Light on the Hill

Guest (Male): Pastor James asked a very important question today on Light on the Hill.

James Kaddis: Are we willing to at great inconvenience and against the instinctual desire to want to pursue comfort, are we willing to put ourselves in the uncomfortable position to do the more difficult thing? Ask yourself that question.

Guest (Male): I have found that peace only comes from you. I have found that joy only comes from you. Cuz all I need is you.

Guest (Male): We've all received shocking news at some point in our lives. We've experienced moments that stop us in our tracks and leave us unsure of what to do next. The truth is we'll never experience the full benefit of what we've been told if we fail to respond the way we know we should. One of the most shocking moments in human history shows us exactly how we are meant to respond to what we're facing today. Here's Pastor James Kaddis in Mark chapter 16 on Light on the Hill.

James Kaddis: It's so interesting. You know, I think that uh one of the the things that happens that's pretty amazing with uh teaching through the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter is recognizing the fact that there's really no such thing as a coincidence as you go through the Bible. And it's funny to me because look, I've been teaching the Bible now for 30 some odd years, 33 years, and every single day that I do this and it happens, I'm still amazed. I shouldn't be uh but in essence, I really am because the beauty of the miracle that shows up in front of us with respect to the Holy Spirit orchestrating what happens when we go through his word, when we learn what the Bible is teaching us, it's just absolutely amazing.

And and I say this because it's almost like God knew that I would be teaching through a passage like this today and kind of set up the environment that we're in in the moment to match up perfectly with what we're actually communicating because the subject of the resurrection is one that is uniquely consequential to a lot of things that relate to the problems that we're facing today and in the current moment. And quite frankly, what we're going through right now in this world, around the world is just extraordinarily unique. It's It's wild. I mean, I never thought that we would see the rise in the kind of darkness that we're looking at today, the insane uh deception that's happening, just to examine for a moment how dark things are becoming, how things are becoming so dark, so ugly that it's very difficult to be able to discern through the things or between the things that are true and the things that aren't.

I mean, look at just what happened right now if you just stop for a moment and examine some of the things that have happened politically even in our country, you know. Why? Because the enemy is good at what he does, right? He's a liar. And not only is he a liar, but he takes those lies and he uses them to seek to rip us off literally at every level. And what I love about the word of God is the word of God reveals it, right? It shows it to us. It gives us a very beautiful picture and an important demonstration of how things work when God puts his hand upon the lives of the people that he's seeking to communicate and what happens when they choose to put their faith and trust in him.

There's so much to be said here. So, where we find ourselves as we jump into Mark chapter 16 is that very moment where a lot of very bad things have happened, at least in the mind of the people that are in the midst of it. You know, so many bad things have happened, okay? Christ has been killed. There's been a lot of turmoil that has led up to that moment. There's been a lot of things that have happened amongst his disciples, amongst his followers that many of them are ashamed of. One of the great examples of this is Peter and what happened to him.

Uh we can bring up other examples of some of the other disciples that were entrusted by the Lord to remain awake in the garden and they couldn't even do that, right? You see the situation where one of his disciples completely betrayed him and then of course in regret took his own life um as a result of what he had actually done. And by the way, all of it being a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. We know the Bible actually predicted that so many of these things will happen. And one of the things that's so remarkable about the moment that we're reading right now is that as we approach the morning of the resurrection of Jesus, that story, that situation was no exception.

It was a very very difficult time for everybody involved. I mean, their Lord had just been killed. To them, they feel like all was gone. They had nothing left. It felt like there was no recourse for anything that they had allowed themselves to to believe in. Uh they were for the very first time ever since uh learning what they had learned from Jesus, experiencing the word coming to life in their lives for the very first time, they're challenged in a way that was so remarkable that they in essence did not know what to do. And it's interesting because it what's happening in the current moment is that they all feel like they're lost.

They feel like everything is gone and over with. And we know this by the way. Listen, we know this so well because by the time Jesus appears to some of his disciples, they're already going back to doing the things that they were doing before they met Jesus. If you remember the the moment that we read about where Jesus goes back to the shore, and what does he do? He finds his disciples fishing like they used to fish. You know, so there was this thing uh this feeling where oh my goodness, all is lost. And I think on many levels we feel the same way today.

We look at so many aspects of things that we trusted in, institutions that we believed in, circumstances that we thought were uh favorable that we allowed ourselves to be given to that all feel like they have fallen apart. I mean, guys, think about some of the traumatic things that we've watched, okay? We're in the middle of war. That war is being uh disguised as something that is less than honorable. And And by the way, which is a complete lie. We are looking at circumstances all around the world where people are buying lies hook, line, and sinker and not even believing it.

I watched an interview. This is like one of those man on the street interview. This one to me was shocking. Now, you wouldn't you like you think, man, you shouldn't be shocked after seeing this time and time again. But I saw this man on the street interview where there's this woman and she's not even a man on the street, a woman on the street. But she's she has her microphone and she's walking around and she starts asking people one by one by one by one by one. If you saw a MAGA uh supporter, meaning somebody who wore a Make America Great Again hat coming your way or you had somebody running your way who was saying Allahu Akbar, screaming that, which one would you feel more comfortable with?

Every single time they answered Allahu Akbar, I would feel more comfortable having a man coming running towards me yelling at the top of their lungs Allahu Akbar. One lady was it was such a a disturbing way how she answered it because she answered it so instinctively, so quickly. Let me give you an example of how well the enemy has chosen to deceive people. She said it so quickly and so instinctively that the woman who was doing the interviewing had to stop her and say, okay, look, I'm sorry, but can you tell me why you would feel this way?

Like why is it that you are so quick to say you would rather have a person running at you saying Allahu Akbar than running into an actual MAGA supporter? Just Just tell me why. And this was her answer. It was quick. It wasn't well thought out. It was just instinctual. That's exactly what it was. And she says this, because I'm gay. That's what she said, because I'm gay. Here's the question. Here's the question. Which one of those two would be more than likely to bring harm to you because you're gay? A MAGA supporter or somebody who follows Sharia law?

See, this is this is the thing that so many people just don't get. They don't understand how serious all of this is. It's just unbelievable. I mean, I look at not that I really care to get into it because I think it's although it it is a very very material to what we're talking about today and certainly relevant to what we are talking about today, it's astounding to me, astounding to me how somebody who can claim to love this country and claim to love the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob can sit down and act as an apologist for Islam.

Tell me how that works. Tell me how that even makes sense. How can you hook, line, and sinker tell the American people that Iran presents no no potential harm? Like there's there's no imminent threat. How in the world can you do that? I tell you how you can do that. You choose to hold yourself close to your father, the devil. That's how. You do it because you choose to believe the lies that are being communicated. And in doing so, the deception that you present appears extraordinarily convincing because your father, the devil, who is extraordinarily good at putting up the lies has got you completely in his arm, in his hand, distracting the whole world, telling the whole world something that is completely the opposite of that which is accurate.

And I say this again and again and again and again to most people who don't understand it. And I I can't help but to repeat myself again and again and again. You don't speak our language. You don't know our culture. You don't understand our people. You would not know an Arabic word if it walked up to you and slapped you in the face. Yet for whatever reason, you believe the lie. And I'm not going to blame you. If you think about it, 18% of the Islamic world, 18% of the Islamic world actually speaks Arabic. 18% I mean, think about that for a second.

They wake up every morning and they say Arabic words. They chant out things in that language but have no idea what it means or what it represents. This is the nature of deception. This is how the enemy works. And in a world that appears to be falling apart, in a world where deception is rampant, in a world where darkness appears to be coming the very thing that overwhelms, we can learn some unique and powerful lessons from the story of the resurrection right here. We're going to go through the first eight verses but I think they are deeply consequential to the precedent that I want to set before we go into it the next few weeks.

And this is important because we can learn from what the ladies are doing here. We can learn from what they experience in the moment and we can learn from the heart and the mindset that they had, whether or not they completely realized what they were doing, whether or not they realized they were engaging in some very deep spiritual warfare. I'm telling you this right now, the decisions that they made were remarkable and we can learn a thing or two from them. And I think it's very very important to focus on these things and to stop and very slowly and methodically go through what's happening.

And what I hope to do is be able to develop a picture for you as to what's going on here so that you don't just simply read through the facts like we always do traditionally when we read these stories. I want you to understand what's actually going on and why it's so deeply consequential in the moment and actually for purposes of this discussion to understand why it can be so deeply consequential for you, for your walk, what you're doing right now in your life, what you're facing. This is big stuff. Look at this verse one.

It says, and when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and uh Salome had brought sweet spices that they might come and anoint him. Okay, right off the bat we should probably talk about what we're looking at here because what we're looking at here is a very very important, okay? Especially for being able to understand what's taking place. First and foremost, I talked to you about the fact that there were two Sabbaths that happened here, okay? There was the special Shabbat that would have taken place Thursday night going into Friday.

This would have been the night that Christ was crucified. We talked about this, right? And then there was the what would be the regular Shabbat which would have been Friday night into Saturday night, okay? So then Sunday morning would of course be the third day that Christ was in the tomb when he resurrected just as the Bible said would happen. And that's kind of important. But I want everybody to understand this. As it is, the morning after a Shabbat is a very busy morning, okay? Sunday mornings in most Jewish households would be one that would be a very very active one for those that were the homemakers, for those that were taking care of the needs of the family.

Why? Because this would be the day that you would in essence pick up all the pieces from not doing anything the previous day. And if you were dealing with a special Shabbat like the one that we're talking about here, one that was very unique, this would be 48 hours in essence of no activity, 48 hours of literally doing nothing. And so the idea of having the spices prepared, the idea of doing all of these things would have been an extraordinary effort, especially considering the fact that all that they had hoped for was gone. Think about this using terms that are more modern that all of us would be able to better appreciate.

You're going to see this happening more and more, okay? Not that I would ever call the president God, not that I would ever put him on the level of the resurrected Christ. I mean, that's an absurd thing to do, okay? But there is an interesting dynamic going on right now with so much of the deception that we're seeing, especially in this country and especially around the world. And it all centers around a series of things that a lot of people are not paying attention to, obvious things that a lot of people are not thinking through, okay?

Here's one of them and this is really really really important. A lot of people are probably asking right now, why is it that there is such little loyalty going on right now in Washington? I mean, it seems as though we're watching people turn their backs in ways that we have not seen ever before, okay? Well, obviously we've talked about the bigger issue which is the spiritual warfare and everything that 's going on. But here's the other aspect that we should all consider and that's the fact that the current president in office isn't going into another term.

This is his last term. So every man is acting as though they have their own interests that they want to be managing and they're not concerning themselves with the loyalties necessary to be able to effectively run a country in an administration like the one that we're dealing with today. They're wanting all to pursue their angle. They're all lying for a specific reason. They're doing it because there is a plan. There is something going on in their minds where they are seeking to develop a uh an infrastructure by which they can pursue the next thing because the thing that they were taking advantage of in the moment is now in their mind gone.

There's no more coattail to ride because I've done what I needed to do with it and that 's it. Look, I think it's extraordinary and I am just going to say it. I think it 's extraordinary that the demon worshipers that continue to come against the widow of Charlie Kirk are almost all of them almost all of them the same people who actually wouldn't have a career if it wasn't for Charlie. Isn't that funny how that works? But yet now that Charlie is with the Lord, why can't I just go ahead and and and look for a new opportunity, take advantage of a new situation?

It's disgusting. It's actually satanic. It's super super evil. So wait, let me get this straight. He's gone now so there's no opportunity for you. So now you're going to go ahead and pursue something else. And in many cases if you like the demon worshipers that are coming against his his widow, what are you doing right now? You're basically trying to capitalize on it. And I think that with Christ being crucified at this point in history and at this moment, there isn't nobody, not a single person who was associated with Jesus that using the mindset of the world would gain benefit from doing anything for him.

He's dead. In their minds it's all over. Why in the world would I go do anything for him especially when people are going to meet my association with him with hostility? Why in the world would I double down on being his follower? Think about it, you guys. Mary Magdalene was a woman who had a terrible reputation. Her reputation was ugly but she was redeemed by the God of heaven. And now that Jesus did not do what they expected him to do, they expected him to destroy the Romans. They expected him to set up a new kingdom.

Well, he's dead now. And what are they looking to do? They're looking to go take care of his body as the traditions would require them to. They're They're willing to stick their neck out knowing full well that there's nothing left. In their minds they're not seeing through what what the Bible said. They're not looking at the prophetic aspect of any of this. We know this because they are in awe. They're literally shocked when they see what manifests in front of them. But leading up to the moment, there's this mindset within them that says I am going to do what I believe is right because I truly believed he was the God of heaven.

It's interesting how that works because I think there's a distinct parallel that we can draw here and one that I think is really really important. And that is I would put in front of you today that it is not popular to follow Jesus, at least not follow the real Jesus, the true Jesus, the one that nobody wants to characterize correctly. I'm I'm going to release a video on Saturday that's going to make a lot of people sick to their stomach, absolutely, where I I I interview for over an hour one of the subject matter experts in the area of Catholicism.

And And we're actually going to to show pretty much the whole world how Catholicism has become so dark and so evil and so demonically inspired that it's actually being used to put into motion, to put into effect the blatant wickedness that we're seeing right now in so many of these social media people that are seeking to not only destroy our countries but to destroy you. It's amazing to me. It's unbelievable. But it's never been about worshiping something that's iconic. It's about worshiping what deserves to be worshiped. And these women are going out of their way not just at the expense of time but at the expense of money, at the expense of reputation, at the expense of everything else.

And they're going to the grave so that they could get to Jesus's body and do something that nobody would want to do. Now, here's the problem that they're facing. And this is a critical one. I want everybody to to meditate on this for a second. They're dealing with a stone that they have nobody to help them roll away. We know that because the Bible tells us this is a dilemma of theirs, right? They're struggling with that. It is definitely an insurmountable issue to them. You have the problem of Roman guards that are posted there who absolutely will not allow you to go into the grave.

They are there to guard the interests of Rome. And it is critical that the interests of Rome be guarded in not allowing the body to be stolen because in their mind if the body is stolen, then that means the myth could go on. This is the way they think. They don't realize who they're dealing with here. And perhaps the most consequential of them all centers around the fact that these women still chose to go to this area, to walk to this garden with tremendous difficulty cuz it would have been difficult. Knowing that these things were impossible, but understanding that as hard as they were, as insurmountable as it may have been, they chose to still do it because it was the right thing to do.

Right off the bat, the one question that I would ask us and it's one that I continue to ask myself. It's really really important, okay? Are we willing to at great inconvenience and against the instinctual desire to want to pursue comfort? Are we willing to put ourselves in the uncomfortable position to do the more difficult thing?

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us today for Light on the Hill. What you just heard is one part of a study in Mark's Gospel from Pastor James Kaddis. You can hear it again at lightonthehillradio.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Not long ago, Pastor James released his new book on the first half of Revelation. It's entitled The Last Book. He points out that Revelation isn't a book of fear but rather a book of hope. Pastor James will help you understand the world we live in and current events through a biblical lens, preparing your heart for what lies ahead.

Get a copy by going to lightonthehillradio.com or through Amazon. We're so grateful for your support. Each donation that's sent in is an investment in what God is doing over the radio and internet. Lives are being impacted daily for the glory of God as a result. If you'd like to stand with us through providing either a one-time donation or ongoing monthly support, please visit lightonthehillradio.com. While you're there, you can also send us an email. It would be great to hear from you and have you share the station you listen to as well. Just visit lightonthehillradio.com and then click on contact.

Now, let's return to Mark chapter 16.

James Kaddis: This is super important verse two. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher? They're walking. They're walking to the place that they need to go in darkness knowing that the sun is going to rise soon. And they're asking themselves an overwhelming question. How in the world are we going to roll this stone? By the way, if you went to the sepulcher of a wealthy man, that would not generally be perceived as a safe action, okay?

Because keep this in mind, it was the sepulchers of wealthy men that grave robbers loved spending time in. They would camp out. They would figure out ways to break in so that they could gain whatever it was that they wanted to gain and take and then move on to the next grave. So it wasn't generally a safe idea for them to go to the grave number one but number two. They had a purpose that they had in their heart to accomplish something that was generally impossible to do. How are they going to roll away a stone that is probably 1,000 lbs?

How's that going to happen? Okay? It's It's extraordinarily difficult. It was designed to be impossible. And even if you could figure out a way to get enough men to roll it, how are you going to do it without the Romans getting in the way? How are you going to do it to be able to do what you've been called to do? As impossible as it is in the moment, these girls are still committing themselves in the direction of doing it because what they're anticipating here is they are anticipating the help of the supernatural even though they don't completely understand how the supernatural will intervene.

Guest (Male): Remember, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.

Guest (Male): I have found that peace only comes from you. I have found that joy only comes from you. Cuz all I need is you.