Easter Sunday | Pastor Brodie Kalamen

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Our desire is that today's message will be fresh and encouraging to you.

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There is an empty tomb, and that empty tomb says so much for us and towards us.

There's a time in our lives and each of our lives where we experience that form of emptiness.

And you don't have to look far to actually see people who are experiencing the empty factor.

Just recently, I was watching the news over the weekend, I even heard some news this morning.

It's one of the banes of being connected on a social level in terms of your, you get it on your phone, you get the news happening and coming at you in all different angles, and you hear about the floodings and the fires, and you hear about the bombings, and even in our own valley, the tragedies, leaving people with an empty, and empty question, emptiness, and leaving them with questions.

And the questions are like, what really matters?

Like, why are these things happening?

Causes them to question their life, cause question their purpose, question the reason behind the reason.

The reason behind the event.

And this question that leads to what really matters is really the question that Easter is all about, answering.

If you're feeling emptiness, if you're feeling that source, that sense of loss today, you're not alone.

In fact, I would have to say that it may be the emptiness is the reason why Jesus came to the earth.

And the empty factor is the reason for Easter.

Easter is all about empty, and it's moving us from a place of emptiness, being empty, to a place of having plenty.

Jesus came and he took our emptiness and he moved in us and moved us to a place of plenty.

Today isn't about my story, it's not about the message that we bring to the table today.

We know that we all have a story.

We've been celebrating the stories here at KCC.

But today it's about his story.

Jesus, a Nazarene, arrested, judged, a criminal, crucified.

The body of Jesus was actually wrapped in linen and packed with over a hundred pounds of like spices that were mashed together that Jesus' body was wrapped in.

He was laid in a tomb, and in front of that tomb was a two-ton stone that was placed in front of that tomb to guard the tomb.

And on that in front of that tomb was a guard, not like a single guard, but a Roman guard.

A group of Romans that were that were stationed there to secure the tomb, to make sure that nothing would happen to this body.

And then that tomb was stamped with a Roman seal.

And in that Roman seal, it was so that it wouldn't be it wouldn't be moved, it wouldn't be tampered with, the tomb wouldn't be violated in any form.

And that's where things happened on Friday.

Things were left on Friday.

And then three days later, Resurrection Sunday, something happened.

Something happened.

Something happened so significant that the earth began to shake.

And then the angel came down and freaked out the Roman guards.

The Bible says they fell on their face and then they ran away.

Because they knew that if they left their post, they would be guilty of abandoning their post and the punishment was death.

So they knew how important this position was.

And the seal, the Roman seal to the tomb was moved as an angel came behind it and rolled that stone away.

And let me tell you, the tomb wasn't empty.

There was still linen there in the shape of a body.

But that body didn't contain anyone.

The fact that Jesus, he was resurrected, and he now lives today with us.

He started showing up.

And as he started showing up, he showed up unexpectedly.

It's so surprising the way he showed up.

He started showing up unannounced.

And I have you have it said today that he's still showing up unexpectedly.

He's still showing up unannounced.

And you might be here today, and you might have been in this time where we're singing songs and reading the words that are on the screen, and you might be sensing, wow, God might be here.

God is here.

What is this that I'm sensing?

He's showing up.

He's showing up.

When you show up, he shows up.

And he's showing up unannounced.

And for Jesus to have finished his mission, it must have been something.

After some, the the passion of the Christ, the passion that he had to encounter and experience, to come out on the other side.

To come on the other side victorious.

I love that analogy.

It's just like the Rocky, that was perfect.

I don't know if that analogy has ever been used in church, but what I can see, like, yeah, you know, it's not just because he climbed a bunch of stairs, or it's not because he just fought some big Russian guy.

But he was, he was like, it's victorious.

Like you could just sense it in Jesus today.

He's the champion, not just of uh gaining a belt, but he's the champion of the world.

Forever and eternity, Jesus will be champion.

Amen.

That's awesome.

Sometimes the only way to get through get to the place where you're going is actually to go through some difficult times.

And to go through some challenging times.

And I want to encourage you, those who are going through difficult things, experiencing difficult times right now, God is with you this Easter.

God is with you this Easter.

You're not alone, and He's greater than the emptiness you might be experiencing.

He's greater than that emptiness.

He came to take you from empty to plenty.

I find emptiness really frustrating.

I love going fishing, but I hate coming home with nothing.

How many fishermen have you got in the house today?

Like, you come back and you're like, yeah, I've got like salmon and halibut or cod or little brook trout.

Something.

You come home with something.

And I love going out and actually coming back with something.

Even like as a shopper.

I don't shop that often, but I'll tell you this: when I go shopping, I walk out the store with something.

My wife is watching me because we go shopping and we'll split up, or we'll she'll go her way and I'll go my way, and I'll be like, hey, we're on holidays or whatever.

And I'm I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna you do your thing, go into your store, I'll go into my store.

And I come back and I've got deals.

How many of you know that?

That's like, yeah, that's right.

And then she walks out and she has nothing.

And she's like, well, we can always come back tomorrow.

And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no.

We're not coming back tomorrow.

We're gonna move, and I'm I'm carrying something with me.

I'm walking away and and I'm using your suitcase to stack my stuff.

If you don't get anything, it's going in your bag, right?

But we move from that place of empty to plenty.

I I love waking up in the morning having coffee, but how many of you have woken up and you see like the coffee is empty?

Can is empty, or the cream is gone.

Oh Lord.

That really hits some of us down with those who have coffee.

Or when you look at your gas tank and then you look at the price of gas, and you're like, oh Lord, like it just really hits home.

And I know empty, like, and no one should ever run out of gas today in today's cars.

You probably if you have a gas gauge, you should be okay.

But I remember I travel with my dad, and my dad would be like, I think we can make it.

And I know if we're on the cocaala at an eighth of a tank, I'll just put it in neutral, we'll just coast the rest of the way, we'll get down.

And I'm thinking, why?

He's like, Well, the light's on, Brody, but still says I've got this amount of kilometers to go, right?

And we should be able to get there because even the reserve has a bit of a reserve, right?

And I'm sweating bullets the whole time.

We're in the middle of a snowstorm, and he's like, Yeah, let's go.

Neutral, check this out.

And I'm thinking, does that affect the brakes?

Like, are we gonna be okay?

Empty, emptiness is really uh a frustrating feeling when you're living in a place of emptiness, and it means vacant or unoccupied or uh a place that contains nothing.

And when we look in our heart, some of us are living life with an emptiness.

We do our best to shroud it, we do our best to cover it, and and we do it like on social media, we're gonna post pictures.

Yeah, I was busy here and here and here and here and here, and look, I'm having fun, and we have this big image that goes out that says, we're trying to tell the world, hey, we're not empty, but really we're empty.

We go through life looking at these areas, and we have this wall outside, and you don't leave early, but we have a wall outside, it's our donut wall.

It's gonna be full of donuts afterwards.

But each of those donuts has a hole in the center, and it's that one place where you just look at it, and we live in a life which says so much of our life is so good in so many areas, but we're still living with that gap.

We're still living with that hole.

So why the crucifixion?

Why the cross today?

Why are we celebrating a day called Easter?

And I don't really want to take today and actually talk about what happened on that day.

Um, it's really important.

It's something that I'm sure a lot of people here know, but I don't really talk about the what that happened.

I really want to share with you why it happened.

Why was Easter so important?

Why was this crucifixion?

Why was the cross so important?

Why was the tomb being empty so important?

Why was Jesus showing himself unexpected and unannounced so important?

Well, emptiness is so is is such a big part of Easter, but Easter is so much more.

Um, Easter is about God's invitation to us to move us from empty to plenty.

And so I want to go back a little bit and talk about John in this part of the scripture called in John chapter 4, about a woman at the well.

John 4 · chapter mention

We don't really have her name, but the scripture refers to her as the woman at the well.

And there's a woman written about in this story where Jesus is traveling to a place called Samaria, and he's going through Samaria, a place that Jews never really went through.

And Jesus was tired, and he decided to stop at a well at the middle of the day.

It's the hottest part of the day.

And when this and a Samaritan woman came over, and she came to gather water, and she came to draw this water, and Jesus stops, and he does something that most Jewish people would not do to a Samaritan.

He says, Can I have a drink?

He asks for a drink.

And she replies this way: She says, How is it that you, a Jew, ask me for a drink?

A woman of Samaria?

For Jews don't have dealings with Samaritans.

And Jesus replies, if you knew the gift, would everyone say gift?

The gift of God.

If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying this to you today, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

Similar to all of us at one point in our life, she had no idea who she was encountering.

She had no idea who she was actually experiencing at this point, and how this power from this individual had a power to change her.

It was the hottest part of the day.

It was a day where you usually didn't travel carrying water.

But she was going on her own, trying to find water, and you can hear the heart of God towards her.

God saying, through Jesus, he's saying, Listen, you're out here, and I know you're here for a reason, and I want to give you something that will satisfy you.

I want to give you something that will satisfy an emptiness inside of you.

An emptiness that you've tried to fill in all sorts of manners.

And she says, Sir, you don't even have a water bucket.

Like she's really intrigued.

She's like, How can you give me living water when you don't even have a bucket and the well is really deep?

So how are you even going to get this water?

And Jesus watches her and he's realizing she's trying to find something natural that will satisfy.

But Jesus is going to give her something that's supernatural.

He's going to offer her something that you cannot find in this world.

You cannot find fulfillment in the world the way Jesus can give fulfillment.

He can fill that void and fill that empty place.

She was trying to pick up on the natural.

And it's oftentimes we look first to that area.

We look first to the things and the popularity and the people and the fame and the money and the material to satisfy.

And Jesus slows her down.

He says, I'm going to give you something that will cause you to never thirst again.

It's like he's selling her.

It's like a salesman.

Everyone who drinks this water is going to be thirsty again.

But whoever drinks of the water I give you, this car is going to run forever.

It's barely driven.

You know, it's it's going to keep going and going and going.

But he says, but what I'm going to give you, this water I give you, will cause a spring to dwell up inside of you, and it will have eternal life in it, and you'll never, ever, ever be thirsty again.

And by the time Jesus is done talking to her, she's like, Sir, give me that water that I don't have to keep coming back and want this again.

Have to keep coming for water.

And Jesus says, Well, you've been trying to fill your life with all kinds of things to satisfy you.

And she kind of shudders and he says, You know, maybe go back and talk to your husband.

She goes, Well, I don't have a husband.

He goes, That's right.

You've had five husbands.

And the one you're living with right now, he's not even your husband.

And she had been trying to satisfy that empty place with things in the natural.

She had been seeking and thirsty after something that would never satisfy relationships.

She had become dependent on someone else to satisfy her.

And probably all these experiences she had led had exhausted her, and she just like, I just want something fresh.

I want life, and I want that life to have eternal impact.

So she questioned God, and God still knows, He knows what we need.

And it's interesting because it's not about her finding the what, it's not about it's about her encountering the who.

By finding Jesus, she found that satisfaction.

People go all different places for satisfaction.

And I think you know, our culture has really uh encouraged it, like you complete me.

Or it should be like, you complete me.

It's like if I just find that right person, I'll find that place that'll fill that void in my life.

If I just find these things, and and it just doesn't work.

Even David said this, and David had one of the highest positions.

He had one of the, he had unlimited possession, he was of royal blood, he was a king.

He had everything that someone could ask for, anyone could ask for.

He had access to it.

He had the resource, the ability, he had the celebrity type life.

But David describes himself as he's like, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'm parched, I'm I need something more than even what I have today.

And if you question this, you can really go to any of the uber-rich in the world and look at their lifestyle and look at their relationships and realize that they're still searching.

It doesn't matter, they might find pleasure in the world, but they're not gonna find fulfillment.

And so we need to move from a place of saying, pleasure will never fill because pleasure needs to keep being deposited regular, regular, regular, regular.

But fulfillment says, I don't even need the pleasures of the world.

I'm fulfilled because of who I am.

I'm accepted, I'm welcomed into the family, I'm I'm approved, I'm I'm a son of God, I'm a part of the family.

I don't have to do anything, earn anything.

I'm just am.

I am because he loves me and he cares for me and he wants me just the way I am.

And that's the message.

So David came back and he said this.

He said, God, your love is better than life.

I could give everything up, everything up, but if I have your love, it's better than life.

Your love is better.

So emptiness, wanting that living water, where do we find that?

Well, we learn about it, it starts right away.

Well, it happened even before Jesus' crucifixion, but immediately after his crucifixion, he was reaching people and meeting their needs.

Uh, we learn about Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, a great illustration.

They were the first to like get up and go and visit the tomb.

And so they get up and they go to find out where Jesus is, and they walk to the tomb and they see the tomb is unguarded, and the stone is rolled away, and they peek inside, and there's no one there, and they just get grieved, depressed, down, they're they're crying, they're so they're they they start weeping, and and they turn to a gardener and they say to the gardener, What do you have any idea what may have happened to this body?

It's gone.

Do you know where it is?

And the gardener turns around and they think it's the gardener, but really it's Jesus.

And Jesus says, Mary, and right away in the Bible says she ran and she grabbed at his feet, and he had to actually tell her, let go of my feet.

Like she was holding on, and he said, Go and tell everyone that I am risen.

I'm here.

Immediately she walked in with a hole, a depression.

She walked in sorrowful, and she walked out, and you saw it in the video on the last scene there.

She burst in the door.

You're not gonna believe this.

Jesus is risen, he's no longer dead, he's alive.

Don't look for him where the dead are.

Look for him where the living are.

Jesus goes out and he he starts connecting because he his disciples hear the testimony that he's alive and he goes to visit Thomas.

And how many C personality people have we got in the room today?

Like, you're a little conscientious, calculated.

I don't know if I'm gonna believe this.

I need to see it.

This is doubting Thomas.

He's like, I've heard it, but until I see it, I'm not gonna believe it.

And his faith, his hope was empty, his heart was empty.

He's like looking for something to latch on to, but the one he had trust in, the one he had placed his hope in, was now crucified, had been crucified and laid in a tomb with a 2,000-pound rock in front of it.

He's not coming out until Jesus shows up, says, Thomas, put your hands in my hand, put your hand, see the nail piercings in my hand.

Look at my side.

I'm here.

And Jesus meets Thomas where he's at.

And he and Thomas may have been analytical, a little bit slow to actually believe, but at that point he began to believe, and he actually gave his life, it restored his faith, and he actually became a martyr, defending the fact that Jesus rose from the dead grave.

And lastly, Jesus is announces himself to two travelers who are actually traveling away from Jerusalem, away from where they believe Jesus was.

They were going on a seven-mile journey to a place on a road called a mess, and they're walking down the road towards a maest, and they're just mumbling and grumbling to themselves.

Man, you know, I'm sure there was a little bit of negativity there.

Like we had this big hope, and it's not working out for us.

We have to distance ourselves away from the promise.

And they began to move away from the city that the hope that they had that Jesus was alive is was just getting getting squeezed out of them.

And as they're walking and as they're leaving, they're they're they had good intentions, but they're they're moving away from their from their hope that they had.

And every step at this point was a step in the wrong direction, and and Jesus meets them going the wrong way.

How many of you at one point were going the wrong way, and Jesus came and met you?

Like that's what he does.

And these men, one of them named Cleo, Cleopatra.

Cleo's walking down the street, and he's going away from Jesus, and Jesus comes behind unannounced, and he kind of walks towards them and with them, but he doesn't tell them who he is.

And Jesus asks, hey, what are you guys talking about?

And Cleo just literally looks at him and says, Are you kidding me?

You haven't heard.

Like everybody knows that where have you been when Jesus was crucified.

And Jesus begins to counter his argument.

Didn't he say he would return?

Didn't he say all these things?

And they have this argument down the down the street.

And some people, and I'm you may be in the room tonight, today, but you may be here today, and you're like, you're just on that journey away.

You're having those honest conversations.

And you're in that position where you're saying, you know, I've got this.

I've been in the church before.

I got let down.

I've been I've given my faith, I've given my hope to God, and I got let down.

And all this time you you started to build in yourself an argument that has almost been built with other people and it developed into nearly an offense, just like with God.

Just I'm gonna build a separation between God, I'm just gonna live on my own way.

And God comes in.

Jesus comes in and starts asking, starts prompting, and starts challenging some of your thoughts and the ways you believe.

And you were going away until your heart begins to stir a bit.

And Jesus is still unannounced, he starts walking with the two men down the road, and the two men, they it gets dark, and Jesus is gonna keep going on his way.

And they say, Jesus, you just or they say to him, Come, come in with us, eat with us.

It's late, stay with us, you know, we'll find a place.

And they sit down and Jesus begins to break bread with them.

And as soon as he begins to break bread, they begin to recognize that yes, he was Jesus and that he's alive.

This announcement of who he is, and their heart again, the Bible says their heart was stirred again with fresh faith.

Jesus will walk with you, Jesus will go with you.

So when I think about this empty tomb, when I think about the empty tomb, the empty tomb actually speaks a few things to me.

When I see it, I don't see loss, I don't see death.

This is what I see.

The empty tomb says to me that God is faithful.

Would you say that?

God is faithful.

God is faithful.

God said in Genesis chapter 3, way at the beginning, he says, There will be a day when my seed will come and destroy the work of the devil.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

The seed will be there, the seed of the woman will bruise the head of the enemy.

And God made a plan in a broken moment.

He said, This, I'm going to save the world.

How many of you are grateful that God is faithful today?

He actually saved the world.

When I look at the tomb, I just say, God, you had a plan.

God, you are faithful.

God, I wasn't forgotten about.

I wasn't left behind.

But you considered me from the beginning, and you kept to your promise.

Number two, God is powerful.

Would you say that?

God is powerful.

He is.

The Bible says all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him.

He's powerful.

And virtually he's like, I'm the boss over death and evil.

That's why the scripture we read first thing this morning, as you were coming in, the scripture was, oh death, where is your sting?

Oh death, where is your victory?

It's gone.

Because God, Jesus is boss.

Jesus is the one.

He's got the power to be able to do everything and anything, to be able to reach out to us and reach out to those we love.

There's no place you can go that is so far that he can't hold on to you and bring you in.

There's nothing that you have done or will have done that will separate you from him.

His gift is there for you.

Listen, the woman at the well had five other husbands.

She couldn't keep her relationships together.

She was lost in her life.

She was feeling so depleted.

And yet Jesus said, I have something, it's a gift, and I'm willing to give it to you if you'd receive it.

It's eternal life.

It's living water.

And that same power is available to you today.

New beginning, new start, new family, new home, new and fresh fulfillment in your life.

Lastly, God is willing.

God is willing.

His willingness is not motivated by what you can do, it's motivated based on who he is.

He is willing because he loves you.

You are so valuable to him that he sent his son to come and die for you.

And to go is an innocent sacrifice.

An innocent for innocent gone to the cross for you and for my sake, for your sake and for my sake, so that we would experience that life.

And I was talking to my kids about this on Friday.

And you know that God had the ability.

They said, call down angels.

Come on.

You can do it.

Rescue you.

To rescue you.

Come on.

They were prompting him, they were teasing him, like, come on, you can do it.

And he said, he willingly allowed himself to be sacrificed for your sake and for my sake.

And because of that, we are just so grateful today because now we're living in the benefit of a risen Savior who says, now you no longer have to worry about past sin and regret and pain and the effect of sin.

I took your punishment.

I took the penalty.

It got nailed to the cross.

You were guilty.

And now today the announcement is: if you want it, the free gift is this, you're not guilty anymore.

You can have a new start, you can have a new beginning because of me.

The why of Easter is this.

The why of Easter is important because our heart was empty.

And now our heart, because of Christ, has plenty.

God moved us from a place of lack to a place of abundance.

He moved us from a place of question to a place of confidence and faith.

He moved us from a place of being broken to a place where we now can experience healing and life forevermore.

He moved us from death and he moved us into life.

He exchanged it for us.

And because of Jesus, we now have that opportunity and that bridge to heaven.

And that's why it's so important to us.

He's willing, he's powerful, and he's faithful.

Amen.

Would you just bow your heads with me for a moment?

Father, we thank you today for your word.

You are willing, you are faithful, you are capable.

And today, Father, we just recognize it.

And I just want to end and close with every head bowed and every every uh eye closed.

That I'm just going to lead you into two steps.

If this is for you today, God isn't your critic.

Jesus isn't your critic.

He's not there to uh to criticize your life and and where you where you've been, but he wants to lead you into something new.

All he's concerned about is where you are today and where you're going.

So today he's more than a teacher, he's more than a prophet, he is actually our savior, our resurrected savior.

So, two steps.

I want to pray a prayer with you today.

It's called the prayer of salvation.

And it's what we do to respond to Jesus' invitation.

It's a personal prayer.

That's why I have you close your eyes.

It's between you and God.

It's more than just words, it's a confession in your life, in your heart to God that you acknowledge that you need Him.

And you accept the gift of salvation.

You believe in Christ, and you're making that confession today.

And secondly, our challenge to you is if you're not planted in a local church, you need to become planted.

You won't grow strong in your faith into what God's best for you unless you're connected to a local church.

This is to surround yourself with people who are strong, to surround yourself with people who are there to support you in your journey.

We all are on a journey, and we're to you don't have to walk this journey alone.

By praying this prayer today, it doesn't mean you're perfect, but it does mean that you won't be alone or empty anymore.

And it's a simple prayer, so I'm gonna invite the whole congregation to pray it today.

Everyone in this room can pray this prayer.

And for the sake of those who may be praying it for the first time, we're just gonna pray it out loud.

But I want you to mean it in your heart.

If this is the first time you're gonna pray this prayer, then you just say it.

Say it with like a confidence in your heart.

This is between you and God.

Let's pray today.

Dear Jesus, welcome to my world.

I invite you today to come into my heart, to come into my life.

Make me a new person.

Forgive me of my sins.

I receive you now as my leader and my Lord.

I'll never be the same again.

My hope is in you, my confidence is in you.

And I'll never be the same again.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

If you prayed that prayer today, I'm just gonna with just continue to keep your heads bowed and just between you and me.

If you prayed that prayer today, would you just raise your hand real high?

If that was the first time I see that hand, I see that hand, I see that hand, I see that hand, I see that hand, I see that hand, I see that hand.

Well, we want to celebrate you today and just welcome you into a new exciting life with Jesus.

Would you all stand with us?

Join us online at kcc.net.