Easter From the Beginning

Easter From the Beginning

Youth video lesson April 12, 2020

Sunbury GMC 3/30/2024

I’m preaching tonight on Easter Sunday evening. I am going to talk about the easter story. But this evening I want to zoom out. The events of Easter, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the conclusion of a story that begins thousands of years before Easter, during creation. I think we know the story of Easter, we understand the story of the Bible and how it weaves together our story, yet it is important to be reminded of it. Some stories never get old, and some stories are worth telling over and over. The story of Easter starts as all stories do, In the beginning.

In the Beginning

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”

Before time began, God is. God with his voice spoke the heavens and the earth into existence. He spoke fish and birds and stars and land animal. He had created a beautiful and perfect creation with His voice. And yet, God was not satisfied. God desired fellowship, God desired to be loved, by choice. None of these creatures could do that. So, God began His greatest and final creation.

“So, God created man”

God created man, but not with his voice. No, he carefully shaped us from the dust of the earth. He formed us with care and compassion. Ensuring that we would be more than any of his other creations. Our value is not in ourselves, it is in our creator, and the care and love he put into the very act of making us. When he had formed man, he breathed the breath of life into him, and man became a living soul. No other creation housed the very breath of God, he formed us with a soul, to be more, so much more than any other creation. It may feel that we are worthless, yet you and I are of infinite value. We house the very breath of God. God breathed life into Adam. We are all children of Adam and therefore we have value beyond compare for God breathed His very breath into our creation.

“And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good”

At the end of every day of creation God pronounce that His creation was good, but when he finished, when man lived, he then pronounced that creation to be very good. Something no other creation had caused him to say. We were made special, by God to love Him. He loved the creation that he made and found it to be very good.

“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt sure die.”

But God did not desire a robot to do as he commanded because it could do nothing else, he desired a creation to do as he asked out of love. To do what he said because it wanted to. Therefore, he gave them one command, and yet even this command was for the good of man. In man’s first state, there was no knowledge of good or evil, and no deterioration of the body. Man would live forever in this state, and in fellowship with God, if man would obey the one and only command God gave him. Do not eat of the tree.

“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”

The serpent convinced Eve to eat, and she gave to Adam and he ate also. The guilt is upon Adam here and not Eve however, for scripture says that she was deceived and did eat, yet he knew and ate anyway. He rebelled against the God that made with special care, that loved, that walked with him in the garden every evening. Thus, sin entered the world, and the very nature of God’s perfect creation was changed. Immediately Adam and Eve knew everything was different, their peaceful time in the Garden, in fellowship with God was over. Death came. First the spiritual death of the relationship with a Holy God, then the physical process of death, and the world changed forever. Now, instead of pleasure and perfect fellowship with God, life is work, and sweat, and pain, and death. The sin of Adam has been passed down through man upon all the sons and daughters of men from that day to this. The nature that God had created in us became forever changed and corrupted by this act of rebellion. We each enter this world in that state, in rebellion against our perfect and holy God. But God still desired a relationship with His now corrupted creation.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” God sent his son for us.

Jesus was sent to be that perfect and eternal sacrifice for our sins, that remedy for the sins we have committed and that complete victory over the work of sin in our lives and the nature of sin within. Jesus, being born of a virgin, did not possess that nature passed through man, for He truly is the Son of God.

Palm Sunday

This is where the story intersects with Easter. But before we get to Easter Sunday, lets look at the events leading up to the resurrection. Think back with me, around 2000 years and one week ago. Its Sunday morning, the first day of the week. Jesus, is entering Jerusalem to begin Passover week celebrations. The people believe that this is the time that Jesus is going to start an earthly revolution. Over a thousand years before this time the Passover had happened, they had been freed from Egypt. What better time to free them from their bondage to Rome? They praise his name, they shout Hosanna. They lay palm branches and coats in the path so that even the donkey he rides will not touch the dusty roads! It is day of rejoicing! Yet as Jesus crests the mountain overlooking Jerusalem, he begins to weep. He could see the coming week, and he could see the coming trials, and He could see the coming destruction and diaspora of His people. They must have wondered about the tears in this time of joy! Jesus descended the mountain, crossed over the valley and rode into the city of Jerusalem! Yet instead of heading to king Herod’s Palace he turned off and went into an upper room to spend the week with His disciples. The people were surely confused, but Jesus was not interested in building an earthly kingdom. No, his purpose was far greater.

Thursday

Let’s fast forward now, its Thursday evening. Jesus, and his disciples are eating what is now known as the last supper, or the Lords supper. We reminded ourselves of the happenings during this supper with communion just Wednesday. Supper has now ended; Judas Iscariot mentions something about needing to go somewhere. Jesus, knowing His intentions says, “what thou doest, do quickly.”

After Judas leaves, the disciples and Jesus head to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus, Peter, James and John leave the other disciples and go deeper into the garden. Jesus stops them and says, “Watch and Pray” and heads about a stones throw deeper into the garden to pray alone. Jesus occasionally checks on the other three and each time he finds them fast asleep. He wakes them and urges them to pray!

Jesus knows the events that are coming. He knows the horrible death He will soon face and prays desperately for another way. He cries out to His father so fiercely and passionately that the capillaries in his skin begin to burst, and blood mixes with His sweat and tears while he prays! He wants no part of this death. And yet, He ends His prayer with these words. “Father if it be possible, take this cup from me, nevertheless not my will but thine be done!”

Then Judas returns. But not alone, he brings the temple guard with him to arrest Jesus. He kisses Jesus with a kiss of betrayal and treachery. Peter draws His sword to begin to fight and chops off a man’s ear! Jesus stops Peter and puts the man’s ear back on. Jesus then goes peacefully with the temple guards while his disciples, his closest friend, his dedicated followers scatter and run.

It is late Thursday night, but the High priest will have no delay. He tries Jesus and finds Him guilty of claiming to be the Son of God. Jesus cannot deny this for He is the Son of God! Nevertheless, the Jews do not believe, and in their minds, and according to their rules, such a lie if it had been a lie was worthy of death.

It was not the Jews however who would get to choose the fate of Jesus, for they were servants of the Romans who had conquered them. The Roman governor must put His signature on the execution. Pilate, the Roman governor did not care about the Jews religion, so the Jews came up with a lie to tell Pilate.

Good Friday

Fast forward again to Friday morning. Jesus was dragged before the Roman Governor. The Jews claimed that Jesus had attempted to start a revolution. Jesus had not, and Pilate found Him innocent! Yet the crowd was not satisfied with the judgement. They wanted blood. Pilate came up with a scheme. He would let them choose for Him who to release. Jesus, or the most infamous criminal alive, a murderer, revolutionary and thief named Barabbas. Pilate thought this would fix the problem.

He was wrong. the crowd screamed out give us Barabbas! And of Jesus the cry continued “Crucify Him!!!!!” Pilate, afraid of the crowd, did exactly as they wished, and gave up Jesus, an innocent man, to be crucified for nothing.

Jesus was whipped, beaten, spit upon, then forced to carry his own cross, the means of His own death to a hill called Golgotha, the place of the skull, where he was crucified.

Crucifixion is not a death we use today, most of the world has deemed it far to cruel a torture. Jesus was laid on His back. His hands spread out onto the cross, and there he was nailed, through his hands, to the cross. Then His feet the same. The cross of wood with Jesus nailed to it was then lifted, and the base dropped into a hole so it could stand alone, while the people watched the slow painful death. The death of the cross was one that slowly broke every will to live, filled the body with pain and exhaustion, and left the person to eventually suffocate or die of thirst as some survived on the cross for days. They were nailed to the cross in such a way as to make near impossible to breathe. The only way to get a full breathe was to pull up on the nails driven through the hands, then take a breath. Consider the effort of a chin up, only instead of pulling up on a bar, it was pulling up on nails driven straight through the hands! Then back down. The pain a constantly growing force. And even the most relaxed position was just as painful, gasping for shallow breaths with the full weight of the body hanging on a few nails. Eventually the body would be so exhausted that one could not lift and take a breath. Then death.

These events are some the happenings that Good Friday commemorates. Yet as Jesus hung on the cross, He cried out “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He forgave his executioners. What love is that! Then he cried out “My God My God, why have you forsaken me!?” Jesus had taken on him the sin of all mankind. God is perfect and Holy. It broke His heart to see His perfect and holy Son in such agony and he could not bear to watch the death of His perfect Son who had taken on Himself our sin. He was Then Jesus cried, “It Is Finished” then He died. When He died the earth went black, and the Roman soldier in charge said, “surely this man was the Son of God.” With his death he made possible forgiveness for all sin that you have committed. Possible that you could live eternally with a holy God, because you can be forgiven!

That was good Friday. The Jews have their day of worship on Saturday. The way they work their days is from sundown to sundown. So on Friday night, when the sun sets, their day of worship has begun. As the sun began to set Jesus friends rushed him off the cross and into the borrowed tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. They didn’t even have time to bury Him properly. That is why on Sunday morning the women went to properly finish their burial customs.

Easter

Several women went to the tomb, early in the morning to finish the burial customs. The sun rose over the garden and the women slowly walked. The beauty of the garden, and the sunrise were lost on them. Their vision was blurred by the tears they shed. The one they believed had come to save them was dead. They could not yet understand that his death was their salvation! They arrived at the tomb, and it was empty! They were stunned! They had just put him there on Friday night, now, on the third day, He was Gone! Who had stolen his body! Jesus body was gone but there were angels. They questioned the women why seek ye the living among the dead? Mary must have missed this in her haste to tell the others. She must have run off immediately to find Peter and John, or perhaps other disciples to find out what happened to the body. She found Peter and John and told them what happened.

They both ran back to the tomb to find out if what she said was true! If the tomb was really empty! John records in his gospel that he outran Peter but admits that Peter entered the tomb first and entering the tomb they found it empty, but for the graveclothes. No body, no dead savior, only an empty tomb! Immediately they left gather the disciples together. It seems that Mary was left alone in the garden now. The other women had gone, Peter and John had left to gather the surviving disciples. And Mary was alone. She looked into the tomb and there were two angels. They asked, why are you weeping? Perhaps she did not realize they were angels. Because they have taken away my Lord and I don’t know where they have laid Him she replies. The question is asked again but this time from outside the tomb. She saw another man and she said to Him tell me if you have taken Him and tell me where He is! Mary He replied and she knew her savior lived!

The disciples were gathered together only Judas, who met an untimely demise at his own hand, and Thomas were missing. They were in a locked room talking about the empty tomb. Then Mary came and pounded on the door. He is alive! She said! It seems that they stayed together talking about all that had gone on throughout the day. It was now evening. Still they wondered What did it all mean? Was He alive? If so where was He? Had his body been stolen? If so where was it? Then He was there, without opening a door, suddenly He, Jesus, their savior, their redeemer, their God was there with them. He talked to them and ate with them.

Later they gathered again. This time Thomas was present. They told him that Jesus was alive! He did not believe. He saw Jesus die. People don’t just rise from the dead. He said, “Unless I see the print of the nails in his hand, and place my hand in his side (where they had thrust a spear) I will not believe.” Then he was there again! Thomas believed.

This is the story of Easter. This means that Jesus died for you on Good Friday, rose on Easter Sunday He died with your sin and guilt making forgiveness possible. He rose, conquering death, Hell and the grave, and makes freedom and victory and eternal life possible for you. He died for you. And He Rose Again! Lets all stand together.

Before I dismiss tonight I have three questions for you.

Mary believed. His disciples believed. Thomas believed. Do you believe? That’s the first question I have for you tonight. Do you believe? Everything else hinges on this, do you believe in Jesus? In His existence, in His divinity, in His sacrifice, and in His victorious resurrection?

The next question is do you know Him? If you believe but you don’t know Him you can tonight! He created you, He loves you, He died for you, He wants to know you! Do you know Him?

The last question I have tonight is the one that Mary asked but paraphrased a little. The angel asked Mary “Why are you weeping?” She responded, “I’ve lost Jesus and I don’t know where to find Him!” Have you lost him? Can you not find Him? Turn around, He did not run off from you, you ran off from Him. Turn around. He is standing there calling your name!

If you don’t know Him or if you have lost Him I invite you to come and kneel and pray at the altar this evening. I believe He is here waiting to get to know you this evening. I believe if you have lost Him he can be found here this evening.