Easter With Us

you have done [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] my heart forever changed no more standing still no more going back [Music] your love is moving me [Music] me [Music] your hands reach out to me only by grace i'm free your life makes me new i am forever yours no more [Music] [Applause] around is [Music] [Music] is [Music] when you found me [Music] so [Music] come on [Music] there is always hope [Music] he is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] look up lift your eyes [Music] [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] mountains [Music] jesus [Music] who is this is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] is everywhere and i'm surrounded it's got me singing it's got me shouting and now i wanna tell the world about it cause now i am alive [Music] [Music] about it makes me [Music] for me [Music] already good morning good morning good morning good morning so yesterday we were out here and we had the sun in our eyes and now everybody has the sun in their eyes which is kind of cool jamie because when i walked around greeting people they all saluted they all went like this as soon as i walked around everybody saluted me it's amazing yeah hey this is jamie dickens and jamie tell everybody why you're here today yes i'm here today to celebrate easter with all of you but especially bringing with me my friends from east cobb church east cop church where are you out in the audience tonight for today we're glad you're here yes a lot of you some of you know a lot of you don't know we our newest church is east cobb church and jamie's the lead pastor at east cobb jamie's been on our staff for 10 11 years 12 years 12 years 12 years extraordinary leader and communicator to tell folks about east cobb where we are in the process and how they can get involved if they have friends that live in east cop yeah andy we are so excited about our newest campus in east cop church and we started in january officially uh a year ago we went through covet and now we are back we had a good friday service this weekend and we are in the process of acquiring land to build a new building and so we are very excited about that coming to pass yep and so if you're in the east cobb area roswell area or wherever area we would love for you to join us at 4 and 6 p.m in our temporary meeting space at eastside baptist church and you can check all that information out on eastcopchurch.org yep so that's pretty exciting and don't go anywhere because i'm asking you to do one more thing also um i know we have some folks here that are here for the first time i just met bonnie and jerry um drove down no lie from michigan to be here today and a little um where are you guys from on the hand kalamazoo kalamazoo kalamazoo right and here's something cool jamie because for those of us who are married this is good to know bonnie lied to her husband to get him here whatever whatever this is what she told him she said we're gonna go to georgia and we're gonna go white water rafting and she actually loaded life jackets in the car to fool him and they are they came to the easter service instead you're going right after the service just hang in here it's going to happen right after the banana hala it's about 38 degrees in the water so it's going to be a lot of fun hey we're so glad that you're here we got some friends from all so if this is we're not going to sign you up or anything if this is your first time on our property north point community church can we just see your hand just welcome you our special easter guest oh look at that all over the place that's so cool so um in your little buckets that have your water there's a you know looks like the sun and right in the middle if you look carefully is actually a qr code and if you'll take your phone at some point use the qr code it's going to take you to our website here's why that's important next sunday north point community church we are opening up the doors and inviting everybody back to church finally right we're back yep east and west auditorium but we need to know you're coming and so we just need for you to go on the website sign up let us know you're coming and also while you're there if this is your first time with us you can find out about all of our different environments what we have for you and your entire family so take make sure you take that home and take advantage of that we look forward to seeing everybody next week so that's awesome yeah so um real quick what we're going to do we're going to sing a little bit i'm going to preach a little bit and we're going to sing a little bit more we'll be here for about an hour and we've already eaten up some of those minutes but in about 30 seconds i'm gonna ask those of you who want to and you don't have to to stand and we're gonna pray and sing but if you think you need to stay seated to stay warm that is absolutely okay so for those of you who would like to stand and sing a little bit love for you to stand at this time i've asked jaime to pray for us to kick off this easter celebration and we will get started jamie yes sir let's pray heavenly father we thank you for jesus this morning we thank you that we have a reason to celebrate and we thank you for the good news of easter and we're also so grateful for the friends and the family and the loved ones that we have around us right now and so we invite you into our celebration this morning and we fix our eyes on you and it's in jesus name we pray amen [Music] well we hope you came ready to sing with us and sing loud because we got a lot to celebrate these concerts i know you can sing with us let's do it let's go [Music] come on sing this with us come together [Music] strangers neighbors [Music] children [Music] so don't let your heart be in trouble [Music] god is hold on be strong remember [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] hold your head oh [Music] be strong remember [Music] all right all across this field on [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] his name is jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] our creations [Music] [Applause] [Music] his name is jesus [Music] jesus our salvation is in his blood jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] should turn shame into glory [Music] [Music] you're the only one [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] your mercy and grace [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you're the only one who [Music] [Applause] [Music] cares [Music] you're the only one [Music] you're the only one [Music] you were the word at the beginning [Music] glory in creation and now revealed in you are christ and what a beautiful name [Music] is it's the name of jesus christ my king is what a beautiful name it is oh nothing compares to this what a beautiful name it is the name of jesus you didn't want [Music] my sin was great your [Music] what a wonderful name [Music] [Applause] [Music] but what a wonderful name it is [Music] jesus [Music] of sin [Music] the praise of your glory before you are raised [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] what a powerful name it is oh jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] god we are so thankful to you for sending us your son jesus we're so thankful for this story that defines so many of our lives we love you we're looking to see you today and what you would have for us it's in the name of jesus that we pray and sing and do all of these things amen you guys can have a seat [Music] [Music] hey did you see what just happened were any of you there uh my dad and i were walking to town and we came across a huge crowd all gathered along the road were you there did you see that man who was all beaten up he was carrying this huge cross people were shouting at him i asked my dad what was going on but he didn't tell me much just that that man's name was jesus were you there did you see him i guess he got arrested in a garden and governor pilot said he had to carry that huge cross up this huge hill but he was so beaten up that he couldn't carry the cross anymore so the soldiers made another man carry it for him but my dad took me away from the crowd so i didn't see what happened down that hill were you there can anyone tell me what happened down that hill [Music] were you there when they cruised by my lord [Music] my lord [Music] oh it sometimes me to tread him to the tree were you there when they nailed him to the tree [Music] [Laughter] oh sometimes it causes me to tread [Music] jesus were you there when they pierced [Music] the signs [Music] it causes me to tread [Music] [Music] my is [Applause] true [Music] is [Music] doing [Music] so uh were you there were you there that's the the question were you there is the perfect um setup for the easter celebration because the question were you there takes us back to what i remind us of every easter and try to remind you of all year long that the foundation of our faith and the epicenter of our faith is an event that hundreds of years before there was the bible and about 20 years before anyone was ever referred to as a christian and weeks and actually months before there was anything that we would even begin to think of that resembled a church before any of that long before any of that there was an event and people were there for the event and the people that were there for the event are the ones that brought us the story and there's many of them of course there's the ones we know there was peter and andrew james and john and nathaniel and philip and simon the zealot there were a couple of judases that followed jesus one that was notorious one we don't know much about then there were the women there was mary of course the mother of jesus mary the mother of james mary magdalene there was another mary so many mary's um there was joanna susannah there was salome the names go on and on and on and they would tell you for for us it's a story for them they would say no it wasn't a story this is we were there we were there way up north in galilee when jesus told us that he wanted to go down to jerusalem to celebrate passover and we didn't think that was such a great idea because the further south jesus traveled the more trouble he had he tended to get into but we followed him we were there and we were there after days and days and days of being on the road when we approached bethany and um philip would say hey look i was there when jesus came to me and said look i need you to go ahead into bethany and i want you to find me a donkey and i want a specific donkey and he told me where to find the donkey and i was there for this and he always walked but for some reason he wanted to ride a donkey to jerusalem and the next day as we got closer mary the mother of james and joanna suzanna they would tell us we were there it was amazing at first there were dozens and then there were hundreds and then it was if the whole city came out to welcome us and they began to take off their coats and then we realized why he wanted to ride in they began to take off their coats and put their coats on those dirty muddy roads so his donkey would walk over their clothing then they brought branches and it was amazing there was so much energy it was like he was a returning conqueror to his hometown it was it was like a king was coming in at first we began to hear messianic phrases hosanna hosanna and then we heard blessed is the king who comes in the name of the lord and i'm telling you they would tell us andrew would say we couldn't believe it there were thousands of people who welcomed us into the city we don't know how they knew they were coming we don't know how they knew that we were we were coming and then when we got there um john would tell you he would say look i was there when jesus said hey i want to go to the temple and we're like jesus we can barely make it through these streets it's going to take hours to get to the temple he insisted we go to the temple and so all of us we were there for this we went to the temple we walked up those southern stairs we got to the temple mound he found a corner and he began to teach and we'd heard we thought we'd heard everything he had to say but those days were different and he taught almost until the sun went down and we were exhausted because we've been on the road for days from galilee and he said let's leave the city and spend the night out on the mount of olives we're like we just got into town and we made our way through those crowded crowded streets they were there and they would tell you during the week of passover everybody from judea everybody from galilee came to jerusalem it was packed we made our way out the gate went to the mount of olives we camped out that night james would tell you the next morning jesus woke us up and said we're going back into the city we're like oh you're kidding and james would tell you i was there we went back in the city we went back into the temple and for four days for four days he spent on the temple mound right outside the the outside the holy of holies and he taught and it was amazing and the pharisees brought their silly questions and we tried not to laugh out loud and then the sadducees brought their silly questions and again we try not to laugh out loud there was so much momentum we knew that we were on the precipice of something extraordinary we were there for this and then thursday rolled around and he told us hey i want to go into the city but i want to go after the sun begins to set and i want to celebrate a passover meal with you guys just you know john would tell you i was there he just wanted the guys there for whatever reason and nathanael tell you he'd say look i was there when jesus posed this idea and we gently reminded him jesus okay the city is packed everybody wants to celebrate passover within the walls of jerusalem this is that's the ultimate for somebody who's a son or a daughter of abraham to celebrate passover inside the city of jerusalem and jesus you have to make a reservation a year in advance and there's so many of us where are we gonna and andrew was there he would tell you jesus said look i've worked it out just follow me so we went into the city through a different gate and down an alley another alley another alley crossed over there we had no idea that he knew where he was going and we come to this building we knock on the door they let us in they take us upstairs and there's this large room and it had been reserved for us and everything was laid out for a passover meal matthew would tell you i i looked around and i knew how much something like this cost and how in the world he worked this out without us knowing we well we never knew but we were there and john in particular would say to us modern people okay for you guys it's a story you read it's words you've heard before but john would tell you i was there i was there when jesus began to hand out these elements and we had done this since we were kids nathaniel would tell you i'd done this since i was a little boy um you know bartholomew i i've done this as long as i can remember and jesus hands his bread and he tells us it's his body and then he later in the meal he passes around the wine and he tells us it's the blood of a new covenant it's a new covenant in his blood none of us had any idea what he was talking about and suddenly judas whispers something in his ear they have a conversation peter would say i was there it was hard to overhear and then judas got up and left and jesus seemed concerned we were excited and we thought maybe part of this passover meal jesus is going to come out with a plan going to lay out the plan or we're here we are in the city we've got the crowd we've got the momentum i mean surely this is the weekend he's going to proclaim himself as messiah instead he says this and john said i'm telling you i was there for this when he said gentlemen i want to give you a new command a new command simon simon they called him simon the zealot for a reason simon the zealot who's one of jesus disciples to tell you i was there and i was thinking we don't need a new command what we need is a plan and jesus said i want to give you a new command you were to love one another and you're to love one another not the way you've been accustomed to loving one another i want you to love one another the way that i have loved you and matthew will tell you i was there and i remembered the first time i met jesus and i remembered the way he loved me because i was an embarrassment to my family and to my nation and he invited me to follow him no one ever invited me to follow him in fact i always felt like people were following me [Music] and john would say and then he went on to say this i was there for this when he said by this by this unique kind of love everyone will know that you're part of my thing that you're part of my movement and by this allman will know that you're my follower by the way you treat each other in the way that you treat other people that was it no plan no here's what's next james would tell you we were a little bit disappointed then he said now let's leave and we got up and left we went back through an alley another alley another alley crossed over a main road we went out a gate we weren't even sure again how did he know where he was going and we find ourselves in a garden and he said he needs to pray and we're thinking oh you're always praying we need to plan and he plopped us all down under a tree it was a it was a beautiful garden and part of it was well kept and part of it was a little wild and he went off into the rougher area and said he needed to pray alone and philip would tell you they were exhausted philip would tell you he was exhausted and he fell asleep and he didn't know how much time went by but he was awakened by a sound he'd heard a few times especially since when he was a little boy nathaniel would say yeah i remember that sound when i was a little boy as well it was the clink of metal on metal steel on steel and we looked up and there was a torch there were two torches and there were three and then they began to spread out to the left and the right and we looked and jesus was standing there with us he he just seemed resigned philip would tell you he just he just seemed resigned and there was judas and there were men and men with clubs and with weapons and we thought perhaps this is the vanguard of some sort of army jesus is raised he's always surprising us and peter said i was close and i heard the exchange between jesus and jesus and judas and then they arrested him and andrew would tell you he he didn't resist and andrew would tell you i was there and perhaps the reason we didn't try to intervene more than we did was because he didn't resist it was like he was resigned to the fact that this was supposed to happen and we were there but we would have rather been anywhere else and to our shame we ran again they these men and women would say to us to you their stories but this happened and we were there and the next morning mid-morning we were there standing outside of pilot's palace and we'd been there for a couple of hours and we could not believe what we heard joanna suzanna who were standing with mary the mother of jesus would tell you we could not believe what we heard at first we were excited because pilate came out we don't know why they'd arrested jesus to begin with but pilate came out and said i find no reason to execute this man and we were also relieved and then pilate said not only do i not can i not find any reason to execute this man i've already sent him to herod who represents you the judeans and he can't find any reason to execute him as what either and so as we stood there somewhat relieved and then pilate said the unthinkable he said so i'll have him punished and released to you and james said i i was standing there and i couldn't believe what i heard next the crowd began to chant no release barabbas release barabbas release and we're thinking barabbas barabbas is actually guilty of everything you've just accused jesus of and then they took him and mary magdalene and joanna would tell you we were there with mary the mother of jesus and we tried to get her to leave and she insisted on staying and we waited and we waited and we waited and then they brought jesus back out on the porch between two of pilots palace guards and if we hadn't known him before i'm not sure we would have recognized him we had to hold mary up one eye swollen shut his face covered in his own blood they twisted some sort of crown of thorns they'd stuck on his head and pilate said here he is and then to our shock we again this is the same it seemed the same crowd that had welcomed us just a few days before who began to chant crucify him crucify him crucify him and we're like crucify him i mean this all happened so quickly just last night we're celebrating passover just last night it's love one another just last night i thought we were on the brink of something extraordinary crucify him and then pilate gave in we were there for this we heard this we saw this how quickly the crowd turned and pilate said i release him to you crucify him and his palace guards took him back and we were stunned i mean we've seen injustice before i mean hey we're we've been we've lived under rome our pretty much our whole lives we've seen injustice before but not to this level and not our rabbi not jesus and they would say to me and this group of men and women would say to you you've read the story you've you've seen it depicted in film but we were there when they crucified our lord mary magdalene would tell you that she heard what she can't believe she heard when she heard jesus forgive one of the other men crucified beside him joanna suzanna would say we couldn't believe it we heard him forgive the men who crucified him and when he forgave the men who crucified him it was as if he had forgiven everybody who had anything to do with this atrocity this miscarriage of justice andrew would tell you we were afraid philip would say we were afraid james they would say we were afraid and so we were sort of on the edge of the crowd and when the guards began to dismiss and disperse the crowd we were the first to go and we hadn't seen thomas since the night before we have no idea where thomas went but mary magdalene and joanna and mary the mother of james and salome would tell you we stayed and to our relief and to our shock we saw nicodemus everybody knew nicodemus and a gentleman that we learned later was a man named joseph he was from arimathea they came and they so reverently and so gently and so gracefully began to take jesus body down from the cross we'd been there for hours we were exhausted and we didn't know you could take a body down from the cross we'd just assume like any other body they his body would be ripped down from the cross and dumped into the place where they leave bodies it was illegal to bury or create any kind of place to mourn someone who'd been crucified and they took his body down and they wrapped it and they began to walk around the outer wall of the city and we followed at a distance we were so brokenhearted we were so glad that mary jesus mother had finally left and that john had finally taken her away from the crowd and we walked and we walked and we walked and then we went down a hill and went down another hill we came into sort of a ravine that had been cleared out and it was clearly a garden it was someone's property and there was a little rocky outcropping that we didn't know if it was a natural cave or a man-made cave but somebody had created a family tomb in the side of this little hill and nicodemus and joseph of arimathea with their servants placed jesus body and again we saw this we were there for this and they did their best to create the sun was about to go down the sabbath was about to begin and then when everything was prepared they stepped outside and one of the servants released the little catch under the stone and they stood back as this enormous stone rolled into place and then some sort of roman officials sealed the tomb and they left and eventually we left and made our way back inside the city to the place we were staying and everybody involved in this story from peter andrew james john you know nathaniel nick you know everybody can tell you all the women can tell you we know we would know exactly where we were when it dawned on us that this is over that we've wasted three and a half years of our life that jesus is clearly not who we claim to be and jesus is clearly not who we thought he was because you can't crucify the resurrection in the life jesus god's messiah god's messiah can't be manhandled by people by gentiles the son of god can't die no one's ever going to bury the son of man and all these things jesus claimed about himself and allowed other people to claim about him and now he's dead and now he's buried and clearly we were wrong either deceived or perhaps he was deceived we remember exactly where we were when we realized it's over and then mary magdalene would tell you i was there that morning with mary the mother of james and with salome everything had happened so quickly i mean within hours we went from heroes to fugitives there had been no closure and so early that morning just before the sun rose we gathered what we could together to go back to the tomb we didn't know how we would get in we knew that the preparation body of the preparation of his body had been rushed and we just needed closure it had happened so quickly so we made our way back to that place and mary magdalene would tell you you've read about it i was there when we came over the crest of the hill and i looked down the first thing we noticed was that someone had reopened the tomb and she would tell you if i'd been thinking i would have realized the stone had not been rolled back into place the stone had been removed we rushed down the hill we looked inside and it was empty and john the apostle john would tell you i know exactly where i was i was there deep in the heart of the city and not the best part of the city sitting alone with peter when we hear somebody pounding up the stairs and before we can get to the door to ensure that it's bolted locked the door burst open and there's mary magdalene and her eyes are puffy with tears and she's been crying and all she could say is they've taken my lord they've taken my lord they've taken my lord and i don't know where they have put him and john said i was there when i took her by the hands and sat her down to try to calm her down to understand what she was saying and i was there when peter was out the door and down the stairs in no time and john would tell you i was torn because mary needed some attention but i knew what peter was capable of and i knew what peter was not capable of so i said stay here we'll figure out what happened and i chased i went down the stairs as well by the time i caught peter we were just leaving a side entrance to the city that wasn't the most popular entrance to the city but somehow he had found this shortcut i passed him i ran past him i ran for about 15 minutes till i finally found the garden and sure enough the stone had been rolled not back into place but away i went right to the edge and i paused i looked inside and a few minutes later here comes peter and he went straight in and john would tell you i'll never forget john would tell you he would say i'll never forget the moment when i stepped inside and i looked and i realized [Music] this is not a crime scene this is not the result of someone forcing their way in and stealing the body it was too neat it was too orderly it was too organized this was not a crime scene and he would tell you in that moment i believed i believed based on what i saw that my rabbi jesus of nazareth had been raised from the dead peter he would tell you he would say peter wasn't so sure in fact honestly we weren't 100 sure but somehow i just knew and then that night andrew would tell you james would tell you simon the zealot will tell you nathanael will tell you we were all or almost all gathered together talking about the events of the day because there had been other jesus sightings that very day and we're sitting around the table explaining what we've seen what we hadn't seen what we think had happened and we looked up and there's jesus very much alive and well they would say to us you've read about it we were there thomas would tell you i wasn't there i wasn't there because after the incident in the garden of gethsemane i was so scared i left town i went back to bethany and then i began all week long to hear about these jesus sightings and i thought my friends have lost their minds he was crucified he was buried and thomas would tell you i remember making my way back into town i finally found peter and the others and they gathered together that night it was a week later and all of them had seen jesus and i sat there with him thinking guys i i know your hearts are broken i know we're all distraught but come on we've all seen people die when people die they stay dead and thomas will tell you i earned my nickname of course i doubted i wasn't a superstitious person and i said to them unless i can touch his hands and place my finger and jesus walked into the room and i was there for that and i saw it and those men would tell you as well that a week or so later they were instructed to go to galilee and jesus said go to galilee i'm going to meet you in galilee and of course they were thinking why do we have to go back to galilee so far of course that was home for them and they were ready to get out of the city anyway so they made their way back to galilee there were just seven of them and when they got there they waited and they waited and jesus didn't show up and so one morning peter says hey let's go fishing peter's father's boats were right there by the shore and they pushed one out and they got in this was this was where the journey had begun when jesus first showed up and invited them to follow him so they're fishing and john says i'll tell you exactly where i was when i looked and i saw a gentleman walking along the shoreline picking up sticks and picking up wood as if he was going to build a fire nathaniel and james would say i'll tell you exactly what we were doing when we heard john say peter it's the lord bartholomew would say i'll tell you exactly what i saw i turned around and i saw the bottom of peter's feet as he dove into the water and began swimming for sure and 20 minutes later we're all sitting around a fire having breakfast with our risen lord and who would we we would discover later was our risen savior [Music] last but not least matthew matthew would assure you hey you've heard about it you've read about it but i was there when jesus gathered us all back together and he smiled at us and he said gentlemen you are to go into all the world and you are to tell anyone you see what you have seen and you are to tell anyone who will listen what you have heard that you are the stewards you are the owners of these events these past three and a half years he said to us matthew said he said to us he said that we were to be his witnesses because after all we were there [Music] all right y'all let's stand back up to our feet we're going to keep singing and celebrating together [Music] [Music] darkness falls i find my peace in christ [Music] [Music] oh lord [Music] [Music] [Music] as snow is true he was just didn't know what he did it for you he watched [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Applause] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] to the forever your resurrection power over every circle his words there final and forever [Music] is [Applause] though it will [Music] is [Music] [Music] forgive us [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] my god happy easter thank you so much for gathering with us we will see you all a week from the day inside the lord willing god bless thanks for driving from all the way up from coming down from michigan we'll see you next time [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] we're forgiven [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh is [Applause] [Music] forever [Music] he is his he is risen he's alive [Applause] [Music] [Music] he has done great things see what a savior has done see how his love overcomes he has done great things he has done great things great things [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] yes will do great things

Channel: North Point Community Church

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Keywords: North Point Community Church, North Point, NorthPoint, North Point Atlanta, Andy Stanley, AndyStanley, Andy Stanley church, Andy Stanley message, Andy Stanley sermons, North Point church, NPCC, North Point youtube, Andy Stanley YouTube

Id: KCv6yS54VLg

Length: 70min 20sec (4220 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 04 2021