You know, I thought about today and how to start this message. I just want to tell you a story. You can go ahead and turn to Matthew 16:24 and if you would, just. If you got a note sheet coming in, just stick it there. Close your Bible, find it on your.

Find it on your app. Bible app. Shut your Bible down. Just. I want you to hear the story.

I came in yesterday, I looked at the fountain that's out in front of the building, and I wondered how many stones it took to build that fountain. How funny it would be if we had a competition to see who could guess the number of stones out there.

But it reminded me of the words of our Lord when he said that if you shut the mouths of those praising me, I'll raise up the stones to shout. Psalm 66:1 says, Shout joyfully to God, all the earth. Sing the glory of his name. Make his praise glorious. Say to God, how awesome are your works.

So today, this story that I'm going to tell you, it tells its own story. It doesn't need flash, it doesn't need any kind of help. But it's more than a story. It's a narrative. Because to say it's a story would mean it's fictional.

But it's not. It's the truth. Some of you today are hearing it fresh for the first time. You don't know this, but on your way here today, God opened your heart to understand the gospel for the first time. Some of you in this room, you have grown cold to the gospel.

I hope that hearing this story fresh and anew will awaken the giant that lives inside of you. And there's a third group of people in here. You know the Lord, you walk with him. And there's a zeal and a passion and a fire inside of you. And you're just sitting here going like, what's next, God?

What's next for me? So as you hear this story, could you pretend for a moment that you don't know the story and hear it fresh and new? There was a promise made long ago, before the world came into being. A promise of a king that was coming. And not just any king, but God himself.

The very word of God becoming flesh, taking on human form, this great mystery that the God of all eternity, the omniscient, all powerful God Almighty, would step out of heaven to come, become like us, to rescue us. But why would he do that? Why would the God of the heavens, the God of all eternity, care for even just one? Well, because the word of God created all that we see it's his. It belongs to him.

From that moment in the Garden of Eden, he took dust from the earth and formed it into man and breathed life into his lungs and jump started mankind, taking a rib from the man and making woman. And Adam and Eve came into being. And the only thing he said to them was, don't eat of this tree. But entered the tempter and he came and he tempted them with this fact. Did God really say that if you eat this fruit, you can be like God, be your own person, be sovereign?

And this first Adam and Eve, they fell into that temptation and they ate and sin walked right into this world. And along with sin came shame and guilt. And they knew at that moment that the intimacy that they had with God was cut off. Because they looked down and realized that they're intimate parts were now uncovered. And in their shame and their guilt, they tried to cover their intimate parts.

The very things that were created for man and woman to come together to reproduce and fill the earth now had been severed. And so they looked down in shame and guilt. And God came. Where are you? Who told you that you were naked?

And because of that, creation is cursed. The serpent is cursed, man is cursed and woman is cursed. Cursed with what? Cursed with God's judgment, which is death. From dust you came, into dust you would return.

But in that story, he began to tell us of this promise. The promise that the seed of the woman would come and would defeat the serpent. I should have like a little screen over here with a button that says Hallelujah.

Even in that judgment, in that tragedy of life, there was promise and there was hope. That hope was spoken to Abraham when God promised that all the nations would be blessed in his seed. This promised one that to Israel that God would raise up a prophet like Moses from among them. This seed that to David, King David. He promised that there would come one from his descendants who would be the eternal king over an eternal kingdom.

This seed, this man, this one, do you know him? David even wrote of this one, calling him his lord, his own descendant. Why? Because he was more than just a man. He was the God man.

He in his body dwelled the fullness of deity. That makes no sense to us how God could come and dwell among us. The Son of God sounds very regal, fancy and powerful. But the one who would come wouldn't be born in a. In a palace or any kind of stately manner.

But he would come in humility, in a status that would not give him any kind of reputation.

He would come to bring A new hope, a new promise that God would remake his people by giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit and taking their sin away. But that way wouldn't be easy. It would cost him his life. This coming king, this one who was promised would not arrive with lights and thunder, without radiance or the majesty of heaven shouting. But instead would empty himself and take on the form of a human.

And yet people would see him not as deity, but common. Yet he would come not in a stately manner or in majesty. And nothing would make us want to look at him. In fact, scripture says we would be repulsed by him. This man would be despised, rejected, pushed away by his own people to not be esteemed.

He would come like a lamb, a lamb as having been slain from the foundation of the world, a lamb being led to the slaughter. And he came to die the death that came when Adam ate and sinned, the sin of humanity. He would be Emmanuel, God with us, bypassing the palaces and the places of authority. This man, this king would be born lowly, not in the courts of power, but in a stable made for animals. And he wouldn't be laid in in a crib or in a bed, but in a manger, an animal trough.

And instead of a line of dignitaries from his own people coming to welcome him, lowly shepherds would leave their flock and come to say hello. And dignitaries from a far off country would come while his own people slept and slumbered. Even the sitting king, the puppet king Herod, would begin to plot the demise of this king out of his jealousy and his rage, killing all of the male children two years and under, just to get after this one, this promised one, this eternal, everlasting king. Do you know him? Do you know him?

Have you forgotten him? See, he walked where we walk, and he experienced what we experienced. He knew the exhaustion of a hard day's work and the joy of seeing a project completed. And yes, he would take part in religious customs, knowing the religion better than they would, to the point that even as a young, probably preteen, this man would go toe to toe with the religious teachers. And he grew up and became a man.

And he had a cousin whose name was John, John the baptizer, as they would call him. And John began to preach, going before this king of the universe, saying, repent, Turn away from your sin because the king has come. Repent from your sin because it's leading you to death. Repent and turn away. The kingdom of God is at hand.

But even as he baptized them in the river, he Told them there's somebody coming. Whose sandals, whose shoes I'm not even worthy to tie. I. I baptize you with water. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. One day he sees this man.

I mean, he knows him. They're cousins. And he says, behold, not my cousin, but the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Thinking about that scene in the garden where God had to take and sacrifice an animal to make coverings for Adam and Eve because what they sewed together wasn't good enough.

And one day, this man comes to John and says, baptize me. How does the perfect One, the sinless One, the Son of God. Why? Why did he need to come? Because he said, it's fitting to fulfill all righteousness.

And John was like, no, no, no, no. You should baptize me. Not. Not me. Baptize you.

So John yields. And the Promised One, the King of all eternity, is dipped down in the Jordan. And when he comes up, the Son of God is affirmed by the Spirit of God as the portals of heaven. And the Father God speaks. This is my Son, in whom I'm well pleased.

Do you know him? Because after that, he goes into the wilderness. Not a garden. He goes into a wilderness. This new Adam goes into the wilderness, a place of barrenness, a place where there is no food.

He fasts for 40 days and 40 nights. And the same tempter who came to Adam and Eve now comes to this man. But this man does what the first Adam did not. He obeyed. This man does what the first Adam did not.

He stood firm. This Adam came and resisted in the power of God because he was the word of God, using the word of God to push against the word of the tempter. Why? Because he's the king of the universe.

And he begins his ministry. And he says the same thing. Repent. For the kingdom of God is at hand. And they didn't see him the way that heaven saw him.

Here's the king saying, the kingdom is here because I'm the king. It's here. It's in your presence. He picks up a scroll and he reads from Isaiah that the Spirit of God was upon him to proclaim good news to the poor, to the rejected, the despised, the broken, to set people free, to heal and proclaim favor from the God of the universe. He went about healing the sick, cleansing the unclean, making the lame walk, the blind see, and liberating the possessed.

He called the marginalized, the rejected, and the despised to follow him. He confronted. He Taught. And he challenged the system, the world system. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life.

He turned it upside down, you see, because Jesus said things like this man, I did it again. You know how hard it is not to say his name.

Let it be on the tip of your tongue. I gotta focus. Focus. See, this is what he said. To be first, you must be last.

To be great, you must be humble. To show real love, you should love even your enemy. To have power, you must embrace your weakness. To receive, you must give away. That's really upside down, is it not?

It's not what the world teaches. You see, he taught that righteousness is by faith, not by works or status. He taught that justice was for those who did not have, not for those who did have. He called for blessing for the marginalized, not rebuke. He called for mercy, not sacrifice.

He called for the heart. The King of the universe came to change your heart. Do you know him today? See the Son of God, the Promised One. Look what he did.

He calmed storms. He fed thousands miraculously. He raised the dead, walked on water. Showed he had power over nature. Why?

Because he's the very word of God who spoke it into existence. No wonder the stones hold back from crying out. Can you realize the penned up energy that exists within the bowels of the earth waiting to cry out to our God, giving preference to us. Are you with me to do it? First he began to teach of a future appointment and what was to come.

He began to tell his followers that I'm going to Jerusalem and I'm going to die the Son of Man. The Son of God will die at the hands of men. But he would rise again.

He would die a most cruel death. As we're going to read in Matthew 16:24, he begins to allude to a cross. Cross was the most cruel of all instruments. Jewish historians affirm that it was the most cruel way to die. To be hung on two beams in a cross, to suffocate over time.

And he, this Son of God was a suffering servant, an innocent lamb, a rejected stone, the shepherd who would be struck.

So it came Passover time. Passover being the celebration of the Jews to commemorate their liberation from Egypt. Passover reflecting back to the plagues of Egypt. And the last plague being the death angel. The that was going to come through and kill all of the firstborn.

And the Jews were instructed to take a lamb and to kill the lamb and mark the doorpost so that when the death angel came by, it would pass over those homes and not take the firstborn. So they enter into the city and this promised one sits on top of a cult, rides into the city, perceived weakness, as some of his followers were thinking. He was going to walk right in and kick Rome right off the throne, Take Herod and cast him away and take his rightful place, the Messiah, King of the universe.

But those religious leaders, they hated him. Even though he was king. There was no way to de king him. You can't de king the universe, King of the universe, can you? But they did their best.

They wanted him dead. They hated him so much, he had messed up their system. He had flipped it upside down, and they set about to kill him.

It's revealed that one of his followers named Judas, who most likely was a little bit disillusioned, but we also know from one of the gospel writings that was filled with Satan, makes a contract and a pact with those religious leaders to help them arrest him.

Comes the Passover meal, they sit down together, this upper room, and the king, the promised one, you would think that everything would point back to him. But what does that king do? What no other king would do. He goes and he girds himself with a towel.

He takes a basin of water and he does what the servant does. And he gets down and he washes the feet of his followers. Even the one who's about to leave the room, to turn him over to the authorities for his death.

He washed their feet. That which should have been the top debased himself to the bottom. Is that not upside down? So then they begin the meal, and he reaches forward and the bread which represented was unleavened. I mean, most of us kids don't know what that means, but that means bread that has not risen.

When they left Egypt, when the Israelites left Egypt, the bread didn't have time to rise. So they commemorated that by eating unleavened bread. Jesus, I did it again. He takes that bread and he breaks it. He hands it to his followers and says, this is my body which is going to be broken for you.

They still couldn't fathom what he's talking about. He takes the wine, the juice that represented freedom and redemption, and he holds it up and says, take and drink all of this, for this is my blood. Can you imagine the shock that would have been on their faces? This is my blood which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins.

Can you imagine what they thought? Can you imagine what they felt as their leader, this promised one, was standing there saying these things. It bewildered them even to the Point that one of his followers named Peter said, I'm not going to desert you. I will not deny you. And the Promised One said, before the cock crows three times in the morning, you will have denied knowing me three times.

So they leave the supper and they head to a garden. In the beginning, it was the Garden of Eden. Now he's in the Garden of Gethsemane. And he goes and he says, it's time to pray. And he asks the followers to stay.

He takes three of them and says, stay here while I go a little bit further. And the King of the Universe, he goes and he talks to Father God, even though he's equal as the Son with the Father, he drops to his knees and begins to pray. Father, if there's another way than this, let this cup pass. Is there another way that I can pay for the sins of mankind? Is there another way that can be forgiven?

But the Son of God, the Son of Man submits to the will of God and says, but not my will, but yours be done. So much was his grief that he was sweating blood.

He knew how horrible the next day would be. Do you know him?

Because, see, then he hears them coming. He gets up and he goes to the three and says, could you not sleep for a little while? Stay up for a little while and pray with me? But the time has come. Judas had told the guard, the man whom I kiss, that is who it is.

And he goes and he kisses the man. And the man says back to him, you betray me with a kiss. And they bind him and they take him through a series of hearings as his followers run and they hide. He goes to Annas and then to Caiaphas, the representatives of this religious elite. He goes before them, and in a lawless manner, not even following their own laws, they're trying to condemn him by the law.

They're meeting at night. They're doing all these things to condemn this man, calling him an insurrectionist.

And they challenge him. Who are you? Are you the Messiah? Are you the Christ? And he says, I am.

And they accuse him of blasphemy. They charge him out of there and take him before Pilate, too cowardly to do their own work. And they go to Pilate. And Pilate says, I don't find anything wrong with him. And he has him flogged, sent to Herod, Herod and his court.

This is not the same Herod. It's the son of the first king. They mock him. They put a robe on him. Oh, you're a king.

Let's make you look like one. And Herod sends him back to Pilate.

Pilate contends with him. I find no fault with this man to the point that he even goes and washes his hands as a symbol of like. I don't want this man's blood on my hands. But his tradition would hold.

He brought another criminal out, whose name was Barabbas. Barabbas means son of the Father. That's what his name means. Here's Barabbas standing next to the Son of the Father, and he asks the crowds, well, what should I do with him? Give us Barabbas, who is an insurrectionist, and crucify the one who's blasphemed.

What? No. Crucify him. Crucify him. We have no king but Caesar.

Crucify him.

Pilate gives him over to his soldiers.

They place a crown of thorns on his head, and they beat him to death. See, the law in Jewish. In Jewish law, it said 39 stripes. But these men weren't Jews. We don't know how many times he was flogged with that whip that had tethers.

And at the end of those tethers were bones and shards and metal that each time that whip hit his back, it was ripping his flesh to shreds, to the point when he stood up, you probably saw his ribs and his skin dangling from his back. He had bled out. He was dehydrated, but he wasn't dead. And they take him and they place a cross, a beam on his back. And step by step, he drags that cross to Golgotha, the place of the skull.

Latin calls it Calvary.

And they lay our Jesus down. I did it again. Can't help it. His name is too sweet not to say.

And they nailed his hands and his feet to that cross. And they raised him up. They didn't raise him up on a throne. They raised him up on a cross. As he stood there, he would push himself up to catch a breath, and the pain would be too much.

And he would just drop back down. And for hours, the cycle repeated. Even then, he was thinking about others. The King of the universe, the Creator, the Word of God looks at the men who nailed him to the cross and said, father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.

He's hanging there as those same priests are standing there saying, well, if you're the Christ, come down. Save yourself. The same words of the tempter in the wilderness who said, call and ask the angels to come rescue you. But he was seeing the plan to the end for you and me.

Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Two criminals on each side of him, one taunting him. But at some point, the other criminal comes to his sense and says, man, this man's done nothing. He's done nothing.

He recognizes his regality. He recognizes the king. He says, when you come into your kingdom, don't forget me. He pushes up, catches a breath and says, today you'll be with me in paradise. Hours pass.

He looks down and he sees his mom, his earthly mom, who's having to watch her son die, remembering that stable, remembering that young man who got lost when he was a preteen, challenging the leaders, remembering all the good things. And she's standing there, broken. Beside her standing a man named John. And she looks at her mom, says, behold your son. Behold your mother.

And from that day on, he took Mary as his own. Three different sayings, all thinking about other people.

At 12 o', clock, though, creation had had enough.

The sky darkened and the ground began to tremble as the Son of God continued to suffer on that cross. And he cries out, elohi, Elohi lama sabachthani. Which means, my God, My God, why have you forsaken me? At that moment, he experienced this very severing that the first Adam experienced when he sinned as he bore the entirety of sin on himself.

As time continues to crawl, he yells out, I thirst. And they offer him vinegar mixed with wine.

And suddenly he says one word in our translation. Three words. He says, tetelestai. It is finished. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

And the King of the universe bowed his head and he died.

But the religious elite, they're not satisfied. They tell the Roman guards, we can't have anybody hanging on crosses on the day of Passover. They go to the two thieves and they take clubs and they break their legs so they can't push up anymore. But they come to Jesus and to show that he was really, really dead. They don't break his legs.

They stick his side with a spear and out comes blood and water. He was dead. And a man by the name of Joseph of Arimathea comes and says, can I have his body? On Passover, they couldn't touch a dead body. All this had to be done quickly for the sake of self righteousness.

And a man named Nicodemus helped him out and they prepared his body and they put him in a tomb. And they rolled a stone over this newly cut tomb. But those religious leaders, they weren't ready to give up they knew that he had told people he was going to come back to life.

And so they sent soldiers there to guard the door so his followers wouldn't steal his body.

That's the tension we felt yesterday and Saturday, that in between time. But don't you like buts? But the third day came, and I kind of wonder what really those Roman soldiers saw as that angel appeared and ran them off and put their hands to that stone and rolled it away as creation clapped along as it trembled, as the Son of God suddenly received his spirit back and he sat up out of that grave and walked out of that tomb alive.

You see, ladies and gentlemen, if you don't know this man, his name is Jesus. If you think you know this man, but you've grown cold with him, his name is Jesus. And if you know him and you have zeal and passion for him, you know his name. His name is Jesus Christ, the risen son of God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, our Messiah, the Son of man, the Lamb of God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He is Emmanuel, the Word of God, the good shepherd, the light of the world, the bread of life, the Way, the truth and the life.

He is our resurrection. He. He is our life. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He is our Prince of peace, our great high Priest, our chief cornerstone, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, the bright and morning star, the bridegroom, the head of the Church, the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

He is our eternal King.

Do you know him? And if you know him, who around you does not? Because time is coming when our King is coming back.

And there are people that won't be ready when he does, because his current people have forgotten who he is. You see, In Matthew, chapter 16, verses 24 and 25, Peter thought he's real smart.

He says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And he says, well, I'll rename you Peter. But just in a few verses later, Peter gets real kind of arrogant and corrects Jesus. Would any of y' all like to correct Jesus?

He looks at Peter and says, get behind me, Satan. Respectfully to my Catholic friends, no, Peter is not the foundation of church leadership. Because even in this own chapter, you see how he fell right there. He fell. He failed to see him who he was.

Jesus said to him, you're not setting your mind on what God has in mind, but on your own. And he says to them, if anyone wishes to Come after me. He must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Before Jesus ever went to the cross himself, he was already inviting his followers to do the same. Listen, if you're here today and you claim to know Jesus Christ, that you're saved, you've been reborn again.

Have you made the decision, too, that he's worth following? Or is he a convenience? Folks, you can't experience eternal life until you step into that life. See, you can't follow him if you don't believe in Him. And you can't know him if you don't receive him.

Diedrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred in Nazi Germany at the age of 39, says when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die upside down. If you want to live, you have to die. Die to what? You got to die to yourself. You got to exchange your life.

I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. Paul said in First Corinthians 15:31, I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. I got to keep remembering. That's the old me.

It's gone. Jesus has taken it away. Philippians 1:21. For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. That he is my focus in Romans 6, 7, 8.

That he who has died is freed from sin. And if I'm still walking in sin, trapped in sin, something's not right. You haven't died to yourself. When he said, deny yourself. It's no different than when Peter denied knowing Jesus.

I don't know that person. I don't know that man. I don't know that woman that's in my past. They're gone. They're dead.

All I know is the life that Jesus has given to me now. So he asked us to deny ourselves. He asks us to take up our cross. See, Jesus, the cross was forced on him. He's asking you, if you're going to follow him, take up your instrument of death to yourself willingly.

And then what does he say? Follow me intentionally, not knowing where it's going to lead. I mean, Jesus said that to them that day. He said, if anyone would come after me, deny himself, take up the cross, and follow me. They didn't know.

They didn't even know where it was going to lead him. But, folks, I'm telling you, there is joy following the Lord even when you can't put all the pieces together and control it. Let him control your life. It's Easter. It's Easter.

We're celebrating the first. Well, really, there's only been one Easter. Y' all know that, right? That's the day Jesus came back from the grave. The greatest event that's ever happened this side of eternity.

The next event is when he comes back. Are you going to be ready? You see, if I can choose to live upside down according to God's plan, or I can let Jesus come in and turn me right side up. And I do that when Jesus exchanges my death for his life.

But I can't die until I yield, Until I present repentance and faith, I can't know this life. Vodie Bauckham said, all the gospel requires is repentance and faith. That's it. Nothing else. Those are not works.

Those are responses. But have you done that today? See, you will know the same thing. Jesus came to know that nothing should hold us back from doing the will of the Father, that maybe we need to drink the cup, too.

Diedrich Bonhoeffer, before he died, he wrote a book in 1935, 10 years before his death, so he'd been in his 20s. We title it in English, the Cost of Discipleship. But in German, it's only one word, and it means a person who follows. So I think that the English title is a little deceptive, focusing on the cost, not the quality of the person.

I believe you make a decision to trust Jesus. But if you truly make a decision to trust Jesus, you will decide to follow him too, no matter where it goes, no matter where it will lead you. Following him as he would lead you. In 1939, Dietrich Bonhoeffer came to the United States for a short stint of time while Nazi Germany was in its prime. We were in World War II, was beginning to build.

But he thought to himself, how can I go back and rebuild a church that I've abandoned? And he goes home knowing it would lead to his arrest. On April 9, 1945, Diedrich Bonhoeffer was hanged for his faith. His words were remembered and later retold as he preached his final sermon. This is for me, the end, the beginning of life.

As the lyric says, at that moment, Death was arrested because Diedrich Bonhoeffer died many years before that when he met Jesus Christ. I died to my old self April 11, 1995. And that old self loves to come and give me problems. He comes and he loves to remind me of my shame and my guilt and my shortcomings and my failings. But thank God Jesus came for the broken, the hurting, the destitute.

And the marginalized. I have hope today because the man who I hope in came back from the grave and. And he's alive. If you're here today and you don't know him, don't leave. I'm begging you, don't leave today.

Come and confess your sin. Repent and trust in the Son of God who died on the cross and was raised again. There's a little QR code on the back of the study guide you received when you came in today. That QR is there for you to be able to say, you know, I need to talk to somebody, but I just don't know. Scan it right now.

Don't wait. It'll give us an email and we'll talk. Y' all know this, this altar is open. This is a free altar. Just because somebody comes down this altar doesn't mean that they've killed somebody.

But do you realize in the Old Testament, when somebody was gonna make a sacrifice, it wasn't private, it was very public because they would see people walking to the tabernacle or the temple with a pigeon or a lamb under their arm. You know why they went? Because they wanted to be right with the King of the universe. And they went and made sacrifice. Alright, here's the good news.

Today Jesus made peace with God when he hung on the cross. You don't need another sacrifice. You don't need another prayer. You need to receive what God is free, freely giving you today. So if you don't know Jesus Christ, I'll be down at the front.

Kevin's down here, Randy's down here. You come put your hands up. Some people don't know who you are. There's Randy, there's Kevin, right down here at the front. You come and take us by the hand and say, you know what?

I don't know Jesus Christ. If you're here today and you say, you know what? I've walked away from the Lord, I'm not living for him. You say that you know him, but he's not Lord of your life. Would you come down here and say, you know what, Lord?

From this day on, you are my king and I will follow you wherever you go. And for the rest of you, you right with the Lord. Hallelujah. We're about to sing. You got an opportunity to let the lion come out of your lungs and proclaim and sing to our God what creation is yearning to do.

And just remember, Jesus said to those leaders, if you don't let them sing to me, the rocks will cry out for me. What's God calling you to do next? It's Easter. What better day to celebrate and submit to our king. So would you stand with me as we sing?

This altar is open, Father. Do only what you can do. Speaking to our hearts, speaking to our lives. For we love you. In Jesus name, amen.