The Neighborhood Church, Bentonville, AR
Welcome to the TNC Podcast, where real conversations meet raw emotions and faith!
Join Pastor Joe Liles and the team as they dive deep into life's messy moments, exploring everything from overwhelming feelings to the surprising emotional landscape of God. Each episode is like sitting down with friends who aren't afraid to get real about spirituality, personal struggles, and finding meaning in the everyday.
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The Neighborhood Church, Bentonville, AR
Easter Message: "Jesus is on the move..."
In this Easter Message, Pastor Joe unpacks the unexpected meaning of Christ's resurrection, asking each of us to look beyond our past and embrace a future filled with God's promise. Even the disciples didn't believe what Christ said, that he must be crucified, die, and rise, but we live in the knowledge of the Resurrection as the church today! We are a post-resurrection church, which means we have hope!
The resurrection isn't just a historical event, but a daily invitation to live with anticipation, wonder, and purpose. Whether you're seeking hope, wrestling with doubt, or simply wanting to understand the deeper meaning of Easter, this message will uplift your spirit and renew your perspective on life's greatest miracle.
You guys can give it up for the TNC house. Man One more time. Bring it some worship this morning, some absolute worship. Um, you know, as as I was thinking about Easter Sunday, we looked at the weather all week, and rain can't stop you from coming to Easter Sunday. Let's give it up for making it to Easter Sunday. There's a lot that goes on on Easter and so many hands are involved, to come to a day when we find hope again, when we find this peace that we're looking for, and this is a day where I love to think about it in this way, is that you can't go back to what it was. There's no way to go back to yesterday. You You cannot go back to you have to understand that the resurrection makes us new. We live in a reality that is called a post resurrection reality, which means that we have new life. And I love this moment at the tomb, because it's still not what we expect. What we talked about in Good Friday is that those who we would have expected to gather at the Cross were not there. Those who said they were loyal to Jesus and would be with them forever and would follow him wherever he goes, were not at the cross. And yet we find it again on the tomb three days later, when Jesus rose from the dead, that those who we expected to be there and who knew of the story, didn't expect it would happen. Still, there was still this. I have worship, and I doubt I have faith, but I have questions, and I just don't think there were any different. I think really, we come to this text just like the disciples do in the and the women who came to meet Jesus at the tomb and prepare his burial. I think we come to Jesus in the same way on Easter I really do. So I want to start with the Scripture. I want to start with the Scripture and read this story to you of when Jesus rose from the dead and what happened at the tomb. And so I want us to open up our Bibles. We love Bibles. In the church. We have a mission here that everyone would bring a Bible to church. And so that means a couple things. One, if you got the good book, raise it up. We love Bibles. And there they are. Wow, look at all those Bibles out there today. I love it. If you don't have a Bible, that's okay a couple things. One is that we have Bible boxes around the church, so you can get up and grab we actually have kids Bibles in there now too. And so you can grab a study Bible or kids Bible. If you don't have one at home, you can keep that Bible. And then also, we're on the Bible app, so if you got a smartphone, raise that up right. Raise that up. There's an app for the Bible. It's really incredible. So if you're scrolling on other apps and not reading scripture, lots of prayers, lots of prayers. So because it exists and it's there, your choice, but you can download that. We have a chair back card in front of you that says the Bible app. You can download that Bible app. We have an event on there called the neighborhood church for Easter, and you can follow on the Scripture and the notes, and you can save that so you can go back and do it, look in the past. And if you're joining us on Facebook and YouTube, we love that. Thank you for joining us online. And there's a link in the description where you can also connect with the Bible app also. So we're going to be in Luke chapter 24 and remember, read verses one through 12 today, one through 12. And here's the interesting part about the story. We are not going to get to the part where they see Jesus, and I intentionally stopped before that. We're going to get to the part where they discover the tomb is empty, but not when they meet Jesus after the resurrection. Because I feel like a lot of us get to that point and then we wonder what's next. We get to the point where, like, hold on, where's Jesus in my life? And we want the moment where we see Jesus, and I want to give us the moment where they say, Hey, who are you looking for? Are you looking to for the person that already told you what was going to happen? Because that's happened, and I want you to hear that story right now. So this is Luke chapter 24 and if you're this is the first time opening the Bible for you. Luke is in the New Testament. It's one of the four Gospels. So there are four gospels that tell the story of Jesus Christ from birth all the way to resurrection and ascension in some of the Gospels. And they're basically four different perspectives of how to understand the story of Jesus from different viewpoints. Some top talk about Jesus as, you know, the divine Son of God. Some talk about Jesus as the miracle worker, right? And they're all different people who walked with Jesus, and as they walked, understood different perspectives of Jesus. And so we're in the Gospel of Luke, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. So if you're turning your Bible, and you find any of those, you can get to Luke, chapter 24 and it's the last book, or last chapter of the book, and Gospel of Luke. And here's what it says. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb. And when they say they what they mean is that there were some women that had walked with Jesus to the cross. Had been with Jesus during kind of this moment where he was taken to the crucifixion and everything else. And they had gone back home, and now they were coming back to prepare things, and as they were coming back to prepare things, they're now gathered with him, and so is it again. They came to the tomb taking spices that they had prepared. They found the stone, which is placed in front of the tomb, rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the. Body while they were perplexed, which I love as a scripture words while they were perplexed about this, suddenly, two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, Why do you look for the living among the dead. He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again. Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the 11, the disciples and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary, the mother of James and the other women with them, who told this to the apostles. But these words seem to them in idle tale, and they did not believe them, but Peter, Peter got up and he ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in, he saw the linen clods by themselves, and then he went home, amazed at what had happened here ends the Gospel reading. So if I were to ask you, hearing someone and followers of Jesus, the women in the story, go to the tomb and see that the tomb is empty, and hear from two men, angels in dazzling white, saying, Why do you look for the living among the dead? He told you he is risen. And they go back and they say, Ah, he is risen. And the disciples thought it was a, what an idle tale. The whole ministry of Jesus, they hear, it's true, and they say, What? It's an idle tale. And yet, Peter, faithful, Peter runs to the tomb and see, I love this, because I think there's times when we question Jesus that we too, try to run to God, right? There's times in our life when we don't have a path and we don't know what's going on. And so we take this moment to run to God, and we wonder, Where is God in our life? And so we start taking these steps towards God, but that wonder just increases and increases and increases, saying, I wonder where God is at in my life. And that actually happens twice in this text. The first time is in verse four, when it says that they were perplexed. Did you guys hear that? I love that word in Scripture, because it doesn't sound like it's coming from, like, you know, around Jesus's time, I'm perplexed. Like, it doesn't sound like, that's what they would say. Oh, interesting. You know, I guess what's going on? No, what's happening is it's a word that means to be without a way or a path. They were lost. They wondered where Jesus was at when they wondered. It means that they were lost. And the same thing happens to Peter, that amazed word is also he was filled with wonder. But those are two different types of wonder, right? One is to be lost, and a one is a wonder that says, I'm actually kind of amazed at what's going on. There's a wonder and awe about it. And so we have these two different perspectives. But what I love about Peter, when he comes to the wonder is that he ran to the tomb. And this is where we get some of our first lessons from the Scripture. And I think there are three lessons that we need to hear from this Easter scripture. But in order to understand it, I want to take you through an experience that I had that I think relates really well to understanding what it means to run to the tomb at expectation. So how many of you ever participated in track when you were in high school or anything other we have some track people. How many of you ever seen a track race? Right? And okay, great. So we got a lot of people seen a track race, and so the stands tend to get really excited when there's a race going on. In other gospels, it said that the two disciples raced to the tomb to try to outrun one another. And my daughter is in track, and she runs the 400 and the four by four and the 200 and the four by two, and the 400 is a really long race. It's a grueling race. It's one lap around the track as fast as you can go, and it's about the extent of what people can do. And at the end of it, you just kind of collapse on the ground and thank God that you're still alive. That's basically the end of the 400 everyone's very faithful at the track meet, because they always thank God. And so my daughter is running this, and I'm excited because she runs the four by four. Now, the four by four is the last event, the four by two is the first event. So we get to spend five and a half hours at a track meet, which is super so she runs the last event, which is a four by four. And I want to take you through this, because as a dad, I get kind of passionate. I get kind of excited and and I'm excited to see where she's at. But every meet this year she is she's the anchor leg in the four by four, and every meet this year she has gotten the baton where she is not close enough to the person in front of her, like 70 to 100 Yards away from that person, and the person behind her is too far away, so she just runs a lap around the track. And I'm like, I just wish she could race someone. I wish she could feel that like that racing of someone to go to. So a couple meets ago, there was someone coming up behind her, and I wanted to motivate her, so she was coming around the last lap in the 300 and I looked I was like, Kaylee, they're catching you. Run. They're coming up behind you. You're gonna get caught. And she's just gone, relax though, don't exist. That's not how you look. And so she ran, didn't let the person catch her, and then she comes up. She's like, Dad, those girls on my team told me that girl wasn't even close to me. I was like, she wasn't even close to you. I was like, even close to you. I was like, I just, I just wanted you to run faster. I was like, what? Right? Watch where I'm going with this. Sometimes that's how we run from our past. Okay, sometimes we feel like our past is chasing us. But I'm going to make today a new day. Sometimes you feel like something behind you is catching you. Sometimes you feel like where you've come from is maybe not good enough to be made new today. And I want to start that Jesus is doing something new now I want to take you to what happened last week. What happened last meeting is Kelly got started, and the girl in front of was like 60 yards away from her, which is a world of difference in the track meet. She was already around the curve right. And Kaylee started running. She's only got two meets left. And I'd tell it might not be the right language, but I'd tell Kaylee to go hunting. And I was like, go hunting. Girl, go hunting. And what that means is, go get her go get her right. And so I was like, Go get her right, and Kaylee starts off, and she can see her, and they're running around the track, and she gets the back straight away, and all of a sudden she's catching up. And I'm running down the stands, and I got my phone, and I'm trying to get to her the 300 I'm running. I see her catch I'm like, Oh my God, and she's coming around the 300 right, and she's getting around that curve, and this girl's slowing down, and Kaylee's catching I'm like, Oh, it's a race. And I was, I hear we and you could see that people. I'm like, is that your daughter? I'm like, That's my daughter, right. There she go, my Kaylee. Get her. Kaylee, get her. And she's running around that 400 and she comes over and she's running now, she hits the last 100, right in front of the whole stands, and, ah, she's going great for him. Ah, she looks like this. And she's running. I can see her catching her, and I can see her catch her. I can see her getting close and close and go. And she's running all the way down. And now I'm all the way at the back of the 100, and I'm just screaming, get her. Kaylee, go for it. Kaylee, she's in fourth place right now, like, she's trying to get third, like, it's not even for the win. Like this is, like, the first group's already finished, second group's already finished. Like, we're out, right? So this is just, like, a personal thing, and so she's running for that 400 and right before the end of the 400 right? I think she can do it. I'm we're all yelling, this dancer cheering, right? And she's right there, three yards away, three yards away, and she bought. She finishes right she finished. I'm just screaming. I run under there says, like, best race of the year. This is amazing. I can't believe it. This is incredible. I was like, I love what's happened here. I was like, this is where it's at. And I realized that when she had someone in front of her to look at, she treated that race a little bit different. See the the first part that I see in this text is Jesus is always on the move. Jesus is not in the tomb. But sometimes we are looking for Jesus where he was in our life, not where he's going. Sometimes we need to see Jesus in front of us, leading us so that we are walking on the path, not lost, but that we have an anticipation that things are going to change, we have an anticipation that our life won't be the same. We run to that tomb to look in, not with unexpected nature, not with maybe this didn't happen, but with that, what's going to happen next? If this is true, what else does that mean? See, I think we should stop looking for Jesus where he was at those times in our life that you got through and we felt God, but we don't need to stay there. Today is a new day. Now we're looking for Jesus where Jesus is going. That's the promise that's being revealed here. And I love it, because the women went first and they came back to the apostles. The people would walk with Jesus like it's true. Everything's true. The angels told us it was true. And what did the disciples do? They say, No, no, it's an idle tale. I have to go see for myself. See. And that's the second lesson that I take from. The scripture. The second lesson that I take from the Scripture is that people are going to share their experience of God with you and the disciples. Response could have been he said this to us. Peter could have said three times he told me this, and I told him it wasn't true, and you're telling me it's true, like that's my experience of God too, that God's there for me, that that Jesus said He would rise from the dead. That could have been Peter's response, but it said he said, I don't believe you. Let me go see for myself. See what I believe is when people share their experience of God with you, your testimony validates their truth. And if you don't share about your experience, of God, how are they going to know that it's true too? That conversation between the disciples and the women could have been this amazing moment, because not only does it validate their truth, your testimony of your experience with God validates the truth of God that He is risen. Wow, it needs a bigger truth than that he is risen. That's the truth. That's what's revealed here, that he is risen. And I want you to think about that you are searching for a relationship with God that has gone ahead of you, that will never leave you, but that has gone ahead of you to prepare a place for you. See, Jesus is ahead of where you're going. Jesus knows what you're going to go through. Knows that he's going to walk this with you. You have the Holy Spirit with you now, because you're going to a place that has a promise with a promise keeper, and that is something hard for us to experience, but we see it in this text. We see it when Peter looks into the temple and he says that he is amazed. But here's what this reveals this scripture, this resurrection for us today reveals one truth. It reveals that the kingdom of God is real. You don't have to wonder anymore. We live in a post resurrection reality. We know that the kingdom is real. So here's my question for you, if we go to the tomb and we look in and we walk away with wonder, and we know that the kingdom is real, do you live your life in that way. Do you live your life thanking God for every single moment, knowing that the promise of an eternity with your loved ones, with God, with the glory of heaven, with the angels singing in the holy choirs, where every single day in heaven is Easter Sunday, where you come wake up in the morning to a praise and a worship where you're going. If I could have this every day of my life where people around you are whispering prayers every single moment. Do you live your life in this way? Is every day that you wake up, a day that you thank God for the resurrection. Because I truly believe, if we live in this reality, then we're chasten Jesus in an incredible way, because we know the kingdom is real. My hope is that we live that way every single day. And all God's people said, Amen, let us pray heavenly and gracious, Father, we come before you today knowing that your life with us has been made new. It's been made real, that the kingdom is true, that we can no longer be contained here on this earth, that you have made a promise to us and that you keep your promises, your promises are never broken. But Lord, I know that we still doubt. I know that we still wonder both in a perplexed way and wonder in a in an amazed way, but still we question, where are you at in our life? And Lord, now we know that you have gone before us to conquer sin, death and the devil, to give us freedom, to give us hope over the hurt, to show us that darkness will not overcome the light, to show us that our faith is more than our fear in this life. Lord, you are with us in such a way that we know and understand what grace means. So my hope, Lord, is that we do not contain this inside the church, that we do not keep this as the kingdom on earth, that we walk out of this church as a kingdom of heaven, mindset, as the glory of God, mindset, and then we know that we will not look for Jesus. Where he was in our life, but we are looking for a resurrected God, a resurrected Christ that walked among us, that prepares a room for us, that promises that the Holy Spirit will remain until he comes again. So Lord, my prayers remind us of that today. Fill us with joy, fill us with the heart of God and send us to reveal our testimony to those who share their experiences with God with us, so that we may not reveal our own truth or our own will, but we may reveal your truth about the kingdom of heaven. And we pray these things in your holy and precious name. And all God's people said, Amen. You guys enjoying our Easter Sunday. So far, you.
