I Corinthians 15:1-11; Matthew 27:35, 45-50; John 19:38-42; Luke 24:1-12
Easter is much more than a story to be told once a year.
Easter is the Gospel message. And it should be told over
and over and over again.
Paul gives a wonderful definition of the gospel in his first
letter to the church at Corinth.
I Corinthians 15:1-11
Paul sums up the gospel he preached to them in three
phrases
Christ Died for Our Sins
Christ was Buried
Christ was Raised on the Third Day
Paul also mentions the fact that Jesus appeared after His
resurrection to more than 500 people at once, Peter,
James and the twelve, and finally Jesus appeared to Paul.
Let’s take a look at the first phrase
Christ Died for Our Sins
Matthew 27:35,45-50
The Bible doesn’t give us the gruesome details of the
crucifixion, but we know that the Romans perfected it as
the most horrific way to die. They nailed each hand at the
wrist to the horizontal beam and both feet were nailed to
the vertical beam. Those who were punished this way
normally died by asphyxiation due to being unable to get
a breath. It was pure agony.
Paul wrote in I Corinthians that Jesus died according to
the Scriptures.
Psalm 22:18 “they divide my garments among
them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”
Also Isaiah 53:4-12 records Isaiah’s prophecy of Jesus
dying for our sins. We don’t have time to read all of it this
morning, but let’s take a look at a couple of verses.
Verse 5 “But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was
chastisement that brought us peace, and with his
wounds we are healed.”
Verse 10 “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush
him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes
an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he
shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand.”
Finally, look at the last part of verse 12 “yet he bore
the sin of many, and makes intercession for the
transgressors.”
Now, let’s look at the second phrase of the Gospel.
Christ was Buried
John 19:38-42
John mentions both Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodmus.
Both of these men were members of the Jewish
Sanhedrin. So they kept their support of Jesus to
themselves.
They wrapped Jesus in strips of linen and carried around
75 pounds of myrrh and aloes and spices with them to
embalm the body of Christ.
Matthew tells us that after the body was placed in the
tomb Joseph of Arimathea rolled a great stone in front of
the entrance to the tomb.
Matthew also includes a conversation between the chief
priests and the Pharisees and Pilate.
cf Matthew 27:62-66
They asked Pilate to send a guard to make sure no one
came and took the body of Jesus from the grave to trick
the people into thinking He had risen from the dead.
Pilate agreed to send a guard to watch the tomb.
One thing we need to make sure to understand is that
Jesus was fully dead when He was placed in the tomb.
He wasn’t passed out. He was dead. Remember one of
the sayings of Jesus from the cross, It is finished, and
then He gave up His spirit. Jesus gave His life so that we
could have eternal life!
Now, let’s look at the third phrase of the gospel.
Christ was Raised on the Third Day
Luke 24:1-12
Paul believes the resurrection is the most important part
of the gospel.
In I Corinthians 15:14 he writes, “And if Christ has
not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and
your faith is in vain.”
And in verse 17 he writes, “And if Christ has not been
raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your
sins.”
When the women arrived at the tomb where Jesus had
been laid, He wasn’t there. They encountered two angels
in dazzling apparel. I love what the angel asked them in
verse 5, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”
And verse 6, “He is not here, but has risen.”
The truth of the gospel is that Jesus is no longer in the
grave.
He has defeated death and conquered the grave.
He is alive and that is what we are all here celebrating
today and every time we come together to worship.
Jesus is alive!!
Paul also wrote that the resurrection of Jesus happened
according to the Scripture.
Jesus predicted His resurrection three times in Matthew
gospel,
Matthew 16:21-23, Matthew 17:22-23 and Matthew
20:17-19.
Also listen to Jesus’ words in Matthew 12:40 “For just
as Jonah was three days and three nights in the
belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be
three days and three nights in the heart of the
earth.”
Jesus knew He was going to die, but He knew that the
Heavenly Father would raise Him from the dead and seat
Him at His right hand.
Now, I want to answer a few questions you may have
about Easter.
Why did God send Jesus on that first Easter?
To show His great love.
Romans 5:8 “But God shows his own love for us in
that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Ephesians 2:4-5 “But God, being rich in mercy,
because of the great love with which He loved us,
even when we were dead in our trespasses, made
us alive together with Christ – by grace you have
been saved,
”
I John 4:9 “In this the love of God was made
manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into
the world, so that we might live through Him.”
There is nothing we did to earn God’s love. We don’t
deserve it.
It’s a free gift. He gives it to prove His love towards us.
What did God Accomplish by Sending Jesus?
He accomplished our Redemption.
Redemption means to buy back. In the Bible it refers to
deliverance from sin. The whole Bible is a story of
redemption.
God created man for redemption.
He knew when He gave man free will that he would
choose sin, that is why He sent His Son to earth, for the
redemption of man.
Let’s not forget that we have all sinned and fallen short of
God’s glory.
It also tells us that the wages of sin is death.
But the good news is that God has redeemed us.
Ephesians 1:7 “In him we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,
according to the riches of his grace.”
Colossians 1:13-14 “He has delivered us from the
domain of darkness and transferred us to the
kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Our sin has separated us from God, but He sent Jesus to
buy us back by paying our debt for us.
Jesus also served our sentence for us.
Because of His work on the cross we are forgiven and
free!
God also sent Jesus to die on the cross so that we could
be forgiven. It’s called the Atonement for sin.
Romans 5:11 KJV “And not only so, but we also joy
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we
have now received the atonement.”
Jesus shed His blood on the cross at Calvary to cover the
sins of man. His sacrifice washes us clean and allows God
to see us as He sees His Son: Sins wiped clean.
The atonement was God’s Plan for the forgiveness of
man’s sin.
Eternal Life with God
I John 5:13 “I write these things to you who
believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you
may know that you have eternal life.”
Romans 5:20-21 “Now the law came in to increase
the trespass, but where sin increased, grace
abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in
death, grace also might reign through
righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord.”
This is the Good News of Easter
Aren’t you so thankful that Jesus obeyed His Father and
was obedient to death on a cross so that we could be
forgiven?
What an incredible act of Love and mercy and grace.