What Difference Does Easter Make?
“Why the CHRIST Makes All The Difference”
2 Corinthians 5:21
Does one person really make all that much difference?
When I was in the fourth grade I had a SS teacher who wasn’t like any of the SS teachers I had before. Bruce challenged us with one thing: memorize the bible verses for the quarter and he’d make us an award—things like trophies, a plaque, a pencil holder. Each one was engraved or etched or burned with our names on them, the quarter and year and what it was for. I have at least four of those awards. Bruce also had overnighters at his house. He’d take the 4-6 graders camping or canoeing—things he enjoyed doing too. I have never forgotten my SS teacher Bruce Gramling.
Did you have someone in your life who made a big difference? Someone who not only taught you in class but outside of class too? Someone who made unexplainable sacrifices for you. Someone who lived what they believed. Did you have someone whose life helped you to make more sense of your own? And because they invested in you, your life is changed for the better. Who would it be?
I hope you can name more than just one. For myself there are several I can think of. There are several moments in my own history where one person made a big difference in my life. There are many moments in history where because of one person it made all the difference too.
Try to image these events in American history with one missing person:
• Try to imagine the Civil War without Abe Lincoln or General Grant.
• Try to imagine WW II without Douglas McArthur or Winston Churchill, Eisenhower or Patton.
• Try to imagine the civil rights movement without Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks.
• Try to imagine the Super Bowl WITHOUT Payton Manning or Tony Dungy!
• Try to imagine your life without just one of your significant relationships: spouse, a mother, father, sister, brother, a cousin, adopted or foster parent, school teacher, coach or pastor, Sunday school teacher, camp counselor, tutor or a troop leader…if just one of those people were missing in your life it’d be changed. Why? They were in your life or came into your life at such a time that made all the difference to you!
In many areas of our lives, one person makes all the difference.
• It makes all the difference to have two parents instead of just one. A mom or a dad missing in the child’s life makes all the difference.
• It makes all the difference to have 11 players on the field to play football for a game versus only 10. One missing player to run in plays or run a pass pattern on the field or to block a defender at a certain time makes all the difference.
• It makes all the difference to have the total number of guards needed at a prison. The ratio for control is very important and one missing guard makes for a hole in security.
• It makes all the difference to have all of your kids with you when you leave WalMart.
• It makes all the difference to have church be about one person. If that person is missing or isn’t the center or if he doesn’t show up, it makes all the difference! Now I’m not talking about the pastor. Pastors come and go, but Jesus Christ must remain.
ONE PERSON MAKES A DIFFERENCE. It is true to life! And it was just as true that first Easter. Jesus was one incredible person! There was NEVER anyone like him nor will there ever be anyone like him.
Jesus makes all the difference in many ways. I want to speak about how Jesus makes all the difference to Easter in just three of those ways. Perhaps you already know how. Then let this be review for you.
2nd Corinthians 5:21 states, “For God caused Christ, who knew nothing of sin, to be sin for our sake...”
This is a great verse in Paul’s writing for several reasons. Its place in this passage is significant because all that comes before and all that comes after seems to hinge upon this one thought.
It is great also because of who it is referring to. And great because it explains the mind of God to us and shares his purpose to us.
When it states that Jesus didn’t KNOW sin, Paul speaks to Jesus’ personal acquaintance or experience with sin. Paul wants to express that Jesus had no sin which he gained by personal participation in sin.
Christ was fully aware of the reality of sin and observed sin in others, but he himself NEVER had personal involvement in sin. Neither outwardly in act nor inwardly in attitude did Christ sin, and at no time was his conscience stained by sin. This is the only place in Paul’s writing where he is so explicit in his affirmation of Christ’s sinlessness.
1. Jesus makes all the difference to Easter because WHO YOU ARE MAKES all THE DIFFERENCE.
What kind of a person was Jesus? = DEFINITELY SINLESS.
THE CHRIST MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE BECAUSE HE WAS UNLIKE ANYONE WHO EVER LIVED! He was sinless. Like no caffeine in 7up, Jesus “never had it, never will.” It is sort of like oil and water. The two never can get it together and are completely mixed. They always separate. So with Jesus; he lived in this sinful world but never got mixed up in it.
Jesus was fully man and fully God
He was born by a miracle, entirely free from sin, tempted in every way as we are yet without sin (Heb 4:15).
Jesus fulfilled his Father’s perfect will through His obedience
He was raised from the dead, taken into heaven, reigns from heaven and continues to be our mediator
You can sum up who Jesus was into three categories: He was Prophet (predicting, preaching, miracle-working), Priest (sacrifice), King (judge & ruler).
Now, imagine the most vile, most disgusting, most foul smelling fluids sitting in a huge vat in front of you. The fluids have been infected with Mad Cow disease, the HIV virus, Cancer, every STD, and other awful diseases, bacteria and decayed flesh. Picture yourself being submerged in it, drinking it, tasting it, breathing it, having it get in your eyes, nose, mouth and your ears. That wouldn’t even come close to imagining what it was like for the Holy Son of God to be submerged into the filth and death of Sin.
Could you have done it? Paul said in Romans 5:6-8, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
Jesus said it like this, “Greater love has no one than this, than he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.” (Jn 15.13) The Christ makes all the difference to Easter because of WHO HE IS.
2. The CHRIST makes all the difference to Easter because WHAT YOU DO MAKES all THE DIFFERENCE
What did Jesus do? = DIRECT SUBSTITUTE.
A young boy was explaining basic Christian Theology to his younger sister: “You see, it was Jesus’ job to die for our sins; it’s our job to sin.”
THE CHRIST MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE BECAUSE HE TOOK OUR PLACE TO DIE! God caused Christ to be identified in some way with what was foreign to his experience—human sin. God caused the sinless one to be sin,” God did this. But Jesus was not an unwilling or a surprised participant in God’s action. He willingly identified with our sinfulness.
In the OT book of Leviticus, there is a command for participants who provide sacrifice for sin to bring an animal and lay their hand on the animals head in an act of identifying with the animal’s fate and transferring their own fate from their self to the animal. On the Day of Atonement a scapegoat is driven into the desert, carrying on its head “all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites — all their sins”.
God caused Christ to be the very personification of sin. He is made one with the reality of sin and its consequences. Christ came to stand in that relation with God which is normally the result of sin—estranged from God, and the subsequent object of his wrath.
God transferred every sinners’ sin on to the sinless one. All sin that was in your account was transferred out and into Christ’s account. Jesus took it ALL and he is the only one who could ever do that! He totally identified with every one of your sins and every one of the sins of those in this room and who ever lived throughout history. Jesus Christ assumed the full responsibility for your sin—the full penalty and guilt of our sin. He was the full substitute, the full representative for our sins and our Sin!
Jesus died a death under the divine wrath that was deserved by sinners. The divine action was on our behalf, for us! Jesus Christ stepped in and took our place! He was our fall guy! He was our double! In the final scene of the movie of your life where you get what you deserve for your sins, where you get punished, where you get crucified for your sins, the Divine Movie Director stands up and with his megaphone shouts, “CUT! SEND IN THE DOUBLE!” And Jesus walks on the scene, escorts you off the stage, and returns to take your place in receiving the nails you should have taken for your sins!
In a sense beyond human comprehension, God treated Christ as “sin,” aligning him so totally with sin and its dire consequences that from God’s viewpoint he became indistinguishable from sin itself.
In the little letter Paul wrote to his friend Philemon, Paul communicates what it is to know that someone who makes all the difference by doing what Christ would do. Philemon’s slave, Onesimus, stole from his master and then fled to Rome. Because of his crimes, he could have been crucified. But in the providence of God, Onesimus met Paul and was converted. Paul wrote in his letter to Philemon to encourage his friend to forgive Onesimus and receive him home. “Receive him as you would receive me,” wrote Paul (Phile. 17); “if he... owes you anything, put it on my account” (Phile. 18). Paul was willing to pay the bill so that Onesimus and Philemon could be reconciled.
3. The CHRIST makes all the difference to Easter because OF WHAT HE GAVE UP
THE PURPOSE OF JESUS CHRIST: A Divine SWAP. THE CHRIST MAKES ALL DIFFERENCE BECAUSE IN HIM WE BECOME MORE THAN WHAT WE ARE FOREVER.
What my SS teacher Bruce did for me was a wonderful sacrifice. He took money from his own pocket to buy the wood needed to make those trophies; used his electricity and the wear and tear on his tools and on his body and hands to make those awards for me. And there are many others like him that have invested in my life to help me get to where I am today. And Bruce and others like him did those things for us 4th graders because they had something happen for them that perhaps at the time I didn’t know or understand.
Bruce knew Jesus Christ. His life was different because of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus swapped lives with Bruce, Bruce was more than he was before he knew Christ. And because Bruce was MORE because of Christ Bruce had something MORE to give away—to give away to a kid like me. What Bruce had was the life that swapped out and the life was swapped in. Jesus Christ swapped Bruce His own right status with God for Bruce’s own sin status with God. And Bruce, not being a fool, thought that a good trade.
“So that, by being in him, we might become the righteousness of God.” Our desires dictate our actions; the desires come first. God’s desire first was being in a relationship with us, having you and me in a state he could commune with without sin’s interruption! And this is what he wanted to have happen BEFORE Christ was made sin! And that is the reason it took the sinless Jesus Christ, substituting our place on that cross, dying our death, and swapping his righteous life for our sinful one. Sound like a good trade?
And that’s how Christ makes Easter ALL the difference! You can have his difference become YOUR difference today! He identified with you so you could identify with Him. So are you identified? Has his righteousness become fully know to you? Are you getting more and more acquainted with God? If not, then you do not know Him; if you do not know Him, you can change that today. Everything that could be done and was needed to be done HAS been done for you so you can stand free and clear in the presence of God and be His friend! You can have an exciting relationship with the Creator of the universe! You can know him, love him, know his love for you and know he knows you!
I have had several conversations with people who were brought up in the church who couldn’t say they knew God loved them. I spoke to one lady and said, “God loves you,” and she replied, “Oh I sure hope so!” The Bible says ‘who hopes for they have?’ We don’t hope for something we already have. This lady didn’t have the love of God within her and didn’t know his love for her so she could only HOPE!
John wrote in his first epistle, ‘I write these things so that you may KNOW you have eternal life.’ God wants you to have assurance of your salvation, He has made it possible for you to KNOW you are saved, that you have a relationship with Him and are not only going to heaven when you die, but can live each day with a little bit more of heaven in your life! I didn’t always know this, but when the light was turned on my Sophomore year in High School, it made all the difference! It was Easter everyday! And I want to tell the world about it!
If you don’t know Jesus Christ today or if you’ve been leaving him behind and out of the picture of things going on your life right now, let’s pray together here at the altar and ask God to give you the assurance that only he can give! He’ll give you Christ if you come just as you are!
