Easter Sermon

 

 

Introduction

 

Duct tape is the ultimate fixer.

 

People use it for everything.

 

 There’s a saying: “If it can’t be fixed with duct tape, then you’re not using enough duct tape.”

 

 Someone I know didn’t like going to the doctor, so he would often devise his own remedies for physical ailments.

 

Once he had knee problems, and he wrapped his knee in duct tape.

 

 He swore that it fixed the problem.

 

I’ve seen wallets made out of duct tape.

 

I’ve seen couches held together by duct tape.

 

I’ve seen a picture of a flat tire with the caption “Who needs a spare tire? You have duct tape.”

 

 Many people believe that duct tape can make anything new again.

 

 

During the past six weeks, we have spent time together, focusing on our sins and our need for a Savior.

 

The weeks leading up to Easter (the weeks in the season of Lent)

help us to recognize that our lives are filled with all kinds of broken things—

 

broken relationships, broken bodies, broken promises, and broken hearts.

 

 Believe it or not, duct tape has its limitations.

 

 All the duct tape in the world cannot repair these broken

things.

 

 In fact, for brokenness like this, you need more than just a fix.

 

You need to be made entirely new.

 

 

Getting to the Heart

 

Easter is all about God’s work to make things new again.

 

 We need more than a bandage.

 

As we deal with our sin, we need more than a few minor adjustments.

 

To defeat death, duct tape will never do!

 

 Our lives are not a fix-it-yourself project.

 

That is why Jesus Christ came.

 

 He came to make all things new!

 

 

Early on in Jesus’ ministry he was met by one of the Pharisees at night

 

This was unusual because even at this early time the Pharisees were still not big fans of Jesus

 

John 3:1-3 (NASB)
¹  Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;
²  this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."
³  Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."

 

That term born again is one of those words that translated into English really does not make the point correctly

 

The Greek word is “anothen”

 

Remember when Jesus was hanging on the cross, we read this

Matthew 27:51 (NASB)  ⁵¹  And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split.

Well the Greek word there translated from top is “anothen”

 

Basically, Jesus was telling us that we need to be born from above

 

It is an act of God and not something we can ever do for ourselves

 

This was why Jesus came to earth

 

 

The final word Jesus spoke from the cross was “It is finished” (John 19:30).

 

This text may seem like a real downer for Easter.

 

 “It is finished”?

 

 Really?

 

 We could easily interpret these words in a negative sense.

 

 We might take them to mean “I’m finished. I’m ruined.

It’s all over. It’s the end. I give up.”

 

But Jesus used these words much, much differently.

 

These words point not to an ending but a new beginning.

 

“It is finished” means that Jesus’ saving work is complete.

 His mission is fully accomplished.

 

 Sin, death, and the devil are now finished.

 

We needed more than a partial fix.

 

 We needed something totally new.

 

 

Jesus told a parable that really hits the nail on the head as to what exactly we needed

 

Matthew 18:23-34 (NASB)
²³  "For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.
²⁴  "When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.
²⁵  "But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made.
²⁶  "So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, 'Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.'
²⁷  "And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt.
²⁸  "But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, 'Pay back what you owe.'
²⁹  "So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, 'Have patience with me and I will repay you.'
³⁰  "But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed.
³¹  "So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened.
³²  "Then summoning him, his lord *said to him, 'You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
³³  'Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?'
³⁴  "And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him.

 

The point of the parable is that we all owe a debt to God for the sins we have committed

 

Think about this servant that was thrown into debtors prison to be tortured

 

He was sentenced to stay in that prison until his debt was paid

 

but being in that prison would have prevented him from ever earning enough to do that. It was an impossible situation

 

That’s us!

 

We can in no way pay the debt that is owed, the penalty that is due for our sin

 

It is such a hopeless situation. It is a broken life that we simply can never fix ourselves

 

 Jesus’ death and resurrection mean that life itself is now new!

 

When Jesus said, “It is finished,” his body was bloody and bruised.

 

But the Gospel writers make it clear that Jesus from Sunday has a new body.

 

The first witnesses of the resurrection did not see a Savior who had been brutally tortured, or battered beyond recognition.

 

No, they saw and touched Jesus’ resurrected, glorified body.

 

He was not a phantom or a ghost.

 

 It was not an illusion or a dream.

 

He was not a spirit.

 

He had not been bandaged and surgically repaired.

 

He was not duct-taped back together!

 

His body was (and is) entirely new.

 

 And because of that—because Jesus is risen from the

dead—your life by faith in Jesus is also entirely new.

 

 It’s hard to believe that God is making all things new because we are so used to the old.

 

We are so accustomed to the fact that at some point everything is “finished.”

 

 In the old order, things break, crack, and die.

 

That’s why we have duct tape.

 

We expect things to break.

 

Think about all the cracked and broken things in your life.

 

Relationships. Your body. Maybe your family. Your job. Your hectic schedule. Your anxious mind.

 

It is not enough just to fix you.

 

God has to make you new.

 

He has to do it, and so the word “anothen” from above as Jesus told Nicodemus

 

 Duct tape is not enough.

 

 

C. S. Lewis once wrote, “God became man to turn creatures into sons:

 

not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man.”

 

God has in mind for you to be a new man, a new woman.

 

Christ is risen to claim you as his new creations.

 

 Easter is not about self-help or self-improvement.

 

God does not want just to patch you up, he intends to make you new.

 

 

Taking It Home

 

There was a girl who suffered for years with serious depression.

 

It was a dark period in her life.

 

She did many damaging things.

 

She hurt people she loved.

 

She pushed her family away.

 

 She lived a very unhealthy lifestyle.

 

She went places she shouldn’t have gone and did things she shouldn’t have done.

 

One day, she woke up in a stranger’s house and had a sudden realization that this was a broken way to live.

 

“What am I doing?” she asked herself.

 

This is no way to live

 

From that day on, she began to get help from her family, from her church, and from professionals.

 

She describes those dark days as her “old life” and these days as her “new life.”

 

On the first Easter of her new life, the Savior’s resurrection struck her in a whole new way.

 

She had always known that Jesus rose from the dead, but now she saw the impact that truth could make on her life—here and now.

 

She said, “Everyone wanted to fix me, and I hated that.

 

 But I found out that God didn’t want me fixed. He wanted me new.”

 

 

When you see that God is making everything new, you can’t go back to the same old ways.

 

It is finished.

 

When you’ve met the risen Jesus, you must leave some old

things behind.

 

What is one old way that must be finished for you?

 

An old habit? An old sin, like greed, impatience, or an angry temper? Self-centeredness? Stinginess?

 

Obsession over your career, your appearance, your name, and your fame?

 

Using others for your own advantage?

 

These are just some of the old ways you must leave behind.

 

They’ve been died for.

 

 Put them away at the foot of the cross.

 

It is finished!

 

When you meet the risen Jesus, you must leave behind all of those old and broken ways.

 

But even more importantly is the fact that your debt, your penalty has been fully paid for

 

And that is the literal meaning of the Greek words we translate as “It is Finished”

 

The Greek word is “Te tel esstay” and literally means “Paid in Full”

 

 

Praise God that he came to us with more than duct tape.

 

 In Christ, the old way of life, the old debt, the old penalty is finished.

 

A new beginning is here.

 

Listen to how the apostle Paul puts it: 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NASB)
¹⁷  Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

 

 

 Jesus brings you forgiveness, peace, and new life.

 

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

 

 

As we dismiss today, thank Jesus for the new life you have received.

 

Also ask that he provide opportunities to share the

message of new life with someone who is open to receiving it.

 

LET US PRAY