The Importance of Easter

© April 17th, 2022 by Rev. Rick Goettsche EASTER

Holidays are times that we set aside each year to remember something important. In the United States, the 4th of July is a time when we celebrate the freedoms of our nation and those who have helped secure that freedom for us. We celebrate Thanksgiving each year to remind us that we have many reasons to be thankful. We celebrate birthdays to remind us of the treasure that our friends and family are to us. We celebrate holidays to remind us of important things.

Easter is no different, though I suspect many people don’t understand why Easter is such a big deal. But for Christians, Easter is the most important holiday because we are reminding ourselves of one of the most important truths of the faith—the resurrection of Jesus! Even if you know that Easter celebrates the resurrection, you may not know why that matters. That’s what we’re going to talk about today.

At the end of the gospel of Luke, we read about two men who were walking with Jesus after he had risen from the grave, only they didn’t realize who he was. They were distraught over all the events of the last few days, as you might expect. Jesus started explaining to them from the scriptures that everything that had happened had been God’s plan from the beginning! We don’t know exactly what Jesus told them, but today I want to take you on the same journey Jesus took these two men on. I want to look at how everything in the Bible was ultimately pointing toward Easter, which is why Easter should be a day of great celebration for Christians everywhere.

Creation

The story begins with God creating the world. He created Adam and Eve and placed them in the perfect garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had a perfect and unblemished relationship with God. It was, in a sense, truly heaven on earth.

But Adam and Eve fell prey to the lies of Satan, who told them the reason God had given them a singular rule (not to eat the fruit of one particular tree) was because God knew that if they ate from that tree then they would become like Him. Satan convinced Adam and Eve that if they wanted true fulfillment, they needed to rebel against God.

Sadly, that’s exactly what they did. They ate the fruit God had told them not to, and in so doing they destroyed their relationship with God. Adam and Eve were banished from the garden and lost the close fellowship with God they had enjoyed before. Because of their sin, all of creation became subject to frustration and ultimately death. But even as God told them of the consequences of their sin, He still offered hope.

When God spoke to Satan, He said,

15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15, NLT)

God was telling them there would be a descendant of Eve who would ultimately crush Satan. Satan would wound this descendant, but his wound would not last. Satan, however, would not recover.

This descendant God spoke of in the garden of Eden was Jesus. Satan would attack Jesus, but his attack would be unsuccessful. Jesus, however, would crush Satan. From the very beginning, God had a plan to save humanity from our sin.

Abraham

Much later, after the people had grown in number and spread out across the earth, God spoke to a man named Abram, whom He later renamed Abraham. Abraham did not yet know the Lord, but when God told him to leave his homeland and go to a place He would show him, Abraham went.

God promised Abraham that he would have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and through his offspring all nations would be blessed. Abraham and his wife had been unable to have children and were very old when God made this promise, but God miraculously caused them to have a child in their old age. God said that it was through this child that He would fulfill His promise.

“I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:2-3, NLT)

The significant part of this story is that God’s promise to Abraham was that all families (or nations) would be blessed through this future descendant. God’s promise of blessing did not merely apply to Abraham, or even to his direct descendants. Instead, God was declaring that He had a plan to bless the entire world, and that He was going to use Abraham’s family to bring this blessing to the world.

Jesus was one of Abraham’s descendants, and He provides salvation for not only the Jewish people, but for everyone who believes in Him in every corner of the world. Through Jesus, God has provided a blessing to all nations—even you and me!

Egypt

Eventually, Abraham’s descendants, the family of Jacob (who was also called Israel) ended up as slaves in Egypt. The people of Egypt oppressed the Israelite slaves, and God promised that He would deliver them in miraculous form. He chose a man named Moses to lead the Israelites away from Egypt.

God sent a series of plagues upon the people of Egypt as a way of convincing their leader, Pharaoh, to let the people go. But Pharaoh was stubborn and refused to listen to Moses’ warnings. As a result, Egypt experienced 10 plagues on their land.

God told Moses that there would be one final plague that would cause Pharaoh to submit and let the Israelites go. The firstborn son in every household in Egypt would die in a single night. God said that the only way people could be spared of this plague was to slaughter an unblemished lamb and spread its blood over the doorposts of the house. The people living in that house would then be spared, as God’s judgment would “pass over” them.

And it happened exactly as Moses said. The Israelites put the blood of these innocent lambs on their doorposts and they were spared this final plague. The rest of the people, including Pharaoh, however, experienced exactly what Moses said would happen. Their firstborn sons all died in a single night. After this, Pharaoh finally relented and allowed the Israelites to leave once and for all.

The Israelites commemorated this event every year with a celebration called Passover, reminding themselves of how God had delivered them in the past, and believing that God would deliver them again in the future.

It is fitting that the day Jesus was crucified was the day before the Israelites were to celebrate Passover—because Passover was actually pointing toward Jesus all along! In the Passover celebration they remembered how God delivered them from slavery through the blood of an innocent lamb. For years, the Israelites reenacted this scene, remembering God’s faithfulness. When Jesus was crucified, He was the ultimate Passover lamb. By his sacrifice, we are delivered from the slavery of our sin. Even as God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, He was pointing forward to an even greater deliverance that would come through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

The Law

After the Israelites left Egypt, God promised that they would have a land of their own and become their own nation. God gave the Israelites laws they were to follow. There were many moral laws (many of which we still follow today, including the Ten Commandments). But in addition to the moral law, God also gave them many ceremonial laws they were to follow.

There were lots of specifics to these laws, but there was one overarching theme—these laws were to remind the Israelites of their need to be saved from their sin. God commanded them to offer unblemished animals as sacrifices for their sin. The Israelites continued carrying out these sacrifices regularly, even up to the time of Jesus. The sacrifices reminded them that their sin stood between them and God and no amount of trying to be good enough could erase their past failures. Their only hope was someone unblemished and innocent sacrificing themselves in order to save the sinner.

Many times, we can think that if we just do enough good things, it will balance out the bad. But the Bible tells us that sin always leads to death. The sacrificial laws were in place to remind the people of their need for a perfect sacrifice. Unlike you and me, Jesus had no sin of His own. He alone could serve as a perfect, unblemished sacrifice for our sin. Jesus offered himself as the sacrifice you and I need. The laws God gave the Israelites pointed forward to when Jesus would become that sacrifice for all who would believe.

David

Once Israel came into the land God had promised them, God raised up leaders for them. One of those leaders was King David. David was a good king and he desired to serve the Lord and to lead the people of Israel in the way God told them to go. David was far from perfect, and failed in many ways, but God still made him a promise—that one of David’s descendants would be on the throne forever.

“ ‘Furthermore, the Lord declares that he will make a house for you—a dynasty of kings! 12 For when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong…. 16 Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time, and your throne will be secure forever.’ ” (2 Samuel 7:11-12, 16, NLT)

For the next several generations, David’s offspring did indeed reign over the nation of Israel. Eventually, however, the nation split and then was conquered. There was no longer any king of Israel. But the Israelites continued to believe God’s promise that one day God would bring them a new king who was one of David’s descendants. This new king would reign over a kingdom that would last forever.

Jesus, a descendant of David, never ruled over an earthly kingdom. Israel did not become a grand empire. But Jesus is a greater king than David ever was, and His kingdom will last forever. Jesus is the King of all kings. He is supreme over all and His kingdom will never end. Jesus is the great King God had promised David all those years ago.

Prophets

Throughout the history of Israel God spoke through specific people whom He designated. These people were called prophets. Sometimes they spoke to the people about things that God wanted them to do or to change. Other times the prophets spoke to the people about what God was going to do in the future. Some of these prophecies spoke of a deliverer God was going to bring into the world who would bring a peace that Israel had never known.

When you read these prophecies, they seem to be describe Jesus and his ministry.

4 Say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, and do not fear, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies. He is coming to save you.” 5 And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind and unplug the ears of the deaf. 6 The lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will sing for joy! (Isaiah 35:4-6, NLT)

Jesus healed the blind and the deaf. People who had been lame were suddenly able to stand, run, and dance after an encounter with Jesus.

The prophet Isaiah foretold of Jesus’ crucifixion and suffering,

3 He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. 4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. (Isaiah 53:3-6, NLT)

Isaiah not only foretold that Jesus would suffer, but he also spoke of what his suffering would accomplish—the forgiveness of our sins. These prophecies (and many others) point us to the fact that Jesus came into the world for one specific purpose—to offer himself as the perfect sacrifice for sin which the world had been waiting for!

Finally, David spoke prophetically about the promised Messiah, saying that though the Messiah would be killed, his body would not decay,

10 For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave. 11 You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever. (Psalm 16:10-11, NLT)

David proclaims that God would not allow his holy one (that is Jesus) to rot in the grave. We know God kept this promise because on Easter Sunday, our crucified Savior became our risen Lord. God did not allow His Holy One to see decay, and because of this, like David, we can have the confidence of living with God forever!

Conclusion

The entire Bible is about God’s plan to save humanity through Jesus Christ. All of human history is His Story. Easter is the day the story reached its climax. It is the day Jesus finally accomplished God’s plan that was set in motion before the world was even created! Easter celebrates God’s rescue plan for humanity—for you and me.

Jesus makes it possible for you and me to be forgiven of our sins and to enjoy a restored relationship with God and eternal life with Him in heaven. How do we do that? Jesus himself gave us the answer,

16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17, NLT)

Jesus doesn’t tell us that everyone’s sins are automatically forgiven. Rather, He says that anyone who believes in Him will have eternal life. The belief that Jesus speaks of here is more than just believing He is real, like believing in the tooth fairy. It is a settled conviction that results in a genuine transformation. It is the difference between saying I believe an airplane can fly and actually getting in an airplane and taking off. The kind of belief Jesus says can save us is one that places all our hope in what He has done for us, and none on our own supposed goodness. It trusts Him fully and causes us to follow His lead in our lives.

Jesus promises that if we believe in Him in this way, then we will have eternal life. This means we will live with Him in heaven forever, but it means even more than that. It means that we begin living with Jesus even now. It means that God will begin to change us from the inside out and we will slowly but surely experience a joy in this life that is completely foreign to those who do not know Jesus.

The disciples on the road to Emmaus said their hearts burned as they heard the same story I’ve shared with you this morning. They heard the story of Jesus and were transformed and followed Jesus boldly and gladly.

My hope for you today is that you will have a similar response. I pray that you will embrace this gift of forgiveness and new life that Jesus Christ offers to anyone who will believe. It is great news! It is the culmination of the story God began writing all the way back in the Garden of Eden. You are part of that story as well. The question is, will you embrace what Jesus has done for you, or will you ignore it?

For those of you who already believe Jesus in this way, today I want to remind you of how trustworthy our God is. When you find yourself wondering if God really knows what He is doing, or whether God will really keep His promises, think back to Easter Sunday, to the resurrection, to the fulfillment of everything God had planned and promised from the creation of the world. God knows what He is doing, and He always keeps His promises.

When the world tells you that you don’t matter, remind yourself of Easter. Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He came to save you and me. Jesus thought you mattered—enough that He was willing to sacrifice Himself for you.

Easter is important because it reminds us of the day that God brought many of His promises to fruition. One day we will experience the fullness of His blessings, but all of them are made possible through Jesus. I hope you will take time today to remember what Jesus has done for us, to embrace Him, to believe Him fully, and to celebrate the difference that makes, both for today and for all of eternity.

© April 17th, 2022 by Rev. Rick Goettsche EASTER