It’s Easter Sunday again.
This morning we celebrate that Jesus is Alive.
We celebrate because of His death on the Cross that means our sins can be forgiven.
We celebrate because He rose from the grave and defeated death so that we might live.
This month we are considering together the Supernatural Stream of God’s Promise and my title for this mornings sermon is:
The Promise of The Cross
Christianity is a supernatural faith, but it has its basis firmly rooted in historical facts.
Our faith depends on us believing the true historic facts that Jesus was crucified and that He rose from the grave.
Either Jesus Christ rose from the dead or He did not.
The Bible says He rose, the history of Christianity proves He arose.
The personal experience of every born-again believer agrees with the biblical record.
Jesus Christ is alive today.
For us to fully grasp the Events of that first Easter Sunday, we need to take a moment to consider the Event that took place on the first Good Friday - the crucifixion of Jesus.
The Crucifixion of Jesus is at the centre of the Message of the Gospel.
The prophecies and predictions recorded in the Old Testament were fulfilled when Jesus hung on the cross.
The events leading up to Christ’s death are filled with emotion, but it is when Jesus,
the Spotless Lamb of God, becomes our substitute,
when He takes the punishment for Sin that we deserve, when He bears the full penalty of our Sin, that is when we really marvel at the amazing infinite grace and love of God.
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You know the events that led to the Cross,
Jesus had eaten the Passover supper with his disciples on Thursday evening.
Then He and His disciples went to the garden in Gethsemane to pray.
It was there in the Garden that Jesus was arrested, and before 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning, he had been tried six times—three times before a Jewish group and three times before a Roman court.
Jesus refused to speak in his defence - He knew what had to happen.
False witnesses spoke against Him, and He was treated shamefully.
Then a crown of thorns was pushed into place on His head and people spat on Him.
At His crucifixion, the soldiers divided up his clothes and gambled with dice to win them.
Jesus was put on a cross and crucified between two thieves.
All the mockery, all the ridicule, the suffering and the pain of crucifixion. Yet God was at work!
God was providing our way back to Him because of what Jesus endured on the Cross.
God’s plan of redemption was in progress to save sinners like me and you.
None of us will ever completely understand what Christ accomplished on the cross.
It is beyond our human comprehension,
but we can thank God this morning that the promise of redemption for all who trust in Jesus as Lord and Saviour was made reality at the cross.
We look to the Cross in faith and say “I am a sinner, and the mercy of God is revealed to me in the death of Jesus,” then a miracle occurs in our lives.
The Apostle Paul called it being “saved,” Jesus spoke of it as being “born again.”
We are transformed when we know we are accepted by God, when we know we have been forgiven because of the saving work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
5 things for us to consider in relation to the cross.
I. The Man of the cross.
II. The Maker of the cross.
III. The mercy of the cross.
IV. The message of the cross.
V. The miracle after the cross.
I. The Man of the cross.
Jesus was more than just a good man - He was the Son of God.
He was the one who fulfilled the promise given long before His birth that a virgin would become pregnant.
Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin.
Those who knew him testified concerning his true nature. Simon Peter called Him “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16).
John the Baptist testified, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
After the resurrection, Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).
History is filled with the testimony of people who, though they lived after Him, have joined those who knew him in the flesh in proclaiming Jesus greatness, deity and equality with God the Father.
II. The Maker of the cross.
Who was responsible for Jesus’ death?
If we look at it only from our human perspective, some people would say it was the Roman soldiers who nailed Jesus to the cross.
But the soldiers were only doing a job they had done many times before.
If we go back a little further, some might say Jesus’ crucifixion was Pilate’s fault.
Pilate was the one who failed to set Jesus free even when the evidence indicated that there was no guilt.
Pilate took a bowl of water and washed his hands, declaring that he was innocent of the blood of “this just person.”
If we go further back, some might say it was the Jewish leaders who handed Jesus over to Pilate.
Jesus had refused to accept their legalistic, compassionless, religious obedience to rituals and laws.
Or some might blame Judas, after all he was the one that sold Jesus out for 30 pieces of silver - the price of a salve.
It was Judas that identified Jesus in the garden with a kiss so that the Roman soldiers would know who to arrest.
Actually while each of these people were involved none of them were to blame for the crucifiction of Jesus.
The death of Jesus was an event that had been planned in the mind of God from before the creation of this world.
All of God’s dealings with humanity pointed toward this event.
This Cross was the God’s plan from the start!
Jesus had to die so that God’s redemptive plan could be fulfilled.
The Bible demonstrates that the sinfulness of humanity made redemption a necessity.
We are sinners by nature and by practice,
we can never be good enough to save ourselves.
We are the reason Jesus had to die.
It was our sin took Jesus to the cross.
The preacher and hymn writer Horatius Bonar said:
’Twas I that shed the sacred blood.
I nailed Him to the tree.
I crucified the Christ of God.
I joined the mockery.
Of all that shouting multitude
I feel that I am one.
And in that din of voices rude
I recognize my own.
III. The mercy of the cross.
At Calvary in the death of Jesus we really see the heart of God.
At Calvary Jesus gave His life as an offering for our sin.
His life was not taken away from Him; He gave it of His own free will.
Remember in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus told Peter that He could pray to God the Father and more than twelve legions of angels would come to His rescue.
Yet Jesus offered no resistance to His arrest or to His crucifixion because of His love and mercy for us.
As sinners we are lost.
Lost people do not need justice; they need mercy.
If God dealt with us on the basis of justice, none of us would have any hope.
But our salvation is salvation by grace.
Grace is the free and undeserved mercy of God.
IV. The message of the cross.
There is a two-part call from Calvary.
First, to the person who has never repented of sin and trusted in Jesus for salvation, the message is to receive Christ as your personal Saviour.
When Jesus died on the cross, he paid the penalty of sin for all who believe in Him.
He carried our burden
Jesus suffered the punishment we deserve to suffer
Jesus was God in the flesh, He had an infinite ability to suffer everything that we deserve to suffer.
The cross of Jesus calls for repentance from sin and complete trust in Jesus as personal Saviour.
People are saved, born again, when they accept the justification purchased by Jesus at Calvary.
In justification people receive a new standing before God.
People are justified on the basis of the one who has died in their place.
Accompanying justification is regeneration.
The change that takes place in the hearts of people when the death of Christ on the cross moves their hearts and the Holy Spirit makes them new persons in Jesus Christ.
Then the second part of the call is to those who have already accepted Jesus as Saviour.
To those who have already been saved, the cross has a continuing message.
We are to live in the shadow of the cross and never forget that we are redeemed by the blood of Jesus.
The blood that cleansed us from our sins signed us up to a lifelong commitment to the lordship of Christ in our lives.
We have been saved from the punishment and consequences of our sin. But that does not mean we can behave in whatever way we want to.
We are saved to live godly lives, we are saved to be unselfish in our service to God and to others.
Every time we think of Calvary, we should remember that it is only because of God’s love and mercy.
We are saved, we are children of the living God.
We have peace and the assurance of eternal life because Jesus died on the cross and rose again.
Skeptics have attempted to explain away the resurrection of Jesus by saying He never actually died.
The bible is clear Jesus actually died on the cross.
The soldiers who broke the legs of the two thieves who were crucified beside Jesus, but when they came to Jesus, they found He was already dead and did not break His legs.
Joseph of Arimathea begged for Jesus’ body.
He took it down from the cross, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in the tomb.
The Gospel of Matthew tells how the Pharisees went to Pilate and asked him to be certain that the tomb was secure to prevent Jesus’ disciples from stealing His body.
Every bit of evidence points to the fact that Jesus died.
But that is not the end of the story is it?
V. Lets conclude by looking at the Miracle After the Cross
One of the strongest proofs that Jesus actually arose is that his followers were so slow to accept His resurrection as a fact.
The four gospel writers tell the story — each from their own viewpoint and there are no contradictions, the stories blend into one beautiful account.
The first people to see Jesus alive after His resurrection were the women who went to the tomb early that Sunday morning.
They wondered about moving the great stone door of the tomb but found when they arrived that it had already been removed and the tomb was open.
Mary Magdalene immediately ran to find Peter and John and tell them that someone had taken Jesus’ body.
While she was gone, the other women entered the tomb and saw an angel who told them that Jesus had risen.
They also went to tell the disciples.
Meanwhile, Mary Magdalene had found Peter and John.
She told them what she had seen and then returned to the tomb.
It seems Peter and John arrived before her.
John ran faster than Peter and arrived first, but he only looked into the tomb and did not enter it.
When Peter came, he went straight into the tomb, and then John followed him.
They saw the linen cloths lying together and the cloth that had been around the head of Jesus rolled up in a place by itself.
John was the first of the apostles to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead.
After Peter and John left, Mary Magdalene arrived the second time.
It was then that she saw Jesus and spoke to Him.
This was the first post-resurrection appearance of Jesus.
From then on events happened quickly.
Jesus met the women as they were going to carry the apostles news of the resurrection.
Then He appeared to Simon Peter.
His fourth appearance was to two disciples journeying from Jerusalem to Emmaus.
Then Jesus appeared to the disciples, except Thomas, in the upper room and a week later to the disciples, including Thomas.
The fears of the disciples were dispelled, they became men of joy, boldness, and dynamic energy.
The experienced for themselves the proof that Jesus was alive.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ turned eleven men who were utterly defeated into a bold completely committed band of witnesses.
From the time of these true believers in Jesus Christ, to the present day, the message of the resurrected Jesus has been proclaimed.
His resurrection power is available to us today!
In many ways, our world is living under the same conditions as those discouraged, depressed, and defeated disciples were from Friday to Resurrection Sunday.
The power and the presence of God is with us because Jesus is alive today.
In Him, by faith, we have victory over Sin, we have the assurance of eternal life.
Jesus recognised that Thomas believed because he saw, but he said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29 NIV).
We are in that great group.
We have seen and believed not with the eyes of flesh but with the eyes of faith.
Faith brings dynamic power. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians (3:10 NIV) concerning the great desire of his life, he said, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection.”
It was in the power of the risen Christ that the early Christians went forth to change the world and we are called to do the same.
Do you feel you have a weak faith? Have you surrendered yourself completely to the risen Jesus?
Do you need God to help you to change your life?
Jesus Christ is living. He’s alive.
He has risen from the dead.
As our Lord gave his Great Commission, He promised to always be with His disciples,
When this fact grips our hearts as it should, we can begin to live in the power of the risen Christ.
Through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection God made possible the forgiveness of sinners and their sin.
Friends, this morning, this Resurrection Sunday, put your faith, put your trust in Jesus, the risen Lord and Saviour.
Trust the One who loved you so much He was willing to die for you.
Trust the One who has conquered death and the grave.
Christ alone deserves to be the Lord of our lives.
May the risen Christ be real in your heart today and everyday.
Amen
