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Salt + Light Community is a SOMA church plant in the heart of Fort Worth, TX. Here you’ll find teaching and discussions from our gatherings on Sundays.
All right.
Happy Easter.
This is what we call a strong start.
Just now to that, uh, if we haven't
met my name's, Ben and I get to
serve on the servant leadership team.
And like Matt said, we get to celebrate,
uh, the same things every Sunday when
we gather and, and, and the resurrection
for those of us who follow Jesus.
And I know doubt not, I know that
not everyone in the room does follow
Jesus, but for those of us who do
follow Jesus, this is the day that
gives meaning and purpose, not just
to churches and not just to Sundays.
But to everything you do in
every day of your life as well.
So today's a big deal.
Yes.
Yes.
All right.
Uh, Monday of this week was my birthday.
Uh, yeah, I mean, thank you.
I made it, uh.
That's, that wasn't the focus.
This is the big holiday we're
focusing on, not the other one.
Uh, the second biggest holiday
for me this week was my birthday.
Uh, I turned 44, which is
ancient to some of you.
And for some of you, you're like, I
just a little whipper snapper still.
Um, but like many of us do, I got,
uh, some texts on my birthday.
Um, some of them felt like the
obligatory, you sent the same thing to
44 other people with the same emojis.
You've seen these texts.
Uh, but there's one thread that that
made me like strangely nostalgic.
Um, and it was this thread from some old
high school friends who I haven't talked
too much in literally over two decades.
Uh, but we reconnected at my 25th
high school reunion this past year.
'cause again, I feel old.
Um, and it just brought back a lot of
like happy teenage, carefree memories,
uh, and made me feel really nostalgic.
Um, and some of it was this kind of first
concept for me of, of what home was.
Of home.
Um, and, and I wanna acknowledge
not everyone has happy, happy
memories when you think of home.
Um, and, and that's just worth being said.
And yet at the same time,
everyone has, has moments
where home the concept changes.
You move for school, you move
for work, you move for family.
And so in that sense, home
is less a specific place.
Maybe for some of us it's even
less a, a specific set of people.
And home is is an experience
that everyone can relate to.
Yes.
We all have something good.
Maybe some bad things too.
We all have something good that
comes to mind when we hear home
and home.
If I can kind of capture that experience.
Home is where you feel safe.
Home is where you feel accepted.
Home is where you feel like you belong.
Yes.
That feels like home
and for some of us, yes.
That is our literal families.
Praise God.
For others it's not.
And, and for many of us, the world
around us does not feel like home.
Like for many of us.
We look around and go, this is this.
This thing that we're living in
right now does not feel safe.
I don't feel accepted.
I don't feel like I belong.
Instead, the world around you feels
fragile and it feels divided, and
it feels angry, and that leaves you
feeling lonely and outcast and confused.
Anyone feel those things?
And yet somewhere within us, we
all long for something better.
Everyone yearns for
beauty that we can't find.
Everyone yearns for restoration.
Everyone yearns to be known for
relationship, not just the surface level.
What's up, nod kind of relationship.
Everybody yearns for deep relationship.
Everybody yearns for truth and, and in
that sense, everybody yearns for home.
And this is where I wanna submit.
Wherever you are, whatever
you believe about, Jesus.
Easter Sunday offers you good news.
All sorts of noise, sound effects
we got going on today, Easter Jesus'
death and resurrection, which is
what we celebrate on Good Friday
and Easter Sunday because of Easter,
there's a place for you to belong.
And there's a family for you to join.
There's a purpose that you get to pursue.
And so Easter is among other things,
an invitation to your true home.
And so if you're new with us, if you
haven't been with Salt and Light over
the last few weeks on Sundays, and in a
lot of our DNA group conversations, we've
been walking through the Book of Ruth.
And, and if you don't know the Book
of Ruth, it's a story from centuries
before Jesus walked to the Earth.
And in the heart of the
story is a childless.
Immigrant, pagan woman and her widowed,
divorced, uh, excuse me, widowed,
voiceless and bitter mother-in-law
who find a belonging with God and
who find belonging with God's people.
And so Ruth has given us some
examples of the kind of people
God brings to his health.
And so we said this last week, but
if you weren't here, God takes Ruth
from being a widow to being a wife.
From, from being childless to being a
mother, from, from being an immigrant,
to having a place to belong, from
being an outsider, to being a family,
from suffering, to being blessed,
from being an idol worshiper, to being
part of Jesus's own lineage, like on
on, on surface value, on face value.
Ruth seems like she has the least
qualifications as if, as if it's
about earning things, but, but Ruth
seems like the least likely kind
of person for God to invite home.
She's a a, a pagan, she's an immigrant,
she's an idol worshiper, she's all
these things stacked against her and
the religious leaders of that day.
And if you see the news, religious
leaders of our day as well, that
that's the kind of people we reject.
That's the kind of people we've
ostracized and push aside and say,
no, no, no, no, no, you don't matter.
But that's exactly.
The kind of people that God invites
into his family, and he did it
in Ruth's day and he did it in
Jesus's day, and he does it today.
God's family is made up exclusively
of folks who are broken and needy
and yearning and doubting, and
dissatisfied, and confused and outcast.
And so if you feel like you don't belong,
if you feel like you're too whatever
for this group, but not whatever,
enough for that group, if you can, if
you feel confused by spiritual things,
if you feel utterly apathetic towards
spiritual things, if you feel lost,
if you feel rejected, if you feel like
the world is not what it should be.
If you want something more and on
and on and on and on, we could go.
All those things are real.
All those things are valid, and God
meets you exactly where you are.
And, and because of Jesus' life and death
and resurrection, which is what Christians
throughout history and across the world
celebrate every Sunday, but especially
on Easter Sunday because of his life
and death and, and, and resurrection.
Whoever you are and whatever you
face, Easter is good news, and
Easter leads us to true hope.
Because God is good news in whatever
you face and whoever you are, and
God offers you true hope, whoever
you are in whatever you face.
Just, just a couple of
examples of how real this is.
Um, I was talking recently with a friend
who cares deeply about the environment.
Some of you do, some of you don't.
That's fine.
Um, this friend was just dismayed
by policies that, that, that he was
thinking was, were just detrimental
for the world, for the literal world.
Um, he didn't follow Jesus, but through
the conversation, and we have a good
friendship, so this is in context,
but, but through the conversation,
I just got to share that, that
his concern for the world actually
echoes God's heart for the world.
He doesn't believe in anything
that, that those of us who
follow Jesus would believe in.
But I got to share that his
concern for the world echoes
God's heart because because.
One of the things Christians
believe is at the end of time, God's
not going to destroy this earth.
We're not gonna like jet out of here
on a rocket ship and, and some cloud
city and just live there forever.
Looking back in nostalgia, like what
we believe, what the end of our Bible
tells us is that God is going to remake
the world to its original design.
God is going to restore
this place to a beauty and a
perfection that we cannot fathom.
Does that sound like good news?
That's, that's the kind of hope Jesus
offers for those of us who care about
what's going on in the world around us.
Another friend shared how
he lost hope in politics.
Sure.
No one in here has felt that at all.
Uh, but, but this specific friend,
like had a lot of trust in democracy,
like interned at the Texas Capital
Style Trust in, in, in the,
in, in the Democratic process.
And he just said, I
feel like it's crumbly.
And, and we can expand
that to global geopolitics.
We can expand that to war and
government and politics and leadership.
Like it doesn't look
great right now out there.
And yet, follow your followers of Jesus.
Get to serve a better king no matter
what regime any of us sit under in
any of the broken aspects of any
country, in any part of the world.
We follow a better king and we, and
we get to seek his kingdom more than
any politician or party or platform.
And so the world can waver
and man, it's wavering,
but there's good news.
And true hope is that we can remain
steady as we keep our eyes on Jesus.
And maybe those things sound cliche
to you, but I wanna submit that.
That is good news.
Because that is true hope.
And we can go down the line in whatever
issue, whatever worry, whatever
question, whatever doubt, whatever
apathy, whatever, curiosity, whatever
anti you feel, there's similar good
news that is applicable to whatever it
is you're wondering about right now.
Whoever you are, whatever you face,
Jesus is the solution you seek.
He is joy to the joyless.
He's hope to the hopeless.
He's forgiveness for your sin.
He's freedom from oppression.
He's liberation where you feel enslaved.
He's healing for your hurt.
He's compassion and
companionship as you feel lonely.
He's grace in a world that
says you have to prove yourself
to everyone and everything.
He's restoration to whatever
brokenness you see around you.
He's truth in your confusion.
He's comfort in your chaos.
He's presence in present in
both the good and bad times,
and on and on and on and on.
Wherever you feel lost, wherever you feel
needy, wherever you feel broken, wherever
you feel unable, wherever questions
you have, friends, please hear me.
That's where God is.
Again, wherever you feel lost, needy,
broken, unable, and questioning.
That's where God is.
He was in a tomb and now he's not.
He was in the most unlikely
of places, and now he's not
again.
This is why Easter Sunday's good news.
Because Jesus' death and resurrection,
good Friday and Easter Sunday,
because of death and resurrection,
you have a place to belong.
You have a family to join.
You have a purpose to pursue.
Because of Easter, you have hope.
And and to be clear, when I say
Easter gives us a place to belong,
I don't mean a church building.
I I don't mean launch box as great
as, as glad as we are to be here.
I I don't mean even a literal
house or home or apartment.
Rather, what I mean is that in Christ
you can experience a, a bigger and
better and eternal concept of home.
The experience of home.
Just before Jesus died, he
told his followers in my
father's house or many rooms.
If it were not, so would I have told you
that I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go to prepare a place for you,
I will come again and take you to myself.
That where I am.
You may be also, where
is true belonging Church.
It's not just this abstract spiritual
concept of heaven, true belonging.
Your, your truest home is in
relationship and in proximity
to God, your father that's home.
A few years after Jesus rose, the Apostle
Paul who didn't believe in Jesus and then
did believe in Jesus, explained that,
that both humanity and all creation.
Our longing for things to be better.
Here's how he says it.
In a letter to his friends at Rome,
he says, we know the whole creation
has been groaning together in the
pains of childbirth until now.
And not only the creation,
but we are ourselves.
We groan inwardly and maybe no other
words resonate with you as deeply as
those 'cause A lot of us are groaning
inwardly about various things, but we're
groaning eagerly, inwardly as we wait.
Eagerly for adoption as sons for
the redemption of our bodies.
Your, your truest home is a redeemed
creation, a better world where God will
dwell with his people just like he did in
the first couple pages of the Bible before
sin and brokenness entered the world.
That's the promise of home
that we have because of Easter.
The redemption of our bodies, the
redemption of creation, and in
another place, in other places.
Both Paul and another one of Jesus'
followers even give voice to this tension.
We feel as we look around us and think,
now this place does not feel like home.
This is how Paul writes it.
In the letter of Philippians,
our citizenship is in heaven.
And, and from there we wait for a
savior, the Lord Christ Jesus, who
will transform our lowly bodies
to be like his glorious body.
And the anonymous author of the
book of Hebrews says, as it is,
they desire a better country.
That is a heavenly one.
Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called
their God, for he is prepared for them.
A city.
Hear this your your truest and best home.
Is not Fort Worth, Texas USA in 2026 and
all the like, ripple effects and all the
concentric circles of what that means.
If you follow Jesus, you have
a better identity, you have a
more complete place to belong.
You have a a truer citizenship,
you have a better home.
But how do we embrace that home?
How do we experience that
truer, better, fuller home?
How do we step into that identity?
How do we accept that there's more?
It's only through following Jesus
and, and this is how the Bible
talks about Easter Sunday as it
relates to this concept of home.
Paul writes, in fact, Christ
has been raised from the dead.
The first fruits of those who have
fallen asleep for as by a man came death.
He's referencing Adam and Eve and
sin at the beginning of the Bible.
So also by a man has come the resurrection
of the dead for as an Adam all die,
so also in Christ shall all be alive.
Whoever you are, you need to know this.
Christians believe that on Easter
Sunday, God literally raised a
man named Jesus from the dead.
We believe that it sounds impossible,
it sounds miraculous, and yet this is
the core of what we believe and it's
what we believe changes everything.
And we also believe, which sounds
equally miraculous, perhaps that Jesus's
resurrection is not the only resurrection.
It is.
It is just the first, I guess Lazarus was
first, there was a few others, but like
it's the first fullness, the fullest.
That's the first fruits image,
the the first offering, the
first to go before others.
We believe that one day every
follower of Jesus will also rise.
Those who are dead will
literally rise from the dead.
Sounds miraculous, sounds impossible.
We believe it will happen, and also
we will rise out of the confusion and
hopelessness and brokenness and need
and doubt, and sin and apathy, and anger
of this life to a full and true life.
We believe that every follower of Jesus,
we will rise with Jesus to a true whole.
Paul says it like this in Colossians.
If you've been raised with Christ, seek
the things that are above where Christ
is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are
above, not on the things of this earth.
And there's a lot of things on this
earth telling us to spend all of
our mental emotional energy on them.
And God would say, no for you have died.
And your life is hidden
with Christ in God.
So when Christ who is your life appears,
you will also appear with him in glory.
If you believe, or even if you want
to believe in this better, truer,
eternal home than Jesus's good news
and true hope for life, eternal.
And also these verses are reminding
us that there's a way to think and a
way to interact with the world that
make Jesus sound like really good news
and true hope for this life as well.
We get to set our mind on things outside
of all the junk we see around us.
We have an invitation to set
our eyes on something better.
The verses that Matt read at
the start remind us that, yeah,
this life is full of suffering.
It's, it's not all
rainbows and unicorns here.
Pain and brokenness and sin and confusion,
those things are real, and everything
around us feels like the opposite of home.
But Jesus himself faced pain
and suffering and brokenness
as well to the point of death.
That's, that's what Good Friday is.
So if you feel like you don't belong
in this world, you feel like you're
not home, you're in good company.
You're right there with Jesus and because
of his death, this is why it's good.
Why Friday is good because of his death.
Pain is redeemed, brokenness
is covered, sin is forgiven.
Promises are kept in God's
promise of home applies to you.
And so whatever literal home looks
like for you and whatever, suffering
and pain, and brokenness, and sin
and confusion and doubt plague you,
whatever you say you believe, those
things don't keep you from Jesus.
Rather, suffering and pain, and
brokenness, and sin and confusion
and doubt, those, those things
point you to your need for Jesus.
The things you want to be
better and can't solve.
Lead us to yearn for a God who can.
The the things that you, that you
seek and are desperate for but can't
make happen, it's that beautiful
inadequacy that makes us go, okay,
I need someone who is adequate.
I can't figure this out,
but I can trust one.
Who can?
Jesus overcame.
Suffering, pain, brokenness,
sin, confusion and doubt.
Jesus overcomes in each of us
suffering, pain, brokenness,
confusion, sin and doubt Jesus is,
is bigger than all the odds.
And like Ruth, God, redeems and restores
those who are the most unlikely.
Who are the the least good candidates?
And God redeems and restores you.
And God offers you good news and
God offers you true home hope.
And God wants to bring you home.
And the path and the door into God's
family is Jesus' death and resurrection.
Good news for eternal life
and good news for this life.
And that's what followers of Jesus
celebrate Every time we take communion.
The, the simple act and, and even if
you haven't been around church or,
or Christians, maybe you've seen it,
the simple act of taking bread and,
and juice or wine is a declaration
that in Jesus's death, you have life
In Jesus's death, you have life.
And that it's a declaration that
even death couldn't keep Jesus from
returning to his true home and returning
to, to relationship with his father.
Father.
And that's what he invites us to as
well, is he invites us to our true home
communion points to this, this
Easter Sunday, where we're reminded
that through his resurrection,
Jesus has proven to be a king.
A king who can even outlast death.
And a king who invites you
into his kingdom and into
relationship and into good news.
And into true hope and into true whole.
And so if you believe that whether you
believe that for years, whether you,
whether something's happening today and
you, you feel like you believe that for
the first time that Jesus is your way
home, Jesus invites you to the table.
And so for anyone who
does follow Jesus, come.