Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Be The Church Podcast is for spiritual leaders who want to be challenged to lead like Jesus in everyday places—at home, in your church, at school, and in the workplace. Hosted by Be The Church founder Joel Wayne and Chapel Pointe pastor Luke Bilberry, each episode features bold, authentic conversations with business and ministry leaders that are rooted in Scripture. You'll learn how to expand your spiritual influence and leverage your leadership to advance the Kingdom of God. Let's be the church together! For more information, visit bethechurch.org/podcast.
Today is a day that we get to have a brief conversation because this week, the church across the world has one focus, and it is celebrating that Jesus Christ is risen. It is Holy Week, and we wanna go on the journey and highlight a few things that we can consider and think about as we prepare our hearts to celebrate the risen Lord Jesus. It is a special week that we get to remember Holy Week, man.
Joel Wayne:Holy Week. Yeah.
Luke Bilberry:Easter. The church across world has one focus Yeah. This week. Where the church may have different ideas, and we've talked about preferences, there's one story being told this week.
Joel Wayne:100%.
Luke Bilberry:And I've heard you say since I've known you that you have to go on the journey to understand the fullness of what what God is doing with the cross and the empty tomb. I'd love for you to just tell us a little bit about that.
Joel Wayne:Yeah. I would say I don't know if the church spends enough time on on Holy Week, the last week of Jesus' life. The reason I say that is roughly 30% of the gospels is on the last week of his life. I mean, nearly half of the gospel of Mark is the last week of his life. Do we spend a third of our time as a church talking about the last week of Jesus' life, and I start thinking and and processing.
Joel Wayne:We need to know the journey he had walking into Jerusalem for the very last time. Mhmm. He's there roughly five, six days before he is then going to be crucified. And then as on the third day, of course, he he rose, and he's no longer in the tomb, and there's that's the celebration. Right?
Joel Wayne:But we've gotta look at what he did even then. And one of the things I've been resonating with I I woke up actually early this morning, and I'm sitting with it, and and I'll probably tell the story quickly because I if I when I start talking quick, it's because I'm trying to avoid emotion. Let's just be honest. Okay? It's okay if you If it's okay if tap in.
Joel Wayne:It's okay if tap into that. No. That's okay. No. I it's one of the hardest things about being a pastor who's vulnerable.
Joel Wayne:Yeah. Yeah. Right? It is a strength, but people will use it as a weapon. Yeah.
Joel Wayne:Okay. But, man, there's a whole thing to process. But I'm I'm reading through the whole journey. I say, I can't just I'm
Joel Wayne:trying to finish up the Easter message.
Joel Wayne:Mhmm. And I I need to read the whole story, not just Matthew twenty eight one through 10, or not just Luke chapter 24, the first half. Like, right? That's the resurrection and there he is. He is risen.
Joel Wayne:He is not here. Right? So I went back and I I read through the whole thing. And somebody recently asked me a question. It was just earlier this week.
Joel Wayne:Why do I need the church, really? I got the Bible. I'm serving God. And so here's Jesus. Jesus is going to end up having the last supper with his followers.
Joel Wayne:Later on, he's going to be arrested. He's gonna be taken to the house of Caiaphas. They're gonna they're gonna beat him up a little bit and mock him. Then they're gonna send him over to Pilate. This is rough.
Joel Wayne:Okay? Mhmm. This is Yep. New Joel version. The JD.
Joel Wayne:Might as well have another bible translation because we have to have so many in America. And and all of a sudden, what we discover is before he ever gets there, he's in the garden.
Joel Wayne:Mhmm.
Joel Wayne:So again, last supper, he's gonna end up going to Caiaphas' house because they're gonna arrest him and But before that, this is so important, he's in the garden. Mhmm. And it's a place he would normally go to. Right? He would wanna retreat there.
Joel Wayne:And as he's there in the garden, he looks at these guys who just don't get it. I mean, how many I can tell you now, I could probably rattle off six different passages in which he predicts his death. This is gonna happen. This is don't get it. Mhmm.
Joel Wayne:And I look at all of that, and I say, man. Okay. So here he is. He looks at him and says, hey, guys, I need you to come pray with me. I need you to come pray with me.
Joel Wayne:The son of God who has always been requests prayer. He says, come pray with me. And and in that moment, Luke Wow. Now they screwed up.
Luke Bilberry:Right.
Joel Wayne:They end up falling asleep and, you know, they but Jesus is while they're sleeping, he's over there sweating blood. Mhmm. But yet the son of God says, need you to go pray. I need you to pray. I need you to pray.
Joel Wayne:If the son of God is asking for prayer, to think that we can do it alone without biblical community, there's a hard look in the mirror that needs to take place.
Luke Bilberry:Yeah. So how how do we step into that? If if if Easter is this invitation and this open door now into an abiding relationship with Jesus, how do we step into that? How do we join Jesus in the ministry? How do we join him in that prayer?
Joel Wayne:Yeah. I I think you have to this is the the struggle is why did they fall asleep? I mean, that that's a that's a question of why was it really just physical exhaustion? I've been physically exhausted before, But you look at the emotions of what's just happening. He just had a dinner with them and said, hey, listen.
Joel Wayne:You can one of you is gonna betray me. Right? Like, just that would my my mind would be just that event, much less everything else that's unfolding.
Luke Bilberry:Yeah. If something's happening, Luke's going to sleep because I don't wanna deal with it.
Joel Wayne:Yeah. And and but I'm going, wait a second here. If we really wanna join in it, I think we need to set aside self. And I think we need to try to process things through the lens of how Jesus was seeing them.
Joel Wayne:Mhmm.
Joel Wayne:Can we fully? No. He's son of God. We're not. I get that.
Joel Wayne:But, man, I why did they fall asleep? Are we falling asleep on Jesus? I mean, I Right. I'm writing sermons as as you're asking me these questions. Well, it's
Luke Bilberry:interesting too. So I think, you know, know, Steve, you know, as as someone who's been our missions and mobilization pastor at Chapel Point and and working with Be The Church, one of the things that the invitation to come and follow Jesus is to come and to become like rabbi Jesus and to do the works he sends them out. Mhmm. But this invitation, I hear you say it from a different lens, pastor Joel, is is the invitation to come and actually just join him as a as as a brother. Yeah.
Luke Bilberry:To join him as a friend, someone that like I mean, you've been there for me in my life when things get hard. You're there to kinda help pick me up, and that's what we get to do. We've walked through things with, you know, the loss of in hardships in your family. We get to be there for one another. The invitation isn't a a work relationship, a let's do this thing.
Luke Bilberry:It's a it's a be. It's a bide. It's a presence thing. Or is that kinda what you're also picking up a little
Joel Wayne:bit too? Steve, you can you can speak to this because, you know, I I've I've been in this ministry a long time. You joined me a decade ago, and and five years ago for you, we've learned to live a lot of life together. The reality is the people who do well with us are the ones who actually wanna share in life together. Mhmm.
Joel Wayne:Like, I mean, we've walked through the death of your wife, the death of your your your father, other family members as well, and you've done all kinds of things for my family. I remember being out of town once, having to drive in middle of the night because my daughter ate a peanut, which she's not supposed to eat, and you're you're hitting her with multiple heavy pins. God. Taking her the to hospital. Just sitting all through the night with her, and it's just what you do.
Joel Wayne:Yeah. Some people don't want it. And here the reason I share all that is is, one, I just recognize we probably all need a lot of therapy. No. I'm not wrong.
Joel Wayne:But is a lot of people don't wanna share in that type of life. Mhmm. We don't want we don't want that. And and and so that impacts I truly like, it's something to to to process. Does that impact how we want to be known by Jesus?
Joel Wayne:Yeah. The relationship that we want to have with the king? Do we wanna be that intimate? You said the word abide. Mhmm.
Joel Wayne:Abiding is automatically an intimacy. Mhmm. Yeah. It's to dwell with.
Luke Bilberry:Yeah. Deep dwell with.
Joel Wayne:To sit with. Right? It's it's to sit in those couches that all of sudden you sit in, you're like, you just feel like you've got lost in it. You just like, right? Yeah.
Joel Wayne:With God. Yeah. And to be engulfed by. I mean, these are all synonyms of the word of
Luke Bilberry:God. Yeah.
Joel Wayne:And so do we want that?
Joel Wayne:Right.
Joel Wayne:And and over Holy Week of all week, shouldn't we want to just sit with him and cry with him?
Luke Bilberry:When I think that just to just to double down on that, Joel, I think when for Jesus to ask the disciples to do that with him, that the that God of all gods, the king of kings, the lord of lords
Joel Wayne:Come pray
Luke Bilberry:with looks me. At guys like us, average dudes, and he just says, I need you. Yeah. Right? That's a little bit what he's saying in that moment.
Luke Bilberry:I need you. My heart's heavy. Yeah. And if this if there's any other way to let this cup pass, father, I'm asking. Mhmm.
Luke Bilberry:And I I need you brothers with me. I need you, like, yeah. Wow. I mean,
Joel Wayne:that makes that's my view right now. The the ability to know what's at stake for that person
Luke Bilberry:and
Joel Wayne:and embrace it and enter into it. I think the disciples, Jesus gave them plenty of opportunities, but I don't think they fully knew what was at stake.
Joel Wayne:Mhmm.
Joel Wayne:Because, man, when you when you know what's at stake, you're all in. You're you're you're jumping in. You're you're wanting to be present. You're wanting to be there. And somehow they they missed that.
Joel Wayne:They they they didn't know what was at stake. They didn't know what was happening. Jesus invited them into it, but they they they they didn't get it. They missed it.
Luke Bilberry:So what would you what would you say as we step into Holy Week? What's the invitation for us? What is what is what is the the real we're here to help invest in spiritual leaders to help them advance the kingdom where they are. What's this Easter season? What's the invitation for us?
Joel Wayne:Yeah. Not not to give too much away on if if you're coming to the church here, but right? I will I will say some of it. One, remember.
Joel Wayne:Mhmm.
Joel Wayne:That's always gonna be a theme. You have to remember. Remember what Christ has done on our behalf. I mean, you can go Galatians, you can go Colossians, can Ephesians, you can go all different passages that basically says, hey, listen, you were dead in your own sin and trespasses, but because of the blood of Jesus Christ and his victory over death Yeah. You now have life in the eternal father.
Joel Wayne:Amen. Praise God. Yeah. Amen. Like, come on.
Joel Wayne:Yeah. Yeah. So remember, but then also, I love, and and I'm gonna I'm gonna share some of this knowing that Easter's gonna bring some more of it out, is that in in the gospel of Matthew chapter 28, it says that when they saw Jesus, this is after his resurrection.
Luke Bilberry:Mhmm.
Joel Wayne:So right forty days before his ascension, he he rose, and there he is, and you get the road to Emmaus and all that. Before even the road to Emmaus, they see Jesus, and it says, they fell on his feet and grasped his feet and worshiped him. I think one of the reasons we don't worship appropriately is we're not willing to first be humbled appropriately.
Luke Bilberry:Mhmm.
Joel Wayne:And there's a humility, especially in that culture, to touch someone's feet was one of complete humility face down on the ground type thing. I want that. I wanna grasp his feet and worship the king. I know I am nothing, but now I am something because of the blood of Jesus Christ, and that I get to live a life in Him. There's hope to be found.
Joel Wayne:He has not stopped acting like He's still in the tomb. He's not. He has rose from the dead.
Luke Bilberry:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Joel Wayne:And I tell you, that changes your relationships. It changes everything else. Remember so that you will grasp His feet, worship Him appropriately, declare that He is king, live hope, live in hope, live in hope, live in hope, live in hope. Stop living in despair. We don't have to act like, Oh no, what if this happens?
Joel Wayne:It is all temporary, my friends. Yeah. It is all temporary. And I yeah. There you go.
Luke Bilberry:Man. So we just wanna say happy Easter. He is risen.
Joel Wayne:He is risen.
Luke Bilberry:And because of that, we get to live here and now and for eternity with a good God who invites us Yeah.
Joel Wayne:Amen. That's right.