What Easter Means to Us Today Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. It is a real joy and honor for me to have the opportunity to stand up here Sunday after Sunday and share God's Word with some of the greatest people on the face of this earth. And today is one of my favorite Sundays of the year. It is the day we celebrate the Risen Savior. Aren't you glad our God is alive? I want to talk to you a little while today about what the Resurrection means to you and to me as Believers. What impact and what significance does an event that took place hundreds and hundreds of years ago have in our lives today? How does the resurrection affect you and me right now living in the year 2018? To fully understand it, we have got to go back a couple of thousand years to the events leading up to the Resurrection. And let me paint a picture for you. Use your sanctified imagination with me. It is the day that Jesus is going to be crucified. And He is surrounded by a group of Roman soldiers. His back is bloodied and bruised because He had just been beaten with a whip called the cat of nine tails. And one of those soldiers comes up and proudly shows off the crown of thorns that he has just made. Now these are not little thistles like we have seen in Sunday School pictures. These are two to three inch strong thorns that are much like nails. And then with all of his might, that soldier forcefully thrusts that crown onto Jesus' head. The pain begins to shoot through His body. As these thorns rip into the Lord's scalp great drops of sweat on His brow begin to be intermingled with His blood as it runs down His face. It is the blood of 1
a perfectly innocent man. A man that did no wrong. But yet the world hated Him. Then all of a sudden one of those soldiers ripped Jesus clothes off of Him leaving Him standing there only in His loincloth. And they put on Him a purple robe so that they could make fun of Him and ridicule Him and humiliate Him. You see, a purple robe was a robe of dignity worn by Roman royalty. And they began to bow down in mockery and insult Him and say, "Long live the King." "Good health to the King." "How can we serve You better, your majesty?" And then their mockery turns to violence. They take the robe off of Him and they blindfold Him and they begin to laugh and hit Him with their fists and say, "Prophesy to us now, Mr. Messiah. Who hit you that time?" The Living Bible says that they openly hit Him with their fists in His face. And if we are going to fully understand and appreciate the impact of the resurrection, then we have got to fully understand the suffering and the shame and the humiliation that Jesus went through on our behalf. He prayed, "Father, if there is any way you can take this cup from me and not cause me to go through all this heartache and pain. Father, please take it away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done." He willingly offered His life as a sacrifice for our sins. He said, "No man takes my life. I freely lay it down of myself." At the third hour of the day, which is 9 A.M. according to our time, they took Him to Mount Calvary. And they drove His hands and His feet with spikes into that cross. At the sixth hour, or our mid-day, 12 o clock by our time, the Bible says, "the sun refused to shine. Darkness covered the earth until the ninth hour," or about three o clock in the afternoon. As He hung on that Cross, Jesus cried in great agony, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" Child of God, He was forsaken so that you and I would never have to be forsaken. He was paying the price for our sins and our mistakes and our failures and our 2
shortcomings. The Bible says in 1 Peter 3:18 that "He died for our sins once for all, the Just for the unjust, the Righteous for the unrighteous, the Innocent for the guilty, so that He could make a way that we could come safely and freely to God. Thank God, He was bearing the sins of the world. About three in the afternoon, Jesus lifted up His head toward the Heavens and He said, "Father, into Your hands do I commit my Spirit." And the Son of God bowed down His head and He breathed His final breath. And the Bible says, immediately there was thunder and there was lightening. And the earth began to tremble. And the rocks were split open. The very earth that He created revolted when it lost the One that spoke it into existence. And when those Roman soldiers saw the events that happened, when they saw the earthquake, they were terrified. And they said, "Surely, He was the Son of God." The Bible says in Matthew 27:51, that immediately, the very moment He was crucified, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom." This is very significant because the Holy of Holies is where the High Priest would go to offer a Blood Sacrifice for the sins of the people! The Bible tells us in Hebrews that Jesus took His own blood and He did not go to the Holy of Holies, but He presented His blood in the high court of heaven as a sacrifice for all of our sins, past, present, and future. And because God gladly, with great joy and pleasure, accepted the sacrifice of the blood of Jesus, He turned the Judgment Seat into the Mercy Seat that it is today. And the Bible says that Jesus obtained an eternal redemption for our sins. One translation says, "an eternal release from our sins." And the good news is, we don't have to be redeemed once a year anymore. We have been eternally redeemed not by the blood of bulls and goats, but by the blood - the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. 3
And you can't get any better than that. Because I have got good news to tell you, you do not have to go to hell. Your sins have already been forgiven. All you have to do is accept this forgiveness and make Jesus the Lord of your life. You might be thinking, Bro. Cliff, man, I have lived the wrong kind of life. You don't know what I have done. I have hurt a lot of people. I have done a lot of bad things. I am sure there are people here that have some things in your past that you're not proud of. All of us do. But don't let the enemy lie to you and try to tell you that you are too far-gone and God won't have anything to do with you. There is no sin that you have ever committed or that you will ever commit that has not already been Atoned for. The Bible says in 1 John 1:7 that the blood of Jesus Christ, (God s) Son, cleanses us from all sin. The Bible teaches that when you come to God and you repent of your sins, He instantly, immediately, without question, and unconditionally clears your record. I John 1:9 says, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And He says "their sins and iniquities I will remember no more forever." And sometimes in life, it is hard for us to forgive ourselves of our past mistakes and failures. It is hard to let go of the past sometimes. And Satan s specialty is to bring condemnation and try to make you feel guilty and unworthy and undeserving of God's goodness and blessings. But if God forgives you and if He doesn't remember your sins, then you need to learn how to forgive yourself and get on with your life. And if Satan is still throwing up your past, and if he is placing those negative-condemning thoughts in your mind, trying to make you feel guilty. You have got to learn to rise up and cast that junk down. Don't listen to Satan's lies. The Bible says in 1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The Bible says in Romans 8:1, 4
"There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus." Listen child of God; don't let your past torment you. You remind the enemy that the sacrificial blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has already been shed. It has been presented and accepted in the High Court of Heaven. And all of your sins -past, present, and future, have already been forgiven. And the third thing, because of what Jesus accomplished in the Resurrection; you and I have power and authority over the devil and demon forces. I can imagine when Jesus bowed His head and died on that cross, that Satan and all those demons must have gathered for a great victory celebration. I can imagine it looked something like the victory party in the locker room after the Super Bowl. You can see them giving high five's and jumping around. Shouting with great excitement, We did it! We did it! I told you we could defeat Him! Now we're in control. Now we can do whatever we want. And can't you hear Satan laugh sarcastically and say to his demons, Aren't you glad you followed me now? Aren't you glad you revolted out of the heavens? I told you it would be worth it. But in the midst of that celebration, one of the demons notices a man coming from a long distance. They can't quite figure out who it is. So they begin to curiously look and try to figure out who it is, because this person isn't celebrating like the rest of them. He is marching toward them with boldness and with a determination that they have never seen before. One of those demons finally recognizes who it is. And he screams in terror, Oh no, here comes Jesus. Can't you see Jesus looking right into Satan's eyes and saying, "Satan, I hate to spoil your victory party, but it's not over until I say it's over. On the Cross, and in the Resurrection, Jesus Christ once and forever defeated, dethroned, and demoralized our enemy. One translation says, "He paralyzed him and rendered him powerless." The Bible says in Colossians 2:15 that God "disarmed the principalities and 5
powers ranged against us and he made a bold display and a public example of Satan's defeat." And the good news about the resurrection is that as a child of God you don't have to be afraid of the devil and demons. Why? Colossians 1:13-14 says that God has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son; in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. What does the resurrection mean to you and me today living in the year 2018? Number one. Our sins have already been forgiven. Number two. We can go to God directly by ourselves, for ourselves. Number three. The devil and demon forces have been defeated and we have authority and power over them. But listen carefully, none of this will do you any good unless you rise up and begin to act on it. If you do not accept this forgiveness and make Jesus the Lord of your life, it is not going to do you any good. If you are not saved, why not receive the Resurrected Christ as your Savior today? Everyone please stand for prayer. Father, Thank You that Your Word is true. Thank You that my sins are forgiven. Give me the faith to live in Resurrection life for your glory. In Jesus name. Amen. 6