Have you ever noticed a gap between what you believe about God and what you experience from God? 

One of the great challenges of being a follower of Jesus is navigating the gap between our belief and our experience.

The same power that raised Jesus is the power that brings us near, and awakens the dead, and begins something new in us all.

On Good Friday, we don’t come to celebrate. We come to remember the Son of God as He laid down His life for mankind.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” - Revelation 22:13

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  —Revelation 21:1-2, ESV

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while. 

—Revelation 20:1-3, ESV

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. —Revelation 19:11-13, NASB95

Pay attention to what is shaping you. Pay attention to where your loyalty lies. In the middle of judgment and intensity, Jesus gives a pastoral word: stay awake. The greatest danger to the church isn’t persecution, it’s drowsiness. Babylon looks powerful and permanent, but it is a false hope. This message is a call to remain faithful to the Lamb, to come out from what competes for our allegiance, and to build our lives on what will actually last.

What we’re looking at this weekend is the most significant turning point in the history of the local church – all involving ordinary people like you and me!

Here is the moment when the waiting gives way to fulfillment, and what God has been doing quietly comes to completion. The now and the future belongs to the Lamb!