He Is Risen!

This is Rodney from the Masculine Journey Podcast where we explored manhood within Jesus Christ. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Sit back, enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw. Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolov.

Now, the devil's nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. Nikita Kolov here. Welcome, welcome, welcome to The Man Up Show and a special episode today for a couple of reasons.

One, I have in studio with me the man, the myth, the legend himself, Robbie Dilmore, Christian Car Guy, host of The Christian Car Guy, host of the Kingdom Pursuits, and number one show on Truth Radio Network. Robbie, welcome to The Man Up Show. I am so thrilled. I mean, my partner, my buddy, we've been at the NRB together, we're roommates. I managed to snore and not get the Russian sickle, so I'm... That's right. Actually, you're a pretty light snorer.

You're not... I remember, I think I told you this story, man, Uncle Ivan, oh my goodness. Yeah, I mean, he could snore the paint off the walls.

He was so bad. And man, I used to... I think I told you, I used to throw stuff, you know, and to wake him up and sometimes throw things at him, smack the nightstand, whatever, and then pretend like I was sleeping and just let him wake up.

But man, it would be two seconds later, he'd be back to snoring. But that was not an issue with you, so it was a great time. And it was a great time at the NRB. Great time. It was. And I had nightmares for, you know, a couple nights after expecting this.

Russian nightmares? I love it. I love it. Well, it is, at any rate, moving on, moving on.

Some more serious conversation. No, but no, it was, it's just great to have you in the studio with me. It's great to have you on this special episode. Yeah, well, I mean, it is absolutely my favorite holiday and, you know, how cool that we get to do this the day before Easter. Well, I was gonna say, and the holiday you're referring to is Easter. Tomorrow is Easter.

And so I don't know about you, let me just pose a few questions to you out there in listening land. I mean, when you hear Easter, Easter, what do you think about? Like, what comes to mind for you? What do you think about, what does it mean to you? What does Easter mean to you? I mean, is it about bunny rabbits and Easter egg hunts? Or is it about sunrise service? Like, maybe your church has an Easter sunrise service at the crack of dawn. And, or what kind of things do you do during Easter?

When did Easter originate? But Robbie, before you and I came on air, you shared with me, you have a couple visual illustrations that are pretty powerful and they really have to do with rock and roll, rock and roll music. Rock and roll express. The rock and roll express.

Ricky and Robert. No, no, no, no, no. Share, enlighten our listeners to what you were sharing with me. It's pretty powerful.

Yeah. Interestingly, the Bible is just, and we saw this rabbi when we were at the NRP and he said, well, you know, people need to see the Bible in the HD. Like, you can read the stories, but as you get deeper, you know, you get an idea to see clarity that you've never seen before. And the idea of the stone rolling away is a picture that God painted in oh so many ways. You may even realize that in the 119 Psalm and he says, roll away my reproach.

And it's making reference to when God rolled away their reproach back when Joshua crossed into the promised land. There's a passage about that, but there was this old rock and rolling that had been going on prior to that, that the stone where the water came out, the Jews have taught actually for centuries, it's in the Midrash, it's in the Talmud, that it was called Miriam's well. And if you look in 1st Corinthians, you'll see Paul say that the stone that followed them in the desert. And so that was this beehive-like shaped stone. And when Miriam, the prophetess, would sing to this stone, it would not just flow water, because think how many thousands they were drinking from it, it would gush like a geyser water when Miriam, again, would sing to this stone. And so if you look at Numbers chapter 20, you're going to see some hints to this.

Right after Miriam dies, there's no more water. And so the story of Moses hitting the rock happens right after his sister dies. And then when you look in Numbers 21, there God tells Moses and the boys, look guys, you've got to sing to this rock and use your staffs as part of a way that you're going to worship God, not hit it with a thing.

So, you know, that's interesting. Here comes this stone, it's rolling, and Miriam is singing to it. Now, the really neat connection to Easter is, I'm sure you've seen that the stone was rolled away, but I don't know if a lot of people realize that the name Mary is not what these, all these women that were at this tomb, and all the women that were at the crucifixion, or even Christ's mother, they were Jewish women, their name was Miriam, and they were all the namesakes of the same Miriam the prophetess. In fact, to this day, guess what the number one daughter's name is of all time, and continues to this day, the number one name for women is Mary, as God honors this prophetess that would sing to the rock that would bring out this water.

So now picture that this morning, you know, Easter morning, right? She's at the tomb before anybody else, Miriam. She goes, gets the other two, they run, they have their foot raised, John, and they look in the tomb, and then they leave. Like, they're just thinking about that, right? They've just seen an empty tomb, they've been in the tomb, right?

And they leave. But then Miriam stands by, and again, the rock's been rolled at this point in time, and she's crying. And here come two words from Jesus, which would be the first words, you know, Stu wrote the last words of Jesus and the first words of Jesus, but to me, the first words that Jesus says after the resurrection is, woman, why are you crying?

And who are you looking for? And so I think that was my soul's cry when I was born. I was looking for Jesus, and that's why I was crying.

And even to this day, when I find myself crying, it's almost like, what are you looking for? And just like my reproach was rolled away, like King David said in the 119th Psalm, because that stone rolled away. And when Miriam sang and cried to that particular stone that rolled, right? There came a gush of living water, the likes of which the world has never seen, right? That just blessed me and blessed you, that we could, you know, even get to have this fun adventure together.

Yeah, and have this conversation. And what an illustration. So, Miriam, on record in history, the first rock and roll singer, the original rock and roll singer. And I don't know if you, you know, I've wondered that, Rob. Yeah, I've kind of thought to myself, I mean, so they wander in the desert for 40 years, but the rock was always there to provide water. So, obviously, as you're illustrating, that rock is rolling. As they're moving, it's moving with them. And I've never really thought of it that way before, that she sang to the rock and it therefore gushed water. Like you said, whether it's hundreds of thousands or some account to say a couple million that followed Moses, however many, it was a lot of people.

A lot of water that was needed to satisfy their thirst. But, and then how you fast forward and then illustrate that, tie that in with the illustration of the rock being rolled away at the tomb and the resurrection of Christ, which is what we celebrate at Easter, right? It's all about the resurrection.

It really, really is. Good Friday is past. We're now on Saturday. And so, oh my goodness, the Lord's day, which is really neat. I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but the way that I add it up, I know this, is that Jesus came in on a Sunday for the triumphal entry. And so it was actually eight days after he arrived, the resurrection was, which is the miracle day. When you think about it, the temple was cleansed on the eighth day.

You know, Jewish boys get circumcised like we get our hearts circumcised on the eighth day because Christ rose again on the eighth day after the triumphal entry. Right. And so tomorrow is the eighth day after the triumphal entry, after Palm Sunday, and away we go. Well, and of course, eight is, as I understand, the number of new beginnings. Right.

So there's a brand new beginning there. And you know, I don't know what the numbers are, what the statistics are, but they say there's, you know, a lot of people, I've joked in the past, they say there are some who are, when it comes to church attendance, they're CEOs. They attend on Christmas and Easter only. They're CEOs. But hey, just thankful they at least attend twice a year.

That's all they attend. But that said, I think there's some statistics that say for, there's many, many people who, in their attendance on Easter, do indeed surrender, or in fact, surrender their life to Jesus, that Easter is their new birth, their new beginning, because they went on Easter to honor Easter, and in return were resurrected of sorts themselves, and having given their life to Christ. Have you heard similar? Yeah, absolutely. And most pastors, you know, realizing that they're going to have people that aren't their regular attendees, you know, they pen sermons for that very purpose to try to awaken, like smelling salts, you know, the spiritual side of things, which you yourself do when you come, you just, last Sunday, right?

Yeah. You had the chance to awaken a young lady, and there's just nothing like it. Right, right, yeah, she was, she, so you said two things happened, that Jesus says, why, woman, why are you crying, and who are you looking for? And so, yes, to your point, there was a young lady at the altar where I was preaching at the end of service, who was, I mean, just weeping and weeping and weeping, and she was probably, I want to guess mid-20s, married, marriages in the shambles, and life's in shambles, and Robert, she was just weeping, saying, I want Jesus in my heart.

It was like, what do you, woman, what are you looking for? I'm looking for, she was looking for Jesus. Right. And she said, I want Jesus in my heart, and so, you know, she, I had her, I had her pray from her heart, and she confessed and repented, and, you know, cleansed her heart, and then opened it up and asked Jesus, invited Jesus to come in, and as her, she was changed, she was visibly changed at that morning upon that decision, so those tears became really just cleansing tears and tears of joy, as well as, and her grandfather was there too, praying grandpa, who had been praying and praying and praying all these years for her, and got to witness her surrender her life to Jesus. Yes, those tears are living water, see, because tears have endorphins in them, right, that bring you a certain amount of living, and you'll find that's a really common response when people accept Christ, is the tears come.

Right. And once again, their hearts kind of sing to Christ, and the tears come, you know, with your living water is just a beautiful, amazing picture of what was going on that morning. Well, and, you know, for me, you know, it's interesting, you know, when I, when I think, I pose those questions, right, hey, what does Easter mean to you, you're out there listening, what does Easter mean to you, and you're taking a moment and even considering that right now, what does it mean to you, and maybe you've never given your life to Christ, but you listen to the Man Up show week in and week out, and we're thankful for all of you faithful followers and listeners around the world, having been downloaded in now 60 different countries, and now what an opportunity, you know, wherever you're at, to just, if you never have, surrender your life to Christ, and you can take that moment right now and do that, just, you know, Romans 10-9, confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, and you can just invite him in, ask him to be Lord and Savior. I did that 17 October 1993, life's never been the same for me, Robbie, and when you have that genuine encounter, boy, it's just never the same, right? And so, so, Easter, Easter, and, and, you know, we, we mentioned, too, sunrise service.

Have you ever, have you ever conducted or ever attended a sunrise service? You're listening to the Truth Network. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Nikita Koloff here.

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You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. I've attended. I've never conducted. Okay.

Okay. Um, I don't think I've ever done either. I may have, I may have, but because I'm thinking, you know, sunrise is usually like around 6 a.m. and I'm like, hopefully I'm still sleeping at that point. Well, I wake up all different times, all different times of the year now, or all different times of the night at this point. But, but, um, I mean, when I think about sunrise service and, you know, even why, I mean, why a sunrise service?

I mean, there's lots of different reasons. What's your thoughts on a sunrise service? What's the significance for you since you've attended one? Well, it's kind of really cool that the idea in Hebrew of the east, right, because the sun is rising in the east. There's, there's a connection to ancient days, that the word east and ancient are the same word in Hebrew. And so, as the sun is coming up, essentially, you're getting connected to the original day that, that God made for man to be in Eden, and how he originally intended us to live in freedom, not having all the sin and all the stuff that we, that we had. And so, as the sun came up on that eastern day, on that eastern morning, right, it was, it was connecting all the days from the day that, that God made man, until this day when he could redeem his buddies, so he could go hang out with us. I mean, you know, that, that, because, you know, to be a friend of Jesus is an awesome thing. And so, he is connecting all the pictures to us as the sun comes up, that we are seeing what he had intended for us, which is that relationship.

It's all about relationship. It's just, and you can, if you know Nikita, you know, you can see in his eyes that he has a joy and a grace. In other words, you're going to know when you're standing in front of Nikita Koloff, and I've seen this with, I don't know how many people, I was at the NRB watching him come up, and every single time that person in front of him looked like it was his favorite person in the world, because he's, that's the grace that God gave him, because the relationship he has with Jesus.

And so, as that sun comes up, man, I am seeing my Savior who treats me like he's my favorite, like I'm his favorite, like how could that possibly be? There's nothing better than that, and you know, I'm reminded too, you kind of alluded to it really, but it was early at dawn on that Easter morning when Mary, Miriam, Mary went to the the tomb of Jesus to find it empty, which is why so many churches do hold that, you know, an early hour, early morning service, and you know, for that momentous occasion. And you made reference too to, you know, churches having special services. I know my church, the refuge, two churches now, Morning Star Fellowship Church in Fort Mill, South Carolina, and then the refuge in Kannapolis, North Carolina, but even add extra services a lot of times. Churches will add extra services just to give more people an opportunity, and what a great opportunity for you out there. If you've never invited someone to a church service, no greater opportunity now than to say, hey, how about coming and celebrating Easter tomorrow, go to church with us, we'll pick you up, or we'll buy you breakfast, or we'll buy you lunch afterwards, or what a tremendous opportunity, right, for people to make that invitation, especially if they don't have, as you're referring to Robbie, that relationship, personal relationship. I'm reminded, I want to say this too, a lot of times I'm out eating in restaurants, I like to ask the waiter or the waitress pretty consistently, hey, it's just a privilege to pray for you, what could I pray for? And recently, a waitress looked at me and the guy I was with and said, well, you know, I'm not, it kind of gripped my heart, Robbie, she said, I'm not really a religious person, and she used these words, I was forced to go to church when I was little, so I've kind of got away from that, you know, and I know there's a lot of people that feel that way, right, that they were, quote, forced, right, now whether, you know, whether it was a legalistic family or whatever, whatever the situation was there, but I just encouraged her, I said, man, I'm so glad, I'm so glad you're not religious, she was kind of like, what, sideways, I go, I go, no, for real, I go, because I'm not religious either, and then had the opportunity to explain the difference between religion and relationship. How would you explain that to our listeners, if you were to give a synopsis of the difference between religion and relationship, what would you say? Oh, religion is, you know, keeping a set of decrees and whatever so that I can earn my way, because I'm going to be such a good guy that God, when he looks at this big scale, that Robbie's good stuff is going to outweigh his bad stuff. And I can check all these boxes.

Right. I went to church, I prayed three times last week, I got baptized, you know, I've done all these religious things, I took my Bible, I took my communion, you know, I did all these things, but I didn't do it in an effort to enjoy my relationship with Christ, I did it because I was trying to outweigh my bad stuff because I was going to earn my way to heaven, and unfortunately, man, that is a horrible, horrible thing to have happen because that relationship is, when you're taking communion, whatever, when you're in relationship, it's a beautiful, beautiful experience. But if I'm doing it to check the boxes, man, it's hard. It is hard. It is hard. And I want to, again, I want to encourage you out there, you know, as you hear us talking, Robbie and I talking about, you know, Easter, the celebration of Easter and the difference between religion and I mean, there's a there are a lot of religious people out there.

I'm sure you've met some and hopefully you're not one. Just saying, I'm just saying at the core, it's really about about the heart and establishing that personal relationship with Jesus. You know, I think about the celebration of Easter, Robbie, and it is an international event, right? It originated in Israel.

And from that resurrection, from that rock being rolled away, from that tomb being empty. And have you ever been to Israel? Have you been? I haven't.

You've not when I'm, no, I really have. Well, hopefully in 2023 we'll have more information coming. A big celebrity tour during Easter planned in 2023.

Maybe some more information coming on that down the road. But I've been there and I've stood in what they determined to be the tomb. And when you walk in, man, there's just such a, I don't even, it's an overwhelming feeling when you walk in. I mean, I was just in tears. I was overwhelmed by the tears. But then when you turn around and walk out, they've got a sign posted, you know, the opening says, he is not here. He is risen. And I'm like, oh my gosh.

Then I just wailed even more, you know. But it's, you know, such an international event. And, you know, so people around the world just celebrate this. And there's a lot of different, you know, I was looking up, I was researching a little bit about this, you know, about how it's become such a, you might say, a famous holiday where early Christians called Christ's resurrection, and I don't know, I'll probably butcher this, but Pesach. Pesach.

You're familiar with that? Pesach. That's the word for Passover. Yes, man.

Look at you. The Hebrew word for Passover. That's right. That's right. And today most languages use, will even use a variation of that.

There's one for French and Spanish, Italian, Albanian, Swedish, and I'm just not going to try to butcher those. Go look those, go look those up. But that's the lamb that was slain. The lamb, the lamb of God, right?

That's right. Well, and interesting, so you mentioned that in early Jewish history, you know, lambs were sacrificed as offerings to God and served regularly as part of the Passover feast. And then when Jesus dies, right, during Passover, he then represents the ultimate sacrifice for sin, right? The lamb of God. And the animal evolved then into a, just a symbol for Christianity, for Christians, followers of Jesus. So, what an amazing holiday.

Any other thoughts? I want to share that it's not only a holiday for people of all sorts of different countries, but different, you know, levels of understanding. So I teach special needs.

Okay. And I saw Easter one time for two people that weren't verbal. They were born with whatever defects, and I never ever heard them speak once. But one of them, every time you saw him, you know, he, these people are 50 or 60 years old, but every time you saw him, he'd have his face covered with his hands because he was afraid to show. And neither of these people would ever touch you because they were just scared. They looked scared. You know, they never spoke, not the entire time.

One of them I'm still very much friends with. But one day as I was doing my lesson, which I would do in sign language and all that kind of stuff, I, through the way I would communicate with them, said, would you, anybody in the group like to receive price today? And this particular day, two guys that I'd never see spoke once both said they wanted to. And so I walked them through that, you know, the ABCs you just talked about, right? Admit, believe, confess in sign language.

And I wish all the world could see what Easter looked like for this people group. Because these guys that were scared that would never touch, now one of them is named Marius. I never see that man since he received Christ that he does not want to hug me, that he does not want to shake me.

If I don't shake his hand, I'm in big trouble, right? Robert, who always covered his face before, his hands came down so that we could all see him because he was no longer ashamed, right? And so here you saw a miraculous change among a people group that doesn't talk.

It's real, but it was real from a relationship standpoint. And both these guys have a relationship with Jesus. They're not earning their way to heaven. Jesus paid it there that day and on Good Friday, and now he's resurrected with them. The Holy Spirit gripped and touched their hearts, and now their name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

And I love what you said, the ABCs, right? Tell our listeners. Admit, believe, and confess. Admit, believe, and confess. Salvation is as simple as that.

Admit, believe, and confess. And perhaps this Easter will be your day. The Bible says today is the day of salvation, and perhaps this Easter will be your day, this Easter weekend will be your special weekend, your special day to receive Christ. Whether you can actually verbally speak or not, the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart, right, Robbie? And so Easter and Christmas, man, two special holidays for Christ followers, Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus, Easter celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. And you know, the Word of God, the Old Testament was filled not only with rock and roll singers like Miriam, but the Old Testament was filled with prophetic words of the first coming of Christ. And the New Testament, Jesus himself spoke over and over and over again that there would be a second coming.

No, baby. Yeah, and game on, that he is coming back for his church, for his bride. And I pray and hope that as you've listened to this show today, Robbie Dilmore, the Christian car guy, Kingdom Pursuits, the man, the myth, the legend, thank you for being a part of the Man Up show today. Oh, what a delight.

Well, happy Easter. God bless all of you and tune in again next time for the Man Up show. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support, and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to koloff.net and donate today.

Hi, Nikita Koloff. Be sure to check out the Man Up show, now available on television, broadcast, and podcast. Go to monistartv.com or the Truth Radio Network.

Check out your local listings or better yet, download the Truth Network app today. This is Nikita Koloff, and I want to thank Clemens Karp for supporting my new show, Man Up, Saturday afternoon at 1230 on the Truth Network. If you would like to support Koloff for Christ Ministries, for a gift of $25, Nikita will send you his two CDs, Adoration and Declaration. For a gift of $50, Nikita will include his book, Wrestling with Success. And for a gift of $100 or more, Nikita will include a signed copy of his newly updated life story, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption. Go to www.koloff.net and donate today. This is the Truth Network.