Easter 2025 – When Adversity Comes
Scripture: John 8:12; Mark 10:32-34; 16:9-11; James 1:2-3
Good morning Strangers Rest and happy Easter. This is surely the day the Lord has made so let us rejoice and be glad in it! Today we pause to commemorate the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If Jesus had not rose from the dead we would not have the opportunity to change where we will spend eternity. Hell and the lake of fire would have been our only option. But today we can praise God and remember why we chose Jesus as our Lord and Savior. He and He alone is truly the only way to the Father, and we see this in John 14:6. “Jesus said to him (Thomas), ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” This morning, I will be talking to you about adversity. Webster’s dictionary defines adversity as “a state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune.” This morning, we will be examining the adversity the disciples faced when Jesus was crucified.
Let me begin by sharing a story with you to set the stage. I ask for your indulgence if you have read or heard this story before. The story is called “Carrots, Eggs and Coffee.” “A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up as she was tired of fighting and struggling. Her mother, after listening to her, rose and took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots of water and placed each on the stove on high heat. Soon the water in each pot came to a boil. In the first pot she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last pot she placed ground coffee beans. She let them boil without saying a word.
After about twenty minutes, she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots and the eggs out and placed them in separate bowls. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup. Turning to her daughter, she asked, ‘Tell me what you see.’ ‘Carrots, eggs and coffee,’ she replied. Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother asked her daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hardboiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, ‘What does it mean, mother?’
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, the inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they changed the water. ‘Which are you?’ she asked her daughter. When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?”
Every person that has ever lived and will ever live on this earth will face adversity at some point in their life. They will experience difficult situations that, depending on how they respond to it, could change them forever. It has been said that we are all the sum of our experiences and in some ways that is a true statement. Our experiences have shaped how we see the world. Although we cannot change past experiences, we can change their lasting impact on our lives and, this is important, how future experiences impact our lives. Jesus died on the cross so that our experiences do not define us. He died on the cross so that we could live victoriously in a world that desires to destroy us spiritually.
If you remember nothing else from this message today, please remember this: “What God has shared with you in the Light, do not forget in the darkness.” I want you to let that sink in for a moment. When things are going right in our lives, it is easier for us to remember the words of Jesus (the Light) as we walk in our perceived blessings. Jesus said, “……I am the light of the world: he that follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of life.” (John 8:12b) Jesus is our Light and our adversity can at times represent darkness. It is during these times of adversity that we can and often struggle to remember the encouraging words of our Lord and Savior. We are not alone as the disciples also struggled with this.
I want to read a few verses from the tenth chapter of Gospel of Mark, beginning at verse thirty-two, that talk about Jesus’ final entry into Jerusalem. “(32) Now they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed. And as they followed they were afraid. Then He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to Him: (33) ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; (34) and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.’” (Mark 10:32-34) As they were walking towards Jerusalem for the last time, Jesus told His disciples exactly what was going to happen to Him in Jerusalem. He told them that He would be taken, given to the Gentiles (Romans soldiers), mocked, spit on, beaten and finally killed. Had He stopped there that would have been enough for anyone to experience anxiety, depression, sadness, and great concern for His life – but not Jesus. Then He told them after all that happened on the “…. third day He will rise again.” He told them what would happen and that in three days it would all be over because He would rise again in total victory. It is obvious that the disciples focused on the first things Jesus said and totally missed the ending – that He would rise again.
In John chapter thirteen, during their last supper, Jesus was troubled in His spirit, so He again shares with His disciples in more detail as to what was about to happen. As they listened, their hearts became troubled. Jesus knowing this tells them in John chapter fourteen, “(1) Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. (2) In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. (4) And where I go you know, and the way you know.” (John 14:1-4) Once again Jesus attempts to comfort them by sharing with them that His death was not the end but a new beginning, but the disciples did not understand what He was sharing with them.
So, what happened when they got to Jerusalem? Exactly what Jesus said would happen. Jesus was arrested, mocked, spit on, scourged (beaten) and finally killed. Everything up to and including the moment He was killed was just as He said it would be. You would think that His followers, especially His disciples, would have been encouraged and looking forward to Sunday – but they were not. You see, what Jesus had shared with them in the light was forgotten in that dark moment – the days following His death. When Christ died on the cross everyone thought that His life was over. They believed in their hearts that what they had witnessed and experienced for those three years was over and there was nothing else for them to do. They did not understand that their lives were about to change drastically forever.
Let me read a few verses so you can see what I am talking about. Mark 16:9-11 says, “(9) Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. (10) She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. (11) And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.” Luke, the physician, recorded this story with a few more details. In chapter twenty-four he wrote, “(10) It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles. (11) And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them.” (Luke 24:10-11)
When they heard that Jesus was indeed alive, they did not believe; they did not accept the report; and they looked at the women as if they were crazy. This was not the response of someone expecting Christ to return. They were acting on their belief that He was dead and would remain that way. But what if they had believed differently? Would their response have been different? Remember, whatever we believe will dictate our actions. The disciples believed Jesus was dead and forgot He had told them that He would rise again. In their adversity (Jesus’ death) they had forgotten what He had told them in the light. But what would their responses have been had they remembered? When they were in their darkest hour, what if they had remembers what was told to them by the Light?
What if they knew come Sunday morning, they were going to the gravesite to make sure He got out okay? Instead of grieving and being depressed, they would have been planning the next stages for the ministry. Having completed the first phase with Jesus training them and then dying on a cross for mankind, they would now be making the necessary preparations for Christ’s return because they only had three days until everything would change. Then as they received word from Mary Magdalene and the others that He had rose from the dead, the celebrations would have started. In fact, they might have been camped out at the grave site in anticipation of His rising and wanting to witness the event. There would have been a praise service unlike anything that they had ever participated in before because now the ultimate had happened – Christ had conquered death, and death was no longer to be feared. If they had known and believed, they would have told Jesus, “Jesus, we know this is going to hurt you physically, but we will definitely be waiting on you Sunday morning.” Can you see them asking Him, “Okay Jesus, what do You need us to do while you’re in the grave dealing with Satan and stripping him of his power.” Their attitudes and their actions would have been different had they known and believed. In every case, they acted on what they believed. On this Easter morning – what do you believe?
Think about some of the things you have done in your life. How many times have you acted based on something you believed, even if what you believed was later proven to be wrong? You see, it is not always about the truth, but it is always about the belief. This is what is easily identified when we face adversity. The first part of Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he….” Our first response when we face adversity will be based on what we believe, what is in our hearts. What we believe will dictate our response. In the story that I mentioned earlier, the daughter believed that it was time to give up. She believed that her life would not get better. She wanted to give up because she believed there was no other way for her. Based on what she believed about her situation, she was ready to quit as she had grown tired of fighting.
Now let’s examine the mother. The mother believed in her heart that her daughter could overcome this period in her life, but she needed a way to make it plain for her daughter. So, without saying a word, she showed her daughter three diverse ways one could choose to deal with adversity. Had the mother believed that all was lost for her daughter, she could have bailed her out. But this would have been a temporary fix. The mother acted on her belief that if she could prove to her daughter that she needed to change her response to adversity versus the adversity that would always come, then her daughter would see adversity in a different light and her life would be changed forever. Both acted on what they believed. We also find a similar response with the disciples when Jesus was taken and crucified. They believed that He was gone forever, and this belief is what they were responding to when they heard that He was alive.
As I said at the beginning of this message, what has been shared with us in the Light must not be forgotten in the darkness. God sent His Son to die for us on a cross and this morning we are here to commemorate His Son’s death and celebrate His Son’s resurrection. When Jesus rose from the dead He provided for everyone who would call on His name the opportunity to become children of God. He gave us the opportunity to turn time back; from being born into sin to being reborn in Him. That means something people! We should not be celebrating Jesus’ death and resurrection one day a year, it should be our lifestyle. So, I want to ask you this morning, if you are facing any darkness in your life today, are you remembering what was shared with you in the Light?
Remember I said earlier what Jesus himself said, “…. I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6) I do not know what darkness you may be facing, but I do know that Jesus said He was “the way, the truth and the life.” When you are going through your dark times, remember what the Light said – He is the way! No person can come out of spiritual darkness except through Him. He is the only way that leads to salvation. But what about our other problems? What about the things we must deal with that come upon us after we are saved? Because He is the way, the truth, and the life, don’t forget what He has said and what has been said about Him as it relates to those who believe in Him. If you are dealing with some situations right now and it seems like it too much to bear, REMEMBER! If you are sick, and you are not sure of your prognosis, REMEMBER! If you are dealing with problems on the job, REMEMBER! Remember what you ask? Remember that you are never alone and God, because of what His Son did on the cross, is forever with us.
This is why James 1:2-3 says “(2) My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, (3) knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” The word “temptations” in this verse means “tests or trials.” We know that Satan will use any and every situation to test our faith as he tries to get us to abandon the promises of God. Now I didn’t say that Satan causes the test; I said he will use the test in every way imaginable to get us to doubt God’s love and His faithfulness towards us. I am not going to belabor this point, but it is important: sometimes the trials or tests we face are the results of the decisions we have made. But even in this, REMEMBER! We know that some seasons in our lives will be more trying than others and it will be hard to find joy in those seasons, but James tells us that it is possible to have that joy. So, if James said we could have joy in the midst of our trials (tribulations) it had to have been for a reason – it had to be because it was the truth. Isaiah tells us why it is true.
Isaiah 49:15-16 says, “(15) Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. (16) See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me.” (Isaiah 49:15-16) God will never forget us – period!!! When God’s people were dealing with a tough situation (a period of darkness) they began to believe and accuse God of forgetting about them. When dealing with your dark moments, have you ever felt like God had forgotten about you? God told them He had not forgotten them as He has not forgotten any of us. God said, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you.” (Vs. 15) God used the example of a mother caring for her child and says that His love for us is greater than a mother who is nursing a child. We all know that there is a special bond that is created between a mother and a nursing infant, but God says it’s still possible for that mother to forget her nursing child. However, it is not possible for Him to forget us! And He didn’t stop there.
In verse sixteen He says “See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me.” God says that He has engraved us upon the palms of His hands. Most of us need to write down a phone number or a note on the palms of our hands at one time or another because we did not have paper. The information was so important to us that we wanted to ensure that we didn’t forget or lose it, so we wrote it in our palm. Once we did that we did not wash our hands until we got some paper where you could transfer the information from our hand to the paper. Now imagine, if you will, that it would be a month before you got to some paper. How could you guarantee that the information would still be on your palm? Well, you could do it by “engraving” or tattooing the information on your palm. Then it would be permanent. This is the image that God gives us in these verses. God figuratively says He has inscribed or tattooed a picture of us on the palm of His hands. We are so important to Him that He has engraved our image in the palm of His hands. Our Father has made it so He can always hold up His hands to see and remember us! WOW! This is what we need to remember when we are facing dark times! God see us. He sees our situation and He is actively bringing us through them – one by one.
I want to close this morning with what was recorded in Isaiah 41. We’re going to read verses 10 through 13. “(10) Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. (11) Behold, all those who were incensed against you shall be ashamed and disgraced; they shall be as nothing, and those who strive with you shall perish. (12) You shall seek them and not find them, those who contended with you. Those who war against you shall be as nothing, as a nonexistent thing. (13) For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’'’ (Isaiah 41:10-13) The Lord says, “Do not fear, for I am with you.” God does not change. God is telling us not to live in fear of our situation. We may not have all the answers, but we do not have to live in fear.
I started this message with a story, so I think it’s appropriate that I end it with that story. All of us face adversity – dark days, and sometimes that darkness causes us to forget, just the Jesus’ disciples, what the Word has told us about our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Because we forget, sometimes that adversity (darkness) causes us to become weak and sickly. The strain of always having something thrown at you; of always having to fight to get ahead can take its toll. In the story, consider the carrots. If you take a carrot out of the refrigerator and bite into it, it is hard, solid, and crunchy. It takes some strength to cut it with a knife. But when that strong, solid carrot was placed in the boiling water, the boiling water made it soft. The boiling water kept attacking it until the carrot finally gave in. When all was said and done the carrot was changed, but the water remained the same.
But there is another side to this carrot story. You see, there are many people who are so strong and hard that God cannot use them. They are so full of pride that they believe that they do not need God. Yet when they are faced with such adversity and are forced to call on Him, it is only then that they realize that they do need God. It is at that moment that they become soft, more humble, and more willing to allow God to use them. Paul records what Jesus said to him when he was complaining about his adversity in Second Corinthians 12:9. It says, “And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” If our adversity beats us down to the point where we turn to God and rely on His strength versus our own, then it is okay to become like the carrot.
Now when the egg went into the boiling water, its shell protected it against the water, so the water could not seep in. However, its shell could not protect it against the heat and when it was over the egg had changed but the water was the same. There are many people who experience adversities and become hardened by them on the inside. Where before they were loving, kind, and willing to help others, after experiencing some adversity, they became hard, bitter, and unrelenting. This is not what Christ would have us to become when we face adversity. If you have changed your outlook on life based on the challenging times you have experienced and you are not allowing the love of God to flow through you to others, it is not too late. Accept the love that Christ has made available to you; allow Him to provide the healing you need from your past experiences.
Finally, we return to the coffee bean. When the coffee bean went into the boiling water, it embraced it. Its embrace was like what we read in James earlier, “(2) My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, (3) knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” The coffee bean’s embrace of the boiling water was also like Paul saying, “…. I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” after Jesus told him that His power was perfected in weakness. The coffee bean did not fight against the boiling water; it did not fight against the adversity. The coffee bean embraced it, and not only was it changed, but it changed the adversity also. Remember, not only did the boiling water cease to be boiling water, but the coffee bean also ceased to be a coffee bean. The coffee bean allowed itself to be changed in order to change the adversity (its response to the darkness.) The coffee bean knew that by embracing the boiling water, it would achieve its purpose. Sometimes when adversity comes God can use it to work out something within us. The adversity can change us for the better. When we recognize that through our weakness Christ’s power is perfected, it changes how we see our weaknesses.
As I close this morning, remember what God has shared with you in the Light and do not forget in the darkness. Today, as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, remember what His death and resurrection provided for us. Remember why He chose to die and the fact that He did rise on the third day. Remember that through His death and resurrection we are now children of God. We come today to celebrate Jesus. Easter is not about the baskets, the egg hunts, or new clothes. Easter is about remembering. We remember and celebrate what Christ did for us at Calvary, but more importantly that it did not stop there. He rose from the dead, so we celebrate what He is doing for us right now. We remember the Light! Happy Easter! May God bless and keep you is my prayer.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
