Why We Celebrate That He Is Risen
Time Stamps
00:00:00 - Welcome and Easter greetings: He is risen indeed!
00:02:00 - Understanding the significance of Easter beyond chocolate eggs
00:04:00 - What happened on Good Friday: when all seemed lost
00:07:00 - The empty tomb and resurrection evidence
00:13:00 - Why resurrection is the cornerstone of Christian faith
00:29:00 - Living with disappointment and doubt
00:46:00 - Heaven talk: What will eternity with Jesus be like?
The Empty Tomb Changes Everything
Easter Sunday is more than just chocolate eggs and family roasts (though we're big fans of both). It's the day that changed everything – the moment when death lost its sting and hope was reborn from the darkest moment in history.
When Mary Magdalene and another Mary went to Jesus' tomb that first Easter morning, they weren't expecting much. They were simply going to pay their respects to their teacher who had been crucified and buried days earlier. But what they found – or rather, what they didn't find – would transform human history forever.
"He is not here. He has risen just as he said." (Matthew 28:6)
Those words from the angel at the empty tomb are perhaps the most revolutionary announcement ever made. But to truly grasp their significance, we need to understand what came before.
The Journey to Sunday
The disciples had been with Jesus for three years. They'd witnessed incredible miracles – storms calmed, blind eyes opened, even the dead raised to life. They believed Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah who would bring God's kingdom to earth.
Then came Good Friday. Their teacher, their friend, their hope for the future – hanging lifeless on a Roman cross. His body was wrapped in linen and placed in a tomb sealed with a massive stone, signifying the finality of death.
The disciples scattered in fear. Everything they'd believed seemed to collapse around them.
As Anna shared during our service, "Right there in the middle of this miracle story about Jesus dying and then being brought back to life, right there in the middle is this big period at the end of Friday, on Good Friday and all day Saturday, where there's just silence and he's dead."
That Saturday was a day of devastating disappointment. The disciples sat with their questions, their doubts, and their shattered hopes. Jesus could have avoided this – he could have saved himself, or come straight back to life – but instead, he allowed his followers to experience that painful space of waiting and uncertainty.
"It allows us the space to just like the disciples did, to sit with that pain and discomfort and those questions and those doubts," Anna explained. "It speaks to all of us who have sat with disappointment and difficulty and wondered, 'But God, where are you in this situation?'"
Why the Resurrection Changes Everything
The Christian faith doesn't shy away from life's disappointments or pretend that suffering isn't real. Instead, it acknowledges the reality of our Saturday moments – those times when God seems silent and our hopes lie buried.
But Sunday always comes.
As Matt explained during our gathering, the resurrection of Jesus isn't just a happy ending to a sad story – it's the foundation of everything we believe:
"If there is no resurrection, there is no Christian faith. Christianity, the whole thing about Christianity, rests upon the resurrection of Christ, and if you can take away the resurrection, you take away everything really that Christianity is about."
In 1 Corinthians 15:17-20, the Apostle Paul puts it bluntly: "If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is futile and you are still in your sins... But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead."
The resurrection wasn't just Jesus somehow surviving death – it was his complete victory over it. When Jesus appeared to his disciples, he showed them his physical body, inviting Thomas to touch his wounds. This wasn't a ghost or a spiritual vision; it was a bodily resurrection that transformed everything.
What Changed Because of the Empty Tomb?
The same disciples who hid behind locked doors in fear became bold proclaimers of this resurrection reality. The early church exploded with growth, eventually transforming the Roman Empire and beyond.
But the resurrection isn't just historical – it's personal. Here's what it means for us today:
Sin has been dealt with
Jesus' death paid the price for sin, and his resurrection proved that the payment was accepted.Death has been defeated
As Christians, we can now ask, "Death, where is your sting? Where is your victory?" (1 Corinthians 15:55)We are raised with Christ
"When he was raised from the dead, we were raised to new life with him," Matt explained. "We now sit spiritually speaking at the right hand of God."God makes his home in us
Through the Holy Spirit, the resurrected Christ lives within believers, bringing his power and presence into our daily lives.
Living in the Reality of Resurrection
During Conversation Street, Will shared a powerful analogy about Peter – the disciple who denied Jesus three times before the crucifixion, yet became the rock upon which Jesus would build his church.
Will compared us to the stones in Lake District dry stone walls: "If you care about the materials, you build a dry stone wall or a cottage... Jesus cares about each individual stone, and he will build a building formed of each of those rocks. Each one is unique. Each one has its awkwardness."
That's the beauty of the resurrection – it's not about making us into uniform, mass-produced bricks that all look the same. It's about God taking us as we are – rough edges, failures, doubts and all – and incorporating us into his beautiful, diverse kingdom.
Anna added that so much of our lives happens in the "Saturday spaces" – those times of uncertainty, disappointment and waiting. The resurrection doesn't eliminate those seasons, but it does promise that Sunday is coming. Whatever you're facing, whatever disappointments you're sitting with, resurrection power can transform your situation.
"The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us," Matt reminded us. It's the power of grace that transforms our failures, the power of love that redeems our broken relationships, and the power of hope that sustains us through our darkest moments.
The Invitation of Easter
This Easter, whatever your situation, the empty tomb offers you a new beginning. If you're in a Friday moment of devastating loss, or a Saturday space of doubt and questions, Sunday is coming. The resurrection invites us to live differently – to approach seemingly dead-end situations knowing that God specialises in new beginnings.
The tomb is empty. Jesus is alive. And that changes everything.
Why not join us next week as we continue our "Becoming Whole" series? Or if you're exploring faith and have questions about Jesus, our Alpha course is running now – click here to find out more.
He is risen. He is risen indeed.
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Easter 25
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Matt Edmundson: [00:00:00] A very warm welcome to you. My name is Matt. Welcome to Crowd Church. Happy Easter to all of you watching Do say, oh. I definitely don't even mean twice. Super slick. Yeah, very slick. Uh ha. Very happy Easter to you. He is risen.
We like to say that as Christians on Easter Sunday, uh, for reasons which we're gonna get into. Um, and the standard reply is he is risen indeed. He is risen indeed. Uh, he is in fact risen and he's risen indeed. Now beside me that beautiful Manus sword is will salt with and beside will. The beautiful lady, uh, Anna Kettle.
Hello. So very warm. Welcome to you boys and girls.
Will Sopwith: Lovely to be here as ever. Yeah. Happy Easter to you.
Matt Edmundson: Happy Easter. Easter. Have you, um, have you done that thing where you've just stuffed your face full of chocolate today?
Will Sopwith: Pretty
Matt Edmundson: much.
Will Sopwith: No, actually there was a lot, there was a lot of savory involved, um, stuffing face with, with roast, which was uh, yeah.
Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah. Lovely. Yeah.
Anna Kettle: Do you think that's the thing, as you get older, you stop. Um, like stuffing your face with roast, [00:01:00] uh, with chocolate as much as roast, like my son had about six Easter eggs this morning, but yeah, I didn't get any. No
Will Sopwith: de definitely, yeah, the ch the chocolate can wait. Yeah. Get the roast meat.
Yeah, I'm really sorry. It's a feast day. It's a feast. I love, I love the fact that there, we have feast days in the Christian calendar and uh, yeah, I think sometimes we forget how to feast, but Easter is, is that great feast? Yeah,
Matt Edmundson: that's a really important point actually. And just to give you a heads up, ladies and gentlemen, in the coming weeks, we are gonna be going back into, uh, becoming whole series, right?
Um, we started this Betty. Well, I dunno. It was a while ago. Uh, we looked at becoming whole. I'm gonna reintroduce it next week. We're gonna get into that. One of the things that we're gonna cover in that is, um, feasting, uh, food and fellowship and feasting and what the Bible says about the whole thing. So, uh, it's a very fascinating topic.
I was preparing the teaching notes for it this afternoon, which is why it's fresh in my head. So, uh, yes. So today crowd is a little bit different. We don't have a specific talk. A bit like last week. We've got our panel. We're gonna [00:02:00] introduce some ideas. We're gonna chat around those ideas. So we'd love your feedback, your questions in the comments, whether you're watching on YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram.
I think on, uh, which means Dan, you might have to monitor Facebook and. Instagram, just you can monitor the comments and text me, uh, anything that comes in that's not on YouTube, that would be awesome. Um, so just talking to the guys, uh, the tech guys at the back helping me out today. Uh, so, uh, we have got in the comments.
Nicola. Happy Easter. Nicola. Happy Easter. Matt, crew Marina. Happy Easter. Uh, Alice, happy Easter. Uh, everyone's saying Happy Easter. Matt says, are you gonna buy his takeaways as part of the feast? Uh. No. Uh, but I think it's a worthwhile question. So today is Easter Sunday. How was your Easter Sunday? Let us know in the comments what you got up to.[00:03:00]
Have you had a feast today? Have you had chocolate today, or do you not really do that whole thing? I'm genuinely curious. Uh, I, I, I did a lot of roast today, but I also did a lot of chocolates day, uh, which was, you know, fair enough. 'cause it is Easter after all. Mm-hmm. Um, but is Easter just about chocolate?
Um, is it just about the eggs? Uh, is it about Easter egg hunts? Is it about bunnies, um, and Easter egg hunts, or is there something a lot more to it now as Christians, we would say there is something a lot more to it. Now, last week we looked at Palm Sunday. And Palm Sunday. Uh, quick recap is the, is the day when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey and they lay palms at his feet and they're cloaks and he sort of goes on, uh, into Jerusalem.
It's called the triumphal. Entry it's called, isn't it? And he sort of, he rides into Jerusalem, he heads to the [00:04:00] temple, turns over some tables, gets angry, whips a few folks, all part of the Easter story, folks. Not gonna lie. Uh, and um, and it is, it is interesting how his week takes the turn from there, right?
And so Jesus is arrested. He is, um, tried very unfairly as we would say these days. Um, and he is executing, he is crucified on the Friday. And so we're gonna be talking about that. We're gonna be talking about what happened Friday. We're gonna talk about what happened on Saturday and then on Sunday, uh, the resurrection.
So just bringing it all in. Uh, Matt says he ate like normal chocolates for supper. Okay. Um, and Marina went and watched a Catholic possession and ate chocolate and lunch or four lunch maybe. Nice. Good way to spend your Sunday. Okay, so on Friday, lemme just read my notes here. All seemed lost. Jesus. Who many had followed with [00:05:00] such hope.
Now you gotta remember the disciples that were following. Jesus had been with this guy through thick and through thin. They'd been with him for at least three years. Um, they had seen miracle after miracle. They'd seen Jesus get into a lot of bother. Um. A lot of bother, but they had seen God provide miraculously, both rai, I mean God raised people from the dead.
People got healed. They saw the wind and waves supernaturally stop these storms. Peter walked on water. Um, you had money just magically appearing in fishes, bellies, I mean, all kinds of stuff just going on through the ministry of Jesus and the disciples were with him for those three years. Thinking that Jesus was in fact the Messiah, the Christ, the soon coming King, who was gonna bring God's kingdom.
And yet here on Friday, they're looking at the crucified corpse of Jesus on a cross. Um, he was taken down from the cross once he was dead, and we know [00:06:00] he was dead. Some people have said in the past that Jesus wasn't it, but we know that he was. The Romans were pretty good at the whole crucifixion thing.
They kind of knew what they were doing, uh, the broken legs, the blood and the water pointing out. There's all kinds of reasons as to why we think he actually died. His body was wrapped in linen, placed in a tomb. The tomb was then sealed with a maive stone, um, which represented the finality of death. Um, the disciples, as I said, were devastated.
They actually scattered. They were quite fearful, um, and we know that they questioned everything. Um, and then on Sunday in Matthew 28, it says that Mary Magdalene and another Mary. Mary was obviously a popular name. Uh, Mary went to the tomb only to find the stole had been stole only to find the stone had been rolled away.
And an angel proclaiming one of my favorite quotes from scripture in Matthew 28, verse six. He is not here. [00:07:00] He has risen just as he. Said, what a pronouncement that angel made. And so Luke tells us that Jesus appeared to his, his followers with tangible evidence of his body resurrection. Um, he said to Thomas to look at my hands and my feet.
Um, he even told Thomas to touch him, um, because Thomas thought he was a ghost, but he is like, no, no, no. A ghost doesn't have flesh and blood, uh, as you see that I have. And so the resurrection changed everything then, and it changed everything for these early followers. They went from hiding behind locked doors to boldly proclaiming uh, the gospel, the good news of Christ.
The early church was born and everything just went crazy, and here we are 2000 years later, still talking about it. Most of the western world has been affected by Christianity in so many ways, and in fact, quite a lot of the east as well. It's. It's amazing the depth that one single event has had [00:08:00] on our culture.
But how does it still matter today? How does a resurrection still matter? And what might it mean to live in this reality? That's some of the stuff that we're gonna be talking about in the panel today. Um, the interesting thing to note, and the reason why I love talking about this, I mentioned this last week.
The Apostle Paul who writes the majority of the New Testament, he said this, if Christ has not been raised, in other words, if there's no resurrection, then your faith is futile. Um, you are still in your sins, but Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first roots of those whom have fallen asleep.
So if there is no resurrection. There is no Christian faith. Christianity is, the whole thing about Christianity rests upon the resurrection of Christ, and if you can take away the resurrection, you take away everything really that Christianity is about. And so this is why we talk about it as much as we do because it is such [00:09:00] an impact on all of us.
I would say that's the, that's my intro. Does that have I, have I done that well enough guys?
Will Sopwith: That's fantastic. I, it just reminded me of a, a story. I probably, when I was 18, the, the minister of the church said, but you know, even if it is proved to be all rubbish, I wouldn't change a thing about the way I've lived.
That that was how convinced this guy was and how much he'd experienced. Uh, the joy of, of living for Christ. He said, even if it turns out to be completely wrong, I, I wouldn't change, which, which really challenged me back then, but I beginning to understand a bit of, uh, what he was talking about.
Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Yeah.
No, very good. So Anna, over to you.
Anna Kettle: Fantastic. Well, um, we were asked to kind of pick out a little bit of one part of the story that really sort of speaks to us. Um, I guess me, I. Perhaps the bit that really jumps out the most is [00:10:00] this whole idea of the huge, just profound disappointment that the disciples would have felt, um, on that Friday when they watched their Lord and their Savior, the, the sky that they'd been following as their teacher, and, um, the one that they believed was the Messiah.
And they'd been fooling around over several years teaching with him, working with him, living with him, like. Yeah, watching him do these miracles, you know, walking on water, um, healing the sick, just doing some incredible stuff and. And then to go from that and having huge crowds following them around and like, and like Matt was saying, just a week ago there was Palm Sunday and he was triumphantly kind of brought into the city and the crowds were cheering for him.
And then just a week later to watch that all be ripped away in just an incredibly devastating way to see someone that you loved and cared about as a friend as well, and someone that you'd put with your hopes and your. [00:11:00] Just all of your kind of, um, expectations and faith into then, um, crucified in such a violent and inhumane death.
I can't even begin to imagine what that was like, um, for those disciples. Um, all of Jesus followers, the women, you know, who followed him as well, like you just touched on Mary there and I. Yeah. And the thing that I find mind blowing about this story is that right there in the middle of this miracle story about Jesus dying and then being brought back to life, right there in the middle is this big period at the end of Friday, on Good Friday and all day Saturday, where there's just silence and he's, he's dead.
He's in a tomb. And you know, Jesus could have. Walked back up, you know, he could have saved himself, he could have got back up off that cross in front of everyone and done this amazing miracle for everyone to see. But he [00:12:00] didn't. He let his followers sit with this disappointment and this doubt and this period of silence where it's like, well, what happened then?
Just this incredible heaviness and you know, he really did die and. And then they were scattered and just that huge disappointment that it must have been to, to have expected him to do something and then he didn't. And just the confusion and the questions that must have been. On on that Saturday when it's like, well, what happened?
He's in the grave and we thought he was gonna be the Messiah. And all of these questions, and I think what I find really encouraging at the Easter story is that it allows you to sit with your questions and your doubts. And those times when you are like, God, I thought you were gonna turn up here. I thought you were gonna do something.
I thought there was gonna be a miracle. And then. Life didn't work out the way I wanted it to. Yeah. And it, it allows us the space to just like the disciples did, to sit with that [00:13:00] pain and, and discomfort and those questions and those doubts. And it kind of, it speaks to me that right in the middle of the story, you know, that those things okay to feel, because the disciples felt it in the face of this too.
And I guess for me. It's not just a sense of permission, but it's, yeah, it sort of speaks to all of, all of us who have sat with disappointment and difficulty and wondered, but God, where are you in this situation? Or perhaps had situations where you thought God was gonna turn up and do one thing, and then perhaps he didn't and the miracle didn't come or still hasn't come it, it didn't look the way he thought it was gonna, and.
Obviously we know the end of the story and God did, you know, do something and it was turned around and there was uh, there was a Sunday that came, you know, there was a resurrect extension Sunday, but on Saturday they didn't know that. And I always [00:14:00] think as Christians, we read the story knowing the end already.
But those early disciples didn't know that and they just needed disappointment and the fear and the doubt and the confusion of not understanding and like not knowing if God was still there and you know if he was gonna do anything or not. And I think that's incredibly powerful, I think to sit with for a little while because.
Yeah, I, I dunno, I've grown up in a, you know, a church culture that tends to almost jump a little bit to the Sunday. You know, it loves a Sunday celebration. Like, you know, when we, we say he's risen, he is risen indeed, and we have big Sunday service. But actually we don't always take the time to sit in the pain and the doubt and the discomfort of those what ifs.
And I know that. There's lots of people. There's lots of people I know there'll be lots of people watching who are sitting almost in a meta metaphorical kind of Saturday now in their own lives where they're like, God, I don't know. How this is gonna end yet. And I [00:15:00] don't know if you're gonna come a three for me or not, or maybe I thought you were gonna do this and you haven't.
And I, you know, I have examples of that in my own life as well. I, you know, I've talked about it before on crowd, but you know, my husband and I went through a whole season of five or six years of recurrent miscarriage and infertility where we would get pregnant and think, this is it. This is the baby we've been praying for.
God's given us a miracle. And then. We would just lose that baby like eight or 10 weeks later and it was just, it was soul crushing and some of those questions we still sit with now, and yet I know that. It's not the end of our story either, that God is still got our lives and you know, that one day all those things will be made right in eternity.
Um, I think they're not always made right here and now. And like we wanted a miracle that looked like God giving us another baby here on Earth. And we didn't get that. We haven't had that yet. I think it's very light cleaner. [00:16:00] Um, but I, you know, I still think that God is working. All things for our good in the light of eternity.
And I think sometimes it's hard because like, like the disciples, you think God's gonna work in a specific way, he's gonna do something and then it doesn't look that way. But maybe he's working a bigger miracle or something different that we can't see yet. And yeah, I just love this story because it allows space to sit with those difficult questions and those parts of our lives that are still gray or still not worked out, still unknown.
Still cause us to have doubts. And you know, I'll be honest, some days I do still have doubts. I do think, God, I don't understand it, but I can trust that, that it's not over yet because God is who he says he is. And he's proven it in this story. And like so much of our lives happens in the Saturday, doesn't it actually?
Yeah. So much of our lives as human beings, you know, we live with [00:17:00] disease and all kinds of difficulties and I think. Yeah. I, I just love the fact that this story speaks into all of that.
Will Sopwith: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I, I completely agree. And there's, I think as I've got older, the, the beauty of Easter Saturday, it always felt like a bit of a nothing day, but it's so important.
It's never something that's gonna make the highlight real, is it the Saturday? But as you say, actually most of our life is probably lived Yeah. In that kind of space of
Anna Kettle: uncertainty rather than uncertainty.
Will Sopwith: Absolutely. The
Anna Kettle: highs, yeah. Yeah. Yeah,
Will Sopwith: I think I, I, I always question what, what were they doing on that Saturday?
You know, what, what? And, and we don't get a lot of detail in the Bible, but, but we see the women early Sunday morning. It's like, we are not leaving this, you know, you, you kind of get the sense of just this sort paralysis of, of grief and shock. I mean, the men are nowhere, but the women are like, we're not.
We're not ditching this, we're gonna, [00:18:00] now, we're gonna go and anoint the body. We're gonna continue to honor, uh, this Jesus that, that, that has transformed our lives. Um, but I imagine, yeah, a lot of, a lot of fear, they were kind of behind locked doors weren't, they were scared of like, are they gonna come for us now as well?
And just that sort of, that, that paralysis and, and, and again, I think, you know, what do you do in those moments when you just, just feel paralyzed and. I was really struck by what you said, Anna, that Jesus knew all that he kind of knew, knew they had to go through that. I wonder how it changed their response when, when Jesus then came having had that Saturday, rather than just stepping off the cross and going, ta-da.
Anna Kettle: Yeah, there's something about the delay isn't there, almost, that they had to trust and keep, keep waiting and keep believing even in the middle of their doubt and their pain and their uncertainty. Like you say, it would've been easy for Jesus to just climb back off that cross and show everyone there and then, but there wouldn't have [00:19:00] been.
I wonder about seasons in our life where we have to wrestle with doubt and discomfort and those questions and, and disappointments really like, I think. Some part of it is in that process, our faith has changed, it's deepened. And I wonder if that's what part of it was about for the disciples as well.
Like, I know that from my life, like in those seasons of disappointment where rubber hits the road, your, your faith is tested and deepened and changed. Um, and I, you can see that in the disciples. Like, then they scatter and, you know, and. Go out and share the gospel with many, you know, parts of the world, don't they, over the following years.
And you sort of think, I don't know if there's something in that wrestling with their doubt and their disappointment and their fears actually strengthens and deepens their faith as well.
Matt Edmundson: Yeah, I it is, I think, I think the short answer is yes, isn't it? And, and the thing that I'm thinking about here is Friday happens [00:20:00] when.
When the dream just collapses around you, right? Where it just, the crucifixion happens and it is all horrible and nasty, but in that moment, you are dealing with the horribleness of the situation. You know, you've got questions, but you are deal with those at some point, because right now you're just faced with the, the horror of the situation, right?
Everything's collapsing. But it's what you do in the next day, isn't it? Yeah. Um, like you say, it's what you do on the Saturday that when you wake up and you realize that everything has collapsed, then what do you do? What's your, what's the distinction then? How do you live out this faith which you have professed?
Mm-hmm. It's, it's not so much a Friday question, it's more of a Saturday question, if that makes sense. Because Friday you're dealing with the drama on Saturday. If you're dealing with lying there in bed in the morning thinking it all through, aren't you? Mm-hmm. There's nowhere to go. Um, and I, I, [00:21:00] I think you're right.
I think sometimes my, my experience with God is quite often he doesn't deliver as out things. He delivers us through things. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And there are things that you have to go through and you have to sit in. Um, not because I think God is some kind of weird nutter that wants to make you do that, but I think in that process.
Something quite deep and profound happens within us. Mm-hmm.
Anna Kettle: It's almost like there's, um, sort of a dying that then leaves to greater life. And obviously that is the whole point of the story we're talking about here, isn't it? But I also feel like that's repeated in small ways again and again as a theme three scripture, like talks about, you know, a, a seed falling to the ground and then it multiplies when it becomes a plant.
And, you know, there's loads of examples aren't there. And Jesus talked again and again. In stories about this thing of, unless something dies, you know, but it, it, it doesn't produce much, but once it goes into the ground and [00:22:00] dies, it comes back up and like sort of multiplies and Yeah, you sort of see that theme a lot in scripture and I, I, it's not a surprise then when we'd find that theme and not in lives as well.
Will Sopwith: Yeah.
Matt Edmundson: So, uh. Marina's said here. Beautiful understanding of a silent Saturday. I like the phrase, silent Saturday. Yeah, I like that. We might steal that, marina. Thank you. Um, so moving on from Saturday, we obviously the, I think the thing to remember here is there are seasons that we go through, right?
Sometimes those seasons are Friday, sometimes they're Saturday, and sometimes it's Sunday. It's resurrection Sunday when you wake up. The day starts off in a very different way to how it ends. And like you say, it was the women that went down to the tomb, Mary and the other Mary, Mary Me, be they went down to the tomb and the men were nowhere.
I'm not gonna make [00:23:00] any point about that. 'cause I think it's a fairly obvious one, isn't it? I think it is a pretty obvious one.
Anna Kettle: They were just running scared, weren't they? Yeah. Let's be honest. They, you know, were scared for their lives.
Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Um, so building on the reality of that disappointment, right?
Um, I think we all know Easter as a familiar story. Mm-hmm. Right? Growing up, certainly in the uk, you would've understood it as a sort of a familiar story. And just to correct an earlier point that I said, uh, because I have had, uh, a correction, uh, Jesus' legs were not broken during the crucifixion, uh, which I may have alluded to.
I'm sorry if I did. Uh, actually his legs weren't broken. Um, they went to break his legs. Which they did in a crucifixion, because in a crucifixion you basically suffocated and by breaking the legs, you, you died quicker. Um, but they went to break his legs, but they found he was already dead. So they [00:24:00] pierced his side with a spear and said, and this was done to fulfill an Old Testament prophecy that not one of his bones would be broken.
So, uh, just to clarify that. Um, so what is it about the resurrection? Right? So the women go to the tomb, the stone has been rolled away. They're like, besides themselves, like, what is going on? And an angel appears and says he's not here. He has risen, just as he said he would. They then run back to the house.
They tell the disciples. Or the men, the men are like, you are crazy. Mm-hmm. Because again, no further comment needs to be made about, about men in this situation. I feel like we're not painted in a very good light here in this story. Um, anyway, they peg it down. John and Peter, they have a little race, don't they?
Is it John that gets there first? Yeah. I think's, I think it's looks in. Yeah. Yeah. And they look in the tomb, um, and they say they see that Jesus is not there and. All of a sudden, what moments [00:25:00] before was a state of disbelief is a place of hope and possibility. Uh, and this is where resurrection really plays an important part in our lives.
Because I said earlier that if there's no resurrection, there is no Christian faith. Now, was it just the fact that Jesus rode rose from the dead? Is it an ending to a good story? That Jesus is sort of raised from the dead, and the answer here is no, because if we read the gospels, Jesus was not the only person raised from the dead.
We know Lazarus was raised from the dead. We know Jairus's daughter was raised from the dead. So what is it about Jesus being raised from the dead? What is it about that resurrection? And a bigger question maybe is why did he actually have to die? What was that all about? And so as Christians, we would say he died because he took on himself.
The, the punishment for our sin, the basically the punishment for sin was death, no other [00:26:00] way around it. And so he took upon himself that death. But in reality, you had somebody who died that didn't deserve death, who was God incarnate, and therefore could conquer death. Um, and I, I just, whenever I think about it, I'm reminded of that scene from the movie, you know, the Chronicles of Narnia.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Edmundson: Where Alan is slain on the, on the table, and then the table breaks in two, and there's Alan, and he makes this comment that if she, if the witch really understood what happened, um, or understood the deep magic, she never would've, um, tried to kill Alan. I'm doing an injustice to the, the quote, but it's this really powerful imagery that actually the one person who couldn't die was in the, was in the grave.
And the fact that he was raised from the dead means that he conquered, um, death. And there's a beautiful verse in the Bible which says, death. Where is your sting? Where is your [00:27:00] victory? And so, not only has sin, the price of sin been paid for, but death has been defeated. And not only that, and this is where it you, I mean, if your mind's not already blown.
The apostle Paul says that when he was raised from the dead, we were raised to new life with him, that we were also raised from the dead, and that he now sits at the right hand of God, the father on high. We now sit. Spiritually speaking at the right hand of God, the father on high. And we talked about this um, a few months ago when we looked at identity, who we are in Christ, that actually we now have this resurrected life that our old self has been crucified, but we have been raised together with.
Him. So sin has been dealt with, death has been dealt with, and we are now raised together with him. So we now have this eternal hope because death has been permanently defeated, which is why if there's no [00:28:00] resurrection, there's no Christian faith because of all of these claims that the Christian faith makes, just cannot be made without the resurrection.
Mm-hmm. And so, um. It's not just about Jesus coming back to life. It is about God's victory over sin and death. It's about Jesus doing what he said to his disciples that he would do in the gospel, and it addresses everything in life because Jesus rose from the dead. I'm raised from the dead. That brings life meaning, and it brings life purpose and it brings fresh hope, and it brings power and it brings goodness and it just.
Brings God into our hearts. So we now live in this place where Jesus says that He will make his home with God in us, by the Holy Spirit, they're at home, the Godhead in all his power, and Trinity decides to make their home inside you and inside me. And that is the power of the resurrection, and that's why the [00:29:00] empty tomb really, really does matter today.
Mm.
Will Sopwith: Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. What do you say to that? I mean, it is, I dunno. It's, it's fantastic. It it, it is amazing and it is mind blowing. It, it completely is mind blowing. Um. But the way that it, it follows on that the whole arc of scripture and, and God's dealings with his people and how to bring that, that life eternal, uh, right from the garden that we've been looking at all, all last term, I.
Right through to this day. Um, it is a beautiful arc of story and, and it's like a, this great kind of shout at this point of like, ah, this, this is where it all fits together. This, this is, this is the completion of all of those years, hundreds of years of God's dealing with people to this moment, um, in a.
Yeah. A a little city in the Middle East, you know, and just this, this guy, [00:30:00] this kind of, nobody really. Yeah. Um, it, it's phenomenal.
Matt Edmundson: Yeah.
Will Sopwith: 2000
Matt Edmundson: years ago, history changed, didn't it? Yeah. And it changed remarkably. And you, you cannot get around it. I think the only thing you can really do. At the moment, uh, if you dunno, by the way, ladies, gentlemen, we've been doing an alpha course this week is week three of the Alpha course.
If you'd like to join us, come join us. Uh, we're actually asking the question, why did Jesus die? So what I've just talked about in 30 seconds, we're gonna explain a little bit more. Uh, if you wanna join us on Alpha, come find out more information at the website Crowd Church. Just click on the alpha link and it'll come up.
Just register for that. I'll send you the Zoom link. Come and join us. Anyway, uh, all of that said, um. There is something I think that every human being has to answer. There's a, you know, there are questions that we all have to answer. Alpha starts off with a simple question, is there more to life than this?
Right? Is there more to life than the [00:31:00] Easter eggs? The chasing the salary, the all the things that we get meaning and purpose from. Is there more to it than that? And actually I think there's a, a question that then haunts for want of a better expression, every single one of us. And that is, did the resurrection actually happen?
Um, and I think there is a lot of evidence to say that it did, but ultimately there is still an element of faith in this conversation. But I think you have to wrestle with it. I think it's imperative that each and every single one of us wrestles with this question, did the resurrection happen? Because if it did, I.
There is no greater event that will have an impact on your life, like the resurrection, right? If it didn't, no problem. If it did, that changes everything. Um, and so I think it's a really important question to answer. So, uh, should we have a look at the comments? Mid, mid [00:32:00] stop? Uh. What happens if I don't fit in a particular Christian denomination?
Oh, well hang on For part three. Oh, is that what? Are you gonna cover that? Okay, cool. Uh, well, let's let, well, let's do that then. Let's move on to part three. That's set you up nicely, doesn't it?
Will Sopwith: Beautifully segued. So finally, today, as part of the Easter story, we're thinking about Peter. Peter, this young man.
He was likely in his twenties when he was with Jesus. Impetuous, full of passion, full of bravado, always front of the queue. Peter, who shot his mouth off at times, but was absolutely, you know, publicly declared that he would go to the ends of the earth with Jesus through thick and thin. He was the one that was gonna be there.
Don't you worry Jesus. And you know, in front of all these other people, that is my pledge to you. And here we have him. [00:33:00] Friday evening, Thursday, Friday morning, denying that he even knows Jesus, let alone that he's one of his students. What does this man do? And we're moving from Sunday now to Easter Monday.
What does this man do when he's, he's had his entire pride punctured. He feels an absolute failure. For all of his bravado means nothing because he fled like everyone else did. And he denied even knowing Jesus. But the amazing thing about Jesus is this is exactly the type of person that God is after. And I just need to look at my notes at this point.
'cause in Psalm 51, uh, it says The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart. These, oh God, you will [00:34:00] not despise. And if you think about it, Jesus himself kind of embodied a bit of a failure. He was kind of cut off in his prime. We've talked about the, the, the shock of Friday. Again, we, you were supposed to conquer the Romans.
You were supposed to be our, our revolutionary hero. And, and here you are dying this shameful death. Jesus talks about himself and he says in Mark 12, the stone, the builders rejected, has become the cornerstone. And that again, is, it's quoting another psalm, another Old Testament scripture, ancient psalm.
And the cornerstone was absolutely crucial in a house because it's set the lines of the walls and the kind of the, the, the structure of the building. The cornerstone was central. But Jesus says about himself, I was rejected. I wonder whether Peter was beginning to remember some of those things that Jesus said, probably not on on Monday, maybe on Tuesday, maybe [00:35:00] as he went on, but he was like, well, what am I gonna do with this?
There's the horror, there's the silence, there's the amazement of Easter Sunday, but I messed up. I don't really fit in this story. I was in the lakes last week and. Just reflecting on if any of you been to the lakes or any kind of countryside and you see the dry stone walls and cottages made of, of stones, and they're built from the rocks around, you know, around in, in the landscape, and they're uneven and they're rough.
The dry stone walls, dry being, they're not even stuck together. This is incredible artistry of these, these misshapen rocks being put together in walls right across the landscape, right up the mountains. These incredible structures just not even stuck together with cement. And I was thinking and contrasting this to how you would want [00:36:00] to build a housing estate and you like bricks because bricks have a very uniform length, width height.
Mass produced, you know exactly where you are with 'em. You stack 'em on top of each other as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Now, if you are concerned about the outcome of your building, you use bricks. That is the most efficient way to do it. That's why there are so many bricks. If you care about the materials, you build a dry stone wall or a cottage.
And I was reflecting on Peter. I mean, petros means rock, funnily enough, but this kind of this rough edge, none of the angles quite worked awkward shape. And Jesus said, no, you, you are the one that I want for all your failures, all your, even your denial. You are the one I'm gonna build my church on. And that that's Jesus' words when he has that incredible reconciliation [00:37:00] scene.
Peter, you are the rock that I'm gonna use to build my whole church on your rough, awkward failure that is the heart of Jesus. And it kind of t ties in a little bit with that denomination question because you know you're not a brick, you're not just. Being a Christian is not okay. You need to fit a particular set because you need to slot in and we need to build this thing as efficiently as possible.
Jesus cares about each individual stone, and he will build building a house formed of each of those rocks. And each one is unique. Each one has its awkwardness, but Jesus is building those rocks together and that's the beauty of the house. And so Jesus' acceptance of Peter. Beautiful. And that is his same heart for each one of us.
He doesn't want us to be bricks. He takes us as we are. He's gonna challenge some of [00:38:00] those coins. He might knock a few off 'cause they don't quite fit in what he's building, but he's not, he's not in the business of squishing you into a mold. He loves you. And, and that's what we see in this, uh, this bringing Peter from.
About shame and failure and not fitting to actually having the whole church built on him is is Jesus' promise. Super
Matt Edmundson: powerful, super powerful. Love that analogy Will. And I love looking at those walls in the Lake district as well. So I, I instantly am there, uh, instantly. And if you dunno what Will's talking about, just Google dry wall, uh, lake District and you'll see photos of it.
And, um, it's a dying art, making those things. Matt actually said in the comments, I find that if you love Jesus and believe in him and believe he is the son of God, then everything else, including denominations is secondary. Um, Jesus loves you and everyone in the comments was good. I agree with Matt
Anna Kettle: and it's an interesting [00:39:00] conversation there, isn't it?
Going back to that question about denominations. Yeah, because some people do. You know, align very specifically with a certain denomination. Yeah. I have spent my whole life, I, I've just turned 45. I've spent my whole life in I know. Hard to believe. I know. No, I look 20. I know. Um, yeah. I've spent my whole life in church.
I was a pastor's kid. I was born into church. You know, like I have literally been since I was probably a week old and I have never. Aligned with a particular Dom nomination. Like nomination. My Par, I can't say it. That's Holly. So I know about it. Um, you know, my parents have never taken us to Church of England or the Catholic Church or the Baptist Church or any other church that you could come up with, like, I don't know.
It's never been. The thing in my, you know, I know everyone's journey is different and I, that's what I love about faith. I mean, when you think a third of the world roughly, or more give or take, are like Christians, [00:40:00] they, you know, when you step back and think about it, you're like, they can't possibly all look the same.
Like, Christians in South America look so different to British Christians like us, so different to Chinese Christians or like, you know. And you could go on and on. And I just think God is so much bigger, isn't he? Than the boundary lines that we draw. And there was no denominations when Peter, well, no. Was first there, right?
Will Sopwith: You come back to the, to those guys first meeting Jesus. And what did he say? Follow me?
Yeah.
Will Sopwith: That's about as much as instruction they got. I mean, yeah, they got a bit more over the next three years, but basically that's, that stays the same. Follow me. And this is why it's so. Great to dig in as we do and discuss the word of God is, is this written record that we have of the life of Jesus.
It's like, well, you weigh it up. You dig into this, you pray into this, you discuss this, chew on it and follow me. What, what does it, what does it say? What Because yeah, we, we are all different and that that's the [00:41:00] very richness of the family that, that God calls us into.
Matt Edmundson: Yeah, it is. There's, um, there's a, a bible verse actually where, which talks.
It doesn't use the word denomination, but in effect it talks about it where, um, the church, I think it's the Corinthian church, um, is asking Paul about this 'cause, and Paul deals with it. He says, some of you say that you are from Paul, some of you say that you are of Apol. In other words, some of you think you are, you know, from sort of denominated to this person over here and some denominator to that person over here.
And then Paul answers the question and he goes, well, who is Paul? Who is Apollos? Um, and he goes, we've planted, but it's God. Uh, I planted Apollos watered and God gave the increase, or something like that. In other words, every denomination has a distinct purpose in the eyes of God, but it is who are they?
They're nothing. It's God that gives the increase. Um, and I think that's, that in a, that's part of the beauty. Um, of the Christian faith that there, like you say, there are so many denominations. [00:42:00] I am so glad that there are churches in the world that do not worship with hillsong's worship. Now, that's not to criticize Hillsong's Worship or Bethel or Elevation Church or, you know, whatever your particular brand of worship is.
I'm really glad that in. Australia, that you've got aboriginal worship, you've got Maori worship in New Zealand, you've got a tribal worship in Africa. Do you know what I mean? And people worship God in the most extraordinary ways, which I. I don't do, I don't, because it's not part of my culture. It's not part of my heritage, but it is theirs and it's, I think we're gonna be surprised when we get to heaven just how different everything is to, uh, our western sort of Christian mindset in so many ways.
Um, and I love that. I love the diversity of God's kingdom. I love the celebratory nature of God's kingdom.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah,
Matt Edmundson: definitely. Very [00:43:00] good. So questions for you then guys. Um, what do you think it means? So I, one of the Bible verses said, uh, Paul said this, um, in Ephesians, he said, um, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at working us.
In fact, it's in a song, I think we might have sang it this morning. Um, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at working us. What does that mean for you?
Anna Kettle: Silence. Um, for me, I think it just means that like the power of God lives inside of us and he is all powerful and he has all authority over life and death and everything. And that same power that raised Jesus lives in me and works in my life and is accessible to me. Um, and I think that changes everything.
I don't think it necessarily means that we all get, [00:44:00] you know, get to raise people from the dead, right, left and center. That has certainly, you might, you might get that, but that certainly hasn't been my experience of Christianity. But I think that same. Power that did, that lives inside of each one of us.
Um, and yeah, is at work to change us, to make us more Christ-like to Yeah. Touch other people around us, hopefully. And have you got any other thoughts? Will,
Will Sopwith: I think I'm probably, it, it's probably changing changed over the years and on a, on a slightly different track. I, I think part of that power of crisis is, is grace.
And, you know, Jesus confounded expectations. We, we, we talked about it this evening. Confounded norms, confounded. Yeah. Cultural expectations. And I think God really demonstrated his grace through the life of Jesus. Through the humility of it, through the [00:45:00] apparent failure of it, through his teaching.
Everything just, it just turns things on its head. And I think part of the power of Christ working in us is confounding those norms and confounding those expectations and, and coming with the, the counterculture, uh, and, and challenging authority and, um. Just not accepting actually the world as it is, um, but knowing that that transforming power of God, um, in, in the, yeah, in the challenge and ultimately that, that is grace, because grace is an apparently kind of theory, small thing, but incredibly powerful when you see it in action.
Yeah.
Matt Edmundson: Much so, um, so, uh, oh, a question in the comments. I also wonder what heaven will be like. The, will I still be me without my bad things? And why doesn't Jesus contemplate marriage in heaven? [00:46:00]
Will Sopwith: Anybody got thoughts on that one? So, uh, so how long have we got left? Oh, I mean, man, there's, yeah, there's a lot in there.
What a great question. Um. Who will we be in heaven? I don't, I don't think we'll be aware of it in quite the same way. I, I think we, we are very self-conscious on this earth through a whole load of, and there's a, that's good and there's bad on that, but, but I wonder whether actually heaven, we'll be so just so transfixed and transformed and just in awe.
That our awareness of self will look entirely different. So I don't think, we'll, I don't see a lot of introversion in heaven. I don't, I don't see a lot of navel gazing and like, am I gonna, yeah, it's just like, wow, does God really like me? So part of me thinks I, I, I'm not even sure I'm gonna be aware of myself, and yet the other part of it is just feeling so, [00:47:00] absolutely.
Um, at one with, yeah, with God, with the rest of his church, with all those others, all that rich variety, it'll just be an incredible thing. Mm-hmm. And so, I suppose marriage kind of comes in that as a, as a very, a human construct, blessed by God, ordained by God for, for various societal reasons. But I wonder whether it just doesn't any longer because I.
Yeah, we we're not so self-centered. Not that you, not that marriage is self-centered at all. It's like a sort of pattern of something far greater. It's like a kind of far greater marriage than just, it's almost like a training ground, isn't it? Of like not being self-centered by, by joining with someone else and, and, and being a partner through life.
But I wonder whether that'll just explode to such as a level that it doesn't make sense to be married. Mm-hmm.
Anna Kettle: Yeah. And I think there's something about, um. Like in heaven where it's like our spirit selves are there, [00:48:00] but our physical human flesh bodies that are like fallible and break and aren't quite the same.
Mm. So I don't know. I feel like the spirit, the core of who God created just to be, or creativity or passions or relationship with God and one another is there, but it's more pure than it can be on this earth. And I. I feel like a lot, like you say, will, a lot of what we kind of are fixated on and makes us, us here on earth will be by the buy in heaven.
Yeah. It will be gone. You know, we, how much time do we spend worrying about our hair or our clothes or what we're doing? How we're earning money? Yeah. All of, you know, or marriage, whatever it is. All of these things that are part of physical flesh that won't be relevant in heaven. Yeah. And just, you know, even like eating, um.
Keeping our bodies alive and fit, like feel free of all that. I don't know. It will just look so different, won't it? So I think we will be us that [00:49:00] core, but we will be such transformed beings from what we are now. Yeah, I agree. Think will be recognizable, but utterly different as well.
Matt Edmundson: Yeah, absolutely. I don't know, I think I, that's a fair comment.
I think, I think you'll be recognizable in heaven. Like, I'll see you in heaven. I'm go, hi, how you doing? Um. I totally intend to slide down those gold streets in my socks when I get there. That's just one of my dreams. Will you wear socks
Anna Kettle: in heaven though? Who knows? Yes. Socks in heaven. I'm totally poor. You have feet to
Matt Edmundson: slide down.
Who knows? It's just the way it's gonna be. There is a heavenly banquet table in heaven, so, uh, there's definitely gonna be some tasty food. I think Jesus was a very big, uh, very big fan of heaven.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Edmundson: Um, I think the marriage thing's an interesting one because I think marriage is, uh, on earth is, um. Is a foreshadow Yeah.
Of, of what happens in heaven because there is the, we be, we are the bride of Christ, aren't we? Mm-hmm. And I think that it's kind of like the foreshadow of, of what is gonna come on there and. Um, I, I think that will be [00:50:00] absolutely mesmerizing. Um, if, um,
Anna Kettle: you know, with the whole marriage question. Mm-hmm. So then would you still be a parent in heaven?
You know, like, because I think I asked this because I have friends who would love to be married but haven't been for one reason or another, or they've lost spouses young perhaps. And then I sort of think about. My kind of parenthood journey, which I am a parent, but it's been imperfect, my parenthood journey.
And I just think all of that. I believe all of those broken things in this world are, that's will be redeemed in heaven. So it's gotta look different, hasn't it? It has like, I don't know, I don't have any answers. I just wonder. No,
Matt Edmundson: and I, I, I've read books of people that have had visions of heaven. Now I just want to.
Um, preface everything that I'm about to say with this is not necessarily biblical, right. But it's just interesting listening to people's stories, um, who have died and who would say that they've gone to heaven. They have had a [00:51:00] vision of some kind of heaven and the commonalities of those stories, right?
Anna Kettle: And presumably after their hearts physically stopped, you know, like magically that's some
Matt Edmundson: people just praying and they, you know, feel like God's taken him up there. But, um. Apostle Paul we know had a vision of heaven when he was, uh, in the Bible. He, he learned things that was unlawful for man to utter. Um, I'd like to learn some of those things, you know what I mean?
That is so, so holy. I can't talk about 'em. But, um, it's, it's interesting how some of the commonalities of those stories are. There are children in heaven. Which I find quite fascinating. Mm-hmm. And the way they talk about it, um, I remember one author saying that he, there were children in heaven and they were, uh, waiting for their parents to arrive.
So children that had died young or miscarried or aborted kids in heaven waiting for their parents to turn up. How [00:52:00] true that is or not? I don't know. Um, I just think it's a really interesting imagery. Um, of what could happen and, and, and what God potentially can or couldn't do with heaven. I just know I can't wait to get there, right, because.
As much as I like, you know, Liverpool won today. Spoiler alert. And I'm, I'm obviously a fan of Liverpool football Club. Dunno if I'll need football in heaven or whether I'll play football in heaven. I mean, these are all questions which you've just gotta, you know, you've gotta ponder. Um, but I think they're all good questions.
Anna Kettle: I know we could do a whole series on heaven, like, do you work in heaven? What do you do? Yeah,
Matt Edmundson: I think you do. Endless questions.
Anna Kettle: Yeah, I do as well. I definitely think there's work in heaven. Sitting around worshiping all day. I find that a bit, it's just more fun. Boring, eventually. It's just more fun. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Matt Edmundson: And it's not minimum wage, but it's, if I, one of the things that you can look at is what happened before the fall, right? So before Adam and Eve's sinned and when God built the earth like heaven on [00:53:00] earth, what was going on there? Well, we know that there was work. Adam was working, he was standing to the garden.
With Eve, we know that he slept. Mm-hmm. We know that he ate. Um, we know the weather was good, which is great 'cause I live in England. It's one of the best parts about heaven is gonna be the weather. Right. Just be
Anna Kettle: like moving to Spain.
Matt Edmundson: Absolutely. But with rain as well. With rain, yeah. Yeah. Is there free will in heaven?
That's a question that's coming. And if there's free will, does that mean people will be able to sin and do bad in heaven?
Anna Kettle: I don't know. I feel like this is a whole other series.
Matt Edmundson: We need to go away and do some thinking about this. This, this is really interesting thoughts about heaven and I appreciate 'em coming in. Um, because Easter points to heaven. That's what happens, isn't it? It's just that's what resurrection points us to that actually, uh.
It points us to, it's a foreshadow of heaven, you know, with the resurrection that we all get resurrected, that we all live our eternity with Christ, uh, [00:54:00] in heaven. We all get to slide down those streets in our socks. It's a beautiful, and it kind of
Anna Kettle: goes back to that um, point you made Matt, about, oh, death wear is your sting.
So I love that phrase as well, but I think in this life. Death still has a sting, doesn't it? Mm-hmm. Like it still stings when people die, but as Christians, we have that eternal hope that we know this life is not the end and it's not the final. Yeah. It doesn't have the final say. Yeah. Death and um, yeah.
And so I, yeah, I think it's really interesting. It's, yeah, heaven. You can't really talk about resurrection without also talking about heaven.
Will Sopwith: Yeah, that's true.
Matt Edmundson: Laura's putting the questions here. Will we put on weight in heaven?
There's a question that's, there's so much behind session four on this new season on heaven.
Anna Kettle: Yeah. I feel like there's a whole new series here.
Matt Edmundson: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Loving this. So, uh, when the. Let's draw this to a [00:55:00] close because I, I'm aware of time that we have massively overran, uh, the resurrection of Jesus isn't just a story with simply having a happy ending, like a sad story that ended well.
Um, the reality of Easter is it's a new story. It's an. It's a new story altogether. It's not like a happy ending. It's like this is now the new covenant, the new start, the new thing that we've all been looking for. When the women discovered the empty tomb, when the disciples encountered the risen Jesus, when Thomas placed his fingers in Jesus' wounds, they weren't just experiencing relief that their teacher had somehow survived.
They were witnessing the dawn of a new covenant, the mo, these sort of first moments of God's ultimate restoration project here on earth. The whole thing that we've got to be a part of. So perhaps today you came feeling like the disciples on that Saturday between the crucifixion, the resurrection, caught in your own space of disappointment, doubt, uh, or [00:56:00] waiting.
The beautiful truth of Easter is that Sunday always comes, death never has the final word. Um, what looks like the end really? Can be a brand new beginning. The resurrection invites us to live differently, to face our failures, knowing that redemption is possible to confront our darkest moments with the confidence that light will break through.
Amen to approach our seemingly dead end situations, knowing that God specializes in new. Beginnings is so true. So as we end today, I pray that we all carry the same truth, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at working you and he's at work in me. The story is not over. The tomb is empty, and Jesus is alive offering us life hope and purpose that transcends all of [00:57:00] our circumstances.
Mm-hmm. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Amen. Love that. Amen. Amen. Guys, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for all the questions that came in right at the last minute next week. Ask him earlier in the live stream and we can give a little bit more time to them. I'm just messing around with you.
Will there be pizza in heaven? Yes. Uh, is the, the answer to that question. Um, but in all seriousness, thank you so much for joining us. Uh, like I say, if you wanna know more about Alpha, go to the website, www dot crowd church slash. Alpha, I think I'll just go to crowd, uh, church, follow the link, register that.
We'll love to see you on Wednesday. I'll send you all the details. We are not gonna do the in-person meeting after this live stream. Some, you know, normally on a Sunday we hang around and meet on Google meets. We're not gonna be doing that tonight, but we will be doing it again next week. Um, but yeah, really great to connect with you.
Thank you so much for joining us. Anything from you guys in closing?
Will Sopwith: No. [00:58:00]
Matt Edmundson: That was
Will Sopwith: quick. I mean, it, I just reflecting, it's, it's fantastic to gather on Easter Day and, and do this and, and talk about Jesus. Mm-hmm. Um, yeah. Just fabulous. Mm-hmm. Cool Anna?
Anna Kettle: No, not really. Just that idea of, you know, there's new beginnings, you know, that's what this story's all about.
And yeah, for each of us there's new beginnings and um, yeah, just an incredible thought to take away into the week, isn't it? Yeah,
Matt Edmundson: it is. Absolutely. God bless you. Have a fantastic week. Remember, Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Bye for [00:59:00] now.
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