Easter At The Pointe

That Jesus' resurrection on Easter Sunday is not just a part of his Easter story. It's a promise to you. It's a promise that he made when he said he was going to prepare a place for you, that he is preparing eternity, a place where every tear will be wiped away, where all pain and death and suffering will cease, a place where everything that was broken will be made new. His resurrection is the first of more to come. Jesus did not just rise again so we could feel good and celebrate on Easter Sunday, we could wear pastels and hide Easter eggs and eat ham. He rose again as proof. [00:45:55] (37 seconds)  #ResurrectionPromise

That's three words in English, but one word in Greek. The Greek word is tetelestai. Tetelestai was an accounting term. It's something they would stamp on documents to show that a debt had been paid in full. It's what they stamped on a document to show that it was finished, that it was complete. It served the same purpose as the Hebrew letter Tav. That's what the Tav on the doorpost was pointing to, and Jesus was acknowledging on the cross. But do you know what the ancient Hebrew letter Tav looked like? It looked like a cross. [00:41:26] (37 seconds)  #TetelestaiFinished

That night on the bathroom floor with my six year old terrified of pants, I'm gonna tell you the same thing I told her, That the darkness only makes things seem more terrifying than they truly are. That's not what comforted her. What changed everything was that I stood in the darkness with her. And I think that's probably what you need. Not more answers, not a three step plan. You need to know if God will truly stand by you. [00:46:47] (42 seconds)  #PresenceOverAnswers

And I'd like to say that I think that God is an expert at dealing with the dark Because in the beginning, the first thing God ever did was he spoke into the darkness and said, let there be light. God's first move has always been to push back the dark. But then one day, Jesus Christ, the light of the world, he went dark. He died, was buried in a tomb, and for three days, the world knew a darkness so deep that made you question, would the light ever come back? Would anything ever come back? [00:47:29] (41 seconds)  #LightReturns

And you've probably felt that kind of darkness when your marriage went quiet, when that diagnosis changed everything, when you're living as a version of yourself that you're ashamed of, when you're stuck in a loneliness so deep that you're giving up hope, when the night has come and the land is dark, and the land was dark, the tomb was dark Friday evening. Saturday came and went, but on Sunday morning, the first light broke through once again. Jesus Christ, the light of the world returned, but he did not return to shine alone. [00:48:09] (48 seconds)  #FirstLightTogether

That is what the tov on the doorpost at that first Passover meant. It meant that God was claiming his people. He didn't line them up and say, alright, if you behave yourself, then I'll start liking you. If you prove that I should love you, then I'll claim you. He just said, put the blood on the doorpost so that way you will be mine. God was choosing his people, reminding them who they belonged to. They didn't belong to the pharaoh. They didn't belong to their past. They didn't belong to the broken systems and identities that tried to define them. They belonged to God. They were messy. They were lost. They were idol worshipers, and yet God still said, you are mine. He claimed them. [00:33:50] (45 seconds)  #ClaimedByGod

So if you are stuck in the darkness, if you're stuck in the waiting, if you're stuck in the grief and the pain and the loss, wondering if God can even find you and reach you where you have ended up, I wanna tell you this morning that you're asking the wrong question because God has already reached out to you. That is what the cross proved, that wherever we are in the deepest mess, the deepest dark we have ever known, God has reached out to find you and say, I am here. You are not alone. [00:49:11] (32 seconds)  #GodReachesOut

When Jesus resurrected on this day, it was significant. It communicated something to the point that the Apostle Paul recognized what happened. In First Corinthians fifteen twenty, he wrote this, but Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the First fruits. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Paul's not reaching for a farming metaphor here. He's pointing at the calendar. He's drawing attention to the significance that Jesus was the first one to rise and fulfilled the promise that there would be more to come. [00:45:18] (37 seconds)  #FirstFruitsOfResurrection