Easter Sunday
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Today, we are going to pause our Sunday morning theme on “The Godhead” and take a moment to discuss that which the world is considering today, Easter.
It is not often, as most of you know, that I do this for a holiday but I was looking back at this day and the sermons preached by me on this day and realized I had not discussed the topic of “Easter Sunday” in a long while.
Because of this some of our young people here either have never heard a sermon on it or would have been too little to remember.
Therefore, this morning we are going to be looking at the holiday, “Easter Sunday” this morning.
Easter Sunday is a celebration done by the religious world of “Christendom” wherein Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection are preached on and taught on.
Though it has increasingly become more and more commercialized and become more and more a production rather than a sermon.
Preacher being rolled down the isle while tied to a cross on wheels.
Today, I want us to consider a couple of things.
Is there any authority from God to celebrate the holiday Easter, in other words, the “once a year” celebration as it is discussed and talked about today.
Secondly, is there any authority for the remembrance of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection?
So with that in mind, let’s examine our lesson for this morning.
Easter’s Biblical Authority
Easter’s Biblical Authority
Easter In The Bible.
Easter In The Bible.
There are only a few English translations that have the word Easter in them.
The most popular is of course the KJV.
4 And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.
1 Along about then Governor Herod got a notion to do in some of those in the fellowship. He finished off Jim, Jack’s brother, with a sword. Seeing that the “good white folks” were pleased at this, he decided to put the squeeze on Rock. (This happened during the week of Easter.) So he arrested him and put him in jail, and had him guarded by four shifts of officers with four in each shift. It was his intention to turn him over to the mob after Easter. And all the while that Rock was being kept in the clink, the fellowship was praying agonizingly for him.
The only other is the first complete English translation i.e., the Coverdale translation that places the word Easter every time the word Passover is typically found.
I point this out because it is important to understand that the Bible never actually talks about Easter.
In the King James Version it was placed in there instead of Passover because of the importance this holiday had achieved, even during this time, but it is without question not never translated as such because the word does not mean Easter but Passover.
4 And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people.
4 So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover.
4 And when he had taken him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to guard him; intending after the Passover to bring him forth to the people.
4 And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people.
So, it’s one thing to say the bible doesn’t use the word Easter but certainly we are to celebrate, during this time each year the gospel right, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
The answer to this is both yes and no.
Celebrating Easter.
Celebrating Easter.
Yes, we are to celebrate the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ but no we are not to celebrate it as a religious holiday.
There is little doubt that God, through the ages, has authorized the celebration of different events.
Passover is certainly one of those he authorized.
1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household.
14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.
However, we are not under the Law of Moses anymore as it has been put to death.
14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. 7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
The reality is the entire holiday was established after the apostles were all dead but not as far as some might think.
We see by the 2nd century Christians were already seeking to celebrate many new manmade religious inventions such as “head bishop” and yearly festivals like the Passover and Pentecost.
In 325 AD during the Council of Nicaea the date for the yearly Easter date was officially set to the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox.
Up until the 2nd century, so for about 80 plus years the church had existed, there is no mention of the church celebrating such things.
Man has no right to authorize what God has not.
We must have authority for everything we do and say.
17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Why, because it is God’s authority or his word that will judge us on the last day.
47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.
No wonder the apostle Paul was so upset at the Jews and Gentiles that had become Christians that were continuing to place special days as important that God had not authorized.
Galatians 4:9–11 (ESV)
9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
There is a difference between the one that is a new Christian and therefore weak in the faith concerning these things (Romans 13) and those that “ought to know better by now” (Hebrews 5:12-14).
Now, God has authorized us to partake of “one feast” which we will discuss in our next point.
Summary
Summary
So, it is biblically clear that we are not to celebrate Easter as a yearly holiday.
What does that say and not say about the church then?
In other words, what does that say about…
The Church & The Gospel
The Church & The Gospel
The Church Isn’t Saying…
The Church Isn’t Saying…
We don’t think the death, burial, and resurrection is not important.
To the contrary we hold dearly the gospel as his resurrection proves Jesus is the Christ.
Romans 1:4 (ESV)
4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord
We hold dearly his resurrection as it is the only way we are saved.
25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
We hold dearly his resurrection because it gives us assurance of our resurrection.
14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.
14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.
11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Clearly the church of Christ holds dearly the gospel of our Lord.
Some also say then…
We don’t want to honor Christ.
Again this is contrary to our actions as we don’t just honor his death, burial, and resurrection once a year or once every three months, or even just once a month, but we honor it every single week.
We honor Christ by not forsake the assembling.
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. 26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
It’s astounding how many will only come to honor Christ once a year or twice at the most (Easter & Christmas) and say they are giving Christ his honor.
We honor Christ by partake of the Lord’s Supper each and ever week.
1 Corinthians 11:20 (NKJV)
20 Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper.
1 Corinthians 16:1–2 (ESV)
1 Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.
Summary
Summary
…
Conclusion
Conclusion
There is nothing wrong with celebrating the secular holiday Easter.
There is nothing wrong with coloring eggs, giving each other chocolate, or wearing new clothes on this day to worship.
It only becomes an issue if we do it because of the “resurrection of Jesus” because then an only then do we find ourselves in a situation of disobeying God by doing that which he has not authorized (Leviticus 10:1-2).
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.