Easter: Darkness, Your Hour is Over

The Bible actually shows us that it wasn't just the cross that opened that door. Did you know that? Paul writes this in first Corinthians. He says, if Christ has not been raised, if he's not been resurrected, if he's not been brought brought back to life, then your faith is futile. Listen to this line. You are still in your sins. In other words, without the resurrection, we can't be forgiven. Why? As David Guzik writes, it's because the cross was the payment, but the resurrection was the receipt. [00:57:42] (41 seconds)  #ResurrectionIsProof

See, when Jesus rose on Easter, it was proof that it worked. It was proof that that the cross satisfied God's justice. It was proof that our sins could be forgiven. It was proof that the sealed door between us and God had been opened for good. Have you ever wondered why the the stone was rolled away from the tomb? Well, you might say, well, of course, like Jesus, he came back to life and he had to get out of the cave. Well, just a few hours later, Jesus literally walks through a door to visit with his disciples. He goes through a wall. I don't think Jesus needed help. No. The the stone wasn't rolled away for Jesus to get out. The stone was moved so that we could get in. [00:58:24] (40 seconds)  #StoneRolledAwayForUs

During a harvest, the first fruit to grow is often a signal to the farmer that the season has begun. It's sort of the promise that more fruit is coming afterward. Paul is giving us an analogy, and he's saying this, that if if we are in Adam, if Adam is our first fruit, the reality is we will die. That's true of all of us. But if we are in Christ, if Jesus is the first yield of the harvest to come, there's a better harvest ahead for us. Jesus resurrected. And so that means even though we pass away, we will resurrect too. I can understand why people like Brian Johnson who would put they would put millions of dollars into trying to cheat death. [00:52:40] (35 seconds)  #JesusFirstFruit

So the 48 year old, what he does is he has a strict regimen every day. He takes a 111 pills and supplements. He goes through blood transfusions. He he endures infrared light therapy almost every other day. He has a rigid sleep routine. There's all this list of things that he does all in an attempt to reverse aging in his body. Over the last few years, Johnson has spent more than $8,000,000 trying to defeat death. Why? Like, why would someone do this? Why would someone spend money, time, energy in order to accomplish something that feels almost impossible to accomplish? Because for every human being, death is the great enemy. [00:50:26] (41 seconds)  #ChasingImmortality

Maybe maybe Jesus didn't actually die. You know, may maybe he lost consciousness because of the trauma of the crucifixion. And when they laid him in the tomb, he rested, and he regained his strength, and then he came out of the grave. And it's a plausible explanation. It's something that I could believe and I could I could latch on to. But here's the problem. The Roman guards were experts in crucifixion. They were experts, in fact, in death. The the empire had carried out thousands upon thousands of crucifixions by this time. And so the soldiers who oversaw Jesus' crucifixion, they knew what death looked like. [00:44:29] (31 seconds)  #RomanGuardsWitnessed

A place with no grief filled headlines, a place with no tears, no funerals, no heartbreak, no pain, no loss. A place where everything sad is made new. Jesus, he he came to do that because of the resurrection, because he's alive, because Easter is real. Jesus will restore all things. The resurrection is an answer for the darkness around us. And then lastly, the resurrection frees us from the darkness within us. The the Bible is very clear that the primary problem in the world is sin. [00:56:26] (34 seconds)  #ResurrectionRestoresAll

In our natural state, we're separated from God behind the insurmountable boulder of our sin, and the resurrection is the guarantee that we have a way to the father. And all we have to do, the Bible teaches us, is believe. Believe that Jesus died for our sins. Believe that he rose from the dead to finish that work. We believe. And this morning, that offer is open to you. If you don't know Jesus, if you haven't walked into that relationship, that tomb is wide open to you. You can walk right out into the day and experience his life. [00:59:04] (32 seconds)  #OpenInvitationToBelieve

He explained in a universe with no creator and no design and no purpose, there is no evil or good. And so the universe just simply has pitiless indifference for human suffering. But the scripture teaches a different reality. Scripture teaches that this isn't a hopeless lot that we've been given. God says that the darkness of this world is not an unchangeable existence, that it's actually the consequence of sin. And while our human experience remains under those consequences in the present moment, there's actually a coming day when all will be made right. [00:54:37] (38 seconds)  #ScriptureOffersMeaning