Colors Of Easter

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Introduction

When I was a kid one of my favorite things was getting a new coloring book. There was something thrilling about a book full of pictures waiting for the ¡§Master Artist¡¨ to do his work. You know, even as an adult it¡¦s hard for me to pass an empty piece of paper and not doodle or draw something. Maybe you¡¦re like that, and even if you¡¦re not ¡V I bet you love to see all the colors just like me.

Easter seems to be a lot about color.

The colors of that very first Easter were not so bright and cheery as our colors are today ¡V at least them didn¡¦t seem so cheerful ¡V far from it. That first Easter morning started off cold, callous and oppressive.

I wonder sometimes if the inhabitants of Jerusalem felt a lot like the citizens of Iraq. They were being tyrannized by a cruel dictator names Caesar and the religious leaders of their day didn¡¦t make their lives any easier.

There was a feeling of death that first Easter. It had been a bloody, cruel Friday outside the city walls of Jerusalem. It was anything but a ¡§Good Friday¡¨. Three men had hung on rough, Roman crosses. Two were known criminals, but the One in the middle had done nothing to deserve capital punishment. Even the Roman Governor has shouted ¡§I find no fault in Him¡¨. But under the pressure of the religious leaders and the people he had allowed the crucifixion to take place anyway.

While he hung on the cross a strange darkness fell over the earth. There was a cry from the Man on the middle cross ¡V Jesus Christ ¡V ¡§My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?¡¨ And a short time later His final words, ¡§It is finished¡¨ and then Jesus died.

A small group of followers took Jesus¡¦ body from the cross, quickly wrapped it in a burial cloth and then laid the body in a borrowed tomb close to the site of the crucifixion. They closed the tomb and walked away.

Later Roman guards were posted in from of the tomb to make sure nothing would happen to the body.

That¡¦s how the first Easter began ¡V as a dark, cruel, depressing Friday. But Easter changed everything ¡V even the colors!

Just before the sun rose that first Easter morning the earth shook, the stone covering the entrance to the tomb rolled away and Jesus walked out of the grave ALIVE!

He had risen from the dead ¡V resurrected. He came back to life proving that He was God; Proving that death had no power over Him.

And when He walked out of that tomb, it changed everything!

This morning as we celebrate our first Easter together as FamilyFellowship ¡V I want us to take a look at some of the colors of Easter and the amazing truth behind those colors.

You¡¦ve all heard of ¡§scratch and sniff¡¨ ¡V well this morning as we look at the Colors of Easter we¡¦re going to take a sort of ¡§taste and see¡¨ approach to the experience. Inside each of your discovery packets this morning is a small bag of Jelly Beans. They correspond to the colors we¡¦re going to discover this morning. So if you are feeling adventurous I invite you to eat along with me as we work our way through the colors of Easter!

All the colors of Easter fit together to tell a wonderful, compelling story of Jesus¡¦ power.

GOLD ¡V the first color of Easter!

Gold represents where He came from and who Jesus is.

If you are familiar with the Christmas story and the three Wisemen you will remember that the very first gift they brought to the Baby Jesus was¡KGOLD. Why, because gold was a sign of royalty ¡V of deity. It represented the very best.

The Bible tells us ¡§Never forget that Jesus Christ was a man born into King David¡¦s family and that he was raised from the dead. This is the Good News I preach. ¡¨ [2 Tim 2:8]

Jesus was God who became man.

The song we sang a moment ago shares it as straight forward as it gets: ¡§He came from heaven to earth to show the way¡K¡¨

People have argued for years over the deity of Jesus Christ. Yet it¡¦s hard to get around the facts: his miracles, his message and ultimately his resurrection all point to the truth that Jesus is God.

The very first verse in the Gospel of John tells us ¡§In the beginning was the Word (that¡¦s Jesus) ¡V the Word already existed. He was with God and he was God. ¡¨ [John 1:1]

Jesus came from heaven to Earth for one specific purpose. The Gospel of John again tells us: ¡§For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it. ¡¨ [John 3:16-17]