Easter 2023
Notes
Transcript
What do I believe God wants them to know? Easter is the Greatest story that is ever! Full of AMAZING LOVE, AMAZING GRACE, UNBELIEVABLE SACRIFICE, UNBELIEVABLE BLESSING
Why? We all want Love that never ends, Redemption, Death defeated, Life after Death
What do I believe God wants them to know? The Easter is Real
Why? It brings Hope, LOVE, Redemptoin,
ME/WE
Have you ever been moved by a great story? From a book, movie, or a someone telling you a good story?
This came up this week after I was running with some of my friends.
After we ran or I tried to run…we did a cool
Anyways we were at the end run walking in Edgwater Park 3 men in the 40’s about the AMAZING DISNEY MOVIES…in fareness to us we all have younger kids
One guy says I love Beauty and the Beast
Another says Aladdin
Another says Toy Story 1 epic Toy Story 2 epic Toy Story 3 was so moving
BEMOONING THE FACT THAT DISNEY DOESN’T make movies like it used to
WE ALL LOVE A GOOD STORY....whether it FACT of FICTION
BUT WHY?
Because it tugs at the deepest longing of our hearts.
We love stories about the triumph of good vs evil....any Star Wars or Lord of the Rings or Marvel fans in the room…Love when Darth Vader and the Evil Empire is defeated.
We love movies about LOVE THAT NEVER FAILS ....Hallmark or Romeo and Juliet
Unbelievable happens
Transformation…This person was this way and now is that way
Hope restored
Grace
List goes on?
These STORIES, TUG and PULL our HEARTS....the make our HEARTS FULL AND HAPPY
Why?
WHAT J.R.R Tolkein shows C.S. Lewis on Addison Walk....which was a conversation that
How so? How are these Great Storys splinters of the Gospel
The way we find out by showing the AMAZING TRUTH OF THE EASTER STORY....THE STORY WE WANT TO BE TRUE, that seems to be to good to be TRUH
But what about the GOSPEL STORY what makes it so AMAZING? The Greatest STORY every told THE GREATEST NEWS
THE STORY THAT PULLS AT OUR HEARTS, FILLS OUR HEARTS AND GIVES US A NEW HEART
WHY DOES ALL OTHER STORIES BOW TO THE EASTER STORY???
WHAT MAKES IT SO GREAT???
The reason we like all the GREAT STORY today as J.R.R. Tolkein pointed out to C.S. Lewis is because they point to the great
LET’S PULL THAT STORY OFF THE SHELF AND REREAD AGAIN
MARTIN LUTHER SAYS I NEED TO PREACH THE GOSPEL…PULL THE EASTER STORY OUT EVERY DAY BECAUSE I FORGET…AND IT IS THE EASTER STORY THAT FILLS OUR HEARTS, RESTORES, GIVES US HOPE
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
What is the Good News of the Gospel story?
The GOSPEL STORY IS ABOUT GOD’S LOVE COMING DOWN TO US
We see this in the most popular verse of all time....
You have seen this SIGN at BROWNS stadium…billboards…FB posts
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
It is a message that God loves us so much that
Phil 2 states
He left heaven and earth to be with us
Immanual God with US
HE CAME TO BE WITH YOU, AND YOU, AND YOU
WHAT IS ONE THE DEEPEST DESIRES OF THE HUMAN HEART....RELATIONSHIP
HE IS ANSWER ONE OF OUR CRIES OF OUR HEARTS....RELATIONSHIP....ONE THE GREATEST DESIRES OF THE HUMAN HEART IS TO BE LOVED
FOR SOME US THIS REALLY TOUCHES OUR HEARTS....WE ARE MOVED BY JESUS BEING WITH US
And we read a doubling and tripleing down on this LOVE of God coming down to be with us
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
HOLD ON
2.
SOME OF US ARE LIKE THAT’S GREAT NEWS FOR THEM, FOR JACK AND SUSAN....THAT GOD CAME TO BE WITH US
BUT I HAVE DONE SOME THING, NOT SO GOOD THINGS
I HAVE SOME GUILT AND SHAME
MAYABE THAT IS TRUE FOR THEM
- This is true for those who know Jesus....saved by grace but function as works rightousness.
YOUR THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULE
ANYBODY EVER SAY “I WILL COME TO CHURCH WHEN I GET CLEAN UP ENOUGH”
IF WE CAN GET OUR ACT IN ORDER WHY WOULD WE NEED HIM
THE CHURCH IS HOSPITAL FOR SINNER AND SAINTS THAT TRANSFORMS THE SINNERS AND SAINTS INTO NURSES AND DOCTORS.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
THE HEROS OF THE FAITH ARE sinful people…David had an affair, Paul gave his approval to have Christians murdered,
IT DOES NOT SAY GOD SO LOVES THE WORLD EXPECT ____
-One pastor lead person to the Lord with this false
The Good News of the Gospel is Jesus came to be with you....that’s point 1 and is pretty amazing…but there’s more
The Good News of the Gospel is not just that Jesus came to be with us....
2. He Came to Save us
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
HE CAME TO RESCUE AND REDEEM YOU AND ME FROM SIN AND THE AFFECTS…SIN BRING DEATH AND SHAME…THAT BRINGS SEPERATION FROM US AND GOD.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
GOD HEART IS SO BIG AND SO VAST AND SO WIDE....THAT HE DOESN’T WANT TO BE SEPEATED FROM US
I AM NOT SENDING JESUS INTO THE WORLD JUST SO HE CAN BE WITH YOU WHILE HE’S ON EARTH…BE HE WANTS US TO BE WITH HIM FOR FOREVER
SO WHAT DOES JESUS DO?
Does He set out new rules and regulations of this is what you need to do and what I need to do to get right with God???
So what does God do???
If we can’t follow them??
We talked a few weeks ago…many of us are believers and we cannot follow the rules
HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?
What do we need to do to get back
JESUS BECOMES THE WAY TO GOD? HOW? OVER THROWING THE RELIGIOUS LEADERS? TAKING OVER ROME?
3. BY BECOMING THE UNBELIEVABLE SACRIFICE
Before Jesus the way people got right with God was through repeatedly offering sacrifices to God, but the problem was they never took completely away the sin....you sacrifice and sin,
GOD’S HEART DIDN’T WANT THAT. HE WANTED SOMETHING MORE PERMENIANT, LASTING
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Jesus becomes the sacrificial lamb...
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Jesus goes to the cross for our sins to make payment for our sins.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
4. THE UNBELIEVABLE EXCHANGE
His Life for mine....Jesus says I am giving up my life for you to be reconciled to God.
LET’S SIT ON THAT ON A MOMENT....DO YOU DESERVE IT? NO
WHEN DOES HE DO THE GREAT EXCHANGE?
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
We move from a SINNER to a SAINT because what Jesus has done
The lie we believe I am just a sinner saved by grace....you were a SINNER…no where in the BIBLE does it call redeemed people SINNERS 216 times in the
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
IT IS NOT JUST THAT YOU WERE A SINNER AND NOW A SAINT…YOU ARE A ROYAL PRIEST
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
5. THE GOSPEL STORY IS OF AMAZING GRACE
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch; like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
6. THE GOOD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL IS JESUS DEFEATS DEATH....HE IS THE VICTOR
HE IS RISEN
JESUS DIED ON FRIDAY....BUT SUNDAY IS COMING
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.
And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.
And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?
He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,
that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”
And they remembered his words,
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
The angels were saying this was all apart of the plan....He was going the cross on Good Friday to defeat SIN and on Sunday morning His raised to life to defeat DEATH.
The grave could not Hold Jesus
DEATH COULD NOT HOLD JESUS DOWN!!!!
LOOK WHAT IS SAID
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
DEATH HAS BEEN DEFEATED....ONE OF OUR GREATEST FEARS
FOR THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN JESUS THEY TOO WILL O
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
WE ARE IN THE LAND OF THE DYING ONTO THE LAND OF LIVING OR AS
Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead. Don't you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now;
THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD
It is ALMSOT EVERY GREAT STORY THAT pionts to Jesus
it is this truth the starts to lead LEWIS TO JESUS
Lewis and TOLKEIN in a conversation they had on Addison’s Walk in Oxford who
It is the evening of September 19, 1931.
C.S. Lewis said what is point of the all these fiction stories? He said, “ I love the old myths, legends, stories, but Tollers they are lies though breathed through silver.
- THEY ARE LIES, THOUGH BREAHTED THROUGH SILVER…what’s the point
No, said Tolkien these great stories though fiction have splinters of the Gospel….the reason we love these fiction stories is because they are pointing to the GREATEST STORY EVER
“ Think about this story. A man from an obscure village, a nobody, is found to have a power that no one has ever seen before to resist evil. He’s raising children from the dead, stilling the storm, feeding the multitude, casting out demons, and loving the poor and marginalized. He’s really making a difference, and then he’s betrayed. He’s put to death, and all hope is over. But wait! He’s miraculously raised from the dead! What does that sound like?”
“That sounds like another one of those great stories that isn’t factually true, but it’s so moving and so wonderful.” BUT MR. LEWIS IT IS TRUE. JESUS IS THE ULTIMATE REALITY STORY THAT ALL OTHER STORIES POINT TO.
In some ways, he’s the handsome prince who kisses you and wakes you up from the sleeping death. He’s the love who can get you out of your self-made prisons. He’s the knight who slays the dragon. He’s the one who does all these things, but it’s not a story of fiction. This is the claim of Christianity; this is not, “Once upon a time.”
This really happened, and if it did happen … (Please listen carefully). If he really was born in a real manger and raised from the dead (not a legend, but actually raised from the dead), and you believe in him, then all the things you have read in those stories over the years that you’ve longed for come true IN JESUS
You will step outside of time and escape death. Your love relationships will go on forever. You will even communicate with non-human personal beings, and good will triumph over evil. The claim is no less than that. It’s the stuff we’ve longed for in the stories and the GREAT NEWS LEWIS is the Good News of the Gospel is TRUE.
It was shortly after that Lewis becomes a believer in Jesus
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
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,