The Need For Easter

Intro

I think we all probably remember the anticipation leading up to holidays when we weere kids. I know I remember not being able to sleep well the night before Christmas, my birthday, the first day of school, or anything else that I was really excited for. When we are waiting for something to happen, good or bad, it often takes over our minds as we wait. When anticipating these eventsm we are thinking about all the plans. What do I get to do? Who do I get to see? Where do I get to go? - We think of, and ponder everything.

As we get closer to Easter, lets anticipate it the same way. Not because a man-sixed rodent will break into your house to hide treats and boiled eggs, but becasue we know what Easter, or Ressurection Sunday means for us as Christians. It is a time to look at what God has done through the death and ressurection of christ. He has conquered death and has freely given us the figt of life, a gift that we are so deserate, yet underseving. Since the fall of man, humanity has been in need of a savior, and God has given us his plan for redemption.

Where it all went wrong

Read Genesis 3

Genesis 3 CSB

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” “No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.” So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” So the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children with painful effort. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you. And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’: The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.” The man named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them. The Lord God said, “Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.

The story of Adam and Eve in the garden is one you probably know well. The cunning enemy tricked Eve and Adam into sinning against the Lord. The biggest problem here is not that the Serpant tempted Adam and Eve and made them sin, the problem here is that Adam and Eve knew the Lord better that we can even imagine. They walked with him, spoke to him, and were given everything by him - they had it made. They had one rule, but they chose to submit themselves to their temptation, to go rouge, rather than follow God’s command.

This meant destruction for them and for mankind. God’s perfect design was now tainted with sin, which is completely opposite of who God is.

This sin had consequences, for Adam and Eve, for the Serpent, and for all of humanity.

But even in this initial descent from glory, we see the gospel. This protoevangelium, or first gospel, is where we see the promise that the offspring of Eve, Jesus, would crush the serpent’s head.

Genesis 3:15 CSB

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

The Need for Redemption

Adam and Eve’s sin was not a surprise to God. He created them, he created their curiosities, he created their desires, and he gave them free will.

Mankind was totally dependent on God, but man wanted to be independent.

How often do little kids try to test their independence?

God wants his people to want him. He wants to be loved becasue he is deserving of it, he doesn’t want to be loved by forcing us to love him.

God had a redemption plan that would result in showing his power and glory to the earth.

“God’s wrath and God’s mercy display the riches of His glory, but we cannot see either without the fall of mankind. We would never know grace if we had never needed grace.” - gotquestions.org

God’s grace is shown that he didn’t immediately kill Adam and Eve and start over, he cast them out of the Garden, and taught them how to work for themselves, but they still had life. And this lead to a chance to redeem themselves through offerings and communion with God through their work and sacrifices.

God’s plan for redemption was formed before we were. He never thought about abandoning his people, but he taught us the need for him. He has taught us the need for salvation, and thus the need for Easter.

Man has fallen from the glory of God that was once given to us, but thanks to his plan for redemption, we are able to once again live in His glory when we have been redeemed.

The Act of Redemption

Through that protoevangelium verse, we know that God had a plan for his people.

Early in Genesis, God promised to lead his people and to make them numerous and to save them.

Genesis 12:1–3 “The Lord said to Abram: Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

But this was a covenant that went both ways, God would bless his people, but they had to obey and worship him.

Genesis 17:9–10 “God also said to Abraham, “As for you, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations are to keep my covenant. This is my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you, which you are to keep: Every one of your males must be circumcised.”

The Israelites notoriously forgot this covenant, they often failed to live up to their end of the deal, and the Lord would strike them down and rebuild them, and offer a New Covenant for all people, not restricted to the ethnic Israel.

This new covenant, promised in Jeremiah, would be build up by Israelites who would turn to God, along with foreigners who would turn to God.

Jeremiah 31:31–34 ““Look, the days are coming” —this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”—the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them” —this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.”

This new covenant is the Blood of Jesus that was shed for all.

Hebrews 9:15 “Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”

This is why Easter is necessary. We are dead in sin without Christ. We are no good without the redemption offered through Jesus’ blood.

Becaue of Jesus’ sacrifice, we are no longer responsible for making our own sacrifices for freedom. We no longer have to live according to the law, but instead we can receive the gift of Life that Jesus gives us.

Call upon the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.

Glory from Redemption

2 Corinthians 4:17–18 “For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Paul encourages us to live for the Lord, live in the Lord, stick with him through the challenges of our Earthly Walk with him, and one day, we will live in Glory with him.

The gift of redemption means an eternal life with Christ, sitting at the throne of our Father.