Easter 2023: Death is defeated

Well, good morning and Happy Easter! This is it. This is why we do what we do. It’s why we believe what we believe. It makes us who we are and informs our decisions. Easter. Because Jesus didn’t stay dead.

And we could open up scripture this morning and simply read the story and that would be worth it. That would be more than enough. To simply just read the story of Jesus. It’s the greatest story that has ever been told or ever will be told.

But I want to share a couple things with you this morning. In our weekly services, which are usually inside, we have been talking the last few weeks about the UnConditional Love of God. That this is the very reason that Jesus did what he did, because John 3:16 tells us, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”

That sums up the whole of this thing called Christianity, right there.

We believe that there is a God, and that He is good. This is how GOD loved the world. It’s on our shirts, so it must be true - God Loves You!

We believe that God is not just some force, or power, we don’t pray to the universe, that does nothing. But not only do we believe that there is a God but we believe that He is responsible for all of this, the world you see around you. That God exists outside of both time and space. God is uncreated and is the one who created everything.

Man, talk about a conversation to have with our 9 year old. Of course, growing up around the church she hears things and she asks questions. So a couple weeks ago that question came up, “Who created God?” Well, nobody. God has always been, and always will be, and the only reason we have time, and this world and the universe we live in, is because God created it. But God does not need the moon to rotate around the earth and the earth to rotate around the sun. That is purely for our benefit, for time.

We also believe that Jesus is God. And we call him the Son of God, or God the Son, because we believe there are 3 entities within the God we believe in. Another great conversation I’ve been having with my daughter. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. All God, in singular form, yet represented in these different aspects.

And we believe that God, in creating all of this, and creating humanity, chose not to force us to believe in him, but to give us choice. The greatest gift you can ever give someone, especially if you are trying to show them that you love them is to not force them to love you in return. To not control them. And it’s probably the hardest gift for the one giving it.

1 John 4:8-10 says, …God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love - not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

And it’s that choice that ultimately led to the death of Jesus the very thing the church worldwide has been celebrating and remember this past week.

And the last thing in that verse, John 3:16, is that Jesus says himself that he came, no to judge the world, but to save the world.

I think that is the most misunderstood thing about God there could possibly ever be. That generally speaking, people have represented, or been misinformed that God is simply out to judge them. To point out or punish humanity for their wrong doing. And that is the greatest misrepresentation of the character and the heart of God that there could ever be.

Everything God does is about love.

So that’s what we’ve been talking about these last 6 or 7 weeks as a local church community, and you can actually go onto our facebook, or youtube channel or our website and catch up on all of those if you are interested in doing so.

This morning I want to read a portion of the story, the moment that Jesus dies, because what we are celebrating today simply cannot happen unless Jesus is willing to die. There can be no resurrection without death. There can be no Easter Sunday without Good Friday.

So, if you know the story, Jesus has been going around for about 3-4 years healing people, and preaching about love and the kingdom of God. He’s been telling people to be kind and follow his example in how to live. But, he’s also been telling people that he himself is God. Not just the Messiah of Israel, which means the one who would come to redeem or save Israel, but that he is actually God the Son, sent by God, to redeem ALL of humanity.

And that made some people quite upset. First that you think you can claim to be the savior, the person that everyone has been waiting for. Others had done so and clearly were not. What makes you think you are? Oh, because God sent you himself. What do you mean “sent you”? When? Before you were born? You were with God before you were born? Oh, you think you ARE God....

Jesus said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.”

And he also said, “You know who the Holy Spirit is, he’s been with you this whole time.”

He’s like, “Guys, do you get it. I’m God, and God is the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. And here I am!”

And there were people, mainly the religious leaders of that time, that just could not come to terms with this reality. And unfortunately, you either believe it, or it is complete lunacy and blasphemy. You want to talk about WHY they wanted Jesus to be crucified, here it is.

Paul, one of the writers of the New Testament says in his book 1 Corinthians:1:18, he says, The message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness [nonsense, foolishness] to those hell-bent on destruction, but for those on the way to salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out.

So, You have this group of people that just simply can not get their heads around it, and that means that Jesus is a pretty big problem. And the only solution they can see is to get rid of the problem entirely. So they drag him into court and demand that he is punished for his crimes, and that the punishment for his crimes must be death.

Even the Roman leader at the time said, “I don’t see anything wrong with this guy. He’s innocent. He certainly hasn’t done anything deserving of death!” But they shouted even louder, “We want him dead!”

And so this is where we are picking up the story, and the part of the story I want to read involves a couple other people, and the last conversation that Jesus has in the book of Luke. There’s not just one cross on the hill, but there are three.

reading from Luke 23:32-46.

Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. When they came to a place called the Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified - one on his right and one on his left.

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.

The crowd watched and the leaders scoffed. “He saved others,” they said, “let him save himself if he is really God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” The soldiers mocked him, too, by offering him a drink of sour wine. They called out to him, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” A sign was fastened above him with these words: “This is the King of the Jews.”

One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself - and us too, while you’re at it!”

But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”

And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

By this time it was about noon, and darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. The light from the sun was gone. And suddenly, the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn down the middle. Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last.

Thankfully that’s not the end of the story. If you know it, you know three days later Jesus is back, alive and kickin’ and spends 40 days with his disciples, scripture tells us more that 500 people saw him at one point, proving to them that he is alive, and empowering them to go out and share this news with others. Yes, Jesus was and IS the Messiah, we know that now more than ever because he just spent 40 days with us AFTER we watched him die!

But there’s something in this story, with these three crosses, that I want to look at this morning.

The two thieves on the cross. I want to make a case this morning that we are one of those two. You, Me, everyone you see around you this morning, everyone who has ever lived and died in this earth, we are on either side of Jesus. And how we approach him determines the trajectory of our lives.

First of all, the word that is used here is pretty simple. In the bible we have four accounts of the life of Jesus, and the all differ slightly, they all choose to share different things, or the same but from a different perspective. But all four, Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, talk about this moment, they all mention the two guys on either side of Jesus as he dies on the cross.

John simply says that there are two others, one on either side of Jesus.

Matthew and Mark say they were robbers, or thieves.

But Luke, the passage of scripture we read this morning says criminals. Luke wrote that book in Greek, and the greek word used there simply means a wrong-doer - a person who commits a crime or some other wrong.

I don’t know what these guys did, whether it was a crime worthy of death, or if they were thieves, maybe they were revolutionaries. For whatever reason, they were sentenced to be hung as an example so other people didn’t do whatever it is they did.

So, what makes us one of those two guys?

Paul writes in Romans 6:23, …the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

So what it really comes down to is, how do you define sin?

Most people when it comes to that word think of it a lot worse than it actually is. Sin is kind of a dirty word.

But here’s what sin actually means. To miss the mark. to err, to be mistaken. to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honor, to do or go wrong.

Wow, that is actually a pretty easy thing to do.

I want to reframe this for you a bit.

Let’s say there are two paths, one that leads to life, one that leads to death. And you have to pick one. BUT, you are given the benefit of having someone standing there with you at the beginning of these paths that tells you, “This one leads to life.... this one leads to death… I would pick this one over here...”

Jesus actually talks about this in Matthew 7:13-14, he said, “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.”

So, you’re standing at the entrance to these two paths…and you look down this one, and it’s narrow, covered in brush and looks like there’s a pretty steep hill to climb down the way there… But then you look over here, and there’s drink stations along the way, man, that’s not even just water they’re giving out, wait..what’s that…is that birds chirping cheerfully in the distance?

Clearly this is the better path to take. And even just simply for the ease of it. I’m tired, and I would like a easy road to go on. #adulting is hard

Here’s the deal, every single day we are faced with that choice. Every single day we are faced with these choices and I would suggest to you, if you think about it, maybe some of us don’t need to think to hard, and others have to think a while back.... we’ve taken the road that seems to look easier maybe just a few times in our lives.

Now, is it fair to say, …the wages of that choice is death… you made a bad choice so now you deserve to die! ???

If you don’t understand sin, that will make no sense at all.

See, most people think of themselves as relatively good people. They try to do good things. They try to be nice. How many times have I heard people say that, “I’m a good person.” No doubt you are.

But our definition of sin has been wrong.

If you view sin as, “You did something bad deserving of punishment” then you will naturally think that God is on the other end of things just waiting to punish you when you’ve done something wrong.

BUT, if you understand that sin is simply missing the way of life that God has tried desperately to lead us on, and the reason he’s been trying to leads us on that path is because He knows that by the choices we make we actually invite death into our lives.

I’ll use my life as an example. I struggle with my weight. Don’t feel awkward, I don’t. I’ve noticed it. I’ve come to grips with it.

Well, what am I faced with every day? Choices. On the one hand I have choices that lead me toward life, and when you struggle with weight, and especially when you struggle with addiction, those choices are very very difficult choices to make. And then on the other hand you have choices that lead me toward death. Maybe not immediate death, but death none the less.

I had a life coach many many years ago, I think I was 20 or 21 years old at the time, and she said to me, “For every decision you make that you say YES to, you are saying NO to something else, and for every decision you make and say NO to something you are saying YES to something else.”

Meaning. By saying YES to the donut, I’m saying NO to health.

By saying NO to the donut, I’m saying YES to being sad and depressed for the next hour which will probably lead to another donut or 3 or 10....

I think you get what I’m saying. It seems simple. But, does it seem too simple? Is it ok for it to be that simple? That God, in his infinite wisdom would say, “Here before you are two paths, and one leads to life and one leads to death, choose wisely.”

Is that too simple?

Want to hear something crazy? .... that is actually exactly what He has said.

Let me read you something from the book of Deuteronomy. It’s in the Old Testament, It’s written while Israel is still wandering around in the desert, somewhere around 1500 years before Jesus tells us about the two paths. At the time Moses is writing out the instructions that God has given them to live a long and prosperous life, and he says this:

“This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, and it is not beyond your reach. Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy.

“But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might life.” (Deuteronomy 30:11, 15-19)

That’s become one of my favorite passages of scripture… Oh that you would choose life!

Do these these things, follow this path, and you will experience life.

Do these things, follow this path, and you will experience death.

And what is the determining factor here? That you missed the mark. You chose the wrong path.

What if it is as simple as that. And so, are we not all the wrong-doer, the one who missed the mark, hanging on either side of Jesus on the cross. The one who does NOT deserve to be there.

See, Jesus is the only human ever to live who did NOT miss the mark.

Right before he is betrayed and arrested and led to his death, he’s in a garden praying, and his prayer is this, “God, if there is any other way for us to accomplish what needs to be accomplished, can we do that instead? But, because I know there isn’t. I’ll follow through with the plan we’ve laid out!”

I AM CHOOSING THE RIGHT PATH! Even though the path I am choosing is super hard, and I’m going to be beaten, and mocked, spit on and kicked, punched, dragged through the city and literally nailed to a cross and hung to die.

And what does He say in the middle of it. “Forgive them, they just have no clue what they’re doing...”

The first thing we have to realize, and the first thing all of humanity would be better off if we just stopped for a moment and realized, we have all sinned. Are you a dirty evil sinner? No, most people aren’t. But no one is perfect. We’ve all missed the mark. This is what Paul says in Romans 3:23, For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

And if by definition sin is simply missing the better way, the way that God outlined for us to life, then by that definition we have all sinned.

And the wage of that sin is death. Maybe not immediate final death, or death on a cross. But death in the moment sometimes. Death over time.

Our bad choices lead to death of relationships, of marriages.

Our missing the mark leads to death of our health. Death of our finances. Death of our internal peace.

And we all know this. I think our physical health is the easiest example. Not exactly sure who said it first, but a lot of people have, From the moment we are born, we begin to die. But, we can determine how quickly or not that happens by the choices we make. Obviously with extenuating circumstances not taken into account. But generally speaking, we determine the course of our life by the choices we make. And those choices either give us hardship / death, or blessing / life.

If we could just realize that. I’m a good person....but I’m not perfect.

The next thing I’ve noticed about us in our humanity is that one of the biggest lies we believe is that none of what I just said even matters if you do not think God actually exists, or IF he does, He clearly is not good because he didn’t do something for me in some particular situation. Or he lets bad things happen to good people. Or he allowed another horrible thing to happen in this earth. How can there be a god when the world is as bad as it is. How can he be good if we see such great evil?

Let’s call this the “First Thief” mentality. Reading scripture again:

One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself - and us, too, while you’re at it!”

Essentially saying, I’ve gone through things in my life, and God didn’t save me, so God can’t be real, and if he is, he’s not good - so if you can’t save me in this moment, in my present suffering, then you’re not God and you’re not good.

I said this last week in our service here and I’ll say it again, and I’m saying this very carefully, because I don’t to be misunderstood, and if you ever have issue with something I say, please, talk to me afterward, I would love the opportunity to dialogue about it.

God does not always save you from your immediate circumstances.

Just ask the criminal who just asked Jesus to pull him off the cross.

Just ask someone who has lost a friend, or a family member to cancer, or some other disease, while they prayed and prayed and prayed that they would be healed.

Just ask the single parent with no money left in their account, praying for a miracle.

I’m not saying God won’t save you in those circumstances. I’m not saying God isn’t good and won’t provide, or heal. I 100% believe and have seen God do INCREDIBLE things in my life and the lives of countless others all over the world. I truly have.

BUT, when it looks like he doesn’t. When it looks like I’m being hung for something I did and I am desperately wanting to be saved, but it doesn’t seem like that’s happening, do I turn to God and say, “Some Messiah you are, you can’t even save me from this.” ?

Or do I say, “Prove to me that you’re real by dealing with my problems so that I don’t have to deal with them and then maybe I’ll believe in you.”

Here we are singing, “Jesus take the wheel...”

and Jesus is like, “Uhh… you turned the wrong way and start driving down the road that leads to death.... grab the wheel yourself and turn back toward what I told you to do 5 blocks ago and you’ll be fine!”

Don’t be disillusioned by thinking God isn’t real or isn’t good because you don’t see Him doing anything in the moment.

Because if we jump over to the other side of Jesus, we see the “Second Thief” mentality.

What I’m going through in the moment doesn’t matter, it’s where I’m going after all of this that does.

Again, reading from scripture:

But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”

This story fascinates me.

This guy hadn’t been going to church. He hadn’t been reading his bible. I’m guessing here… but seems like he’s done some things wrong in his life. He’s not been the greatest follower of the right path, if you know what I mean.

And here he is, literally on his death cross, and he realizes. Wait, this Jesus is the real deal. And he realizes, there’s something bigger going on here than just the fact that I’m about to die...

What if… What if this invitation to follow the way of Jesus isn’t about how good my life will be here, even though it is MUCH better following Jesus. But, I have no chance to change that now. I’m done for. I have nothing left to give. I can’t live a good life. I lost that chance. I’m nailed to this cross. Is there still a way for me?

Just because you’re on the wrong path, just because you’ve missed the mark, it does NOT have to be the end of your story!

See, in the life of Jesus we see a way to live a good life in the here and now. Just like I read from the book of Deuteronomy, if you read through the gospel accounts of Jesus teachings, you’ll see a way to live that will give you a great life.

But even greater than that, in the death and resurrection of Jesus we have been given the invitation to live for all eternity, even in death.

This is what Jesus said in John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe?”

There is life, the one we live here on this earth, and there is eternal life.

See, the first thief on the cross was so focused on the life in the here and now that all he could see was God letting him down by not fixing his situation. I mean, there he is, hanging on a cross to die. Can you even blame him?

Yet, the second thief was in the same situation but he realized this was happening, he was about to die, and if there was any hope it was going to be found in this one who was hung next to him that had said, I am the resurrection and the life… He realized he needed eternal life.

Here’s the thing - You can actually live a good life here without Jesus. You can. That’s the way. You can do all the right things and live a great life here, but you can not leave this life, go into the grave, and be raised again to eternal life in His paradise without Him.

That’s the difference.

You can live a good life, but I think we’ve determined, there is no one who is perfect. And if you recognize that you are not perfect, then you have to recognize that you can’t save yourself. And if you don’t have the power to save yourself, which you don’t, then someone else has to.

And as good as your life might be in the here and now, it will end. And when it does. Will you have made the choice to recognize there is only ONE way to eternal life.

That’s the deal.

The wages of sin is death. The free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.

This is how God loved the world. He gave his son so that no one would perish but have eternal life.

It’s not about this life, and I don’t mean that in any sort of way that negates or lessens our life here. I 100% believe that God wants us to live the best life. This was his promise. Follow His ways and you will experience life!

A lot of people have figured out life. And they’ve figured out that love wins. They’ve figured out that there is a better way. Some of the best books on business success include a part on forgiveness. That’s straight out of the Jesus way. Life is better when we learn to forgive.

Living at peace with each other.

Not judging each other.

Those are all things we need to learn in todays world, and we need to live by, and those who have found it live happier, better lives.

Forgiving, loving, caring, looking after each other. It’s better to give than receive. Generosity breeds abundance. All of these principles and life lessons from God lead to life. And if that was the whole story that would be one thing.

But our 80, 90, 100 years here on this earth is not the whole story. If it was, and there was nothing past it, then I’d say go live your best life and do whatever you want. Or if you could work your way into heaven then go be the best person possible! But that’s not it. It’s not the whole story. This is about eternity. When Jesus says in John 3:16 that those who believe in him will not perish but have eternal life, that is life without end. I don’t know all of what that looks like. But he tells the thief that’s hanging next to him, “Today you will see me in Paradise.”

And the only reason Jesus can offer that is because of who He is. No one else can. He is God. And although his body may be put in the grave, that was so not the end of his story!

So, my question for myself this morning, and my question for you this morning, as we reflect on the life, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is simply this:

Am I, Are you going to be like the first thief who was so focused on this life that he ended up resenting God because he didn’t save him from his immediate circumstance, or am I, are you going to be like the second thief who recognized that maybe just maybe there’s more to this story than meets the eye. There’s more to this Jesus than just a good man teaching good things.

Here’s the thing. When I put my hope in good things in this life, when those good things don’t happen, my hope really struggles - and I can lose my hope. Have you ever had that happen? You’re hoping, hoping, hoping something happens, and when it doesn’t, it’s just a kick to the chest? It’s why we have sayings like, “Don’t get your hopes up.” And “I wouldn’t put my hope in that.”

But because I’ve put my hope in something beyond my circumstances, and beyond the grave, beyond death, then all that happens in this life, whether it is good, or whether it is bad, does not change my hope. Whether I get it right, or fail time and time again. Whether I make the right choices, or mess up and find myself broken and hurting. No matter what I go through or experience I see Jesus on the other side of the finish line.

Hebrews 12:2 says, [keep your] eyes on Jesus, the champion who starts and finishes our faith. Because of the joy that he could see, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame.

Jesus saw what was on the other side of the cross, on the other side of the grave, it was us standing with him because of what He was doing.

And so for us, that same joy is now ours, that if we put our hope, our trust, our belief in Jesus Christ, then when we look past anything we’re going through, suffering, pain, hurt, even death itself, what will we see? Us standing there with him, alive and well, on the other side of it all.

For me, that is the greatest hope you could ever have. And it’s the invitation God gives to every single one of us: Believe in the one who gave his life for you. Believe in this man, Jesus Christ. Believe that He is God. Believe that He is the creator of all humanity, and that His love for humanity is so great that He came to earth as a man, lived and life and who died on a cross 2000 years ago for you and me, but he is not dead and in that grave, he is alive!. And not because of our good deeds or a job well done, but purely because of His love for us and His dying on that cross, the grave is no longer the final chapter of our story!

That is what we are all about here at Cutler Bay Worship Center. Living a life in community, working these things out, learning what it means to put our hope in Jesus Christ beyond any of our circumstances and problems, and even death itself, while also learning what it means to live in the here and now, following His way, His path and His direction for our lives!