Celebrating Easter
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[Introduction]
Good morning everyone who has tuned in. My name is Andrew Johnson, here at Bible Faith Church and today is a very special day, it is Easter Sunday. Now there are a variety of ways that people approach this day. You likely fall into one of three groups:
Group a) You do not celebrate Easter. It has no meaning or significance to you.
Group b) You celebrate Easter as a normal holiday, eating lots of candy, maybe some good food, perhaps entertain your kids with a stuffed animal bunny. But that’s the end of the line for reasons to celebrate.
Group c) Who probably will enjoy some activities from group b, but you understand the real importance of today. Which is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was crucified on a cross to bear the sins of the world, and on the third day God raised Jesus from the dead.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is what we are celebrating. And no matter what group you fall into, this event that happened many years ago is very significant to your life and where you will spend eternity after death.
[Pray]
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most hopeful message there is. Now why is that? Why is this a message of hope? All of us entered this world as sinners. There was no choice for us as individuals in this matter. It’s this way now as a result of a choice one man and woman made in the beginning. Adam and Eve were created by God in the Garden of Eden. They could do and eat whatever they wanted, except for eating from one specific tree. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Mankind disobeyed God and separated themselves spiritually from Him in the very beginning. We were from then born with sin, separated from God. It wasn’t until Christ entered the world that there was hope for mankind to redeem themselves with God.
In the Old Testament, God commanded His people to sacrifice an animal as they confessed their sins. The animal was to be without any defects. Jesus Christ was sent to be the ultimate sacrifice of our sins. Like the sacrificial animals without defects, Jesus Christ had to be perfect without sin. Since mankind is permanently born with sin, Jesus Christ was born of a virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit. Through this way Christ was born without sin, and he never sinned in his lifetime. Jesus Christ was the unblemished Lamb of God.
Because of what Christ did on the cross, we can be made right with God and have the opportunity to receive the free gift of eternal life, by accepting and believing in Christ.
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
We are born separated from God. We need Christ as our savior to have hope for eternity. It is only through Christ that we can be made right with God. There are two big lies Satan will use to keep you from either accepting Christ in your life, or keep him at a distance.
You’re a great person, you don’t need a savior. You’re self-righteous. Whether or not Christ was the messiah, you’re fine, what deity could turn you away?
You’re a rotten person that deserves no savior. You could never be forgiven for what you’ve done. You should feel guilty and shame for the rest of your life.
Those two lies cripple us. The truth is there is no amount of good works you can do to get to Heaven, without Christ. And the really good news, there is no amount of bad works you can do that cannot be forgiven by God.
Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.
Jesus Christ is sitting at God’s right hand pleading for us. All we have to do is accept Him as our Lord and Savior and we are seen as blameless. You are cleansed and free from condemnation. Free from all sins you have committed.
God’s love is unconditional for you. He sent his one and only son Jesus Christ to go through the most excruciating pain to his death, so we can have hope of spending eternity with Him. Whenever I think of this example of love, I think about the physical pain Jesus went through. 39 lashes, a crown of thorns forced onto his head, nails in his hands and feet, placed on the cross. But we can’t forget the spiritual agony he must have went through, he took on the sin of the whole world. Carried our burden of sins. And all this suffering he experienced, he knew was coming. Jesus although fully man, he was also fully God and knew what was going to happen. We can read about Jesus’ prayer and visualize the stress he was going through in the Garden of Gethsemane, shortly before being taken away by the Roman guards, in Luke 22:44
He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.
Jesus experienced a great amount of stress knowing what he was about to go through, but his desire to fulfill the Father’s will and his love for all of us triumphed over all the pain. He carried out with the plan, innocent and sinless, but accepted the false penalties against him and was crucified.
Three days after the crucifixion, a women named Mary Magdalene was going to visit the tomb where Jesus was buried. What she found at the tomb was an angel, with the stone that had been in front of the tomb rolled away, and she heard the greatest the news the world has ever heard!
Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying.
If Christ was not the messiah, he would not have been raised from the dead. These scriptures would not be here for us. The biggest decision we’ll make in our lifetime is whether or not we’ll choose to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that he is our Lord and Savior.
Hold onto this message of hope today and remember what Christ did for you. Everyday is the perfect day to commit or re-commit your life to Christ and pursue Him. He is the true source of joy and peace. And He is our only hope for eternity with God.