Preparing For Easter: An E-A-S-T-E-R Message

(This is based on a message preached Easter Sunday, April 09, 2023 at First Baptist Church of Chamois, MO but is not an exact transcription.)

Introduction: It’s Easter Sunday today, and I’m grateful for everyone who’s here. This is the day we celebrate the Lord Jesus Christ rising from the dead in order to provide salvation for everyone who believes. I hope everyone has done that.

This message is a little different from most that I preach. Today, instead of expounding on a single text, I’m using an “acrostic”, or using each letter of the word Easter, E-A-S-T-E-R, and using that as a starting point. I won’t be reading much text except this passage here, but please let me encourage you to read the last chapters, especially, of each Gospel. I’ll use this passage in John 19 as a starting point and we’ll go from there. Here’s the text:

John 19:16-30, NASV: 16 So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified. 17 They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, carrying His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which in Hebrew is called, Golgotha. 18 There they crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between. 19 Now Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written: “JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” 20 Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and in Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews’; rather, write that He said, ‘I am King of the Jews.’”22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts: a part to each soldier, and the tunic also; but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. 24 So they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be.” This happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: “THEY DIVIDED MY GARMENTS AMONG THEMSELVES, AND THEY CAST LOTS FOR MY CLOTHING.” Therefore the soldiers did these things.

25 Now beside the cross of Jesus stood His mother, His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 So when Jesus saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He *said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then He *said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own household. 28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the Scripture would be fulfilled, *said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. 30 Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

<Opening prayer>

E-Expectations

I mentioned that this is an “acrostic”, where each letter of “Easter” is one point of the message. Let’s take a look at the first letter, E, standing here for “Expectations”.

Reading the Gospels, there were plenty of expectations, all right, especially when Jesus had come into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, fulfilling prophecy (Zechariah 9:9, to name one). The people had shouted “Hosanna!”, cut down tree branches, and not just limbs, either. I think these were branches you had to cut with an axe. These folks had also thrown their clothes where Jesus and the donkey were traveling. They did all this and maybe even more because they really believed their King was coming!

But those expectations didn’t last long, did they? Any number of things can happen to have expectations wither away to nothing. Here’s one example: when my daughter was 10, we bought her a pretty white dress, gloves, shoes, tights, and so one. Hey, she was gorgeous even then! We thought she was going to be so pretty in that white outfit.

That expectation lasted maybe five minutes! Just after she was dressed and ready to go, she came back in the house with my youngest son. My daughter was in tears, her dress was dirty, her tights were torn, and her gloves—yeah, ruined. I asked what had just happened and my youngest said, “We were having a race”.

There were maybe ten steps from the house door to the car door! No need for a “race” of any kind! Well, we got her a different set of clothes and, incredibly, still made it to church on time on that Easter Sunday. This just goes to show that expectations, sometimes, don’t happen.