Hear Me Out After Easter Service | Don't Miss THIS After You Leave Church

Wise Disciple

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Every pastor is faced with the same issue on Easter Sunday. And maybe you are a pastor and you know what

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I'm talking about. But the issue is, how do I teach on a topic that is so well -tread over and over and over again, every single year?

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We all know about the Christ -Easter type of folks who only show up on Christmas and Easter. And so Easter happens to be the most popular, the most known church event in this country, right?

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One of them, anyway. So how do we navigate teaching and talking about Easter in a way that is still fresh and compelling and relevant to people's lives?

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I always hated that question as a pastor myself, because if we really truly believe that the

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Word of God is living and active and sharper than any double -edged sword, piercing down to the very marrow of our bones, and we also believe that we

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Christians are being, you know, Colossians too, built up in Christ, having been established in our faith and the teachings that have instructed us.

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Well, then we'll never actually exhaust the richness of the Scriptures. Amen? We will never be able to fully plumb the depths of the treasure of God's Word as long as we live.

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There's always something more to discover and understand, even with the simple truth of the

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Gospel message. Something that I've said to you many times on this channel is, you never outgrow the

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Gospel. Your job as a Christian is to grow further and further into the Gospel. And let's face it, the

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Resurrection of Christ is the fundamental sine qua non, without which we have no

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Gospel message. So in this video, I just wanted to remind you of something, or maybe you've never thought about it this way before, in which case

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I'm telling you for the very first time, but either way, if you're a Christian and you're heading out to Easter service or you're on the other side of Easter service now,

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I just want to give you a contextual piece of the puzzle to help you think through how the

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Resurrection of Jesus Christ still relevantly pierces directly to your heart and in your specific situation today.

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Okay, so here's the big takeaway. You ready? In order for a lot of us to appreciate, to truly appreciate, the story of the

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Resurrection of Jesus Christ, we need to remember how that story began. If the

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Resurrection of Christ is, let's say, somewhere in Act 3 of God's grand story to redeem humanity,

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I suppose you could say that Jesus' death and resurrection is the resolution of the story of God's redemption.

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By the way, this is a true story, so this is not a fairy tale, and it's not what I'm saying. These events we read of in the

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Bible record actual events that took place in history. Well, if the Resurrection is Act 3, then

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I think it's important for us to remember what happened in Act 1, because Act 3 is supposed to return us to Act 1.

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Genesis 1, have you ever noticed, is written very oddly. Okay?

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It just is. And I'm just going to sidestep for now the whole young earth, old earth creation issue and just simply point out that Genesis 1 is written very poetically, and it's in the form of a chiasm.

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A chiasm is a way of writing where the story sort of mirrors itself.

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You know, it folds up on itself. Okay? And in this way, chiasms guide our focal point directly to the middle of the story.

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In other words, the pearl of wisdom inside the clam of a chiasm is found directly in the center of the story.

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So then I guess the question is, what lies directly at the center of the story of Genesis 1? Have you ever thought about that?

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It's the word moad, which comes from moed in Hebrew. It means appointed time.

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The Jews understood that moed were appointed times that were sacred. They were set apart by God.

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You know what one of the most important sacred appointed times to God was? Sabbath.

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Sabbath means to rest. As a matter of fact, God Sabbaths.

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He rests at the end of the creation story in Genesis 1. Genesis 1, verse 31,

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And God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.

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In day 7, if you notice, that day does not have an evening and a morning like all the other days.

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Why is that? Because God is done. He rests. By the way, I'm telling you this for a reason, okay?

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Pay attention. What happens next? Genesis chapter 2, God creates man and woman, and they enter into a dynamic of relationship in paradise.

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The garden is a paradise with God. But Genesis chapter 2, again, very clearly tells you right at the outset that God has rested.

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Genesis chapter 2, verse 2, And on the seventh day God completed his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.

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Verse 3, Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it he rested from all his work which

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God had created in making it. And so, it is understood that mankind is to enter into this kind of rest with God in paradise, in the garden.

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Now, does that mean mankind is supposed to do nothing? No. It means that mankind is supposed to realize that in God's creation, they have everything they need.

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Whether they do work or not, with God, they have everything they need.

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This is why, again, Jews observed Shabbat, Sabbath, and they considered it to be a sacred moed, an appointed time.

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Why? Because it tracked along the focal point of the creation story itself. So then what happens next?

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Well, we have the story of the fall in Genesis chapter 3. What is that story? That mankind, listen, desired more than what

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God gave them. I mean, that's really the story in a nutshell. They had everything they needed, but they desired more.

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And that is revealed through this interaction with the serpent who entices

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Eve to satisfy the desire she has for more than what God has given them.

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By the way, Adam's right there too, so he's not off the hook. And that's the beginning of the end of mankind's tenure in paradise with God.

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But there is a promise. In the middle of God's punishment in Genesis chapter 3, there is a promise that one day the seed of Eve will crush the head of the serpent.

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And then this promise takes on more shape. And every time we see God interact with mankind through the

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Old Testament, we see aspects of paradise or Eden follow with him.

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To the point where you get all the way to now Jesus dying on the cross, okay? And he turns to the robber who says to him,

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Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom. What does Jesus say back to him? He says, truly,

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I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise. If you look at the

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Greek word Jesus uses there, it's the same word used in Genesis chapter 2 verse 8 in the

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Septuagint that we typically translate garden today, it's the same word. So in other words,

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Jesus is telling the robber, today you will be with me in Eden. Why did

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Jesus die, friends? Why did he rise again? Yes, your pastor is going to tell you that your sin has separated you from God.

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That's true. And there was nothing you could do to put an end to this separation and restore right relationship to God again.

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Only Jesus could do that. And whenever you hear that, by the way, you should say yes and amen it all day long because it's absolutely the case.

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But what I want you to remember this Easter is the answer to this question. What was

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I saved for? See, a lot of us, we tend to know what we were saved from, but we don't know what we were saved for.

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Let me tell you, in one sense, you were saved so that you could rest with your

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God in Eden. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 11 says, therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall into the same example of disobedience.

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What does that mean? It means the salvation of Christ accomplished through his death and resurrection is meant to bring you back to a dynamic of restful living in paradise with God.

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Even right now, Nate? Yes, even right now. Jesus said in John 17 3, this is eternal life.

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Not that they die and at the end of their lives, they finally receive eternal life, but that they know you, the one true

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God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. See, as a follower of Jesus Christ, you have eternal life now.

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You have the ability to be with God right now. And that means that you have rest for your weary souls.

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Jesus said, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

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Through the cross, Jesus brings us right back to the beginning of the story to restore us to the dynamic that we once had with God in Eden.

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And that means we have everything we need. Some of you are feeling tired.

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Some of you are feeling heavy and burdened. You have so many unanswered questions about your life right now and what the future might hold for you.

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By the way, I do as well. And I'm here to tell you, with Christ and in Christ, you have everything that you need.

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Rest in Him this Easter. Find your rest in Him and stay there. From myself and the

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Wise Disciple team, we're praying for you. We're praying that you abide in Christ, that you remain in the rest of God, and that you meditate on these things this

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Easter. I will return soon with more videos for your consideration. But in the meantime, I will say, bye for now.