Here we are with one of the greatest weekends that the church gets to celebrate each year.
If it were not for this weekend’s event taking place, there would be no gospel nor a message of Good News!
I am always humbled delivering this message of hope on this weekend because there are many who attend this weekend that normally do not attend church.
The message must be clear & understandable by everyone in the room.
You may be wondering what does “From Womb to Tomb” have to do with the Easter message.
Easter didn’t just show up as a holiday on the calendar. There was a journey that had to be walked out before Easter could be celebrated.
I want to take on that journey so that we may connect with the fullness of Easter & the incredible value it has brought to all who truly accept the Good News gospel.
I. Womb, Jesus had to Come First…
Isaiah 9:6 NLT For a child is born to us, a Son is given to us.
The government will rest on His shoulders. And He will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
This was made clear as to how the journey would start.
It was a very critical part for it would begin setting the stage for where God would have Him end up in this journey.
John 1:29 NLT The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him & said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Jesus came for the purpose of all of us were born in sin & had no way to get out from under the curse of it.
Psalm 51:5 NLT For I was born a sinner—yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.
But Jesus came knowing that there were several things that must happen to bring God’s purpose to its fullness.
Hebrews 9:22-23 TPT Actually, nearly everything under the law was purified with blood, since forgiveness only comes through an outpouring of blood. And so it was necessary for all the earthly symbols of the heavenly realities to be purified with these animal sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves required a superior sacrifice than these.
For the necessary blood, something or someone had to die.
II. The Sacrifice on the Journey…
Matthew 26:1-2 TPT After Jesus had completed His teachings, He said to His disciples, “You know that the Feast of the Passover begins in two more days. That’s when the Son of Man will be betrayed & handed over to be crucified.”
It is important to always keep in mind that Jesus wasn’t going into this journey without knowing that it was one that had some very difficult days attached to it.
What would your state of mind been when you were in the garden praying about the thing you were about to go thru…
Death was right in front of you…& it was not necessary for you, it was to redeem all those lost.
Think about how you would have felt if you had asked some people close to you to be in prayer right now with you because you had some life altering things to face that day.
But then you came back to check with them & they were all asleep.
It would cross your mind to wonder if they even really cared!
The heaviness that He must have felt was probably beyond anything we could imagine.
Imagine how it makes Him reflect back on that day when He sees people who really have no passion or even desire to pray concerning the difficult days ahead.
Matthew 26:38-46 TPT And He said to them, “My heart is overwhelmed & crushed with grief. It feels as though I’m dying. Stay here & keep watch with Me.”
Then He walked a short distance away, & overcome with grief, He threw Himself facedown on the ground & prayed, “My Father, if there is any way you can deliver Me from this suffering, please take it from Me. Yet what I want is not important, for I only desire to fulfill Your plan for Me.” Then an angel from heaven appeared to strengthen Him.
Later, He came back to His three disciples & found them all sound asleep. He awakened Peter & said to him, “Could you not stay awake with Me for even one hour? Keep alert & pray that you’ll be spared from this time of testing. Your spirit is eager enough, but your humanity is weak.”
Then He left them for a second time to pray in solitude. He said to God, “My Father, if there is not a way that You can deliver Me from this suffering, then Your will must be done.”
He came back to the disciples & found them sound asleep, for they couldn’t keep their eyes open.
So He left them & went away to pray the same prayer for the third time. When He returned again to His disciples, He awoke them, saying, “Are you still sleeping? Don’t you know the hour has come for the Son of Man to be handed over to the authority of sinful men? Get up & let’s go, for the betrayer has arrived.”
Jesus didn’t endure all this for His own benefit. This was all so that people like you & I could be redeemed & brought back into right standing with Almighty God.
John 10:17-18 TPT “The Father has an intense love for Me because I freely give My own life—to raise it up again. I surrender My own life, & no one has the power to take My life from Me. I have the authority to lay it down & the power to take it back again. This is the destiny My Father has set before Me.”
It is very important for us to see that this was all a voluntary sacrifice to demonstrate the depth of love that our God has for us all.
Romans 5:8 TPT But Christ proved God’s passionate love for us by dying in our place while we were still lost & ungodly!
There is no power anywhere that can usurp authority over our God.
The One that is for us has no one that can stand against us when He is made Lord of all our life!
Revelation 5:9 TPT And they were all singing this new song of praise to the Lamb: “Because You were slaughtered for us, You are worthy to take the scroll & open its seals. Your blood was the price paid to redeem us. You purchased us to bring us to God out of every tribe, language, people group, and nation.
Thank God for this part of the journey that was able to bring us to this great celebration on this Easter or what I call Resurrection Sunday!
III. Tomb, A Place for a Resurrection…
Matthew 17:23 TPT They will kill Him & in three days He will be resurrected.” When the disciples heard these words they were devastated.
We must get an understanding that at times to get where we are trying to get to there are difficulties that will do their best to try & make you give up.
Sometimes people begin thinking that this cost more than I was expecting to pay.
Disciples let it devastate them instead of hearing & receiving what Jesus had told them about Him dying so that He could be resurrected with true life for everyone.
1 Corinthians 15:21-23 NLT So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when He comes back.
Are you hearing what the word says about you right here…
Easter is a time to focus on what has been accomplished for each & every person that believe on the finished work of the cross…which then made way for Resurrection Life!
Romans 6:4-5 TPT Sharing in His death by our baptism means that we were co-buried with Him, so that when the Father’s glory raised Christ from the dead, we were also raised with Him. We have been co-resurrected with Him so that we could be empowered to walk in the freshness of new life. For since we are permanently grafted into Him to experience a death like His, then we are permanently grafted into Him to experience a resurrection like His & the new life that it imparts.
We must grasp the fact that I get to experience this Resurrection Life only because of what Jesus has done & not by my own efforts.
2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
Thru the power of His resurrection, He has released that power to flow in & thru us.
All He is asking from us is to embrace the new creation realities that He has made available to us.
1 John 3:8 TPT But the one who indulges in a sinful life is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God was revealed was to undo & destroy the works of the devil.
The question that must be dealt with in this hour is…have you completely surrendered to all that His Resurrection has made available to you.
1 John 5:4-5 TPT You see, every child of God overcomes the world, for our faith is the victorious power that triumphs over the world. So who are the world conquerors defeating its power? Those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
Today is a turning point in many lives today!
• Resurrected Savior is inviting you to come accept all He has done & made available to you.
• The Holy Spirit has been sent to come alongside you to help you walk out your journey.
