Easter Preparations - Part 1 Series

If I were to ask most people how they are preparing for Easter, how do you think they might respond? Now, I'm not asking you. I'm asking most people in this world, not this godly, heaven-minded, holy and spiritual family of believers here this morning. But if I were to ask the common person on the street how they were preparing for Easter, how do you think they would respond?

I think best-case scenario would be that they were going to dye some Easter eggs and get some baskets and fill them with that plastic grass stuff and go buy some chocolate bunnies and wear pastel colors to church. That's best-case scenario. Worst-case scenario would be, "Nothing. We don't celebrate Easter. It's just another day."

Now, I know. I know that some people think Easter is a pagan holiday because somebody somewhere once worshiped a Saxon goddess whose name sounds like "Easter" sometime in the spring or something. They say similar things about Christmas and, good grief, don't get 'em started on Halloween! But we celebrate Easter as a day set aside to remember and celebrate the day that Jesus rose from the grave after being dead for three days.

That's kind of a big deal for us Christians. No other religion or belief system can say that about their god. Our God was the Judge who decreed our sin required death. Our God was the Attorney who took our side in the case and our God was the Sacrifice for our sins and paid the price we couldn't pay. Our God died on a cruel cross but came back to life three days later and lives today and is our close Friend. That's something to celebrate, is it not? That's something to say "yeet" about or "amen" or "hallelujah" or something.

Well, this year I want to start getting ready to celebrate Easter by looking in detail about the events that led up to the days that Jesus was crucified and then rose again. I want us to think about what was going through the mind of Jesus, the people around Him and the religious Jews -- the Pharisees and scribes -- and other leaders who actually sentenced Him to death.

We need to realize that Jesus was not responding to the actions of His killers. His killers were reacting to Him and His plan. This was a plan that was set in motion before the creation of the world. Jesus didn't come to Earth to be a good teacher and heal a few folks. He came here to die. That was God's plan all along.

So, for the next few weeks, I want us to take a few snapshots, if you will, of what was going on thousands of miles away and thousands of years ago that affect us here today so wonderfully. Each Sunday through Easter, we will take a picture of a time that represented what was going on as Jesus got closer and closer to the time for His great resurrection. Some of these pictures will be uplifting and some of them not so much. But I want to start with a look at a typical day in the life of Jesus at the beginning of His ministry here.

Turn to the book of Matthew and put your little Bible ribbon there at chapter 9 for today but we will be in Matthew the next few weeks. At this point, Jesus has called most all of His disciples to follow Him and He has done some incredible miracles including calming a raging storm and healing all kinds of diseases and problems and He has taught them some amazing things that they had never heard before. And in this passage we see that no good deed goes unpunished or at least doesn't go without being slandered and bad-mouthed.

Let's read Matthew 9:27-34. There we will see right off that Jesus, in just a short period of time, has already developed quite the reputation and the following.

As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" 28 When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" "Yes, Lord," they replied. 29 Then he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith let it be done to you"; 30 and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, "See that no one knows about this." 31 But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region. 32 While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. 33 And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel." 34 But the Pharisees said, "It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons."