a public declaration of following Jesus in baptism, you can do that. They're actually gonna be ready for you and we can do that. And so if there's any of this room that's like, hey, this is like my butt God moment. And I wanna cap this off with having this expression of following after Jesus. Pastor Andrew's actually right there. We've got clothes and towels and changes and stuff. And so if that's you, after I pray, go find him. Tell him that's what you wanna do. And we'll hang around as long as we need to and get that taken care of. And it'll be a wonderful time to be able to celebrate and it'll be super beautiful. So let me do this. Let me pray for you. Let me bless you as we leave this place. Father God, we just thank you so much for today. We thank you for Easter and our risen savior. Lord, we thank you that you are continually doing works here in our hearts and in our midst, Father. We think that we leave this place, Lord, we can continue to experience your goodness, to know you more deeply and to show you to the world around us. We thank you for that. It's in Jesus' holy name we pray, amen and amen. You all are dismissed. We love you. Happy Easter and we will see you next week.