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EASTER: The Promise of Forgiveness - Beyond Easter 4-16-23
EASTER: The Promise of Forgiveness - Beyond Easter 4-16-23
Easter: the
promise of forgiveness
The history
of sin
The heritage
of hope
The old
promise and the law
The new
promise
The Easter
story
Easter and
You
The Gospel,
the Lord’s supper, and baptism
Beyond
Easter (the beginning, not the end)
Bruce Larson
said, “The events of Easter cannot be reduced to a creed or philosophy. We are
not asked to believe the doctrine of the resurrection. We are asked to meet
this person raised from the dead. In faith, we move from belief in a doctrine
to a knowledge of a person. Ultimate truth is a person. We met him. He is
alive-“
“Praise be
to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given
us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This
inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s
power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the
last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you
may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that
the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes
even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus
Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though
you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible
and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the
salvation of your souls.”
1 Peter 1:3-9 NIV
I. THE GOSPEL
FOR EVERYONE
I heard
about a church organist who overslept one Easter morning. She said, "The
service was scheduled for 6:30. At 6:31, the minister called to see if I was
coming. Since I live near the church, I was at the organ by 6:45. Then, a year
later on Easter morning my phone rang at 5:45. When I answered, I heard the
minister announce: 'Christ is risen! And you'd better rise, too!'"
A. Easter was
the message of our gospel mission.
“In my
former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach
until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the
Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.
After his
suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he
was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the
kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them
this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father
promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Then they
gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore
the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times
or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
After he
said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from
their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when
suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said,
“why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been
taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go
into heaven.””
Acts 1:1-11 NIV
B. Easter set
up Pentecost.
““When the
Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who
goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. And you also must testify,
for you have been with me from the beginning.”
John 15:26-27 NIV
““All this I
have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the
synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think
they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have
not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when their time comes
you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from
the beginning because I was with you, but now I am going to him who sent me. None
of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Rather, you are filled with grief
because I have said these things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your
good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you;
but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to
be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because
people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the
Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince
of this world now stands condemned. “I have much more to say to you, more than
you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you
into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he
hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it
is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that
belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from
me what he will make known to you.””
John 16:1-15 NIV
C. Pentecost
propelled the Gospel message to the ends of the earth.
“He said to
them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his
own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to
the ends of the earth.””
Acts 1:7-8 NIV
1. Local
2. Regional
3. Global
“The
resurrection of Jesus changes the face of death for all His people. Death is no
longer a prison, but a passage into God’s presence. Easter says you can put
truth in a grave, but it won’t stay there. You can nail it to a cross, wrap it
in winding sheets and shut it up in a tomb, but it will rise!”
Clarence W.
Hall
II. THE LORD’S
SUPPER AND THE CHURCH
Among the
people from Eastern Europe, the Easter basket had nothing to do with candy and
rabbits. Baskets were filled with symbolic things and taken to church to be
blessed. There was bread in the basket to recall how Israel relied on God in
the wilderness and to symbolize life. Horseradish was there to suggest the
bitterness of Egyptian bondage and the bitterness of Jesus death. Salt was
there as a symbol of our common humanity. Ham was there as a reminder that we
are not under the old law, which forbade so much, but under the new law there
is freedom. Eggs were in the basket, too. They stood for hope and resurrection
and life! Whatever our customs, whatever our symbols, Easter always stands for
new life, for resurrection, for hope!
“They
devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking
of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and
signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had
everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who
had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They
broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to
their number daily those who were being saved.”
Acts 2:42-47 NIV
A. The breaking
of bread
A Sunday
School teacher asked her class to write one sentence each on "What Easter
Means to Me." One pupil wrote: "Egg salad sandwiches for the next two
weeks!"
1. The cup
2. The loaf
B. A regular
event
“On the
first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people
and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until
midnight.”
Acts 20:7 NIV
C. Our
continuous message
A young mom
was driving her 3-year-old child to church early on Easter morning. As she
drove she told the Easter story. “This is the day we celebrate Jesus coming
back to life.” From the back seat she heard, “Will He be in church today?”
“For
whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death
until he comes.”
1
Corinthians 11:26 NIV
III. BAPTISM AND
YOU
““Therefore
let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified,
both Lord and Messiah.” When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart
and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Peter
replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far
off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
With many
other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from
this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and
about three thousand were added to their number that day.”
Acts 2:36-41 NIV
A. Repentance
and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ
1. Forgiveness
of your sins
2. Receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit
B. The
recipients of the promise
1. You
2. Your
children
3. “All who are
far off”
C. The result
of the message
1. They
accepted the message that Jesus was both Lord and Messiah.
2. They were
baptized.
Paul Harvey
wrote about his own baptism. He said that even though he had received almost
every reward for his broadcasting ability that he still felt empty inside. One
summer, however, he and his wife were vacationing in a place called Cave Creek,
AZ. Sunday morning came and they decided to go to church. So they went to this
little church, and there were only 12 other people present. He believed in
Jesus, but he had never gone forward in a church service. One night he had
prayed in his hotel room and asked Jesus to come into his heart, but he felt
that there was still something that was missing. He said that the preacher got
up and announced that his sermon was going to be about baptism. Paul Harvey
said, "I yawned. But as he started talking about it I found myself
interested. He talked about the symbolism behind it, and how it symbolized the
complete surrender of one’s life to Jesus Christ, and how there was nothing
really magic in the water. But there was this cleansing inside that took place
when you yielded yourself to Jesus."
He went on
to say, "Finally, when he came to the end of his sermon he said, ‘If any
of you have not been baptized in this way, I invite you to come forward and
join me here at the pulpit.’ To my surprise, I found myself going forward. The
preacher had said there was nothing magic in the water. Yet as I descended into
the depths and rose again I knew something life changing had happened - a
cleansing inside out. No longer did there seem to be two uncertain contradictory
Paul Harvey’s, just one immensely happy one. I felt the fulfilling surge of the
Holy Spirit in my life.” Paul Harvey concluded, "The change this simple
act made in my life is so immense as to be indescribable. Since totally
yielding to Him in baptism, my heart can’t stop singing. Also, perhaps because
baptism is such a public act and because one’s dignity gets as drenched as
one’s body, I discovered a new unself-consciousness in talking about my
beliefs."
CONCLUSION
"If
Easter says anything to us today, it says this: You can put truth in a grave,
but it wont stay there. You can nail it to a cross, wrap it up in winding
sheets and shut it up in a tomb, but it will rise"
Clarence W.
Hall
Easter is
the message of the Gospel for everyone, Easter is the center image of the
Lord’s Supper in the Church, and baptism is the personal response of
individuals to the message of Easter.
INVITATION
It is our
custom to offer an "invitation" following the preaching of the Word. You may want
to follow Jesus. You may want
to proclaim your faith. You may want
to repent (stop doing ungodly things and start doing Godly things). Perhaps you
want to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit. Possibly, if
you have already responded to God’s call in these ways, you would like to
become a member of Kenwood Church. If you have
been moved by the Holy Spirit to make a decision in your life, you can come
forward now. If you would
like, I would be honored to speak with you following the service about what God
is doing in your life.
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
EASTER: The Promise of Forgiveness - Easter and you 4-9-23 (Easter Sunday)
EASTER: The Promise of Forgiveness - Easter and you 4-9-23
Easter: the promise of forgiveness
The history of sin
The heritage of hope
The old promise and the law
The new promise
The Easter story
Easter and You
Easter eggs
Is Easter just a holiday,
with dyed eggs and yummy candy?
Is it a time when children play
and all dress so fine and dandy?
Is Easter when adults find
some much-needed relaxation?
Is it a break from their work
to enjoy a short vacation?
Or does Easter remind us
how Christ died our debt to pay?
And does Easter remind us
of how Christ rose on the third day?
Easter, Easter!
What a beautiful occasion!
Easter, Easter!
What a glorious celebration!
Easter, Easter!
Christ’s resurrection is in view!
Easter, Easter!
He arose for me and you!
© Loyd C Taylor, Sr., - April 2019
Jerry Jones, a gospel preacher, tells about a Christian man and his wife who lost their young SON in a TRAGIC ACCIDENT on Good Friday in 1996. The boy’s funeral was on Easter Sunday. During the MEMORIAL service the father got up and shared with his family and friends that Easter had taken on a new importance. "Until you stare death eye-to-eye," he began sobbing, "Easter is just a word. It’s a nice day with bunny rabbits and eggs . . . .but when someone so precious to you dies, Easter becomes everything . . . an anchor in a fierce storm . . . a rock on which to stand . . . a hope that raises you above despair and keeps you going."
Jerry Jones
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”
1 Peter 1:3 NIV
I. THE GOSPEL
“Sometimes we fail to eat the main course of a biblical meal because we choke on the hors-‘oeuvres.”
John Piper
“He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
Luke 24:46-47 NIV
"Fundamentally, our Lord’s message was Himself. He did not come merely to preach a Gospel; He himself is that Gospel. He did not come merely to give bread; He said, "I am the bread." He did not come merely to shed light; He said, "I am the light." He did not come merely to show the door; He said, "I am the door." ...He did not come merely to point the way; He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."
J. Sidlow Baxter, pastor and theologian
A. Jesus is the Messiah
B. Jesus suffered and died.
C. Jesus rose from the dead on the third day.
D. Repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached
1. In his name
2. To all nations
3. Beginning in Jerusalem
It is said that one of the greatest disasters in the history of Christianity took place in 1271. Nichelo and and Matteo Polo, the father and the uncle of Marco Polo, were visiting the Kubla Kahn. At that time, Kubla Kahn was a world ruler. He ruled all of China, all of India, and all of the East.
Kubla Khan was attracted to the story of Christianity as Nichelo and Matteo told it to him. So he said this to them, “You shall go to your high priest and tell him on my behalf to send me 100 men skilled in your religion, and I shall be baptized. And when I am baptized, all my barons and great men will be baptized, and their subjects will receive baptism too, and so there will be more Christians here than there are in your parts.”
So Nichelo and Matteo Polo went to the highest religious authority, requesting 100 missionaries. The pope responded, “Those barbarians don’t deserve the gospel.” Nothing was done for about 30 years, and then only two or three missionaries were sent.
Too few. Too Late.
As a result of this delay, Buddhist monks, who were pleased to come, converted the largest empire history has ever known to Buddhism.
Bret Toman
II. THE LORD’S SUPPER
Philip Henry used to call the Lord’s day the queen of days, the pearl of the week, and observed it accordingly. His common salutation of his family or friends, on the Lord’s day in the morning, was that of the primitive Christians--"The Lord is risen, He is risen indeed;" making it his chief business on that day to celebrate the memory of Christ’s resurrection; and he would say sometimes, "Every Lord’s day is a true Christian’s Easter day."
“For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 NIV
A. His body
1. For us
2. Do this in remembrance of me.
B. His blood
1. New covenant
2. Do this in remembrance of me.
Leonardo Da Vinci painted the Last Supper scene on a dining room wall in Milan. As a visitor stood viewing the finished work, he commented on the realism of several goblets on the table, exclaiming that they were so real he felt as though he could reach out and pick them up. Upon hearing those words Da Vinci quickly grabbed a brush and painted out the goblets. Pointing to Jesus he said, “It’s His face! His face that I want you to see!”
Davon Huss
C. The Lord’s Supper
1. We proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
A man sat down to supper with his family, saying grace, thanking God for the food, for the hands which prepared it, and for the source of all life. But during the meal he complained about the freshness of the bread, the bitterness of the coffee and the sharpness of the cheese.
His young daughter asked him, “Dad, do you think God heard the grace today?” “Of course,” he answered confidently. Then she asked, “And do you think God heard what you said about the coffee, the cheese, and the bread?” Not so confidently, he answered, “Why, yes, I believe so.”
The little girl concluded, “Then which do you think God believed, Dad?”
Stephen Wright
Does God believe your contrition and piety at the Lord’s Supper or the testimony of our lives away from the supper?
III. BAPTISM
The story is told about the baptism of King Aengus by St. Patrick in the middle of the fifth century. Sometime during the rite, St. Patrick leaned on his sharp-pointed staff and inadvertently stabbed the king's foot. After the baptism was over, St. Patrick looked down at all the blood, realized what he had done, and begged the king's forgiveness. Why did you suffer this pain in silence, the Saint wanted to know. The king replied, "I thought it was part of the ritual."
Source Unknown.
A. The image of death, burial, and resurrection
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”
Romans 6:1-2 NIV
“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
Romans 6:3-4 NIV
“Baptism” – Comes from the Greek word - “Baptizo” which means to immerse or dunk for a ceremonial purpose.
Bapto is a word which was used to describe:
a) Sinking ships as they sank water would fill
the inside of ship.
b) Another usage describes a garment being
immersed into dye… the dye penetrates every
fiber of the fabric.
-all your insides will be filled!
-when you are dipped, immersed, dunked into the presence of God you will have a new spiritual color that will fill every fiber of your being!
B. The real death of baptism
“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.”
Romans 6:5-7 NIV
Dr. M.R. DeHaan put it this way:
In the early days of the church. . . , baptism was a declaration that the believer was definitely identifying himself with that group of people who were called Christians and were despised and hated. To be a Christian meant something. To identify yourself with those who were called Christians meant persecution, maybe death; it meant being ostracized from your family, shunned by friends. And the one act which was the final declaration of this identification was BAPTISM. As long as a man gathered with Christians, he was tolerated, but when once he submitted to baptism, he declared to all the world, I BELONG TO THIS DESPISED GROUP, and immediately he was persecuted, hated, and despised. In baptism, therefore, the believer entered into the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ. A person might be a believer and keep it strictly a secret and thus avoid unpleasantness and suffering, but once he submitted to public baptism he had burned his bridges behind him. . .”
Dr. M.R. DeHaan’s pamphlet, “Water Baptism”, p. 27.
C. The new life in baptism
Recently my 7-year-old son was baptized at nearby Lake Tahoe. With tears streaming down my face, I watched as he came out of the water, then excitedly asked if he felt any different.
"Yeah, Mom, I do," he replied. "Now I have water up my nose!"
Leslie A. Williamson, Gardnerville, NV., Today’s Christian Woman, "Heart to Heart."
“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”
Romans 6:8-14 NIV
1. We are dead to sin.
2. We are alive in Christ.
CONCLUSION
Easter gives us the Gospel, the Lord’s Supper, and baptism.
INVITATION
It is our custom to offer an "invitation" following the preaching of the Word. You may want to follow Jesus. You may want to proclaim your faith. You may want to repent (stop doing ungodly things and start doing Godly things). Perhaps you want to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Possibly, if you have already responded to God’s call in these ways, you would like to become a member of Kenwood Church. If you have been moved by the Holy Spirit to make a decision in your life, you can come forward now. If you would like, I would be honored to speak with you following the service about what God is doing in your life.