Easter Message 2021
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The Hour
The Hour
During the life of Jesus, He used a phrase, My hour has not yet come, or my time has not yet come
The Wedding at Cana, Jesus mother
Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.
It’s as if there was this moment, this period of time, that was awaiting Jesus.
Or in John 7
Jesus knew the Jews were plotting to kill Him
But it was time for the Feast of Booths or Feast of Tabernacles
Jesus’ brothers challenge Him, “if you want to be known as some big shot prophet, then go to Jerusalem for the feast and do these so called miracles for the big crowds to see.”
For not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.”
There it is, twice in that passage, “My time has not yet come.”
Towards the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, in John 12 Jesus says this
“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.
This hour, this moment in time
Not literally an hour, but in the grand scheme of things, a brief moment in time
We’ve all heard “Came to Die” right,
that Jesus came to earth to die, to die for the sins of the world.
He came to die
But Why??
In the beginning of John’s Gospel, John introduces us to an understanding,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Jesus, the Word of God, Jesus who is God, is life and He is light, and this light came into the world to rescue people from darkness.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John continues is verse 9
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
The world did not recognize Him, His own people did not receive Him, they rejected Him
We’ve heard John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
God’s love creates mercy, and grace, God doing something that we don’t deserve
You see, we were all going to perish had God not done something
Why were we going to perish??
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
Or
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
Dead, we were dead, spiritually dead, and destined to die, why?
Because we all have followed the course of this world, been disobedient, moved by the passions of our flesh, carried out the desires of our bodies and mind,
We were by nature children of wrath, Why?
What’s wrong with this world?
Disobedient to what?
The passions and desires of my body and mind?? What does this mean??
God is creator, designer of life and how it should be lived.
He knows what is good and right, and what is bad and wrong,
It started first in the Garden, Tree of Life good and right
Tree of knowledge of good and evil bad and wrong
One brings life, the other death
Why would man choose death? The passions and desires of the body and mind, the opportunity to be like God was too much to pass up. Men love darkness
That choice was sin and introduced death into this world and every human that has ever existed since has made the same choice, except Jesus that is, but He was fully human and fully God.
We have all determined what was good and evil for ourselves, determined what was right and wrong for ourselves
That is sin, it’s disobedience, it’s rebellion
We haven’t just done it once, or twice, but millions of times, we live in a state of rebellion to God, a state of disobedience
How could we ever make things right?
We can’t, there is nothing we can do to make things right with a holy and perfect God.
You see, we are not good people, we don’t do good things like we think we do, not in comparison to the only good person, Jesus
He was perfect, never sinned, never disobeyed, never rebelled against God, He had his chance, when tempted in the wilderness by the devil himself, but didn’t
Not only that, but Jesus always obeyed, always did what He was supposed to do, even going to the Cross
That’s where we fall way short,
not only have we done what we shouldn’t do,
but we have rarely done what we should do, what God would have us do
that is sin too, sins by commission, doing what we shouldn’t do
and sins by omission, not doing what we should do
This is a hopeless situation, we were doomed, destined to die, as Ephesians 2 said, by nature children of wrath
But God,
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God’s love, while we were sinners, Christ died for us
Before we wanted it, before we realized we needed it, God gave His Son, His only Son, to die for us, so we wouldn’t perish but have eternal life
that’s why it’s caused salvation, Jesus saved us from God’s wrath and from perishing, He gave us life
This is no small act, this wasn’t easy
I mentioned earlier that Jesus was fully God and also fully man
Well as Jesus’ hour approached, the hour of His death, He was in agony
In the Garden of Gethsemane it tells us in Luke 22
And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Sweating great drops of blood,
a medical condition called hematohidrosis; [1] It may occur in individuals suffering from extreme levels of stress. Around the sweat glands, there are multiple blood vessels in a net-like form, which constrict under the pressure of great stress.
Jesus in His humanity was in great stress, pressure, about to endure excruciating pain,
That’s an interesting word, excruciating, its a word that describes the most intense of pain, unbearable pain
It comes from a Latin word that means from the cross, excruciating pain, the pain from the cross,
Crucifixion was torture, and I’m not going to go into all that it was, I’m just going to say, Jesus endured excruciating pain, for you and me.
But before that was His arrest
Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders, who had come out against him, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”
This is your hour, the hour of darkness, the hour the light of the world was to be tortured and killed.
Not to mention His beatings, His beard being ripped out, His being spat upon and ridiculed, and mocked, and flogged
All of that pain, because there was no other way for man to be made right with God
So God made things right for man, He came and He died, like He said He would, like it was prophesied He would
But not all would see it, would recognize it, would believe in it, God’s death on our behalf.
And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Darkness, evil, and yet God is not done
One of the last things Jesus does on the cross is say the words, My God My God, why have you forsaken Me
But Jesus knows why God has forsaken Him, why He’s turned His back on Him, why God poured out His wrath on Him,
So why ask that question?? Maybe it wasn’t a question, maybe it was a statement.
There are many O.T. passages on the crucifixion of Jesus
I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting.
Isaiah chapter 53 is full of prophecy
But one that is so graphic and detailed is Psalm 22
Any good Jew would know Psalm 22, have it memorized.
Here are two excerpts from Psalm 22
But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
“He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
These events described in Psalm 22 were happening right in from of everyones eyes, but they weren’t seeing it.
So what does Jesus do? He quotes the very first line from Psalm 22, My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me.
In one final act of mercy, one final act of grace, Jesus brings their attention to Psalm 22,
Open your eyes, open your ears, can’t you see and hear,
I am your Messiah,
But, today isn’t about the crucifixion, it’s about the resurrection
This is what Christianity is hinged upon, not a dead teacher, but a risen Messiah,
How do we know Jesus sacrifice was accepted? How do we know His life and death were enough?
We don’t if Jesus stays in the grave.
If there is no resurrection then all is lost
Paul writes 1 Corinthians 15
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
But he goes on to say
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead.
Hope, light, life
The Jews nor Romans could produce a dead body to refute the claim
The disciples went from scared boys in hiding to bold men preaching Jesus as Messiah, to their own death
Many people saw Him alive, Mary Magdalene, the disciples in the locked room, to Thomas,
Listen to what Paul writes in 1 Cor. 15
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Believe me, Paul says, I saw Him.
When, on the Damascus Road,
Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”
Persecuting and killing followers of Jesus, and Jesus appeared to him and he saw the light
Radically changed his life, and that’s what true faith in Jesus does, when you see the light it radically changes your life
You can’t come to truly see what God has done for you, what He has saved you from, and remain the same
So what has changed,
We go from enemies to children
He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
We go from our old dead, sinful selves to new creations
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
We go from only caring about ourselves to being representatives for God
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
Today isn’t about eggs, chickens, candy, easter egg hunts or any of that other garbage
Today is about the resurrection of Jesus, the hour of salvation, the light and the life, the tomb was empty, the sacrifice accepted, forgiveness available, a new identity and a new purpose for any who believes.
So what about you, where do you stand?
Are you dead, disobedient, rebellious, still in your sins, still in line for God’s wrath, still going to perish??
Or do you have life, have you seen the light and truly believed, are you God’s child?? This is your hour
Let me pray