The Reality of Easter

We love binge watching tv. We can Win NBC. We tell 'em we got an idea for a show about nut. Exactly. Wow. Plot, twists, cliffhangers, and surprises. Keep us on the edge of our seats. What is it? A storyline revealed one scene at a time creates tension. The tension Is killing me When resolution is just an episode away. The audience is on pins and needles. I was still attending church, and at the same time, I was still battling with substance abuse and addiction. I was filled with a lot of shame and guilt. I felt my marriage drift apart. I was hiding what I was doing, and I was lying to my wife about it. But this is not Netflix, and we are not an audience. Easter doesn't promise we won't experience pain. It promises that our deepest wounds don't have the final set, and God's plan offers an ending. Nobody saw coming Easter doesn't mean that you won't hurt, but it means that hurt doesn't have the last word. I'm Doug Walker. I'm the senior pastor here. I wanna welcome you to our Easter services. Uh, I'm so thankful for our church. I'm thankful for you being a part of this Easter because of what it can do really for your life. Hey, have you ever signed up for something that you really wished you hadn't? Maybe a subscription service. You know, you didn't read the fine print, you didn't realize really what you were getting yourself into. I remember back in the days of the hard sell and really the expensive gym memberships, you know, it gets you in there. It wasn't some $10 a month thing. It's like you sign on the dotted line, it's a contract. You know, they're sending collectors if you don't, you know, pay up, but they sell you. There's these images of all these, like, you know, incredible fit people all around you. And you know, a lot of times we want what we want. We think, okay, oh, this is gonna be it. If I just get this gym membership regardless of the cost, regardless of the time, the effort that I have to put into it, that that's gonna be the result. And we do so, but we realize, oh man, this is costing me more than what I thought. It actually takes more time and work. And man, I look in the mirror and I'm not seeing, you know, anything like what I saw on the, you know, the, the posters or the pictures or, or what they're showing me. And I'm like, ha, I'm, I'm out. I'm afraid that a lot of times we follow Jesus, or, you know, we can, we can make it the other guy. It, it's easy to talk about other people. Other people follow Jesus because they have these expectations that he's going to do something for you. And the reality is, in essence, much different in this series, the preceding three weeks. And I would encourage you, um, this message is not fully connected to that. But, but Jesus spent time, uh, in his last days here on this earth, uh, correcting just misperceptions, misconceptions of who he was, what he was about, what he would do. And people, you know, looked at him. They thought that he was going to deliver them from Roman oppression. That he would rise up and be this revolutionary sort of military king. And he was going to bring them victory success, a sense of wellbeing. In the moment. A lot of people look at Jesus. Have you ever looked at Jesus and thought, okay, if I can just, if I can do the right thing, if I can go to church more, if, if I do good, then okay, God, what are you gonna do for me? We have these images of maybe health, uh, wealth. We want success, we want victory. Maybe it's just, it's a good thing. We want, we want that perfect relationship with that significant other that in, you know, evolves into this, you know, wonderful Christian marriage. We want the perfect kids. And a lot of times we sort of just throw Jesus at it as if, you know, blissfully, that Jesus is the magic pill, that he's gonna make everything you know in your life better. I'm not saying that Jesus won't help those things, but, uh, again, our goal is to understand the reality of Easter and the victory and the success that we celebrate with Jesus rising from the dead, coming out of the tomb. That's something we, we, I mean, it's incredible. It, it's, it's the most wonderful life changing, most in historic event in the history of the world. But the reality cannot be disassociated from the cross, from the hurt that he went through, from the suffering that was attached to that. And so, I want us to take in this short time, just a realistic look of the reality of Easter, what it can mean for you and me, both in the present and in the future. The big idea here is, is that Easter, uh, doesn't promise a life without scars, but it promises that the scars are not the end of the story. We find, um, in the prophet Isaiah, this is Old Testament. This was the prophet Isaiah who was telling us what the Messiah in which the Jewish people were waiting on. He was the Savior of the world. He was to come in the lineage of David in his bloodline. And it gives us this, this really, it's a theology of what Jesus would go through. In Isaiah chapter 53, beginning, uh, in verse three, he was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain, like one from whom people had their faces. He was despised. And we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him. And by his wounds, we, our healed. Again, Easter doesn't promise us a life without scars, but he does promise that those scars are not the end of the story. People have the idea of who Jesus is, what he is gonna do for them. And just as those who were present, I mean, think about his disciples, he was trying to correct it. And then it comes to the end and he is going through something that they couldn't conceive of. I mean, Jesus is actually going to be condemned and go through the suffering of the cross. His disciples were confused. They were dispersed. They endured their own scars, their own wounds at that time. You know, I, um, I, I really have a a I've had a lot of scars. We've all, we've all had a lot of wounds in your life. You've gone through experiences and you wonder, okay, God, why? Let's tell you about one of them. Something that just man pains me to think about. But when my oldest son was six years old, uh, I took him, uh, to ride a dirt bike. I mean, and we were both kind of involved a dirt bike. I had, of course, a much bigger bike. He's six years old, he's only like this little 50. And we have the whole family there. We're having a good time. He is following me down a trail. And so the trail is in this ravine. It starts getting steep. And uh, I come to the end and I see this thing is gonna get really bad. So I break, he breaks too much front brake, his bike rears up, he puts his leg out, and it goes in between my tire and the muffler. It's lodged. I'm panicked. I don't know what to do. I'm just telling you, I felt so bad. It was literally a, a fourth degree burn. It was so bad. And I felt horrible. He had a physical scar. I have an emotional scar from that. I didn't intend to do it, but I'm his dad. I'm responsible. I'm there. You know, I let it happen. My bike was involved and it's, I just, I hate thinking about it. We have scars in life, but it doesn't mean that we can't go forward. You know, think about it. You know, critics would say, I mean, I'm questioning, okay, God, I'm a Christian, right? I'm trying to do the right thing. I'm trying to do a good thing for my family. I'm trying to spend time with my son. He's my wife. You know, we're out there, and not only am I a Christian, but like I'm a pastor. I, I really try to do a lot for you. And it's like, what's, what's the deal? So I can see how we question those things, and we can fall under the disillusion of, you know, okay, Jesus, if I just believe enough, I have enough faith, and you're gonna, you know, make everything good rosy in my life. But that's not the reality to really primary things that I wanna share with you. Um, reality is, again, Easter doesn't mean that we won't hurt. Well, why is that? And we all do some hide it better than others. Well, the Bible really tells us that when we look back to the story of our origin, that God who is holy loves us. He created mankind in his image, Adam and Eve. But he gave them the power, the ability to choose. And he said, I want you to trust me. I want you to reciprocate in this relationship and believe what I say. And he put them in an environment where they had every reason to succeed. They had no shame, no sin had yet come into the world. Yet when they were tempted, they chose selfishly to partake of this one fruit. And that just changed everything. Look, since that time, that changed the world, that means, and I don't have to prove this to you, but we live in a world of wounds, of pain, of deep hurt. And we just wonder, how in the world can I escape that? How can I get away from that? But just as much as we are victims, right? We receive these wounds. Um, we also inflict them. The Bible tells us that really sin is missing the mark, what God has intended for us. We choose selfishly. And we've all made choices that have hurt others, that have caused pain, that have caused at least emotional distress. You know, some at greater levels than the other. But here's the thing. Jesus told us that we are to be perfect as his Father in heaven is perfect. So, you know, there's no amount of good that we can do to offset the wrong, but that sin separates us from a holy God, uh, that sin God cannot tolerate because of his character. Yet what stands, you know, alongside that is his mercy, his grace and his love. And Easter is about God solving our problem for us. That sin, no matter how small in our eyes, uh, no matter what you've done, no matter what pain you've experienced, what you've gone through, that doesn't have to stand between you and God. Now, you can't make up for it. But it is through Jesus. Because we are perpetrators of sin. It is God's loving, God's answer for us. His solution to our problem is that he sent Jesus, who was God in the flesh, who was tempted and identifies with the same way that, that we, we are with what we go through. Jesus was really tempted. The, the pain that Jesus experienced in his life were not phantom pain. They were not imaginary. He didn't just withstand them because he was God, but he was, he was also fully human. And what Isaiah tells us, and what we look at at the cross, it was there that he went in our place and was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. But that punishment that brought us peace was on him. The reality is, is we continue to live in this pain, and that pain will not fully be removed. We'll still experience hurt, um, as long as we live in this broken, sinful world, which you understand, just with the history, the biblical worldview is, is that God created mankind as an image. Well, we messed that up with, with our sin separates us from him. God didn't give up on us. He fulfilled the Old Testament by sending Jesus, who lived his life down on the cross and rose from the dead. And so we who are here, we await for what will be the fulfillment of that, and that's Christ's return. But the good news is, is though the pain is present, though the scars are there. Um, they don't have to, they don't have to necessarily be the end of the story. I want you to understand this. I I think this is incredibly powerful. Um, Jesus, you know, when he rose from the dead, we find in John chapter 20, verses 19 through 20, on the evening of that first day of the week, that's Sunday when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. That was significant because on his hands were the scars left from the nails that pierced him and his side from the spear that pierced him. The disciples though, were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. The scars are in essence, too, a significant sign of, of healing. It means that hurt, hurt can't have the final word. If you're a follower of Jesus, if you've come to that place where you recognize that, okay, God, I don't care how I've tried to minimize it or justified I am wrong, I, I've sinned in more ways than I can, gosh describe. I may be at best be able to compartmentalize them, put categories around them. But, but I could never number them all. And I recognize that my sin, it, it separates me from you. But I realize, and I recognize Jesus, you out of your love and compassion for me, you took the punishment that I deserve. You satisfied God's character, his nature, a sense of justice there. And I, I can live, I can have a different life. I, I can live in a new way. You know, today, my son still has, I mean, he's got this horrible scar. He was only six. And you know, with age, it just grew. Still no feeling in it. I I can't, it's hard, honestly, it's hard to look at. I feel bad for his wife, but he moves forward, you know, he's, it's, it's a scar Now, you know, he's healed from that. Those marks will be present. You know, for me, the scar, the, the, just the emotional what that did, the guilt that I felt, you know, my son and I have a really good relationship. We have an honest relationship. I would say we have a great relationship. Uh, that relationship is something wonderful, you know, that came out of that. And I'm not saying that life is always going to get better. I'm not saying that you're going to know the end of the story here in this physical world, but you can know that even though the pain is real, the healing is real. The healing is real, is real. Easter means that the hurt can't have the final word. And in Isaiah, the last phrase in verse five, it says, and by his wounds, we are healed. Healing ultimately can be accomplished through Jesus and what he did on the cross. It means that he loves us. That no matter what you've gone through, even though your scars may be there because of abuse, it may be because of, again, things that were beyond your control. Still, there can be healing there. What God can do is he can heal your heart. And ultimately, lemme just get to the real point of it. What really matters here is eternity. He ultimately heals us, and we'll know and we'll experience that. If we have faith in Christ, if we put our trust in him, if we're willing to follow, the Bible says that to be absent from the body when you die physically, is to be present with Christ. God, even though we're going to die physically, unless we're here when Christ returns, he wants us to live spiritually. He wants to, to live eternally. He wants what Jesus did at the cross and the resurrection to be applied to you, to your life. And so if you trust him, if you'll believe, then the Bible talks about the reality of heaven. I just wanna show you this in Revelation chapter 21, verse four. It is really a, a world that's hard for us to imagine. It's a world where there is no pain, there is no hurt. It doesn't exist anymore. It describes this. He meaning Jesus will wipe away every tear from their eyes, our eyes. There'll be more. No more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away. He loves you. He wants you to trust him. The word, hallelujah, you've seen that. You've heard it, I'm sure it simply is. It's an expression of praise. And sometimes it is hard in the moment to say, hallelujah, to declare that. Because in the immediate, we feel the pain and we hurt and we're confused. We're kind of like those disciples. Sometimes we're bunker down, we're afraid. But here's the reality. Life is, is gonna be hard. We are told as followers of Jesus that we are to expect trials and persecutions. But there's an opportunity to rejoice in those. Our hallelujah isn't cheap. It's hard fault, but because of Jesus, it's real and it's worth declaring. See? But what they did not know was that heaven was moving, that the silence wasn't the end, just the setup that the war for our souls had already been won. And on the third day, the light split, the darkness, the grave lost its grip. And the king, our king, walked out of the tomb. So today we don't whisper our hallelujah. We don't sing it soft. We declare it because we have the victory. Yeah, but that's when indeed. So I'm gonna keep on singing. My soul catches up my soul. This time when my hands go up, this, these man A comes out easy. These I bring my heart. Heart I, my story Tolu. Gracious, gracious, I feeling i'll. I, the struggle keeps me honest. And it down the of it's been through the head. So that's when I, God, you, hallelu Hall.