Light on the Hill

Guest (Male): With a question posed near the empty tomb that we're still confronted with today, here's Pastor James.

James Kaddis: Why seek you the living amongst the dead? That may be perhaps one of the most profound questions ever asked in human history. It may be one of the most important questions ever asked in human history. Why? Because it is a question that still exists today. It is one that is undoubtedly rhetorical in nature. It's one that was imposed that did not require an answer because the answer is so incredibly obvious.

The imposition of this question was done in a way to create an emphatic statement that would cause you to think about the lunacy of the idea that we continue to pursue the living amongst the dead.

Guest (Male): In Luke chapter 24, there were some women who approached the tomb of Jesus and were confronted by two angels who posed this question: "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" Pastor James Kaddis believes this to be one of the most important questions we could ever consider in life, so we'll do just that today on Light on the Hill. We're in Luke chapter 24, resuming our series on the prophecies that changed the world forever.

James Kaddis: Folks, I want you to see the pattern of warfare, spiritual warfare that exists here. By the way, that probably should be one of the first points that I bring up when it comes to the subject of spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare is best fought when the only thing you give regard for is the God who is fighting it for you.

You will never be able to fight spiritual warfare well unless you give regard to the God of heaven, unless you say, "Lord, I can't see what's in front of me, but you can. So I will ignore the things that I can see, understanding and knowing that you will defeat the things that I can't." Those who fight spiritual warfare and do it well understand that what's in the invisible realm is the only thing, literally the only thing that is necessary in order to have victory in every other realm. Christians who don't engage in spiritual warfare become the first casualties of it. It's that simple.

Look what it goes on to say. It says, "And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on." Again, it would have been the special Shabbat that had taken place, a special Sabbath. We know that that would have taken place on Thursday. We talked about that at length and explained why that happened.

Look what it says in verse 55: "And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment." It is very interesting. We do find out, and we know this, that these ladies who were very concerned about Jesus even after His death were even more concerned about whether or not they could roll away the stone.

They were concerned about whether or not the stone could be rolled away, yet they still went to go do what they knew they needed to do. Again, that is a beautiful picture of how spiritual warfare is engaged in. No matter how much of an impossibility it may seem in the realm that you can see, no matter how much it can be in terms of the difficulty associated with the things that you have traditionally been unable to accommodate, you still move forward knowing full well, completely full well, that God will handle in the invisible to give you the power that you need in the visible.

Look what it goes on to say, and this is where it becomes really extraordinary. Verse one: "Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them." By the way, this is so incredibly important to point out. We're here right now right around the same sort of environment that these people would have met when they went to the Garden Tomb.

Remember, they came in the very early morning because they wanted to be able to take care of Jesus's body, but they couldn't have gone at night even though they legally according to the law could have come at night. The problem is that they would not have any visibility to be able to make their way in and through and to do whatever they wanted. So when they came to the stone, when they came to the grave, they would have come in a condition very similar to the one that we're in.

It is a spectacularly beautiful day here in Southern California. You look around and you see the wonder of the sky. You see all the beauty of it. I don't know if you guys got to see the rocket launch that happened just a little bit before. Obviously, they wouldn't have seen that in Jesus's day, but they launched from Vandenberg Air Force, actually Space Force Base, at 5:30. It was quite a sight. We were all watching it from the parking lot.

It's interesting to think about just standing here or sitting here and looking around, and this would have been a very similar circumstance in Israel. In that climate where they were, it would have looked very much like what we're looking at right now. Not in terms of an asphalt parking lot, but certainly the temperature, the environment, the way that the sky would have looked. It would have been very similar.

Look what it says in verse two. It says, "And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher." Isn't that funny? I think it's hilarious because this is something that we don't talk about a lot, but I think it's really important and it's something critical to understanding spiritual warfare and finding victory in the world that we find ourselves in the midst of, and that's this: Spiritual warfare will always be the key to accomplishing what appears to be impossible in the physical.

Many times we look at things that are in front of us that appear to be extraordinary, difficult to handle. Look at the stone; it can't be rolled away. By the way, for those of you that have ever been with me to Israel, we take you to one of these garden tombs. Not the one that we believe Jesus was in, another one. We take you to a couple of them. One of the garden tombs that we go to, we take you to a place where there's actually a big massive stone. We encourage people to try to move it, and most of the time they can't do it. They cannot move that stone. It's big.

I think if I were to put all my weight into that stone, I may have been able to move it. I don't know. But the reality of it is, it seems virtually impossible. When you think about the context of this particular circumstance that these women found themselves in the midst of, understand the fact that they did not know how they were going to roll that stone open. They had no idea how they were going to get back into that grave, yet they still showed up knowing that it had to be done.

I think there was a hugely spiritual component that drove them to do that. I think that's one of the things that we have to consider every day: that what appears to be insurmountable in the physical realm is oftentimes designed by enemies in the spirit to discourage you from engaging. I think that we have to ignore those things. I think we have to be people that say, "It is not an issue of whether or not I can do the thing; it's an issue of what does God want me to do in the thing." That's the question you have to ask.

Look what it goes on to say. "And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus." Now we look at this and we think, "Wow, what a blessing because we know that that means that He's alive." What a blessing because we know that that means that the King of kings and the Lord of lords and the God who stands as our intermediary experienced victory from sin and is alive.

But they weren't looking at it that way at that moment. They were scared to death. They thought that the body of Jesus had been ripped off. As a matter of fact, I don't blame them for thinking that, because there were lots of people who were enemies of Christ, there were lots of people who were enemies of the gospel that would not have wanted anybody to think under any circumstance that anything would have happened as had been predicted.

You would think that something would be different. You would think that somehow, some way, with all of the efforts that they made to keep the body from being taken, that it would have stayed in the grave. They posted guards there. They rolled the stone. They didn't want anything of the sort to happen, yet it happened.

What I think is hilarious, by the way, and it's a very interesting point to bring out, is the people that were closest to Jesus were actually surprised that the body was gone when the people that hated Jesus went to extraordinary lengths to make sure that the body would stay there. Think about that for a second. I say this all the time, and I think it's a really important thing to say. I think Muslims believe in Bible prophecy more than mainstream Christians do.

I think those who worship Allah, the false god of Allah, the satanically inspired god of Allah, actually believe in Bible prophecy more than a lot of Christians do. How do I know that? You go to Israel today; the East Gate is completely cemented in. The Turks did that, by the way. If you go to Israel today, you'll also notice something below the East Gate on the east wall of the city of Jerusalem. You'll notice that there's a cemetery there.

Do you want to know why the Muslims put the cemetery there and why they sealed the East Gate? They put the cemetery there because they knew that if you were a Jewish rabbi, you would be considered unclean if you walked through the cemetery. So they wanted the cemetery there to keep Jesus from walking through that space. They sealed the East Gate because they knew that Zechariah chapter 14 says that Jesus will touch His foot down on the Mount of Olives, go through the Valley of Kidron down below, go up into the East Gate, and do what the Bible says He's going to do.

A lot of people think that's crazy. Christians think that's crazy. I get called a nut every single time I talk about it. Yet the Muslims believe it more than the Christians do. Why? Because they go through great lengths to keep it from being touched. A lot of people believe that's the reason why the Al-Haram al-Sharif was set there. Some people even believe that's why Al-Aqsa was put there on the Temple Mount. It's funny how that works. It's funny how it works that the non-believers will believe more than the believers.

Why? I'll tell you why: because we ignore the warfare. We ignore what's going on in the spiritual. But look at this, this gets even more extraordinary. Verse four: "And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: and as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, 'Why seek you the living amongst the dead?'" That may be perhaps one of the most profound questions ever asked in human history.

It may be one of the most important questions ever asked in human history. Why? Because it is a question that still exists today. It is one that is undoubtedly rhetorical in nature. It's one that was imposed that did not require an answer because the answer is so incredibly obvious. The imposition of this question was done in a way to create an emphatic statement that would cause you to think about the lunacy of the idea that we continue to pursue the living amongst the dead.

It's the question that I oftentimes ask myself when I confront things in popular culture today. I look at what's going on in the church, I look at what's going on amongst so many of the men that are leading the church, and I think in my mind, "Why are you looking or seeking that which is alive amongst the dead? You're never going to find it. You're going to spend so much time engulfed in it that you will be lost in it, never to find a solution that is alive and well."

I remember sitting at a table at a very prominent conservative event with another pastor, a dear friend of mine, Greg Denham, and his wife, and my wife and children. And the table that we're sitting at, there's two other tables that are all pastors, all VIPs, supposed to be big-name pastors throughout the country. Me and Greg were the only ones not inebriated. Every single one of them were inebriated, out of their minds, drunk.

The question that you have to ask yourself when you look at something like that is, "Why are you seeking the living amongst the dead?" That's what we do. And before we get so quick to condemn those men, I'm telling you, before anybody gets so quick to condemn those men, let me just simply say this: We have made a pattern of doing this in our own lives oftentimes.

We look for solutions amongst the ungodly, literally the walking dead, when in reality what we should be searching out is the place where the living are, the abode of the living. We ignore that oftentimes. We look for solutions, we never find them, not the way God intended for us to find them. I think that's a spectacularly important question. It's a question that all of us should ask because of the story of the resurrection. Each and every single one of us should ask this question: "Why am I seeking the living amongst the dead?"

If you're seeking the living amongst the living, then praise God, you're going down the right path. But ask yourself that question. It's a prominently critical question. Look what it goes on to say. I love this. "He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee." I love it. By the way, it's interesting to think about that.

I think the angels, presumably the angels that are here that are talking to these women, are saying something so critically important. They're reminding them of the words of the Lord. I think in the midst of experiencing doubt, I think in the midst of confusion, I think in the midst of even finding yourself in a place where the dead dwell, the most critical and important thing you can do is go back to the word of the Lord to find direction, to find insight.

It's critical for us to be able to say, "Remember when? Remember what the Lord said about this situation? Remember what the scriptures teach concerning this situation?" If we could have a mindset where we fix our hearts on those solutions, I think we would find ourselves in a much better place than the place that we put ourselves into on a day-to-day basis.

Finding the exhortation of what Jesus had said, understanding that, recognizing it. This is what Jesus told them, they're reminding them of what Jesus's words were, saying the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered His words. Notice this: "And returned from the sepulcher, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest." I think this is so spectacularly important.

You've got to think about how critical it is that these verses were put in here by Luke. First of all, this was not something that they were unaware of. This was something that they were taught. Jesus shared these words. In my mind, this is the problem that I'm having, this is the dilemma. Honestly, guys, how in the world could they forget words so critical? Jesus tells them, "I'm going to be delivered and I'm going to be killed." How can they forget those words?

I think sometimes the shock of moments that we experience in life, I think the difficulty associated with things happening that we don't expect can create blind spots in our lives. It can cause us to forget things that are critical. It can cause us to not remember things that are important. And in doing so, we drive ourselves to a place of deep darkness.

I think it's really important to think about what Jesus told these people. He told them that He would be delivered. As a matter of fact, even when Jesus was in Jerusalem, He said very much the same thing. That's something I want to just remind everybody of. One of the things that we do when we go to Israel is we take everybody to the place where we really believe Jesus was truly crucified, not that church that's about as—anyway, I don't even want to go there.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre and that whole area that surrounds it, it feels dead. But we go to what everybody calls the Garden Tomb. It's very likely that Jesus may have been buried there. But one of the highlights of our trip to the Garden Tomb is we take everybody to a very high point of that tomb. And as we do, we sit them down to have communion. But before that happens, we have them turn their heads and look through a viewpoint that they did not expect to see.

What they look at is a very ugly Arab bus station. Smells bad, smells like trash is being burned. Very aggressive language being used down below if you understand Arabic. You look at this really ugly mountainside that looks like it's in the shape of a skull. On the top of that mountain, that little hill that looks like a skull, there is a Muslim sign that just got put up. As a matter of fact, it got put up in around 2004 that basically says that God cannot have a son and Jesus is not God.

Why would they put it there? Why would the Arabs put it there? I'll tell you why: because that little hill that everybody looks at represents the highest point of the city of Jerusalem, and it's just outside the city. It's what a lot of people call Golgotha. It seems as though the entire world of tourism has forgotten about it. They don't look at it, they don't really consider it, they don't spend a lot of time around it. You can't even access it because of the Arab position that's over there.

But you can see it clearly. Here's the thing that's really interesting. When Jesus was in Jerusalem, He said this: He referred to Himself as a temple, and He said that it would be destroyed and in three days, in essence, back to life, resurrected. He talked about the picture of when He would be put up to be crucified, all would look up to Him, and they would see the salvation of Almighty God.

You know, it's really interesting about the term "high place," and I'll finish up here. The term "high places" that we read about in the Bible was a term that was indicative of something that happened in ancient culture. You see, all the ancient cultures, including the pagan cultures, matter of fact, especially the pagan cultures, when they set up a temple, the temple that they would set up would be at the highest point of the city. The reason why they put it in the highest point of the city is so that anybody who walked out wherever they were could look up, they would see the high place, they would see the temple there, and they would worship their false god.

That's why oftentimes there were kings that were praised for tearing down the high places or cursed for erecting the high places. That's what that was all about. Funny thing is this: When the Temple of God was actually built on Mount Moriah, the thing that was really ironic and strange about that was it wasn't built on the highest point of the city of Jerusalem. It was certainly built on a high point, but it wasn't the highest point.

This area of Golgotha that I just mentioned was actually the highest point of the city of Jerusalem. I don't think it's a coincidence, nor do I think it's ironic or weird or strange by any stretch of the imagination, that Jesus Christ was the one who was crucified at the high point, the true high point of the city of Jerusalem. The city that they call Yerushalayim, the city of peace. That Christ would be the one who would be erected in the high place of the city of Jerusalem.

Why is that spectacular? Why is that important? Why is that critical? Because we know at that moment would set into motion the type of history that not only would we witness for those of us that are far into it, but it would continue to carry an implication throughout the ages that would be life-changing forevermore. And that is a fact, that when He was taken down from that high place, there was no one else to ever be erected as such, and He rose again. Alive.

I want to reread a verse that I just read to you because I think it's important. It says this, they remembered His words, verse eight. And verse nine: "And returned from the sepulcher, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest." Notice that. Folks, I hope that you're asking the very critical question that was just asked: "Why am I seeking the living amongst the dead?"

The moment you ask yourself that question, the most critical thing that you can do is to go back to remember the word of the Lord. Go back to remember what God's word says. Then take the word of the Lord, leave the place of the dead, and deliver it amongst the living. Leave the place that you were in the middle of trying to find a solution, find God's solution, and tell the rest of the world about it. Folks, I don't know about you, but there's something spectacularly important about living that kind of life.

Guest (Male): There's more to come in our study entitled Prophecies that Changed the World Forever. Join us each day for Light on the Hill and remember you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.

You've been listening to Pastor James Kaddis on Light on the Hill and part of our new study, Prophecies that Changed the World Forever. Pastor James will be right back with more. There are a few ways you can listen to today's message or the entire five-part series again. We post all our programs to lightonthehillradio.com as well as oneplace.com. You'll also find Light on the Hill on most major podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google.

We also have an app that makes listening to messages easy to do on any of your mobile devices. Just search for Calvary Chapel Signal Hill in the App Store or Google Play. We're thankful to the Lord for the listeners that come alongside us with their prayers or financial support. It helps us do what we do every day. If you'd like to donate to the ministry today, please visit lightonthehillradio.com. You can also give through the Light on the Hill app. Start following James Kaddis on X, Instagram, and YouTube. Throughout the week, he shares biblical encouragement and videos that deal with current events and Bible prophecy. Now with these closing thoughts, here's Pastor James.

James Kaddis: You guys already know this. I'll say this kind of as a closing thought. I am not the type of guy that fits into pretty much anybody's world. I'm very different. I get complaints from all kinds of people about all kinds of things that I do on a daily basis. "You don't dress nice enough." I got a really angry letter from a lady recently that told me that she was in a fit of rage and could not keep her head straight because she saw me on a video in a church service where I was not wearing a collared shirt. No joke. Like that livid, just that angry.

It's amazing the things that people get really upset about. Funny thing is, I don't fit any of those molds. I don't really care. And the reason why I don't really care is because there's a bigger picture at hand. And the bigger picture is this: I want to be where God is. I don't want to be where the world is. I don't want to do what the world's doing. I don't want to fit in according to the world's standard. Why? Because Christ is alive.

I don't want to be amongst the dead. I want to be where Christ is, because if I was not where He is, I wouldn't have the power to do what He's called me to do. And the life that I live wouldn't be as valuable as it could be. And my encouragement to you is this: Whatever ailment you might have that would keep you from remembering the word of God and moving amongst the living, following the path of where Christ is, ignore it. Ignore it.

Find the life. Find the word of God and live according to that. And I can make you this promise: You'll find freedom like you've never found before. And how do I know you'll be successful in doing so? How do I know that all will go well? Because He is risen. Christ is alive, and that power is available to you in ways you can't even begin to imagine. We're going to talk about that power that's available to you, the same power that rose Jesus from the dead is a power that exists inside of you to do extraordinary things. That's the call that God's placed upon your life. So put Him first. He's alive. Amen.