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.