“WHY WE HAVE
EASTER. WHY WE NEED EASTER”
Mark Kolbe
INTRODUCTION
A few weeks
ago, as I was driving to work, contemplating what to share with you on this
Easter Sunday, a car passed by me in the left lane. Based upon how quickly it passed, I estimated
it was it was travelling at least 10 miles per hour above the 45 miles per hour
speed limit. But no sooner had that car gone by, when, another one quickly came
alongside me. Traveling just as fast as
the first, this second car was no more than 20 feet from the bumper of the first. Now it’s one thing to travel at such a high
speed, but when you tailgate as you do it, that’s even worse. As I looked at this entitled, reckless driver
I felt a sense of disgust and righteous indignation rising inside. There wasn’t anything I could do to make the
situation right. But the good news was,
by the time I got to work, that event had helped me form a rough outline of today’s
Easter message.
I’m sure you
must be wondering … “What, if anything, does tailgating have to do with Easter,
the most important event in human history?”
Well, today I’m hoping to show you the answer to that question.
As you can
see, our outline today contains a diagram with 5 boxes. Each of these boxes represents a major
component of our human existence. In
addition, the outline is designed so that we can work from left to right, top
to bottom, looking at several examples and referencing numerous verses. As we go
along, feel free to right your own thoughts into your notes, because at the end
of the message, you’ll have
a chance to share your thoughts.
Let’s begin
at the top, looking at the pictures, and see if you can guess what each of the
5 boxes represent. In general, most, if
not all of us would tend to agree, that while we are living on this earth, it
is in our best interest to start at the beginning, truth, then move from left
to right through these 5 concepts.
GOD
But before
we talk about how these things apply to us, let’s consider how the nature and
characteristics of God relate to this diagram.
As I name some of God’s characteristics, go ahead and take a shot at
which of these 5 categories you think they fit into.
Truth – The
first characteristic is the most obvious. God is truth.
“Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the
faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according
to godliness, 2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who
cannot lie (Titus 1:1-2).” Jesus
said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6).
Knowledge – The
second characteristic, God’s omniscience, seems to fit best in the knowledge
category. (“for God is greater than our
heart and knows all things. 1 John 3:20b). Psalm 139:1–6 - O LORD, you
have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern
my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are
acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold,
O LORD, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your
hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
Perspective –
This next characteristic is a little trickier.
Where do you think God’s unity falls? I put it under perspective, because there is
no possibility of the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit ever being focused on their
personal desires alone. Jesus shared a “perspective” of who He was in John
10:30 – “I and the Father are one.”, Luke 3:21-22 21 When
all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was
praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him
in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom
I love; with you I am well pleased.”). What
about Him being omnipresent? If
He can be everywhere at once, He should have a great perspective.
Action –
What about God’s omnipotence, justice, and love (although God is love,
He doesn’t just show it)? These seem to fit under action. “A just balance and scales belong to the
LORD; All the weights of the bag are His concern. (proverbs 16:11).
Consequence
– Where would you put God’s sovereignty? The way He interacts with everything
happening. God is sovereign over every consequence. His sovereignty reigns forever, everything
that has ever been or will be is in His hands. So perhaps his eternality fits in this
category as well.
Now you
might have noticed that as we attempted to put each of these attributes into
one of these categories, some seemed to have an obvious fit, but others could
have been placed in multiple categories.
The reason for that is because when we think about people, we envision
these things as 5 unique characteristics that flow from one to another. However, for God, they are all wrapped into
one. When describing God, a better way
to depict these 5 things would be to draw one circle that encompasses all 5
words in it. For Him, truth, knowledge,
perception, action, and consequence are all in existence at the same time, all
the time, for God. That’s why when God
called Himself, “I am”, when talking to Moses, that title fit so well.
Here's an
illustration of the difference between people and God when it comes to these
characteristics. Imagine a person walking hurriedly through a hotel lobby on
their way outside, when suddenly they walk into a glass window. As they do, they smash their face and spill
their hot coffee all over. It is true
the glass window was always there, it didn’t just
appear out of nowhere. However, the
person, lacking in knowledge of their surroundings, looked right through the
glass. As a result, they acted by walking
into the glass and suffered the consequences.
But that
would never happen to God. God could
never end up with a bruised face and say, “Whoops! I didn’t see that
coming”. Truth is not something that
exists outside God that He needs to discover and act upon. God is truth, and He always acts consistently
with that.
This example
helps illustrate one of the differences between God and man, and how we fall
short of His glory.
CREATION
Now think
about this in terms of creation. The
nature of God was evident in creation, in that, essentially, all 5 of these
things occurred simultaneously. The very
first verse in the Bible alludes to that…“In the
beginning, God, created the heavens and the earth”. In other words, it went from truth to
consequences in one fell swoop. “And God
said, ‘let there be light’, and there was light“. Through words alone, God, who is made up of 3
separate persons – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, brought something new out
of nothing. That’s quite a different
process than it would have been if 3 separate human beings set out to
accomplish something.
“Let us make
man in our image….so God created man in his own image.” God
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit weren’t sitting in a meeting on day, when out
of the blue the Father said, “Guys, I know it has just been the three of us for
a long time now, but I’m kind of in the mood to make something else. Jesus, how
about if you study up on what it takes to make planets? Holy Spirit, how about if you start
researching the benefits of plants and animals on the ecosystem? And I’ll think about how we can go about making
someone else who’s a lot like us, but not exactly like us. Let’s meet back here in a few years and get started. Since we’ve never done this before, I’m
guessing it will take several billion years to accomplish. What do you think?”
That’s not
the way it occurred. God spoke and it
was so – from Truth to Consequences.
ADAM
& EVE
But the
interesting thing is, that when man was created, truth, knowledge, perspective,
action, and consequence became 5 different aspects of our human existence. When read about Adam and Eve in the first few
chapters of Genesis, we see these 5 things come into play. However, as created beings, who are lesser
than God, these 5 things are linear, or take place in succession. For Adam and Eve to have favorable
consequences, they’d need to move from truth to consequences one step at a
time.
Truth – The
consequence of what God created, was a truth upon which Adam and Eve’s life was
formed. God, out of all His characteristics like holiness, sovereignty, power
and truth, “…. saw all that he had made, and it was very good (Genesis
1:31)” When man was created it was true that He had life, and it was true that
life was perfect.
Knowledge – The
next part of the equation was that God spoke His words to man, so that he could
receive knowledge of what he was supposed to do in the garden. (Genesis
2:15-17) “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it.
You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; And
this also let him know what he was NOT supposed to do…”“
17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” But, since they were only created in God’s
image, Adam and Eve’s knowledge was limited.
Perspective, actions, and consequence will follow in sequence as well.
Perspective
– After having received knowledge, perspective comes into play when Satan
tempts Eve (Genesis 3:1-6a) “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any
tree in the garden’?” Here is where
things start to go even more downhill. “…the
woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye,
and also desirable for gaining wisdom”. Adam and Eve’s perspective
should have been entirely based upon the truth, but they allowed their
perspective to be skewed based upon the supposed potential, or consequence of
what could be.
Action – Out
of their incomplete knowledge and improper perspective, came an action, (Genesis
3:6b-7) “she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her
husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”
In other words, the specific action was disobedience or sin.
Consequences
– As a result of their actions came the consequence – “Then the eyes of both
of them were opened, and they realized they were naked.” The consequences are also described in
Genesis 3:14-23. The most notable and
severe one being death and separation from God. The result was that man was
living under conditions and in a place that he was not originally meant to
be.
That’s
why we have Easter. That’s why we need
Easter.
DISCIPLES
(PRE-RESURRECTION)
Genesis
chapters 2 and 3 show us the linear progression that led to the fall of
man. Next, let’s look at these concepts
in context of the disciples whom Jesus first called.
Truth – It
was true, that just like Adam and Eve, Jesus’ disciples had sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God (Romans 3:230.
It was true that they needed a Messiah who would save them from their
sin. But it was also true that they were living in a land that was being
occupied by Roman rulers. They had some
freedom, but they weren’t entirely free.
Knowledge –
The disciples knew what it was like to live with the consequences of sin in
terms of pain, sickness, and hunger.
They knew what it was like to be treated unfairly by Roman
authorities. But God had also given them
knowledge through scripture. God’s word,
“truth” had been written down for them to read. They knew that God had promised to send
someone to save them. The read, most, if
not all, of the 300 Old Testament prophecies about a future Messiah - a savior
anointed by God to deliver His people from oppression. The disciples knew the words of Isaiah
11:1-10. “Then a shoot will spring
from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots
will bear fruit. 2The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of
counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD…. 4 But with righteousness He will judge
the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will
strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He
will slay the wicked….10 Then in that day The nations will resort to the root
of Jesse, Who will stand as a signal for the peoples; And His resting place
will be glorious.”
Perspective
– The disciples were experiencing life that didn’t measure up to the way it was
supposed to be, but they were more focused on the evil being done to them by
others rather than the evil inside of themselves. They had the perspective that what would make
life better was if the Messiah they had knowledge of in Isaiah 11 was a
military leader who would overthrow the Romans.
Their perspective was flawed because they discounted other passages such
as Isaiah 53 that said the Messiah would be
someone who would be….”pierced for our transgressions”, “crushed for our
iniquities”, “chastised”, and “wounded so that we would be healed” (v.5).
The disciples were less introspective than
the person who wrote Psalm 55. That Psalmist
was able to perceive that the real enemy wasn’t someone else out to get him,
but it was something inside his heart that was holding him back. “For it is
not an enemy who reproaches me, Then I could bear it; Nor is it one who
hates me who has exalted himself against me, Then I could hide myself from him.
13 But it is you, a man my equal, My companion and my familiar friend;
The disciple’s
perspective of who they though Jesus was evident in Luke 24:21 – “But we
were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.” Their improper perspective made it hard
for them to come to grip with who Jesus was and what He was going to do. That
is why, every time Jesus spoke of His impending death, they would not hear of
it.
Matthew
16:21-23 - 21 From that time Jesus began to show
His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the
elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the
third day. 22 Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying,
“God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.”
Jesus warned
Peter he had the wrong perspective by saying…23 …“Get behind Me, Satan! You
are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s
interests, but man’s.”
Action – The
disciples allowed their improper perspectives to affect their actions. For
example, Judas betrayed Jesus for money. Peter drew out his sword to defend Jesus and sliced
the ear off one of his enemies. Peter
denied Jesus three times publicly.
Consequences
– In John 16:22, Jesus had warned the disciples how they were going to feel
after He was crucified. And, sure
enough, after it occurred, the bible says the disciples “were together, with
the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders (John 20:19a).” They were fearful and without hope because
their perspective had been flawed.
If the
disciples had been left in that condition, the church would never have gotten
off the ground. That’s why we have Easter. That’s why we need Easter.
OUR
WORLD
We’ve looked
at a couple examples from the Bible where people failed somewhere along this
left to right progression from truth to consequences. But, what about modern man? With all our additional knowledge and
advancements, surely we are able to make this a better
world going forward. Let me give you
several examples that prove we’ve only succeeded in screwing up this process up
even more by ignoring or rearranging one or more of these concepts.
Take
tailgating for example. That is an action
that someone has taken based on a certain perspective. However, that person’s perspective was
developed based upon a limited amount of knowledge. A tailgater’s mind is filled with very few
things – all they know in that moment is where they want to go, how fast they’d
like to get there, and that someone else is hindering them from accomplishing
their objective. A tailgater’s eyes are
fixated on the bumper of the car in front of them, oblivious of what’s going on
around or farther ahead. Tailgating is
one of the most presumptive things a person can do, because they are operating
out of a disregard for truth and consequences. The truth is that it’s impossible to stop
your car from hitting the person in front of you when you drive that close to
them at that rate of speed. But to a
tailgater, that truth is irrelevant. As
far as consequences go, tailgating could easily result in the death of
someone. But to a tailgater, those
consequences are irrelevant as well.
Here's another
example where a person takes an entirely different approach to these 5 concepts
– atheists. An atheist starts on the
left, seeing the “consequence”, human life, then attempts to go backwards from
there one step at a time. They attempt
to describe the “actions” necessary to generate life out of non-life, but there
is no reasonable explanation for those actions. It’s impossible to have an
accurate perspective of evolution, because it’s something that cannot be observed. Sure, many of the people who believe in evolution
are very educated, but they are putting faith in a theory, not knowledge of
facts. By the time an evolutionist gets
back to “the beginning”, it’s not truth they’ve found, but a Satanic lie. Professing to be wise, they have become
fools.
Still others
seem to love to live in a world of perspective alone. Thanks to cell phones and
social media, everyone can make their “perspective” known to the world with
just a few clicks of some buttons. We
can hear what these people think, but more often than not it isn’t based upon
knowledge of the truth.
Sometimes people
put so much stock in their perspectives, they do it without any regard for
consequence as well. Within the last
several years it’s become common for people to state, what or who, they
identify as. Some of these are so
desperate to turn perspective into reality, that they attempt to change their
sex using medicine and surgery, without any idea of what that will lead to down
the road.
How about “AI”,
or “artificial intelligence”. This
technology is built entirely upon the knowledge of man and can spawn actions
and results. But AI doesn’t have the
ability to put things in perspective, place value on things, nor does it have a
desire for truth.
Then there
are the individuals who believe in something called, “my truth”. That is a philosophy built on the assumption
that while these 5 concepts may exist, each of the 6 billion people on this
earth can live with their own versions of it.
No matter if
we are talking about Adam and Eve, the disciples, or ourselves, mankind has
proven he is vulnerable at any of these steps. Even when we try to put them all
into practice, in the right order, we fail.
The Bible says it this way, “there is a way that seems right unto a
man, but it only leads to death.” This
is why we have Easter. That’s why we
need Easter. Easter, or the
resurrection of Jesus, is all about truth, knowledge, perspective, action,
consequence, and the most perfect version of each. So let’s talk about
Him now, first, in His “pre-incarnate” condition – before He came to earth.
JESUS
– Pre-incarnate
Let’s circle
back (turn over diagram page) to the beginning of this progression and see how
Jesus, responds to our sinful and messed up condition.
Truth -
Easter begins with the truth. Jesus, as
one of the persons in the trinity, is Holy, perfect, and the creator of all
things (Colossians 1:16). But it’s also true that when it comes to those He
created, ”all have sinned and fallen short of the
glory of God. (Romans 3:23)“.
Knowledge – The
Psalmist described God’s “knowledge” of our predicament on this earth when he
wrote things like, “What is man that You are mindful of him (Psalm 8:4a). You
have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle.
Are they not in Your book?” (Psalm
56:8). God knows, “that without
the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin (Hebrews 9:22).”
Perspective
– The Bible describes Jesus’ perspective as one who “is not willing
that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9).”
And “…although He existed in the form of God, did not regard
equality with God a thing to be grasped…(Philippians
2:6).
Action –
That perspective led to Jesus taking action.
So He…”emptied
Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the
likeness of men. (Philippians 2:7).
Consequence
– The consequence of that action is that Jesus…”became
flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).”
Jesus, stepped
out, from being God in spirit form, having truth, knowledge, perspective,
action, and consequence fully operational at all times, into a man. In this state, Jesus would need to accomplish
what we could not, succeeding in these five things, one at a time, and in the
proper order.
JESUS (INCARNATE)
Truth – John
1:14a says that Jesus, also known as the word, became flesh. He was literally born as a baby to a mother
named Mary (Luke 2:7).
Knowledge – Even
after being born into this world as a man, He retained attributes of His
deity. John 1:14b says that people “saw
His glory…being full of grace and truth.” He even declared Himself as …“the way the truth and the life” (John 14:6). He still had all knowledge, able to know what
people were thinking and what was going to happen in the future.
But at the
same time, Jesus “learned” things about human existence (Luke 2:52). He grew up
under the care of earthly parents and He learned to be a carpenter. He learned
what it was like to live in a world full of pain and suffering. He got hungry
and tired. He bled and He wept.
Perspective – Just like everyone
around Him, Jesus had a perspective. When it came to the perspectives of others, He
would challenge them. That’s why, when He
taught, He would use parables to see who was really interested in knowing the
truth and working this path from left to right.
In cases when people were adamant about retaining their false
perspectives, Jesus didn’t settle for Facebook, He used, “face to face” - even
calling people like the Pharisees, “a brood of vipers”. To the money changers
at the temple, He told them they had turned His house of prayer into a den of
thieves.
Jesus gained
perspective in the sense that Hebrews 4:15 says, He could “sympathize with
us”. One of the most important
examples where Jesus’ perspective was tested was when the Holy Spirit led Him
into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan (Matthew 4:1-11). Sounds like a similar set of circumstances
that Eve found herself in doesn’t it? Did Jesus respond with the kind of action like
Eve did? No, He went back to the truth, speaking
to Satan using the exact words of God.
His perspective
was also tested a few years later when He prayed in the garden. He was so distraught about His upcoming
death, that while He prayed, He bled. He
asked the Father if there was a way to bring about payment of sin rather than
through His death, He’d prefer that. But, He came through that testing saying, “even so, not
my will, but yours be done.” John 6:38 - 38 For I have come down
from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
Action – However,
Jesus maintained the proper perspective, even though it was difficult. He stayed true to His mission, not giving in
to temptation. He remained perfect in
His obedience.
“He
humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a
cross (Philippians 2:8)”, “He demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were sinners, Christ died for us.”
(Romans 5:8).” And of course, as it
is Easter, we know that He also raised Himself from the dead, just as He
promised He would do (John 2:19, Matthew 28:6).
Consequence –
For Jesus’ sake, one of the consequences for His action is that He was raised
up to be seated at the Father’s right hand in heaven. But the consequence of His death and
resurrection extends to us as well. He succeeded in doing for us what we could
not do ourselves. 13 For he has rescued us from the
dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he
loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the
forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13-14). “According to his great
mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3).”
DISCIPLES
(POST-RESURRECTION)
No other
event in human history has impacted so many people, of all generations, in such
a dramatic way as the resurrection of Jesus.
That was true for Jesus’ disciples who, the last time we talked of them,
were left cowering, in fear, not knowing what the future would bring. Let’s
wrap back around to the disciples and give them a do over.
Truth –Luke
24:1-7 describes the moment when the women came to the tomb with spices for
Jesus’ body. But when they got there,
Jesus was gone because He had indeed risen from the dead. As the angels confirmed to them the reality
of the situation, “He is not here, He has risen”.
Knowledge – For
these women, we see knowledge increase in Luke 24:8, “Then, they remembered
Jesus words.” For the men who were
followers of Jesus, they were at first unsure about the resurrection, but their
knowledge increased as well. Jesus revealed Himself to the disciples, they
touched Him, spoke to Him, and ate with Him.
They continue to learn more from Jesus after the resurrection (Luke
24:13-49, Acts 1:1-5). The fact that they
still asked if Jesus if He was going to restore the kingdom to Israel proved
they still had some things to learn (Acts 1:6).
Perspective
– But there were two additional events that really put things into perspective
and fully convince them what was happening. The first was watching Jesus ascend into
heaven, then having two angels tell them to quit standing around because, Jesus
was going away for a while (Luke 24:50-53, Acts 1:9-11). The second was when the Holy Spirit came upon
them on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13).
Action – With
all these events and knowledge in mind, the disciples took action. In Acts 2:14-40, Peter boldly stood up on a
crowd and explained that Jesus wasn’t a Messiah meant to save them from the
Romans, but one meant to save them from their sins, just as the Old Testament
had said. Likewise, when the people
heard this they asked, what shall we do? Peter’s answer was to repent and be baptized
in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. The disciples
then went on to spread the gospel into the surrounding cities and countries.
Consequence
– What was the result of the disciples’ actions? The church of Christ was formed (Acts
2:41-47). That consequence has continued
to this day as the church has spread all throughout the world, bringing
millions of people back into an eternal relationship with God.
YOU
AND ME
As I thought
about these concepts and the reasons why we have Easter and need Easter, three
main things came to my mind.
The first has
to do with the people who aren’t celebrating Easter because they don’t believe
in Jesus as their savior. As
non-believers attempt to navigate life, they may or may not follow this
pattern. Even if they do, they are going
to win some and lose some. But in the end, the ultimate consequence will be
eternal loss as they spend eternity apart from God.
Their only
hope is to start at the beginning and come to know the truth. That’s why it’s important for people like us
to help them to come to know it. So,
somehow, someway we should be bringing God’s word to them. Romans 10:14-15, describes our job this way . "How, then, can they call on the one they have
not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not
heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to
them?"
Points two
and three relate to the fact that when God sees us driving on the road of life,
He often sees tailgaters. We tend to do
pretty good with the knowledge portion - diligently studying God’s word in the
Bible. We know that all Scripture is
God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in
righteousness.” But like Adam, Eve,
and the disciples, we tend to struggle with perspective. We often say, “Yes, I know, but….” Like James 4:17 says, “We know the good we
ought to do, but does it anyway and sins.”.
Let’s not place so much significance on our opinions, trying to achieve
outcomes that we desire.
We also tend
to compartmentalize consequences, viewing it as something that only exists in
the future. We often live with our eyes
fixated on the bumper of what’s happening in front of us. We know about heaven and rewards, but those
things are somewhere down the road. But that
kind of mindset just causes us to grit our teeth and grip the steering wheel
tighter.
What should
we do instead? When the Bible encourages
us to “set our mind on things above” it doesn’t mean, “just wait for heaven” –
it also includes having God’s perspective.
That means considering “future” events as reality now.
Earlier we
talked about how God is not one bound to time like we are, but He is one in
whom truth, knowledge, perspective, action, and consequence are all wrapped up
in one. We need to do the same thing. We should live as if the consequence has
occurred already, because in a sense it already has.
The pharisees
and the disciples had the perspective that the kingdom of God was something
that would happen in the future. But
Jesus kept telling them that the kingdom had already come because He was there,
in their midst. 20 Now
having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was
coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs
to be observed; 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’
or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” (Luke
17:20-21)
The
resurrection of Jesus was a true event that happened 2,000 years ago. However, it wasn’t merely a historical event. Jesus is alive right now, living in our
hearts. His kingdom is already at hand. Therefore,
let us continue to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith
(Hebrews 12:2). That’s why we have Easter.
That’s why we need Easter.
Let
individuals share thoughts.