What is Easter? 1
What is Easter? • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Intro
Intro
We are starting a new series where we looking at what is Easter!
More specifically we are looking at Jesus being resurrected and what He did post-resurrection
Listen to how John Stott a Priest and leader of the worldwide evangelical movement described Christianity
Christianity is in its very essence a resurrection religion. The concept of the resurrection lies at its heart. If you remove it, Christianity is destroyed.
John Stott
Without the resurrection, we are no different than any other religion - we have no hope apart from the reality that our savior came, died, and was raised again
Him being raised from the grave is what gives us the proof and assurance that:
He is God
He defeated Sin and Satan
He is greater than death
But think about this - God is the God of resurrection all the time, not just at Easter
Martin Luther, one of the leaders during the Reformation said this
Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf of springtime.
Martin Luther
We see Resurrections all the time.
Spring time marks when leaves and flowers are resurrected up from their dead state.
Every morning and every evening the sun and moon are resurrected for us to see and behold
Every time a sinner is saved we see them being resurrected into the life that God is calling them to
God is the God of resurrections so today, and in this series, I want to look at what Jesus did post-resurrection seeing what we can learn from Him
Mary
Mary
11 But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she bent down and looked into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus’ body had been lying, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” Mary replied, “They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have put him!” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
We are picking up the story after Jesus died and has been put into the tomb
Mary is at the tomb, coming to prepare the body and when she arrives, Jesus’ body is not there
In the verses above she calls out to John and Peter to come and see that the body of Jesus is not there - seeing that they run and leave, but Mary stays
And we see that Mary is continuing to weep outside the tomb
She sees two angels, but instead of recognizing they are from God, Mary continues to weep
When pressed about it, she says that she’s upset that the body of Jesus is moved, and no one told her
She’s upset because she doesn’t know where Jesus’ body was put, even though multiple times Jesus tells her, and all the disciples that he must die and be buried and be raised.
She didn’t understand to the point that when she turns she sees Jesus and yet doesn’t know it is Him
The man that she is weeping over is standing in front of her, yet she doesn’t realize it
15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” Because she thought he was the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will take him.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni” (which means Teacher).
Jesus upon seeing her in her crying state asks her two questions
He first asks why are you crying?
He then asks her who she’s looking for
Jesus asking these two questions to Mary is challenging her to change and grow
Mary, like most people, was expecting Jesus to come and take over as king and rule everything, yet Jesus is challenging her to change her perspective
He does this by first rebuking her: “why are you crying?”
He is rebuking the fact that she is crying over Him being dead and gone, even though He is standing in-front of her
Had she had the right perspective she would have recognized Jesus from His appearance
Yet she didn’t, so He is rebuking her for still crying
The second question he asks her is pushing her to change her perspective
“Who are you looking for?” it was meant to help her realize that she was expecting Jesus to be something that He was not
He told them repeatedly that he must die, and that he must be raised again
That was never hidden, yet she didn’t believe - so Him asking who are you looking for is pushing her to realize that she missed the point
To truly see Jesus, we must be looking for who Jesus actually is
She then realizes and understands after He calls to her and she sees Him
Here’s the first take away from the message tonight:
Have the right expectations
We need to have the right expectations about who Jesus is
We don’t want to be like Mary where we are looking earnestly for Jesus, expecting Jesus and yet not finding Him because we are looking for the wrong thing
Here’s what I believe happens far to often:
We have a problem in life
Something happens that we cannot face
We call out to Jesus and expect Him to take it away from us
That problem doesn’t go away, that bully doesn’t leave us alone
We often end up feeling worse, so then make an assumption - either Jesus isn’t real, or He cannot stand up to this problem, or He doesn’t care about me, or whatever the assumption is for you
But here is the reality, we are looking for the wrong Jesus - we have the wrong expectations
Listen to what Jesus said to His disciples
18 “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me first.19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you do not belong to the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you.20 Remember what I told you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed my word, they will obey yours too. 21 But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me.
Jesus tells us to expect troubles in life
He hated Him, attacked Him, hung Him on a cross - so of course we should expect troubles
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
Following Jesus is going to be hard
All our problems won’t magically go away, Jesus is instead telling us that our problems will magnify, that we are going to face more difficulty
Our enemy, Satan, is going to try and stop us from following, push us away
So instead of getting discouraged, we need to learn to realize who we are looking at
Jesus is God, He came to forgive sins, and one day, He will take all pain away
All the problems away, but if they don’t leave you immediately when you come to God, that doesn’t mean He’s not God
So we must have the right expectations
Thomas
Thomas
Later in the passage we see the second story
24 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “Unless I see the wounds from the nails in his hands, and put my finger into the wounds from the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe it!”
Thomas was one of the disciples that was with Jesus during His ministry
He saw all the miracles Jesus did, heard all the discourses and teachings
He knew who Jesus was
But Thomas wasn’t with the other disciples when Jesus appeared to them
So Thomas hasn’t seen Jesus was resurrected
He knew that Jesus said He would be resurrected, yet he struggled to believe it because he didn’t see it
He struggled to know if Jesus loved him since Jesus appeared to the others but not him
So Thomas said: “If I can’t put my hands in the nail marks, I won’t believe”
26 Eight days later the disciples were again together in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and examine my hands. Extend your hand and put it into my side. Do not continue in your unbelief, but believe.”28 Thomas replied to him, “My Lord and my God!”29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are the people who have not seen and yet have believed.”
8 days after saying this, Jesus appeared to Thomas and the other disciples
He declares peace with them, good news that Jesus is with them!
Then He singles out Thomas
He tells Thomas to put his fingers in the holes of the hands
Jesus heard Thomas’ fears and doubts and comes to him specifically
Thomas after seeing this declares “My Lord and my God!”
Thomas believed!
Here’s the last thing we need to take away
Not only do we need to have the right expectations about who Jesus is
Remember how much God loves us
We must remember that God loves us and cares for us deeply!
Jesus heard Thomas, his doubts about His resurrection, his doubts about if it was possible
Jesus knew Thomas was struggling and losing faith
Jesus came to Thomas and presented himself to Thomas, not to prove him wrong, but to show him how much He loved him
Jesus presented the holes in His hands as a sign saying “Thomas don’t doubt but believe. This is a sign for how much I love you”
Jesus reminded Thomas of the lengths at which He went to show His love
Jesus took the full weight of the cross for Thomas. Took all of sin and God’s wrath for Thomas
All because Jesus loved Thomas
16 For this is the way 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.
He loves us!
Understanding God’s love is something that is so hard for us to understand
In my life I have had so many people let me down
I have had friends who said they loved me, abandon me
My parents who love me have let me down more times than I can remember
I had girlfriends that claimed to love me and then break my trust and do unspeakable things
So it’s so difficult to understand it
Yet that’s the truth that God is showing to Thomas, and teaching us
He loves us so much, that He did the most extreme thing to get to us
He died on a cross for us!
He died so that we can have forgiveness and life
Then when we still struggle to believe if we call out to Him he’s there
Conclusion
Conclusion
Here’s the deal students I believe that Jesus is teaching us two things through these stories
And I believe that every person in this room has something to learn
Either you need new expectations, or you need to remember that God loves you
Either you need to remind yourself that God is in control, and just because something isn’t happening immediately doesn’t mean he’s left you. You need to fix your expectations
Or you need to remind yourself that yes you are a sinner, you’ve messed up in more ways than you can count, but that God loves you. He went to the cross for you!