Easter | Hour 1

Easter

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand. Today
is Resurrection Sunday, perfect time to look at the most
important instance of pain and trial in the Christian Faith,

(00:21):
the Crucifixion. The entirety of the Christian Faith rises and
falls on the events that took place around two thousand
years ago and that are being celebrated this very weekend
in the shadow of so many things going on, not

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only in the United States but worldwide. When you look
towards a holy day, a holiday that is often referred
to as Easter, it's importance of coming together has great value.

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Don't get me wrong. Being able to connect and to
see friends and family as imperative. Scripture even says to
not forsake the gathering of the brethren, that it is
important to be with one another. It's also very easy
to lose sight of the importance of what you're celebrating

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this weekend, and the two do tie together. Dealing with
this pain, dealing with the intensity of what took place.
I realized that Christmas, because of gift giving and the
secularization of it, many people look towards that differently than

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they do Easter. You look at the resurrection and and
the day is mostly thought of as candy and ham
and these types of things, and nothing wrong with that,
but you can lose sight of many things, one of
which that if this didn't happen, there is no Christian faith. Likewise,

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if you look at this story alone, everything falls into place.
Every part of your belief, your faith, your understanding, every
trial you've ever been through, every trial you're still in,

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is described in one way or another, and you're given
a map, a map to understand how God works in
times of pain. Many stories surrounding the crucifixion, but there
are three main locations and pieces of this story that

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I want you to focus on, because this morning, I
want you to see that God is a god of beginning, middle,
and end. God doesn't leave you in the middle. God

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brings you through the entirety of the process if you
allow God to do that. If you look towards the
will of God rather than the will of your own,
God will bring you through. And it's very hard. In
times of trial. People get very myopic, you get very

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reductionistic to the pain that you're dealing with in that moment,
and it's hard to see that big picture. Imagine if
someone were to poke you with a hat pin, first,

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I'd suggest probably not hanging out with that person. However,
for the sake of the analogy, somebody pokes you with
a hat pin. You are made up of countless nerve endings, pathways, blood, vessels, muscles, bones,
countless somebody pokes you with a hat pin. Everything in

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your body focuses on that tiny little point in life
when something is weighing heavy on you, or there's pain.
It's hard to see everything outside of your pain. So

(05:09):
let's look at the story of the resurrection and the
crucifixion and the pain endured as a map how God
brings you through, Starting first at guesthsemone. The three places

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we're going to look at guthsemone, cavalry and the empty
tomb guesthsemone, and Hebrew got shema nime. This means oil press. Now,

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this location is a garden. It's across the Kidron Valley
on the Mount of Olives, something that comes up quite
a bit in what Christians refer to as the New Testament. Now,
the common belief is this grove of olive trees, which

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are still there today, used to be located next to
an oil press. And the oil press obviously would be
there to retrieve and extract olive oil from the olive trees,
and that gives way to the name Gethsemine. This location

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is incredibly important to the balance and understanding of a beginning, middle,
and end. This being the beginning, We're going to focus
on the fact that Scripture says this was a place
that I often went to pray, connect with the Father,
to relax, to take time away from the ministry on

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its outward showing of connecting with others, to connect with God.
And when you go through and think that even I
took time downtime, even I came to a place where
I needed to reconnect, focus to pray, that you understand

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that a place like this became more than just a
shade tree or a place to lean up against a tree,
and really took on a powerful place of rejuvenation, of
connection and recentering on the word of God. God is

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a god of beginning, middle and ending. Gathsemone cavalry and
the empty tomb. This location, this garden about a mile
long stretching the Kidron Valley, referred to as the Mount

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of Olives, is a very important place. Scripture talks about
it being a place that I would go to connect
with the Father, says in scripture. Then Jesus came with
them to a place called Gathsemone and said to his disciples,

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sit here while I go over there and pray. He
took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebede.
I don't know if you're not familiar. Zebede shows up
a couple of times in scripture. He was a fisherman
and the father of James and John. On the disciples,

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I went, and I began to grieve. I was distressed,
and he said to them, my soul is deeply grieved
to the point of death. Remain here and keep watch
with me. And he went a little beyond them, fell

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on his face and prayed, saying, my father, if it
is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not
as I will, but as you will. He came to
the disciples, found them sleeping, and said to Peter, so
you men could not keep watch over me for one hour,

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keeping watch and praying that you may not enter into temptation.
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. He
went way the second time and prayed, saying, my father,
if this cannot pass away unless I drink it. Your
will be done. And he came and found them sleeping,

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for their eyes were heavy. And he left them again
and went away and prayed a third time, saying the
same thing once more. And he came to the disciples
and said to them, are you still sleeping and resting? Behold?
The hour is at hand, and the son of man
is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up,

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let us be going. Behold, the one who betrays me
is at hand. The part of this this first place. Remember,
God is a god of beginning, middle, and ending. This
is the beginning. It is an intense time of and

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pain and frustration. If you look that, even I was
looking for comfort from people, from others, from friends, from
people I was connected with, and didn't get it. Oftentimes,
when you're in that first point of pain, you will

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find that there won't be people with you, but God
always is with you. Today is Easter. The weight of
so many things are on the shoulder of humanity. And
what a what an appropriate time to look back and

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see the three main locations of this story that you
celebrate on this weekend. Guessemone Calvary and the Empty tomb,
the beginning, middle, and end of the story from the
oil press of Guestsemone. The image of a being extra

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being pressed by a trial, the beginning of this trial,
the point of pain in the garden of Guessemone asking
for people to sit and pray with me, and not
even getting that feeling. The weight of the pain of
this trial is the beginning. The second important location is

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Golgatha or cavalry, first being in Aramaic, the second being
in Latin. Both mean skull. All four Gospels, the Synoptic Gospels,
and John refer to me being crucified on a skull

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shaped hill in ancient Jerusalem Scripture in Matthew says, and
when they came to a place called Golgatha Golgatha, which
means place of the skull, they gave him wine to drink,

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mixed with gall and after tasting it he was unwilling
to drink. And when they had crucified him, they divided
up his garments among themselves by casting lots, and sitting down,
they began to keep watch over him there, and above

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his head they put up the charge against him, which read,
this is Jesus, the King of the Jews. At that time,
two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right
and one on the left. When those passing by were
hurling abuse at him, wagging their heads and saying, you

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who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it
in three days, save yourself if you are the son
of God, come down from the cross. In the same way,
the chief priests also along with the scribes and the elders,
were mocking him, saying he saved others, he can't even

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save himself. He is the king of Israel. Let him
now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.
He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if
he delights in him, For he said, I am the

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son of God. The robbers who had been crucified with
him were also insulting him with similar words. Now from
the sixth hour of darkness that fell upon all the
land until that ninth hour. About the ninth hour, Jesus

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cried out with a loud voice, saying, iloiloi la ma schabacani,
which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
When you look at the second location Golgatha or cavalry,

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the place of the skull, the image that you see
of the three crosses, and there were more than three,
and there were different shapes and sizes. Romans used crucifixion
not just with me. I assure you as a powerful

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tool to show others the agony and the pain of
those that broke the laws of the rules in which
they were enforcing. High on that hill, looking down in pain,
you come across this second location, the place of the skull.

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It starts from the oil press and the extraction and squeezing,
and that point of pain to that second point, the middle,
the peak of the pain, the peak of the shame

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and embarrassment and intensity, people turning on you, adding to
the pain, pushing more and more of this ugliness on

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top of my head, looking for reason to join in
the ugliness. Does any of this sound familiar when you
go through a trial, the beginning of that pain that
starts with loneliness and separation, the peak of the pain,

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which comes with others kicking you when you're down, separating
them themselves from your pain in a different way, now
heaping it on with judgment and ugliness. And then to

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the third place, night approaches a rich man from Arimathea.
His name was Joseph. He had become one of my
dearest disciples. He went to Pilot. He asked for my body.

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Pilot ordered that it was given to him. Joseph took
my body, it was lifeless, wrapped it in clean linen cloth,
and placed it in his own new tomb that he
had cut out of rock. He rolled a big stone
in front of the entrance of the tomb and went away.

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The next day, the chief priests and the pharisees went
to Pilot with great concern Sir, They said, we remember
that while he was still alive, that deceiver said, after
three days I will rise again. So give the order
for the tomb to be made secure into the third

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otherwise his disciples may come steal the body and tell
people that he has been raised from the dead. This
last deception will be worse than the first. Take a guard.
Pi then answered, go make the tomb as secure as
you know. How so they went, and they made the

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tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and
posting guard. This seal was not just a generic seal,
It was a Roman seal that if it was broken
by anyone, they would surely be killed. If the guards
could not keep it from being broken or tampered with,

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they too would be killed. After the Sabbath, at dawn
on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and
the other Mary went to look at the tube. There
was a violent earthquake. An angel of the Lord came

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down from heaven, and going to the tomb, rolled back
the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning,
and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were
so afraid they shook and became like dead men. In
an instant, the angel said to the women, do not

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be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus,
who was crucified. He is not here. He has risen,
just as he said. Come and see the place where
he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples. Jesus
has risen from the dead. Romans won four through five,

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and it was declared to be the Son of God
in power according to the spirit of Holiness, by his
resurrection and from the dead Jesus Christ, our Lord, through
whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about
the obedience of faith for the sake of his name.
Among all nations one Peter one three. Praise be to

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the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. In
his great mercy, He has given us new birth into
a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead. So when you look at the story of Easter,
look beyond the eggs, the bunnies, the chocolate, and you'll

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find what really took place. And that is the greatest
story of a beginning, middle, and end, and how God
works in your lives. Ever, God will bring from Gessemine
to Calvary on into the empty tomb. If you walk

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out in the middle of a movie, you never get
the happy ending, you never see the empty tomb, the resurrection.
You will be in pain. There will be pandemics, there
will be civil unrest, and there will be people in
government in your day to day that will try and

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wind their way around to get what they want, stepping
on you in the process. And the middle may seem
like it goes on forever. But seeking the righteousness of God,
he will bring you through. It's when you try to
push your way and the path that you want God

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to take is when causes problems. The very reason Judas
betrayed me. Was because Judas felt the Massikh the Messiah,
was going to be a militant to take over the

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rule of Rome and give it to the Jews, so
much so he kept trying to force it. God had
a different plan, and God has a different plan for
your beginning, your middle, and your ending. Never lose sight

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of that, Never lose sight of the empty Tomb. The
story of what is often called Easter the Resurrection is
a powerful one, not only because it is pivotal into
your faith as a Christian. Christianity doesn't exist without the

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Crucifixion and the Resurrection. But when you look at those
three special markers, the beginning, the middle and the end
Gathsemone Calvary and the empty Tomb, you can see how
God works through pain and seemingly ugliness. It will, most

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assuredly never be in your time. Even I in the
Garden of Guesthsemite asked, Hey, if it's possible, let this
cup pass from me. I'm not asking about my will,
but your will. There's a powerful thing happening there that question,

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that question is filled with so much that's less for
me than it is for you to read. I knew
it was God's will, but you needed to know if
there was any other way to get to heaven, if

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there was any other way to connect with God, that
would have been the time. And God, not through words
but through action, responded, my beloved, There's no other way,

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and God will tell you that as well. You will
raise your eyes and maybe sometimes your fist to the heavens,
and you will say, why why am I in the
middle of this? You can ask these things and God

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will respond You are in the middle, but I will
pull you through. There will be that empty tomb. And
it's not like I walked quietly to the cross. It

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says in scripture that I dealt with the pain for
the hope of what was going to take place, for
the importance of what was going to take place. But
I still had pain. I still quoted scripture. I still
asked the Father. But through all of that, most importantly

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I trusted God. KFI A six on demand