Back To The Beginning

April 5, 2026
Back To The Beginning

Message Summary:

Everyone knows what it’s like to search for something you just can’t find—your keys, your phone, your wallet, or that one password you know you saved somewhere. You check everywhere, retrace your steps, and feel the frustration building. We all know what it’s like to search—and in many ways, Easter begins the same way. In Matthew 28:1–10, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary go to the tomb looking for Jesus, but instead of finding Him, they hear something unexpected: 
“He is not here…He has risen…go to Galilee. There you will see Him.” 
That’s surprising, because if Jesus has just defeated sin and death, you would expect Him to say, “Meet me in Jerusalem,” the power center, or “Meet me in the temple,” the religious center. But He doesn’t. He says, “Meet me in Galilee”—the place where it all started, where the disciples first followed Him, saw their first miracles, and learned what it meant to walk with Him.

And that tells us something important: if you’re searching for Jesus, don’t just look for something new—go back to where it started. When you lose something important, you retrace your steps and return to the last place you remember having it, even when you’re convinced it couldn’t possibly be there. And often, that’s exactly where it is. The same is true in your relationship with God. Where did it begin for you? For some, it was as a kid sitting in church. For others, it was a small group, a conversation, or a moment when Scripture suddenly felt alive. For me, it was in my youth group, and then again in college, standing in worship, overwhelmed by the presence of God. That’s my Galilee. What’s yours?

Jesus isn’t calling His followers to something complicated—He’s calling them back. Revelation 2:4–5 says, 

“You have left the love you had at first. Remember where you were…repent, and do the things you did at first.” 

Go back to simple obedience, back to opening your Bible, back to prayer, back to real community, back to the place where your relationship with Him was alive. Because what we often miss is that Jesus can be found in the ordinary—not in the pressure to perform, not in chasing perfect circumstances, not in emotional highs, but in the simple, overlooked places where we first learned to follow Him. That’s what Galilee represents, and maybe that’s why it’s so surprising. We assume that if God is going to move powerfully in our lives, it has to look impressive—big, dramatic, different. But Jesus says, “No. Meet me in Galilee.” Meet me in the simple moments, the rhythms you’ve neglected, the place where you first knew me.

So where is your Galilee?

For some of you, this is about returning. You’ve known Him before, but life got busy and complicated, and somewhere along the way you drifted. Today is your invitation to go back. But for others, this isn’t about returning—it’s about starting, because your Galilee isn’t behind you; it’s in front of you. It’s the first step of saying yes to Jesus. This Easter, we celebrate the empty tomb, but we don’t forget the cross. Jesus gave His life so that we could have a real relationship with Him—not a distant belief, but a living, active connection. And today, He’s still inviting people: “Come and follow me.” Not somewhere complicated, but into something simple, real, and life-changing.