The Next 5 weeks we are going to be looking at the Easter story in the Bible
As we do we are going to focus on different people who were involved in the actual events that took place 2000 years ago.
It was a very busy last week in Jesus’ life, so there is no way that we can look at this last week from every angle in just 5 sermons.
You will have to keep me as your pastor for a few more years so that we can preach some more Easter sermons to cover all the bases.
Jesus knew his purpose from birth
At the age of 12 he told his parents that he had to be about his fathers business
Luk 2:49 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?
Jesus had been telling the disciples over and over again about his death and resurrection
He was preparing them for what was to come.
Joh 13:33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ’Where I am going you cannot come.’
Joh 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
Joh 13:35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
Joh 13:36 Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus answered him, "Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward."
Joh 13:37 Peter said to him, "Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you."
All the way up to his arrest he was working on the disciples and preparing them for what was about to take place.
Jesus came to do the will of the Father and He never took his eyes off the cross. His fathers will.
In Luke chapter 9 there is a turning point in Jesus’ ministry, He is ministering in all the cities around Jerusalem and then in verse 51 it says that Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem he from there on he was preparing the disciples for his death.
As we preach through this go back in the theater of your mind and place yourself there with the disciples, which one of the disciples would be like you. And try to see these last few days through the eyes of the disciples.
Many during Jesus’ day had difficulty understanding what was taking place, When Jesus came in to Jerusalem to be crucified they were looking for a king to set on the throne, not a savior to hang on the cross
Would you be like Philip the analytical disciple always analyzing the situation
Or Like Peter, the outspoken one of the crowd
Or maybe like Andrew, always bringing someone to Jesus
The disciples didn’t understand it all
Don’t wait until you understand it all to come. I must confess that my mind cannot begin to grasp all there is to know about God. But I know who I have believed and am persuaded that he able to keep that which I’ve committed to him against that Day.
We can see by the questions of the disciples that they didn’t understand it all.
1Jo 3:2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
There is coming a day that we will understand it all.
Have you ever met someone who says I just can’t be a Christian until I know where Cain got his wife from. Or some other trivial question they use that as an excuse to not believe
Yet that same person will get into their car and drive down the street placing faith in the engineers that built that car and never once try to understand how it all works.
We must trust God even if we don’t understand it all.
Abraham had to trust God
Gal 3:6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
You may be here today and be having a difficult time understanding everything that is going on in your life. God calls you to trust.. Just trust Him.
The disciples didn’t want to let go
Joh 18:10 Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.
Here they come to arrest Jesus and Peter is ready for all out fight he drew his sword and cut of the ear of the high priest servant. Why his ear? He was most likely going straight for his head but the servant moved and just got his ear cut off.
The fact is…the hour had come that Jesus was preparing his disciples for yet they weren’t ready to let go.
These men who had given up their careers to follow Jesus, had witnessed the sick being healed even the dead raised just weren’t ready for Jesus to Go.
Simply Put these men were human, just like us.
We are never ready to let go.
But just as Peter tried to do it himself by protecting Jesus sometimes we try to do it ourselves concerning righteousness.
Its called religion, or self righteousness. It is when we try to save oursevelves
And many are hanging on to dead religion unwilling to let it go in order to be saved.
Because in order to do so, we would have to humble ourself and admit that we are lost an in need of the saving power of Jesus Christ
Paul had to give up all his religion in order to come to Christ he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees yet he said
Phi 3:8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
In 1900 the bayer aspirin company introduced the first aspirins to the market they putting cotton in the bottles in 1914 to reduce the number of pills that break in shipment in the 1980’s they began to apply a coating to the pills to keep them from breaking. But it wasn’t until 1999 that they quit putting the cotton in the bottles. An eighty-five year old tradition ended, some fifteen years after it had become obsolete. "We concluded there really wasn’t any reason to keep the cotton except tradition," said Chris Allen, Bayer’s vice president of technical operations. "Besides, it’s hard to get out."
We may not want to let go but until we let go we can’t let God. Had Jesus not went to the cross and he not ascended into heaven the disciple would have never experienced the indwelling Holy Spirit in Order to get such a blessing they had to let go of Jesus so that he could go to the cross.
The disciples couldn’t change on their own
The disciples could not change themselves, it took the life experiences that God allowed them to go through and the power of the Holy Spirit. The disciples were not radically changed until after the day of Pentecost when the Holy spirit came to dwell inside of all believers.
There is hope for everyone in this room today, there is hope for your spouses, your children and grandchildren, and great children there is no one that’s so far away that God cannot reach them.
1Co 6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
1Co 6:10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
1Co 6:11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
I preached from this passage of scripture once during a revival and had a man tell me on his way out of the church he said well I guess there is no doubt that Im going to hell when I die.
I told him, that’s the first step in being saved, but the greatest part of this passage is that we have all been there can the sexually immoral change, yes, can the drunkard or homosexual be saved, yes paul says, such were some of you.
