Easter 2025
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Happy Easter! Jesus Christ conquered death and is alive. That’s what we celebrate.
You know, there’s a lot of people out there that don’t believe that BUT yet still think lots of “positive” things about Him. I’ve heard atheists say Jesus was a good person. He encouraged a lot of good morals. Muslims believe Jesus was a good teacher and good prophet of God. But all those people do not believe Jesus was really the Son of God. They do not believe He is the way to life.
The thing is, if Jesus was not who he said he was, the Son of God, He cannot be good in any of the ways they think. If He was not the Son of God, he was a crazy man. A lunatic.
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
If He was not the Son of God, that doesn’t sound like a good candidate of a prophet if they make a claim like that but are wrong. You couldn’t really trust anything that person said if they were lying about their main message.
Satan can twist people’s mind to somehow try and put Jesus in what appears to be a positive light, but completely deceiving them on what Jesus truly did for them and take away his entire life saving message.
And even the disciples weren’t totally sure, if their belief in Jesus for who He claimed to be, was correct. Especially after his death they were very confused.
The thing is, talk is cheap. There were many people that claimed to be the messiah in the ancient times. Now obviously Jesus backed up what he said with miracles and fulfilling prophecy after prophecy. People had every reason to believe He was the messiah. But there was still doubt residing even within those who claimed to follow Him.
Until the resurrection. That is what really ignited the lives of the disciples for people to go and share the Good News. The resurrection was the final confirmation that Jesus was and is the Son of God.
[ Prayer ]
31 Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead.
Jesus told his disciples exactly what was going to happen. And they still missed it. They still couldn’t believe what was taking place and had started to lose hope when Jesus was crucified.
Which is interesting because the Jewish leaders had guards put in place at Jesus’ tomb because they were listening to what Jesus said and thought his disciples were going to try and steal the body to pretend that Jesus rose from the dead. They apparently understood what Jesus was saying, but yet the disciples did not understand.
Now there are unbelievers, who believe in the swoon hypothesis, that Jesus went unconscious on the cross and was taken down and then later revived.
The theories people will come up with to try and mess with the resurrection story are pretty wild. There’s one thing the Romans were really good at, it was killing people. And crucifixion was used on who they considered the worst criminals because of the painful way of execution. There is no chance that they were going to let Jesus somehow survive this.
And they’d make sure the prisoners were dead before letting them down from the cross. The Jewish leaders always wanted the bodies of those crucified to be removed before the Sabbath began. So to speed things up the Romans would break the legs of those on the cross. The reason this would speed things up is that using their legs was the one way they could push themselves up on the cross, otherwise they would hang down and suffocate as their chest would be compressed.
Now Jesus legs were not broken because they noticed he was already dead - it sounds like a strange detail but that was actually a prophecy fulfilled that his legs were not broken.
20 For the Lord protects the bones of the righteous;
not one of them is broken!
And then the end of Exodus 12:46, talking about how the passover lamb was to be handled.
46 Each Passover lamb must be eaten in one house. Do not carry any of its meat outside, and do not break any of its bones.
Jesus was our passover lamb. And no broken bones was a prophecy fulfilled.
A spear was placed into his side to confirm his death. Scriptures say out came water and blood, the separation of the water from the blood is a way to confirm someone is dead.
When Jesus body was placed in the tomb, the rock that was placed in front is estimated to have weighed 1 - 2 tons. 1 ton is 2000 pounds. So it could have been as big as 4000 pounds. And the rock was likely put into a slot in the ground, so moving wasn’t just rolling it on some flat ground.
How many guards were at the tomb? It’s estimated at least 4. Some believe that there were up to 16 men. That would mostly be because 4-men were probably active and then you’d have backups to rotate with. They were guarding that tomb as if their life depended on it. Because it did. when a roman soldier was put in charge to guard something or someone, failing at their job meant death. So you have a group of strong battle-tested men and a potentially 4000 lb rock solidified in the ground.
So in summary Jesus died, was placed in a tomb with maximum security, and the disciples moped and locked themselves away out of fear, not understanding or believe what Jesus had said before being crucified. The woman who had followed Jesus also did not understand, because their response to Jesus death was to prepare spices to anoint his body.
56 Then they went home and prepared spices and ointments to anoint his body. But by the time they were finished the Sabbath had begun, so they rested as required by the law.
After the sabbath, they went to the tomb expecting Jesus’ body lying there dead.
Now we know what happened, they arrived to see no guards, the 2 ton stone completely moved away, and an empty tomb.
Now people will come with all sorts of other theories as to how all of this would have happened and his body wasn’t there. But what the unbelievers have no-counter explanation for that seals the deal is the witnesses.
Someone can write or talk as much as they want about something or someone, but unless there’s an eyewitness nobody knows if they can truly believe it.
God did not leave us to believe and wonder what happened to his body, thinking logically he must of risen like he said he would, I guess.
In the US legal system, a case can be won with the testimony of a single witness.
3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. 5 He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. 6 After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him.
Jesus visited many people during a 40 day period after his resurrection and then finally ascending to heaven. Over 500 eye-witnesses. And to large groups of peopel all at once in some instances.
So many religions out there that follow someone who claimed to be god or some sort of enlightened one. And people follow thinking they’ll save them, when those people who claimed to be god couldn’t even save themselves!
Jesus did many things that no-one else can do. He lived a perfect sinless life. He performed many miracles. He experienced the worst torture you can imagine and then He conquered death itself, so that we can live. We can have hope.
And that same power that rose Jesus from the dead, lives inside of you.
11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
All too many times people "believe” in God just because we were told to, or that they think it makes them feel good. But what happens when people ask why those people who told you to believe, believe in what they do? What happens when life gets shaky? We must know who Christ is, what He did, and know we can be absolutely confident without a doubt that He is the son of God. We must seek understanding of Him. Not that we can’t truly believe in God and be saved without some questions still. I don’t want to make it sound like I’m discounting someones faith. I have all sorts of questions about different things. But everyone at any level of faith needs encouragement. Even it’s just to say, yes Jesus did die for you and was raised back to life. You can count on that. We need to understand our need for a savior and what Jesus did. But overall, we can’t ever know Him completely, as Larry said last week, fast-forward a million of years or even a trillion, eternity is a long time, in Heaven and we’ll still be learning more about God. He is infinite.
God will reveal to us what we need to know and understand when we need it, but we must also seek Him. And know that the death and resurrection is not up for debate, even though the world will throw out hypotheticals of everything in-between, the resurrection cannot be disputed. You can rest assured you eternity is secure with Him and the same power that raised Jesus to life will restore you.
There was a time when Jesus and his disciples visits some friends. And he talked to one of the friends, Martha who was very preoccupied, she had good intentions but was getting herself busy with other things while Jesus was around. What he said to her was about who He is and the reason we celebrate today, and also He challenged her with a question. And it’s the ultimate question that everyone will have to answer, to determine their eternity.
25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”
Just put your name their at the end. Picture Jesus saying this to you. Do you believe.
