Easter Sunday Worship
4 April 2010
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Romans 3
Romans 3:23. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
-- one of the most popular series of books over the past several years has been the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" -- this story has just been made into a movie that is currently playing at theaters in town
-- the various stories in the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series are actually comprised of the journal entries of a middle-school student named Greg Heffley -- the first book opens as Greg is getting ready to start middle school -- even though his older brother tells him that he is not likely to survive past the first day, Greg is determined not only to survive, but to position himself at the top of the popularity food chain -- so, Greg does everything he can to try to keep from moving down the popularity ladder
-- however, out of everything that he does to improve his social standing, nothing is more important than avoiding the terrible Cheese Touch -- an invisible disease that infects a person when they touch this moldy piece of cheese that has been sitting on the basketball court since spring
-- the Cheese Touch is social suicide -- Greg records in his journal that a kid named Abe Hall got the Cheese touch in April, and nobody would even come near him for the rest of the year. -- once you have the Cheese Touch, your social life is over -- it is the closest thing to death for a middle school kid
-- there's only one way to get rid of the Cheese Touch -- you have to touch another kid and pass it on to them -- so, when someone catches the Cheese Touch, they go out and try to pass it on to someone else
-- there's only one way to prevent yourself from catching the Cheese Touch and that is to keep your fingers crossed when someone touches you -- for that reason, Greg taped his fingers together his first year in school so that they stayed crossed the whole time and he could never get infected
-- now, you might be sitting there this morning and thinking, "Why in the world is he talking about a kid's book on Easter morning?" -- but, when you think about it, the story of the Cheese Touch in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid is really what Easter is all about
-- not that we catch some invisible disease that causes us to get cooties and causes our social standing to fall -- no, it's something much more worse than that
-- we catch an invisible disease that causes us to die
-- let me explain -- if you remember the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, then you probably remember that they were living in Paradise on earth -- they had the best of everything -- everything was new -- everything was perfect -- everything was good -- they were living in the lap of luxury and were even personal friends with God Himself -- God would come down from heaven and walk with them in the garden in the cool of the day
-- Adam and Eve had it made -- God had given them everything and put them in charge of His garden -- and there was only one rule -- God told them that they could eat of the fruit of any of the trees in the garden except one -- they couldn't eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
-- but that tree was just like that piece of moldy cheese on the basketball court in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid -- they just couldn't leave it alone -- they just had to go and look at it -- they could have gone anywhere else in the whole garden -- anywhere else in the whole world, for that matter, but on that one day -- that one fateful day -- the serpent met them at the tree -- and he spoke seductive words to Eve
-- he convinced her that it wouldn't be wrong to disobey God just this one time -- that it was actually a good thing, because if she ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil -- she would be just like God -- she would know things just like he did, and how could that be wrong?
-- so she ate of the fruit -- and her eyes were opened -- and she realized that she had disobeyed God -- she was now cursed -- not with the curse of the Cheese Touch -- but with something worse -- Eve had introduced sin into the world
-- and, just like in the Diary of the Wimpy Kid, Eve evidently thought she could get of her curse by passing it on to Adam -- so, she handed Adam the fruit and he ate it, too -- but instead of getting rid of the curse, all Eve did was infect Adam -- so that now both of them were infected and they would pass this curse on to all of their children and their descendants
-- because of Adam and Eve's sin, we are all born sinners -- you know, a lot of people think that we become sinners when we sin -- when we disobey God -- but that's not right
-- we are sinners because we are born that way -- we sin because we are sinners -- in other words, we sin and disobey God because of the curse that is hidden deep in our very being -- as that verse in Romans 3:23 said, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God"
-- "All" have sinned -- each and every one of us -- there is not a person in this room -- there is not a person in this world -- who has not broken one of God's laws -- who has not disobeyed Him and who has not sinned against Him -- in fact, each of us could honestly rephrase verse 23 and say, "I have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"
-- so, what does that mean? -- what's the consequence of sinning against God? -- what's the consequence of disobeying Him? -- flip over to Romans 6:23 and let's look at the first part of that verse
Romans 6:23a. For the wages of sin is death
-- that's what God told Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden -- He said that if they were to disobey Him and eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then they would surely die
-- now, we know that all people die -- everyone who ever lived has died -- I'm going to die -- you're going to die -- 150 years from now, every person in this room will have experienced physical death -- but that's not what God is talking about -- God was talking about spiritual death -- God was talking about paying a penalty for breaking His law
-- spiritual death is separation from God -- Isaiah 59:2 says, "your iniquities -- your sins -- have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you" -- Adam and Eve's sin caused them to be cast out of the Garden of Eden -- out of God's presence -- and into a world cursed through their actions -- our sin puts a barrier between us and God and casts us out of God's presence
-- to be separated from God is to be separated from life -- to be separated from God is to be separated from love -- it's like when you cut a flower and put it in a vase -- it looks good for a while, but in reality, it's dead because it has been cut off from it's life source -- that's what spiritual death is like
-- but there more consequences to our sin than just that -- we have to pay the consequences of our sins here on earth -- there is always a price to sin -- for one moment of indulgence, we amass a fortune in debt that has to be paid
-- all we have to do is look around us or to look at the news to see the consequences of sin in our lives -- broken homes -- hurting families -- addictions to alcohol and drugs -- crime -- violence -- despair -- the signs of sin are all around us -- and it exacts a heavy price on our bodies and soul
-- Josh McDowell put it this way -- "We are guilty of bringing the contamination of sin into God's perfect universe -- of causing pain and ruin to God's creation and to our selves -- God in His perfect justice and holiness cannot be called good if He allows sin to remain in His universe -- Therefore, we, the agents of sin, are under the doom of His perfect judgment -- We are guilty and we deserve condemnation -- That is our dilemma"
-- because we sinned, we broke God's law -- because we sinned, we face God's justice -- because we sin, we are guilty and deserve His punishment -- and that punishment is death and eternal separation from God
-- look back at verse 23 again
Romans 6:23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-- the Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, put a little three-letter word in that sentence that makes all the difference -- that word is "but"
-- yes, the wages of sin are death -- BUT -- the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
-- you see, because we are all sinners, we have to pay the price -- we have to be punished -- and that punishment is death -- but God didn't want us to die -- He wanted us to live with Him forever
-- but because God is holy and just, He couldn't just wipe away our sins -- He couldn't just pretend they didn't happen -- because His law was broken, someone had to pay the price -- someone had to take the punishment -- and God knew that we couldn't do it because we were sinners
-- it would have to be someone else -- someone holy -- someone perfect -- someone who had never sinned who could take our punishment for us -- who would take our place and give up their own life so that we might live -- Paul tells us here that someone was Jesus
-- God sent His own Son to earth to take our place -- to die for us on the cross and to pay the penalty for our sins -- so that we might live forever with Him
-- let me share with you a little story that kind of explains what God did for us -- there was this teacher who was trying to make a point in his class about salvation and Jesus' death on the cross -- so he picked out this star athlete in the class -- a kid named Steve -- and asked him if he would mind helping with a little demonstration -- but, to do so, Steve would have to do pushups in front of the whole class
-- Steve said it wasn't a problem since he usually did 200 pushups every day -- the teacher said he needed him to do 300 in sets of 10 -- and Steve said he would try
-- the next day, Steve got to class early and sat in the front of the room -- When class started, the teacher pulled out a big box of donuts -- Now these weren't the normal kinds of donuts -- these were like Krispy Kreme good -- the extra fancy BIG kind, with cream centers and extra frosting
-- the teacher went to the first girl in the first row and asked, "Cynthia, do you want a donut?" -- Cynthia said, "Yes." -- the teacher then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so that Cynthia can have a donut?" -- Steve said, "Sure," and jumped down from his desk to do a quick ten -- when Steve got done, the teacher put a donut on Cynthia's desk and then went to the next student in the row
-- "Joe, do you want a donut?" -- Joe said, "Yes." -- the teacher asked, "Steve would you do ten push-ups so Joe can have a donut?" -- Steve did ten push-ups -- Joe got a donut.
-- And so it went, all the way down the first aisle, Steve did ten pushups for every person before they got their donut -- the teacher went to the second row, same thing -- until he came to Scott -- the teacher asked Scott, "do you want a donut?" -- Scott's reply was, "Well, can I do my own pushups for them?" -- the teacher said, "No, Steve has to do them." Then Scott said, "Well then, I don't want one" -- the teacher then turned to Steve and said, "Steve, would you do ten pushups so Scott can have a donut he doesn't want?"
-- Steve started to do ten pushups, but Scott cried out, "HEY! I said I didn't want one!" -- the teacher said, "Look, this is my classroom, my class, my desks, and my donuts -- Just leave it on the desk if you don't want it." And when Steve got done with the ten pushups, the teacher put a donut on Scott's desk.
-- Now by this time, Steve had begun to slow down a little. -- He just stayed on the floor between sets because it took too much effort to be getting up and down -- the teacher started down the third row, but now the students were beginning to get a little angry because the teacher was forcing Steve to do these pushups so that they could have a donut
-- more and more students began to say "No" to the teacher and there were all these uneaten donuts on the desks -- Steve was also having to really put forth a lot of effort to get these pushups done for each donut -- There began to be a small pool of sweat on the floor beneath his face -- and his arms and brow were beginning to get red because of the physical effort involved.
-- the teacher went on to the next person and the next and the next -- Near the end of that row, Steve was really having a rough time -- He was taking a lot more time to complete each set -- as the teacher was finishing up on the last row, Steve's arms really began to shake with each pushup as he struggled to lift himself against the force of gravity -- Sweat was dropping off of his face and, by this time, there was not a dry eye in the room.
-- The very last two girls in the room were cheerleaders and very popular -- the teacher went to Linda, the second to last, and asked, "Linda, do you want a doughnut?" -- Linda said, very sadly, "No thank you." -- the teacher asked Steve, "Steve, would you do ten pushups so that Linda can have a donut she doesn't want?" -- Grunting from the effort, Steve did ten very slow pushups for Linda.
-- Then the teacher turned to the last girl, Susan. -- "Susan, do you want a donut?" -- Susan, with tears flowing down her face, asked the teacher, "can I help him?" -- the teacher, with tears in his own eyes, said, "No, he has to do it alone. Steve, would you do ten pushups so Susan can have a donut?"
-- As Steve very slowly finished his last pushup, with the understanding that he had accomplished all that was required of him, having done 350 pushups, his arms buckled beneath him and he fell to the floor.
-- the teacher turned to the room and said. "And so it was, that our Savior, Jesus Christ, took our place on the cross and paid the penalty for our sins that we couldn't pay -- and when He had done everything that was required of Him -- when He had shed His blood and given His body to pay the price for the forgiveness of our sins, He collapsed on the cross and died -- And like some of those in this room, many of us refuse to accept His sacrifice and leave His gift of salvation on the cross just like all of the uneaten donuts on our desks"
-- so, how do we receive this gift of God? -- how do we receive this sacrifice of Jesus? -- flip over to Romans 10
9. That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
11. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
12. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,
13. for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
-- that's all it takes -- confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved
-- the Bible calls this "justification" -- it's a fancy theological word that just means that the penalty has been paid -- that the punishment has been received and that justice has been served -- another way to think of justification is to think of it as being "just as if I never sinned" because Jesus died for me
-- when Jesus died on that cross at Calvary on that first Good Friday over 2000 years ago, He paid the price for all your sins -- 1 Peter 1:18-19 says that we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ -- He shed His blood to cover all our sins -- I don't know if you've ever thought about that before or not, but here's what Jesus did for us on that Friday so long ago
-- when they placed that cruel crown of thorns on His head and the blood flowed down over His ears, He forgave you for everything that you had heard that you shouldn't have
-- when the blood flowed down His head and into His eyes, He forgave you for everything that you saw that you shouldn't have
-- when He was beaten and His mouth filled with blood, it took away all the things that you ever said but shouldn't have
-- when His hands and feet were nailed to that cross, His blood covered all the sins from all the things that you ever did with your hands and for all the wrong places that you ever went
-- When they pierced His side with their spear and His blood flowed out, it covered all the sins for the things we ever took inside our body
-- and when the blood flowed from His beaten and scourged back, it covered all the sins for every time we ever turned our back on Him and denied Him as our Lord and Savior
-- Jesus' blood covered all our sins -- every single one -- the Bible tells us that all of our sins were nailed to the cross in Jesus that day, and that the penalty was paid for them when Jesus died in our place
-- but Jesus did more than just die for us -- He also rose from the dead on the third day -- on that first Easter morning -- by rising from the dead, Jesus gave us new life -- He made us new creations and took away our old curse from the Garden of Eden and replaced it with His righteousness and His holiness
-- that is what the cross is all about -- that is what Easter is all about -- it's about life -- it's about redeeming the curse -- it's about receiving this free gift of God that we have in Jesus
-- as the Scriptures tell us, this gift is for all of us -- all we have to do is receive it -- so, right now, as we close our service, I want to invite you to do just that
-- if you have never received Jesus as your Lord and Savior before -- if you have never asked Him to forgive you of your sins and to come into your heart and to be your Lord and Savior -- then I want to invite you to do so right now -- this morning -- before you leave -- you'll have that opportunity as I close in prayer and as the last hymn is played
-- if you have received Jesus as your Lord and Savior before -- then I want to invite you to rededicate your life to Him again this morning -- Easter is about new life and about rising again -- all of us -- even those of us who have been Christians for years -- all of us sin and fall short of God's glory time and time again -- and we all have need to come again to the cross -- to ask Jesus to forgive us and to cleanse us from our sins -- so that we might rise in new life with Him and live as the people He has called us to be
-- if that is your situation, then I invite you to pray with me as we close and to make that change in your life right now
-- I'm going to pray now, and as the last hymn is played, if any of you would like to come forward to make a decision or just to pray at the altar, I would encourage you to do so
-- let us pray
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