Easter 2018: Joy Breakthrough - Holy Week

You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

So the resurrection of Christ is an invitation to join.

Do you want it?

Do you want it?

Because it's right there.

It's a banquet that he has opened up to us.

Everybody's invited.

At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

For more information on the road, visit theroad.org.

We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

So if you have a Bible, if you don't, it's okay.

But if you do, turn to Matthew 28.

And every gospel writer, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, talk about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And we're a Bible-believing church.

I mean, we open the Bible every week and we go through the Bible every week.

We believe in God's word.

Mainly because I don't believe in my word.

So I learned a long time ago, opinions, everybody's got an opinion.

Everybody's got an opinion about religion.

Everybody's got an opinion about this or that.

But where do we find truth?

Is it in our professors in the college?

Is it in the newspaper?

Is it in Newsweek magazine?

Or is it in something that throughout generations, for thousands of years, men and women have found timeless, and that is God's Word.

What's amazing about God's word is how the greatest intellect of all time, the greatest philosophers of all time, always have to grapple with this book, what they're going to do with it.

It's like they don't grapple with a biology book, they don't grapple with Tolstoy's work, they don't grapple with the great historical works of Josephus.

But when they come to the Bible, they realize there's something special about this book.

It's the reason when nations go communist, when nations are topple over to communism, the first thing communist leaders do is kick this book out.

It's the first thing they do.

They're afraid of this book because of the power of it.

You know, Billy Graham recently died.

And um uh Billy Graham, in I believe it was 1949, was at Forest Home in Southern California.

I've been to the exact location because he was struggling.

He was struggling because his best friend was a guy named Chuck Templeton.

And Chuck Templeton in the 1940s was a more famous uh rising star in evangelism than he was, with Youth for Christ in Europe.

They were traveling all over Europe.

But then Chuck Templeton, who had never gone to college, was accepted by Princeton University to come into their graduate school, their seminary, because he was so famous.

He was the most famous evangelist, probably in the 1940s.

Well, when he got to Princeton, they began to challenge the veracity of this book.

And Chuck Templeton lost his faith.

He lost his faith first because he had no source of truth.

And because he had no source of truth, his life began to crumble.

He went through divorce after divorce, and he died a very, very sad man.

During that time, he began to write letters.

And if you watch the biography that was on Fox News about three or four weeks ago, right after Billy Graham's death, there's this one section covered.

I think it was like one minute.

But Billy Graham goes to Forest Home and he's up there and he's and he's walking around and he's crying out all night, oh God, what do I do?

Chuck says this, but you say this.

What am I gonna do with this book?

I don't know the answers to all his questions.

And so there, around midnight on a stump, he just laid the Bible down.

And he said, I'm gonna trust this by faith.

I don't have all the answers.

I can't answer everything Chuck Templeton's asking of me to answer.

But by faith, I'm gonna believe that this is true.

And it was right after that that the great Hollywood crusade occurred, an explosion of actors and actresses getting saved, and God began to use Billy Graham in a mighty way.

Men and women, if you want to be used of God in a mighty way, this is the book.

And it's called the living book.

The scriptures say it's living and holy.

It's like a two-edged sword.

It pierces between bone and marrow and soul and spirit.

So here we are.

It's called Resurrection Day.

It's called Easter in some context.

And all over the world, like no other religion, people are worshiping God at Easter.

Still, despite what you hear in the news, the fastest growing faith in the world is Christianity.

It's happening.

I mean, they're planting over 150 churches a day just in India.

I mean, it's just unbelievable what's happening.

Now, what you have in America is what I would call Christendom.

We have Christendom.

And what Christianom is, is that, you know, it's cultural, and you're supposed to go to church on Easter and dress up.

Not like the dude, you know, at the road who's wearing all that white stuff and he got at HM.

But, you know, I wore a suit, and that's what, you know, that's Christianom.

That's cultural.

That's not vibrant, dynamic faith.

That's a good start.

I mean, I grew up in under Christendom.

I grew up, my dad was a Lutheran pastor, so I was a so I was a good PK, and I I wore a clip-on tie.

Okay?

And I was like this in church, you know, and it was ball ring.

And my dad wore a white robe and a stole.

It was usually green, green stole with little symbols and stuff that I never knew what they meant.

One looked like a P and an X and some things like that, you know.

And he was whoa.

And but all over the world, gang, whether it's woo or whether it's rock and roll, God is moving in power with the church.

And guess what?

You could be in India and you can worship God in the Christian church.

The Indian way.

You know, I've been there so many times.

I've been to India, and the saris that the women wear, and the and the way they worship is so different than us.

And then you go to Africa and it's different than us, and you go to you go to Georgia and it's different than us.

Now they do have donuts, a lot of donuts in Georgia.

We have Dunkin' donuts.

Okay?

But that's the only faith.

Listen to this, listen to this.

Christianity, I'm talking about true, vibrant, dynamic Christianity is the only world religion that is so multicultural you can't name it.

98% of Muslims eat the same food and dress the same way across the world.

Something like 75% of all Hindus eat the same food and dress the same way.

Those are culturally locked religions.

But only in Christianity, myssiologically, is the faith flowing and it actually changes culture from the heart, but it doesn't change it from the outside because God loves all ethnicities.

God loves all languages.

God loves all races.

And that's why it's spreading like crazy.

I mean, when I lived in Japan for all those years, I had to learn to eat sushi.

I lived in ramen shops.

I still love ramen shops.

The Holy Spirit is in ramen shops in Tokyo, I can tell you right now.

And I would get in there and I would share Christ and stuff in these ramen shops, and I was emaciated.

But God loves culture.

And the resurrection of Jesus Christ transcends culture.

It's the most exciting event in world history.

So Matthew 28.

Matthew 28.

Now, after the Sabbath, so the Sabbath, remember, for Jews was Saturday, as the first day of the week began to dawn.

So that is what happened historically, is that at the beginning, all the disciples being Jews worshiped the Lord on Saturday because of the resurrection.

Sunday became the day of worship all through history after the resurrection.

So, you guys, today there were 20 of us on the roof at 6:30 praying for this service.

Because we were waiting for the dawn.

We did a sunrise prayer meeting about right over there on the roof.

But we never saw the sunrise.

It was too cloudy.

Okay, so I don't know if they saw the sunrise here, but at dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.

So Mary Magdalene, we know, Jesus cast seven demons out.

And it's interesting, isn't it, that Jesus is going to first come to Mary Magdalene in this group of women.

Jesus really loved women and he really loved their heart for him.

Men, we can learn a lot from our women.

They tend to be more spiritual than us.

I tell guys when I do a marriage conference, we just did one in Nebraska, I say, look, I was a missionary in Japan.

I learned the language, I ate the food, I became sort of Japanesey.

But it was harder to get married.

That is a weird culture.

Females are weird.

And and like I got married to a female.

And like you need, we we almost need to have passport classes just for getting married.

Anybody know what I'm talking about?

All right, I mean, and then they look at us and they go, man, that is nothing.

You guys are weird.

And so the reality is that Jesus is gonna identify himself first with the women through the resurrection.

And he's gonna do that because they're there.

Where are the guys?

Where are they?

They're not there because I think they're full of fear.

And behold, there was a great earthquake.

For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it.

This is pretty interesting.

Guess what?

The stone, which probably weighed two tons, we believe it was two tons, two ton, four thousand-pound stone rolled out of the way, not to get Jesus out, but to let us see.

He was already gone.

His countenance was like lightning, verse three, and his clothing as white as snow.

See?

This is biblical.

This is a biblical outfit, man.

I tell you what.

Yes.

And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.

But the angel answered and said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who is crucified.

He's not here, for he's risen, as he said, Come, see the place where they laid him.

So the the rock was moved, not to get Jesus out, but for us to have a chance to look in and see that he wasn't there.

He's not here, he's risen.

Verse 7, go quickly, tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead.

And indeed, he is going before you into Galilee, and there you will see him.

Behold, I have told you.

That's interesting, not going to go into it much here, but there is more historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ than Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States.

So it's amazing all the documentation of the resurrection of Christ.

So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and they ran to bring his disciples' word.

And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, Rejoice.

So they came and they held him by the feet and they worshiped him.

Now I want you to look at verse 8.

Fear and great joy.

I mean, this story by Matthew is really about fear and joy.

I mean, he laces it through with fear and joy.

And I think he does that because when Jesus shows up and he says, rejoice, he is speaking a word to us about the essence of the Christian life.

Not Christianom life, Christianity.

That is the wholehearted disciple life, is to be called by and through the crucifixion.

Joy.

It's all about joy, gang.

It's about God's joy flowing, and they get pumped.

I mean, first it's the women.

They get it first.

They always do get it first.

Women always get it first.

You guys do.

I mean, seriously, man.

I would not be a pastor.

I would not be in Colorado Springs.

I would not be doing it if it wasn't for my wife.

She's the one with the faith, and I'm like, she's just like dragging me along half the time.

And so what's going to happen is these 11 guys, because Judas is going to commit suicide, they're full of fear, and then the Holy Spirit's going to follow them.

And I mean, the joy, the joy of the Lord is going to be upon them.

Now, men and women, here's the deal: God has put eternity in our hearts that we might seek after Him.

And we think what we're searching for is just and only our own happiness and our own joy.

But God has filled every heart, man, woman, and child, in an insatiable desire to find joy, to find peace.

St.

Augustine once said, You made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.

The great French philosopher Blaise Pascal said, All men seek happiness.

This is without exception.

Whatever different means they may employ, they all tend to this end.

The will never takes the least step but to the object of our own personal happiness.

This is the motive of every action of every man.

C.S.

Lewis, the great Cambridge and Oxford Doan, probably the most prolific writer of the 20th century, captured this thought.

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part, no part of the Christian faith.

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desire not too strong, but actually too weak.

We're half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us.

Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

We are far too easily pleased.

Man.

So this week I was asking my kids, hey kids, do you guys know what hedonism is?

Nobody knew what hedonism was.

So let's look it up.

Man, that's crazy.

You can look up anything.

I mean, I I've got, I don't know how many volumes.

I got so many volumes of books.

I never pull them down hardly anymore because I can look up anything.

So I said, look it up.

Oh, hedonism means pleasure seeking, seeking pleasure.

So then I said, okay, can you be a Christian, Christian hedonist?

Is there such a thing as Christian hedonism?

And that was an animated discussion that we had.

So the question today is: can you be a Christian hedonist?

Can, and could it be that God has created you for his pleasure through you finding your pleasure in him?

Could it be that what the world needs is not just better intellectual faith or more personal, powerful, miraculous faith, but also what the world is longing for is a Christianity that produces disciples who actually have joy.

I remember this dichotomy when I was in college.

And guys were sharing their faith with me.

I was like, Yeah, I'm a Christian.

Look, I'm not, look, I'm not an atheist, and I'm not, I'm not into Shintoism, so I must be a Christian because I'm an American.

And then they broke it down and shared the gospel with me.

I began to understand truly what it meant to be a believer.

It meant surrendering my life to Christ fully, wholeheartedly, surrendering everything to Christ.

Not just going to church.

Going to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than going to McDonald's makes you a hamburger.

I mean, I understood the gospel really for the first time.

And I've been baptized and confirmed, I'd done all the religious stuff, but I didn't have a personal, intimate, vibrant, dynamic, growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

Because you see, men and women, the difference between Christianity and all other faith, it's not a dogma.

It's not ethics, it's not morals.

It's actually a relationship with a living person who rose on the third day.

So here's my dichotomy.

My dichotomy was go after Steve's desires, happiness and fun.

Go after God's desires, boredom.

He's gonna make me a missionary to Africa.

He made me a missionary to Japan.

And then I came across a verse, John 10, 10.

Jesus said, The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

I came that you might have life and might have it abundantly.

That's from Jesus.

That's nobody's opinion.

That's from Jesus.

He said, So I'd rather, oh, the dichotomy is not happiness and boredom.

The dichotomy is slavery or freedom.

And I'm not real smart.

I'm from Georgia.

I figured it out really fast.

I'll go for freedom.

So I gave my heart to Christ.

I became a Christian hedonist.

I wanted the abundant life, gang.

I realized that to die to self and to live to God was where the joy really lay.

Jesus said it.

It was said of Jesus.

This is what it says about Jesus on Good Friday.

About Friday.

Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

If it's good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for us.

And he had joy in going to the cross.

He had joy knowing he was setting us free.

So here's my radical biblical thought for Easter this year.

And here's what it is you need to become a Christian hedonist.

That you need to pursue pleasure in Christ, and you'll bring Christ the most glory through your life.

So John Piper writes God is most glorious.

Glorified in us when we are the most satisfied in him.

Again, C.S.

Lewis, it is a Christian duty, as you know.

I'm thinking like he said, this is a Christian duty, as you know, and like hardly anybody knows, but anyway, I know he's maybe writing someone.

It's a Christian duty, as you know, for everyone to be as happy as he can.

That's biblical, man.

I'm gonna show you in just a second.

This is like great stuff.

I'm gonna take notes on myself.

You know, this is good stuff.

So the Westminster Confession, any Presbyterians in here, come out of a Presbyterian background.

Or uh Reformed.

Reformed Presbyterian.

Okay, Westminster Confession Faith.

One of the great creeds of the church in the 17th century.

The very first question, it's like a catechism.

Anybody do catechism when you're a kid?

Okay, I did catechism and everything, so I did all the catechism stuff.

Man, I knew more about Luther's treatise on baptism than about Jesus.

But anyway, that's my bad, that's what I mean.

So, Westminster Confession Faith, it's like they ask a question and they answer it.

It says, what is, first, verse one, first point, what is man's chief end?

In other words, what is man's greatest purpose?

Answer.

Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

That's Presbyterians.

I mean, that's Presbyterians.

You met many Presbyterians?

I mean, that's a cold lot, generally speaking.

But this is what the command, this is what the confession says.

It says, what is man's chief end?

Answer, man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

I want to change it.

John Piper was the one who grabbed a hold of my heart about 20 years ago through his book, Desiring God.

He said, we ought to change that and to abide.

And so it should read, glorify God by enjoying him forever.

So we glorify God, men and women, the most when we're the most joyful in him.

So the scriptures are just amazing.

Psalm 16.

You will make known to me the path of life, and in your presence is fullness of joy.

Deuteronomy 28.

Listen to this.

Deuteronomy 28 is so radical because God is actually judging Israel because they're not joyful.

I mean, nothing about idols here, nothing about like bad idols or moral issues.

Here's what God's upset about.

Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart.

For the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you.

Isn't it amazing?

Same God, Old Testament used, same God.

Could it be that some of us in this room, you're actually serving in slavery your boss or the job or whatever you're doing?

You're sad, you're depressed, you're you're you're going through all these things because you won't have a glad heart.

I mean, God really digs happy people.

He likes happy people.

I like happy people.

We don't we we like happiness around our house because the alternative is not good.

Psalm 43.

Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy.

Psalm 100, serve the Lord with gladness.

Come before him with joyful singing.

Psalm 37.

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

You realize that sometimes God can't give you the desires of your heart because you don't delight in him.

Psalm 90, oh, satisfy us in the morning with your loving kindness that we may sing for joy and be glad in all our ways.

John 15, Jesus said, These things I've spoken to you.

He's talking about Scripture.

He's talking about all the things.

This is the end of his life.

All the things I've spoken to you, so that my joy may be in you.

You see, happiness, generally speaking, is an outward, an outward affection coming from good circumstances.

But joy comes from within us through a personal, vital, growing, intimate relationship with God, made known through Jesus Christ.

So Jesus says, These things I've spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.

So Jesus doesn't even want us to have half-hearted joy, he wants it to be full.

Even in suffering.

Jesus said, Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets.

James, the brother of Jesus, said, Count it all joy.

My brethren, when you encounter various trials.

Paul in prison, writing to the Philippians, said, Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again I say rejoice.

So the resurrection of Christ is an invitation to joy.

Do you want it?

Do you want it?

Because it's right there.

And it's a banquet that He has opened up to us.

Everybody's invited.

Wherever you slept last night, however you spent your money this month, whatever words that have come out of your mouth or movies that you watch, it's still the same.

He came to Mary Magdalene.

He had cast out seven demons in Mary Magdalene.

One who has been forgiven much loves much.

One who's been forgiven much loves much.

The Pharisees couldn't handle that.

The religious crowd in Jesus' time hated that.

Because for them, you had to be good enough for God.

And Jesus was saying, no, you actually have to be bad enough.

And know it.

So if you're bad enough and you know it, perfect recipe for the joy of the Lord to come into your life.

And I figured it out, man.

I was a freshman in college and I was a happy pagan, man.

I liked my party crowd.

I liked my sport.

I liked all the stuff I was doing.

And it was just great.

Good parents.

A little bit of money in the pocket.

Classes were easy.

Even though I was at the Harvard of the South.

Why are you laughing?

Why are people laughing?

I don't understand.

My wife went to UCLA, and so we always go back and forth about our schools and everything.

But what happened was I began to feel something stirring in my heart.

Weird, just so weird.

It wasn't there before.

And I began to long for something more.

That there was something greater, there was something deeper, there was something more magnificent.

There was an obsession that began to kind of overwhelm me.

It's just got to get this kingdom obsession about Jesus.

And I didn't like it.

Like, oh no, you're gonna mess my life up.

And one night gave my heart to Christ, and Charlton Hesson didn't walk in the room looking like Moses, and I certainly didn't sprout angel wings, but over the next few weeks and months, God's Spirit came in.

That's what happens, church.

God's Spirit, Holy Spirit.

Guess what?

The fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentlemen, began to come in, and from the inside out, he began a work, a new work.

And joy began to take over.

Same thing happened to St.

Augustine in the year 386, full of lust.

He had fathered a child out of wedlock.

Here's what he said about meeting Christ.

How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose.

You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy.

You drove them from me, and you then you took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure.

Jonathan Edwards said, The happiness of the creature consists in rejoicing in God, by which also God is magnified and exalted in us.

The end of creation is that the creation might glorify God.

Now, what is glorifying God?

But a rejoicing at the glory he has displayed through us.

First Peter, we read, and through though you have not seen him, you love him.

And though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy, inexpressible and full of glory.

Nehemiah wrote, The joy of the Lord is our strength.

God is most glorified in us when we are most joyful in him.

That's the resurrection word.

That's the theme.

That's what this is all about.

You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

We hope you have been blessed by today's message.

To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.

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Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.